Matthew 12:38-42 | David Thomas

[0:00] Good. All right. So some of y'all have no idea who I am and some of y'all have an idea who I am. My name is David Thomas. My wife Dina is here. My son Noah, he's been here a couple of times, I think, this summer.

[0:17] I've been going down to Dayspring. This will be my 12th season. Would have been my 13th, but COVID happened and that's all I'm going to say about that.

[0:31] So anyhow, then Kent here asked me last year, he's like, you know, we ought to try and get you at Bethel. I said, okay. And this is the first time I've ever been assigned a passage to preach from. Ever. Ever.

[0:46] So we're going to see what it does and y'all may want to go back. John's here next week, so he may go back over this. He may say, hey, go ahead and teach on this passage if you haven't got something else prepared. So we're going to be in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 12.

[1:00] And we'll just look at this passage, see what it says, and hopefully we're encouraged a little bit, at least encouraged in our witness and in our preaching of the Gospel.

[1:18] The Gospel of Matthew chapter 12, and I would like to begin reading at verse 38. Matthew 12, 38. And the Lord will bless the reading of his word. Let's just open in a quick word of prayer.

[2:16] Our God and Father, we just ask for help as we look at this passage, that you would stir our hearts. Father, as we look at this passage, that we would leave here with a desire to be witnesses of the person who this passage speaks about, the greater than Jonah, the greater than the Queen of Sheba, Lord.

[2:36] That you would be glorified. Father, I ask that you would hide me behind the cross, give me clarity of thought and ease of speech. Father, if anything is said in error, I pray that you would strike it from the heart and mind. I ask this in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

[2:51] So, you guys have been working through Matthew for a while, right? This means yes.

[3:02] This means no. This means I don't know. And it's okay to do that. It feels good. If you put your hands up, I won't think you're Pentecostal. It's okay. So if I ask a question, it's okay to put your hand up.

[3:13] If it's, hey, have you ever done this? You know, it's okay. Unless you haven't put the odor on to keep your hands down. So, Matthew's a big book.

[3:24] All 28 chapters of it. And so we come through. So for me to get a, you know, I don't really have a run and start at it like you do. But one of the key points here that I want to bring to our minds really quick, and y'all may know this.

[3:40] You may not. For the ones who don't know this, you're going to learn something. The kingdom has been offered to the children of Israel. The Messiah was promised.

[3:52] The kingship was promised way back when King David was king. Y'all remember that? Y'all read the book of Kings? The book about Solomon? If not, go back and read it. It's a good read. Good information there.

[4:03] But before that, it was, there was a covenant cut with Abraham. There was a covenant given to Abraham. And God said this to Abraham. It was a unilateral covenant. Abraham had no say in the matter.

[4:15] There, God said I will, and God did what he said he's going to do, and continues to do what he's going to, what he says he's going to do. And it doesn't stop. Okay? But the kingdom, the Jews are looking for a Messiah.

[4:29] And the kingdom has then been offered to Israel. John the Baptist came and he preached the gospel of the kingdom. And so, you have here the Pharisees, the religious group of the day, who says, you know what?

[4:47] We like doing things our own way. Does that sound familiar to anybody here? Does anybody here like doing things their own way? This is the course of humanity from the time, from Genesis chapter 3.

[4:59] This is what humanity does. What they want to do, right? God said, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For the day you eat thereof, you will surely die.

[5:10] And what did they do? They did what they wanted to do. They said, you know what? We don't care what God says. We're going to do what we want to do. Satan was involved in it. He said, did God really say that? Right? It's the history of humankind.

[5:24] It's the history of the Jewish nation. We're going to be looking at that at Dayspring this week. Again, a covenant cut with Abraham and God says, I'll do this. They've been delivered out of Egypt and they're in the wilderness.

[5:39] And what's the first thing they do? God says, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Okay, we got this. We're going to build a calf. And so what do they do? And they have a calf.

[5:51] This idolatry in their hearts. Their way of doing things. Their own hope and their own good works, if you will.

