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Please turn with me in your Bibles 
to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11 as we continue to 
work our way through this gospel written by Matthew. Matthew chapter 11, I'll just 
begin reading in verse 1. Now it came to pass when Jesus 
finished commanding his 12 disciples that he departed from there to 
teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard 
in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 
and said to him, Are you the coming one, or do we look for 
another? Jesus answered and said to them, 
Go and tell John the things which you hear and see. The blind see, 
and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, and 
the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the 
poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who 
is not offended because of me." As they departed, Jesus began 
to say to the multitudes concerning John, What did you go out into 
the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But 
what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? 
Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what 
did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, 
and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is 
written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare 
your way before you. Assuredly, I say to you, among 
those born of women, there has not risen one greater than John 
the Baptist. But he who is least in the kingdom 
of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the 
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. The 
violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the 
law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive 
it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let 
him hear. But to what shall I liken this 
generation? It is like children sitting in 
the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying, 
we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We mourned 
to you and you did not lament. For John came neither eating 
nor drinking. And they say, he has a demon. 
The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, look, 
a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and 
sinners. But wisdom is justified by her 
children. Then he began to rebuke the cities 
in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they did 
not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to 
you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which 
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would 
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, 
it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of 
judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted 
to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works 
which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have 
remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall 
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment 
than for you. At that time Jesus answered and 
said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you 
have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have 
revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed 
good in your sight. All things have been delivered 
to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, 
nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to 
whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to me, all you who 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my 
yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly 
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is 
easy, and my burden is light. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
Father, we thank You for this, Your Word, and we pray for the 
ministry of Your Spirit now. We ask that You would forgive 
us for all of our sins. We know that sin casts a darkening 
influence over our minds and our hearts. We pray that You 
would wash us and purify us in the blood of the Lamb. We pray 
that You would sanctify our minds and hearts We pray that you would 
indeed cause us to receive with joy your word. We pray for those 
who do not know the Lord Jesus, those who have not believed the 
gospel. We pray that today would be the day of salvation. We know 
with men it is impossible to effect this change, but we know 
with you, God, all things are possible. So we pray for young 
and old alike, that the word of God would go forth and the 
spirit of God would attend. and that you would cause sinners 
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and to know the joy of being 
found in Him. And we ask this in Jesus' holy 
name. Amen. Well, as we work our way 
through Matthew's Gospel, here in chapter 11, we have seen various 
responses to the Lord Jesus. And most of the responses that 
we'll see in chapters 11 and 12 deal with opposition. In other 
words, the Lord Jesus, as He goes about engaged in ministry, 
as He goes about doing the deeds that the Old Testament scriptures 
foretold, as He goes about preaching the gospel, there are those who 
are opposed to Him. And in this current section that 
we find ourselves in, the Lord Jesus condemns Israel's unbelief. If you remember last week, we 
looked at his indictment of Israel's unbelief in verses 16 to 19. He says, to what shall I liken 
this generation? It is like children sitting in 
the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying, 
We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We mourned 
to you, and you did not lament." Essentially, what Christ is saying 
is that the generation to whom he is preaching, those who had 
rejected the testimony of John the Baptist, those who reject 
the testimony of the Lord Jesus, conduct themselves as stubborn, 
rebellious, incorrigible children. He says, or he uses this parable 
or this analogy of children's play, the children in that day 
would play wedding. And when He says, we played the 
flute for you and you did not dance, we said we wanted to play 
this game, but you rejected, you resisted. When the Son of 
God comes preaching and celebrating the coming of the Kingdom of 
God, you do not dance. You reject Him, you despise Him, 
you oppose Him. Kids in that day also played 
the game Funeral. I know this sounds odd for us. 
We don't encourage our children to play Funeral, but in this 
situation it was a time of pomp. a time of great display. And so that's what he says, we 
mourn to you and you did not lament. In other words, John 
the Baptist was a voice of one crying in the wilderness. He 
came with an austere life. He came eating honey and locusts 
and those sorts of things. And when he called out to you, 
when he mourned to you, you didn't lament, you didn't participate. 
