S E R M O N S

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 16. We will be looking at the very last portion of Mark's gospel under the heading, "The Preservation of Divine Revelation." And I'm sure you will agree with me that given the depraved world in which we live, as we look at all of the blasphemous ideologies, like the whole woke system and so forth, as we look at all of that, isn't it wonderful that we can find refuge in the Word of God and to allow our Lord to speak to us and encourage our hearts.

Mark stated that the purpose of his gospel, in chapter one and verse one, is this, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus, Christ, the Son of God." And ultimately this is what he proves throughout his gospel. And he does this in a very unique, succinct, staccato style. And ultimately what he tells us, with such clarity under the inspiration of the Scripture, is that indeed Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah of Old Testament prophecy; that he was indeed the suffering Savior, that he was the Son of God and his resurrection, which was witnessed by numerous eyewitnesses, puts a capstone on that glorious reality. The response of his followers was one of wonder, one of awe, one of worship, and that should be our response as well, and we see this in the final verse of Mark's gospel, where he describes the reaction of the women when they saw the empty tomb.

Notice verse eight of chapter 16, "They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Indeed, they were overwhelmed by what they had just witnessed. But I would submit to you that verse eight is, in fact, the last verse of Mark's gospel, even though in your Bibles, you will see verses nine through 20 continuing on. And you will notice that they are in brackets. And what we are going to see is that this is what scholars called the longer ending of Mark. And there is almost universal agreement that this was not part of the original divinely inspired text, but this was added at a later date. I might add that the same can be said of John seven, verses 53 through verse 11 of chapter eight. You will recall that's the story of of the woman caught in adultery, and Jesus stoops and he writes something in the sand, "He is who is without sin, cast the first stone." That also is highly unlikely that that was part of the original inspired text.

But you will notice brackets at the beginning of this last section in verses nine through 20. Unless you have a King James version or a New King James Version, then you will have no distinction between verse eight and verse nine, because those translations are based on a medieval text, a later text. But since then, since they were translated earlier manuscripts, in other words, more ancient manuscripts have been discovered. So the 20th century NAS, or the NAS update, or the 21st century ESV, NIV, etc, are all based on those earlier manuscripts that omit verses nine through 20, and some late manuscripts even contain a shorter ending. You may see that in italics at the very end of verse 20, but some translations even will put that at the end of verse eight. Nevertheless, let me read this to you, and I want to explain these things and give you great encouragement that the Bible that you have in your hand is an accurate translation of the original autographs. Let me read the passage now.

"[After He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping. When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it. After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country. They went away and reported it to others, but they did not believe them either. Afterward, He appeared to the 11 themselves as they were reclining at the table, and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed. Those who had seen Him after He had risen, and He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed in my name. They will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.' So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God, and they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.] And then you will notice even another ending that was added, [And they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions. And after that, Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.]

I recently heard a critic of the Bible, and there are many, who essentially said, and this is a bit of a paraphrase, there is no evidence that Mark's gospel is authentic. Even conservative scholars agree that verses nine through 20 of chapter 16 were written by some unknown scribe. So how can you trust your Bible? It's a good question. I want you to be able to answer that very clearly by the end of this time this morning. It's a great question, and today, I will give you reasons to know with absolute certainty that the Bible you have is indeed an accurate translation of the original autographs, assuming it is a reputable translation based on formal equivalency, which is an actual translation, not a paraphrase. Formal equivalence is something that is a term that scholars use. It speaks of a word for word rendering of the original language and whatever language the reader needs, it's translated into that. And so every effort is made to make sure that both the word order and the sentence structure are consistent with the original Hebrew and the Greek. I will also explain to you why verses nine through 20 is believed to be a later addition and not the original ending of the gospel of Mark and should therefore never be used as a basis for doctrine or for practice, as unfortunately, some people do.

But more importantly, than all of this technical textual criticism stuff that you are about to hear, and I hope I won't make it too boring for you, because it is important, most importantly, I want to stir your affections for the word of God, and the God of the word. You know, what we have in our hands and what I preach from every Sunday morning is the greatest treasure we have on Earth. It is the Word of the living God. Do you realize it's banned in 52 countries around the world, and it's increasingly mocked here in the United States, because what is contained in the Word of God is contrary to the Neo-Marxist socialist agenda that's being perpetrated upon our culture. In fact, in North Korea, Afghanistan and Somalia, if you own a Bible, you can be killed. I remember when I was training pastors in Siberia, I got to know them. In fact, one of them and his dear wife were in my home a few weeks ago. They were able to come over and visit. I remember them talking about how precious it is to have the Bible. In fact, in that culture, you will never set your Bible on the floor, and it will always be on top of every stack of books. That's how they treasure it. And every church that I went to to minister had people, in fact, the majority of the people who had had grandparents that were killed by the communists because they owned a Bible and because they were Christians.

In fact, I remember on a number of occasions we'd be driving along in the van, and they would stop, and they would say, you see that block wall out there in the woods, and you could see through the trees, yeah, and see a block wall. And in most cases, they were about 20 feet long and about seven or eight feet high. And they said, that's where they would stand Christians up and shoot them, and they would describe family members that they knew that were killed there because of their faith. This is a treasure dear friends of inestimable worth. When the moderator of the Church of Scotland handed a Bible to the new monarch in Britain's coronation service, he said, "The Bible is the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom. This is the royal law. These are the lively oracles of God." In the words, those same words are echoed in by the King James translators many years ago, who wrote this in 1611 they said, quote, "God's sacred word is that inestimable treasure that excelth all the riches of the earth."

Now, sadly, in one study by the state of theology, it's called a state of theology study in 2022 they said that "For the first time in history, a majority of Americans, 53%, say the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, but is not literally true. And 40%, the highest percentage yet, say modern science disproves the Bible." The study goes on to say that "A growing percentage, up to a high of 32%, says God is unconcerned with their day-to-day decisions, and three in five, or 60%, say religious belief is a matter of personal opinion, not objective truth." Is it any wonder we are enduring the things that we see in our culture today? Because, dear friends, once you deny the objective truth of Scripture, you're on a slippery slope to deny all objective truth. And we see that even in the objective truth of biological gender, which is now produced as transgender insanity, most people couldn't care less what God's Word says. Frankly, even many people that go to church every Sunday really don't care what it says. They really don't know what it says. It has no impact on how they live. And sadly for those people, unless they repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will perish in their sins and in the solitary confinement of an eternal hell, they will blaspheme the God that is judging them as a consequence of their arrogant dismissal and rejection of Christ and His Word.

Now many people are offended even with the phrase "the word of God." I remember in my doctoral studies, one of the things we would have to do is write position papers, and then we would have to present them in a group of our peers and a panel of professors in the back, and I remember being raked over the coals by one professor from University of Aberdeen, because I said on several occasions the phrase "the Word of God." He says, "You can't use that in scholarly papers. You don't know that that's the word of God. How do you know that's the word of God?" And we talked about that a little bit, but I could tell I was going nowhere with him. And he said, "You can call it the sacred writings, you can call it the Holy Scriptures, you can call it the Bible, but you can't call it the word of God, or you will lose all credibility." And obviously I have disregarded his advice. Folks, I don't care about person credibility in the eyes of man, what I do care about is personal integrity in the eyes of the Lord, because I am his spokesperson. I have nothing to say other than what he has said in his word. And my mind always goes back to Second Timothy three, beginning in verse 16, "All Scripture is inspired..." literally breathed out, "...by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His Kingdom, preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

Dear friends, I hope you join me in treasuring this book. I believe with all of my heart that it is indeed the inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, all sufficient word of the living God. Otherwise I would have not dedicated my life to studying it, to learning it and explaining it and applying it to you and others, most of my adult life. Like no other document, God has revealed himself and his plan of redemption in his word. And what's fascinating is that he has done this by using 40 authors who wrote over a course of 1500 years from three different continents in three different languages, primarily Hebrew and Greek. There's only two passages in Aramaic. And as a result of this, we have a collection of 66 documents gathered into two testaments, 39 books in the Old, 27 in the New. And it contains 63,779 cross references; references that speak of similar themes or words or events or or people. And there's varying numbers here, but some say there are 1817 prophecies in the Bible, and about 800 of them have been fulfilled. Precisely no other book can even come close to making that claim. In fact, over 300 of them were fulfilled at Christ's first coming. There are five recurring motifs that are constantly emphasized in Scripture, and you can see these if you have a MacArthur Study Bible. At the very beginning of that particular Bible, you will see: the revelation of the character of God, the revelation of the divine judgment for sin and disobedience, the revelation of divine blessing for faith and obedience, the revelation of the Lord's savior and sacrifice for sin, and the revelation of the kingdom and glory of the Lord's savior. And you will see these themes emphasized over and over again, overlapping in virtually every passage of scripture. We have the canon of Scripture, and the way we received that, there were really three tests of canonicity. The first test was that the passage that would be, or the book that would be included in the canon, had to have been written by a recognized prophet or apostle or one of their close associates. Secondly, what was written could not disagree or contradict previous scripture. And then, thirdly, there had to be a general consensus by the church that it was an inspired book, and there were councils of theologians that would meet to determine this. But what is really fascinating, and what I want to dwell on much of our time this morning, is the miracle of God's preservation of his divine revelation down through the ages.

Now remember, prior to the invention of the printing press, which was about 1450 ad, biblical manuscripts were meticulously hand copied by scribes, and of course, that made the remote possibility, but certainly the possibility of error or alterations possible or additions. And it is believed that this particular section of scripture is a scribal addition to compensate for Mark's rather abrupt ending in verse eight. Now, scribes originally copied the original autographs by hand. Imagine that. And they wrote them on a papyrus scroll - papyrus was basically ancient paper made from a plant. And it's fascinating, historians tell us that the scribes that copied the Hebrew Old Testament would write one letter and then go take a bath, and then they would come back and write another letter and take a bath. And they would do this until every letter of divine revelation had been copied. They would even clean their writing instrument and wash their entire body when writing the most holy name of God, Yahweh. They would do this every time they wrote it. So you get an idea of the sacred nature of the holy scriptures and how they perceived what they had what they were copying, that this was the word of the living God. They treated it with utmost reverence, profound importance. You know, I have to tell you that I think of this every time I study the word of God, especially when I'm in the original languages; every time I exposit it. Second Timothy 21:5 says that we are to, "Be diligent to present ourselves approved by God as a workman that does not need to be ashamed accurately handling the word of truth."

Now, with respect to the preservation of these ancient manuscripts, I want you to understand that there is no other, there are no other manuscripts that even come close to what we have in terms of ancient manuscripts of the Bible. Some manuscripts that we have are only 25 to 50 years removed from the original autographs. There are 5600 ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, including everything from small fragments of papyri to complete codices containing all 27 books. Codices - a codex - was a later on was a bound leather volume, okay? Some manuscripts date back to the second into the third century. One fragment, for example, from a papyrus codex of the Gospel of John - it's called P 52; it's about the size of a credit card, I've seen it in pictures. I haven't been there to actually witness it, but it's got a like a plexiglass, and you can see on either side of it, but it contains parts of seven lines of John 18:31 through 32 on one side, and parts of seven lines of verses, 37 through 38 on the back. And it's dated about AD 100 maybe to 150. Think about that, I mean, the apostle John wrote the book of Revelation somewhere between 94 and 96 ad. There are numerous other papyri manuscripts containing verses in books of the New Testament that have been collected, some as far back as 175 ad. There are over 350 copies of the Bible in Syriac, dating back to the two hundreds. There are 8000 copies of the New Testament in Latin - that's called the Vulgate - and they date back to 382 to about 405 ad. And it's astounding to think that 1000s, all of these 1000s of copies of the original autographs survived the vicious persecution of Christians during the Second and the Third centuries. Two of the most prominent codices are Codex Sinaiticus. It was written about 350 ad. It's probably the earliest known manuscript of the Bible. And then Codex Vaticanus, that contains the Greek Old Testament, the Greek New Testament, it's probably written, they believe, around 325 ad. And by the way, both of those end Mark's gospel with chapter eight. Nine through 20 are not there. And you will recall when Constantine came into power, along with his mother, who came into power, Helena, who, by the way, was responsible for the construction and the beautification of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a number of us had been there before, as well as the church of Ileana on the Mount of Olives, which were basically the site of Christ's birth and Christ's ascension, respectively. But during that time, Constantine obviously allowed Christianity to flourish, rather than it being outlawed. And in 331 he commissioned 50 bibles to be written and prepared by Eusebius of Caesarea, and they were made for the use of the Bishop of Constantinople. And the growing number of churches that were popping up in that new city Constantinople, it's Istanbul today, and I was just there not too long ago, a city of 25 million. A number of you with me, but it is certainly not a Christian country anymore. It's very Muslim. But it is believed that Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus are possible surviving examples of these Bibles, and because of Constantine, 1000s more manuscripts were copied and written and disseminated. And Constantine, you may recall, called for a council of Christian theologians. He called them together to refute different heresies, especially Arianism in that day, and establish orthodox doctrines. And they did this in a place called Nicaea. You've heard of the Council of Nicaea. This was in 325, ad. Nicaea is a town in northwestern Turkey, today it's called Iznik. It's just a kind of southeast of Constantinople or Istanbul today. And those pastors and theologians came together in this council, and they were called ante, maybe you've heard of ante-Nicene fathers. Ante, "A N, T E dash Nicene" fathers, meaning they were church fathers who lived before the Council of Nicaea. So these were men who lived in the two and 300 era. And today we can read much of what they have written. There are Commentaries that contain approximately 32,000 quotes from the New Testament, enough to reconstruct the entire New Testament. And surprise, surprise, everything they wrote is consistent. There are over 19,000 quotes from the gospels that we can read from early church fathers, and they are all consistent. So whether they had Greek manuscripts, Syriac Bible, a Latin Vulgate, all of them are identical translations. And again, folks, no other ancient document even comes close to enjoying this kind of preservation. The next closest, well established ancient work is Homer's Iliad. It was written in the eighth century BC. Remember, it was an epic poem, I believe, in 24 books. It describes the Trojan War and the Greek warrior Achilles and all of that. There are only 643 surviving copies that exist today, and the oldest one is from the 13th century AD. You compare this to the some 25,000 ancient biblical manuscripts, which would also include the Latin and the Ethiopic translations, and you can see that nothing even comes close to what God has done in preserving his word.

And then we can add to that now, much more recently, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls; the Old Testament manuscripts there that further validate the accuracy of the other ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament. These were discovered over about a 10-year period, from 1946 to 56 at the Qumran Caves on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. A number of us have been there. It's a fascinating place. And they are approximately 2000 years old, dating all the way back to the third century BC to the first century. And guess what? They all say the same thing. I mean, God has gone to supernatural lengths to preserve his word.

Now through the science of what's called "textual criticism" that analyzes and compares ancient biblical manuscripts to determine if they are indeed part of the original autographs, scholars are able to detect possible scribal errors or embellishments, and this final section of Mark's gospel is missing from the most reliable manuscripts. In fact, early church fathers like Clement of Alexandria, who lived between 150 and 250 AD and Origen who lived between 185 and 253, they were not aware of this ending. And the church historian, Eusebius of Caesarea, who lived from 265 to 340, and the Bible translator, Jerome, that lived from 347 to 420, both say that almost all of the Greek manuscripts available in their day omitted verses nine through 20.

So the question comes up, well, why was it added? Who did it? When did he do it, or whatever? We can't answer that completely, but it is assumed that because verse eight appears to be an abrupt ending to Mark's gospel, unlike the other gospels, it must be incomplete. And so when you study all of the science with textual criticism, you see that sometime in the early to mid-second century, some scribe or scribes had to have come to that conclusion, and they wanted it to read more like other gospels. Because when we look closely at verses nine through 20, we see that, and we do a comparison, verse by verse comparison from the other gospels, you will see that there are undeniable parallels. Now I'm not going to bore you with all of this, but for example, if you look at verses nine through 10 of Mark 16, undeniable that they parallel John 20 and verse one, Luke eight and verse two, and John 20, verses 17 and 18. Mark 16:11, parallels Luke 24:10 through 11. Mark, 16:12 and 13, parallels Luke 24:13 and 35. So you can see that they took these verses and kind of cut and paste, shall we say, to make a little bit nicer ending.

Even the vocabulary, the style, the structure of this ending is inconsistent with what we see in the rest of Mark's gospel. For example, there's a transition here between verse eight and verse nine that seems to be a non sequitur. In other words, it doesn't fit, it doesn't logically flow from the previous statement. Let me read it for you. Verse eight says, "They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Now, after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons." You can tell it just doesn't fit. In fact, if you look at, in the original language, the Greek conjunction, the word "now" implies continuity with the previous statement, but verse nine shifts the narrative to talking about Mary Magdalene. And even introducing her as if she's she's kind of a new character, a new person in this whole drama. But in fact, she was previously mentioned three times in the same context, in Mark 15:40, also in verse 47 and then in chapter 16 and verse one. You could add to this, the whole issue of diction. When you look at the diction used in these verses, you discover that there are 14 words that are used that are not found in any previous portion of Mark's gospel. You know how it is when it's like when I help my grandchildren write a paper, okay? And I want to make sure they're saying the right thing. I got to make sure I don't use language that I would use right? Otherwise the teacher going to, now, you didn't, you didn't....you don't even know what the word ubiquitous means, you know, or whatever. And so it's the same type of thing here. And there are also words that are used in ways that are totally different, and phrases that are oddly different.

And then you look at the insertion of being able to pick up venomous serpents or drink any deadly poison. I mean, that clearly lacks biblical support. I mean, where are you going to go? What's that talking about? And this basically means, dear friends, that no doctrine or Christian practice should be founded upon this section that languishes in such serious dispute. As I have said before, for example, snake handling is a bad doctrine that will always come back to bite you.

Now, concerning this added edition, John MacArthur says, quote, "Careful students who have made a serious study of the transmission of the biblical text would virtually all agree that verses nine through 20 are a gloss; that is a later uninspired scribal edition appended to the original inspired text. Indeed, those last 12 verses bear the hallmarks of an attempt to cover up a perceived imperfection. That section does not fit the style and structure of the rest of Mark, and this is also the conclusion of the church fathers in the first four centuries." Now, it would take a long time to give you all of the external and internal evidence that would discredit the authenticity of this section, I've probably already bored you to death, but if you want more of the technical information, please see me and I will give you enough to keep you busy for the next three months, okay?

Now I hope you can see beloved that the supernatural preservation of divine revelation is supernatural. I mean, it's a miracle in and of itself. No other document comes close to this, and the reason is because no other document has this value, right? I mean, who wants to preserve Homer's Iliad, right? And so many of the other things that are out there. And so I hope you can understand that you can have confidence in the veracity of Scripture because of the enormous care that went into copying the original autographs and the scholarly science of textual criticism. I have friends that are brilliant scholars, and they have devoted their life to these types of things. They can analyze and compare ancient documents to determine if the contents are of the original autographs and so on and so forth. And so all of this should bolster your confidence in the veracity of the Bible, and it's for this reason that we can say to the critic that the Bible does prove itself to be what it says to be - the inspired Word of the living God. I love Spurgeon's quote, you've probably heard it before, he put it this way, he said, "The Word of God can take care of itself and will do so if we preach it and cease defending it. See you that lion? They have caged him for his preservation. Shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes. See how a band of armed men have gathered together to protect the lion. What a clatter they make with their swords and spears. These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. O fools and slow of heart, open that door. Let the Lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care. Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion like majesty. And it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries." End quote.

Folks, just think what the Word of God has done to you, how it has absolutely transformed your heart to a point that you would absolutely die for the truths of the word of God. Because through the word of God, you have come to know the God of the word.

Now let's close this morning by focusing on Mark's ending. Go back to verse eight. "They went out and fled from the tomb..." these dear women, "for trembling and astonishment had gripped them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." This beloved, is the text the Holy Spirit inspired; this is the text that he has preserved down through the ages, and I think it is a very fitting closing after making his case that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, validated by his resurrection from the dead. What else can be said, but what he has said? It's just complete astonishment that this has happened. And like the women who fled from that tomb, trembling, overwhelmed with emotion, awestruck, amazed, trembling at the power of God, shouldn't we have the same response when we see what God has done in the resurrection from the dead? Let me ask you, what amazes you? What causes you to be just overwhelmed with a sense of awe? You know the feeling when you see things like a tornado or lightning or thunder, right? The Northern Lights, if you've been there, or if you've been in parts of the world where there's no light pollution, like I've been and up in the northern reaches of Canada and the Arctic Circle, Siberia, Africa, those places you look up in the sky. And folks, I tell you, it doesn't look anything at all like what we see. There are so many stars. It will just practically take your breath away. Now, those are things that can bring awe. Let me ask you, does the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead cause you to have that same reaction? Does it cause you to react the way those dear ladies did? Let me put it to you differently. If there is anything on earth that exceeds your awe of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is something terribly wrong with your heart.

You know, I think of this, the resurrection, every time I'm in the presence of a corpse; we've all been there. I've been there when loved ones died, especially I remember with my sister as I held her hand as she took her last breath. I've been around other corpses many times where you touch that body, and it's cold and stiff. It is lifeless. And whenever I do that, I'm reminded of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and what that means for me and all who belong to him. I think of this every time I think of my departed loved ones that I miss so desperately. Don't we all have those? I think of this every time I think of my own departure; that there's going to be a resurrection. You know, the Bible teaches that at death the soul vacates the body. And for believers, according to First Corinthians, five, "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord," right? What an amazing thought. And we await that time, according to Philippians, 3:21, when Christ will, "transform our lowly body" and conform it into his glorious body that produces within me a sense of awe that excels the Northern Lights. In Acts 20 and verse 15, we read that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. Every human being that has ever lived is going to have a resurrection. There will be two groups resurrected, the "just" meaning those that have been justified or declared righteous by faith in Christ. They are just, and therefore they will enter into eternal glory, where there is fullness of joy forevermore. And then there will be the resurrection of the "unjust," those who place their faith in themselves or some false religious system. They will also be outfitted with a resurrected body that will withstand the torments of hell. And for those who have placed their faith in Christ, we can rejoice. And such has been the promised hope of God's people down through the ages; a hope based upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In fact, Jesus said in John 14, "'Because I live, you shall live also.'" Because of his resurrection, the great terror of all terrors, that of death, has been forever vanquished for the believer. We have been released from its grip. We can actually look forward to it. I don't look forward to those things that will precede it, none of us want that, but boy, when we pass through the veil, oh my. Of course, we won't receive that resurrected body until Christ returns, but when that happens, our glorification will be complete. And that's the hope that we have in Christ. That's why Paul would say in Philippians, 1:21 "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." First Corinthians 15, "O death where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" I hope you anticipate the full completion of the glory that awaits you because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I hope that stirs your heart with holy affections for all that God has given us through Christ. And when you do nothing else in life will really matter. Nothing else in life will really matter, except knowing and loving and enjoying and worshiping and serving Christ.

There's been a video that goes around, I've seen it a couple times from various people, and I didn't write it down, but it impacted me, because it was so exceedingly sad. Maybe you've seen it, it's and this is kind of a summary of what it says, life is so short that that we need to live it up. And it's essentially saying life is short, we live it and then we disappear. And it talks about how you know, after a couple of generations, no one will know that you ever even existed. They asked the question, "What do you know about your great grandfather's grandfather." Well, it's a good point. Talks about how all the things that you spend your life trying to achieve or acquire, that new car, that fancy home, that prestigious reputation, all of that will vanish at your death. And the point is, because life is short and essentially meaningless, and because you will soon vanish into the empty universe of forgotten people, you need to slow down and smell the roses. You need to essentially eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Because no one's going to ever remember you anyway. I'm so glad that is not what I have to tell you this morning. But you know, that's where most people live. No wonder we have such a drug problem, such an alcohol problem, such a pornography problem, and on and on it goes. "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Our life dear friends, as believers, has a purpose, and that purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Beloved the only thing that matters in your life is what you do for God and his glory. Yes, the world will forget. If the Lord tarries, in three generations, certainly in four, no one will ever know any of us existed, but the Lord does, and the Lord will reward. And because of this, our heart longs for the perfection of God; of God manifested in us when we enter into his presence. And therefore we can live with that exhilarating joy of knowing what awaits us, that one day we will actually partake in the glory of God. And this will be the attitude that that rare man will have who is truly looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us. O the hope of seeing and sharing and the glory of Christ, all because of the resurrection. This is what should fill our hearts with praise, and this is why Paul would say at the close of his life, prior to his martyrdom in Romans five and verse two, "...exult in hope of the glory of God." And I pray that this will be the desire of your heart. And I pray that you will be exhilarated knowing that you will eventually stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy, Amen?

May I challenge you, treasure your Bible. Treasure it more than perhaps you ever have. I'll give you kind of a corny story, but I laughed about it later on. Number of years ago, I was sitting in my office at my house. It used to be in the garage, and I had a window, and I could see out to the west, and I could tell the weather was getting extremely bad and suddenly there started to be a lot of hail. And I could hear it beating on the house, and it started to get darker and darker, and I could look out and I could see a big tornado coming my way. Nancy wasn't home, and I thought, "This is bad." And it kept getting darker. I thought the window was going to blow out, and right behind me is a little opening that you could just barely get, maybe you might squeeze two people in there, but it was a thing in the fireplace where the bricks are at a little wooden door, and that's where you could put wood for the fireplace. And I thought, I'm just going to get in there. And I had my two blue heelers at the time that many of you have been bitten by. I grabbed the dogs, and I grabbed my Bible, and I got in the little hole, and I could hear, you know, the train noise going up over me. I thought the house was gone, but it lifted up over me, and it went down, and unfortunately, it landed over in Coopertown, further and took out a number of homes. But after it was over, I thought, you know, that was just my knee jerk response, to grab my Bible.

Folks, let it be the most precious possession that you have, and may I challenge you to read it every day, even if it's a small portion. I challenge you get a good study Bible. I love The MacArthur Study Bible; I think it's the best out. Read the word of God, even if it's just a little bit every day. Meditate on it, memorize it, talk about it, and you will see how the Lord will use it to nourish your soul. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word, and my, how you have preserved your word down through the ages, so that the very things that we would say today were those things that the apostle Paul would have said, that John would have said, that Timothy would have said, that Jude would have said, that the Lord Jesus would have said. Thank you for your word. May we cherish it as we should, and for those that know nothing of what it is to be in fellowship with the living God, having been reconciled to him through saving faith in Christ, will you bring that conviction to bear upon his or her soul, that today they will repent and be saved. We thank you. We give you praise in the name of Jesus, our Savior and coming King, amen.

We find ourselves once again in Mark's gospel. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there, we will be looking and in Mark 16, the first eight verses. And I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "Resurrection: The Messianic pronouncement." And I'm sure before the hour is over, you will understand that more fully and be as excited about it as I am. Charles Spurgeon once said, "There is no sin killer like the word of God. Wherever it comes, it comes as a sword and inflicts death upon evil." And that's exactly why Satan hates it so. That's why he tries to counterfeit it, distort it, deny it, and that's why we must study it. We must preach it. We must meditate upon it. We must memorize it. We must defend it and treasure it and obey it, because it is the only truth that saves and sanctifies. And those who are weak in the Scriptures will be weak in their faith, they will be shallow in their worship. They will be worldly in their life. They will be undiscerning in their thoughts, and they will be vulnerable to the schemes of the devil. So therefore, once again, this morning, we will unsheath the sword, which is the word of God, and unleash its power to accomplish his purposes in the redeemed. So let me read the passage to you, Mark chapter 16, beginning in verse one.

"When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him.

Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.

They were saying to one another, 'Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?'

Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.

Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.

And he said to them, 'Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.

But go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.'

They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."

My friends, the physical resurrection from the dead, of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important and foundational truth of biblical true, genuine Christianity; only God himself can give life, only God can conquer death, and the evidences of the resurrection are undeniable to any reasonable, unbiased person. Which I might add, is extremely rare. This was a day of Messianic pronouncement. The reason, I would say this is recorded in Romans, chapter one, verse four, where we read Jesus Christ, "...was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead” The word "declared" in the original language is "horizō," We get our word "horizon" from that. And it carries with it the basic meaning of marking off a boundary or a limit. So it carries this idea of that which determines, that which distinguishes or defines. And the point is, Jesus' resurrection from the dead, declared, determined, defined, the fact that he was indeed the Son of God. His resurrection is therefore a messianic pronouncement. And I might add that anyone who denies the deity of Christ, anyone who denies his atoning work on the cross, his death, his burial and his resurrection, will perish in their sin.

Now, the implications of the resurrection and the glorification of Jesus Christ exceed the importance, and I might even add the power of all other events in history. Only the actual creation of the universe rivals it, because you must understand, within the resurrection body of the Lord Jesus Christ, existed the supernatural power source of eternal life and God's everlasting kingdom. And it's for this reason that Paul prayed for the Ephesians in Ephesians, one beginning in verse 19, that they would know, quote, "...what is the immeasurable greatness of His power in us who believe...according to the working of His might, which He accomplished in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and made Him sit at His right hand in the heavenly places..." You see, contained within the resurrection body of the Lord Jesus was the supernatural seed of resurrection glory for all of the redeemed, for all whom the Father had given him - the power source, you might say - of the universe. And that's why Paul would rejoice in Colossians, 1:27, and speak of, "...Christ in you, the hope of.." what? "..the hope of glory." We have been supernaturally united to the creator and sustainer of God's everlasting kingdom. And think how this relates to us as we've just read in our scripture passage a minute ago, First Corinthians 15 verse 20, "..Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ, shall all be made alive." You see, in Christ, we have been given a new existence. Remember, his human body was made perfect. It was no longer subject to weakness or to death, but to live eternally. And as we read in First Corinthians, 15:42, and following that he put on immortality, therefore, like his resurrection body, ours will also be raised imperishable. It will be raised in glory, in power, a spiritual body. It's hard to even begin to imagine this, but we will be given a body like Christ's, a body that is fit for heaven, no longer subject to weakness or to death or to shame because of sin. Can you imagine an existence where there is no more frailty to temptation? Can you imagine living in an existence when there are no limits to time or to space, a time/ space fear like we currently live in.

And within the resurrection body of Christ was the infinite power of the self-existent, pre-existent, uncreated, Creator of the universe who spoke all things into existence, the one who upholds all things by the word of His power; a force infinitely more powerful than anything man could ever create or even conceive. And we have been united to him. To think that one day we will behold him right? Dwelling in a body that will in many ways look like ours, yet from his body, the effulgence of his celestial majesty, the resplendent light of his glory, will blaze forth, more brilliant than the sun.

Moreover, Christ is the quote "first fruits." In other words, he is a precise sample of a coming harvest, which means our resurrection body will be much like his, minus the incommunicable attributes that are his alone. Oh, dear friends, the wonder of being united to the living Christ, the source of eternal life for all who believe in the crucified and resurrected Son of God; I hope you will remember this in the midst of your trials. I hope you will find encouragement in this great reality. I pray that when the world mocks you and persecutes you, your mind will go to this.

Now this morning, we're going to examine Mark's account of the resurrection along with some of the other gospel writers, and I want to have a special emphasis on the evidences that prove the resurrection, as well as, I want to fan the embers of our faith into a roaring flame of excitement knowing that because he lives, we too shall live. As I read earlier, in First Corinthians 15, "If Christ has not been raised, and our preaching is in vain, your faith also is vain." Moreover, we are even found to be "false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if, in fact, the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. Then those who have also fallen asleep in Christ have perished, if we have hoped in Christ, in this life only. We are, of all men, most to be pitied."