[6:02] Not that they are good works, but that was what they rested in and trusted in. So now when the Messiah actually comes, they don't want to have nothing to do with it. Hey, you know, no God, we got this.

[6:16] Same story back in Exodus. No God, you delivered us, but we got it from here. No, they didn't. They cried out in their despair. God rescued them. Here, their hearts are blinded and we're going to see that.

[6:29] But they've just accused the Lord Jesus Christ of casting out demons by Beelzebub. And this is a charge that is leveled against the Lord Jesus Christ.

[6:41] A charge that really demonstrates the crookedness and perverseness of their hearts. What time do I need to be done? No matter. No matter. Ha ha.

[6:52] Careful. It demonstrates the wickedness of their heart. Years ago, I wrote this quote in the fly leaf, I mean in the heading of my Bible.

[7:04] And I want to read this to you. This is by F.W. Grant. He was a writer back in the 1800s. He has a seven volume set called the Numerical Bible. Really deep stuff. But he wrote this here.

[7:15] This blasphemy, that is the blasphemy of the Jewish people in general, but spearheaded by the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the priest, was no longer ignorant unbelief.

[7:28] It was open-eyed opposition to God and to all that was of God. And that was in his notes on the Gospel of Matthew. Open-eyed opposition.

[7:41] They accused the Lord Jesus Christ of casting out demons by the prince of demons. And their very heart was impacted by the prince of the power of the air, the one who said in his heart, and who said, I will do this.

[7:58] I will do that. That's who was influencing them, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees. Not the Lord Jesus Christ. But they wanted to have a reason to reject the Lord Jesus Christ.

[8:10] They wanted to have a reason to do things their way. And so they pushed forward. Well, they come here and they said, certain of the scribes, the Pharisees. You know, in the Gospel of Luke, there's a parallel passage.

[8:24] And I just want to read this verse real quick. You can turn there to Luke chapter 11 if you want to. You don't have to. But Luke chapter 11, it says these words here. He says in verse 29, and the people were gathered.

[8:44] And this, I use the King James, so this is very antiquated. They were gathered thick together. There was a whole passel load of them. There was a bunch of them gathered together. And he began to say, there was a bunch of them standing around.

[8:58] The scribes, the Pharisees, and they said this. They said, we would seek after a sign. We want a sign. Like the hundreds of signs he had already done before weren't good enough.

[9:09] But what they were saying is they wanted a sign from heaven. And it says that in Luke. They wanted a sign from heaven. They're not satisfied with his answer here. And God being God who says, I am the Lord, I change not.

[9:22] But in them being them and their hearts being hardened in chapter 16, they come back to him and they say, you know what? We still want a sign. And they say, well, this time we're going to preface it.

[9:34] We're going to say we want a sign from heaven. And Jesus says this. He said, you know what? We're going to give you the sign of Jonah. That's the sign I'm going to give you. You know, society today, what do they want?

[9:48] They want proof. They want a sign. Paul calls it out in 1 Corinthians, doesn't he? Chapter 1. The Jews seek a sign.

[10:00] The Greeks seek after wisdom. But Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, we preach Christ crucified. That's the sign.

[10:12] That's the proof. That's the evidence. We read it this morning in our breaking of bread that the grave is empty. That's the sign. They don't want that sign. They'll tell you, oh, prove it to me.

[10:25] These people, you know where they were from? If they would have been in the United States, you know where they've been from? Missouri. The show me state.

[10:40] They were from the Missouri part of Israel. Show us a sign. But that's what society wants. I cannot believe that there is a God.

[10:51] I woke up this morning. And there was, you know, all this stuff going on with former President Trump. And in the town I live in, there's a group page in the city.

[11:07] And people get in there. And everybody's sitting there running their mouth. And there's one guy who says, I can't believe in a fairy tale. I don't believe in a fairy tale. And everybody says, well, God saved this man.

[11:18] And this one man, I don't believe in fairy tales. Show me proof that this God exists. People want proof.