Jesus gives this explanation in verses 18 and 19. For John came neither eating 
nor drinking, and they say he has a demon. They just write 
him off. He's a madman. He's a nut. He 
lives out there in the wilderness. He is this one that is calling 
men to repentance, but we don't like what he has to say. We don't 
like the emphasis of his message. We don't want to have anything 
to do with him." They were like stubborn little children in the 
marketplace. When the morning came, they did 
not participate with lament. Jesus then says, the Son of Man 
came eating and drinking, and they say, look, a glutton and 
a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. He comes, 
speaking of that self-same kingdom, He comes calling them to repentance. It's the same message, just difference 
in terms of the men, and they write Him off as a glutton and 
a wine-bibber. But you remember the accusation 
is quite weighty. In light of Deuteronomy chapter 
21, I suspect and I submit that the people of Israel were indicting 
the Lord Christ as being the incorrigible Son, being the wicked 
Son, being the rebellious Son. when in fact it was them who 
had rejected and despised the Lord God Almighty and the Messiah 
that he sent to save his people from their sins. Now in verses 
20 to 24 he gives specific instances of this. Specific examples of 
cities who had by and large rejected him. That's the emphasis here 
in verses 20 to 24. And we'll take this up under 
three considerations. First, we need to look at the 
context. Secondly, the condemnation of 
Chorazin and Bethsaida. And then thirdly, the greater 
condemnation of Capernaum, verses 23 and 24. Now, when I say the 
greater condemnation, this text is laced with this reality, as 
is the rest of the New Testament, that there are greater degrees 
or there are levels of degrees of punishment in hell for those 
who despise. Jesus uses that convention in 
verses 20 to 24. And I will say at the outset, 
in light of what Pastor Cam reminded us concerning this tribe, in 
Indonesia that receives Matthew to Revelation, and they are just 
overjoyed, and they are praising the Lord, and they are celebrating 
and delighting in the goodness of God. Well certainly, if we 
in the Western world reject, despise, or throw off the many 
privileges that God has sent our way, then what Jesus says 
in this passage equally applies to us. It will be more tolerable 
for Tyre and Sidon. It will be more tolerable for 
Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for those of you who have 
lived in North America, where there are Bibles in every room 
in your house, where it's in your pocket. Not just one version. You can get 20, 30 versions of 
the Bible on a phone. where we have access to sermonaudio.com, 
the best preachers in the world at the touch of our fingertips. We are glutted, we are saturated, 
we are inundated, we have been given much. So certainly this 
morning, if you are here and you reject these benefits, you 
cast off these privileges, you deny the Lord of Glory, you reject 
the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't dance when He plays the flute, 
and you don't lament when the Baptist mourns, then it will 
be more tolerable for Sodom on that Day of Judgment than it 
will be for you. That's the meaning of the text. Notice first the context. We've already rehearsed this. 
We'll just skim quickly through it. The indictment in verses 
16 to 19. Now he begins to condemn specific 
cities. Remember what we've been tracing 
up to this point. In Matthew's gospel is Jesus' 
Galilean mission. He is in Galilee. He is up in 
the northern part of Israel. He goes from place to place and 
city to city. He does his good deeds according 
to what the prophet spoke in Isaiah 35, Isaiah 61, what he 
himself rehearses here in Matthew chapter 11. He goes from place 
to place doing these things and preaching the gospel. Initially 
he is met with enthusiasm. There are a lot of crowds that 
gather from place to place. You see that in Matthew chapter 
4. You see the multitudes assemble in Matthew 5 to 7 when he speaks 
the Sermon on the Mount. When he comes down from the Mount, 
he goes back into Capernaum. We see that the multitudes greet 
him. So there is an enthusiasm, there is a curiosity, there is 
a desire, there is a delight in what it is that he's doing. 
Not unlike many in our day, we have some sort of an interest 
in what Christ and Christianity is about. We have something of 
an interest into what this church life is all about. We have something 
of an interest when we see a man that we knew was a really bad 
guy, and now he's actually in church on the Lord's Day singing 
praises to God. We are interested and curious 
about such things. Let me just tell you, interest 
and curiosity never save the soul. It is belief on the Lord 
Jesus Christ that you must have. And in this instance, the Lord 
Christ, or what we find here in Matthew, He began to rebuke 
the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done because 
they did not repent. You see, Christ didn't come simply 
to satisfy His own ego. He didn't go from town to town. He didn't go from Chorazin to 
Bethsaida. He didn't go to Capernaum. He 
didn't go to these cities and towns in Galilee. He doesn't 
ultimately go down into Judah simply to satisfy His desire 
for attention. That's not it at all. His teaching, 
His preaching, His healing, His casting out of devils, all of 
these things were with the express purpose that men repent, that 
they believe on the Lord Jesus, that they run to the kingdom 
of God, that they don't stay away from, that they don't tarry 
from, but rather they seek and pursue those things which Christ 
announces in His preaching. You see, the gospel goes forth, 
preaching is undertaken so that you'll repent, so that you'll 
believe. Spurgeon said it this way, and 
I think he nails it right on the head. He says repentance 
is what we who are preachers drive at. That's the point. No preacher that is worth his 
weight in salt wakes up on a Sunday morning and says, Almighty God, 
let me do well today. Let me shine. Let people applaud 
me. Let people throw good things 
at me. Let people esteem me. No preacher 
worth his weight ever wakes up on a Lord's Day morning asking 
that. He wakes up saying, God, attend 
the service by the power of your Spirit so that the Word will 
take root in hearts and that people will repent. That they 
will flee the wrath to come and they will believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ. That's the goal. Spurgeon says 
repentance is what we who are preachers drive at. And where 
we do not see it, we are sore troubled. Our trouble is not 
that our hearers do not applaud our ability, but because they 
repented not. That's the issue. That's the 
purpose. That's the point. Why does Jesus 
undertake this ministry in Galilee? Why does Jesus traverse Israel 
and go down to the southern region of Judah? It's so that sinners 
will repent. Because the reality is simple. 
God is a holy God. Man is sinful and wretched and 
undone. Not just you out there. All of 
us. Every single son of Adam. The scripture says that the heart 
of man is deceitful above all things. It is desperately wicked. Who can understand it? The apostle 
in Romans chapter 3 says, all have sinned and fall short of 
the glory of God. He says there is none righteous. 