Now I want to back up. I want to make sure you have the big picture of the Passion Week of Christ. There are five key events that occurred during that time, and together, they help us grasp the staggering implications and significance of the death and resurrection of Christ. First, you will recall what I would describe as his messianic presentation. Remember that occurred at his triumphal entry, which would have been on Monday. Luke 19:38 tells us, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of our Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest." And if we go back to Daniel nine and verse 25 we have a prophecy given some 600 years earlier that tells us the very day of our Lord's messianic presentation. It was predicted by the Holy Spirit through the prophet Daniel.

And then secondly, we see his messianic proclamation. We see that early Tuesday morning, Jesus and the 12 approached the city of Jerusalem. And on the way, you will recall in Matthew 21 and verse 19, he cursed the barren fig tree. He said, "'No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you." And at once the fig tree withered." And of course, that was symbolic of the judgment that was coming upon Israel. For they, like the leafy tree that gave a pretense of being fruitful, were in fact barren.

And then we go on to read how he enters the temple, he cleanses the temple, and for two days he rules in its precincts. He claimed possession of it as the mighty sovereign. And during that time, he appealed to David in Psalm 110, to prove again, his claim of Messiah. And in his first, I should say his last, public discourse at that time, he denounced the scribes and Pharisees in a series of woes recorded in Matthew 23.

And then on Wednesday night, they ascended together once again on the Mount of Olives, making their way back home to the home of Lazarus in Bethany. And there he gives his famous Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25; the longest of all answers concerning future things, including the destruction of Jerusalem that would come, his second coming, and specifically the conditions and the signs that would precede his coming in power and great glory to establish his kingdom.

And then Thursday afternoon, Jesus and the 12 reenter the city. And there we see number three: his messianic preparation. Preparation was made for the Passover meal in a private room that they had obtained earlier what would become the Last Supper. And during that time, Jesus exposed Judas as his betrayer. The final drama of Jesus' death was then set into motion. He was then later arrested, the early dawn on Friday. He was formerly condemned by the Sanhedrin and taken immediately to the Roman Procurator and that procurator, Pilate, interrogated him. He said that "I find no fault in him." But ultimately to keep peace with the outraged Jews, he capitulated to their demands, and he released Barabbas in exchange for Jesus. Then he had Jesus scourged, hoping that would satisfy the Jews. But of course, it did not. So he reluctantly turned Jesus over to be crucified as a rival king.

And between the hours of six and nine on Friday morning, the Roman soldiers made sport of him. They mocked him as they escorted him to Golgotha, and there the Lord Jesus, Christ, the Son of God, was crucified between two thieves. And then there, at this point, is the fourth key event that I would call, his messianic propitiation. You will recall in First John four and verse 10, we read, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." To propitiate - "hilasmos" -  in the original language, it means to appease or to placate or to satisfy. And so his death appeased, it placated, it satisfied the just wrath of God against sin. And of course, this was pictured all throughout the Old Testament. Remember the golden lid that was on top of the Ark of the Covenant stationed in the Holy of Holies, and that golden lid separated the violated law beneath with the Shekinah glory in the presence of God above, his holy presence that hovered there, and that lid was called the mercy seat. In fact, the Septuagint translates it the hilasterion, the place of propitiation. That was the place where the just wrath of God was symbolically propitiated; his anger was symbolically satisfied; his vengeance was symbolically placated. For on that lid, divine justice and grace came together symbolically when the high priest on Yom Kippur would sprinkle the blood of the animal to make atonement for the sins of Israel.  But you see, what was once symbolized, was finally realized in the cross; realized in the Messianic propitiation.

So Jesus was buried then sometime before sundown on Friday, and there his body laid all of Saturday, which was the Jewish Sabbath. And then just before dawn on Sunday, he was resurrected from the dead.

Dave Harrell  

And so we move finally from the Messianic propitiation, which was finished, to where we are today in the Messianic pronouncement. Again, Romans one four, Jesus Christ was, "...declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead..." I might add that there are many other New Testament proofs of his resurrection. We're going to look at some of them today, but I'm reminded of what Luke tells us in Acts chapter one, verse three, "To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God."

Now Luke writes in a very succinct way, and he doesn't cover all of the details, so we will look at some of the other gospel writers, but we see three convincing proofs that emerge from Mark's account. We will see them in these three categories that I've given to you, that I hope will be helpful. We will see the convincing proof concerning the amazement of the women; secondly, the appearance of the angels, and finally, the astonishment of the disciples. My if only we could have been there, right? You know, I try to put myself in that place, if only I could have been there and seen that, but something better awaits us, we're going to see him face to face in all of his glory soon.

So with that, we come to the text. He begins by saying, "When the Sabbath was over..." Very important. That means it's after 6pm on Saturday, therefore all of the shops, all of the bazaars, are open, and the loyal, loving group of Galilean women that have been with him through all of this have, and the ones that are mentioned, I might add, in chapter 15, have purchased spices from those shops to anoint Jesus body; an act of honor and love, but also one to help cover the odor of decomposition. But I might also add, the phrase, "the Sabbath was over" speaks to a broader and more important subject than just the mere time of day. You will recall that the Sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic Covenant. Mosaic Covenant was the law that God gave Israel through Moses to govern their life and conduct when they went into the promised land of Canaan. And Israel repeatedly violated the Mosaic Covenant, but God promised that that covenant would be superseded by a better New Covenant. You read about that in Jeremiah 31:31 through 32. And the death of Jesus meant, therefore, the end of the Mosaic Covenant as a rule of life. Indeed, he fulfilled the demands of the covenant and established the new covenant in his blood, Luke 22:20. In fact, Paul says in Romans 10 verse four, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."

And I might add that as Christians, we are no longer under the Mosaic covenant. We have been released from the law to serve in the new way of the Holy Spirit. Paul says in First Corinthians, 9:20 through 21, "We are now under the law of Christ" and the Sabbath was therefore replaced by the Lord's day that commemorated his resurrection every first day of the week, First Corinthians 16, verse two. I might also add at that at that time, Jesus fulfilled the Passover and instituted the Lord's Supper as the new memorial feast commemorating his death, as we read in Mark 14.

Now, little bit of context here is helpful. A lot has gone on before these ladies arrive at the tomb, and the last time they saw the tomb was on Friday night, and they did not know that the Sanhedrenists had already had the tomb sealed shut, nor were they aware of a detachment of Roman soldiers that had been stationed to guard it. In fact, Matthew 28 beginning in verse one, says, "Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave." It's important here, it can get a little confusing, according to John's account, Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb first, probably walking ahead by a number of minutes from her companions, because John 20 and verse one says she arrived "... while it was still dark." And so the others come along a little bit later at dawn.

And here we see the first of three convincing proofs. We see the amazement of the women. Again, Mark 16 verse one, "When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him. Again, he's summarizing a lot of what's going on, not getting into the details of exactly who, what and when. Now it's obvious that in their distress, they had not taken seriously the Lord's claim that he was going to rise again from the dead three days later, because they're going to prepare his body. So we read in verse two, "Very early on the first day of the week," that would be Sunday, "they came to the tomb when the sun had risen." Then he says, "They," which would be referring to the women trailing behind Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, "They were saying to one another, 'Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?' Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large." Now, what they didn't realize that had occurred is recorded in Matthew 28 beginning in verse two. There we read, "And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred."

By the way, let me pause here for a moment. You will recall the earthquake at the death of Jesus that opened up the tombs of many of the saints. And now this is matched again with another earthquake that reveals the resurrection of our Lord. And so we read, "...for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it." I might also add that in John 20 and verse 12, we read that there were two angels, not just one. Perhaps to fulfill the biblical requirement of multiple witnesses to verify a testimony. You wonder, why didn't Mark and Matthew record two? Well, probably they were just focusing on the one that spoke. So we see convincing proofs here, just the amazement of the women, what they saw in the empty tomb. But secondly, we see the proof of the appearance of the angels. Now this is where it gets even more fascinating, if that's even possible.

I want to give you a note here. Angels, we know biblically, are not bound by physical space. Sothey can travel from heaven to earth instantaneously. They have unimaginable power, as you read in Scripture, they can they can blind people, they can rescue people, they can destroy cities. But here we see they are able to cause a localized earthquake. Additionally, I might add, that angels are spirit beings without gender, but when they do appear in what we would call an angelophany, they always look like men. They never look like women. That, by the way, is the only proof I can find to be able to say that my wife is truly human and not angelic. She wanted me to say that. But it is amazing when we think of angels in the scriptures. We see that they are ministering spirits. We know that they rejoice at the salvation of a believer. We know that they provide protection. They're constantly doing battle with demons in the invisible world. I'm sure that there are angelic beings here. Hi guys. They protect our families, our church.

By the way, I would add that I'm in constant prayer, and I hope you are too, that God will protect us from the godlessness that is so pervasive these days. Somebody sent me a clip just this morning, a video of look like a young teenage girl crawling around out in the grass in front of a restaurant she identifies as an animal, and the parents come into the place, and this individual saw it all, and parents got their meal, and then when they were done, they went out and got their pet and got in the car and drove off. It's unbelievable what Satan is producing, and to know that God has given his angels, as well as his church, through the power of the Spirit and his Word and his people to restrain and to protect. And we pray for that.

So again, as we come to the text in Matthew 28 beginning in verse two, we read, "And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow." And then we read, "The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men." The original gives us the idea that they just passed out. It was just overwhelming to them, and I might even add, this isn't in the text, but it's certainly true of these types of situations, that they probably soiled themselves, because we know that this kind of severe trigger can activate the sympathetic nervous system, which manages the bladder muscles, and can cause it to restrict, and so this was a horrifying thing to them, and by now they have run off out of fright.

You know, I also pause for a moment. I've encountered people who are demon possessed, and it is a terrifying thing to experience. The Lord sustains you in the midst of it, but it is a terrifying thing. And I might add, it's for that reason that I would never, ever, ever watch a horror movie. That is more wicked than pornography, because it exalts evil.

Dave Harrell  

But folks to see a holy angel , looking like lightning, causing an earthquake; I can't even imagine that. A brief insertion here in the flow of the historical narrative, the Roman soldiers knew the tomb was empty, alright? They knew what happened to them. And you know that was never in dispute by anyone during that day; they knew what really happened. And that's why we read in Matthew 28 beginning in verse 11, "Now, while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together"...they fell on their faces, seeking mercy, and worship their Messiah, whom they had crucified. No,  that's not what it says.

Isn't that sad? It says, "...they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, 'You are to say, "His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep." And if this should come to the governor's ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.' And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day." We all know that it is the habit of corrupt labor leaders to bribe witnesses and to use an equally corrupt media to disseminate deceptive propaganda to somehow preserve their own power and prestige. You know, we see that today in our country just constantly. We're gaslighted with so many things. And I hear people sometimes say, "Well, you know, we can trust the American people to see right through all of these things." No, we can't. Most people are dumb sheep; they're blinded by Satan. And for the most part the job of politicians is to get people to believe that which is false, knowing that that is what people want to believe with all of their heart. The Jewish leaders, the Jewish people, did not want to believe that they had crucified their Messiah, so we have got to cover this up. I don't know if I've ever quoted Mark Twain from the pulpit, but I'm about to I read this on a person's wall an office that I visited last week. He said this, "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Most people today know for sure that Jesus was not God. They know for absolute certain that he did not rise from the dead. They absolutely know for sure that he's not coming again, and he is not going to judge the living and the dead, but that just ain't so.

Back to Matthew 28 verse five, "The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, He has risen just as he said. Come, see the place where He was lying.'" What an amazing account, a record of eyewitnesses.

Now back to Mark 16, verse five, "Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed." The original language carries the idea of using a term that means they were just completely overwhelmed with emotion, as any of us would be. But the angel immediately comforted them verse six, and he said to them, "'Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they had laid Him.'" Now, a little technical point that I hope will be of encouragement to you, grammatically, the Greek verb "egeirō," which is translated here "has risen,"-  "He has risen” is in what is called the aorist passive, and can therefore be translated, "he has been raised," or "he has been resurrected."

And it's fascinating to understand that indeed, all three members of the triune godhead were involved in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 10:18, I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it up again. But we also see in Romans 6:4 that the Father was involved. There we read, "...Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father..." And in Galatians, one one, we read that God the Father "raised Him from the dead." But then we also see the Holy Spirit's involvement in Romans, chapter eight and verse 11, where the apostle Paul says, "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

So again, back to the text. In verse six, the angel said to the ladies, "'Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold here is the place where they laid Him." Luke adds this in Luke 24 five, the angel also asked the women, "'Why do you seek the living One among the dead?'" That's kind of a gentle rebuke, is it not? Why are you looking, don't you remember he said he was going to rise again, three days later. And by the way, that caused them to remember, as we read later on in verse eight of Luke 24.

So we've seen the convincing proofs of the resurrection from the amazement of the women and the appearance of the angels. Finally, the astonishment of the disciples. And I love this section here. In verse seven, "'But go tell His disciples and Peter, "He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you."'" Let me pause here. This is such a precious, precious passage. Here's why. Notice he says, "'But go, tell His disciples and Peter...'" Now think about that. The one who had denied him three times. You know what it feels like? I certainly do; when because of your own sin and stupidity, you just feel lower than an earthworm. You're just so ashamed of yourself, you're so frustrated, you feel defeated, you hate yourself, you feel useless, you feel abandoned. Don't you know Peter felt that way. And don't you know, when he got this news, he said, "wait a minute, are you saying that the angel said that this is what the Lord wanted you to say, Go tell his disciples and me? Isn't that encouraging? Don't you know that would have been encouraging to him. Oh, my.

Folks, Jesus wants to restore the damaged. He wants to salvage the useless, revive the brokenhearted. He wants to rebuild the weak. He wants to encourage the downtrodden, make priceless what the world deems worthless. Oh, what a compassionate Savior. I'm thankful for the words in Isaiah, 42, three, "A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish."

So we read in verse eight, "They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." And according to John's account in John 20, beginning in verse one, we read how Mary Magdalene ran to tell Peter and John. The text says this, "'They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. So Peter and the other disciples went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter, and came to the tomb first; and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself."

By the way, that's something grave robbers would certainly not do, right? What another evidence of the resurrection that somehow, in a way that we cannot fathom, the Lord's body just passed through those wrappings, and whether he or an angel, or whatever, folded those things up, these are eyewitness accounts of historical facts, and you're going to tell me that it's all foolishness? The other women that arrived later, according to Matthew 28 and verse eight, "...left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.'"

Now we know, according to Scripture, that before he met his disciples in Galilee, he appeared to two disciples that were traveling to Emmaus, remember? And he opened up the Scriptures from the Old Testament; that's all they had. He opened up the scriptures and explained the doctrine of the death and the resurrection of the Promised Messiah that were delineated in the Old Testament scriptures. We know then that he met with 10 apostles in the Upper Room. And then eight days later, all 11 were there, including Thomas. And then on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, remember, he appeared to seven of them; they were out fishing, weren't catching anything; throw the the net over on the other side, and they caught all of the fish. And Peter realizes it's his Lord, and he takes off his garments, and he jumps in the water, swims about 100 yards, falls at Jesus' feet. And there Jesus had made breakfast for them.

He then appeared to more than 500 people in one gathering on a mountain, First, Corinthians 15 six, that we read earlier. And there he gave the Great Commission that's recorded in Matthew 28:16 and 17. And it was probably around this time that he met with his half-brother, James - First Corinthians 15 seven - and probably with his other half-brothers, probably including Jude. And it was probably at that point that they were genuinely converted. And then in Luke 24:44 through nine, we read how he gave instructions to the assembled disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until the promise of the Spirit is fulfilled. That would be a promise relating to the Old Testament, prophecies of the new covenant that's recorded in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 33 and to later prophecies spoken by John the Baptist in John one. And likewise, according to Acts one and following, he appeared to the 11 apostles on the Mount of Olives and told them, quote, "'You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'" He went on to add, "'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth.'" And beloved that is continuing to this very day. We are seeing people come to faith in Christ all over this globe. I can't wait to hear the accounts of our dear church family members that just got back from Uganda.

And over the course of these appearances, Luke tells us that he met with his apostles on other undesignated occasions and times. And again, in Acts one, beginning in verse two, he did this, "...until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom." And then later, in verse nine, we read this, "And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go in to heaven.'" Oh, the glory of our resurrected Savior. And to think because he lives, we too shall live.

Moreover, the implications of His resurrection on the redeemed are just mind boggling. Let me give you just a little sample of it in closing this morning, and Lord willing, I'll elaborate it on it more next week. But in Romans six and verse three, we read, "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? And here, the term baptized - baptizō in Greek, which literally means to immerse - has nothing to do with water baptism. It's used metaphorically to describe the believer’s immersion into Christ at salvation. You see, when we are genuinely born again, we are mystically united to him by grace, through faith, which the ritual of baptism merely symbolizes. And the practical implications of this are absolutely staggering. What he is saying is that our immersion into Christ included an immersion into his death. Do you realize when he died, we died, and when he was raised, we too were raised. When he died in some unfathomable way, we also died. In fact, our spiritual baptism united us to Christ in his death, as well as his burial and resurrection. And at that point, the old man of sin that once defined our very nature is now dead, he no longer reigns. His dominion over us has ceased. And therefore, in verse four we read, "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." The term newness - "kairos," in the original language - is newness in quality with the implication of superiority. We have a radically different disposition from our formal former self.

And then later on, in verse 11, he says, "Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. And the context there is the certainty of holy living for those who have truly been born again; have truly been immersed into Christ's death and resurrection; and what a amazing thing it is to witness a person who is truly born again and to hear their testimony.

I'm sure you've been deeply moved by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's testimony; the gold medal winner of the women's 400 meters hurdle. Maybe you've seen that and heard about that. By the way, she and her husband Andre attend Grace Community Church, and her husband is studying at The Master Seminary. But she said this quote, "I would take my relationship with Christ over a gold medal any day." That a great statement. She said, "I credit all that I do to God." She said this in a press conference. "He's given me a gift. He's given me a drive to just want to continue to improve upon myself. And I have a platform, and I want to use it to glorify Him. So whenever I step on the track, it's always the prayer, of quote, 'God, let me be the vessel in which you're glorified, whatever the result is; how I conduct myself, how I carry myself, not just how I perform.' So it's just freedom in knowing that regardless of what happens, He's going to get the praise through me. That's why I do what I do." Folks, this is the power of the resurrection in a believer. This is the hope that we have in Christ.

Oh Child of God, the implications of the resurrection in the life of a believer exceeds anything that we can even begin to imagine. So I ask you, how can we be silent about this? How can we not preach the great truths of the gospel? How can we be so easily distracted by these little screens and big screens and bigger screens, so that we become apathetic to the most important truths in the world that determine the destiny of the souls of men and women. Parents, are you teaching these things to your children? Have you sat down with your children and explained to them the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ and what that means? Fathers, is this the burden of your heart for your children? Is this the priority of your time and effort and energy in your family. Mothers, is it the passion of your heart to teach these things, to raise your children in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord that they might be saved, that they might be sanctified? Young people, is this the type of thing that you put on social media? Let me give you a post, okay? You young people, listen up. Here's a post for you. You can look it up, copy and paste, I guess. I don't know how you do those things, but Romans 10, nine and 10, "If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, the person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth, he confesses, resulting in salvation." Put that on social media.

Unleash the gospel on social media and watch what the Spirit of God will do. Oh yes, 99.9% of the people will hear it, will mock you, will ridicule you, but you know what? The Spirit of God will use his word to either harden or soften a heart, and you never know how many people will read that and be saved. May we all get serious about evangelism and discipleship, and may we as believers rejoice in all that this means for us, for Christ is risen from the dead, and he is returning as he said, Amen?

Dave Harrell  

Let's pray together, Father, thank you for the magnificent truths of your word that penetrate our heart with such clarity and such conviction. Lord, I pray that what we've examined here today will be the seeds of truth that germinate in such a way as to bear much fruit, to the praise of your glory and to the joy of your saints and Father, for those that may not know or love Christ, I pray that somehow, through your convicting work, you will overwhelm them with conviction, help them to see the horror of their sin and the glory of the cross that they too might be saved. So we commit all of these things to you for the glory of Christ and His Kingdom. Amen.

We find ourselves once again in Mark's gospel as we continue to make our journey through it verse by verse, we will be looking at Mark 15, beginning in verse 42, and going through verse 47. So while you're turning there, may I just remind you why we're here? Why I'm doing what I'm doing, in opening up the word to you. It's because we know from scripture, for example, in Second Corinthians 31:8, that the more we behold the glory of Christ, the more we become like him. And the Spirit of God helps us see the glory of Christ, all of his infinite perfections through his word, and certainly through his people, his church as well, and even in creation, but ultimately through His Word. The point is, you will simply not grow in Christ, apart from the systematic in-depth, teaching, preaching and application of the Word of God. That is my responsibility: to exposit the Scripture so that you will know what it says, clearly. And it's your job to learn these things, and to apply them to your heart, and thus avail yourself of how the Spirit of God accomplishes this divine operation of sanctification.

So, with that, let me remind you of the context here before I read the passage, you will recall that Jesus has voluntarily poured out his life on the cross as the prophet Isaiah, as prophesied in Isaiah 53, in verse 12. And Jesus said that no one has taken it away from me. So now the work of redemption is accomplished. Atonement has been made. The work the Father had given him is now over. He has now given his life as a ransom for many. So therefore, all of the sins of those whom the Father had given him in eternity past, are paid. That's why he said, at about 3pm, "'It is finished.'" "Tetelestai" - it is finished, which literally means the debt has been paid, the victory has been won, the judgment has been served. Then he said to the Father "'Into Your hands, I commit My spirit.'" And so now, in this unfathomable drama, we see Christ hanging on the cross, his body remaining on the cross, though his spirit is now in paradise.

And with this, we come to Mark 15, beginning in verse 42.

"When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,

Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.

Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he asked him as to whether He was already dead.

And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.

Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Joses, were looking on to see where He was laid.

It's fascinating as we look at the gospel record, we see that every gospel writer gives great detail with respect to the death, the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what's fascinating, as you look at all of this is, once again, you see the miracle of divine providence operating, superintending all of these things to accomplish the purposes of God that were ordained in eternity past, and were prophesied in the scriptures. Do you realize that you are here today because of divine providence? It's not by accident that you just stumbled in here. But rather God has orchestrated the events in your life, to bring you here, to hear whatever he has for you, to ultimately bring glory to himself. Do you realize that God has sovereignly ordained to allow even wickedness in this world so that he can dramatically display the glory of his attributes? While our holy God is never the cause of evil, we know that he does bring it about indirectly through the willing, voluntary actions of moral creatures. Indeed, he has ordained to allow everything from the corruption and buffoonery that we see in government, to what the drag queen and transgender perverts grooming children in our country. He has ordained to allow all of these things. And ultimately, we see that this is providing for us a stark contrast between light and darkness, between good and evil, between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God.

We know that currently, God has ordained to allow, according to First John 5:19, "...the whole world to lie in the power of the evil one." That's part of his purpose today. We know for example, that the world is being prepared for the rule of the Antichrist, the second coming of Christ. And we look at the constellation of prophetic signs, and we believe that that could be very, very soon; we see, for example, the Coalition of Muslim nations and Russia, coming against Israel, that's consistent with the prophecies in Ezekiel 38, and 39, and so forth. And every event in past history, including the death and the burial, and the resurrection of Christ, and all the things that come about in the future, all of those things are under the control the governance of a sovereign God, and he operates all of these things through the agency of his providence.

May I just remind you that biblically, we see essentially two different basic categories of providence. One is general providence, where he is in control of the whole universe through the laws of nature. For example, in Psalm 103, verse 19, we read, "The Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all..." Aren't you glad to know that? Colossians 1:17, we read, "In Christ, all things hold together”; Acts 17:28, "In Him, we live and move and have our being"; Ephesians 1:11, "He works all things after the counsel of His will." So we see this in general providence, but also there is what we would call special or sometimes it's referred to as specific providence, where he super-intends, not only the details of the universe, but also the details of history, even the details of the lives of every individual person, especially the elect. Ephesians one beginning of verse four, "...He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world..." Why? ".... That we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will..." He went on to say in verse 11, "...we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will..." I trust dear friends, that you will be comforted by these great truths, never forget them. Remember that we serve a sovereign God, not a contingent god, that's trying to figure out what to do because of all the craziness that's going on in the world. He has ordained the end from the beginning to bring glory to himself, and to bring eternal joy to the redeemed.

My prayer this morning, is that each one of you will be deeply encouraged by these truths as you see them played out in the context of Christ's burial. And that you will also see the majesty of Christ; and that majesty being a fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures. Now, as we examine the Gospel accounts, we're going to look at Mark, but certainly the Gospel of John as well. Here we're going to see the providence of God superintending three groups of people, Okay? Number one, the corrupt Sanhedrinists. Number two, the calloused soldiers, and number three, the compassionate saints. The point here is that at every turn, God was at work accomplishing his purposes, even as he is doing right now in your life and in mine.

We know that he causes most things to work together for good right? No, I think it's all things, thank you. He causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. I think of Proverbs 19:21, "Many plans are in man's heart, but the counsel of the LORD will stand."

So, with this in mind, we come to our text. Let me read those first three verses once again and then give you John's additional insight; beginning in verse 42, "When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; he had gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether he was already dead." Now John gives us further insight in John 19, beginning in verse 31, "Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away."

Now bear in mind, by Jewish reckoning, the Sabbath, that is Saturday, began at sundown on Friday evening. This means that Jesus was crucified on Friday, the day before the preparation of the Sabbath, which on that occasion was a special Sabbath, because it was, it occurred during the the Passover feast. And because the second, what would be called the Paschal day, according to Leviticus 23:11, because that fell on the Sabbath. This was a day devoted to a very important offering with the Jews, which would include according to Leviticus 23 and verse 12, the offering of, "... a male lamb a year old without blemish, as a burnt offering to the LORD." Now, obviously, it is by no accident, that all of this is occurring at this precise time in history. The unblemished lamb of God is offering himself up as a sacrifice, at this precise time, and occasion.

So first, what I want you to look at, is the providence of God superintending, number one, the corrupt Sanhedrinists, alright? Now, it was the custom of the Jews according to the Mosaic law, to never allow a person to remain hanging on a gibbet, or a gallows, or a cross, overnight after an execution; lest that body, cursed by God, defile the land. Alright? So you got to get them off of there; you don't want that body to defile the land because that person was cursed by God. So being the self-righteous, law keepers that they were, they asked Pilate to have the legs of Jesus broken so that he would die quickly, and they could dispose of him quickly, in order to honor God. I mean, hypocrisy knows no bounds, right? It's amazing. Now normally, the Romans would leave a crucified man or woman on the cross until they died, which would often take several days. And then as a final disgrace, and a final warning to any other insurrectionists or criminals, they would just leave the decaying body on the cross to be devoured by the vultures. But if they needed to hasten the death, what they would do is they would break the legs of the victims with an iron bar, or sometimes they would use a heavy mallet. And it was a practice called the "crurifragium." And suddenly, that excruciating pain and loss of blood, combined with the victim's inability to hold himself up any longer, would cause the person to collapse and the air in their lungs would cause them to suffocate and they would die very, very quickly. So to be good law keepers, and not jeopardize their righteous standing before God, they wanted to make sure that they didn't violate their high Sabbath. So they go to Pilate and they ask him to make sure that the legs of Jesus are broken, so that they can take him away.

Now, if we go to John 19, beginning of verse 32, we pick up on what happened. "So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other, who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs." Now, we know as we examine the gospel record, that Jesus hung upon the cross from the third hour, that was 9am, according to Mark 15:25, and he died in the evening hour, it would be called, which would be 3pm. We would call that the afternoon; that would be their evening, they had also a second evening hour that began at six. So, Jesus was on the cross for a total of six hours before he voluntarily gave up his life, as he said he would. And this is a point you must understand. This is a point that John wants to make abundantly clear. That's why he said in John 10, beginning verse 17, that Jesus declared, "'I lay down My life, so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.'"

So, it's a relatively short period of time before Jesus gave up his life. However, bear in mind because of the earlier beatings that he had endured, and the loss of blood, even from the crown of thorns that were penetrating all around his head, the unimaginable torture, of the flogging, that would have exposed all of the muscles and bones and some of the entrails in his back. And because of all of that unimaginable suffering, not to mention, drinking, to the very dregs, the cup of divine wrath on our behalf. All of these things contributed to an early death. And you will remember, however, as we would read in John 19:30, that he gave a final shout - "tetelestai", it is finished. And to think that he still had the strength to cry out, as he did, reveals to us that he was not totally drained of life. In fact, when Joseph of Arimathea came to Pilate to ask him for Jesus body, you will remember, Pilate didn't even think that he was dead yet. So he had to check on that; he had to summon the centurion for confirmation. And at the end of John 19, and verse 30, John says that Jesus, "...bowed His head and gave up His spirit." "Gave up" in the original language could be translated, "handed over," he handed over his spirit. So no one took his life from him, he gave it up on his own authority.

But here we see the providence of God at work, which again, just points to the glory and the majesty of Christ, the Son of God. Jesus had predicted that he would be killed and the third day he would rise again, Luke 18:33. And for this to be fulfilled, he had to be buried on the same day he died. Now this is really fascinating to see how God used wicked men to execute orders that he had made in eternity past. Think about that. Yet another testimony to the fact that Jesus is who he said, he is - the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel.

So we move to our second point, and that's the sovereignty of God superintending, the calloused soldiers. They break the legs of the two men on either side of Jesus, but they see that Jesus is already dead, so they did not break his legs. And according to John 19:34, "But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out." Now, you must understand, culturally, that the ancients believed that the body was made up of blood and water. And so this proved that Jesus was indeed physically dead. And this was a fact that John wants to underscore very clearly, given the popularity of a heresy known as Docetism. It comes from a Greek, "dokeó," which means "it seems." And the Docetist believed that Jesus never really took on human flesh, it just seemed like he did. And he only appeared to be human. Likewise, they would say, well, he only seemed to be dead, but he wasn't dead. And like all heretics that want nothing to do with Christ, they will come up with the most incredible, ridiculous heresies. And they will embrace them, every demonic doctrine they possibly can to somehow discredit Christ. And John knew this. And so John was aware of this satanic heresy, and he's going to refute it head on. And that's why, as an eyewitness, he adds in verse 35 of John 19, "And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe." So he saw, the spear, the blood, the water, so forth.

Now, the blood and water that flowed from Jesus side, may also be symbolic of both life and cleansing that flowed from Jesus' death. Some have suggested that the blood of Jesus, that is his sacrificial and redemptive death, is the basis of eternal life in the believer; and we know that from scripture, and it purifies us from every sin, and while, water we know is symbolic of cleansing; it can also be symbolic of life and the Holy Spirit. And these astounding blessings are all conditioned by the death of the Lamb of God, and they flow from the lifting up of the Son. Different theologians would argue this; and I think there's some real merit to this. And I might also add that it was from this verse and these themes, that Fanny Crosby derives her inspiration for the first verse of her hymn, "Near the Cross," that we heard a little bit ago. "Jesus keeps me near the Cross, there a precious fountain; Free to all a healing stream flows from Calvary mountain."

