Luke 7:29-35

Luke chapter 7 beginning with verse 29 reading through verse 35 for our text and study this morning all the people that heard him and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves being not baptized of him and the Lord said where unto then shall I liken the men of this generation and to what are they like they are like unto children sitting in the marketplace calling one to another and saying we have piped unto you and you have not danced we have mourned to you and you have not wept where john the baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine and you say he had the devil the son of man has come eating and drinking and ye say behold a glutness man and a wine-bibber a friend of publicans and sinners but wisdom is justified of all her children may god bless to us the reading of his sacred and holy word this morning I heard about a flower girl that used to sell violets on the corner of the street for quite a number of years however she eventually came to hate the actual smell of violets to the point that she couldn’t bear to be around them. Seems that sometimes that happens to those who hear the gospel over and over again. They reach the point where they can no longer stand it. They oppose it and they resist it. Jesus has just finished his commendation here of John the Baptist ministry and verses 24 through 28. And at this point Luke provides a comment on how the people responded to John, one’s preaching and then Jesus adds to his own preaching as well. Now this provides, I think, some insight as to how the gospel is normally received in most generations. Jesus speaks of the fickleness of the fickleness of many of many who reject the fickledness of many of many of many of the of Christ. The gospel indeed, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians, becomes an aroma of life unto life to some, an aroma of death unto death to others. I want to talk this morning on responses to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now you find two basic responses to the gospel of Christ here in verses 29 and 30. And the first is this. You see the repentance of those who acknowledge themselves to be sinners. Verse 29, and all the people that heard him and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism. of John. The common people who gathered to hear John proclaim the gospel heard him preach the doctrine of repentance, the need for faith in Christ and for baptism and commitment of discipleship. Even wicked men, as he lists here publicans separately from all the people. Even wicked men, when they came under John’s ministry, were often brought to salvation, as the text indicates to us. The power and the grace of God worked through John’s ministry and worked in the lives of a lot of the common people, and even of the worst of the bunch, the public, the public, so that these sinners were brought to a state of justifying God, the text tells us. Now we have to be careful here that we understand properly what this phrase means to justify God. What this means is they declared that God was righteous. Scripture does not allow us to interpret the word. here and the word justified in the sense of making someone righteous. Certainly they didn’t make God righteous, as we know, he’s always righteous. Man cannot make God just. The word always means to declare or reckon someone to be righteous. And this means that the people and the publicans who came to salvation, who trusted in the Savior, approved, they applauded the righteousness of God that was revealed in the salvation that God provided. In other words, God was just in pointing out man’s sin. God was just in bringing men’s sin. for their sins and the violation of the law of God. Hell was what men rightly deserved. Such a punishment was right and proper for God to exercise with regard to men. The wisdom, the goodness, the grace of God, and the plan of salvation was also acknowledged to be just. so that God is declared to be just as well as the justifier of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as Romans Chapter 3 indicates to us. For he forgives your sin only on the basis of Christ being the substitute for you, bearing the punishment that you deserved, dying in your place as the Lamb of God, the true. sacrifice, as John declared him to be in John 129. And therefore, the salvation that you receive certainly is such that God must be declared just and righteous in this salvation. The seriousness of their faith is seen in the fact that they submitted to John’s baptism following repentance. They repented of their sins and became disciples. This certainly shows a seriousness of commitment. Baptism has always looked upon as a commitment of discipleship and certainly a desire to walk in newness of life. They declared it was right also for God to institute baptism and for them to serve to walk in newness of life. submit to it. So this is the right response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel declares none seek after God, none do good, none are righteous in Romans chapter 3. So you can’t find any relief from your own guilt unless you’re brought