In his sermon titled 'Yielding or Rejecting' based on Luke 7:29-35, Jason Dohm explores the contrasting reactions to the messages of John the Baptist and Jesus. The sermon emphasizes the response of yielding or rejecting God's message through His messengers. It highlights the privilege of being in the New Covenant and contrasts it with the limitations faced by Old Testament figures like John the Baptist. Dohm discusses the dichotomy between those who justified God by repenting and those who rejected His will by refusing baptism. The Pharisees and experts in the law are depicted as unwilling to acknowledge their need for repentance, representing a broader generational unbelief. The sermon underscores the importance of humility and the willingness to accept God's truth about oneself. Dohm also reflects on the modern tendency to reject messengers based on superficial reasons, urging believers to be bold in their faith and open to God's corrective messages. The sermon concludes with a call to recognize the fruit of choices made in response to God's message and to live a life that might be despised by the world for the sake of the gospel.

The title of the message today is yielding or rejecting. God has sent John the Baptist and God has sent Jesus. And there are people who see and hear them who yield. And there are people who see and hear them and reject the message of God through these messengers that have been sent to them. This is really what our text is about today.

In Last week's text, John the Baptist had sent two of his disciples, John the Baptist is in prison, imprisoned by Herod, sent two of his disciples to Jesus because the things that John the Baptist did understand were unfolding in ways that he didn't understand. So he sends two of his disciples to Jesus for confirmation that Jesus is the coming one or the Messiah. And Jesus just sends back a bunch of evidence. The text says in that very hour, he healed people who were sick, and he cast out many unclean spirits and to many blind people he gave their sight. Then he tells these disciples of John the Baptist, go back and tell John what you saw.

And then he speaks to the multitudes about John the Baptist. Not a rebuke for John the Baptist at all, but saying, he's a prophet, but he's more than a prophet. Among those born of women, there's not one greater than John the Baptist. But then finally, Jesus concludes with this statement on the tremendous privileges of being in the New Covenant. Look at this, verse 35.

This was our final, Excuse me, verse 29. Yes, verse 28. Excuse me. It's bad when you put wrong things in your notes. Verse 28, For I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." And of course, I quoted Matthew Henry last week that the dwarf on the mountaintop, That's us in the new covenant where we might be dwarfs, but we are standing on a mountaintop and we can see farther than the giant in the valley.

That's John the Baptist. He was a giant and Jesus says as much, but he couldn't see as far as we can because He didn't have all of this like we do. And he's not seeing through the fulfillment of so many of these things with Jesus going to the cross. And that gives us lenses through which to understand even the written Old Testament in ways that no Old Testament saint could have understood these things. In this week's text, we see that there are two reactions to John the Baptist and to Jesus.

Some yield to God by listening to the messenger that God sent and some reject God by rejecting the messenger that God sent. So many helpful things to learn from this text so let's ask for help and then get right to it. Our God, it's so good to have your word. We find that we need it. Find over and over that we need to have our thoughts trained and recalibrated and corrected by the things that we find in your word.

So I pray that all these things would happen today and that you would use it for the building up of your people and the encouragement of your people. May it be so in Jesus' name, amen. So let's subdivide. Let's start by rereading verses 29 and 30 and then proceeding from there. Hopefully your Bibles are still open to Luke chapter 7.

I'm rereading 29 and 30. And When all the people heard him, when all the people heard Jesus, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him." So in these two verses, we have those who repented and those who would not repent. Essentially, they refused to repent. They were given the opportunity, they were commanded to repent, but they refused.

The multitudes have heard what Jesus has just said about John the Baptist, and Luke records that even the tax collectors justified God. So even the most corrupt, even the most despised represented the poster boy for the most corrupt and the most despised is the tax collector. Even they justified God. Now what does it mean to justify God? It means that there were people down to the most corrupt and despised, so down to and including the most corrupt and the most despised people that you knew or could imagine who recognized and declared God to be righteous in the ministry and message of John the Baptist.