While others would suggest that it is also possible, but not certain, that John the Evangelist is alluding to Exodus 17, especially verse six that says, "'...Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, for the people to drink.'" There's maybe some merit to that as well. We know that John has already used water to refer to the Holy Spirit in his Gospel, apparently, alluding to the too water from the rock episodes and Exodus 17, and I believe Numbers 20. And we also know that the long suffering Yaweh is described as the "rock of His people" in Psalms 18:31, also in verse 46, and chapter 95 nd verse one. He even discloses himself, in his words, saying that he is stricken for his people, that they may receive the promised spirit. And it is from these theological concepts, that we have the great hymn written by Augustus Toplady, who lived from 1740 to 1778, "Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee; Let the water and the blood from the wounded side which flowed; be of sin the double cure; cleanse me from its guilt and power."

So back to the text, in the providence of God, the soldiers pierced Jesus' side, and they spare him of the crurifragium; they did not break his legs. And in verse 36, we read, "For these things came to pass to fulfill the scripture," quote, "'NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN.'" That comes out of Psalm 34 and verse 20; prophecy written some 1000 years earlier. I might also add that that Psalm, and those concepts, are rooted in God's instructions concerning the Passover lamb. You will recall in Exodus 12 and verse 46, "'It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it.'" My what a coincidence how all these things just seem to fit together, right?

Back to John 19, verse 37, he says, "And again another Scripture says, 'THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHO THEY PIERCED.'" And this comes from Zechariah's prophecy in Zechariah 12 and verse 10, written about 520 BCE; a prophecy that actually speaks to a future repentant remnant of Israel that will confess Jesus as Messiah when he returns in glory. And there we read, "'I will pour out on the house of David on on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only so, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the better weeping over a firstborn.'" Yet another prophecy, my friends, that affirms the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which John proves over and over in his Gospel.

Now I want to move to the providence of God and the compassionate saints; such an amazing story. Let's go back to Mark's gospel and chapter 15, verse 43, "Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus." And John says this in John 19:38, "After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body. Now we know from the synoptic gospel writers that Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin; we know that he was a very wealthy man; he was looking for the kingdom of God. We know that he was one that did not agree with the decision to condemn Jesus. A good and righteous man, who both Matthew and John state that was, that was a "disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews." Let me camp on that for a moment.

As I was thinking about that statement, cancel culture is nothing new, right? I mean, this has been going on for millennia. This is how Satan advances his agenda. Let me let me give you an example. You will recall in John nine, the Jewish leaders are all upset because Jesus now healed this man born blind. And they're all upset about this and so they question the parents. And in John 9:19, and following we read what they say, "'Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?' His parents answered them and said, 'We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.'" And then we read this, "His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. For this reason, his parents said, 'He is of age; ask him.'' Cancel culture in the first century.

Likewise, in John 12, verse 42, we read that, "many, even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him..." and here's why, "...for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God." I might add that I know from my friends, and contacts in Israel in particular, that there are a number of Jewish rabbis even this day, Orthodox Jewish rabbis, that secretly believe in Jesus as Messiah. And there's an increasing number of them that are enrolled in online Bible studies in order to understand the New Testament truths. Now sadly, often we fear man more than God; aren't we all guilty of that, somehow it just crops up in us and we decide, I'm just not going to go there. It's a hard lesson to learn. But I was reminded of what Jesus said in Luke 14, verse 27, "'Whoever does not carry his own cross, and come after Me cannot be My disciple.'"

Folks, you want to ask yourself, "Am I ashamed of the gospel? Am I ashamed of Christ? When an opportunity arises to stand up for him, do I start looking away and looking for something else to do so that I don't get in trouble?" Are you afraid to take a stand that might cost you dearly? Beloved, let me remind you of something that I had to learn early on in my ministry, you cannot be faithful and popular. You will be one, or you will be the other, and you must choose.

I might add that Nicodemus, and we're going to see this in a few minutes in verse 39; you remember, he came and also cared for Jesus body. Remember how he came to to Jesus at night and wanted to know how you can get into the kingdom, remember John three? But we know that according to tradition that Nicodemus actually defended Jesus at his trial before Pilate. And tradition tells us that Nicodemus was baptized by Peter and John. And he was like the leading teacher. And his profession of faith, and love for Christ, we know cost him his office, cost him his position as a teacher, it cost him his entire fortune, cost him all of his property, all of his possessions and he was banished along with his family, to live outside of Jerusalem; banished by the Sanhedrin that he had served, he along with his entire family were to live outside of the city in abject poverty. O the high cost, but infinite value, of following Christ.

We also know according to tradition, one story tells us how his daughter was so hungry, that she had to pick through dung piles for pieces of grain to find nourishment to keep from starving. And a rabbi saw her and felt compassion on her and said, "Who are you?" And she said, "I am the daughter of Nicodemus." And the rabbi said to her, "Whatever happened to your father?" And she said, "He came to be a follower of Jesus and was banished." And at that, the rabbi refused to help her. Folks, we never know what the cost might be following Jesus, but we do know what the reward will be right? Glory of an eternal heaven.

I'm reminded of the lyrics of that song that we sing, "You can have all this world, but give me Jesus." You know, the victory of the wicked will always be short lived, but their punishment will be for eternity. And as you think of the Christ mockers that live around us today, we hear them on television all the time, you probably work with some of them. So sad to know that one day they will stand before the one they mock. And he will be their judge and executioner. And they will have an opportunity, then to blaspheme him forever in the torments of hell. Today, we see persecution mounting in the United States and I'm reminded of what the Apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians four the universe, beginning of verse 17, "For momentary, light, affliction." Whenever I think about that, and I think, all that he went through and he called that "momentary, light affliction." What I endure is momentary light affliction. But all of that, he said, "...is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison." Then he went on to say, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal." And that must be the focus of our gaze.

Now back to our text. Maybe it was out of shame, out of guilt, probably a mixture of all of that, and his love for Christ, Joseph asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. No doubt because of his rank, Pilate agreed to that. And Mark says in verse 43, of chapter 15, that, "... he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate..." No doubt he had seen enough of all the wickedness, enough of all the lies, all the hypocrisy of his fellow Sanhedrinists, and he was probably convicted over his timidity. But once again, what I want you to see here is the unseen hand of divine providence at work in all of this. None of this is catching God by surprise. He is orchestrating all of these events to fulfill his decrees that were made in eternity past. Here's why I would say that. We know that under Roman law, no man crucified for sedition would ever be taken down from a cross; they would be left there to essentially rot and be eaten by the vultures, every shred of flesh would be picked away. And only then would the body be taken down and buried with other criminals. And the Jews would only bury criminals outside the walls of Jerusalem. But what John wants us to see is that this was no ordinary man. This was the Son of God, whose death, and now burial, was for ordained, and it was predicted in the Old Testament prophecies, especially Isaiah 53, verse nine. There the Prophet declared that through Messiah's quote, that though Messiah's, "...grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth." And it's at this stage then that John goes on to introduce another member of the Sanhedrin that was also a secret disciple of Jesus that joined Joseph and that was, of course Nicodemus. We see this in verse 39, "Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds weight." Now, let me give you a sense of what's going on here. You see, the Jews did not embalm people, corpses like the Egyptians did, but they use fragrant spices to partially cover up the stench of putrefaction. And this is what's going on here. Nicodemus brings 100 pounds, he must have had some servants with him. That's a lot 100 pounds of this mixture. These spices would be in powder form and they would layer them with cloths; layer upon layer, multiple layers. And obviously, neither Joseph of Arimathea, nor Nicodemus, nor I might add, the other women who were around watching all of this; they weren't expecting Jesus to literally rise from the dead. So they were preparing him.

In John 19, verse 40, we pick it up. "So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there." Not outside the city, but right there. And little did Joseph and Nicodemus know that by burying Jesus while it was Friday, before the Sabbath, they were fulfilling God's eternal plan that had been prophesied earlier in Matthew 12, in verse 40, by Jesus himself when he said, "'For just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IIN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

So, as we look at it, Jesus is buried before sundown on Friday, and he rose again on Saturday, I mean on Sunday, and according to Jewish reckoning, a part of a day was considered the whole day. So Jesus was in the tomb three days he was there part of Friday afternoon, he was there Saturday and a part of Sunday morning. It's also interesting that the writer of Hebrews explains that this was a picture that was seen when Isaac was delivered from the altar, and he had been given up to death three days before. And we read about this in Hebrews 11, verse 19, Abraham "... considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead, from which he also received him," referring to Isaac, "back as a type." Isn't amazing how the Word of God all fits together in such a profound way?

So Mark summarizes this, back to Mark's gospel, Mark 15:43. Joseph of Arimathea comes, he's a prominent member, he asked for the body of Jesus. And all of this happens in verse 45, "And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb, which had been hewn out in the rock, and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb." Think about this, were it not for the compassion, and the bravery of these two brothers in Christ, Jesus' body, doubtless, would have been buried in just a common sepulcher because of the ignominious death that he suffered. But that was not God's plan. And that would have been a violation of Isaiah 53 and verse nine that we read earlier.

Now, back to the corrupt Sanhedrinists for a moment. The hypocritical Jewish leaders are aware of Jesus' predictions, alright? That he would rise from the dead. And of course, in whatever culture, like we have in our culture, whenever you have a ruling political class, they're going to use any means necessary to stay in power, alright? We're very familiar with that in our culture. And so we read this and Matthew's account in Matthew 27 beginning in verse 62. "Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, 'Sir, we remember that when He was still alive, that deceiver said, "After three days, I am to rise again." Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise, His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, "He has risen from the dead," and the last deception will be worse than the first.'" We can't have that. They're trying to prevent a hoax. But unwittingly, what they are doing, is actually accomplishing the purposes of God. Because you see, the security that they were demanding, the security that they wanted to be implemented to somehow seal the tomb, and station Roman guards around it, would later thoroughly refute this ridiculous claim that the disciples came and stowed the body away. I mean, who's going to believe that? People that are blinded by Satan, right? I mean, who's gonna believe a lot of the stuff that we hear today? I mean, we're just gaslighted all the time.

Them, "Pilate said to them, 'You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.' And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard, they set a seal on the stone." So again, we see the marvel of divine providence in all of these things. And I also find it fascinating, think about this, isn't it amazing to think that Yahweh delivered his covenant people from the Egyptians in parting the Red Sea, and he did this three days after the slaying of the Passover lamb? My, what a coincidence. And here we have another picture of our deliverance from the penalty, the power, and one day, the very presence of sin through Christ, in whom we have died and have been raised again with him. And folks, I would submit to you that only the most calloused heart could possibly see and hear all of these things from these eyewitness accounts, and say that somehow it was all a fraud, and to say that somehow Jesus was not indeed who he says he was. And he is, namely the Son of God.

Well finally Mark says this in verse 47, such a precious statement, "Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid." It's a fascinating statement to me. I mean, these were some of the faithful women that were mentioned earlier in verse 40. And they're going to be mentioned again in chapter 16 and verse one, as witnesses of the empty tomb. Bear in mind, they're mention here is not incidental. The Spirit of God isn't just trying to, you know, fill up some space here. I mean, this demonstrates that there were eyewitnesses that saw all of this; eyewitnesses of the death, and the burial and the resurrection of Christ; thus ruling out any suggestions that might come up later that well, he wasn't buried. He wasn't really dead. Or they got the location of the tomb wrong; that wasn't where they put his body, it wasn't empty, I mean, you know how people are, it refutes all of that. And I also have to say, praise God, for faithful women. They stood when the men ran, right? They maintained a vigil during these hours. Think about this, during the hours of darkness, during the earthquake, they saw Jesus hanging there; they come and they see the burial. They're watching all of this. They will be the first to see the empty tomb.

Folks, God's governance encompasses all of history, all of his works, past, present and future, I want you to be comforted with these truths. In fact, he is over even the most minute and mundane things. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 10, and I was thinking about this this morning, when I was walking in my prayer time early; there were some sparrows that that lived there. He knows all about the sparrows that fall. I know it sounds stupid, but there was one that was watching me there. And I just started talking to him, that, you know, he made you, he made me and he knows all about you, like he knows all about me. I'm sure if my neighbors saw that they're wondering what's wrong with this guy? But seriously I'd happened this morning.

And Jesus went on to say that he knows all the hairs of our head. And I think that includes the random hair growth now in my ears and my nose. You know, as I get older, he knows all of these things. He superintends things that many times we might consider is random chance. Proverbs 16, verse 33, "The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the LORD." He's over all the acts of men both good and evil. Philippians 2:13, "For, it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure." And he has ultimate authority over all of the earth; we read about that earlier in our scripture reading. Contrary to the opinions of many of the narcissistic politicians that we have, that have always existed, Psalm 47, beginning in verse one, "O clap your hands, all peoples, shout to God with the voice of joy, for the Lord Most High is to be feared a great king over all the earth. He subdues peoples under us and nations under our feet."

Well, in closing, may I challenge each of you to examine your opinion of who God is. Is he who he says he is? The Creator, the sustainer, the Redeemer, the sovereign ruler over all things. Indeed, the consummate or of all things. Is that who you see him to be? Or is he something far less in your mind? I want you to hear me folks, your view of God will determine the eternal destiny of your soul. He is either the thrice Holy God that will cause you to bow down before him in humble desperation, seeking his mercy, or he will be something else that you have made up. If you have a high view of God, you will have a proper view of yourself. If you have a high view of God, you will see yourself as lower than the amoeba on a worm’s belly. And because of this, you will celebrate his grace all the more to know that he would love us as he does. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the infinite wonders of your grace. Thank you for the glory of your providence that we have even examined here today. May these things encourage our hearts as we endeavor to live to the praise of your glory. And Father, if there be one that does never come to a place of genuine saving faith, where they've been so overwhelmed by their sin that they've cried out to you and desperation, Lord, have mercy on me a sinner, Lord, please convict them so greatly that they will have no rest on their pillow until they bow before you in repentant faith. We thank you, we give you praise, and we ask Lord Jesus that you will come quickly, for it's in your name that we pray. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel? We have now come to Mark chapter 15. And we will be examining verses 33 through 41, under the heading "When Hell Came to Calvary." Follow along as I read the text beginning with verse 33 of Mark 15.

 When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour.

At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?'  which is translated, 'MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?'

When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, 'Behold, He is calling for Elijah.'

Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave Him a drink, saying, 'Let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.'

And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last.

And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  

When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!'

There were also some women looking on from the distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and Joses, and Salome.

When He was in Galilee, they used to follow Him and minister to Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem."

 From the outset, let me ask you a question, how much do you hate your sin? How badly do you hate the fact that you simply do not love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength? That you fail miserably when it comes to loving your neighbor as yourself? How much do you hate the fact that many times you are selfish? You are proud, you're drawn to the things of this world; you're lazy. Do you hate your sin enough to confess the following statement? That I deserve what Christ suffered on the cross on my behalf. The unimaginable agony that Jesus suffered is our substitute is beyond anything that we can imagine. And it really shows us how much God hates sin. And I might add, it will reveal to us how much we love it, in comparison.

The wrath of God that he bore on our behalf is described in that great summary text of the gospel in Second Corinthians 5:21, that "He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." That's what happened at the cross; he took my place on the cross. I like to think of it this way, he took my place on the cross, as if he had lived my life of sin. And I took his place for eternity, as if I had lived his life of perfect righteousness. And when we reflect upon the horrors Christ endured, in our place, we get some sense of how unfathomably wicked sin really is and therefore why God abhors it so, and why he punishes it with the full fury of His wrath. Do you see your sin for what it really is? Can you describe some of your sin in specific terms? How do you respond to your sins when God reveals them to you through His Word, or through some other brother or sister in Christ? Through your wife, or your children. Do you respond with humble conviction and confession and repentance? Or do you get defensive, angry, you justify, rationalize, blame shift. My we're great at seeing the speck in our brother's eye, but we can't see the log in our own right. I want you to understand dear friends, that sin deserves our utmost contempt, even as it animates God's utmost wrath. And of course, sin is man's inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God. The Bible says that sin is lawlessness, it is rebellion against the Most High. Much of it we are even unable to see. Sin is a state or a disposition of the soul that corrupts every aspect of who we are. It blinds men and women to the gospel. We look at what's going on in our country today as the consequences of sin. Mexican and Chinese criminal drug gangs human sex trafficking, fitness fentanyl pouring across our borders can be killing over 100,000 a year. The brutal killing of unwanted infants the vile sexual perversions of the LGBTQ mafia. It is sin that would cause there to be a drag queen parody of Leonardo da Vinci's rendition of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics. And dear friends it is sin that will destroy your life, and your testimony, and your marriage, and your family. Unless you deal with it as if it is a cancer that will destroy you. And fortunately, it was dealt with at the cross. That's the good news of the gospel of grace.

 In 1887, one of the most compelling and powerful descriptions of sin that I've ever read, was published let me read it to you. Quote, "It is a debt a burden, a thief, a sickness, a leprosy, a plague, poison, a serpent a sting. Everything that man hates it is; a load of curses and calamities beneath whose crushing most intolerable pressure, the whole creation growneth. Who is the hoary sexton that digs man a grave? Who is the painted temptress that steals his virtue? Who is the murderous that destroys his life? Who is the sorceress that first deceives and then dams his soul? Sin. Who with icy breath, blights the fair blossoms of youth, who breaks the hearts of parents, who brings old men's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave? Sin. Who by a more hideous metamorphosis than Ovid ever fancied, changes gentle children into vipers, tender mothers into monsters and their fathers into worse than Herods; the murderers have their own innocence? Sin. Who cast the apple of discord on household hearts? Who lights the torch of war and bears it blazing over trembling lands? Who by divisions in the church rends Christ's seamless robe? Sin. Who is this Delilah that sings the Nazirite asleep, and delivers up the strength of God into the hands of the uncircumcised? Who, with winning smiles on her face; honey, flattery on her tongue stands in the door to offer the sacred rites of hospitality and when suspicion sleeps, treacherously pierces our temples with a nail? What fair siren is this, who seated on a rock by the deadly pool, smiles to deceive, sings to lure, kisses to betray and flings her arm around our neck to leap with us into perdition? Sin. Who turns the soft and gentle is hard to stone? Who hurls reason from her lofty throne and impells sinners, mad as Gadarene swine down the precipice into a lake of fire? Sin."

Dear friends, because God is infinitely holy, he hates, not only sin, but the sinners who commits it. Often you hear the phrase, "God hates the sin but loves the sinner." It's not a biblical concept. It's not the sin that will be sent to hell, it will be the sinner. But we see biblically is that "The wrath of God," Jesus said, "abides upon the unbeliever," John 3:36. We see in Psalm five, five, "You hate all who do iniquity." Psalm 11, verse five, and following, "The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence, His soul hate. Upon the wicked, He will rain snares; fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face." You see, this is why all sin must be punished either by the sinner or by a substitute. And my goal this morning is to make you hate your sin, more than ever, and frankly, to make you hate your sin, more than you hate the sins of others. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor and spirit," right? Those who recognize the depths of their depravity who realize that they are utterly destitute, that they have no resources whatsoever to somehow merit God's grace, that they are totally dependent upon his grace. That's the attitude we must have. He also said, "Blessed are those who mourn." The idea of mourning over our sin, broken over our innate rebellion; that godly sorrow that results in repentance that leads to salvation. And he said, "Blessed are those who hunger and who thirst for righteousness." A righteousness that is foreign to ourselves. Those who long for that foreign righteousness that can never be achieved, but can only be received as a gift from God. And as we see Christ hanging on the cross, not only must we see the suffering of our Savior and his great love for us, but we must see the horrible reality of sin. I hope that you will all say with the psalmist in Psalm 139:23, and following, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the way everlasting."

So I want to this morning, cause you to hate your sin, more than ever, but secondly, to make you love the Savior more than ever. As Peter said, In First Peter, one eight, "...though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

As we look at this text this morning - the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior - I want us to focus on three primary categories that I hope will be of benefit to you first, we will see the miraculous signs. Secondly, we will focus on the heart wrenching cry. Thirdly, the voluntary surrender and finally the awestruck reaction. So let's dive into the text. Beginning in verse 33, of Mark 15, "When the sixth hour came..." that would be 12 noon, "...darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour." And this brings us to point one, and that's the issue of the miraculous signs. Now bear in mind that by this time Jesus has been on the cross for three hours, and he has made three statements thus far. First, he has said "'Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.'" That was probably stated when he was being nailed to the cross. And secondly, he said to the penitent thief, "'Truly, I say to you, today you shall be with Me in paradise'" Luke 23:43. And then, finally, he will say, in John 19 beginning in verse 26, "'Jesus then saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved..."referring to John the Apostle, "...standing nearby, He said to His mother, "'Woman, behold your son!' Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!'  From that hour, the disciple took her into his own household." Indeed, it wasn't his mother, but he wanted him to treat her as such; he had compassion for his widowed mother, and he did not commit her into the care of her half brothers, because at this point, they still did not believe in him. That didn't happen until after the resurrection.

But now as we look at this text, we see that at noon time, when the sun is at its zenith, when it is the brightest, God, the Father, appears in the darkness. And this symbolizes his judgment, as we see all through Scripture. This was an ominous sign from God. The text says, "....darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth." Now "land" here can refer to the whole earth; we don't know if it covered the whole earth, text doesn't say, perhaps it was regional. Some of the early church fathers like Tertullian, and Origin report that the darkness extended at least across the borders of Israel and encompassed the entire Roman Empire. So we don't know its ultimate scope, but we do know from scripture that the divine presence would often materialize itself. And sometimes the Shekinah glory of bright light, that dazzling light; and sometimes in clouds of smoke, in ominous darkness, like you would see, for example, in Exodus 19, at Mount Sinai.

And sometimes, we see it mentioned in the context of eschatological judgment, for an example in Amos five verse 20, "Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it?" Joel chapter two beginning of verse 30, "'I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.'" Jesus spoke of the same thing in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 29. There we read, "'But immediately after the tribulation of those days, THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory.'" And friends at the cross, we see a harbinger of this coming day of judgment. We see the terrifying darkness of God the Father descending in judgment, pouring out his wrath on the incarnate Son.

Later we know at the time of the death of Jesus, and we'll discuss this more in a moment, but the veil of the temple, the veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies was rent and to from top to bottom. Furthermore, in Matthew 27, beginning of verse 51, at that same time, we read that, "...the earth shook and the rocks were split, the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many." Now can you imagine witnessing all of this? The effect of this is recorded, for example, in Matthew 27, verse 54, "Now the centurion, and those who were with him, keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, 'Truly, this was the Son of God.'" But it was out of the terrifying darkness of the Father's presence, that he poured out His infinite and just wrath upon the infinite and just sin bearer. The one who knew no sin, endure an eternity of punishment, while hanging on that cross; something that we can't even begin to comprehend. This dear friends is when hell came to Calvary. And there on that cross when he was drinking to the very deepest dregs the cup of humiliation and bitterness, we hear a heart wrenching cry.

This brings us to our second division. And we read about it in verse 34, "At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?' which is translated, MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?'" That I might add, is the Aramaic version of Psalm 22 one. If you look at Matthew's account in Matthew 27, verse 46, he changes the Aramaic to the Hebrew, "'ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?'" But what we see here, beloved, is that out of the judicial darkness of the Father's presence, and out of the unfathomable sufferings of his wrath that Jesus was enduring, the Son of God cries out in agonizing despair. There he experienced that horrifying separation and abandonment that he had never experienced before; that he had never known, and frankly, anabandonment that we will never know if we've been united to faith; united to Christ in faith. You see the fury of divine wrath, combined with the absence of the divine presence, really describe the torment of hell. This is what Jesus dreaded more than all else. This is what caused him to sweat drops of blood in the guard. Can't you hear that heart wrenching cry? The 20th century British preacher and author G. Campbell Morgan said this, "The logical, irresistible, irrevocable issue of sin is to be God- forsaken. Sin in its genesis was rebellion against God. Sin and its harvest is to be God-abandoned. Man sinned when he dethroned God and enthroned himself. He reaps the utter harvest of his sin, when he has lost God altogether. That is the issue of all sin... Now listen solemnly, and from that Cross here the cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" That is hell. No other human being has ever been God-forsaken in this life. Man by his own act alienated himself from God, but God never left him... What explanation can there be of this cry from the lips of Jesus? None other is needed than that declared by His herald three years before... "Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!" He has taken hold upon the sin. He has made it His own... On that cross, He was made sin, and therein He passed to the uttermost limit of sin's outworking. He was God-forsakem. He knew no sin. He was made sin. He was forsaken of God."

Can I personalize this? As we look at, for example, Isaiah 53 and verse five. Read it this way, He was pierced through for my transgressions. He was crushed for my iniquities, the chastening for my well being fell upon him. And Peter describes this in First Peter 2:24, He Himself bore my sins and his body on the cross, so that I might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds, I am healed. But oh, what wonderful news. The forgiveness, the cleansing, the redemption, the reconciliation, the blessing, the unspeakable joy of being in Christ eternal life, all because of the cross. As we read in Isaiah one and verse 18, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they will be like wool." Beloved, do you remember that day when the Spirit of God moved upon your heart and open your eyes to behold the Savior's love for you? I remember it, and the many days hence. One that would cause me, and I'm sure you, to sing great lyrics of Isaac Watts, "Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown and love beyond degree. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith, I received my sight. And now I am happy all the day."

Now, as we see Jesus upon the cross, in the midst of his agony to further fan the flames of his suffering, some of the derisive onlookers misinterpreted what he said, perhaps deliberately so, Notice verse 35, "When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, 'Behold, He is calling for Elijah.'" And certainly "Eloi, Eloi," it could sound like Elijah, especially when you are severely dehydrated. My father told me that when he was shipwrecked in the Pacific, in those days and nights, he said the dehydration was so bad that his tongue swelled. And the men weren't able to hardly communicate with one another because their tongues were so swelled. And so it could be that Jesus' speech was no doubt slurred at this point. And this would not be an unusual assumption for the people who had gathered there, even if they intended to inflict further humiliation, because the prophet Malachi's prediction of the Messiah's returned, included the promise that Elijah or an Elijah like Prophet - we know later on from the New Testament it was a reference to John the Baptist - but an Elijah would somehow herald the Messiah's return. For example, in Malachi four five, "'Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.'" So perhaps they're thinking to themselves, all right, given this ominous darkness, obviously, God is up to something here; maybe this is the day of the Lord. So if this Jesus is what he says he is, if he truly is the Messiah, perhaps he is summoning Elijah to help him, et's see what happens.

It was also during this hour, that Jesus said in John 19, verse 28, "'I thirst.'"  "'I thirst.'" Then in another cruel act of mockery, we read in Mark 15:36, "Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink, saying, 'Let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.'" There's absolutely no bounds to the wickedness of man.

Mark then describes the end of our Savior sufferings; verse 37, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last." And John tells us that it was at this point, according to John 19 and verse 30, that Jesus shouted, "'It is finished!'"  "Tetelestai" - to be fully accomplished, to be perfected, as in the completion of a transaction of, or the payment of a debt in full. Martin Luther said this, "In this word, "It is finished!" will I find comfort myself. I am forced to confess that all my finishing of the will of God is imperfect, piecemeal work. While yet the law urges on me that not so much as one tittle of it must remain unaccomplished. But Christ is the end of the law. What it requires, Christ has performed." And because of this, we can echo that great doxology of the apostle Paul record in Colossians two beginning of verse 14, Christ has "...canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." What a magnificent reality. It is finished. And Luke records his final prayer in Luke 23:46, "'Father into Your hands I commit My spirit.'" Dwight Pentecost, many years ago said this, quote, "Christ did not die because life slowly ebbed from His veins. His life was not taken from Him. Christ died because of an act of His will. He dismissed His soul from His body. Christ was sovereign over His death as He was sovereign over His resurrection."

We come thirdly then to the voluntary surrender. And here we witness the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, and certainly the veracity of the authority of Jesus words, because we must understand, his was a voluntary sacrifice. For example, in Isaiah 53:12, again, we read, "He poured out Himself to death." And Jesus promised in John 10 and verse 18, "'No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative, I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.'" And Luke tells us in Luke 23:46, "'FATHER, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.' Having said this, He breathed His last." As I see this, in my mind's eye, I realize that at that point, the work of redemption was accomplished. Atonement was made for those chosen by God, those whose names had been written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world, the elect of God, Christ's bridal church. The work the Father had given him, was now accomplished. He has now given his life as a ransom for many; the sins of all whom the Father had given him, in eternity past were now paid in full. And Jesus said in John 6:37, "'All that the Father gives Me will come to Me and the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out.'" And all of this was based upon Christ's atoning work.

And for this reason, we can go to Paul's words in First Corinthians one beginning in verse 23. Where he says, "...we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block to Gentiles foolishness." And my, isn't that the truth? You tell people today about the crucifixion of Christ and what happened at the cross, they laugh at you like you've got two heads. "...But to those who are the called..." who are the called  -the elect of God, those chosen by God - "...both Jews and Greeks," christ crucified is "...the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Paul goes on to say, "For consider your calling..." and I thought about this a lot this week as I was meditating on these passages. Consider my calling, that efficacious call of God, when, by the power of his Spirit, he drew me unto himself in the miracle of regeneration. "Consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are..." What we see in this passage is, God has chosen those whom he will call, those whom he will irresistibly compell; again that efficacious call to saving faith. Why would he do that? To shame the wise of the world. And, notice what the text says, "...so that no man may boast before God." I do not share in the glory of my salvation. It's all of grace. And he goes on to say, in verse 26, and following, "But by His doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that just as it is written, 'LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.'"

We must bear in mind here that only those whom God has chosen will believe. Why? Well, according to First Corinthians 2:14, that, "...natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."  Therefore, God must do something. And think about this, while the Lamb of God was on the cross, something was being done. We read about this, for example, in Second Corinthians 5:19, "...God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself..." The "world" here, referring to every ethnic group without distinction, the entire sphere of mankind, not the world without exception; he didn't pay the sins for the whole world, otherwise, no one would go to hell. But he's speaking here of the world without distinction. Then he says, "...not counting..."  or it could be translated, "reckoning," "...their trespasses against them..." So who are those in the world whom God has reconciled to himself through Christ? All those whose trespasses are not counted, are not reckoned, against them. Therefore, all those whom God has declared righteous, because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, the elect of God for whom Christ died. And Paul speaks of this as well in Romans 8: 30, "Those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified, and these whom He justified, He also glorified." My, what a magnificent, unfathomably glorious work of grace that occurred on the cross. And at the end of Second Corinthians 5:19, we read, "...and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation." And my, what a magnificent privilege that is, and responsibility that is, to preach the gospel, in all of it's clarity, and all of its offense.