No, not one. There is none who seeks after 
God. There is no fear of God before our eyes. If you're following 
the logic, you'll see that's bad news. A holy, righteous, 
pure God is bringing His kingdom to bear upon man. Man who is 
sinful, desperately wicked, deceitful, ungodly. One who looks at the 
holy law of God and breaks it continuously. That's bad news. Well, the glory of the gospel, 
the good news is, is that Jesus came to live, to die, and to 
rise again. And when this gospel is preached, 
those who repent by the grace of God, those who believe by 
the grace of God, will be saved. It's beautiful, isn't it? Because they did not repent. 
They did not believe. They did not forsake their sin. Those lusts, that flesh, those 
pleasures, that desire was more interesting and held more of 
an appeal to them than this Savior, this Lord, this Messiah, this 
God incarnate. You see, that's how sinful man 
really is. In fact, as we read through this 
section, you know why 25 to 30 is next? Just so we don't conclude 
it's all gloom and doom, right? It's not as if every single human 
being rejects the gospel. This is why Jesus says, I thank 
Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide 
these things from the wise and prudent, but You did reveal them 
unto babes. Because of the sovereign will 
of the Father, the mediatorial office of Christ, and the blessed 
invitation that He gives to His gospel, there are those who are 
saved. So it's not a lost cause. It's 
not as if everybody's damned to hell. There are those, by 
the grace of God, described in verse 25 as babes made so by 
His grace that feast in this kingdom of heaven. Do you know 
the wise and the prudent, they say, you know, I like my lusts, 
I like my sins, I like my pleasures, I like my stuff, I like my ease, 
I like my comfort. I don't like people ruling over 
me. I will not have this Christ to 
tell me what it is I can and cannot do. Right? So what do they do? They don't 
repent. Just imagine that. That sin that you are clutching 
onto is that sin you'll drag right into hell with you. It 
ain't worth it. It's not worth it. Repent, for 
the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. That's the message that Christ 
conveyed. That's the context. Now notice 
in verses 21 to 22, He upbraids these cities called Chorazin 
and Bethsaida. The only mention of these cities 
in Matthew's Gospel. In Bethsaida, this is where Andrew 
and Peter and Philip lived, according to John 1, verse 44. Chorazin's about two miles north 
of Capernaum. Now when he says to them, woe 
to you, this is very severe. What does he say back in verse 
6 of chapter 11? Blessed is he who is not offended 
because of me. The same thing he says in Matthew 
chapter 5, the Beatitudes, right? These pronouncements of blessing 
upon a person. So you've got blessing pronounced 
as a good thing. Woe is the direct opposite. Woe 
is the curse. Woe is bad. It's not just this 
sad man whose wife left him or whose girlfriend dumped him and 
he says, woe is me. That's not what's in view here. 
Jesus is using a prophetic oracle of doom upon these cities. Similar to what the prophet Isaiah 
does in Isaiah 5. Similar to what the prophet Micah 
does. Similar to what the old covenant 
prophets did when they came to indict the cities that would 
not repent. Jesus stands in line with the 
prophets and he brings this message of warning and of condemnation 
upon them. The woes pronounced are the opposite 
of blessing. The ones who are humbled by grace 
and not scandalized by Jesus are blessed. Those who are stubborn, 
proud, and cleaving to their sin, they hear these accursed 
words of woe pronounced upon them. Notice, the reason that 
he gives, verse 21, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! 
For, this is a reason, if the mighty works which were done 
in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented 
long ago in sackcloth and ashes. We're going to just slow down 
a little bit. Tyre and Sidon are Phoenician cities. They're 
not part of the covenant community. They are paradigmatic. That means 
they are patterns of the enemies of Israel in the Old Testament. Jesus says if the Messiah went 
to Tyre and Sidon and did the works that he's already described 
in Matthew chapter 11, 5 and 6, if they had seen these things, 
they would have repented. They would have put on sackcloth 
and ashes. These cities of Chorazin and 
Bethsaida had witnessed these amazing things, had witnessed 
these mighty works. And not only did they not repent, 
they rejected it. But Jesus says these wicked cities 
called Tyre and Sidon, the enemies of God's people in the Old Testament, 
had they seen these mighty works, they would have repented. And 
it would have been a thoroughgoing repentance. It would have been 
marked with sackcloth and ashes. Remember when Jonah finally heeds 
the call and he goes into Nineveh and he preaches God's Word. What 
do we see when the king of Nineveh repents? He covers himself in 
sackcloth and he sits in ashes. This is an indicator that repentance 
is thorough going, that it's complete, that it penetrates 
to the heart. Rend your hearts and not your 
garments, the scripture says. And notice what Jesus speaks 
of here. He says, they would have repented 
long ago in sackcloth and ashes. A couple things we should observe. 
The text is not concerned primarily with the contingent knowledge 
of the Lord. I know that certainly suggests 
itself here. If something would have happened 
over here, God knows what the outcome would have been. That's 
not the point of this particular section, actually. Contingent 
knowledge. Everybody with me? Wake up. I 
know it's warmer now. The heater's on. That's a worst 
enemy of a preacher, is the heater. Worst enemy. Well, the devil's 
probably the worst. Well, the devil is the worst. 
But I suspect that he uses the heater. He uses heating systems 
to lull us into sleep. Pay attention. Look at what Christ 
says. If Tyre and Sidon had seen these 
mighty deeds, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth 
and ashes. That suggests this idea of what's 
called contingent knowledge. That upon supposed conditions, 
these things would have taken place and God knows even that. 