to confess that I am a great sinner in the eyes of of God and must see yourself like a publican who had to cry out, God be merciful to me a sinner in the temple at the prayer at the prayer at the temple. Christ came into the world to save sinners. And so the first aspect about being saved is to recognize you are a sinner. You cannot be helped without that recognition that you are a guilty sinner in the eyes of God and recognizing that Christ is a friend of sinners. So you come to him with all your guilt, all your depravity, all your sin, and you throw yourself on the mercy of Christ. You repent of your sins. You don’t attempt to hide them, you don’t attempt to cover them. certainly God is omniscient. He knows all about your sin. But you put your trust then, solely in Christ as God substitute for sinners, and you are given God’s righteousness, a perfect righteousness, and you discard any of your own self-righteousness. Because those things are as filthy rags. This is the proper response to the message of the gospel of Christ. There was American ship that was sailing through the Caribbean Sea. And all of a sudden, a cry went out, man overboard. It was impossible to immediately stop the momentum of the ship, but they did throw out a line. And as the ship was passing, the man he grabbed hold of the line that was thrown over the ship’s stern. He grabbed hold of that rope and he hung on for deer like. He had a death grip on it. Eventually, he gets pulled back onto the ship. They slowed the ship down and kept pulling on the rope until they got him back and he was rescued. But then when they got him on board, they found out that his hand could not be pried loose from the rope immediately. I mean, he had so tightly gripped onto the rope that it took a while for those muscles to relax and for him to let go. This is the way you need to hold on to Christ. Grab hold of Christ by faith and don’t let him go. Use all your strength, trust in Christ. So you see the repentance of those who acknowledge themselves to be sinners here. But then secondly, you see the rejection of those who are self-righteous in verse 30. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves being not baptized of him. The Pharisees were a religious sect of the Jews, one of the more conservative ones, but here we see them as self-righteous people and as Jesus proclaimed them to be as he read Matthew 23 or some of the other passages you see that they were self-righteous. The lawyers here were not legal scholars that were in court but they were scholars with regard to the law. They were the scribes and those who were supposed to be experts in the law of God. These are religious leaders among the Jews. They are said to here, and this is an interesting phrase, reject the counsel of God. I had once someone tell me one time that see, man can reject God’s counsel. Well, we have to understand this is not his eternal counsel that we’re talking about here. No one can reject that. For God’s eternal counsel always stands. Man does not have the power or the ability to reject it as he says in Saul, or Isaiah 46 verses 10 and 11. My counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. I have purposed it. I will also do it. And so when we talk about God’s eternal counsel, there is no way that can be thwarted. But Scripture also uses God’s counsel in the sense of his advice, given through the word, or given through a messenger like a preacher, as to what sinners should do. God counsels you by his word. For example, we read in Proverbs 1.25, the if said it not all my counsel and would none of my reproofs. This means God’s message to them that they wouldn’t listen to repent. God counseled them to repent, but they didn’t listen. Or, how about Psalm 107 verse 11? They rebelled against the words of the Lord and contemned the counsel of the most high. when God’s word was preached to them, they wouldn’t listen. They rejected it. And this is a rejection of the counsel of the Lord. Words Proverbs 1920 says, hear counsel and receive instruction that thou mayest be wise. Listen to what God says in his word. Proverbs 22.20. Have not I written to the to the excellent things in counsels and knowledge. And here the word of God is called God’s counsel. Remember the book of Revelation in chapter 3, the words that were given to the Laidaean church where Jesus says here, I counseled thee the by gold tried in fire that thou may be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and an anoint thine eyes with isab that thou mayest see. And also he tells them to repent in that passage of scripture as well. He counsels them. This is what you should do. So John the Baptist gave God’s counsel to men. Repent, trust in the Lamb of God, become a disciple. Follow in baptism. Be serious by committing to the Lord. But these religious leaders rejected what God commanded through the minister, through his word, and despise this divine counsel. And you know what’s interesting, it says here, against themselves, they did this. In other words, it was against their own best interest. By rejecting this, of God, given by John the Baptist, by