As we return to Mark 15, verse 37, again, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last." Verse 38, "And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Now, this veil separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies. And it was a perpetual reminder that sinful man cannot enter into the presence of a holy God apart from the shedding of innocent blood. The supernatural ripping would have occurred at 3pm. And that would have been the time when many of the priests were there in the temple, busy making sacrifices. God's timing is always perfect, right? Imagine the shock. You're a priest working in the temple, you're basically covered with blood. There's been three hours of darkness and all of a sudden you look and the veil is ripped from top to bottom. They're horrified because suddenly, they can see into the Holy of Holies. Not only that, at the same time, according to Matthew 27, verse 51, "the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many." Now, the Jewish people, in particular, certainly the priests, were aware that the presence of God was often associated with darkness, as well as with earthquakes. There's many examples of this throughout scripture. But for a moment, I would like to take you into the temple so you can see with your own eyes through the words of eyewitnesses, what it looks like. And here I quote, Josephus, a first century Roman historian, Jewish historian as well. I'm just going to quote a little bit of it. "The entire house was divided into two parts within, it was only the first part of it that was open to our view. Its height extended, all along to 90 cubits in height."  By the way, that's 135 feet. "And its length was 50 cubits." That's 75 feet. "And its breadth 20. But that gate, which was at the end of the first part of the house, was, as we've already observed, all covered with gold, as was its whole wall about it. It had also golden vines above it, from which clusters of grapes hung as tall as a man's height. But then this house, as it was divided into two parts, the inner part was lower than the appearance of the outer and had golden doors 55 cubits altitude." These are golden doors now that are 81 feet high. "And 16 in breadth." They're 16 feet wide. "And before these doors, there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain embroidered with blue and fine linen, and scarlet and purple and of contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but it was a kind of image of the universe. For by the scarlet there seemed to be enigmatically signified fire,by the fine flax; the earth by the blue the air, and by the purple, the sea. Two of them having their colors the foundation of this resemblance, but the fine flax and the purple have their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one in the sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens, accepting that of the 12 signs representing living creatures." End quote. Another Jewish scholar and historian, Edersheim, says this quote, "The veils before the most holy place, were 40 cubits," that's 60 feet long, alright,  60 feet long, "and 20 cubits" that's 30 feet wide. So we're not talking about a little curtain here, all right?  "And they were of the thickness of the palm of the hand, and wrought in 72 squares, which were joined together. And these veils were so heavy, that in the exaggerated language of the time, it needed 300 priests to manipulate each. If the veil was at all such as described in the Talmud, it could have not been rent in twain by a mere earthquake of the fall of the lintel. Although its composition in squares fastened together might explain how the rent might be as described in the Gospel." Amazing, it was rent from top to bottom. Some would like to say because of the earthquake it fell and then it tore into it's not at all what the text says. Another scholar said this, by the name of Shepherd, "Matthew connects the phenomena directly with the death of Jesus, calling attention to the fact that it was rent from top to bottom by God's hand, throwing open thus the Most Holy Place to all men. Previously, only the high priest entered the holy place. And that, once a year on the Day of Atonement, to offer on behalf of himself and the people. Early evangelical tradition held to this supernatural interpretation, which is confirmed for us by the Hebrew epistle. This significant portent was doubtless the explanation for the fact that a great number of priests became Christians in early apostolic time. The way is open now for all men to come boldly to the throne of grace, through the atoning death." End quote.

 And this, of course, is what we read in Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 19, "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way..." Originally that language meant freshly slain, but it's its derivative, meaning is fresh and recent. The idea here is that the way of access is the result of the atoning work of Christ, "...by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great high priest, over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." You see, because of what happened there, access into the presence of God is now available to all who trust in Christ as Savior. We do not need a priest, we do not need a mediator, to come into the presence of God. There is only one mediator between God and man, it's the man Christ Jesus. No more sacrifices, no more ritual ceremonies that look forward prophetically to that which was fulfilled in Christ.

Moreover, as we read in Hebrews four, beginning in verse 15, "...we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Now, you must understand that all of this was utterly inconceivable to the Jewish people. They knew that because God is holy, he is utterly transcendent, he is completely distant, unapproachable. And his dealings with his people, under the Old Covenant,were primarily indirect, not intimately personal. But all of this changed because of what Christ did at the cross. Beloved, if I can make this very practical to you, I know that some of you right here today, some of you, within the sound of my voice, are struggling deeply with issues in your life. Some of you, some of you are struggling with heartbreaking realities. And one of the things that you need right now more than anything else in the world, is God's mercy. And what we're told here is that because of what Christ has done, you have a sympathetic high priest, that can feel what you feel. So often, when people are hurting, others will say, "Boy, I know what you're feeling." No, you don't. I can't know what you feel, I might have some idea, I have something to compare it to. But I don't know what you're feeling. But Jesus does. We have a sympathetic high priest that understands all that we feel. And because of what he did, we can enter into the presence of the living God. And we can enjoy sweet communion with him and experience the fullness of his mercy. This is the priesthood of the believer. Bear in mind, unlike Israel, who collectively had to stand outside the veil and only the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies once a year and then he would disappear from their view, and he would go into the presence of God and they would all be left outside - we see something radically different now. Because of Jesus, we see that Jesus, yes, he has disappeared in his ascension;  he went into the presence of God the Father, he currently intercedes on our behalf, and one day he is going to reappear in all of his glory; but in the meantime, because he entered into the veil - because his flesh was the veil - and we can come into the presence of God and because we are united to him, we have access into the divine presence right now, if you have trusted in Christ as your Savior.

Finally, will you notice the awestruck reactions? In verse 39, "When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!'" Can you imagine witnessing all of this and standing right there, in front of Jesus? Luke 23:47 and following, "Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, 'Certainly this man was innocent.'" And then we read this, "And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts." Now, what was the motivation for that? Well, certainly in their culture, that was a sign of intense grief. Many times, it was just a superficial response. Maybe some of them were genuinely concerned, because what they had witnessed with the darkness, the earthquake. Certainly they must have been saying, "what has just happened here?" The centurion, along with other soldiers, and many onlookers were fully aware of Jesus' innocence. But now to experience all of this? Remember, Mark's primary audience in his Gospel, would be the Gentiles, primarily Roman believers. And what is happening now is he is setting the stage for what's going to occur at Pentecost, after Christ's resurrection, when many of them will hear the truth summarized in Peter's great sermon, recorded in Acts two beginning in verse 22. I'll read you a portion of it. There he said, "'Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus, the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know - this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men, and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.'" And as you read on in Acts two and following, you read the rest of the story, many 1000s came to faith in Christ, and it continues on and on today, as Christ builds his church.

Back to Mark 15, verse 40, "There were also some women looking at on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene..." Remember Mary Magdalene was the one that had the seven demons that Jesus cast out; my what a testimony. Won't it be great to speak with her someday and hear her extol the glories of Christ? "...Also Mary the mother of James the Less..." He was one of the 12, "...and Joses and Salome." That was the wife of Zebedee, the mother of James and John, and also the sister of Jesus' mother, Mary. These were obviously women that loved Jesus deeply.

Verse 41, "When He was in Galilee, they used to follow Him and ministered to Him; and there were many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. "You know, every time I think of this passage, I thank God for faithful, godly, loving women in my life. And this church is filled with them. And in that I rejoice. Little did these women understand that in just a little bit, they would see an empty tomb. Oh what a joy must have filled their heart on that resurrection day. And you know, that's the joy that awaits all of us who know and love Christ.

Indeed dear friends, hell came to Calvary, but it will never come to anyone who has put their faith in Christ as Savior. But it will be the eternal abode of those who don't. And so I plead with you as a minister of the gospel, get serious about your relationship to the living God. Have you truly been broken over your sin and come to him and cried out for the mercy that he will grant you, all because of what Christ has done on the cross, or will you continue to live for yourself, and one day hear him say to you "depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you." Hallelujah what a Savior, amen? Hallelujah what a Savior. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the magnificent truths that we have just read, and as we as we contemplate them, our hearts are just overwhelmed with a sense of sorrow and grief, knowing what you endured; especially knowing that you endured those things on our behalf. And when we think of the implications of this, for our life and for eternity, all we can say is thank you, Lord Jesus. And come quickly. And we pray this in the name of Jesus and for his sake. Amen.

Our verse-by-verse journey through Mark's gospel now brings us to Mark chapter 15. We will be looking at verses 16 through 32 as we examine the crucifixion of our Lord. Next week, we will continue beyond the text today in examining the same. Let me read the text to you. Mark 15, beginning in verse 16.

"The soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort.

They dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; and they began to acclaim Him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!'

They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him.

After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.

They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.

Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.

They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it.

And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take.

It was the third hour when they crucified Him.

The inscription of the charge against Him read,

'THE KING OF THE JEWS.'

They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left.

[And the scripture was fulfilled which says, 'And He was numbered with transgressors.']

Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, 'Ha, You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

save Yourself and come down from the cross!'

In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves and saying, 'He saved others; He cannot save Himself.

Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!' Those who were crucified with Him, were also insulting Him."

I'm sure you join me in saying that I recoil at such savage cruelty that can only flow from the poisoned well of human depravity and the power of Satan. You think about it, no animal would dare do something like this to others and their species. This is of wickedness that is supernatural. And it's sad that there are people today that would still enjoy doing these kinds of things, especially to Christians. From the outside, I would like to ask you a question, why did Jesus suffer and die on the cross? And how you answer this question will really determine two things: one, how much real and lasting joy you will experience over the course of your life? But secondly, it will determine the destiny of your soul for eternity. And I wish to answer this question from the outset. For only then will you be able to somehow grasp and internalize the horrific cruelty that Jesus willingly endured on behalf of all who would trust in Him for salvation.

Why did Jesus suffer and die on the cross? The answer is to be a substitutionary sacrifice in which he would bear the penalty of sin in his own body for sinners; that they might be forgiven; that they might be reconciled to a holy God. The apostle Paul puts it this way in Second Corinthians 5:21, "He made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." The crucifixion pictures, dear friends, what we deserve but what Christ endured on our behalf. It is at the very heart of the concept of the atonement. In the atonement, justice and mercy come together. Atonement really is characterized by four truths referenced throughout Scripture: there must be a sacrifice, to remove the guilt and penalty of sin; there must be propitiation to remove the wrath incurred by sin; and there must be reconciliation, to remove the alienation and enmity caused by sin. And then finally, there must be redemption; redemption from the bondage of sin and the curse of the law upon us. This is what we witness in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And I asked you, is your faith anchored in the finished work of Christ on the cross? Is he your substitute? Or are you content to ignore all of that, and pay for your own sins throughout eternity? My goal this morning is to help sinners see their need for the Savior, but also to help saints contemplate the glory of Christ and his infinite love for us. And in so doing, challenge each of us to learn to love and serve him more. And I must say that central to all of this is knowing the reality, the fact that Jesus knew you from all eternity, so that when he went to the cross, you were on his heart and mind. The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 139, beginning in verse 16, "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, Oh, God, how vast is the sum of them." You must remember, dear friends, that Jesus suffered on the cross with the full knowledge of who you were and what you would one day be. As your Creator, he was aware of the color of your eyes, the color of your hair, the shape of your face, the color of your skin, the sound of your voice, and the sins that you would commit against him. And as we see in Scripture, the redeemed were basically a love gift from the Father to the Son, his bridal church, because everyone that comes to faith in Christ had their name written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. It was for you that he suffered and died. It was your sin that he bore in his body on the cross. His was an actual, not a potential atonement. He did not die to merely make salvation possible for those who might believe. No, he died to actually save those who were predestined to believe. He died for those whom the Father had given him, the elect of God. In Isaiah 53 verse five we read that, "He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed." It does not say that we were made healable; if we meet certain conditions, that would somehow activate a hypothetically universal atonement. "By his wounds you were healed." Peter says the same thing in First Peter 2:24.

Let me remind you that in scripture we read, that in eternity past, God set his love upon certain individuals, solely because of his good pleasure. He chose them to be saved from sin and damnation and to inherit the blessings of eternal life through the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, we read in Ephesians, one beginning in verse four, "...He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." He goes on to say, "In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Christ, Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will..." He went on to add, "In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us." You see, the Father gave specific individuals to the Son, that He might accomplish their redemption. And he would be a substitutionary sacrifice for a particular people and his atoning work would be efficacious for all those who the Father had given him. John six, beginning in verse 37, Jesus said, "'All that the Father gives Me will come to Me.'" He went on to add, "'...I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me that I should lose nothing, of all that He has given Me.'" In John 17, in the garden, as he poured out his heart before the Father, preparing to go to the cross on our behalf, we read beginning in verse one, lifting up his eyes to heaven, He said, "'Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.'" And he went on to add in verse 24, "'Father, I desire that also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved me before the foundation of the world.'"

So as we reflect upon the hideous cruelty of the cross, I trust that this will cause us all to bow down with utmost humility and behold, the Son of God accomplishing the redemption of all whom the Father had given him in eternity past. And again, I say that this was an actual, definite atonement. Now, some will say, for example, in First John two two, it says, "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but also for those of the whole world." The Universalist will say that what Jesus did on the cross paid the penalty for everybody, so everyone goes to heaven. That cannot be the case and Scripture refutes that everywhere. What he's referring to there is that the world speaks of all those without distinction, not all without exception. I might add that the context of that text is that John was confronting false teachers, promoting perfectionism and Gnosticism; that somehow only the Gnostics had the secret knowledge to gain spiritual victory. And so John repudiates those errors of exclusivism saying, essentially, that Christ is not the propitiation for our sins only, not just for Jews or just for Gentiles, for Gnostics, and not Christians, or believers in Asia Minor rather than the rest of the world. No, no, no, no. He is the propitiation for the sins of God's people that are scattered throughout the entire world. John 11, I believe verse 51, and following speaks of the same wonder of wonders, dear friends. Jesus said that I came to save people from their sins, Matthew 1:21, not to make them saveable. He did not make a provisional atonement, but an actual atonement. That's why on the cross, he said "'It is finished.'" Not, "It is possible." Redemption was accomplished. Our great high priest actually made purification for sins and with his work completed, he sat down; Hebrews one three. He gave "'...His life as a ransom for many'"; not for all, but for many, Matthew 20:28. And Paul says in Romans five, beginning in verse eight, we have, "...been justified by His blood..." Went on to say, "...while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His son."

Now, from the outset, I'm rehearsing some of this great theology to impress upon you the astounding reality of the sovereign grace and love of God, and the infinite love that he lavished upon you, at the cross, and continues to do so. As I was reflecting upon this, my mind went to an old hymn by Augustus Toplady. I found the verse, it was verse two, "A fountain of never ceasing grace." There was a phrase in there that I remembered from years ago. And the lyrics go like this, "In Thee we have a righteousness by God Himself approved; our rock, our shore foundation, this which never can be moved. Our ransom by the death was paid for all Thy people given; the law, now perfectly obeyed, that they might enter heaven." So dear friends, if you've trusted in Christ, as your Savior today, know that it was for you that he suffered and died.

Now to examine the text this morning, I want to do so under four categories that I hope will be helpful for you. We're going to first of all, look at the calloused comedy, then the cruel cross. Thirdly, the contemptuous charge and finally the celebrated conversions. Now remember the context, Jesus has been mocked, he has been beaten, he's been spat upon, he has been abandoned. And though he was found in innocent, Pilate yielded to the Jewish outcry to avoid an insurrection and get himself in trouble once again with Caesar. So he had Jesus scourged an unimaginably painful torture that typically killed most people. So by now, Jesus' back was shredded, literally to the bone. And with that in mind, we come to verse 16.

"The soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is the Praetorium), and they call together the whole Roman cohort." There will be an audience now of about 600 men. "They dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; and they began to acclaim Him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' They kept beating His head with a reed and spitting on Him and kneeling and bowing before Him." This brings us to the first point, and that is the calloused comedy. Again, here we witness the depths of human depravity do we not? These satanically inspired haters of God. You know, to take pleasure in torturing an innocent victim; to somehow delight in inflicting pain on someone; to revel over the unimaginable sufferings of a helpless individual is the lowest level of humanity. It is the most vile manifestation of human wickedness. I mean, these people were literally depraved sociopaths. And sadly, our world is filled with them today. They even exist in our government. And yet Jesus suffered all of this for you. And for me; those who the Father had given him.

Verse 20, "After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him." So here is this mock coronation, if you will, of the King of kings. Inconceivable. And sadly, this is how many people view the Lord Jesus Christ today. He's just a joke. You tell people today that he is the King of kings and Lord of lords, that he's returning again, and they laugh at you. They laugh at him. Now, none of this caught Jesus by surprise. He predicted this, as you may recall, in Mark 10 verse 34, where he said, "'They will mock Him and spit on Him and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later, He will rise again.'" We read a similar prophecy, given many, many years earlier in Isaiah 50, beginning in verse six, "I gave My back to those who strike Me and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord GOD helps Me; therefore I am not disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed."

John gives us further insight in John 19, beginning in verse one. There we read, "Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head and put a purple robe on Him. And they began to come up to Him and say, 'Hail, Oh, King of the Jews!' and to give Him slaps in the face.'" Unimaginable cruelty. Verse 4, "Pilate came out again and said to them, 'Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.' Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, 'Behold, the Man!'" He was in hopes that somehow the Jews would see this pathetic creature and have mercy on him and be satisfied to allow him to let him go. But instead, verse six, we read, "When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, 'Crucify, crucify!' Pilate said to them, 'Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no fault, no guilt in Him.'"

Now back to Mark 15, the end of verse 20, "And they lead Him out to crucify Him." The word "out" is important here. We know according to Numbers, 15, verse 35, that executions were always done outside the city. But the writer of Hebrews gives us additional insight in Hebrews 13, beginning with verse 11, we read "For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp." You see, it was outside the camp of the Israelites where refuse was burned. It was the garbage dump where dangerous, wild animals roam. Those who lived outside the camp were the diseased. That's where the lepers lived; those considered unclean. It was a place of disgrace. A place of abandonment, of humiliation. It's where blasphemers and Sabbath breakers were executed. And the same was true outside the gate of Jerusalem. That's where the poorest of the poor live; the outcast, the harlots, the lepers. These are people that lived essentially in perpetual despair. People that were shunned by their family. It would have been heartbreaking to live there, especially for the lepers, who would walk around lamenting, saying, "unclean, unclean, unclean," so that no one would get near them. It was a place for people who don't want to go on living but are afraid to die. It was a place where people had no hope, no joy, no life. No faith because they had no Christ. How sad. What a picture of sinners for whom Christ died, right? He died for us "outside the camp."

Verse 12, of Hebrews 13 goes on to say, "Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate." You see, even as the remains of the sin sacrifices that were offered on the holy place were burned outside the camp, so too Jesus was sacrificed "outside the gate."

Verse 13, goes on to add, "So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach." By the way, this carries the idea of, let's separate ourselves from any religious or worldly ideology in opposition to Christ. Especially in that context, that would include the Levitical system; live outside the camp of the old covenant of Israel. You want to ask yourself, "Do I live outside the camp where grace abounds? Do I choose rather to stay inside the camp where law condemns."

So after mocking Jesus with their callous comedy, Mark simply says at the end of verse 20, "And they led Him out to crucify Him." This brings us now to the second point, and that is the cruel cross. John adds this in John 19:17, "They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross." Now, this would have been the horizontal cross beam, that one would bear upon their back. And imagine now, Jesus' skin and muscles and tendons and ligaments were ripped and exposed. And he had to bear this burden. He obviously couldn't do it for long.

Verse 21, "They pressed into service..." this is from Mark 15, "They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene.." That would have been Northern Africa, which is essentially Libya today. And then in parentheses, it says, "(the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross." Now, while this would have been a random selection, it was indeed a providential appointment. It would appear because of the way Mark wrote this, that these names were familiar to the church there in Rome. Mark's audience must have been familiar with them. In fact, we read in Romans 16, verse 13, the Apostle Paul says, "Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother." And so Simon and his wife, and perhaps the whole family, came to faith in Christ.

Verse 22, of Mark 15, "Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull." Now, this was no doubt a common place for crucifixions. A place where the holes had already been dug. It would have been a place of high visibility because the Romans like to crucify people where everybody would gather or walk by, to see what would happen if you somehow cross Rome. The word "skull" in the Latin is "calvaria," we get our word "calvary" from that. And this was outside Jerusalem's northern wall near the Damascus Gate. There's a rocky hill there that resembles a skull, we don't know for sure why it was called the Place of the Skull. Much of that is speculation. scripture doesn't really say.

Verse 23, goes on to say, "They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it." Now, bear in mind that the disciples have abandoned him. But there was a great multitude of people, we know, that we're following him. In fact, in Luke 23, verse 27, we read, "And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him." Now, this doesn't mean that they were disciples of Jesus; there probably worse some, but it was their custom to pay women to mourn when someone was going to the cross, or to mourn at a funeral. And probably someone, or several of them in that company, offered him the painkiller, and it was common for the Jews to offer myrrh to these poor victims going to crucifixion because it was an an analgesic, a narcotic. He also used it for anointing oil and for perfume and for other things. And they were used to doing this because historically by this time, Rome had already crucified about 30,000 people in Israel alone. And after the fall of Jerusalem and ad 70, the Romans ran out of wood to make crosses, they crucified so many people.

And I'm deeply moved by the fact that though Jesus was offered something to reduce the pain, he refused to do anything that would alleviate the agony of his suffering on our behalf. But rather, he would drink to the bitter dregs the full cup of divine wrath that the Father had given him, all because of his obedience to the Father and his love for all whom the Father had given him.

As a footnote, Jesus's response to the mourning women is quite remarkable. We read about it in Luke 23, verse 28, and following, "But Jesus turning to them said, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming, when they will say, "blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have never bore, and the breasts that have never nursed, then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, 'FALL ON US,' AND TO THE HILLS, 'COVER US.'" for if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?'" That was probably a common proverb; the green wood would be a reference to the young and the strong, the source of life, pointing to Jesus. And the dry wood would speak of the old and the barren and ready to be burned wood; ready to be burned and judgment, focusing primarily on the Jewish nation.

You realize that this would have been Jesus last sermon, a warning. A warning concerning the coming slaughter that would be a few years later, when the Romans came in, and destroyed Jerusalem. But it was also a prophecy that covered a much wider spectrum concerning the judgment upon all, who in their blasphemous unbelief, reject Christ and indulge themselves in the fleeting pleasures of this world over a Savior. Think about this, to pause, to focus in the midst of all of his pain, to break his long silence while enduring such unspeakable agony, and then out of love for them, to give them that sober warning. For indeed, as promised, a day is coming when according to Revelation 19, beginning in verse 15, "From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh, he has a name written, 'KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.'"

So Mark simply says, and "And they crucified Him..." According to verse 25, we know that this is nine o'clock in the morning. Jesus has been up all night he's gone through all of those trials, all of the scourging all of this wickedness. As I began to put some thoughts down to describe crucifixion, I found that I could not improve upon John MacArthur's description. Let me read it to you. "Crucifixion was a prolonged form of dying designed to induce maximum suffering and pain. When the condemned criminal arrived at the place of execution, he was forced onto his back and nailed to the cross as it lay on the ground. The nails measuring five to seven inches long and resembling modern railroad spikes, were driven through the wrists rather than the palms of the hand in order to support the full weight of the victims slumping body. The victim's feet were then secured with a single spike, with the knees bent so that he could push himself up in order to breathe. The nails would tear through the nerves and the wrists and feet, causing severe bolts of pain throughout the victims impaled arms and legs. The cross was then slowly raised until it was vertical. The foot of the cross was subsequently dropped into place in a deep posthole, landing with a reverberating thud that sent excruciating pain jolting through the victim's body. Thought the wounds from the nails caused severe agony they were not intended to be fatal. The normal cause of death was slow suffocation. The hanging position of the body constricted the diaphragm which made it impossible to breathe. In order to get air the victim had to push himself up, placing his weight on the nail wounds in his feet and wrists, and rubbing his lacerated back against the rough wood of the cross. As the victim grew tired, experienced muscle spasms, and became overwhelmed by the pain, his ability to breathe was increasingly hindered. As a result, carbon dioxide would build up in his bloodstream, and he would eventually suffocate to death. If needed, soldiers could hasten asphyxiation by breaking the victim's legs." End court quote.

Once again, to think to dear friends, that he specifically, really, not hypothetically, not potentially, but actually bore my sins and your sins on that tree. I never stopped marveling at so great a salvation. As I think about it, mankind has never devised a more brutal form of torture. The invention of this instrument of death could only be inspired by Satan, who was a murderer from the beginning and what delight he must have had at the sight. But his delight will only add to the eternal torment that awaits him and awaits all who would mock the Lord Jesus.

Verse 24, "And they crucified Him and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take." We read this prophesied in Psalm 22:18, "They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing, they cast lots." You can just see this little group of soldiers doing this; granite indifference towards what's really going on. This was just another day at the office for them. Certain soldiers had that particular duty.

And verse 25, says, "It was the third hour of which they crucified Him." That would have been 9am. The Jews would count hours of the day beginning at six. So this is the third hour. And again, bear in mind, dear friends that just the night before, Jesus was celebrating Passover with his disciples, and now he is the Passover lamb. I marvel at the Savior's love in his heart of forgiveness, even for those inflicting such unspeakable pain upon him. It's amazing how his heart was still filled with love and forgiveness, not condemnation or revenge. Luke tells us in Luke 9:56, that "'... the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.'" And we read in Luke 23, verse 34, how he prayed for forgiveness for his tormentors. He said, "'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.'" I'm not exactly sure in the sequence when he said this. I think JC Ryle probably has it right. Here's what he said, quote, "These words, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,' were probably spoken while our Lord was being nailed to the cross, or as soon as the cross was reared up on end. It is worthy of remark that as soon as the blood of the great sacrifice began to flow, the great high priest began to intercede. Do you see the glory of that?" He says, "Although Christ is the sovereign, eternal, omnipotent god, he did not threaten he did not condemn. He did not pronounce doom on his crucifiers. Instead of lashing out against him, he prayed for them." Amazing. He willingly submitted to this kind of indignity, and injustice, and torture. He willingly surrendered his life without resistance, without retaliation, all the while, praying that the Father would be merciful to them and forgive them.

My mind goes to what God says in Isaiah 55. The context here is, the infinite mercy and grace and love of God is beyond anything we can comprehend. There we read beginning in verse eight of Isaiah 55, "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts then your thoughts.'"

Well, we've seen the catalyst comedy and the cruel cross, thirdly, notice the contemptuous charge. It's the inscription mentioned in verse 26, "The inscription of the charge against Him read, 'THE KING OF THE JEWS.' John gives us some additional insights here, this very helpful to tell us really what was going on and the reaction of the Jewish leaders. John 19, verse 19, we read, "Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, 'JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.' Therefore, many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, 'Do not write the King of the Jews;’ but that He said, "I am King of the Jews."' Pilate answered, 'What I have written I have written.'" In other words, this was a deliberate insult to the Jews. He knew that this would be extremely offensive to them, it would be a mockery of them; this would be his way of gaining revenge against them for the way that they blackmailed him and essentially forced him to kill an innocent man so that they could maintain their power and their prestige. But isn't it interesting, the inscription was, in fact true.

And Mark says, "They crucified..." verse 27, "...two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left." We'll talk about that more probably next week. And then in verse 28, it says, "[And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'And he was numbered with transgressors."] Now, just as a note, here, there is insufficient textual support for this particular verse, it may not even be in some of your translations. It's not found in the earliest manuscripts, and it was therefore, probably not part of Mark's original gospel. So some translations leave it out completely. Others will bracket it. That said, the statement does reflect Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 53, verse 12, where we read, "He was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors."

Back to verse 29, of Mark 15, "Those passing by, were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, 'Ha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself and come down from the cross!' In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves and saying, 'He saved others; He cannot save Himself. Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!' Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him."

It's important to note that this was predicted in Psalm 22. That was a psalm, that is a psalm of lament, A psalm of thanksgiving. But it's often called a psalm of the cross. In fact, all four gospels appeal to its imagery describing Christ's crucifixion. We understand it first in the context of David describing his suffering, but ultimately it pointed to David's greater son, greater King, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Psalm 22, verse seven we read, "'All who see me sneer at me; they separate with the lip.." That was an idiom for sneering. "...They separate with the lip, they wag the head..." --which signifies rejection and astonishment; these are all gestures of contempt-- "...saying, commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver Him, let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.'" You know, I find myself again just wanting to turn away from the horror of the scene in my mind. Somehow the cruelty of this kind of derisive gloating just exceeds all others, given his very real experience later on, when he was forsaken by the Father. I mean, Satan knows exactly where to aim his arrows, does he not? He knows exactly how to inflict the greatest wounds that have doubt and discouragement--"I wonder if God is really who he says he is." "I wonder if I can survive all of this." Some of you are probably in that situation today. That's what the enemy would have you to believe. Charles Spurgeon said, "Here the talk is cruelly aimed at the sufferer’s faith; faith in God, which is the tenderest point in a good man soul. The very apple of his eye. They must have learned the diabolical art from Satan himself, for they made rare proficiency in it. According to Matthew 27:39 through 44, there were five forms of taunt hurled at the Lord Jesus. This special piece of mockery is probably mentioned in this psalm, because it is the most bitter of the whole." Spurgeon adds, "It was a biting, sarcastic irony in it, which gives it a bit peculiar venom. It must have stung the man of sorrows to the quick. When we are tormented in the same manner, let us remember Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, and we shall be comforted."

And again, I think, Oh my, how fully did the Savior divest himself of his glory while on the cross. And we come back again, and we say, my, why would the Lord suffer such infinite scorn and pain? Dear friends, the reason is because he bore our sin. And it's because sin is worthy of utmost contempt, and infinite scorn. Beloved, we would all do well to reevaluate the reproach we deserve because of the sins we love. And we will complain far less of the ridicule that we receive knowing what the Savior endured on our behalf. You know, even if Jesus had performed some miracle like they were wanting; even if he had come down off of the cross, they still wouldn't have believed. You know, they wanted a sign. They got one three days later, did they not? When he rose from the dead, and what did they do? They didn't fall down and worship Him. They bribed soldiers to tell a lie and say that the disciples stole his body. Beloved, the only power that can save a sinner, that can cause a person to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is the miracle of regeneration. A Spirit wrought miracle in the soul of a person, causing them to be born again, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, through His Word. And like all unbelievers, the mocking chief priests and scribes, willfully chose not to believe in spite of all of the miracles that they even witnessed.

In fact, Jesus said in Luke 16:31, "'If they did not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'" The same is true today. That's why the only thing that will change a person's heart is the gospel. In all of its fullness, and all of its purity, in all of its power--that's what the Spirit of God uses to either hardened hearts or soften hearts. That is his prerogative. So we unleash the gospel and let God do what only He can do.

Well, finally in closing, we look at the celebrated conversions. And I'm amazed by all of the saving grace that's occurring even in the midst of this tragedy. We read, for example, in Luke 23, verse 39, and following, "One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him saying, 'Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!' But the other answered, and rebuking him said, 'Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.' And he was saying, 'Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!' Jesus said to him, 'Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.'" A celebrated conversion.

Likewise, later on, we know that the Spirit of God moved upon the heart of a centurion, probably a number of the soldiers, we don't know. But it is recorded in Mark 15:39, "When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, 'Truly, this man was the Son of God!'"

And then we know 50 days later, after the resurrection, was Pentecost--the birth of the church--and we read how 3000 souls were added to the church that day, according to Acts two. And then we go into Acts four, and we read about 5000 more, and it just keeps going and going and going. And you know, many of those who were saved, for example, at Pentecost would have been the same ones that had been mocking him at his crucifixion. And later, we know of a violent Pharisee, who on the road to Damascus, was confronted with the glory of the living Christ. The apostle Paul—later became the Apostle Paul, and there he was radically saved and remember what he told Timothy, and First Timothy one, in verse 12. And by the way, this could be my testimony, and I'm sure yours, "I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason, I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life."