In fact, our confession says, although God knows whatsoever 
may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions. But 
I want us to get what's going on in this particular passage. 
John Calvin says it this way. He says, lest any should raise 
thorny questions about the secret decrees of God, we must remember 
that this discourse of our Lord is accommodated to the ordinary 
capacity of the human mind. The point of the passage isn't 
for us to speculate concerning contingent knowledge. I can see 
it now, blog comments, 150 comments. Well, you know, in Matthew 11, 
Jesus knows contingently that if they would have... That's 
not the point of the passage. Jesus isn't teaching theology 
proper. He's teaching something about 
ethics. The inhabitants of Chorazin and 
the inhabitants of Bethsaida are wicked. That's the point. Calvin says, in short, the words 
of Christ convey nothing more than that the inhabitants of 
Chorazin and Bethsaida go beyond those of Tyre and Sidon in malice 
and incurable contempt of God. John Gill says, the words are 
to be understood in a popular sense and express what was probable 
according to a human judgment of things. So may I just suggest 
that as we come to this passage, the emphasis is not upon the 
contingent knowledge of our God, whereby he knows the outcome 
of a given set of circumstances. Of course he does. He's God. The emphasis in the text is that 
the inhabitants of Chorazin and the inhabitants of Bethsaida 
in rejecting the mighty deeds of Jesus Christ had shown themselves 
as more viable in the sight of Almighty God than the inhabitants 
of the arch enemies of Yahweh and of Israel, namely Tyre and 
Sidon. That's the point of the passage. These are wicked people. These 
were large Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean. They were 
not far from Galilee. They were guilty of Baal worship, 
pride, and being the arch enemies of Jehovah and his people. You 
can read about it in the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, their condemnation 
of Tyre and Sidon. They were not upright people. 
They were not holy, pure people. They were not good people. But 
notice Jesus' verdict. He makes the condemnation, He 
gives the reason for it, and now He indicates this verdict 
in verse 22. So the Chorazinians, and the Bethsaidians might have 
been stumped on Jesus' words concerning contingent knowledge 
and missed the point. What we tried to at least sing 
in hymn number 240, we will stand before God on the day of judgment. 
And if we have heard the gospel, if we have been privileged to 
have Bibles, if we have sermon audio, we have faithful churches, 
we have faithful parents who have pleaded with us, we have 
all of these things, and yet we continue to reject We continue 
to cleave to our sins. We will not repent. We will not 
forsake. We will not flee to the Lord 
Christ. It will be more tolerable. Degrees 
of punishment in hell. Jesus teaches this in Luke's 
Gospel. That servant who knew his master's 
will and did not do it will receive more stripes than that servant 
who didn't know his master's will. Notice that servant still 
gets stripes. You may not like to come face 
to face with the day of judgment, the way the Lord Jesus ushers 
us up to that point. This is the reality. You see, 
in the grand scheme of things, most things that concern us here 
really don't matter. I mean, what you put on this 
morning, and what you ate, and what you're going to do for work 
this week, and where you're going to go to school. I mean, yeah, 
I'm not saying lay down on your couch and be a, you know, just 
be a slug. I'm not suggesting that at all. 
But in the grand scheme of things, you know how much that stuff 
matters? Do you know how much that stuff is important in light 
of eternity? In light of Matthew 11, 20 to 
24? In light of the reality that 
if I reject, if I despise, if I do not repent, if I do not 
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, those people from Tyre, those 
people from Sidon, they will be chastened or they will be 
punished on that day of judgment, but it will be with less stripes 
than I myself will receive because I had so much privilege. I had 
so much benefit. I had weeping parents. I had 
pleading pastors. I had five Bibles in every imaginable 
translation. I had people I could call. I 
had people I could ask. I had people I could email. I 
had people I could check on the internet. All that stuff was 
available to me, but because I craved my lusts, because I 
loved my sin, because I did not repent from it, Tyre and Sidon 
is going to fare better on the Day of Judgment than me. Woe 
to you, Corazon. Woe to you, Bethsaida. If these 
cities in Phoenicia, who were Baal-worshipping idolaters, if 
they had seen the things that you see, they would have repented 
long ago in sackcloth and ashes." Jesus doesn't stop. I think at 
times we'd kind of like for Him to stop. That's enough, Lord. 
We have enough to process. Note the greater condemnation 
of Capernaum, verses 23 to 24. Again, the condemnation. Verse 23, And you, Capernaum, 
who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For 
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in 
Sodom, it would have remained until this day. So he compares 
again, doesn't he? Chorazin and Bethsaida are compared 
to Tyre and Sidon. Capernaum is compared, not only 
to Sodom, but there's another comparison that runs in the text. 
It is to Babylon. Now any of you who have read 
the Bible know that Babylon is the archenemy of God's people. 
In fact, Babylon fares in revelation. Whatever it is, whoever it is, 
whoever she possibly is, that's for another sermon. But Babylon 
is seen there as the great enemy of God and His people. She is 
the great harlot that is going to be destroyed. It is the new 
Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven adorned as a bride 
for her husband. You see, what's going on in the 
book of Revelation is the cutting off of the whore and the marriage 
of the bride. That's it. That's all the book's 
about. The cutting off of the whore, 
Babylon, and the marriage to the bride, which is the church. 