So you don't justify God in the sense that you make God righteous. No, God is righteous. We're the ones who need to be made righteous. God is eternally righteous. But in the ministry of John the Baptist, in submitting to the preaching and ministry of John the Baptist.

They had recognized and declared God to be righteous. John the Baptist preached a message of repentance And his baptism was a baptism of repentance. If you were baptized, you were figuratively declaring that God was righteous in saying through his messenger that you were guilty and in urgent need of cleansing. That's why you get into the water is you you want to figuratively declare that the preaching of John the Baptist is really the words of God and that God is righteous to pronounce you guilty and to pronounce you in urgent need of cleansing. If you did that, if you went down into the waters, you were yielding to God and yielding to the message of the messenger that he had raised up and sent to you.

You could find people among the most corrupt and the most despised who were doing that. They were embracing the proposition sent to them by God that they were guilty and urgently in need of cleansing and they were repenting and then taking upon themselves this figurative sign of all that by submitting to baptism. But there were others like the Pharisees, like the experts in the law of Moses. When you see lawyers in our text, it's not talking about lawyers of civil law, it's talking about experts in the moral law, the law of Moses that had been given to the people. And these, John the Baptist also commanded to repent.

In fact, if you go to John the Baptist's preaching in Matthew, in Matthew's gospel, you find that John the Baptist was singling out the Pharisees and the experts in the law of Moses, and he was actually pointing at them as he was saying, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. So not only were they not exempt, in some ways, John the Baptist in his preaching of repentance was singling them out as being guilty before God and in desperate need to repent and be cleansed by God. No doubt these Pharisees and experts in the law of Moses were happy for the common people to take upon themselves the label of sinners in urgent need of repentance and cleansing. Yes, please go get your act together. Go to John the Baptist and get your act together.

They were happy enough for that, but they were not about to receive that label for themselves. You need it, but I don't need it. You need to repent and you're in urgent need of cleansing, But that's not me. So they were unwilling to agree with God about themselves. John the Baptist was calling them out, you Pharisees and Experts in the law of Moses, who warned you to flee God's anger against your great sins against this God?

They would not agree with God about themselves and yield to God by submitting to be baptized by the man that God raised up and sent. Instead of yielding to God's message to them by submitting to being baptized by God's messenger, they rejected God's message and so they rejected God. They didn't reject John the Baptist, they rejected God. So this isn't the simple rejection of a preacher. This is the rejection of the God that sent that preacher.

Raised him up, prepared him, put words in his mouth, and they said, no, we will not hear that from the mouth of God or from the mouth of any of his messengers. Luke actually calls this rejecting the will of God for themselves. The logic is simple and unconquerable. You cannot conquer this logic. Here's the logic.

Are you ready? When you reject the ambassador, You reject the king. By rejecting the ambassador who the king sent, you're actually rejecting the king. Now, why did the king send a messenger? So that you would repent and be cleansed, and live and not die.

The king raised up and sent an ambassador to you as an act of his mercy. It's actually an act of kindness that God would raise up John the Baptist and send him before Jesus to prepare the people for Jesus by saying, repent, you are in urgent need of cleansing. Come down into this water as a figurative declaration that you agree with what God says about you and you see the need and you're willing to come and be cleansed. That is God's will and purpose in sending John the Baptist. What did God have in mind by sending John the Baptist to condemn people?

No, no, no, that they would turn and live, that they would receive God's verdict and see the urgency of the situation and turn and go down into that water for cleansing, not that there was anything cleansing of the water, it was representative of what God was willing to do to their hearts. Listen to Ezekiel 18. This is Ezekiel 18 verses 30-32. Ezekiel chapter 18 verses 30-32. Verses 30 through 32.

Ezekiel chapter 18 verses 30 through 32. Therefore I will judge you O house of Israel everyone according to his ways says the Lord God. So God raised up Ezekiel and put these words in his mouth. Repent and turn from all your transgressions so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit for why would you die oh house of Israel?