Friends, I would ask you, what have you done with Jesus? Have you embraced Him as your Savior and Lord, acknowledging your sin, coming to him in repentant faith? Or do you mock Him with your mouth? Or perhaps mock him with your indifference? If that is the case, I plead with you today, to examine your heart and cry out for God to save you by his grace. For all of us, may I remind you again. Why did Jesus suffer and die on the cross? To be a substitutionary sacrifice in which he would bear the penalty of the sin of sinners in his body, that they might be forgiven and reconciled to a holy God, all those whom the Father had given him in eternity past. I pray this is true of you. If not, I plead with you to come to faith in Christ. And then with all the saints you could sing that great refrain, "Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin it left a crimson stain, He washed it, white as snow."

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the glory of the cross and what that means to us. And I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will speak to each heart and do that work of grace that only you can do. And we will be careful that in all things Christ will have the preeminence as we await that day, when we see him face to face and his name I pray, Amen.

I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "Satanic Jurisprudence" and hopefully that title will make more sense, as we see it manifested in the text before us, which is in Mark chapter 15; Mark chapter 15, as we continue to go through Mark's gospel verse by verse. Let me read the passage, beginning in verse one and going through verse 15.

"Early in the morning, the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole Council, immediately held a consultation; and binding Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate.

Pilate questioned him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' And He answered him, 'It is, as you say.'

The chief priests began to accuse Him harshly.

Then Pilate questioned Him again saying, 'Do You not answer? See how many charges they bring against You?'

But Jesus made no further answer; so Pilate was amazed.

Now at the feast he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested.

The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists, who had committed murder and the insurrection.

The crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them.

Pilate answered them, saying, 'Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?'

For he was aware that the chief priest had handed Him over because of envy.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead.

Answering again, Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?'

They shouted back, 'Crucify Him!'

But Pilate said to them, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Crucify Him!'

Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified."

According to First John five and verse 19, we are told that, "We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is in the power of the evil one." The world, the cosmos; in this context, the orderly system of satanic control, the sphere, the domain of his influence; where he does everything, he possibly can, to thwart the purposes of God in redemption to ultimately bring glory to God. He is indeed the evil one, Satan, the devil. Jesus referred to him as "the ruler of this world" in John 14. And speaking of unbelievers, Jesus declared in John eight, verse 44, and following, "You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

There are only two kinds of people that exist in the world. Those who love the world and are therefore the willing slaves of Satan, even though perhaps unwitting, and those who hate the things of this world, and are therefore by God's grace, the willing slaves of God himself. In First John two beginning in verse 15, we are told his believers, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." In other words, all of the places and things and people that are in this world, that surround us, that influence us; those things that appeal to our sinful flesh and draw us away from an intimate knowledge and fellowship and service of the living God, all of those things are going to disappear. But those are the things of the world that you must avoid. And thankfully, according to what we are told in Colossians, one and verse 13, God has "rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son."

Friends, what we see in our passage here today, in this historical narrative, is a clash between these two domains--the domain of Satan, the kingdom of Satan that is in this world, and the kingdom of Christ that is not in this world. As we examine the details of this horrific injustice, we will not only see the many parallels in our own culture, and our own country, but we will also see remnants of our own unredeemed flesh. In fact, may I remind you, never examine this historical narrative in isolation, as if it is just some ancient chronicle of antiquity or whatever. But rather, be quick to see the infinite perfections of Christ portrayed in it, and how those things relate to your life in union with Him. If you cannot see yourself in the characters of this narrative, you will never accurately see Christ.

Now I wish to expose it this passage under three progressive characteristics of depravity that not only emerge from the text, as we will see, but also emerge from the depraved machinations of human beings. First, we will see in phase one, mocking sarcasm of Christ. That will move to phase two, depraved humiliation of Christ. And then in phase three, we will see the physical torture of Christ. Both scripture and history give testimony to this progressive, satanic wickedness that was inflicted upon Christ and all who belong to Him. In fact, the Lord tells us in Matthew 10, and verse 22, "you will be hated by all because of My name." And as believers, we see that being manifested more and more in our culture. But also in John 15, beginning in verse 18, Jesus said, "'If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Because of this, the world hates you.'" And as we will see, that hatred will move through this kind of progression. From mocking to disdain to violence; this has always been Satan's strategy.

Now, let me remind you of the context here. Jesus, of course, has been arrested, the disciples have fled. Three ecclesiastical trials have been conducted the first one with Annas, the former high priest, but the one who frankly wielded the sacerdotal influence amongst the Jews of that day; the power of the Sanhedrin. And he was an aged, tyrannical, worldly, Sadducee, that enjoyed prominence and enjoyed all of the influence that went with his title. And he was also friends with the Herod’s and the Roman pro creators and so forth. He was like the mafia Don, and he was the one that held the greatest malice against Jesus, because Jesus interrupted his illicit commercial enterprise in the temple precincts with all of the money changing, and so forth.

In fact, I might also add that as we look at history, most of the people detested Annas and his family. And certainly, they despise the Romans that supported them. Jesus has also had a hearing before Caiaphas, that was Annas; son in law, the current high priest who also benefited from the greedy gains of his father-in-law. And Caiaphas feared that Jesus might stir up the populace and stirred them up against the Sanhedrin and against the Romans and therefore threaten their position. And then finally, they have had the trial with Jesus--illegal trial--that was convened in the Sanhedrin early in the morning. And as we have examined, those proceedings were undoubtedly the greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of civilization. This, dear friends, is the example of satanic jurisprudence, the phony and false indictment against the Son of God, resulting in the sham trials, the false accusations of witnesses that lead ultimately to the predetermined sentence of death.

Now also bear in mind that during this whole time of these three trials with Jesus, Peter has been exposed and he has denied knowing Jesus or knowing anything about Jesus, three times. And then the Lord gazed at him and caused him to be overwhelmed with guilt and he has now felt the shame and the sorrow that he needed to feel, and he has repented. So, Jesus now has been humiliated. He has been hooded, he has been beaten, he has been mocked, he has been spat upon. And bear in mind now he's been up all night long. And he has also sweat drops of blood in the garden. According to John 18, verse 28, we read that shortly after dawn, the Sanhedrinists quote, "led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the Passover." Oh, the deceptive power of religious hypocrisy. Astounding, isn't it? They abhorred ceremonial defilement that might prevent them from being able to eat the Passover meal that night, but they cared nothing about shedding innocent blood.

You know, self-serving false religionists, as well as politicians, for the most part, care only for themselves, not for the truth, not for the people; only their own power and prestige. So with this, now we come to our text in verse one of Mark 15, "Early in the morning, the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole Council, immediately held a consultation; and binding Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate." Now they had to deliver Him to Pilate, before the people in the city began to stir, it's still early in the morning. Bear in mind that Jesus's hands would have been tied behind his back, they would have had a rope around his neck and they would have had to have traveled from what was called the Hall of Meeting, where they would have met over a large bridge spanning the Valley of Tyropoeon, which is also called the Central Valley, it ran along the eastern wall of the Temple Mount. And so this would have been a horrible spectacle for anybody to behold, but especially if there was a large crowd of people. So they hurry now, and they take him to Pilate.

Moreover, bear in mind, and this again exposes their hypocrisy, they needed the crucifixion to be over by the beginning of the Sabbath, which commenced at sundown on Friday. In fact, we read about this in John 19, verse 31, "Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for the Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away." I mean, once again, more evidence of the depths of this kind of depraved, fanatical hypocrisy. So with the seared conscience of a demonized sociopath, they could somehow justify the torturous murder of an innocent man, the Son of God, but his crucified body had to be removed before the Sabbath, so as not to violate the Sabbath and somehow fall into sin. So they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and in John 18, verse 29, we read, "Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, 'What accusation do you bring against this Man?' They answered and said to him, 'If this Man were not an evil doer, we would not have delivered Him to you.' So Pilate said to them, 'Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law." The Jews said to him, 'We are not permitted to put anyone to death.' And then John adds this, '...to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die."

So back to Mark 15, verse two, "Pilate questioned Him, 'Are you the King of the Jews?' And He answered him, 'It is as you say.'' Here we come to the first phase that I would call: mocking sarcasm of Christ. Bear in mind your friends, Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lord of hosts, is standing before this petty little tyrant Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, appointed by Emperor Tiberius in ad 26. His face is bruised and swollen and bloodied, like his garments. And yet there he stands, the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, all alone, to be judged by a creature that he created. It's an astounding thought, is it not? And with mocking sarcasm, Pilate question him, "'Are you the king of the Jews?'" In the original, the pronoun "you" is placed at the beginning of the phrase, as if Pilate were saying, "You're the king of the Jews?" "You are the king of the Jews?" Really what a joke. Dear friends, they mocked him then as they mock him now.

Let me give you a little historical background on Pilate, so that you understand what would have been going on in his mind. Pilate hated the Jews, but he also feared them because he didn't want another insurrection. In fact, Philo of Alexandria, he was a Jewish philosopher and Hellenistic theologian of that era. He described Pilate's character by quoting a letter from Agrippa the First to Caligula were Agrippa called him quote, "inflexible, merciless and obstinate." Not the kind of guy you want to be judging you right? Now Pilate's haughty violence against the Jews had gotten him into hot water with Caesar before in the past. For example, soon after he was installed as the procurator, he instructed his Roman soldiers to bring the Silver Eagles and other insignia of the Legions from Caesarea into Jerusalem, and to sneak them in by cover of darkness. And he defiled the temple by putting these golden shields inscribed with the images and the names of Roman deities in the temple. Well, obviously, when the Jews found out they were apoplectic, absolutely enraged. This was idolatry. This was profaning the temple. And history tells us that for five days and nights, they surrounded Pilate's residence in Caesarea, often lying prostate on the bare ground and threatening to storm the residence. And on the sixth day, the soldiers surrounded them, and Pilate threatened to massacre all of them, but they would not desist and so he thought, you know, I better back off or I'm gonna get in trouble here. But this just fueled his already existing abhorrence for the Jews.

On another occasion, Pilate used some of the same money that was used in the sacred treasury of the temple to build an aqueduct. Well, this enflamed, the Jews and 1000s protested. And when the mob refused to disperse, he instructed many of his soldiers to dress as if they were part of the mob, as if they were Jews, and to infiltrate the crowd, and to use daggers and kill the ringleaders and also use staves, or like billy clubs to beat many of them and many died in that milieu. Many were beaten, many were crushed by the fleeing mob. And on yet another occasion he hung some shields dedicated to Tiberius in the Herodian palace at Jerusalem [cough..."excuse me"] where he stayed during the festivals. And the Jewish leaders wrote a letter of complaint to Tiberius himself because they were so offended. And when Tiberius got this complaint, he's like oh, here we go again. This guy Pilate, he's causing trouble, and so, in order to avoid an insurrection, we read how Tiberius reprimanded Pilate, had the shields taken down and transferred from Jerusalem to the Temple of Augustus at Caesarea. I might add as a footnote, eventually, the act that led to Pilate's removal from office was when he had his calvary attack and kill many Jews who were following some false prophet as they were ascending Mount Gerizim to find some sacred vessels that they believe Moses had hidden up there. And Pilate was eventually then banished to Gaul, which would have been Western Europe, especially France, in that day, and he died of suicide. And now he's in hell.

So a little background, and the point with all of this is to say, Pilate hated the Jews. But he lived in constant dread of an insurrection, which did eventually cost him his position. So back to verse two, "Pilate questioned Him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' And He answered him, 'It is as you say.' The chief priests began to accuse Him harshly." Now, bear in mind, the Jewish leaders were hoping the Pilate would just rubber stamp their sentence of death for blasphemy, a sentence that they couldn't carry out. But they also knew that the Romans would laugh at this idea, well, he blaspheme God. They didn't believe in any of that anyway. So they needed to come up with something else that would somehow cause the Romans to charge him. They needed to demonstrate how Jesus was basically a revolutionary that he was an insurrectionist, and thus a threat to Imperial Rome. Which, by the way, Jesus never ever advocated civil disobedience. You never see him protesting. He never marched around with the disciples holding banners that said, "Jews lives matter," or whatever. You didn't see any of that kind of they never promoted rebellion. Now, as we will see, Pilate did not see Jesus as a political threat, as the Sanhedrin alleged. This was laughably absurd. I mean, here's this guy standing there in front of him looking like he's basically close to death. He knew this whole thing was a charade, just to keep the Jewish leaders in power; typical of politicians, and how they will use the courts and so forth to keep themselves in power. In fact, in verse 10 of chapter 15, we read that, "...he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy." So Pilate didn't see Jesus as a threat. But what Pilate didn't know is that God required Rome's involvement to fulfill many Old Testament prophecies regarding how Jesus would be killed, namely crucifixion, which the Jews did not do. They abhorred that form of violence against a person of capital punishment, they stoned people.

Now, I want you to notice John's account of this first phase now; this is the first phase of three Roman tribunals before Jesus is crucified. In John 18, verse 33, "Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, 'Are you the King of the Jews?' Jesus answered, 'Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?' Pilate answered, 'I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?' Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.' Therefore Pilate said to Him, 'So You are a king?' Jesus answered, 'You say correctly, that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.' Pilate said to Him, 'What is truth?' And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, 'I find no fault in Him.'" Of course, this verdict enraged the Jews. This isn't what they wanted to hear. So, as we read in Luke 23, beginning of verse five, "they kept on insisting, saying, 'He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place.'" Now, who knows all of the satanically inspired claims against Jesus that were spoken, but it is fascinating as I did some research; in Sanhedrin 107 B of the Talmud, we read how Jesus was a student of Yehoshua Ben Pariah, but Jesus sinned by bringing magic from Egypt and seduced the people, so he was excommunicated for 400 days. I bet you didn't know that did you? Also, quote, "Jesus stood a brick upright to serve as an idol, and he bowed to it. Yehoshua Ben Pariah, then said to Jesus, 'Repent.' Jesus said to him, 'This is the tradition that I received from you.'" And later we read, "And the master says, Jesus performed sorcery, incited Jews to engage in idolatry and led Israel astray." End quote.

Well, of course, this is all utterly false. These are Satanic lies, but sadly, many people believe them; believe them to this day. Back to Mark 15, verse four, "Then Pilate questioned Him again, 'Do You not answer? See how many charges they bring against You!' But Jesus made no further answer; so Pilate was amazed." It's interesting, too, that Jesus' silence here, fulfilled biblical prophecy, right? Isaiah 42, the first 12 verses, and especially in Isaiah 53, verse seven, where we read, "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before it shears, so He did not open his mouth." Now, what Luke tells us at this juncture is very important. We read about this in Luke 23, in verse five and following, "But they kept on insisting, saying, 'He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place.'" Now catch this, "When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time." Oh, you're a Galilean, okay, well, you need to go see Herod. You know, he's in charge of that over there.

Now, Herod Antipas was the exceedingly evil son of Herod the Great, you will recall how he illegally divorced his wife and took the wife of his half-brother, Herod Philip the First, a lady named Herodias; he married her. Who, by the way, was also his niece. And then John the Baptist comes along and confronts them and he gets imprisoned and then Herodias' daughter does this lewd dance in front of the king and bunch of other guys, and he gets all excited, and the king offers her up to half of his kingdom and she doesn't know really what to ask him for. And so she talks with her mother, and the mother wanted the head of John the Baptist. Okay, so that's the background. That's who this dude is.

Now, according to Mark six, when the disciples were preaching, and casting out demons and working miracles of healing, we read in verse 14, "King Herod heard of it, for His name..." referring to Jesus, "had become well known; and people were saying, 'John the Baptist has risen from the dead and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.'" So you see, Herod's conscience was eating at him. He was superstitious. Always fascinating to me how pagans will be superstitious, and they will believe in ghosts, but they will not believe in God. Right? So this is what's going on here. So Pilate hands Jesus off to this perverted, vile, irrational tyrant, so that he can interrogate him.

And this brings us now to phase two that I would call depraved humiliation of Christ. We pick this up in Luke 23, beginning in verse eight, "Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed him in a gorgeous robe and send him back to Pilate. Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other." It's always fascinating to watch how wicked people will form alliances with other wicked people. What's the old saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, type of thing. So he's unable to get a word out of Jesus. But imagine the kind of vulgarity that is being hurled at Jesus. While this pompous king is looking on with amusement. What humiliation of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the one who will one day be their judge, and their executioner at the Great White Throne. So Jesus says nothing and unable to find any fault worthy of death, Herod treats the whole spectacle as if it's a big joke, puts the robe on him, sends him back to Pilate. Again, Herod had no interest in justice, his only concern was his own power and pleasure, which I might add, are the common preoccupations of fallen man, especially those who are in power over others.

So we move from mocking sarcasm, to depraved humiliation, and finally to the third phase, the physical torture of Christ. This is the third and final phase of the Roman tribunal and I might add, that this is the most disturbing, the most demonic; it is very hard for me to even reflect upon this, much less speak about it. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent. And that was confirmed by Herod's dismissal. But he also knew that he had to do everything possible to prevent another Jewish uprising. And the Jews knew this as well. So they had him, you might say, over a barrel. John 19, verse 12, we read that, "...the Jews cried out saying, 'If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.'" Well, this must have caused Pilate's heart to tremble in fear, when he thought, Oh, my word. If Caesar gets wind of this, I'm dead meat, right? And sadly, like so many, he feared man more than God. And he sought earthly pleasure rather than eternal life. As I was just meditating on this passage, trying to put myself there and think what was going on? My mind went to what Jesus said in Matthew 16, verse 26, "'For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.'" So Pilate is in a real dilemma here. He has to come up with some kind of a plan, and he thinks that he has one here, one that he thinks will appease the Jews, but also protect him from killing an innocent man.

And so we read about this, Mark 15 verse six and following, "Now at the feast he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested. The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection." Isn't an interesting, an actual insurrectionists now is going to be exchanged for one who is being accused of being an insurrectionists but is absolutely not. Verse eight, "The crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them. Pilate answered them, saying, 'Do you want me to release for you, the King of the Jews?'" Obviously, you can see how he is at some level mocking them. And then again, verse 10, "For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy." They didn't hand him over because he was guilty, but because they were envious.

I want to give you an important note here that is injected into the historical narrative that we see in the Gospels. Something fascinating happens at this point. And it's recorded in Matthew 27, beginning in verse 19. While Pilate was "...sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, 'Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night, I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.' But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death." So, Pilate's greatly conflicted here; all of this is going on in his mind. And it's also interesting to note that while Pilate is deliberating on all of this, the leaven of the Pharisees is leavening the whole lump outside, okay? And this is what we read in verse 11, of Mark 15, "But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead." You know, it's kind of like, you know, at those political rallies or different things, they'll raise a sign applause and all well, this is kind of what's going on here. Come on you all let's root for Barabbas.

Verse 12, "Answering again, Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?' They shouted back, 'Crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Crucify Him!'" And Matthew adds this in chapter 27, verse 21, "But the governor said to them, 'Which of the two do you want me to release for you?' And they said, 'Barabbas.' And Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?' They all said, 'Crucify Him!' And he said, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they kept shouting all the more saying, 'Crucify Him!' Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, 'I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to that yourselves.' And all the people said, 'His blood shall be on us and on our children!'" What a staggering statement. "Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified."

Folks, this is satanic jurisprudence. Mark says the same thing verse 15, "Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified." Beloved next to crucifixion, scourging is possibly the most severe torture man has ever devised. In fact, a Roman citizen was exempt from it. This satanic savagery was a hideous cruelty, designed to weaken and dehumanize a victim. The Romans used an instrument called a flagellum, which was a wooden handle attached with, or I should say, a whip, attached to a wooden handle made up of leather thongs that were that were fitted with small pieces of bone and lead or metal, and the victim would be stripped naked; the victim would be tied to a post, or sometimes bent over some type of a structure, and then several soldiers would beat him until the soldiers were too exhausted to continue, or the commander asked them to stop. The lashes would be so severe that they would gradually remove the skin. It would rip into muscles, to arteries, to nerves, but it would tear away bone and cartilage. In fact, eyewitnesses tell us that the beatings were so brutal that they would often break bones and expose the entrails of the victim. I hope you understand this is why Jesus was unable to carry his cross, which would have been just the top piece not the whole thing. John adds this in John 19 Verse one, "Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him." And if that weren't enough, verse two, "And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns..." this would have been a crown that they made out of date palms. In fact, some of the thorns would be as is as long as 12 inches. And they would twist them together to imitate the crowns of oriental god kings and the crown would look like it had the appearance of radiating glory. They did this, "...and put it on His head and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' and to give Him slaps in the face."

Folks after this unimaginable cruelty, we read in verse four, that "Pilate came out again and said to them, 'Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no fault in Him.' Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, 'Behold, the Man!' So Pilate hopes that the Jews will be sympathetic to this poor creature, and let Jesus go. We read in verse six, and "When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, 'Crucify, crucify!' Pilate said to them, 'Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.'" There Jesus stood in silent agony, so bruised and bloodied that at this point, he no longer looked human. In fact, Isaiah predicted that the people would be, according to Isaiah 52:13, "astonished" to look at him, and "...His appearance be marred..." beyond human semblance, and "His form beyond that of the children of mankind."

Matthew tells us what happens next, in Matthew 27, beginning of verse 27, "Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' They spat on Him and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to be crucified." Think about the dramatic reversal that will occur one day in judgment when the one who stood falsely accused will sit in judgment. He will not wear a painful crown that somehow mimics the fading glory of earthly kings. But rather we read in Scripture that upon his head will be many diadems, the glory that will never fade away. At that point, his eyes will no longer be swollen and soaked with blood, but we read that they will be like a flame of fire. A day is coming when he will not be a lamb that opens not his mouth, but the Lion of Judah that will thunder judgment. He will not wear a man's robe of mockery, in Revelation we read that he will wear a robe dipped in blood, referring to the blood of judgment and on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

A day is coming dear friends when Jesus will return in all of his glory. And in Revelation we read "and from His mouth will come a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty." We could ask the question "why did they hate him so?" Though he stood before them in such a horrifying state, why would they, like savage beasts that had just had a taste of blood, want more and cry out for more? Why would they do that? Why would they demand that he be crucified when just a few days earlier, they wanted to crown him as king. Folks, the answer is this, Jesus was Emmanuel, God in the flesh. And Satan hates the living God. And Satan is the temporary god of this world. And those who belong to Him will hate him equally. Oh, they will love a Jesus of their own making, but they resent the true Jesus that we read about in Scripture.

Moreover, man by nature, hates God, does he not? We read that man is by nature at "enmity with God." He's alienated and hostile in mind. He's engaged in evil deeds; his heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Solomon declared in Ecclesiastes nine, three, "...the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives." And Jesus said in John eight, verse 43, "'Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But I speak the truth, and you do not believe me.'" And then he went on to say, "'He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason, you do not hear them, because you are not of God.'" Jesus exposed their sin, and they hated him for it, as people do today.

And you will also have to ask ourselves, why would Jesus submit himself to such unimaginable, indescribable cruelty? The answer is because of his great love for his bridal church that the Father had given him in eternity past. Those, quote "...chosen before the foundation of the world." Ephesians one four. Those that he knew by name; he knew each one of us. He knew the color of our eyes, the color of our skin. He knew everything about us. These are the ones whose names were written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. Revelation 17 and verse eight. Just hours before the cross, you remember Jesus prayed in the garden, and it's recorded in John 17, the first couple of verses, "'Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.'" That's why he suffered. The atoning work on the cross that he anticipated was an actual, not a potential, atonement in ways that we cannot comprehend. He had our faces in mind. I think of my own dear wife, and my children. There is nothing that I wouldn't do for them even if it costs me my life; by God's grace, I would do whatever. You all would do the same thing. And that's why Jesus would go to the cross for us. We are told in Isaiah 53 five that "He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging, we are healed." Not, "we are made healable" but we are healed; something actually happened at the cross. This is why he suffered and died.

So to wrap it up this morning, I want to remind you of the tragedy of those that treated the the Savior with such contempt. And here I quote, a 19th century theologian, Farrar, quote, "Mark for one moment the revenges of history. Has not his blood been on them and on their children? Has it not fallen most of all on those most nearly concerned in that deep tragedy? Before the dread sacrifice was consummated, Judas died in the horrors of a loathsome suicide. Caiaphas was deposed the year following. Herod died in infamy and exile, stripped of his pro-curatorship very shortly afterwards on the very charges he had tried by a wicked concession to avoid Pilate. We read out with misfortunes died in suicide and banishment, leaving behind him an execrated name. The House of Annas was destroyed a generation later by an infuriated mob, and his son was dragged through the streets and scourged and beaten to his place of murder. Some of those who shared in, and witnessed the scenes of that day, 1000s of their children also shared in and witnessed the long horrors of the siege of Jerusalem, which stands unparalleled in history for its unutterable fearfulness." Finally, he went on to add, "They had forced the Romans to crucify their Christ, and though they regarded this punishment with a special horror, they and their children were themselves crucified in myriads by the Romans outside their own walls, till room was wanting and wood failed, and the soldiers had to ransack a fertile inventiveness of cruelty for fresh methods of inflicting this insulting form of death." End quote.

Oh, dear friends, may the blood of Christ be applied to you even this day. I trust you know, and you love him. I pray that you bow before him today as your Savior and Lord, because if you don't, you will bow before him in the future as your judge and executioner. Though he stood in silent sorrow, bruised and bloodied, mocked and scorned, the dawn of truth awaits the morrow when Christ will wield his judgment sword. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, amen? Let's pray.

Father, when we reflect upon the cruelties that our Savior endured on our behalf, we are essentially speechless. All we can do is give you praise from the depths of our heart. And I pray that that praise will translate not just from words through our lips, but Lord, in our service and our worship to you. Use us as instruments of righteousness to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ to a lost and dying world. And if there be anyone here today that has never truly bowed the knee to Christ, come to him in genuine repentant saving faith, may you overwhelm them in such a way that they will do so today? We thank you and we praise you for the hope that is ours in Christ. And we pray again, Lord Jesus, that you will come quickly. We long to see you face to face. We give you praise for your glory. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel yet again, as we continue to examine what the Spirit of God has for us through his servant Mark; chapter 14, we're going to look at verses 66 through 72 this morning, under the heading "True, Tested, Unfailing Faith." Let me read the passage to you. Mark 14 beginning with verse 66.

"As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came, and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, 'You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.'

But he denied it, saying, 'I neither know nor understand what you were talking about.' And he went out onto the porch.

The servant girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, 'This is one of them!'

But again, he denied it. And after a while, the bystanders were again saying to Peter, 'Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.'

But he began to curse and swear, 'I do not know this man you are talking about!'

Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, 'Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.' And he began to weep."

Peter's threefold denial of Christ exposes serious issues of sin in his heart, as well as deficiencies in his faith; matters that are not at all uncommon to each one of us. You will recall as we've studied over the past several months, Peter had an inflated opinion of his own spirituality, he did not truly know himself, he failed to realize and recognize the weakness of his flesh, that in himself, he was not able to withstand the temptations that would be a part of Satan's clever schemes. You will recall that he disregarded Jesus' warning to watch and to pray. And as we can see here, he feared man, more than he feared God. These are some of the things that we will examine this morning.

But we also see here that in his brokenness and his heartfelt repentance, the Lord restored him. And this really proved not only the genuineness of his faith, but the restoring love of Christ. Here we will see some of the distinguishing marks between genuine saving faith characteristics that are not found, and counterfeit faith that makes up most of Christianity today, as Jesus warned it would; a faith that cannot save. And here we will see the danger of spiritual drift, that gradual, almost imperceptible, wandering away from Christ. And here we will see how God uses our trials to strengthen our faith and to draw us closer into fellowship with Him. And to these ends, I've divided this very poignant, historical narrative into three categories that I trust will be helpful to you, we're going to see, number one, the neglected warning of Christ. And then we will examine the soul piercing gaze of Christ and finally, the loving restoration of Christ. And frankly, these truths are indispensable to every believer who longs to know and love and serve Christ and enjoy all that is available to him or her through him.

Now, let me remind you of the context--Jesus has been arrested, the disciples have fled, and the first of three ecclesiastical trials has been conducted in the palace of Annas, who was the former high priest and the father in law of Caiaphas. And as we examine the text, we can see that Annas and Caiaphas basically shared the same compound with a large inner court in the middle. Jesus was held in Annas' chamber, only long enough for the Sanhedrin to convene, albeit illegally. And this would have been the first place that Peter denied Christ. You will recall in Mark 14, or a little bit earlier in verse 54. We read, Peter had followed Jesus "at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire."

Now, as we look at the gospel record, we can see that the high priest family did not know Peter, and would not allow him entrance through the guarded gate of the compound, were it not for another, quote, "disciple," according to John 18, verse 16, "who was known to the high priest who went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in." Traditionally, this is believed to have been the apostle John, the beloved disciple, who authored the fourth gospel, and First, Second, Third John; one of the sons of thunder. So it was in this courtyard where Peter first denied his Lord, even as Jesus predicted he would do. But in order to understand all that is going here going on here, I want to back up and look, first of all, at this whole issue of the neglected warning of Christ.

In Mark 14, verse 27, we read, "And Jesus said to them, 'You will all fall away.'" Then in verse 29, and following, "Then Peter said to Him, 'Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.' And Jesus said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, that this very night before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny me three times.' But Peter kept saying insistently, 'Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!' And they were all saying the same thing also." To be sure, his bravado underscored his lack of spiritual self awareness that fueled this overconfidence. And he refused to take seriously the grave danger that he was in, that the Lord was warning him about. Even the dangers that were expressed in the upper room during the Passover meal. Luke recorded some of this in Luke 22, beginning in verse 31, "'Simon Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.' But he said to Him, 'Lord, with You, I am ready to go both to prison and to death!' And He said, 'I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.'" So obviously, Peter overestimated his courage and his loyalty to Christ.

And we know then later in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus said to Peter, James, and John in Mark 14:34, "'My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.'" Keep watch over your spiritual lethargy, and your indifference; matters that will make you trust in your own resources to somehow overcome temptation. Luke 22, verse 40, we read, "When He arrived at the place, He said to them, 'Pray that you might may not enter into temptation.'" Matthew records this in chapter 26, verse 41, "'Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.'" You see, Jesus knew that Peter, James and John were still operating in the power of their own sinful flesh rather than in the power of God, because just a few hours earlier in the upper room, they were all fighting amongst each other, with this arrogant bickering over who's going to be first in the kingdom? Talk about pride, talk about arrogance. Talk about overconfidence. And he knew that they were about to be humbled in ways that they could have never imagined. And that was all part of God's great sanctifying work in their lives. But they did not take seriously their need to stay spiritually and physically alert. And three times we know that Jesus returned to them, where he had left them, after he had been pouring out his soul before the Father, only to find that they were asleep. In anguish, he is crying out to the Father. Hebrews five seven says, "He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death." But every time he returned to them, they were asleep. Peter neglected the warnings of Christ. How much better it would have been if he would have fallen on his face before the Lord God said, "Father, I don't know all that's going on here. This is this is beyond me. I am terrified. Even though I feel confident that I will stand with the Lord. He says that I won't. So obviously, I don't know myself as I should. And the only thing I know to do is to cry out to you to help me do what I cannot." Oh, would that have been his prayer? And years later it was, but not now.