But suffice it to say, Babylon is bad business in Bible. And 
Sodom. I mean, we'll look at that in 
just a moment. But if you ask the question, how do you know 
that he's talking about Babylon? Go back to Isaiah the prophet 
for just a moment. Isaiah chapter 14. Now, I know 
the text could be read as a statement, the way the New King James renders 
it, or it can be a question, the way that the ESV renders 
it. New King James margin has that question reading as well. 
Don't think it affects the sense too much. The point is that Capernaum 
is swelled with pride. They have ascended or they have 
said in their heart they are exalted to the heavens above 
and they will be cast down to hell beneath. But if you go back 
to Isaiah 14, it's a prophecy spoken about Babylon, specifically 
beginning in verse 3. It's the fall of the king of 
Babylon. In fact, it's almost as if there is a celebration 
song from hell itself concerning the reception of Babylon. Notice 
in 14.9, hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you 
at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, 
all the chief ones of the earth. It is raised up from their thrones, 
all the kings of the nations. They all shall speak and say 
to you, have you also become as weak as we? Have you become 
like us? Your pomp is brought down to 
shield and the sound of your stringed instruments. The maggot 
is spread under you and worms cover you." Now it is precisely 
here that we do error. We say, well, verse 12 deals 
with the fall of Satan. No, it deals with the fall of 
the king of Babylon. That is the context. The word 
Lucifer there is the morning star. The way the morning star 
precedes the full blaze of the sun. So this morning star, this 
king of Babylon, precedes the full blaze of God's wrath. In 
fact, if you want, search the good commentators on this. They 
admit this is not having anything to do with Satan. It has to do 
with the king of Babylon. Notice what it says in verse 
12. How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning. 
How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations. For 
you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I 
will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit 
on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the 
north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will 
be like the Most High. Sounds just like what Jesus says 
to Capernaum, doesn't it? Jesus says, and you, Capernaum, 
who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades, or 
brought down to hell itself. I suspect the backdrop is this 
prophecy of Isaiah, where the Lord Jesus is linking Capernaum 
with not only Sodom, but with Babylon. Again, these arch enemies 
of Israel. Now, what was special about Capernaum? Why do they receive greater condemnation? Why does Jesus liken them to 
Babylon and Sodom? I mean, consider for a moment 
Tyre and Sidon. They were conquered by Alexander 
the Great. But at the time that Jesus is 
speaking, Tyre and Sidon are still standing. There's still 
a Tyre and there's still a Sidon at the time that Jesus is speaking. 
This prophetic oracle of doom. Was there a Babylon? Was there 
a Sodom? No. Why does Capernaum receive 
greater condemnation from the Lord Jesus Christ himself? Well, 
it's evident. Again, what's the emphasis in 
the passage? The amount of benefit, the amount 
of privilege, the amount of blessing that one has received and yet 
despises and rejects and throws off and doesn't repent marks 
them for greater condemnation. Capernaum, according to Matthew 
4.13, is where Jesus made his home. Now when I say he made 
his home, he didn't have flowers and drink chamomile tea and invite 
everybody in over the fireplace. I don't mean that sort of a thing. 
It was where he lived. His earthly ministry in Galilee. 
Matthew chapter 4 verse 13. Matthew 9, he comes to his home 
in Capernaum. It was the seed of the Savior 
himself. Remember that it's there in Capernaum 
that Jesus cleanses the leper. It's there in Capernaum that 
Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law, who also lived in Capernaum. 
It is there after they cross and go to the region of the Gerasenes. 
When they come back, they come back to Capernaum. What happens 
when he returns back to Capernaum? He heals the paralytic, or he 
forgives the paralytic. Son, your sins are forgiven you. 
Take up your bed and walk. It is there that he calls Matthew 
to himself for discipleship. It is there that the Lord Jesus 
heals that woman who has that issue of blood for those several 
years. It is there in Capernaum that Jesus raises Jairus' daughter 
from the dead. It's there in Capernaum that 
Jesus gives sight to these two blind men. It's there where Jesus 
heals this mute man. It is there in Capernaum that 
it's seen and witnessed the mighty deeds of Christ exponentially. And yet they said in their heart, 
we don't want you. We're not going to repent from 
our sins. We're quite content. We're quite happy with the way 
things are. We want nothing to do with you. Jesus of Nazareth. What he says. And you, Capernaum, 
who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to hell." Now, 
Hades, at this particular time, became somewhat interchangeable 
with Gehenna. There's nothing wrong with translating 
it here as hell. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted 
to heaven, will be brought down to hell. Here's the reason. For 
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in 
Sodom, it would have remained until this day. Spurgeon says 
Capernaum, his own city, the headquarters of the army of salvation, 
had seen and heard the Son of God. He had done in that which 
even Sodomites would have felt. And yet, it remained unmoved. The comparison with Babylon is 
huge. The comparison with Sodom is 
huge. I mean, we all know about Sodom, 
right? We all know what happened in Sodom, don't we? We all know 
that it was in Sodom that God rained hell out of heaven upon 
those cities of the plain to destroy them. In fact, in the 
book of Genesis, way back in chapter 13, but the men of Sodom 
were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. Genesis 18, 
20, and the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and 
Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grave, Christ 
says to Capernaum, you've exalted yourself up into heaven, you 
will be brought down into hell. He says to Capernaum, you have 
functioned as you have conducted yourself like, and you have been 
the archenemy of God himself like Babylon. Your perversion, 
your wickedness, your exceeding evil is seen in stark contrast. It is more abominable than what 
those men in those cities on the plain way back in Genesis 
18 and 19 were engaged in. You see, here is where I think 
we do error. We need to condemn sin. We need 
to condemn all sin. We ought not just to condemn 
sodomy and forget about gossip. We ought not just condemn sodomy 
and forget heterosexual fornication. We ought not just condemn sodomy 
and forget about hypocrisy. We ought not to condemn sodomy 
and not say anything else upon any other topic. Sin is sin. God despises it. God abhors it. God abominates it. Now, you and 
I can say in our hearts and sound very much like Capernaum at times. 