For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore turn and live. Why did God raise up and send Ezekiel? To say that Your iniquities will be your ruin. I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Turn and live. Why would you die when you can turn and live? When I send you terms of peace, why would you die? Why did God raise up and send John the Baptist to say the same things? Turn and live.

Why would you die? Don't let your iniquities be your undoing. Listen to Jesus the week that he went to the cross. This is the last week in Jesus's life. He's about to go to the cross.

Jesus says this in Matthew 23 verse 37. Matthew 23 verse 37, Jesus says, "'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you were not willing. Jerusalem, I send you prophets, you kill everyone. How often I wanted to gather your children to myself.

As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings for protection and nearness. But you are not willing. Here's the truth, God is willing. God is willing. That's why he sent Ezekiel, That's why he sent John the Baptist.

That's why he sent Jesus. Not just to preach these things, but to die to make the way he is willing. If you die and perish, it will be because you are not willing. Don't get more Calvinist than Calvin was. Your destruction will not be God's fault.

It will be your fault. God was willing, you were not. What about you? God has told you the truth about yourself. And it's not pretty.

Can you agree with what God says about you? You'll have to humble yourself to do that. Can you humble yourself? You're guilty of many sins. Great sins against God.

Not little ones, big ones. And little ones. And many. He has told you that He hates your pride. He has told you that he hates your smug self-righteousness when you've condemned others in your heart – you may have never said it – but you've condemned others in your heart for things that you do exactly the same thing.

Only you've excused yourself, but you will relentlessly hold it against others. He's told you that he hates your lust and the things that you engage in that dishonor him. Not just in your actions, yes in your actions, but not just in your actions. Also in your thoughts, also in your words. God has sent you messengers to show you your urgent need to repent and be cleansed.

Have you humbled yourself and yielded? Have you yielded to God by hearing the messengers that He's raised up and sent to you, and you've recognized this actually isn't just the words of a man. God is telling me about myself, and He's showing me my urgent need to turn and be cleansed. Have you yielded to God by yielding to these words or have you rejected God? I'm just one of many messengers that God has raised up to say these things to you.

So understand, when I speak the word of God, you're not rejecting me. When I come and I say things that are firmly, solidly, grounded in Scripture, and you can't hear them, I'm not the one being rejected. So we see these two kinds of people. Those who repented and the symbol of their repentance and cleansing is just a symbol but to go down into the water was you saying, yes, God, you're right about all these things. My need is urgent.

I'm as guilty as you say I am, and I have one hope, say you would cleanse me. That's what they were declaring when they went down into the water. Others would not. They would not wear that label. Yes, the tax collectors need to get their act together thank goodness they're repenting I don't need that Now Jesus teaches us about those who would not.

Now he bears down on this class of people who would not repent. Let's continue in our text. Now verses 31 through 35. Through 35. And the Lord said, To what then shall I liken the men of this generation?

What are they like? They're like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another saying, we played the flute for you, you did not dance. We mourned to you and you did not weep. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, He has a demon. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Look, a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

But wisdom is justified by all her children. In these verses we have the natural man's commitment to unbelief. This is really what this is teaching. As we are born, we are so corrupt in our nature, and this has been passed down from Genesis 3 to now, we are so corrupt in our nature that we are committed to unbelief. If all we had was the previous two verses, we would think that the multitudes believed and only a few sour-faced Pharisees rejected the words.

So if you just had those first two verses of our text, that's what you would think. The multitudes believed, hooray! There are these, a few sourpusses, sour-faced Pharisees who said, no, we can't accept that. But these verses actually sets that straight. Overall, the generation in which John the Baptist and Jesus lived was a stubbornly unbelieving generation.

To be able to receive what John the Baptist and Jesus were preaching was the exception and the rejection of it was the rule. You can lose sight of that in the gospels because you have big crowds of people who seem to appreciate the things that are being said. But overall the generation in which John the Baptist and Jesus lived was a stubbornly unbelieving generation this text is teaching that. Though some did yield to God by recognizing what these men say are words from God, and I will yield to them, most rejected God. Most said, we cannot receive the things that are being preached to us.