the preaching of the word. It actually worked against them. They were working at cross purposes for their souls’ good. They brought them on themselves, ruined and destruction by their behavior. By not listening to what God said. They didn’t see the necessity of baptism. which required repentance, which required walking and newness of life, because they thought they didn’t need to repent. They were righteous in and of themselves. They thought they were good enough for God. So certainly they rejected it. And so they didn’t see the need for a religious physician in the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn’t believe they were spiritually sick. And so here is the danger. that many people have, and that is this idea of being self-righteous. And therefore, they will not submit to what God calls them to do in his word through his ministers. There are many who follow the footsteps of the Pharisees and the lawyers today. How few there are who are willing to say, I have sinned against the Lord, as David did in Psalm. 2 Samuel 12. Will you say, I acknowledge my transgressions, as David did in Psalm 51.3? Have you heard God’s counsel and rejected it? Are you ignorant of God’s righteousness and then therefore go about trying to establish your own righteousness? So that you refuse, as the Scripture says, to submit yourselves to the righteousness of God. That’s the counsel you have, submit yourself to the righteousness of God. Romans 10. Friends, if you do this, you’re working against your best interest. You’re working against your souls. Good. Yet how many people do this? A man was caught trying to pass counterfeit bills. He declares, oh, they weren’t my own. Oh, no, no, no, no. I must have picked them up when I went to buy something from a store. A little before they. though he was thinking what a splendid imitation of the real thing I’ve made. I will cheat the merchants. No one will be wiser and I’ll come out of hat. Self-righteousness is like a counterfeit bill that you try to pass, that you’ve devised. When all goes well with you, you say, well, I have done good. How splendid is my righteous. God’s word finds you out. And God’s word declares that your righteousness is as filthy rags in his sight, and you have been discovered to have counterfeit righteousness. That’s not the righteousness God requires of you. You need the genuine one righteousness that comes from Christ alone. How long will you reject the counsel of God in His Word? How long will you reject the command to repent of your sins and turn to Christ? how often must you hear the word of God telling you to do these things? My friends, what a sad thing it is. As we go through this life and as we try to witness to other people that this is how they are. They do not want to listen to the counsel of the Lord. So you find two basic responses here to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The first is the repentance of those who acknowledge themselves to be sinners. Second, is the rejection of the gospel of those who are self-righteous who see no need of the Savior. Secondly this morning, you find the excuses of those who reject the gospel are baseless. We see that in verses 31 to 34. Let’s look at that. And the Lord said, where unto then shall I like in the men of this generation and to what are they like? They are like under children sitting in the marketplace, calling one to another and saying we have piped under you and you have not danced. We have mourned to you and you have not wept. For John the Baptist came, neither eating bread nor drinking wine and you say he hath the devil. The son of man has come eating and drinking and He say, behold, a glutness man or wine bribber, a friend of publicans and sinners. Now, we have here the response of children to pipers in this verses 31 and 32. The Jews used pipes. These are musical instruments, wind instruments, like flutes if you would, on joyous occasions, when there was a marriage ceremony and also on morphal occasions when there were funerals. We even use bagpipes today many times you’ll hear them at funerals. People use it in a mournful way at funerals. But the pipers here would adopt their adapt the music to fit the occasion. You could play joyful notes or you can play more mournful. notes. In this story, the children were playing the pipes. They were imitating sort of the grown-ups, if you would, either playing mournfully or mourning in some fashion and expecting their peers to fall along with them, or playing joyfully and expecting them to rejoice as if they were a wedding. The piping children were upset because their peers’ were not following along with their idea. So they brought a complaint against them, no matter how they play, were they played a happy tune or were they played a mournful tune? The playmates would not dance with joy, and they wouldn’t mourn with sorrow. This is the story that Jesus tells. This little parable, if you would, or a little story that he’s saying here. The children, hearing the pipes were unmoved either way. They just weren’t paying any attention. at all. They ignored the pipers regardless. Now