We can sound very much like that king of Babylon at times. Thank 
you, God, that I'm not like other men. Thank you that I'm not smoking 
crack cocaine. Thank you especially that I'm 
not smoking crystal meth. Thank you God that I don't go 
out and fornicate or that I don't do it a whole lot. Thank you, 
God, that I'm a respectable, polished person. In other words, 
we say in our heart what we are. Our pride is lofty. Our pride 
is high. Do you actually think that the 
Capernaumites would have ever envisioned a day when the Messiah 
of God Almighty would have said that Babylon and Sodom will fare 
better than you on the Day of Judgment? Do you think Jesus 
made a lot of friends after this sermon? Really? Really? Do you think Jesus said, I just 
want to encourage you people. I just want you to feel good. 
I want you to be unleashed. I want you to reach your potential. 
I want you to be the million dollar man that I know that you 
are. Woe to you. Woe to you. Woe to you. Notice the verdict that he renders 
in verse 24, but I say to you that it shall be more tolerable 
for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. What is the point of verses 20 
to 24? Greater privileges demand great 
responsibility. One commentator said it this 
way, Sodom's rejection of angels was far more serious than Israel's 
rejection of the Messiah. That's why he speaks these woes 
to these cities of Galilee wherein he did the most of his mighty 
works and they did not repent. But what do we learn? First, 
we learn the purpose of mighty works. There are some factions 
in professing Christianity that think mighty works are the end 
in themselves. As long as we heal, as long as 
we help, as long as we alleviate the suffering, then we've done 
all we're supposed to do. No, we are to call men to repent. We are to call men to believe. 
When Jesus went about doing these good deeds, in fact, go back 
to chapter 11, verses 4 to 6, this is a summary statement, 
this is an encapsulation of everything that has preceded in Matthew's 
Gospel. It is the instruction that our 
Lord gives to these two disciples of John that they go back and 
answer his question. Remember, John is sitting in 
his prison cell. The struggle is not with who 
Jesus is, but with what Jesus is doing, or what he's not doing 
in terms of judgment. Which, as we see, he is in judgment 
mode in this passage. But he asks the question, are 
you the coming one, 11.3, or do we look for another? Jesus 
answered and said to them, go and tell John the things which 
you hear and see. The blind see in the lame walk, 
the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised 
up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. You see, when 
Jesus went about doing good, he accompanied it with the Word. 
He didn't just go dazzle men. He didn't just go impress men. 
He wasn't just concerned with their outer man. He wasn't just 
concerned about the physical. In fact, that healing of the 
paralytic demonstrates that. They lower him down in that crowded 
place. Jesus sees him lying there paralyzed. If you listen to many in the 
church today, that's the biggest need this man has. That wasn't 
the biggest need that man had. Jesus says, son, your sins are 
forgiven you. It's better to go to heaven paralyzed 
than to hell full. That's the point. That's when 
the Pharisees and the scribes start getting all upset and they 
say, who does this man think he is? Who can forgive sins but 
God alone? That's when Jesus says, and I 
want this to be in your minds and hearts, brethren. You need 
to understand the implications of Matthew 9. Which is easier 
to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, you are. Rise, 
take up your bed and walk. Well, it's easier to say your 
sins are forgiven because we don't know if that's been true. 
We don't know if that's the case. So what's Jesus' point? But that 
you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive 
sins. He looks at the paralytic and he says, Son, arise, take 
up your mat and walk. That was the proof. That was 
the demonstration. That was the evidence that the 
great work of forgiveness had taken place. You see, we don't 
go to various places and countries, even if we had the ability to 
do it, just to heal people, just to make people whole, just to 
make people healthy, just to make them wealthy, to make them 
wise. Let Ben Franklin do that. We 
got the gospel of free and sovereign grace that frees men from their 
sin. We have far more excellent things 
to traffic in than the outer man. Again, not to say the outer 
man doesn't matter. We do feed, we try to help, we 
pray, all those sorts of things. The emphasis, the stress in the 
Messiah's ministry is on that repentance. So these works were 
not to impress the observers. They were not an end in and of 
themselves. They were to authenticate divine authority. You take your 
Bible, you start in Genesis, you go to Revelation. Every time 
there is miracle, every time there are mighty works, you will 
see something else running right alongside of it. God talking. God speaking. God revealing. The mighty works, the deeds and 
miracles authenticated the agent who was bringing the Word of 
God. That's the point. We want to 
focus on all that. We miss the word, the redemptive 
word, the word of healing, the word of forgiveness, the word 
of redemption, the word of power. Jesus did these mighty works 
and they accompanied it with the preaching of his word so 
that sinners would repent. Not for applause, not for his 
ego, not so everybody could say, what a wonderful healer, what 
a wonderful man, what a wonderful guy. No, so that you'll repent. Secondly, we have seen this built 
in. We have seen this in the text. 