In Matthew seven, verses 13 and 14, Jesus says that the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who go that way. So a wide gate easy to get in and a broad road It leads to destruction and the majority are on that road. There are many on it. But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult which leads to life and there are few who find it. A small minority go through the narrow gate.

It's only only Jesus is the way the truth and the life. You have to go through Jesus. Most won't go through Jesus onto this difficult way but it leads to life. It leads to life. If you find it.

In our text, Jesus compares his generation to Demanding children. Have you ever known a demanding child? If you have more than one or two in your house, you have at least one demanding child. Jesus compares his generation to demanding children who sit in the marketplace and insist on having their way. My way!

When they play the flute, they insist that you dance. When they sing a dirge, when they sing a song of sorrow, it says when we mourned to you, you can legitimately translate that singing a song of sorrow. When they sing a song of sorrow, you are to weep. They insist that you weep. John the Baptist came fasting and abstaining from wine and his generation said, we're playing the flute now, dance.

Dance John, dance, Dance now. But John the Baptist was fasting because he was set apart by God to be a mighty prophet. That's why he was fasting. And he abstained from wine because the angel who announced his birth, Gabriel, said he should. Listen to Luke 1 15.

This is the angel Gabriel coming to the man who would be his father saying that a son is going to be born to you in your old age, Gabriel de Zacarias, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink." The whole point of that is he's going to be consecrated to God, set apart to God. So things that will be permissible to others, he'll be held back from to make him ready to go before the Messiah to make the people ready for Jesus. So this is going to be part of his consecration to God, being set apart to God, no wine. His generation looked at the lifestyle that God gave to him. He lived in the desert.

He wore clothes made of camel's hair. I wonder if that's as scratchy as it sounds. When he wasn't fasting, he ate locusts and honey. His generation looked at that lifestyle and said, he has a demon. You must be demon possessed to choose a life like that.

No one in their right mind would choose a life like that. They were like children sitting in the marketplace saying, we're playing the flute, John. Dance John. Jesus came going to dinners with people, going to wedding feasts, going to dinners with people, Sometimes groups of tax collectors, sometimes Pharisees, and sometimes drinking wine though never to excess. You can't find anywhere in the Gospels that hints to excess ever.

And his generation said, we're singing a song of sorrow now. Weep. Weep, Jesus. Weep now, Jesus. No dinners for you, Jesus.

No wine for you, Jesus. But Jesus' eating and drinking was because he was set apart by God to dwell with men. He was the son of man sent to dwell among us. And he ate and drank simply to be a Spiritual physician among the spiritually sick. Why was Jesus eating and drinking to be with people to help them?

To speak the truth to them to have compassion on them. That's why Jesus was with people that's why he was going to the dinners. His generation looked at the lifestyle that God called him to. Going anywhere he was welcome and being with all kinds of people to do them good. He actually was and is a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

They got that part right. Guilty as charged friend of tax collectors and sinners. His generations looked at that and said, look, a glutton and a wine-bibber, you eat too much, Jesus. And you eat with the wrong people, Jesus. And you drink too much, Jesus, you're a drunkard.

They were like children sitting in the marketplace saying, we're singing a song of sorrow now, Jesus, weep, Jesus. Do you see what's happening? John the Baptist lives one way, a life given to him by God, and the people say, why can't you be more like Jesus? Lighten up, John! Jesus lives the other way, also a life given to him by God.

And the people say, why can't you be more like John the Baptist, Jesus? Tighten up, Jesus. Did John the Baptist say, lighten up? Did Jesus say, tighten up? Was John the Baptist the problem?

No, of course John the Baptist wasn't the problem. Was Jesus the problem? No, of course Jesus wasn't the problem. The problem was that this was a generation that was determined not to yield to God through the ministry and preaching of any kind of messenger. This is the whole point of this section.