The Lord has also warned us to watch and pray that we will not fall into into temptation. Our spirits may be willing but our flesh is far weaker than we can imagine. And our sinfulness is far greater than we can imagine. There are several other passages where the Lord says similar things. For example, in Mark 13, verse 33, he says, "'Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come.'" Referring to the Lord's return. "Take heed, keep on the alert." Live with watchfulness, live in light of his return. Verse 37, "'What I say to you I say to all, "Be on the alert."'" Are you on the alert for that? Or are you more preoccupied with all of the passing pleasures of this world? Paul said the same thing in First Corinthians 16 verse 13, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." Stand firm in the faith. That's the reference to sound doctrine, know sound doctrine. Be courageous, be confident, be mature in your thinking, unlike immature and childish people, that are according to Ephesians four verse 14, "tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth and love we are to grow up in all aspects unto Him, who is the head, even Christ." In Ephesians, six, we are warned, in verse 11, to "put on the full armor of God that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Verse 18, "Be on the alert, with all perseverance and petition for all the saints." And Peter would later write in First Peter, chapter five, beginning in verse eight, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him firm in your faith." Beloved, takes seriously the warnings that the Lord has given us in his Word. They will reveal the true status of your heart. They are indeed a lamp unto our feet. They are a light unto our path, as the Psalmist tells us.

You know, the world is like a dense jungle, filled with every imaginable, hidden danger. And I've been in some of those jungles before in Africa. And I can tell you, that there is no way I would be able to travel through those jungles, especially at night, if I didn't have a guide. And if he didn't have a light and a gun. This is what Peter had to learn because of his overconfidence. You know, a strong mature Christian is one that will acknowledge his weaknesses habitually. And also habitually cry out for a strength that he does not possess, one that only comes from the Lord God. A mature believer, a strong believer, will mourn over his or her sin, will hunger and thirst for righteousness, will do everything that they can to mortify the deeds of the flesh, to walk by the Spirit, to discipline their body to make it their slave; to separate themselves from the world so that it will not conform them into it. And why do Believers do that? Second Corinthians six gives us at least one answer. It's because we know that our body is the temple of the living God. And he longs to enjoy sweet fellowship with us and we with him. That's why Second Corinthians seven, beginning in verse one, Paul would say, "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." I've been in Christian ministry for about 40 years now. And I've seen literally hundreds of people who name the name of Christ gradually wander off and begin to live like the world and eventually reject everything they once claimed; which proves that they were never a part of us. Once they claimed to embrace the gospel. At one time, they were passionate about their love for Christ, wanting to serve him, live for His glory, but a drift began to occur in their life. You can first see it in their conversations. They get around other people that are talking about spiritual things, and they don't enter in because they feel uncomfortable. They'd rather talk about entertainment, or something else that's frankly frivolous and superficial. It begins to manifest itself in their lifestyle. Little by little, they become increasingly infatuated with superficial things, matters that are eternally inconsequential. They're obsessed with gadgets. They're obsessed with social media. They're obsessed with physical appearance, entertainment, celebrities, the people that they look up to, are among the most godless. These are all idols of the heart, manifesting a soul sickness and eventually, even those things no longer satisfy so they gradually graduate to an even greater level of lustful pursuit. Sexual immorality, ungodly friends. They were on the periphery of the church, and then you don't see them anymore. They prefer friends that do not know or love Christ. Get into alcohol and drugs. They'll grab the hold of all of the ridiculous things like we have today in the whole woke agenda. And then before you know it, they're criticizing believers. Calling us legalist, homophobes, hypocrites bigots and on and on it goes. You've all seen it. You hear a lot these days about people deconstructing their faith. All that is is a fancy way of describing people that are apostatized people that never truly knew Christ. Like Demas remember, in the New Testament. At one time he was one of Paul's, quote, "fellow workers" in the gospel ministry, along with Mark and Luke, and others. Then in Second Timothy 4:10, Paul says, "...Demas having loved this present world has deserted me..." And Titus 3:10 tells us to avoid people like that, "reject a factious man"-- a "hairetikos"-- because they are "after a first and second warning" because they are "perverted and sinning."

We've all seen the progression, haven't we? But wandering away from Christ can also happen to believers. And that's what happened with Peter. That's the thing that's so frightening here. Because if it can happen to him, it can happen to any one of us. I share what Paul said in Second Corinthians 11 three, "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." But we know that when this happens to the redeemed-- those that truly know Christ--God in his infinite love and mercy, will bring us low, so that he can bring us close. The father will prune the vine of our life through some great trial. In fact, later Peter would say in First Peter five, six, "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God." That mighty hand can be the hand of testing like we see with Job. It could be the mighty hand of deliverance like we saw with with Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail. It could be even the hand of chastening; I've experienced that, haven't you? For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines and he scourges every son, whom he receives. As we read in Hebrews 12, six, "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God," here's why, "that he may exalt you at the proper time." Which is always going to be his time, when he has completed that work that he is doing in you. Then he adds, "Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." Boy, Peter had to learn that the hard way didn't he?

Paul also experienced this, we read about in Second Corinthians 12, beginning in verse seven, "...to keep me from exalting myself, there has given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that he might leave me. And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content, with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

Well, to be sure, Peter's faith was severely tested. It forced him to see himself for who he really was, not that person who he thought he was. No saint will ever be able to survive the great sorrows of life, unless he or she understands this weighty truths that authentic faith must and will be tested by fire. That's just the reality of it. In fact, an untested faith is a dubious faith. And an untried commitment is frankly an unreliable commitment. Again, recall in Luke 22, verse 31, Jesus said, "'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you.'" My, what hope there is in that phrase, "your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." But while his faith faltered, it never failed. And while this fallen world is plagued with every imaginable evil, and as we read in Second Corinthians one five, the "...sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance..." we can find relief, dear friends, knowing that his sanctifying purposes are always at work in our lives. And there is nothing outside the sphere of his ultimate control and his intimate awareness. Know that. Be comforted by that. Be strengthened by that. It's for this reason Paul exhorts us in Romans five, three to "...exalt in our tribulations..." not merely in spite of them. He's not saying just resign yourself to them, he's not saying merely choose to be happy, not even rejoice in the midst of them, even though that is important. Rather what he is saying is, exult because of your tribulations. On account of them. Why? He goes on to say, "...knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who was given to us."

Indeed, God not only ordains, our afflictions, he oversees them for our good, and His glory, even though we may not see any of that, until glory. And as we will see, Peter learned this lesson well. He also learned the hard way--do not neglect the word of the Lord. Do not ignore his warnings. And beloved, the word of God is filled with those. Now let's notice what happens in the narrative.

Verse 66, "As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant- girls of the high priest came..." This would have been the one that opened the gate to let him in, as we read in John 18. Verse 67, "...and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, 'You also were with Jesus, the Nazarene.' But he denied it saying, 'I neither know nor understand what you were talking about.' And he went out onto the porch." It's interesting, the word "know" here, in the original language is not the typical "ginosko," meaning "to know something or someone by experience," or "to be intimately acquainted with or standing close relation to someone." Instead, he uses a less frequent term, "eido" meaning "to have information about something." And thus, he distances himself even further from any association whatsoever with Jesus. Literally, what he's saying is he neither knows Jesus, nor knows anything about Jesus. My what a lie. And won't you to notice how Peter wanted to remain incognito. He wanted to blend in with the crowd like a chameleon that can change its color to avoid detection. He wanted to keep a safe distance from Christ, so that no one, could in any way, associate him with him. Many Christians make the same mistake because they fear man more than God and they're quietly therefore ashamed of Christ.

And then when the suspicious girl exposed him, he panics and he lies. Why did he lie? He wanted to protect himself because at the end of the day, self was all that really mattered. He was also afraid someone might recognize him as the guy that cut off the other dudes ear, right? "'I neither know nor understand what you were talking about.' And he went out onto the porch." You see, the porch would have been where the exit was. He was looking for a way out, he wanted to get out the gate and evidently, he tried to leave the compound. Folks, if you find yourself acting in similar ways, you are denying Christ. When the conversation comes up around the water cooler at work, and you don't take a stand for Christ, join Peter. Jesus said in Luke 9:26, "'For whoever is ashamed of Me, and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." You see, friends, you must remember that sin is like cancer. It always wants more of you. And it will never be satisfied until it has all of you. That's why you've got to get rid of it as best you can, every time you see even the slightest amount of it. Imagine going to a doctor, you've got something going on and the doctor says, You know what? There's a few little cancer cells here. And you say, well, good, I'm glad it's not a whole lot. We'll check on it here in a few months. Is that what you say? No, you get rid of it. We must guard our heart in this regard. And notice how sin's corrupting influence escalates, it begins to metastasize.

By the way, Luke 22:59 tells us what's about to happen here, happen after about an hour. And the news is spreading, this guy, this guy right here by the fire, he's one of them. As we see, some of the male officers in the courtyard recognize him, and they're bringing charges against him.

Verse 69, "The servant-girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, 'This is one of them!' But again, he denied it." Now, I believe this is a second servant girl, because of what Matthew says, in his account in chapter 26, beginning in verse 71, "When he had gone out to the gateway..." You know, he's trying to get out, "another servant girl saw him and said to those who were there, 'This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.' And again, he denied it with an oath, 'I do not know the man.'" So you probably have, you know, several girls and young women who were guarding the gate, that's part of their their job, maybe they've changed shifts here. But what the word is, hey, keep keep an eye on that guy over there. He's one of them. And word is spreading.

Go back to verse 70. of Mark's account, "And after a little while, the bystanders were again the saying to Peter, 'Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.' But he began to curse and swear, 'I do not know this man you are talking about!'" The word curse, "anathematize" in the original language; we get that word from that. He's literally putting himself under a divine curse. Kind of as if to say, may God strike me dead if I'm lying. I mean, he's poured it on thick. And the word "swear" means "to take an oath." I mean, he's taking an oath before God, by implication, he is inviting divine punishment upon himself if he is lying. And he's loudly proclaiming this so everybody can hear it, because everybody is looking at him. And it's fascinating how the plot thickens.

And we see this more in John's account. In John 18, verse 25. And following, gives us more insight into this whole drama. It says, "Now, Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, 'You are not also one of His disciples are you?' He denied it and said, 'I am not.' One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, 'Did I not see you in the garden with Him?' Peter then denied it again. and immediately a rooster crowed."

Matthew's account is similar, Matthew 26, beginning in verse 73. "A little later, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, 'Surely you too, are one of them; for even the way you talk gives you away.'' Obviously, the Galileans had an accent, alrght? Imagine somebody born and raised in South Georgia, and now he's in New York City, alright? People are going to spot that real quick. "Then he began to curse and swear, 'I do not know the man!' And immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, 'Before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.' And he went out and wept bitterly."

Again back to Mark 14, "After a little while the bystanders," in verse 70, were saying, "'Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.' But again, he began to curse and swear 'I do not know this man you are talking about!'" The same thing, the rooster crows a second time. And it's interesting. "Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, 'Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.' And he began to weep."

Oh, dear child of God, what can I say? Guard yourself from the slippery slope of sin. And it begins when you imperceptibly wander away from Christ, and fall more and more with the things of this world; pursue the things of the flesh. What a heart wrenching scene. I mean, think about it, Jesus is suffering alone for Peter. And Peter is outside denying that he even knew him. Can't we all see ourselves in some ways, doing the same thing in our life, despite all that Christ has done for us?

But I asked you what was it that caused Peter to quote remember the word which Jesus had said, ''Before rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.'" What was it that finally broke him and would cause him to go out and just weep bitterly over what he had done? I believe Luke's account gives us the answer. In Luke 22, beginning in first 59, "And following after about an hour had passed, another man began to insist saying, 'Certainly this man was also with Him, for he is a Galilean too.' But Peter said, 'Man, I do not know what you are talking about.'" Then it says this. "Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed." And then notice this phrase, "The Lord turned and looked at Peter." Then we read, "And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, 'Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.' And he went out and wept bitterly."

This brings us to the second powerful reality in this drama and that is the sole piercing gaze of Christ. "The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And then Peter remembered the word of the Lord." Jesus was probably being escorted across the courtyard to a dungeon of incarceration to await his final trial with the Sanhedrin. That would occur a couple hours later, early in the morning. But friends, what we see here is a providential act of divine sovereignty. Imagine Jesus, his face still covered with spittle, bruised and cut and swollen from the blows that he has received. And even with all of that, at the precise moment when, Peter was denying him, the rooster crows, and he finds his eyes and he looks at him. Can you imagine what that must have been like? Amidst all of his brazen vows of denial, we see a deliberate, perfectly timed, soul piercing gaze from the incarnate Son of God. I mean, this was a dagger to the heart right? I mean, this exposed the vile nature of the sin within the heart. What a solemn scene. I just can't hardly wrap my mind around what that would have been like. There the Savior looks upon the sinner who is actually cursing the lover of his soul.

A 19th century cleric Frederick Farrar, of the Church of England said this, and I thought it was well stated, quote, "At that fatal moment, while those shameless curses still quivered on the air, first, the cock crew in the cold gray dusk and at the same moment, catching the last accents of those perjured oaths, either through the open portal of the judgment hall or as he was led past the group of the fireside through the open court, with rude pushing and rivaled cheers and blows and spitting, the Lord--the Lord in the agony of his humiliation, in the majesty of his silence, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter." And then he adds this, "Blessed are those on whom, when he looks in sorrow, the Lord also looks with love. It was enough, like an arrow through his inmost soul, shot the mute eloquent anguish of that reproachful glance. If the angel of innocence had let him, the angel of repentance took him gently by the hand." Then he adds this, "Sternly, yet tenderly, the spirit of grace led up this brokenhearted penitent before the tribunal of his own conscience. And there his old life, his old shame, his old weakness, his old self, was doomed to that death of godly sorrow, which was to issue in a new and nobler birth." End quote.

Folks, haven't we all experienced a similar gaze of Christ? Oh, not in a literal way. We have never seen him. But he sees us and penetrates our heart, through the power of his Spirit and his word, right? How many times have we heard something from the word and it's like an arrow through the heart. The writer of Hebrews says, in Hebrews for beginning of verse 12, "for the Word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints, and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart." And he goes on to say, "and there is no creature hidden from His sight. But all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." And we know from the New Testament that it is the inspired, breathed out word of God that is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness. And the psalmist tells us in Psalm 19, that it's the word of God that "restores the soul, that makes wise the simple, that rejoices the heart, that enlightens the eyes" and on and on it goes. Don't you know the soul penetrating gaze of Christ set his conscience on fire with guilt, and with shame, and with a sorrow leading to repentance. Oh, child of God, never allow yourself to follow Christ from a distance. Walk as closely to him as you possibly can. Never think that you can somehow navigate life on your own resources. You need him more than you can imagine. And know that spiritual overconfidence flows from the well of a frankly, deceitful heart. The uncharted trials of life will always expose the unknown self. That's their purpose. They expose our weaknesses, they reveal the truth of who we really are, and obliterate all those things that we think we are. Remember, autonomy from God is at the heart of our depraved nature. We want to do things our way. And when we allow that wickedness to rule our lives, we will not only forfeit God's blessings as believers, we will grieve the spirit we will create quench the spirit, but we will also place ourselves in the pathway of divine chastening.

But I want you to see something here. And that is that true faith, though tested, cannot fail. And the converse is also therefore true, phony faith, when tested, cannot persevere. This is what distinguishes true believers from false believers. Peter's faith was real, proven by his sincere sorrow over his sin after discovering the corrupting power of his flesh.

And finally, I want you to see the loving restoration of Christ. First think about the fruit of genuine repentance that we see here. Contrast what we see here, thinking about how once Peter followed Christ from a distance and denied him, and then later he ran to the empty tomb to find him. Once he hid among sinners, to spurn him and later, he obeyed Jesus, and he went to Galilee to serve him. Once he rejected the Lord's warning, and was defeated, and later, he heeded the Lord's voice, and he jumped out of his fishing boat, and he swam 100 yards to be with Christ, on the Sea of Galilee. And it was on that shore, you will recall that Jesus summoned his disciples, made them breakfast and restored their fellowship.

In closing, I want to visit the scene for a few minutes. Remember, Peter denied Christ three times. And Christ will challenge Peter, three times in John 21, verse 15, we read, "So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?'" Oh, my, how his heart must have been crushed. And it's interesting that Jesus chose the Greek word for love--that is the highest expression of love--"agapao." It speaks of a self sacrificial love, the supreme love, a love of the will that demands no reciprocation. But Peter's conscience screamed of his past failures. He knew that he did not love Christ in that way. "And he said to Him, 'Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.'" And here Peter chooses a different word for love--"phileo"-- a different one than Jesus did. It describes fondness affection. And perhaps he used this nuanced distinction because it better reflected the lesser love that he has, demonstrated because of all the things he had done. Perhaps he couldn't bring himself to agree that he truly possessed the kind of selfless loveJesus expressed in his question. But Jesus sees all of this. And it's this very kind of contrition that Jesus is looking for. This is the kind of humility that he wants, and that he produces by his sanctifying grace and therefore he says to Peter "'Tend my lambs.'" "'Tend my lambs.'" What a great lesson here. Those God uses the most are those who are convinced that they deserve the least. However, Jesus knew he needed to probe even further and because he loved Peter so much, he was jealous over him. So he challenges Peter once more, "He said to him again a second time, 'Simon, son of John, do you love Me?' Once again, using the verb that expresses the highest form of love. And Peter said him, "'Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.'" And again, he uses the lesser verb form, describing fondness and affection. He simply could not bring himself to say that he loved the Lord supremely. But Jesus says, "'Shepherd My sheep.'" It's interesting, the verb "shepherd" is a synonym of the previous verb "tend" that Jesus uses, and both of them really encompass the full range of pastoral responsibilities later described in detail in the pastoral epistles. Oh, the marvel of God's grace. Despite all of his failures, Jesus sees his brokenness and his humility, and he recommissiones him to service. Beloved, never forget this truth--in his love for us he continues to sanctify us, regardless of our faults and failures, that are many. But it is his love for us, not our love for Him, that has forever sealed the bond of His grace.

Verse 17 He said to him a third time, "'Simon, son of John, do you love Me?' Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, 'Do you love me?' And he said to Him, 'Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.'" But what's fascinating this time Jesus use Peter's word for love, "phileo." As if to say, Peter, I know you want to love me supremely with total devotion, but at times your life calls into question if you are even fond of me.

I can only imagine that at this point, Peter's eyes began to fill with tears. His lips began to quiver. He looked around at his fellow disciples and all the fishing gear. And with the last ounce of self confidence, and bravado drained from his soul, his head begins to shake and he said to Jesus, "'Lord, you know all things; You know that I love You.'" You know that I love you, even though it's imperfect, I hate my hollow boasts, I'm ashamed of myself righteous pride. I grieve over my sin. Jesus said to him, "'Tend my sheep.'" He saw his contrition, he saw his heart. And folks we never love so deeply as when we are broken over how we have loved so poorly. And the man who boasts of His love the most is the one who loves the least. What a picture of undeserved grace.

I'm reminded of a passage in Isaiah 66, you don't have this on the screen, it just came to my mind. In verse two, God says, "But to this one, I will look." In other words, this is the kind of person that gets my attention; to the one who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my word. That's where Peter was brought. In in verse 18, it's interesting what the Lord says, "'Truly, truly I say to you,'" Peter, "'when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wish; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go.' Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, 'Follow me!'" For over 35 years, Peter continued to follow Christ until he was crucified, in about 68 ad under the cruel reign of Nero; crucified upside down by his own request. By the time John's Gospel was written, Peter had already been martyred for his faith. But what a testimony this must have been to the saints when they read this.

Please understand that true faith is Spirit empowered. It is a faith that animates within us a trust in God even in the fires of affliction. It is a faith that causes us to know that even though those fires be hot, all that's being burned off is the dross that we want to get rid of. And this is what Peter and the apostles had to learn, as well as all of us. And I'm reminded of David's psalm of deliverance. He speaks the same thing in Psalm 34, beginning in verse 18, "The righteous cry." That's what Peter did. "...And the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. "Then in verse 22, we read, "The Lord redeems the soul of his servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned." Peter learned this as I hope we all have, or we all will. And because of this, later, Peter would write in First Peter one and verse six, "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Dear friends, I pray that this is the true expression of your heart. If you're here today and you do not know Christ, I would beg you to examine your heart. Acknowledge your sin and come to him and ask for forgiveness, ask for his mercy. And he will give it to you and radically change your life and give you eternal life. But it doesn't mean all the trials are going away, right? But isn't it a wonderful thing that even in the midst of those trials, the Lord is working in us to accomplish his purposes, for our good and for his glory, amen? Amen. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. May they bear much fruit in our life we ask, for Jesus sake, and for His glory. Amen.

We return once again to Mark's gospel, as we continue to examine it verse by verse. So take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 14. And we will be looking at verses 53 through 65. Let me read the text to you.

"They led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together.

Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire.

Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. For many we're giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent.

Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him saying,

'We heard Him say, "I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days, I will build another made without hands."

Not even in this respect, was their testimony consistent.

The high priest stood up and came forward in questions Jesus saying, 'Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?'

But He kept silent and did not answer. Again, the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, 'Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?' And Jesus said, 'I am; AND THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, ANDD COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.'

Tearing his clothes, the high priest said, 'What further need do we have of witnesses?

You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?' And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.

Some began to spit at Him, and to blindfold Him and to beat him with their fists, and to say to Him, 'Prophesy!' And the officers received Him with slaps in the face."

As we look at Mark's account, along with other gospel writers, I would like to emphasize two things that we will use as part of our outline. First of all, we're going to look at number one, the mock trial. And secondly, I want you to focus with me on the majestic Messiah. We're going to see this in contrast, in this passage.

You know, we are increasingly witnessing the weaponization of our judicial system as our country continues to descend into the abyss of Marxism. And it is not at all uncommon for us to see corrupt politicians and judges and attorneys, holding kangaroo courts, using novel legal theories and perverted principles of law and justice, and false witnesses even, to prosecute their political rivals. And this is exactly what we see here in this historical narrative that reveals the greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of civilization. But here we also witness the falsely accused being the victor. Moreover, we will see the corrupt accusers becoming the vanquished. Though they will not fully experience their fate until later. To be sure God is not mocked, right? Whatsoever a man sows that will he also reap. And what the inspired gospel writers revealed in this scenario, must be considered yet another irrefutable evidence of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ--the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, the Lord of the church, and the coming King of Glory. And my goal this morning, is not only to help you understand what really happened in this historical narrative back in the first century, but I want to also address issues like why do people choose to believe things that are demonstrably false? You ever thought about that? And what causes people to do the things that they do, in light of such evil. But the biggest question of all is, what will you do with Jesus? That's the most important issue. What will you do with Jesus? And I trust you will be moved to bow low before him as we immerse ourselves in the scene.

Let me remind you of the context; a massive armed force, led by Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 and the religious leaders of Israel, the temple police, and a cohort of Roman soldiers, have all come now and arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And they asked if he was that person, and he said, "I am"--the covenant name of God. And at that point, they all were flattened on their back, what an amazing scene. Wow, would I have loved to have been there to see that. And somehow in my mind, I can see it. And then Peter gets upset and cuts off the ear of one of the servants. And Jesus heals the ear right there in front of everybody. And then he rebukes Peter. And then he willingly allows his captors to seize Him. And at that point, all of the disciples flee.

Now, this brings us to the mock trial. Notice verse 53. "They led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together." Now, these religious phonies are ruled by the sin of covetousness that we talked about the last time we were together, just like Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. They all craved material blessings, material wealth, which were easily attainable, because of their power and their prestige among the people. And Judas, of course, as you will recall, was frustrated because Jesus was not coming through for him the way he wanted to. He wasn't establishing the kingdom, so that he could be one of the big shots in the kingdom and have all these things that he wanted. Especially the prominence and the wealth that went along with it. But the high priest and the chief priests and the elders and the scribes, they already had a lot of wealth, they already had a lot of this, but Jesus was a threat, to their power, to their authority, and to their whole phony religious empire.

Moreover, they were jealous, they wanted what Jesus had--popularity. We see this all the time, don't we? In athletics. If you've been watching this whole WNBA thing with Caitlin Clark, you see the jealousy. You see it in politics, in the workplace, you see it in the families, you see it at times in church. Remember, the religious leaders did everything they possibly could to impress the people, to get them to worship them. But the problem is, this Jesus of Nazareth has come along and he's getting all of the attention. And he's doing things that's completely blowing everybody's mind with his miracles. In fact, we read in Matthew 21, verse 14, "And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests of the scribe saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children were shouting in the temple, 'Hosanna, to the son of David,' they became indignant..." And later on, even Pilate could see what was driving these guys. Mark records this in Mark 15, beginning in verse nine, "Pilate answered them, saying, 'Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?' For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy." Envy, jealousy, covetousness they're all part of the same category of sin. And they always produce strife and divisiveness, and factions and hatred and manipulation, lies, theft, violence, and on and on it goes. So "They led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together."

Now you need to have some more background here. Very important. This will be the first of a three-part trial conducted by the Jewish leaders. First, Jesus will appear before Annas who was the former high priest and the father in law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, according to John 18. And Annas was, you could liken him to a mafia boss, he ran the temple merchants and the money changers. It was a very lucrative enterprise. In fact, they nicknamed that whole enterprise the Bizarre of Annas. And, of course, Jesus disrupted it totally two times, one at the beginning of his ministry the other time at the end of his ministry. You will remember in Matthew 21:13, Jesus said to them, "'It is written, "MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER"; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN."'" And it's also important to note that, over the years in that era, five of Annas' son's held that office of high priest. A little nepotism going on there. But now his son in law, Caiaphas, held the office, and they're all corrupt. So first, Jesus is going to go to Anis and then he's going to appear before Caiaphas in the Sanhedrin. And finally, he will appear before the Sanhedrin, just a second time after dawn.

But it didn't end there. Also, there will be beyond the three-part Jewish trial, which is some kind sometimes called the ecclesiastical trial, there will be a three part Roman trial, sometimes called the civil trial, and there he will appear before Pilate, and then Herod Antipas, and then Pilate again.

Now, as we come to this text, bear in mind that Mark is focusing on the second part of the Jewish trials, not when he appeared before Annas recorded in John 18:13 and following, but when Jesus was unfairly convicted by Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, as we will see. But before examining this closely, I want to take you back to the first trial to give you a little sense of what has happened up to this point. Let's see what happened when Jesus stood before the blood thirsty Annas, who was clearly in search of a crime worthy of death. He's trying to trap Jesus, John 18, beginning in verse 19, we read about it, "The high priest then questioned Jesus about His disciples, and about His teaching. Jesus answered him, 'I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues in in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing and secret. Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.'"

Now, this was a very legitimate response by Jesus. Because under the Mosaic Law charges were not allowed to be brought against a person without credible witnesses. So this was an illegal arraignment from the outset. Verse 22, goes on, "When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus saying, 'Is that the way You answer the high priest?' Jesus answered him, 'If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?' So Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest." In other words, he's unable to find any reason to charge him for something worthy of death. So he sends him over to Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrin, to see if they could conjure up something which will include on their part, enlisting--probably through bribery--false witnesses to testify against Jesus. Testimonies that proved to be contradictory and further proved what a legal farce this whole thing really is.

Now, notice what else Mark adds and we come back to the text. It's kind of a parenthetical statement here, undoubtedly at the request of Peter, who was giving him so much of this information because Peter was there. Verse 54, "Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire." Now of course by this time, Peter's conscience is screaming at him; he has left Jesus. And to be sure, he is terrified like anyone would be. But he's also plagued with guilt. And no doubt Jesus statement concerning Satan wanting to sift him like wheat is resonating in the back of his mind. Moreover, he was thinking about Jesus' prediction that you're going to deny me three times, before the rooster crows; all of these things must have been weighing on his heart. Plus, he truly loved Jesus. Although he was learning how much more he loved himself. So this scene is going to set up his denial in the courtyard recorded later on in the chapter.

So we come back to verse 55, "Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any." Now bear in mind, the Romans would not allow the Jews to have the power of capital punishment. So therefore, the Jews had to give them a reason for a death sentence. And it had to be something beyond "Well, he's violating the Sabbath" or he's healing people on the Sabbath, or he claims to be our Messiah. I mean, the Romans would just laugh at all of that; they don't care about any of that stuff. They considered Judaism as nothing more than kind of a ridiculous and offensive oriental cult, practiced by a bizarre group of people that they have subjugated. So, you know, none of that is going to fly with them. But the Sanhedrin also knew that at Passover, Jerusalem would be filled with nationalistic Jews that wanted to somehow revolt against Rome. And so at Passover time, it was a powder keg; a powder keg for revolution. And the deadly knife of the Jewish guerrilla warriors known as the Sicarii, which means "dagger men" were always lurking in the shadows, and they were there by the 1000s. Especially on special occasions, like Passover. You may recall in Acts 21:38 The commander asks Paul, if he was, quote, "'...the Egyptian who had some time ago stirred up a revolt and led the 4000 men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?'" So the Sanhedrin knew that the Romans would be on guard. This, however, would be something that would play to their advantage, if they could find some way of accusing Jesus of being an insurrectionist. That would turn the Romans against him.

But they also had to find a charge severe enough to inflame the Jews, of whom so many of them love Jesus, for the wrong reasons. But inflame them enough to warrant a death penalty. Now, to accomplish all of this, they're going to have to violate every standard of jurisprudence, including their own laws. Let me give you a little feel of what their laws were so you can see what's going on here. As it relates to Jewish law, the Sanhedrin was only allowed to investigate and adjudicate cases brought to them. They weren't allowed to go out and try to find them. They were not allowed to initiate charges. But I believe obviously they're ignoring all of this. And private trials were forbidden. Trials away from the temple were forbidden, according to the Mosaic Law. They're violating this. Moreover, according to Pharisaic law, hearings pertaining to capital punishment were not allowed on the eve of a major festival, like Passover. you couldn't do that. Nor were they allowed at night. Yet Jesus is going to be tried and condemned between the hours of basically one and 3am. Also, Jewish law did not permit the sentence of capital punishment to be pronounced until a day passed after the accuser was convicted. Members of the court were required to fast; they were required to pray and to reflect upon their decision. And by the way, this is why the trials were not allowed on the day before a feast, when fasting was not permitted, and they believed, and I think this has great merit that that 24 hour period provided time for further testimony to surface. But of course, they violated all of this. Worse yet Jesus was executed on the day of the feast. None of this mattered. Remember, these vindictive religious phonies, had determined to kill Jesus a long time ago. But they feared that an assassination might initiate a bloody uprising among the Jews, which would result in Roman reprisals and might jeopardize their positions of authority. And so they had to weaponize their own legal system to do something to accomplish the task. And of course, this is a common practice, as I said earlier, among our politicians today, law enforcement agencies, attorneys, judges, in fact, we've got a name for it today. It's called lawfare.

So again, verse 55, "Now the chief priests in the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death. And they were not finding any." So, if you can't find any, what are you going to do, well you gonna bribe some guys to come in and give false testimony. Verse 56, "For many, we're giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. Some stood up and began to give the give false testimony against Him saying, 'We heard Him say, "I will destroy this temple made with hands and in three days, I will build another made without hands."'" Now, of course, this is not only a misinterpretation, but it is a mis quotation of what Jesus said. They're trying to say that Jesus was mocking the temple, and he's going to destroy it. You know, it's absurd. In John 2:19, for example, Jesus said, "'Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.'" And then in verse 21, it says, "Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body." So it's easy to twist and to distort things to make it somehow spin in your favor.