the purpose of this story is to show the stubbornness and the perverseness of the Jews. Nothing pleased them. No man’s ministry satisfied them. Whether it be John the Baptist ministry or whether it be Christ’s ministry, neither of them moved them. It didn’t matter what they heard. They weren’t going to respond properly. So here’s the response of the children to the pipers. Now, this tells us you can expect people to find fault regardless of the preacher of the gospel. In verses 33 and 34, for John came neither eating bread nor drinking wine and you say you have the devil, the son of man has come eating and drinking and drinking and you say, you say, you, you can’t, behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber and a friend of publicans and sinners. Now here’s John the Baptist and here are Christ. Both came preaching. Let’s look at John the Baptist. Now John the Baptist was a man of real self-denial. And perhaps they thought, well, he pushes this way too far. He lives out there in the solitude in the desert areas in the wilderness. He didn’t socialize much. People could not understand. a man wearing a garment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle maybe about his waist and his food. Oh boy, that was really restrictive, locus and wild honey. So he was not admired for his humble self-denying ways because he came neither eating or drinking freely like most of the people’s society. He was too odd. You know, maybe people looked up. upon him as some crazy guy out there in the wilderness. Maybe he thought, well, he’s too good for the world or something of this nature. And therefore, they just didn’t listen to him. They didn’t want to listen to him. And thus he’s maligned. He had the devil. Why? He’s like the maniac who lived among the tombs. This guy is out there in the middle of nowhere. What’s wrong with this guy? There’s something wrong with him. So they don’t want to listen to John the Baptist. They didn’t believe that his ministry was of God. So they rejected his preaching. They refused to admit that it was any spiritual value to. And then there’s Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus Christ in some ways, is opposite of John, the Baptist here. But that didn’t satisfy them either. Jesus came eating and drinking. He goes to a way. He goes to feast. Remember we talked about the feast that Levi had and he’s there at the feast. He’s freely among the people. He drinks the wine, just like everybody else. They condemn Christ for being a gluttonous man and a wine beer. A friend of publicans and sinners. He’s a corruptor of morals. He hangs out with the wrong kind of people. We can’t listen to him. So the Pharisee. and lawyers would not listen to Christ preaching because he wasn’t self-denying enough evidently for them. What is our conclusion? What do we draw from this? What we draw from this is people always find fault with the minister regardless of who we may be. Isn’t it an interesting that God sends into society various types of men that preach the gospel? They’re not all the same. They’re different in many ways. They preach the same gospel, but they may be very different in personality and how they go about things. And how sad it is that God provides these various ministers to preach his word, but man always finds some excuse not to believe it. Sometimes the minister pipes the precious promises of the gospel, the joyful message of salvation being freely granted by Jesus Christ, and they don’t like that. sometimes the minister pikes the dreadful threatenings of God’s law and the fact that there’s a reason to mourn because the curse of God rest upon men and they don’t like that either man. Man isn’t happy either way. You simply ignore God’s preaching through the minister and blame the minister. So if the minister preach is free-graced, then he’s accused of giving the people a license to sin. if he comes along and he preaches the need for holiness of life, then he’s a legalist. He can’t win. Spurgeon once reported this. He said, I heard a man say some time ago that he would not listen to a certain preacher unhappily for him because that preacher was stout. He said he preferred a lean man. He said a lean man looked more saintly. So I’m not going to listen to the, you know, Spurgeon. was more stout. I can’t listen to him because he’s just too heavy. I had someone tell me one time that I preached too long. He said after 15 minutes, he turned his hearing aid down and didn’t listen anymore. I didn’t think I preached that long. I’m not a very long preacher. People find any kind of an excuse not to listen to the gospel. What about you? Do you find fault with what the minister or teaches, is the minister too cheerful or too serious for you? You can’t benefit from his message. Is his life too austere for you to relate to him? Is his life too common for you to take his message seriously? Well, if this is your case, you don’t want to listen to the minister and you’re always finding an excuse me. Why are you any different than the Pharisees and the lawyers? You’re really the same. Isn’t that the way people are? People