This was a generation that was determined, committed to not yield to God through the ministry of preaching of any kind of messenger. What did John the Baptist preach? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's Matthew 3 verse 2. So a summary of John's preaching.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Most who heard him said, if he lived a softer kind of life I might be able to hear him. Too hard, John, too hard. I can't relate. What did Jesus preach?

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew four, verse 17. Summary of Jesus' preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4 verse 17. A summary of Jesus' preaching.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Those are the exact same words. Even the punctuation of those sentences is the same in Matthew 3 verse 2, John the Baptist, in Matthew 4 verse 17, Jesus, exact same words, the summary of both of their preaching. Most who heard Jesus said, if he had a harder life I might be able to hear him. He's no different than us.

He eats like us and drinks like us. What a great trick! God sends you John the Baptist and you say you want Jesus. Oh, I could hear it if it was from someone like Jesus. God sends you Jesus and you say you want John the Baptist.

Oh, I could hear it if it was from someone like John the Baptist. Friends, this is nothing but commitment to unbelief. It's nothing but commitment to unbelief. Any excuse will do. If I send you this, you want that.

If I send you that, you want this. This is nothing but stubborn unbelief. Now, what's the real problem? What's the actual problem? God is demanding that we yield and we are unwilling to yield.

So we reject the message, so we reject the messenger, so we reject God. Because we don't want to repent. We want to hold on to those things that God is saying, these make you guilty. You need to turn around and get away from those things. And we say, we won't.

How do we do it? By saying, that's the wrong messenger. I can't hear that. Oh, okay, we give you a different kind of messenger. The kind you said you wanted.

That's still the wrong messenger. If you haven't embraced the gospel, you've no doubt convinced yourself that your reasons are so sound, So logical, so legitimate. But the truth is, none of those reasons are sound. None of those reasons are logical. None of those reasons are legitimate.

But you've convinced yourself that they are so that you don't have to repented and taken Jesus as king will tell you you're crazy. And that all that's so illogical, If you knew him as king for a second, you'd want him as king for a lifetime. This is what the people in the kingdom will tell you. If you knew Jesus as king for a second, you would want Jesus as king for a lifetime. All of your objections would fall away.

Jesus concludes simply by saying this, But wisdom is justified by all her children. Oh don't worry, wisdom will be vindicated. You accuse the wisdom of God by sending this kind of servant? Oh, that'll all be vindicated. You accuse God because he sent that kind of servant, not the right kind of messenger.

Oh, that'll all be vindicated. What does it mean that wisdom is justified by all her children? It simply means this. These choices all work themselves out and bear fruit. These choices that we're forced to make when God sends us a messenger and the messenger delivers God's Word, these choices that we make all work themselves out and bear fruit.

When God sends you a messenger with a message for you and you're wise and yield to God by embracing the message, that plays out and bears fruit in your life. And in time everyone will see it and wisdom will be vindicated. And when God sends you a messenger with a message for you, but you remain committed to unbelief and you make up excuses how the messenger isn't this or that, that also plays out in Beers Fruit. That choice has children too. John the Baptist and Jesus have been vindicated a thousand times over.

John the Baptist's life wasn't too hard, his preaching wasn't too hard. Jesus's life wasn't too soft, his preaching wasn't too soft. Those who yielded to the preaching and ministry of John the Baptist saw that God raised him up and sent him, that it was actually the words of God, and they yielded to God. Those who rejected John the Baptist's preaching and ministry really rejected God. Same's true of Jesus.

One last word. There's a modern proverb that goes like this. He who pays the piper calls the tunes. Have you ever heard that one? That's not a Bible proverb, that's a modern proverb.

You won't find that in the book of Proverbs in your Bible. He who pays the piper calls the tunes. It just means whoever's paying the musician gets to pick the songs. You hire a musician, you pay the musician. If you want to, you get to pick the songs.

That brings us to this question. Should we be telling God and his messengers how it has to be? When we play the flute you dance. Is that how you're prepared to talk to God? Don't you recoil from that when you hear that?