Verse 59, Mark goes on to add, "Not even in this respect, was their testimony consistent." You see, liars cannot be consistent with their false statements. That's why police, when they arrest a group of people, they always separate them to question them. That's how you get all of the discrepancies. But if people are telling the truth, even when you separate them, they're essentially going to say the same thing, because that's really what they witnessed, rather than this is what they are making up. So the false testimonies were inconsistent. And they were also too flimsy, shall we say, to incriminate Jesus, much less than justify a death sentence. Therefore, knowing that this thing is going nowhere fast, all right, the whole thing is not going the way Caiaphas and the boys wanted it to. So Caiaphas decides to take over, he jumps to his feet, takes charge, verse 60, "The high priest stood up and came forward and questioned Jesus, saying, 'Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?' But He kept silent and did not answer." Obviously, this infuriated Caiaphas. He was not used to anyone ignoring Him. But Jesus also knew he was being led into a trap. Plus Jesus refused to give credibility to the false testimonies by somehow offering a defense. Why legitimize a lie by responding to it? But even more importantly, his silence was also part of the Father's decorative will. This is what the Father had ordained in eternity past. And therefore, it was prophesied for example, in Isaiah 42, beginning in verse one. There we read, "'Behold, My Servant whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.'"

And we see Jesus' silence prophesied even more specifically in Isaiah 53 verse seven, "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that has led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth." You may recall that later, Jesus remained silent before Pilate, recorded in Mark 15, beginning in verse four, There we read, "Then Pilate question Him again, saying, 'Do You not answer? See how many charges they bring against You!' But Jesus made no further answer; so Pilate was amazed."

Back to Mark 14 verse 61, later in the verse again, "...the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, 'Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?'" Matthew gives us this insight in Matthew 26 verse 63, "And the high priest said to Him, 'I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.'" In other words, I'm placing you under oath before the living God. My, what another example of the deceptive power of hypocrisy, right? Yeah, I mean, after all, God will judge liars in a court like this. We can't have any of that, we can't have any deception in this most holy court. Hypocrisy knows no bounds, right? This is the kind of sanctimonious behavior that Jesus condemned so many times. For example, in Matthew 23, beginning in verse 23, he said, "'Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!'"

Now, Caiaphas and these guys with the Sanhedrin, knew very well that Jesus claimed to be Christ, the Son of God; that was a well-known claim of Jesus. But this was also, shall we say, the decisive question. This was the key reason the Jews hated him. Because he claimed to be God's Son. That was blasphemy, that was worthy of death. Now, as I think about it, I'm sure some of those in attendance were thinking to themselves, "you know what, he just may be. After everything I've seen, I mean, I can look on my robes right now and see the grass stain and the dust from being thrown onto my back. Every part of me is aching from being thrown to the ground when he said 'I am.' I saw him heal the ear."

You know, this brings up that question, why do people choose to believe things that are demonstrably false? I mean, the evidence that Jesus was who He claimed to be, was absolutely overwhelming. Beloved, the answer is quite simple. People believe what they want to believe. They have to believe that which will advance their agenda, that which will justify their sin. That which will maintain their autonomy from God. That which will, further their rabid self-determination. A commitment that so many people have. I mean, think about it, the Jewish elite didn't care about the truth. They cared about their positions of power and prestige. So they're going to believe what they want to believe. Forget the truth. We see this all the time in our culture, do we not? I think of evolutionary theory. There is no evidence of single celled life transitioning into multicellular life forms over millions of years. And even if there were, where did the first cell come from? I mean, people believe what they want to believe. I mean, if you don't believe in evolution, you have to believe there was a creator. And if there's a creator, that means, oh, my, I should probably worship him and he will probably judge me. Because they're made in the image of God. They know that that is true. That's why Romans one says "...they suppress the truth in unrighteousness." The self-loathing transgender, believes in their mind that he or she is the opposite sex. Of course, that is demonstrably false. Why do they believe that? Well, they believe what they want to believe, because in their mind, this is their identity. This is how they can find life. This is how they can find fulfillment. This is how they can gain attention. This is how they can be treated special, although they're miserable, and they need Christ. So we try to force everyone to affirm them by using their pronouns so that we all join in with their delusion. They believe what they want to believe. Many religious people believe things that are biblically, and exegetically, indefensible. Why? Because their belief supports their preconceived ideas and convictions, not because they're true. And the cost of somehow acknowledging that they might be wrong is way too high. So I'm going to believe what I want to believe. Just listen to the so-called Christian homosexual, who will try to support their perversions with scripture, rather than asking, I'm wondering if it is possible that this text doesn't justify homosexuality? Is it possible for this text to justify homosexuality without doing violence to sober exegesis? Instead, they will violate every principle, every standard of hermeneutics, to make a text mean something that is utterly ridiculous. Why? Because they want to believe something that will justify their sin.

Think of politics. We're all aware of the debate this last week, and all that's going on with all of this chaos in the world system of presidential election. I was laughing, there are people who claim to believe that our president is mentally fit for office, that the economy is doing great, and that the border is secure. And you have the administration and the media that they can control, constantly gaslighting us to believe these things. But by every metric, those assertions are demonstrably false. And any reasonable, unbiased, informed person would agree with that. I mean, it's so sad, you see the debate and you see this decrepit old man that's senile in serious cognitive decline. I mean, ask yourself, if you were on the board of a major corporation, and this guy was applying to be the CEO, would you hire him? Obviously not. Yet he wants to be the leader of the free world. This is insane. Why do people believe those things? You pay your grocery bills, you pay your gas bills, your interest rate. I mean, you look at millions of people crossing the border. I mean, this is lunacy. But again, people want these things to be true. Because it is necessary for them to be true in order for them to promote their agenda. And in this case, it's kind of that immoral, globalist, centralized government agenda. You have to deify the state. So you've got to believe these things.

Well, this is the type of thing going on with the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas and his band of merry hypocrites knew they were violating the laws of jurisprudence. They knew Jesus was innocent, and they probably knew, at least some of them, that he was or just might be, who he said he was, but they simply could not bring themselves to embrace that. Moreover, we know that to the natural man, the things of the spirit are foolishness, and he cannot understand them because he's spiritually appraised. Not only that, Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers, right? Hearts are desperately... they're deceived, desperately wicked. So they believe what they wanted to believe, regardless of the truth, although it was all demonstrably false, so they could stay in power.

Now Caiaphas is so blinded by covetousness and rage that he treads where angels fear to tread. He gets in Jesus's face essentially, and says, I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God. Here my friends, we move from my first point of the mock trial, I want you to notice now, secondly, the majestic Messiah. Verse 62. "And Jesus said, 'I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, AND COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.'" I marvel at the scene; Jesus not only acknowledges that he is indeed the Christ, the Son of God, which is blasphemy. But then he goes on to drive this nail of truth, even further into their evil hearts by claiming that he is the fulfillment of two Messianic prophecies that they would have been very familiar with. The first one, he quotes a portion of David's song of praise, directed at the coming Messiah. It's recorded in Psalm 110 verse one. We read, "The LORD says to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for Your feet.'" Let me just briefly exegete that. The LORD, that's Yahweh, that's the covenant name, too holy to utter sometimes called the tetragrammaton--the four letters to wonderous to even utter from the lips, Y H W H-- "The LORD says to my Lord:" and here this is Adonai, this is a substitute for his covenant name; this is a title name referring to "master." "'Sit My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.'" So there, David is saying, Yahweh, Jehovah God, addressed my Lord, Messiah, my ancestral Son, the very Son of God, and by extension, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what Yahweh said to my Lord Messiah, "'Sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.'" In other words, Yaweh promised his mediator--the Messiah, David's master, David's Lord--that He might give him the final and ultimate glory, and majesty and power. Dear friends, this is a promise of preeminence, that could only be given to God himself and Jesus is saying, that's me. Caiaphas and all the other Jewish scholars understood this.

Let me add verse two of that text, "The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion saying, 'Rule in the midst of Your enemies.'" Can you imagine interrogating the incarnate Son of God? Can you imagine sitting in judgment of your Creator? I mean, folks, this is a prop. This is a an example of pride that just exceeds the limit of imagination. But what is amazing is Jesus is undaunted. I love this. He looks Caiaphas in the eye, so to speak. And with penetrating clarity, he tells him and the whole lot of them, that I am the Christ, the Son of God. And the Father has ordained that I sit at his right hand until the time when I make my enemies like you, a footstool for my feet. What an amazing in your face answer. And I might add, this was a warning. What an act of mercy on Jesus' part. Indeed, Messiah waits for the final surrender of his enemies, Hebrews 10:13.

Moreover, think of Paul in First Corinthians 15, beginning of verse 25. He comes into Corinth and he's telling them, "He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death." So again, think about this, Jesus pokes Caiaphas right in the eye with a sharp stick of truth. You want the truth presented in the presence of the living God? Here it is. Notice what else Jesus said, He responded to Caiaphas by quoting a portion of Daniel seven and verse 13. I'm going to read that to you, but also verse 14, because they would have understood it in that context. "'I kept looking at the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.'" In other words, guys, that is a reference to me, Jesus is saying. You know, this is this is such a powerful example of proper evangelism. I hear people many times say, you know, I just really don't know what to tell people, I really don't know where to begin. I, you know, especially people that are hostile to Christianity, like some of those in my family. Folks, I'll tell you what to tell them. Do what Jesus did, Tell them who Jesus is. That's where you begin. Tell them what he has done for you, and why he did what he did. You will recall in Matthew 16, verse 13, Jesus was asking his disciples, "'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" Folks, that's what you tell people. Beloved, there is no gospel, apart from the clear proclamation of the unsearchable riches of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never be ashamed of that. Tell them Romans three, verse 23, that "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as the propitiation in His blood through faith." In other words, he was the satisfaction of divine wrath on my part. Let me tell you who Jesus is. Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 10, beginning in verse nine, "...if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord," which of course requires that you know who he is, "and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will shall be saved, for with the heart person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For scripture says, 'WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.'" Again, never be ashamed of the gospel, dear friend, never be ashamed of Christ. Confess him before men, never tried to adjust the truth, never tried to compromise the truth, never tried to obfuscate the truth. Lovingly, but with spiritual boldness, look, a person in the eye. Look Caiaphas in the eye, lean forward and with indefatigable boldness, tell them who Jesus is.

I think of Paul as he went to the wicked, wicked city of Corinth, as some of us just returned from recently. In First Corinthians two, verse two, he said, For I determined to know nothing among you, except the social gospel....I determined to know nothing among you except the prosperity gospel...."I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, and in fear and in much trembling and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God." So again, go back to the scene with his neck, veins bulging and rage; this high hypocrite gets in Jesus' face and says, "'I adjure You by the living God, that You will tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.' And Jesus said, "I am; And you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF PWOER AND COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.'" This was more than Caiaphas could handle.

Verse 63, "Tearing his clothes, the high priest said, 'What further need of witnesses do we have?'" Of course, this is an Academy Award winning performance at this point. I mean, tearing one's clothes was a sign of grief, in that culture it could be a sign of mourning, but also of righteous indignation. It's interesting that the Jewish Talmud even outlines how you tear your clothes, you must tear them with the outermost garment from the neck down in the front. But bear in mind, Caiaphas is not expressing grief, he is expressing glee. He is so happy. Oh, we've got him now. And his feigned righteous indignation was all show. Nothing more than pretend outrage. I don't know if I've ever quoted Shakespeare in the pulpit before, but me thinks Caiaphas doth protest too much. I mean, this sanctimonious old fool. I mean, he was as crooked as a barrel of snakes and all of them were that way. So this vile serpent spews even more venom at our Lord in verse 64. And to the rest of them, he says, "'You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?' And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death."

Now, bear in mind legally after the Sanhedrin made a verdict deserving of death, they were required to wait a full day before making a formal sentence. But they were afraid to wait that long, for fear that those brave disciples might amass an army and come take Jesus away, you know, get all of the people to revolt. So they had to get creative. Moreover, they had to preserve some semblance of jurisprudence. And so what they did is decided, well, why don't we just reconvene again a few hours later, early in the morning. And then after that trial, then the three trials with the Romans would begin. Well, friends, there you have it, the majestic Jesus, he's standing alone condemned for his explicit claims pertaining to his Messiahship, and his deity.

I might add as a footnote, according to Luke 23, verses 50 and 51, Joseph of Arimathea who later asked Pilate for the body of Jesus was, quote, "a good and righteous man." And the text says that "he did not consent to their plan of action." Isn't it interesting, even in the ranks of the most wicked, God is never without a witness. Verse 65, "Some began to spit at Him. "That's a horrible thing. I've had that happen to me. I remember the first time I was leading a small group of men and I made the comment that there is salvation in no other name apart from Jesus and a man got up and cussed me and walked over to me and knelt down and spit in my face and walked out. I remember being in Israel and a young Jewish pastor was telling the story, how he was walking down the street there in central Israel and an Orthodox Jewish man and his son, saw him, knew who he was, and he stopped the young pastor, and said to his son, I want you to see how we treat Christians. And then the man spit in his face and told his son to do the same thing.

Friends, the cruelty of the wicked knows no bounds. They spit at him. Verse 65. They blindfolded him, they beat him with their fists, "...and they said to Him 'Prophesy!' And the officers received Him with slaps in the face." They mocked him, they defied his claim to deity, demanding that he somehow prove his omniscience, which, of course, he could have done. And he will someday when they stand before him in judgment. Matthew 26 verse 68, we read what they said, "'Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?'" You know, I cannot fathom such sadistic, inhumane cruelty that the Lord endured, and is going to grow so much worse. And I want to remind you folks, that this kind of hatred is extended towards us today. And it's going to get much worse. I think of what Jesus said in John 15, beginning in verse 18, "'If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you.'" And Paul told young Timothy in Second Timothy three beginning of verse 12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." And he went on to add, "But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived."

Beloved, I can assure you if it weren't for the laws that we have in our country that are gradually being removed, we would be treated equally as bad. Don't forget, Jesus predicted all of this, all the way back in Mark 10, beginning of verse 33. He said, "'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later, He will rise again.'" That's exactly what happened. Let me ask another question, what causes a person to have such intense hatred of Christ? The answer is, people despise anyone who tells them the truth about their sin. Jesus said in John seven, verse seven, the world "'...hates Me because I testify of it, that it's deeds are evil.'" I mentioned it earlier in Romans one, verse 18, we read how "...the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them." Beloved, we need to love people enough to tell them the truth about their sin and the love of the Savior. And if they are among the elect to the Spirit of God will move upon their heart with that gospel message. And he will use that truth to pry open that box that they are trying to suppress so that they will see the horror of their sin and the glory of the cross, and they will be saved by the regenerating power of the Spirit of God.

I wish to leave you with this and again imagine the scene, Jesus is standing there alone. He's blindfolded. By now he is bruised, he has swelled. He has spittle covering his bloodied face. Unimaginable humiliation and pain that he is suffering. And this is mild compared to what he will endure. And yet Peter tells us and his epistle, First Peter two verse 23, "...while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." O, what a Savior, what pain he endured. What love beyond measure, when in my place, he stood.

My friend, if you're here today, and you've never done business with God, and you've never humbled yourself before him, and acknowledged your sinfulness and cried out for the undeserved mercy that he would give you, I plead with you to do that before it's too late. Because one day you will stand before him either as your Savior and King or your judge and executioner. And for those of us who know and love Christ, may we leave here today with a renewed sense of what he suffered on our behalf and the glory that awaits us with him because of his saving grace, Amen.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word, may they find lodging in each heart and may they bear fruits of repentance for some and fruits of greater praise for others. We give you thanks, we give you praise for all you have done for us in Christ and it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

We find ourselves once again in Mark's gospel. So if you will take your Bibles and turn to Mark 14, we will be looking at verses 43 through 52, under the heading, "The Betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ." Betrayal by a close friend or loved one is undoubtedly one of the most painful things a person could possibly experience. Especially if that betrayal might lead to death. The name Judas Iscariot has become synonymous with the word "traitor." You probably noticed no one names their child Judas, and for good reason. But why would a man who knew Jesus was the Messiah, a man who witnessed all of those miracles, a man who saw Jesus raise the dead, cast out demons, heal the sick, a man that showed him nothing but kindness and love, how could a man possibly betray Jesus? What causes men and women that we know to violate their conscience, to defy all reason to enlist others to join in some wicked cause? All for the purpose of slandering and betraying other people with such vicious contempt with no regard for the truth? I mean, we see this on a daily basis. And in our political climate, you see it in the workplace, it happens in families, it happens in churches, how? How can that happen? We're going to examine some of these things this morning, as we look at this text, but the primary focus of the text is not the wickedness of the betrayer. Nor will it be the cowardice of the disciples, but the focus will be on the resoluteness of the Savior. Nothing would stop him from doing the will of the Father, to purchase our redemption. And I trust you will be deeply moved and perhaps convicted as we look at this inspired narrative. Who, by the way, or I should say, Mark was the one who, by the way, wrote this, as you will recall, but he wasn't there. But Peter was and Peter was the one that conveyed this to Mark. In fact, Justin Martyr writing about ad 150, described the gospel of Mark as, quote, "the memoirs of Peter." So what we're seeing here is a narrative describing from an eyewitness perspective, what happened. And we will compare this narrative with other gospel writers as well. So let me read this, Mark 14, beginning in verse 43.

"Immediately while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the 12, came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs, who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.

Now he who was betraying Him had given them a signal, saying, 'Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him and lead Him away under guard.'

After coming, Judas immediately went to Him saying, 'Rabbi!' and kissed Him.

They laid hands on Him and seized Him.

But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.

And Jesus said to them, 'Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber?

'Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me, but this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures.'

And they all left him and fled.

A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him.

But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked."

I would like to divide this section of scripture into two general categories that I hope will be helpful to you. We're going to see first of all, the futility of human rebellion, and secondly, the triumph of divine sovereignty. And we see these things happening constantly in our environment. In fact, our postmodern, and I might add post Christian, culture utterly rejects the reality of absolute moral truth. Instead, for people in our culture, truth is relative, determined by feelings. And therefore, all viewpoints, no matter how absurd, or contradictory, must be considered as equally valid and embraced except the positions that are found in the Bible, those must be rejected. And as a result, if it feels good, do it. That's the mentality. That's the culture. And along with that, those who believe these things must silence anyone that differs with them. And this is why biblical values are being replaced by laws that impose a godless, immoral, oppressive social agenda on Christians who they see as a group of people that threatens their civil liberties. And this is essentially the platform of the Democratic Party, as well as many Republicans and libertarians and so forth.

Human rebellion, as we're going to see, once again, here in this text, is everywhere, it's all around us. So don't think that what we're looking at here is just some isolated incident, that doesn't find itself being manifested on a continual basis. Human rebellion against God is what produces people that want abortion on demand. We see the rebellion of these vicious pro Hamas, protesters who are largely female, screaming at the top of their lungs about things they know absolutely nothing about. Anarchists destroying property and getting away with it with our legal system. Then you see the alphabet mafia, coming out of this kind of rebellion. In fact, this is Pride Month, as you're all aware, and I was looking at the GLAAD website, which is the LGBTQ advocacy organization, I wanted to see how many days weeks and months they celebrate in our culture. And I looked at their LGBTQ community calendar, and to see this, and I counted 39 days, five weeks and three months, almost a half of year of celebrating that which God calls an abomination. This is rebellion, a kind of rebellion against God that would have us believe, for example, that personhood is defined by the individual, not by creational, or biological reality. And the state must therefore preserve a person's liberty, their civil rights to do and be whatever they want. And so you must eliminate all gender distinctions. And ultimately, you need to eliminate marriage, you need to eliminate family and on it goes. This is the hideous nature of rebellion against God. And I could give you many, many other examples. But folks, we've seen this down through human history, from Satan's rebellion against God along with a third of the angels that he lured into defecting with him to the depraved nature of every human being. We see rebellion, from Pharaoh to Hitler, from Nebuchadnezzar to Joe Biden. From the vile perverts of Sodom and Gomorrah to the LGBTQ mafia, in the United States, and on and on it goes.

And God describes the horrific fate of those who rebel against him in Proverbs one, beginning in verse 24. There we read, "Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; and you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD. They would not accept my counsel; they spurned all my reproof. So, they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be satiated with their own devices. For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But he who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil."

And here, we see that indeed, despite man's rebellion against God, God's sovereignty will prevail, he will accomplish all of his purposes, as Isaiah 46:10 tells us, "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'" And we can take comfort in that text, and so many others, including Ephesians, one and verse 11, that he works "all things after the counsel of His will."

Well, Judas refused to believe all of that. He rebelled against God; he chose instead to pursue his own agenda. He rejected the word of the Lord that was right there in front of him. And he's now paying the price eternally for his rebellion. So, let's begin by looking at this text under the heading the futility of human rebellion. Now, the context, you will recall, as Jesus is in the garden; the garden was a familiar retreat for Jesus and his disciples. It was a place of beauty and peace, a sanctuary of for intimate communion, for fellowship, refuge, for rest and prayer. But as we can see from this text, there is no safe place in this world, right? No safe place, on this fallen planet, even the most sacred sanctuary can be defiled. And certainly, this is the preferred strategy of Satan, to defile that which is sacred, to destroy that which is beautiful, that which is blessed, whether it be a marriage of family, a church or a country. Now Jesus has just faced the most powerful temptation of his life, the temptation to somehow avoid being the sin bearer, and experiencing the alienation and wrath of the father to be treated as a sinner was utterly foreign to his holy nature. Perfect righteousness was always the automatic impulse of his soul, but he is now about to be assaulted, at the point of his transcendent holiness. And the thought of this produced such anguish within him that it brought him to the point of death, as he pleaded with the Father, "'Removed this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.'" Now, with his face, and his garment still glistening with sweat drops of blood, Jesus has resolutely accepted the cup that the Father has given him. And he says to his disciples in verse 42, to, "'Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!'"

And so now what we see, dear friends, in triumphant tranquility, Jesus now sets his face towards the cross, to willingly sacrifice himself on our behalf. So in verse 43 we read, "Immediately while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the 12 came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs, who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders." "Judas," isn't it interesting, "one of the 12." It's fascinating that that phrase is a declaration that is made in all four of the Gospels. And the purpose of this is really clear. It's to underscore the reality that an apostle could be guilty of such a heinous crime. "Judas, one of the 12."

Now, the ones coming to arrest him are from the Sanhedrin. Sanhedrin literally means "sitting together." Thus we get the idea of a council or an assembly. It consisted of 71 persons, and essentially this was the Supreme Council or the tribunal of the Jews. It was headed by the high priest who's not a part of this mob. But this group had religious and civil and ceremonial jurisdiction over the Jews. And bear in mind, these are apostate Jews. These are the political power brokers. They are the corrupt, greedy, political leaders, as you might say, of the Jewish people. Not at all dissimilar to what we experienced today. And they're jealous of Jesus because of his astounding popularity, and supernatural powers. And you will recall that at the beginning, and then at the end of his ministry, Jesus absolutely up-ended their religious con game by forcibly expelling the merchants and the money changers from the temple precincts during Passover week, which would have been their most profitable season of the year. And so they absolutely hated Jesus. But also they hated him because he exposed their hypocrisy. Hypocrites do not like that; he exposed their greed, their corruption, their unbiblical, rabbinical traditions. But they also feared that Jesus might ignite a revolution against Rome, which would place their positions of authority in jeopardy. So they had to do something with him.

So we know from the gospels that they've been plotting to kill him for some time. And now they have their chance. And as I think about the scene in my mind, I think my, what a contrast. Here you have the innocent Jesus who preached about loving your enemies, along with 11 of his apostles. And they're up against a huge armed mob. We get further insights in John's gospel. In John 18, beginning in verse three, we read, "Judas then, having received the Roman cohort, and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons." Now, a Roman cohort was about 600 men, some up to 1000 men. We don't know for sure if it was the entire cohort, which would have included men on horseback and the cavalry. But certainly, these were Roman troops, they would have been stationed there at Fort Antonia in Jerusalem. And it would appear that they fully intended to capture not only Jesus, but also his disciples. Now, obviously, the Sanhedrin had convinced the Roman authorities that Jesus was an insurrectionist. After all, he was being called the Messiah, the King of the Jews. And so they come now with overwhelming force. It's in the middle of the night, probably the wee early hours of the morning, and they do this to avoid the crowds that might be sympathetic to Jesus. Plus, I'm sure they feared his miracle working abilities. Who knows what this guy might do?

And it's such a fascinating irony, as you think about it. Here we see this, these religious phonies, these wicked politicians--men carrying lanterns and torches in the darkness so they can extinguish the light of the world. How futile. Here we see the spiritually dead, coming to kill the only one that can give life. Here we witness powerless men bearing weapons to somehow overpower the one and only omnipotent god. Murderous men bearing swords to arrest God who was about to voluntarily give up his life as a ransom for many. Violent men that are coming to subdue the Prince of Peace. John 18, beginning of verse four, we read this, “So Jesus, knowing all things that were coming upon Him, went forth, and said to them, 'Whom do you seek?' They answered Him, 'Jesus, the Nazarene.' He said to them, 'I am He.' And Judas also who was betraying them was standing with them. So when He said to them, 'I am He,' they drew back and fell to the ground."

What an amazing scene. Here, Jesus uses the covenant name of God, "Ego Eimi." The title that he used to describe himself, for example, in John 8:58, when, where he told the unbelieving Jews quote, "'Before Abraham was born, I AM.'" You see, he referred to himself in the present continuous tense. That seems odd, why would he do that? Because he wants to underscore the reality that he has always, and he will always, exist. This is a title indicating self-existence. One that indicates therefore preexistence. There has never been a time when he didn't exist. You will recall, when Moses asked God on the mountain, "What shall I tell the people when they ask what is your name?" And in Exodus three, in verse 14, "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM'; and He said, 'Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Tell them, "I AM" is your God. I am the preexistent, self-existent, uncreated Creator of the universe; the one who always is, and who always has been, and who always will be.

So this was the title, he used to respond to his enemies who came to arrest him. So when he said to them, "'I am He'" the "He" being added to the text, "they drew back and fell to the ground." Here we have the testimony of an eyewitness. And this is still vivid in John's memory. This, by the way, would have been written some 50 years after that incident happened. How could anybody ever forget something like that? Absolutely astounding.

So we first see the futility of human rebellion. But secondly, now, the triumph of divine sovereignty. And again, think about this, Jesus just mentioned his name and hostile men are rendered absolutely powerless and thrown on their backs to the ground. What a demonstration of power, but also what a demonstration of mercy? I mean, he could have thrown them all into hell, immediately, rather than on their backs, but rather he gives them another chance to repent and to embrace the Savior. Think about this, if that amount of power went forth, in the days of Jesus' humiliation, can you imagine the amount of power that will come in his voice and the force of his name in the day of his exultation and wrath, when it comes again in power and great glory? The triumph of divine sovereignty. Again, John 18, beginning in verse seven, "Therefore He again asked them, "'Whom do you seek?'" You see, he asks them again; he wants them to verbalize the second time, that they are under orders to arrest him alone, not his disciples, which he knew they intended to do. "And they said, 'Jesus the Nazarene.' Jesus answered, 'I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,' to fulfill the word which He spoke, 'Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.'"

O dear friends don't miss this, here Jesus demonstrates his great love for his own. He has promised to love them to the uttermost; to love us to the uttermost. And here we see a picture of the Good Shepherd, do we not? The good shepherd that is protecting his sheep, unlike the hireling that will flee at the first sight of the wolves, as we read about in John 10. Here we have a marvelous picture of a substitute, as he steps forward to take the place of sinners. And this also implies, I believe, that had the disciples been arrested, their faith would have been too weak to endure the profound disappointment and the confusion and the pain. But here we see the Savior doing what only he can do. You see, Jesus not only saved sinners, he secures sinners. Thus fulfilling he says, "the word which He spoke, 'Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.'"

As I meditated upon this scenario, Martin Luther's great hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God came to mind. And in one of those verses, we read this, "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be, Christ Jesus, it is He, Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle." "Lord Sabaoth" must win the battle, which means "Lord of Hosts."

Back to John 18 and verse 10. "Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slaves name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, 'Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?'" You know, you think about this, Peter must have really been emboldened when he saw all that whole mob just be thrown to the ground. You know, you can see him sticking out his chest, and he pulls the sword, come on, guys, you know, I mean, that's…you can see that happening here, right?

And I also think that one day in glory, we're going to meet some of those soldiers. And we may hear them say, "I was one of those guys, and I came to repentant faith before I got up off the ground." You know, you put yourself in the place of Peter, and the other disciples; you're fatigued, you're afraid, and then you got all of this fleshy stuff going on. You're self reliant, you’re overconfident. But your faith is weak, and you're not sure what all is going on. Folks, I'm telling you, that is a powerful mixture, that can cause a man to make a complete idiot out of himself. And to not even think rationally. I mean, Peter, really? As if Jesus couldn't defend himself, the one that could raise the dead and cast out demons? Do you really think if one angel could slay all of the firstborn of Egypt, that Jesus wouldn't be able to take care of himself here, and he needs you to take the sword of divine vengeance out of his hand? As if one angel didn't kill 185,000 Assyrians in one night to defend Jerusalem as we read about in Second Kings 19. Really, Peter, you didn't think about that, did you?

Well, like me many times, and probably like you, Peter was a ready, fire, aim, kind of guy. Shoot first and ask questions later, right? I think of Matthew 26 beginning in verse 52, "Then Jesus said to him, 'Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.'" In other words, Peter, if you kill him, or any of them, that's a capital offense, and you will be put to death. So Jesus is protecting him. He goes on to say, "'Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will let once put at My disposal more than 12 legions of angels?'" 12 legions, that's 72,000 angels. That's a pretty good force, right?

"'How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?'" Oh, dear Christian, would that we all learn to contemplate the glory of Christ and the power of his sovereignty to accomplish all that he has declared in eternity past and then be able to rest in his plan. The Great 17th century Puritan theologian, John Owen said this, in his work on the glory of Christ, quote, "By beholding the glory of Christ by faith, we shall find rest to our souls. Our minds are apt to be filled with troubles, fears, cares, dangers, distresses, ungoverned passions and lusts. By these, our thoughts are filled with chaos, darkness and confusion, but where the soul is fixed on the glory of Christ, then the mind finds rest and peace. For to be spiritually minded is peace (Romans 8:6)."

Back to Mark's narrative, describing the betrayal, we come to verse 44. "Now he who was betraying Him, had given him a signal, saying, 'Whoever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him and lead Him away under guard.' After coming, Judas immediately went to Him saying, 'Rabbi!' and kissed Him." That type of a kiss would have been a sign of intimate friendship. It's fascinating what Luke reveals in Luke 22 verse 48, regarding that scenario, there we read, Jesus said him "'Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man?'" Jesus said that him, "'Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man?'" He didn't say Judas, "are you betraying your friend?" No, he said, "The Son of Man." This is the title that Jesus used to refer to himself many times. And rightfully so because it is a messianic title, describing the only one who could fulfill mankind's role as the human race's only perfect representative, the Son of Man; the one who would rule over the earth, the one who would succeed as the last Adam in the realm where the first Adam failed. Judas, are you betraying the only perfect representative that can be your substitute and pay the price for your sin? Really, Judas? Is that what you're going to do? Worse yet, are you betraying me with a kiss? A sign of esteem and even love.

You know, when you think about that, what Jesus said to Judas was such a profound, solemn warning but yet it was a final act of mercy to Judas. Seriously, Judas, think about what you're doing. And once again, we see the tender love of the Savior seeking to save a sinner right? Right there in the garden. But that sinner rejected Christ's mercy, spurned his grace, even betrays him with a kiss. What staggering treachery. We all shudder in horror at the scene. Imagine what the other 11 must have thought when they're watching all of this play out. In Matthew 26:50, we also read "Jesus said to him, 'Friend, do what you have come for.'"