always find fault with the minister? So God sends various ministers so you don’t really have an excuse. You’re without excuse. You didn’t want to listen to John? Okay. What about the Savior? You don’t want to listen to the Savior either, huh? Let me make these brief observations here. God uses a variety of ministers of different styles and life experiences that preach is gospel. So that man therefore is without excuse if he will not listen to the message. One time I was helping my neighbor and he asked me what I did for living and I said I’m a minister. He said he looked at me with this dreadful look on his face. You’re not one of those fire and brimstone ministers are you? You don’t want to listen to anybody like that. Man’s obstinate refusal to listen to God’s ministers is such that he always finds some kind of fault. The men of God are not perfect. We have our faults. But the truth of the matter is, men are not awakened by divine threats, nor are they allured by the sweetness of the promises of the gospel. I have a pastor friend that was dismissed by his congregation because he preached too much on sin. Now there you go. Can you imagine that? Kind of thought there’s a lot about sin in the Bible. I thought, no matter where you went, there’s a lot about sin. You preach too much on sin. Can’t have that. Man not only rejects the Bible. message of the gospel but he maligns the messenger as so that he can have an excuse why he must have a devil oh he’s polluted he associates with sinners let me say this for those who aspire to be perhaps in the ministry you can expect people lie about you you can expect people to malign you this is what all always happens. So you will find the excuses of those who reject the gospel are really baseless. This is what Jesus is saying. Doesn’t matter who God sends to you, you won’t listen. Thirdly, lastly, you find the wisdom of God’s ways is recognized by those who embrace the gospel. And we have this little phrase in verse 35, but wisdom is justified of all her children. Though the vast majority of Jews were hardened and unreasonable, and certainly the political, or the religious leaders were, and they rejected the gospel, there were some who were not like this. Those few who embraced the gospel are called here the children of wisdom. In short, They justified or declared righteous God’s wisdom in providing salvation and so them prove themselves to be truly wise. The children are wisdom are the elect. They are the believers in Christ. The people who have received a wisdom that is from above, as James speaks about. God’s people approve of God’s plan of salvation that his ways are just and righteous. And through the message of salvation, they have been made wise unto salvation. As 2 Timothy 3.15 says. All her children signifies that the response of all the response of all the real offspring, of Christ, the sons of wisdom, without exception, is this. They embrace the message of the gospel. Every one of them. They’ve been given wisdom from on life. Now, the lesson we learned from this is this point. Regardless of the rejection of the gospel, by the vast majority of people who hear the message, God always has an elect people who he grants this spiritual wisdom to and they embrace wholeheartedly the message. There’s always a little flock that God reserves for himself. Now, sometimes he sends a great revival. Sometimes he does a great work of reformation, and many people come. But as we look at each generation, there’s always someone who comes. And sometimes it may be very small. Sometimes it may be a lot larger. But there’s always someone who hear the message and believe on Christ. The world may look at you as mad. They may look at you as foolish because you have come to know Christ. But Jesus says here you are truly wise. You’re wise. the salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So let me ask you this morning, are you among the children of wisdom? Had you been taught by this spirit to embrace Jesus Christ as the Savior, as he is revealed in the gospel? Have the eyes of your understanding been opened? That you delight in God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ? You justify God. with regard to this salvation. Because if you’re truly wise, you’re going to speak of the salvation that God has granted you, and you’ll speak of it to others, because you’ll want them to be wise, too, to the way of salvation. Well, that flower girl who daily sold violets eventually came to hate the smell of violence, couldn’t bear it. This is what happens many times to people who hear the gospel over and over again, no matter who preaches it, whether it’s John the Bauer, or cries, they just tired of hearing it. And they don’t want to hear it. And also they oppose it and reject it. But our text here gives us the two responses. The repentance of those who acknowledge themselves to be sinners, they’re truly wise. And the rejection of those who are self-righteous, they are foolish. They are very foolish. Where do you stand? where do you state? How have you responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ? Let us close.