[11:28] How are we going to give them proof? The Lord Jesus Christ is going to give them proof. He's going to give them a sign. But in our daily activities, when people ask us for evidence that there is a God, God, how do we give that evidence?

[11:45] What is that evidence? What does that evidence look like for us? Does this question make sense? How are people looking at me going to see the evidence? The personal testimony.

[11:58] You see, nobody can argue with a personal relationship. They might, and I say that, society has changed. It's very hard to argue with a personal relationship.

[12:10] You could never know that I had a wife. I didn't have to bring my wife here, and I say I have a wife. She loves me. She cooks for me. You can see the evidence that she cooks for me in my figure.

[12:21] Right? I talk to her on the phone. I text her. I talk about her. You can't argue with that. You can't know she doesn't exist.

[12:33] But yet people do. But people cannot argue with a life that is impacted by the gospel. They cannot argue with a life that demonstrates the power of God unto salvation.

[12:50] What happens often is people say, I don't believe in God because Christians acted this way. We need to change that narrative. But we need to act the way we should.

[13:03] We need to act as those whose lives have been impacted by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's easy, because I do it, to walk out those doors.

[13:15] It's easy to sit here for two hours or two and a half hours. They told me I could speak as long as I want, so maybe three hours. I don't know. But it's easy to walk out the door when we're done. Say, I'm glad that's over.

[13:28] And go home or go to camp or go to work or go to do something. And others who look at us do not see Christ.

[13:43] We're saved from the power of sin. We're saved from the penalty of sin. One day we'll be saved from the very presence of sin. But our lives are not impacted by that truth. And those who in the world who want to see a sign from, a sign, they want to see the evidence.

[13:59] Unless they choose to not believe it, because they look at our lives, and they don't see a difference. When you go out that door, when you're in here, is there a difference between you and the world?

[14:14] Not just that you're saved, not that you tote around the Bible. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples. How? If you have love one for another.

[14:27] And I'm going to tell you, I'm living proof that I'm a hard man to love. They wrote a country song about that. I'm a hard man to love. It's hard to love people.

[14:41] It is. Sometimes they're stinky. Sometimes they're ugly. Sometimes they're mean. Sometimes they're angry. It's hard to love them. And then they say they're Christians, and it's hard to love those who say they're Christians.

[14:53] But this is how the world knows that you're my disciples. If you have love one for another. Does that love impact our lives? They're asking Jesus for a sign.

[15:05] The world asks us for a sign. And he says, Master, we would see a sign for us. But he answered and said, an evil and adulterous generation.

[15:16] This group of people. This generation of people. You know, children and dads and moms and grandparents.

[15:29] This generation of people. Their heart is evil. It's set on iniquity. It influences and is influenced by wrong. And it's a heart that is unfaithful to God.

[15:40] You see, that is the heart of the Pharisees. It was a heart that was unfaithful. The heart of the Jewish people in general was unfaithful to God.

[15:51] And we see that again going back all the way to the beginning. Unfaithfulness. And God said, listen, do this, right? In Deuteronomy, the children of Israel are standing on Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.

[16:04] And they're reading the blessings and the curses. And God says, do this. These are the blessings. These are the curses. God in Numbers and Deuteronomy recounting the Decalogue and the laws. He says, if you do this, you'll be blessed.

[16:16] And I'm paraphrasing. If you do this, you'll be cursed. And they did what was right in their own eyes. We see that at the end of the book of Judges. They did what was right in their own eyes. They committed idolatry.

[16:27] Which, when this word is used often in the New Testament, adultery, it is speaking of idolatry. That is an unfaithfulness to God and a serving of something else.

[16:40] Not that they're serving idols. I believe that God cured them of serving idols. But they had created a God in their own image and their own likeness. They created their own religion, their own way of doing things.

[16:50] Again, things that were right in their own eyes. And he says, this group of individuals, a group of individuals that is unfaithful to God, unfaithful to the Word of God, that's who seeks after a sign.