The stubbornness of Israel, they refuse to listen to the Old Testament. 
And the person and work of John the Baptist calling them to repentance 
for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. They refused to listen 
to their own scripture. They refused to lament when he 
came and mourned. They refuse to listen to Christ. 
He comes playing that blessed pipe of the coming of the kingdom, 
that time of rejoicing in the presence of the bridegroom. And 
what do they do? They despise Him, they reject 
Him, they do not repent. They refuse to believe the gospel 
of the kingdom. The specific cities are referenced 
here in verses 20 to 24. And the inevitable result, I 
want you to see this, of persistent stubbornness and persistent rebellion 
is the rest of Matthew's Gospel. You see, this morning when you 
got up, if you're not a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's 
good that you've come to church this morning. It's a good place 
for you to be. Hopefully the Gospel is going 
to be explained clearly. The Spirit uses that Gospel to 
bring forth the exercise of His will. Sinners, it's a good thing. 
But have you ever given thought to this reality that the more 
I refuse, the more I reject, the more I harden my heart, the 
more stubborn I become, the worse off I am? Spurgeon says, there's 
no fool as foolish as a gray-haired fool. When you look at the history 
of Egypt and you look at Moses and his dealing with Pharaoh, 
does Pharaoh's heart go softer or does it grow harder? In Matthew's 
gospel, there is a level of escalation that is taking place. It starts 
off as children, grumpy, in the marketplace who don't want to 
dance when the piper pipes. It starts off as children in 
the marketplace with long faces and they don't want to engage 
in the games that are being played. Again, use the analogy, we threw 
the ball to you, you wouldn't catch it. We threw the frisbee 
to you. You wouldn't catch it. You wouldn't 
return it. You're like little children, 
sniveling, crying, and whining. What happens in chapter 12, verse 
14? Then the Pharisees went out and 
plotted against him, how they might destroy him. The inevitable 
result of persistent stubbornness, at least in this first century 
generation, and I have no reason to believe it's any better today, 
it ends in murderous rage against the Son of God himself. You say, 
well, wait a minute, that was the Pharisees. Remember when 
Pilate said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus who is 
called Christ? What do they say? Well, you know, 
just let him go. Let him go on his way. We don't 
accept him, but we don't really despise him. We just want him 
to go live somewhere else. We don't want to hear his words. 
We don't want him piping in our ears, because we're not going 
to dance. But we mean him no ill harm. We mean him no ill 
will. We don't mean him any harm. You 
just send him on his way. Is that what they do? You see, 
you need to see the trajectory here. What starts off in the 
marketplace as whining children ends up in this refrain from 
an angry mob. They all said to him, let him 
be crucified. Now, I'm not suggesting that 
every unbeliever here is going to go out and kill Christians. 
But I am suggesting this, that every time you hear, every time 
you reject, every time you harden your heart, every time you grow 
more stubborn, you grow more stubborn. You children and you young people, 
why is it that the preacher says, remember your creator in your 
youth. Because we grow harder in sin. Do you ever meet sinners who 
say, you know, I'm just getting tired of sin, I want to be holy? No. I've not met them. They grow harder and more stubborn. It starts off somewhat innocuous, 
oh, I just don't want to dance. We don't want to lament or mourn. 
We just don't want to play. Let Him be crucified. No good thing comes from rejecting 
the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's my point. No good thing 
comes when you stubbornly refuse to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
When you continue impenitent, when you continue unbelieving, 
when you continue to hold on to your sin, rather than forsake 
it and fly to the Savior. I want us to see as well in the 
passage something of the justice of God. Remember in our studies 
on Wednesday night, God tells Israel to go into the promised 
land and dispossess the land of the Canaanites. We 21st century 
people say, oh, horror of horrors, that's unfair. No, the Canaanites 
were very, very ungodly people. They were very abominable people. 
So God uses Israel, who's not the pinnacle of righteousness 
themselves, he uses them as an instrument of punishment for 
the Canaanites. He says to Israel, go and dispossess 
the land of the Canaanites. They've committed abominations. 
They've reached to a level. You need to go in. You need to 
drive them out. Take no prisoners. Destroy everything they have. 
Destroy their religious elements, because I don't want you bowing 
down to Baal alongside with them. So Israel goes in, they somewhat 
do that. What happens? What happens to 
Israel? Do they conduct themselves as 
a city sat on a hill the way they're supposed to? Do they 
become the one that mediates the blessing of God upon the 
peoples around them? Are they that people that everybody 
around can say, look at them, what a wonderful nation, what 
a wonderful God, what wonderful laws? No. They themselves continually, 
or they themselves persistently act like the Canaanites who they 
dispossessed. So you see, God is not capricious, 
God is not arbitrary, God is not unfair. God raises up Assyria 
to dispossess the northern tribes from their land. You'd think 
Judah would learn, right? You'd really think Judah would 
say, you know, God's serious about this whole idea of covenant 
faithfulness. God is serious about us possessing. 