God, when we play the flute, you dance. And when we sing a song of sorrow, God, you weep. Are you willing to say that? Just know this, When God sends a messenger to speak to you and he gives you the words of God, she gives you the words of God in a personal conversation or from the pulpit and you say you're to this or that I won't receive it that's what you're doing you didn't pay the piper but you think you're calling the tunes. Musicians not your hire, but you think you get to pick the songs.

We don't dictate to God. We can't dictate to God. It's not right to dictate to God because God is God. We should humble ourselves and yield ourselves to God for our own good and because He's God. Applications, I'll give you three.

In other words, what do we do with this? Here's three things we can do with it. Number one, God has raised up and has sent and is sending messengers to you. They speak to you on behalf of God. And you yield to God by yielding to what God has said or you reject God by rejecting what God has said through the people he's raising up and sending to you.

This has to seem very self-serving for me because I stand in the pulpit and I say, God through his word is speaking these things to you. I'm one of many. We should be on the lookout for that spirit that says, I can't hear that because this messenger is to this or not enough of that. Okay. That should be a warning sign that maybe there are other things going on inside our hearts.

Number two, while I want to be careful to be understood and careful not to be misunderstood on this one. So this time I might put this one to death by a thousand paper cuts we'll see. Be careful about the tone police. Be careful about the tone please. Be careful not to become the tone police.

What are the tone police? Christians shouldn't be saying things that way. We need to be, that's the tone police in your pocket. We need to be nicer, calmer, say it gentler. Now, don't misunderstand.

There are inappropriate ways to speak truth. So I know that's a category and I know it happens and I know it's harmful to the cause of Christ. So, but I want to come over here for a minute. Just set that aside for a minute. Okay, so that's true.

I've conceded the category, I've seen it, I know it. There's also a rush to agree with the first objection as if it's an honest objection. When it's not an honest objection, it's just somebody who wants to weasel out of truth. Okay and so here come the tone police about how it wasn't said right or in the right setting or at the right time and the truth is if it's reflecting the spirit in our text there will never be the right tone there will never be the right time there will never be the right words to say it because the people don't want it so be careful about the tone please And there's a draw to be the tone, please. And from time immemorial, from the beginning of time, people have always wanted to stone the prophets.

And I see this all the time. People want to stone the prophets. God has actually sent people who have an edge and God gave them that edge. I'm not talking about this category over here, Okay? But there are people that God has actually raised up and God is speaking hard truths through them because we need hard truths.

Do we never need hard truths? And finally somebody says it and here come the tone police and it's so tempting to join them. So be careful. Number three, finally, if you are what the reformers and their successors call a decided Christian. Meaning a real one and a vigorous one, a decided Christian.

And you're appropriately bold in the living out of your faith, expect to encounter this. If you're appropriately living out your faith, boldly appropriately and boldly living out your faith, expect to encounter this. Here's what J.C. Ryle says, we must give up the vain idea of trying to please everybody. If John the Baptist couldn't do it and Jesus couldn't do it, You can't do it.

We must give up the vain idea of trying to please everybody. The thing is impossible and the attempt is a mere waste of time. We must be content to walk in Christ's steps and let the world say what it likes. Amen. Let's appropriately, let's be appropriately bold in the living out of our faith, including the things that we say, and follow Jesus and let the chips fall where they may.

That's what Ryle is saying. Let's pray. God, I Thank you that you've sent me so many messengers to tell me things that I reacted against and didn't want. Thank you for the grace of so many times that you've overcome that initial impulse, and I could see it was you speaking and you gave me the grace to yield, to humble myself and yield. I pray that would be happening here today.

I pray that would be happening so regularly among us in a saving way, but also in the way that we all need going forward in our Christian lives. Hearing correctives and being able to humble ourselves and yield ourselves to them. God, I do pray that you would help us to live an appropriately bold life before the world that makes the world nervous and uneasy for all the right reasons and that we would be content even to be despised for it. I pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.