[17:04] They want proof. If they had been faithful to the Word of God and faithful to God, when the Lord Jesus Christ showed up, they would have said, that's our Messiah. We know who he is. We got this. It's go time.

[17:16] That's what they would have said. You see. They had the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus Christ says to them in the Gospel of John, right, you search the Scriptures.

[17:26] And he's not asking them a question. He's telling them. He says, you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me. But, he says, you will not come to me that you might have life.

[17:40] They had their own view of Scriptures. And then they added on to the Scriptures. And had their own interpretation. Come to the Gospel of John, and it's not the Feast of Jehovah anymore. It's the Feast of the Jews.

[17:51] Their own way of doing things. A heart that was unfaithful to God. A heart that was unfaithful to the Word of God. A heart that did not want to see the Lord Jesus Christ for who he is.

[18:03] Do we have that heart as believers? Do we have our own way of doing things? Are we faithful to who God is? Are we faithful to the Word of God?

[18:16] When we come to the Word of God. Do we come with this idea, oh we want proof. We want to see a sign.

[18:26] Or do we come to the Word of God believing that he is God. And that the Word of God is his very Word revealed to us.

[18:41] And do we search the Scriptures. And do what's contained therein. Not out of requirement. But out of love and appreciation for who God is.

[18:53] The one who loved me and gave himself for me. The heart that's unfaithful to God. Will come up with excuses.

[19:05] That adulterous heart that he's speaking about. Will come up with excuses to not do what the Word of God says. But as believers we have a responsibility to come to the Word of God.

[19:17] Know who God is. Understand who God is. Believe who God is. Allow the Spirit of God to work through the Scriptures. In our hearts. In our minds. In our lives. And then that proof will be out there for all the world to see.

[19:31] That we are his. But if we come to the Scriptures and we say, you know what? I don't know that this has anything to do with me. I don't think I need to be doing this.

[19:42] He must be talking about the other Thomases in the group. You say, what does that mean? There's some Indian Thomases here, okay? They are not related to me, okay?

[19:56] It gets asked. Come to the Scriptures and we say, no, this is for someone else. You know, this is Josiah.

[20:07] When they're rebuilding the temple. What do they do? They found the Word of God. They search the Scriptures and this king, a young king at that, tears his clothes.

[20:23] Pours ashes on his head. Gets down on his knees and says, God, we haven't done this. We haven't done what was expected of us.

[20:34] We've been unfaithful. We've been adulterous. We've been evil. Do we as believers do the same thing? Are we unfaithful to God?

[20:50] He says to these people, he says, look. There shall no sign be given. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ gave sight to the blind.

[21:07] And the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the scribes, they say this about him giving sight to the blind. It's not been recorded since time began that anyone has given sight to the blind.

[21:22] That was their own assessment of the situation. Sight to the blind. And they say, you know what? That's not enough.

[21:34] And isn't that the way it is in our life sometimes? We see God working in miraculous ways. And then it comes to the next trial in our life and we say, you know what, God, I don't know if you got this.

[21:50] Anybody here ever do that? Yeah. At least one person other than me has done that. I know it's kind of embarrassing to say, yeah, you know, yeah, I'm a lot like the children of Israel.

[22:01] We're unfaithful. We're unfaithful. They wanted another sign. Never mind that he raised the dead.

[22:15] I mean, the Gospels record him giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, giving speech to the dumb, giving hearing to the deaf, healing the lepers.

[22:27] Others, this has never happened. Ever. And they say, hey, we want another sign. That's kind of foolish, isn't it?

[22:42] And so God says, you know what, the Lord Jesus Christ said, no. This is it. You guys want a sign? This is the sign. I believe there are Sadducees here.

[22:55] And remember, the Sadducees, they didn't believe in the resurrection. The whole spiritual realm, they didn't believe in angels. This whole spiritual realm, they didn't, their doctrine was really crazy.

[23:12] But they didn't believe in the resurrection. And they come to the Lord Jesus Christ, trying to trick them about this whole thing. You know, this man had seven, this man got married, he had seven brothers, and according to the law, Lord, you know, if this husband dies, this brother needs to take the wife, and yada, yada, yada, all the way through.