Well, Judah does the same thing. So God then sends Babylon in 
under Nebuchadnezzar to dispossess Judah. Now, look at what's going 
on in our passage. When the covenant community, 
when the professed people of God reject the Messiah of God, 
they are treated like the enemies of God. They have become worse 
than Tyre, they have become worse than Sidon, they have become 
worse than Babylon, they have become worse than Sodom itself. God is just. God is righteous. God does not play games. God does not say, well, you know, 
you hold a special place in my heart because you're Chorazin. 
You see, we do that. If you ask an unbeliever, do 
you think you're going to go to hell? Most of the time they 
say no. Have you ever met an unbeliever 
that says, yeah, I'm hellbound? I know that's where I'm going. 
I mean, they're out there. There's those guys in their bravado. 
Yeah, hell doesn't, heaven doesn't want me and hell's afraid I'm 
going to take over. Yeah, that's funny. Well, I can't wait to 
get to hell because there's going to be a big party. Really? A 
party? I know those guys are out there 
trying to, you know, vaunt themselves or exalt themselves. But for 
the most part, you ask somebody, do you think you're going to 
go to hell? Well, no, not really. I mean, it's me, right? How could God send me to hell? 
I know those crack dealers shouldn't. I know those prostitutes shouldn't. 
I know those political leaders who cheat and steal and lie. 
They should, but me? There is none righteous. No, 
not one. There is none who seeks after 
God. There is no fear of God before our eyes. Apart from the 
saving mercies of Jesus Christ our Lord, every single one of 
us would be in hell. That's the point of the gospel. Jesus lived in obedience to the 
law. Jesus died as a sacrifice and 
a substitute to take the penalty of our sin in himself. And Jesus 
rose again. And the scripture is clear that 
all those who believe, all those who look, All those who look 
to Him in faith will live. It really is that simple. How 
does Jesus liken His ministry in John's Gospel in John chapter 
3? Just as Moses lifted up that 
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted 
up. Now you remember that event, don't you? If you don't, I'll 
remind you. The people were grumbling, the 
people were complaining, The people were sinning. Snakes come 
and bite them. Moses is told to make this brazen 
snake. Lift it up. What were the Israelites, 
who were bit by the snake, supposed to do? Crawl with every fiber 
of their being to grab on? Were they told to suck out the 
venom and then look? at that brazen serpent? Which, 
incidentally, I've heard doesn't really work. Were they told to throw money 
at that brazen serpent? They were told to look. That's it. Just as Moses lifted 
the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted 
up. That's Jesus' point. Look. What does Yahweh of Israel 
say in the prophet Isaiah? Turn to me and be ye saved, all 
the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. Look 
to me, is what God Almighty says. You see, all of your crawling, 
all of your money, all of your so-called good works, all of 
your merits will never ever save you. The power of salvation resides 
solely and alone in the Christ. And the instrument is faith. 
Believe on Him and you will have everlasting life. Let this passage 
ring in your hearts. Let it ring in your minds. There 
is, in the language of Dr. Greg Bonson, a sin worse than 
sodomy. You know, the Christian church, 
again, is doing right to oppose this perversion. It is doing 
right to oppose same-sex marriage. But how many times, Sabbath in 
and Sabbath out, do people sit in our churches and commit a 
sin worse than sodomy? They hear the gospel, they hear 
the truth, they hear the preaching of Jesus, and they don't repent. 
Jesus says, truly, I tell you, on the day of judgment, it will 
be more tolerable for Sodom than for you. Please take that home 
with you today. Please get alone with God today. 
Please think about the things that have been said today. Please 
consider the fact that you have privilege. You have great blessing. 
God has put you in a place of Bibles. He has put you in a place 
of preaching. He has put many of you in homes 
where your parents care enough to plead with you. They read 
to you. They pray for you. Think about the responsibility. 
Think about what is on you. The Lord Christ, to the cities 
in his day that did not repent, had the words of harshest condemnation. Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to 
you, Bethsaida. Woe to you, Capernaum. Believe 
on him, and you will be saved. Well, let us pray. Our Father, 
we thank you very much for this, your word. And God, if we are 
honest, we see ourselves in this passage so clearly. We know that 
our hearts are astray. We know that we would refuse. 
We would reject. We do despise. We are stubborn. We're like little children that 
love our sin and don't want to repent. How we thank you for 
sovereign grace. How we thank you for the power 
of your will. How we thank you that you open 
the eyes of babes and you cause them to see. We thank you that 
the Son of Man did not come to call the righteous, but sinners 
to repentance. And that you give grace to believe 
and to repent. And we pray that today, in this 
place and wherever your gospel is preached, we pray that sinners 
would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and know the joy of life 
eternal. We just thank you for warning 
us. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the benefits 
that you've given to us. Help us not to waste them. Help 
us not to misuse these privileges. But God, may we indeed buy up 
every opportunity to know more about our God, to know more about 
redemption and about the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray for the 
children, for the young people. I pray that you'd impress these 
things in their hearts and minds at a young age, that they would 
never waver and never stray. And we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.