[23:30] All the brothers, you know, were this woman's husband. The Sadducees didn't even believe in the resurrection. And that's how Paul, Paul, remember Paul in the gospel, in the book of Acts, is preaching about the resurrection.

[23:44] He's before the Sanhedrin. And he perceives, it says that, he perceives that half of them were Pharisees and half of them were Sadducees, right? And I think, and you say, David, why do you keep on bringing this up?

[23:57] Because I think there's a reason why this is the sign. He says, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so the son of man three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

[24:19] I'm not going to give you all the answers because I don't have most of the answers. But take a pencil, if you don't mind, writing your Bible and underline the heart of the earth. And go home and look at this for a moment.

[24:31] The word for earth there is the word gay, gamma, epsilon. Gamma, epsilon. It means literally the dirt, right?

[24:43] When you say you're tilling the earth, you're tilling the dirt, that's the word that's used here. The heart is an interesting word. The primary definition of the Greek word cardia, which is where we get our word heart from, you know, the etymology there.

[25:03] Cardia, it means the physical heart, that which is pumping the blood through your body. That's the primary definition of the word cardia in the Greek. Not in the Greek New Testament, but in the Greek.

[25:16] If you read through the Bible, and I challenge you to do this because this is very interesting. Go through your Bible and get you a concordance online or however you like to do it.

[25:31] And look up the word heart. Heart. And almost every instance of the word heart has to do with the spiritual side, the seed of the heart, the seed of the emotions, the will, the thought, right?

[25:45] Out of the abundance of the heart, a man speaks. Now we know that man's not speaking out of the physical heart, right? The mouth does the talking. The lungs provide that wind. The heart doesn't do the talking.

[25:56] But it is in regards to the seed of the emotions and the will and the thought process. And it's often used in a negative way.

[26:11] The heart of the earth. And I think the Lord Jesus Christ used this specific phrase, the heart of the earth, for a specific reason. The Sadducees, they didn't believe in a resurrection.

[26:24] So they didn't believe in Hades. They didn't believe in Sheol, right? The grave. When you read through the grave in the Old Testament, Sheol. When you read the grave in the New Testament, Hades, right? Yes.

[26:36] I'm thinking I had them backwards. I had them right. If I have them wrong, correct me afterwards. But the grave. So we put the body in the grave. We put the body in the ground. Anybody's body ever been in the ground?

[26:50] Okay, good. I was in the ground up to here at camp one time, laying down. It was not fun. But they made me look like a mermaid.

[27:01] He was in the ground. He was in a grave. What we think of, you know, when we put that coffin in the dirt.

[27:15] That would be proof for anybody, right? I mean, if you were staying... Has anybody been at a funeral and someone come up out of the grave? It was mentioned this morning, though, that no one's ever...

[27:27] We don't typically bury people alive. But that's happened. People have gotten buried alive. Never buried dead, but buried alive. In New Orleans, they would tie a bell on their toe.

[27:40] And the graveyard shifts. Someone would walk around the graveyard and they'd hear that bell ringing. And they'd be like, oh, that person really wasn't dead. But typically we bury... But has anybody been to a funeral where there's been a live person in the coffin?

[27:53] No? Okay. They're dead. And so we put them in the grave. Imagine if that person came out of the grave. Just that their physical body came up out of the grave.

[28:05] And so I think... Let's just say that you're an annihilationist. That you believe after death there's nothing. Right? You don't believe that something's going to happen to your soul and spirit after death.

[28:19] You just believe in the physical. The here, the now. Which is what the Sadducees had believed. Imagine if you saw a body actually stand up out of that grave.

[28:33] Would you be convinced? You'd probably think there's... Something was going on. I don't know. But Jesus says to them, You're going to be three days and three nights.

[28:45] And I think it's interesting that he uses the heart. But... The ground was cursed. Go back to Genesis. The ground was cursed.

[28:57] And God made him... Who knew no sin... To be sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He was made a curse for us.

[29:09] And he was put in this cursed ground. In the heart of the earth. Some suggest that the heart of the earth is Hades.

[29:23] And it may be. But I believe that there's always a reason why the Holy Spirit uses specific words. Through the authors. In text. And he says the heart of the earth.

[29:37] The sin-cursed earth. He's going to be three days and three nights there. I'm not going to get into the three days and three nights. I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ...

[29:47] And you can study this on your own. And three days and three nights... Absolutely. You can look at the Jewish calendar. There were two Passovers, I believe.

[30:00] I believe the Lord Jesus Christ was arrested Wednesday night. Crucified on Thursday. And raised again Sunday morning. And if you want to talk about it afterwards... More than happy to. But that's what I believe.

[30:10] And I believe that Jesus says... What he means. Why? Because he says, I am the Lord. I change not. Jesus Christ is saying yesterday, today, and forever.

[30:21] He doesn't say one thing here. And then another thing over there. He's not duplicitous in his discussions with people. From the beginning of John. All the way through his earthly ministry. He talks about being crucified.

[30:31] And being raised again the third day. In the same way that Jonah was. Jonah was in the belly of a whale for three days. Or a big fish or sea creature.

[30:43] The word is keto. Jonah was the first one on the keto diet. That's the word there. He was in there for three days and three nights. But he says this.

[30:55] That's going to be the sign. A man raised from the dead. But you know what's really interesting? Remember the rich man and Lazarus?

[31:07] The rich man? He's there. In a place of torment. He's in hell. And he asked for a drop of water. And there's this conversation going on.

[31:22] He says to Abraham. He says, Hey, would you let Lazarus go and tell my brothers? Their hearts were so hard. And Abraham and God knew this.

[31:34] He says, They won't believe though one was raised from the dead. That's what they... That was how hard their heart... That's how evil and adulterous their heart was.

[31:45] They won't believe though one was raised from the dead. Obstudent. But the Lord Jesus Christ says, That's going to be the sign.

[31:57] The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross. He died on the cross for my sin. He died on the cross for the sin of the world.

[32:11] He was buried. Proof that He died. He rose again the third day. According to the scriptures.

[32:23] And He was seen. Proof that He lived. And they still don't believe. You look through the book of Acts.

[32:33] And every time they want... Paul was being... Paul lost his life. And many of the other apostles did as well. Peter was arrested.

[32:44] John was arrested. Why were they arrested? They were arrested for preaching Christ. Crucified and risen again. That's where the proof was.

[32:56] And the Jews, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they were so evil and adulterous in their heart and in their mind that they didn't want to believe. They're so obstinate in their heart.

[33:10] The book of Zechariah tells us this. That the Son of Man is going to descend one day on the Mount of Olives. And it's going to cleave in two from top to bottom.

[33:21] And they're going to look on Him whom they have pierced. And you know what they're going to ask? This blows my mind. Maybe it was because I was raised in a Christian home.

[33:34] I don't know. But this blows my mind. They're going to ask Jesus this question. Where did you get those wounds? And you know what He's going to say?

[33:45] These are the wounds that I got in the house of my friends. Their hearts are hard. And Jesus gives them a sign. The Son of Man risen from the dead.

[33:58] He says the men of Nineveh are going to rise up in judgment and condemn it. They're going to stand as a witness. And that's a different Greek word. The ESV, the King James, they say the men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment and the queen of the south shall rise up in judgment.

[34:15] But the word there for the men of Nineveh is they're going to stand up. And it's the idea of standing up as a witness against this generation. And I would suggest every preceding generation.

[34:27] Why? Jonah is spit out of the mouth of the whale. He lands up on the beach. He's covered in digestive juice. No telling what it did to his skin, but I don't think it did anything good.

[34:40] The keto diet is never good for the skin. He probably got putrefying sores all over his face. And what does he do? He goes to the city of Nineveh to preach. And what does he do?

[34:52] He preaches. He preaches to the Gentiles. In 40 days, Nineveh is going to be destroyed. And what do they do? At the preaching, not because they saw a man raised from the dead, but because they heard the word of God preached and proclaimed.

[35:09] It says they repented. And God had mercy. God spared them. And Jesus says, a greater than Jonah's here. The one who came to seek and to save, that's what's lost, is here.

[35:25] Proclaiming that he is the I am. That he is the way, the truth, and the life. That he is a resurrection and the life.

[35:37] That he is love. That he is light. That he's the Lamb of God. Proclaiming all these things and they don't want to believe. And dear people, I tell you today that there are people out in the world who do not want to believe the gospel.

[35:50] But that does not absolve us of the responsibility of living a life that is reflective of the gospel. It does not absolve us of the responsibility of preaching the gospel.

[36:02] Paul says, woe if I don't preach the gospel. Woe is me. I have a stewardship to preach the gospel. And we need to live the gospel. Christ liveth in me.

[36:16] And we say those words and we quote those verses. Christ liveth in me. And Paul would say, the life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

[36:28] And is that evidence, dear brothers and sisters, is that evidence in our life on the outside? Do our lives preach the gospel? Do people come up to us and say, David Thomas, I see that you're living life differently.

[36:42] I see that you do things differently. Why? Because when I was 11 years old, I was without God and without hope. My eternity was destined for hell and the lake of fire.

[36:57] And in a moment in time, I got down on my knees and I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he saved me. And I passed from death unto life.

[37:12] Do you have that testimony? He says here, the queen of the south shall rise up. And the word for rise up is that of rising up out of sleep.

[37:27] And we might think of those who are raised in the second resurrection at the great white throne. But she's going to rise up in judgment.

[37:39] And she came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And Jesus says that greater than Solomon was here.

[37:51] She heard the wisdom of Solomon and she confessed with her mouth who God was. You can read it. 1 Kings chapter 10. Read it. She believed.

[38:04] And this wasn't even Jesus. This was one of Jesus' ancestors. And it says he was the wisest man on earth. But a wiser than Solomon is here.

[38:16] The embodiment of wisdom, the embodiment of knowledge, the embodiment of understanding is here right now. The Lord Jesus Christ. And she repented at a less than him.

[38:30] And you won't believe me. You won't come to me that you might have life. What a thought. A greater than Solomon is here.

[38:42] And so dear people, I tell you today, the Lord Jesus Christ came into this earth to die on the cross for the sin of the world. And you have a choice.

[38:54] And some have made a choice. All here have made a choice. Either you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, or you haven't believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

[39:05] If you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you believe on... If you're born again, it's not just salvation from hell and the lake of fire.

[39:16] We have a responsibility, a God-given responsibility to bear much fruit so others can see Christ living in us.

[39:26] are you willing to remove those hindrances out of your way that prevent you from being salt and light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation?

[39:46] If you're here today and you made the decision, you know what? I don't believe. And I have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

[39:58] I want to tell you that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin.

[40:10] He was buried and he rose again the third day. Acts 16.31 is the simplest gospel message there is. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

[40:24] Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, it's not up to me. You have an eternity waiting for you in hell.

[40:38] Ultimately, the lake of fire. It wasn't made for you. But that's where you'll go. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

[40:48] The Lord Jesus Christ is risen. He's seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. We have a responsibility to live out Christ in us.

[41:01] There's evidence there. And the evidence is undisputed that Christ is not in the grave. You want a sign? Well, look to those believers around you and see Christ in them.

[41:17] Believers, make sure Christ is seen in your life. Our God and Father, we just thank you for the word of God. And Father, we understand that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

[41:31] So we thank you that you've given us the word of God to read, the word of God to study. And Father, a road map for life, for how we should live. And Father, I pray that you would use your word to change our hearts and minds in the days ahead as we live out the gospel.

[41:52] Father, that others would see Christ in us. And Father, I ask if there's any here that are without God, without hope, that they would see their need of a Savior before it's eternally too late.

[42:05] Father, I ask these things in the name of your Son, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.