In verse 46, back to Mark's narrative, "They laid hands on Him and seized Him." And you must bear in mind that the only reason they laid hands on him and seized him is because he allowed them to do so. John 10 beginning of verse 17, Jesus said, "'...I lay down my life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay that lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I've received from My Father.'" Once again, dear friends, o, the folly and the futility of human rebellion, to go up against the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient God.

So verse 46, "they laid hands on Him and seized Him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struct the slave of the high priests and cut off his ear." Luke says, in Luke 22:51, "But Jesus answered and said..." "Answered," by the way, could be translated, "reacted or responded." He said, "'Stop! No more of this.' And He touched his ear and healed him." And they all fell on their faces and worshipped Jesus. Doesn't say that does it?

Please understand dear friends, and this is such a dramatic picture of this, unless God quickens the dead soul of a sinner, they will never come to faith in Christ. They can see miracle after miracle, but apart from the magnificent reality and miracle of regeneration, that instantaneous impartation of spiritual life to the dead, that spiritual resurrection--apart from that, not even witnessing a miracle like this, will cause a person to place their faith in Christ. Again, Judas saw countless miracles. Plus, he just witnessed the reality of what happens when Jesus speaks his covenant name. He's just gotten up off of the ground. And now he sees Jesus healed the ear. Ah, but some will say no, man is spiritually debilitated, but he is not spiritually dead, he can therefore exercise his free will. And he can cooperate with God and make a decision for Christ. That God and man are co-saviors in rescuing the fallen race from eternal wrath. Therefore, faith precedes regeneration. I'm sure you've heard that before. And very often they will point to First John 5:1, to prove their case. And there we read, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." Well, that seems to indicate that that is true. That you have to first believe and then you're born of God. But if you execute the passage properly, you'll see that it's saying just the opposite. The phrase, "whoever believes" can be translated, "everyone believing" it's a present active participle, indicating ongoing faith. Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And here in Greek, we have what's called a perfect passive indicative, which is an action that has already taken place in the past, it is complete, but it has ongoing effects in the present. That's what the text is saying. So it can be translated "everyone who presently believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God." You see, dear friends, regeneration is the cause, not the consequence of saving faith. The blind must first be given sight before they can see their sin and behold the glory of Christ; there must be a spiritual resurrection. While sinners are called to repent and believe in the gospel, ultimately God must take the initiative. Because, as we read in Scripture, the sinner is spiritually dead, he is alienated from God. He has no capacity to discern truth, he cannot understand divine truth. Plus, he's blinded by Satan. Romans 3:11 says that no man understands, no man seeks after God. Therefore, God must seek after him. Nevertheless, in a mystery, we cannot comprehend, man is still responsible for his unbelief, like Judas, who had no one to blame but himself.

So Jesus addresses the mob in verse 48, says to them, "'Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber?'" The term "robber" describes a plundering rebel that's notorious for pillaging and looting. Really? That's who I am? Of course, he knew that that was laughably absurd.

Verse 49, "'Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me.'" In other words, what he's saying is, you are doing this under the cover of darkness, because you know, it is wrong. But then he adds this, "'...but this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures.'" This, of course, is a reference to the many Old Testament prophecies that we have looked at on other Sundays--Psalm 41:9, Psalm 55:12 through 14, Isaiah 53:7, also verses seven and eight, verse 12, Zechariah, 11:12, and Zechariah 13:7 that Jesus just quoted in Mark 14:27, a few verses earlier, when he says, "'You will all fall away, because it is written, "I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED."'" Again, he demonstrates that God is in complete control of all of this, this is not a plan B. This is prophecy being fulfilled. And all through Scripture, dear friends, we see that God has ordained to allow evil to accomplish his purposes, and to therefore put on display his infinite perfections, and all of his attributes. I ask you, is Jesus more or less glorified, because of what the Father did in sending him to the cross? Exceedingly more. That's how he puts his glory on display. And as we see these things, it unleashes the doxologies of the heart of the redeemed. So that with full throat and sincerity we can sing "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost. But now I see." I was blind or but now I see, sorry, I got the words mixed up there. And we can all testify to that, can we?

So they seize Jesus, verse 50, "They all left Him and fled." Again, remember, they did not take seriously the Lord's command, to watch and to pray. Remember that earlier in the garden? Unless you fall into temptation, unless you fall into spiritual lethargy and indifference, sins that make us vulnerable to all manner of temptation. Quite frankly, they feared man more than they feared God and had I been amongst them, I'm sure I would have been right with them. By the way, what a change later on, after Pentecost, when the Spirit lived within them permanently.

Then verse 51, "A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked." And many believe this was Mark. We can't say for sure, but the point of including this event, I think, is what's really important. And while it doesn't say for sure, it would be in my humble opinion that what we see here is Jesus being abandoned by all of his disciples, left all alone with this vicious mob. All of the bravado has disappeared. And now even a curious and innocent young man wearing the linen from his from his bed; he probably was awakened with all that was going on and gets out, throws his linen around him and comes out to see what's going on. Even that curious bystander has now just barely escaped the murderous Christ haters. What a poignant picture of Christ's suffering all along. And even the curious following at a distance, running the risk of being swept up in the hatred of the wicked and being destroyed.

Now, what causes a man to violate his conscience? like Judas? How does this happen? What causes a man or a woman to defy all reason? What motivates a man to enlist others to join in some kind of a violent cause, to somehow destroy the innocent? What provokes people to slander and malign and betray the innocent, with such vile contempt, with such a total disregard for the truth that is so obvious. Well, in a word, dear friends, it is covetousness--the 10th commandment, Thou shalt not covet. To covet means to crave material things that others have. It also means to have a desire for something for yourself, and to have more than what you already possess, so you're not content with what you currently have. Judas wanted the material wealth that would come with his position of prominence and power in the kingdom. He was wanting Jesus to establish the kingdom now, as were the others. And it wasn't happening. You know, the heretical prosperity gospel capitalizes on this sin, and it leads people away from the true gospel. It leads the naive and the ignorant into idolatry because remember, where a man's treasure is there will his heart be also; that man cannot love, money, and God at the same time. He will choose one over the other.

Covetousness, Exodus 20 verse 17, the 10th commandment, "'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not cover your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.'" And we know that covetousness originates in the heart and leads to many other sins. Mark recorded what Jesus said in chapter seven beginning in verse 21, "'For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these things proceed from within and defile the man.'" And if you look in Scripture, you'll see that Covetousness is idolatry that it never satisfies. It is vanity, it leads to injustice and oppression. It is foolish and hurtful lusts. It is a departure from the faith. It leads to lying, murder, theft, poverty, domestic troubles, and on it goes. And we see many of these things in the life of Judas. And you might see it even in your own life. Covetousness causes a man to search for satisfaction at the most deep level in his inner person, but to search for it in persons, in places and things other than Christ. Christ is never enough. In Colossians two and verse 10, the apostle Paul says, "In Him, you have been made complete." But the covetous man says, No, I know what's best for me. I know what will make me happy and it is not Christ. Think about it. Judas heard Jesus say in Matthew six, beginning in verse 32, "'For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things...'" is referring to what you eat, what you drink, what you put on your body, and what you wear. "'...for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.'" And then he says this, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.'" But the covetous person says no, I know what I want, and I will have it and I will have it now. The psalmist says in Psalm 16:11 "You will make known to me the path of life, in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever." But the covetous man, the covetous man will say, No, no, I want my best life now. And the false teachers will give you 1000 ways to find that, supposedly. Dear Christian, guard your heart against this wickedness. Psalm 119, verse 36, says, "Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness."

So, what happened to Judas after his betrayal of Jesus? In Matthew 27, beginning in verse three, we read, "Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, 'I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.' But they said, 'What is that to us? See to that yourself!' And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself." Luke tells us in Acts one verse 18, "...falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his intestines gushed out." What a hideous death.

Back to Matthew's account, the chief priest took the pieces of silver, and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood." I have to stop here. What astounding hypocrisy. You're worried about violating the law with the money when you are about to kill an innocent man? Folks, that is the power of legalism to blind people utterly. It goes on to say, "And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter's Field as burial place for strangers. For this reason, that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 'AND THEY TOOK THE THRIRTY PIECES OF SILVER, THE PRICE OF TH EONE WHOSE PRICE HAD BEEN SET by the sons of Israel; AND THEY GAVE THEM FOR THE POTTER'S FIELD, AS THE LORD DIRECTED ME.'"

Oh, dear friends, the futility, of human rebellion and the triumph of divine sovereignty. I must ask you, what will you do with Jesus? Will you succumb to your own covetousness and live apart from him? Just live unto yourself and not put your faith in him? Will you, in your own way, betray Him and reject Him and treat him with indifference? As if all that he did is really of no importance. My friend if that is you, woe to you. Your foolish rebellion will seal your fate and the wrath of God will remain on you throughout eternity unless you repent. So I plead with you to come to Jesus. You know who you are. Your life is really going nowhere fast. You pretend to be what you're really not. And you know that if suddenly you were in a position where your death was imminent, you would have no peace, about where you're going to spend eternity. So as a minister of the gospel, I reach out to you and say, please, place your faith in Christ your only hope of salvation before it's too late.

And you, dear saints that love Christ, my, we can celebrate the triumph of sovereign grace today, can we not? Oh my the power of the gospel. And as I was thinking about this, my mind went to the final verse of "A Mighty Fortress is our God" that says this, "That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth; the Spirit and the gifts are ours, through Him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever." Amen and Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the magnificent truths of your word that speak so clearly, so directly to each of our hearts. I pray that what we have examined here today will move each one of us in the direction of holiness. That sinners might be saved and saints might be sanctified. We pray all of this in the precious name and for the glory of our Savior in King Jesus Christ. Amen.

(Audio not available for first few minutes of message)....blood of the Passover lambs that were slain in the temple up above, in that area.

And it's fascinating when you think about it 24 hours earlier, he was in the same area, revealing to his disciples the glory of his Second Coming. But now he anticipates the unimaginable horror of being alienated from his heavenly Father; being crushed under the weight of the Father's wrath for unworthy sinners like you and me. I find it interesting that about 1000 years earlier, we read, for example, in Second Samuel chapter 15, especially in verse 30, that a broken hearted and betrayed King David, traversed this very same path along with his distressed entourage. You may recall the story, David was walking barefoot, with his head covered, crying. Which by the way, was an expression of intense grief in that ancient culture. And why did he do this? Well, it was because of his son, Absalom's conspiracy to usurp his father's throne. And because David's trusted advisor Ahithophel had betrayed him.

Now, I must say that we are on holy ground here, as we look at this passage, I find myself even retreating from the responsibility to explain it and to apply it. It's such a sacred passage. And because what the Spirit of God is revealing here, is so transcendent, it is so traumatic, it is so far beyond the realm of human comprehension and experience that frankly, it begs language. It certainly deserves a far more fitting tongue than mine, to appropriately and effectively explain what is happening here. But here we are given a supernatural glimpse of divine suffering, all that Jesus is enduring on our behalf. But I might say that what we see here is going to be mild in comparison to what he will experience on the cross. But let me read the text to you.

"And Jesus said to them, 'You will fall away because it is written, "IWILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED." But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.' But Peter said to Him, 'Even though all may fall away, yet, I will not.' And Jesus said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.' But Peter kept saying insistently, 'Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!' And they were all saying the same thing also. They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, 'Sit here until I have prayed.' And He took with Him Peter, and James and John and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.' And He went a little beyond them, and fell on the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, 'Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.' And He came and He found them sleeping, and said to Peter, 'Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.' Again, He went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; they did not know what to answer Him. And He came the third time and said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough; the hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!'"

Dave Harrell

I wish to focus on six categories of truth, divided into three headings that seem to be to emerge from this text. I pray that we will all be deeply impacted by what the Spirit reveals to us. We're going to see first of all, predicted defection and proud rejection. Secondly, we're going to see piteous supplication and perfect submission and finally, practical exhortation and powerful resolution. And in all of this, dear friends, we're going to see ourselves more clearly. Especially those secret sins we tend to justify, we tend to excuse, we tend to camouflage especially with our self righteous religiosity. It will expose our own spiritual overconfidence, but more importantly, what we're going to see here is the Savior's infinite love for us.

So first of all, let's look at the predicted defection and proud rejection, verse 27. "And Jesus said to them, 'You will all fall away, because it is written, "I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED."'" When he says, "I will strike down the shepherd," the "I" refers to Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, Yahweh of hosts. And we know that this is true, Isaiah 53 and verse six, we read that, "the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all, to fall on Him." The 11 must have been shocked to hear the Lord's prediction. And to quote from Zechariah 13, verse seven, a text that was prophesied some 500 years earlier. And it's interesting, we know that later in the garden, after Jesus rebuked Peter for cutting off the ear of the high priest's slave, you remember that story, the disciples realize that Jesus was not going to defend himself. And that he was going to be arrested; allow them to arrest him. And so Mark tells us later on in verse 50, of chapter 14, "And they all left Him and fled." Just as the Lord prophesied.

But Jesus' prediction was not only a foreshadow of the cowardice of the disciples' on the night of his arrest, but it also speaks to the scattering of the saints just a little bit later on. We read of this, for example, in Acts eight one, There we read, "And on that day," the day of Stephen's death, "a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." Furthermore, following Christ's death and resurrection, we see how God scattered the entire unbelieving nation of Israel all over the globe. And that was, and continues to be, an act of judgment for their unbelief, a period of, shall we say, purification and refinement through the trials of their sufferings, but he did not leave them without hope. In fact, if you go back to that same prophecy in Zechariah, chapter 13, the verse seven goes on to say, "And I will turn My hand against the little ones."God predicted this in the words of Isaiah chapter one, verse 25, he says, "I will also turn My hand against you, and will smelt away your dross as with lye, and will remove all your alloy. Then," and here's the hope, "Then I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the city of righteousness, a faithful city. Zion will be redeemed with justice..."

So with this background, what we see here in Mark 14 is Jesus is clearly stating the disciples perceived loyalty to Christ would not be sufficient to sustain them in what was about to happen; their fears would get the best of them. He knew that they would be overcome by fear, that they would scatter to places of perceived safety. And, frankly, knowing that his companions would abandon him, undoubtedly made the prospect of his suffering all the greater, would it not? But his resolve to do the Father's will remained undaunted. And Jesus next statement, was no doubt reassuring to them, because it indicated that their cowardly abandonment would not be permanent, verse 28, "'But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.'" There's a glimmer of hope here. All is not lost. And we see this, as well later on, the fulfillment of this at the tomb, the empty tomb. In Matthew 28, beginning in verse seven, remember, the angel said to the women, "'Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.'"

Now, as you would expect, proud Peter vehemently protested Jesus' prediction. Verse 29, "Peter said to Him, 'even though all may fall away, yet I will not.'" And certainly his strident boast, only underscored his lack of spiritual awareness, which fueled his overconfidence, and his refusal to take seriously what Jesus had told them--frankly, about an hour or so earlier in the upper room, at the Passover meal. Remember in Luke 22, verse 31, we read what the Lord said to Peter, "'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.' But he said to Him, 'Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!' And Jesus said, 'I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today, until you have denied three times that you know Me.'" Oh, the power of pride--"I don't care what he says, I know myself." You know, our pride is often nourished by our selective hearing of what God says. Beloved, we must always be suspect of our own spiritual maturity. We should always be suspect, of how loyal we think we are, to Christ. Despite the self promoting deceptions that we tend to pander in our deceitful heart. You know, our pride would have us rely on our religious behaviors--externals--as an accurate measure of our spirituality. When in fact, many times our external religious behaviors are nothing more than an illusion of spirituality. Certainly not always, but they can be. Our true condition can only be known by an honest assessment of our love for Christ. You want to know your level of spirituality ask yourself, "How much do I really love Christ? How much do I really love my neighbor? And am I joyfully and humbly submitting to his Lordship?"

So here we see a prediction of defection. And as I say, a proud rejection; the sheer folly of self-assurance in the denial of the Lord's clear assessment of Peter's inflated opinion of himself. And in verse 30, we read, "And Jesus said him, 'Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice...'" That means before dawn. A rooster crowing served as a time indicator in that culture. "...before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.' But Peter kept saying insistently, 'Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny You!'" Oh my, what an inflated opinion of self. I struggle with it as well. So do you. Obviously he overestimated his courage, his loyalty to Christ. You might say, Peter simply did not know his own heart. But the word of God will expose it. And the difficulties in life, the temptations that we experience, will expose who we really are.

And the text also says that "...they were all saying the same thing also." Well, naturally, they don't want to be outdone by Peter. So we're all going to say, "Yeah, we're, you know, we're gung ho." Folks, again, we've got to guard ourselves against pride. It is so easy to convince ourselves that we are more mature than what we really are. Let me flesh this out a bit practically. "Oh, that's okay. Lord, I don't need to discipline myself for the sake of godliness. I'm good. I don't need the systematic in depth teaching and preaching of the Word of God. I don't need discipleship. I don't need to be around other godly people who can speak truth into my life. I don't need to have a passionate personal pursuit of holiness, church on Sunday morning is good enough for me." And on and on it goes. May I remind you of what God says in Proverbs 16 verse 18, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling." Proverbs 29 verse 23, says, "A man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor." And folks I've lived long enough to see men and women sow seeds of arrogant wickedness in the things that they do, all the while convinced that they are right, that they are innocent. And then over time, see how they sowed the wind and they're reaping a whirlwind of misery, still convinced that they are right, everybody else is wrong, and that they've been mistreated.

So first, we see predicted defection and proud rejection. Secondly, what I would call piteous supplication and perfect submission. And again, I approach this narrative with deep reverence. My exposition of it won't even come close to doing it justice. Verse 32, "They came to a place called Gethsemane;" Gethsemane means "olive press." "And He said to His disciples, 'Sit here until I have prayed.'" And he probably is having them sit near the entrance of the garden. And what they had then, as they do even do now, in that same area in Jerusalem, is they would have a fence around gardens that people owned. And this, no doubt, was a friend that owned the garden and they would go there to have privacy. Then we read in verse 33, "And He took with Him Peter, and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled." So he has one group stay towards the entrance, and then he takes his inner circle, Peter, James, and John, goes deeper into the garden.

And it says he became "very distressed." The term in the original language, the term for distressed, is one that means to be excessively affected by emotion. "...and troubled," it says, which carries the idea of being completely overcome by mental and spiritual anguish to the point of losing one's composure. This is what's going on in the Lord.

Verse 34, "And He said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death.'" "Perilypos" in the original language--deeply grieved. It means surrounded by intense sadness. And I want you to remember something here. Do not lose sight of this fact. We're talking about God incarnate here. This is our Creator. This is the Son of God, who was about to become the sole object of divine wrath, who is about to bear your sin and mine in his body, who was about to be alienated from his Father, something that we will never experience. This is supernatural suffering. Friends what is happening here exceeds the limits of our ability to imagine. And frankly, the temptation to avoid the torture of sin bearing that awaited him would have been the greatest temptation of all, an inducement that even exceeded Satan's temptations of Christ in the wilderness. But here Jesus is also confronted, we know, according to Luke 22, verse 53, the "power of darkness" in some mysterious way that we're not even told, Satan is there. Certainly, this was Satan's final opportunity to prevent Jesus from going to the cross to accomplish our redemption and fulfill the mission for which the Father had sent him. The depths of anguish that gripped him was so severe that he was at the point of death, as we will see. "'My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.'" And yet, what is fascinating is he is still concerned for his disciples. And that's why he says, "'...remain here and keep watch.'" You see, he knew he must suffer alone. And he also knew that his disciples could really offer him no comfort. But what they could do, and what he's asked him to do, is to stay vigilant and pray, "remain here and keep watch." Keep watch for what Judas and the rest of the crew coming to take them away? No, no, no. He's asking them to keep watch over their own heart, to watch for the your own spiritual lethargy, your own spiritual indifference, especially toward obeying the will of the Father sins that plague each of us. In other words, what Jesus is concerned about is, I don't want you to fall into sin, as you are so prone to do. Remember, all that happened at the Passover meal where he had to confront them? I mean, they're in a time of worship and they're arguing over who's going to be first in the kingdom. Luke 22 and verse 40 says, "When He arrived at that place, He said to them, 'Pray that you may not enter into temptation.'" I want you to watch for this because your heart has a proclivity for this. In other words, I want you to pray, yes, Father, please, help Jesus with all that he's going through right now, but deliver me from my foolish pride that he has exposed. Even just a little bit earlier. I'm blinded by my own flesh, I am weak. I need your help. Give us all discernment. Give us the ability to somehow respond in a godly way, in the midst of this grim reality that we can't even begin to comprehend. We don't know what's going on. All I know to do is to cry out to you, as you have told us to do. And so I'm crying right now I'm watching and I'm praying, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. I've got to have help because I am so prone to spiritual lethargy and spiritual indifference, and seeking my own way, rather than submitting to the will of the Father, as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Now to be sure, these brothers were emotionally, they were physically and you might say spiritually, exhausted, all of the events that had just occurred over the course of the Passover meal, which probably lasted about six hours. I mean, their vitality was drained from them. But the real problem was not so much their physical fatigue. The real problem was that they were operating under the power of their own sinful flesh, rather than the power of God. Now, while nothing we encounter, dear friends, will ever come close to the evil that Jesus endured, make no mistake, the same enemy is on the prowl. And our flesh is also weak. That's why we should all heed this command, to watch and to pray. Bear in mind that the enemy has all of the seductions out here that would cause you to go in the opposite direction of the will of the Father. And all of those seductions appeal to your flesh. And therefore, without you even realizing it, you are moving away and from God, and moving away from the blessing that he wants for you, for your faith, for your family, for your marriage. He wants to deceive; the enemy wants to deceive you. He wants you to say, "you know what, my kids are good, I'll just let them watch whatever they want. You know, my kids are good, they go to school, I don't have to be involved in their life and, and really try to instruct them and be intentional that everything's good. We got a good Sunday School at church." You see how it works? And we buy into all of those wise because we're not watching, we're not praying. Oh, dear Christian, keep watch. Keep watching and praying. Said differently, Ephesians six, beginning in verse 11, "Put on the full armor of God." You see how all of that fits together? Why? "So that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything, to stand." So dear friends, learn well, this lesson. Get serious about keeping watch over your heart, guard yourself against spiritual lethargy, against spiritual indifference. And against all of those subtle ways that you are going in the opposite direction of what God has asked you to do.

Let me make this very practical. When was the last time you earnestly went before the Lord and prayed for these very things that I'm describing? When was the last time that you went before the Lord and said to him, "Lord, I'm blind. I'm weak in so many ways. Please help me to see my hidden faults helped me to see those ways that I'm just living for myself. Lord helped me to hate hypocrisy in my life more than the way I hate it in the lives of others. Father, help me stop looking for the speck in the eye of my brother and sister and see the log in my own? Husbands and wives, when was the last time you held each other by the hand and you got on your knees and you knelt by your bed, and you poured out your heart that God would give you all that you need to effectively love each other and teach your children and invest in them as God has asked you to do? Dear Christian, we know so little of holiness because we know so little of watchfulness. And we know so little of power because we just know so little of prayer.

Certainly the disciples learned this well, after all of this, Jesus says, Peter, James, John, "'My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.'" In other words, don't fall into more temptation, like I have already shown to you that you so easily do. Verse 35, "And He went a little beyond them." Luke tells us and Luke 22:41 That it was about a stone's throw. So Jesus goes about a stone's throw beyond them. And it says he, "fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And he was saying, 'Abba!Father! All things are possible for You remove this cup from Me. '"The term "cup" is an Old Testament metaphor for the wrath of divine judgment and the suffering that goes with that.

Please understand, this is what he hated more than everything else that he was experiencing, because he knew this was coming. What troubled his soul more than anything else, was the anticipation of being a sin bearer. This was utterly foreign to the sinless Savior. Perfect righteousness was the automatic impulse of his soul. But he is now about to be assaulted. And he's going to be assaulted at the point of his transcendent holiness. Charles Spurgeon says it's so well quote, "The penalty of sin began to be realized by Him in the garden. First the sin which had put Him in the position of a suffering substitute, and then the penalty which must be borne, because lie was in that position, a dread to the last degree, that kind of theology, which is so common nowadays, which seeks to depreciate and diminish our estimate of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ." He goes on to say, "Brethren, that was no trifling suffering, which made recompense to the justice of God for the sins of men. I am never afraid of exaggeration when I speak of what my Lord endured. All hell was distilled into that cup, of which our God and Savior Jesus Christ was made to drink. It was not eternal suffering but since he was divine, He could, in a short time offer unto God a vindication of His justice, which sinners in hell could not have offered, had they been left to suffer in their own persons forever. The woe that broke over the Savior spirit, the great and fathomless ocean of inexpressible anguish, which dashed over the Savior soul when He died, is so inconceivable that I must not venture far, lest I be accused of a vain attempt to express the unutterable. But this I will say, the very spray from that great tempestuous deep as it fell on Christ, baptized him in a bloody sweat. He had not yet come to the raging billows of the penalty itself, but even standing on the shore, as He heard the awful surf breaking at His feet, His soul was sore, amazed and very heavy. It was the shadow of the coming tempest. It was the prelude of the dread desertion, which he had to endure when He stood where we ought to have stood, and paid to his Father's justice the debt which was due from us. It was this which laid Him low, to be treated as a sinner, to be smitten as a senator, though in Him was no sin. That is what caused him the agony." End quote.

Because we know so little of holiness, we cannot even begin to fathom how infinitely repulsive sin really is. I mean, what we see of sin in our life is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. And as I say, it's only the snowflake or to own that tip. We don't see all of the rest underneath that God's see. In fact, Jesus temptation to sin throughout his ministry was far more powerful than any temptation that we will ever experience. Because typically when we are tempted, we just give in. We justify, we just do whatever and go on. We rationalize, we blame shift or just ignore it. But Jesus had never known any separation whatsoever from the Father, much less his wrath. And he knows that's what's awaiting him. So he "fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass by. And He was saying, 'Abba! Father!'" by the way, that's Aramaic for "Papa." It is a term that affirms one's intimacy with the Father, in this case with his Father God.

"'All things are possible for you remove this cup from Me.'" Beloved, here in is the piteous, that is the mournful, the distressing supplication of our Savior. You might say this is the apex of human grief, one that would have killed any of us. Yet I find it fascinating in his, in his doleful entreaty, he still submits to the Father. "'yet not what I will, but what You will.'"

May I add another lesson that emerges from this passage. And that is simply this prayer is never about changing God's mind. It is about aligning our will with his. And once again, we see that God is in control of everything that is happening. He alone could remove the cup of suffering, he alone could choose some other way to reconcile sinners unto himself. But this was the perfect and just plan of God. Certainly perfection and justice can be defined very simply, it's what God does. Jesus willingly submits himself to the Father's will, not his own. Paul spoke of this in Philippians, two eight, "Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

And in Luke 22 verse 44, the physician offers additional insight into the inconceivable stress on Jesus body, it says, "And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." This is a rare condition known as "hematidrosis" which is, as I understand it, the subcontanious capillaries dilate and they burst forth and mingle a little bit of blood with sweat with prespiration. That's what's going on here. I cannot fathom that kind of anguish.

So we've seen the predicted defection and the proud rejection. We've seen the piteous supplication and the perfect submission, and finally, the practical exhortation and powerful resolution. Verse 37, "And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, 'Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation.'" Once again, that you won't fall victim to your own spiritual lethargy and indifference and resistance to the will of God. And then he says, "'The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.'" Yes, "the spirit," those high aspirations of our own inner man informed by the Spirit of God, yes, that's willing. Oh, you can say all of the right things. And in your core, that's what you want to do. But it's the flesh. That's the problem. "The flesh is weak." And O, the proclivity of our flesh to choose the easy path that avoids doing the will of the Father; something we cannot do apart from divine power. We must all take seriously our need to be physically and spiritually awake and alert. Yes, our spirit may be willing but our flesh is weak. That's why we are told to "walk by the Spirit", the Holy Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of your flesh.

You see, we have an enemy within and we have one without. They are formidable foes beyond anything we can imagine. The enemy within is our own unredeemed human flesh and the enemy without is Satan. You know, Peter learned this lesson very well. Later on, he would write in First Peter five beginning in verse eight "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert." It doesn't say this, but I think in parenths, he could have said a whole lot there. I had to learn this the hard way, that whole deal. It goes on to say, why, "Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him firm in your faith..." And Paul speaks of the same thing in Romans 13, beginning in verse 11. He says, "Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep..."---that's your lethargy here-- "for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." And the lust of the flesh includes so many different things, but especially in this context, spiritual lethargy and indifference and resistance to the will of God.

So back to the text. Verse 39, "Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not want to answer Him." Obviously, they did not want to answer him because they're embarrassed. And frankly, they're bewildered by their own weakness. I mean, God put them in a place where they absolutely could not muster up enough faith, and boldness and love and loyalty to possibly endure that situation. This is reminiscent of chapter nine, verse 34, where quote, "they kept silence" when Jesus confronted them over their bickering about who would be greatest in the kingdom. That's what goes on here as well.

Verse 41, "And He came the third time and said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting?'" Then he says, "'It is enough; the hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand.!'" An amazing scene, Jesus now sets his face towards the cross. This is the powerful resolution of the Savior to willingly sacrifice himself on our behalf. And as I see the scene in my mind, I can only imagine that his face and his garments are still glistening with sweat drops of blood. And yet the Lord Jesus is going to resolutely and triumphantly accept the cup that the Father had given him. Imagine the scene, Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot was leading the proud members of the Sanhedrin. Perhaps they could even see the lights; if you get in that area, as I have been, it would be easy to see such a large group coming towards you. Perhaps he saw them, but certainly in in his mind, he could see them. The Sanhedrin would have been with them as we're going to learn later in our studies, accompanied by the temple police, and a cohort of Roman soldiers--that's 600 Roman soldiers.

But what Jesus says essentially is, it's time to advance, not retreat. The writer of Hebrews reiterates the sacred scene. If I can close by taking you there for just a few minutes. In Hebrews five verse seven we read, "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death. And He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek." Let me explain this briefly. In the days of Abraham, according to Genesis 14 and verse 18, long before the Aaronic priesthood was established, Melchizedek, which by the way, means "righteous king." Melchi is "king," and zedek, the verb means "to be just or righteous." Melchizedek was king of Salem, it says, which was ancient Jerusalem; a priest of God Most High. And in Hebrews seven, in verse three, we learned that his priesthood was unending, unlike that of Aaron, which began later on in the days of Moses and ended in AD 70, when the Romans destroyed the temple. But as we look at this Melchizedek character, we see that he was a type of Christ. In the Old Testament, he was a person that pictured or prefigured the antitype that was far greater; that was perfect that was eternal. Though Melchizedek is in no way equal to Christ, his unique priesthood, and frankly, even his name, typify Jesus Christ and his work in a number of significant ways. And we don't have time, but in chapter seven of Hebrews, it goes on to explain all of that. So Melchizedek's priesthood elevated the priesthood of Jesus Christ, even beyond that of Aaron.

In verse 10, we read that he was "designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek." And so what's fascinating is in Hebrews five, verses seven through 10, which is a commentary on our text this morning, again we read, "In the days of His flesh," referring to Christ, "He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety." It's interesting--"krauge" in Greek--"loud crying." Fascinating term, very significant. It does not refer to a cry a man chooses to utter on his own. But rather it speaks of a cry that is extracted from him; the cry that is pulled or forced out of him as a result of excruciating anguish. This is what accompanied the prayers and supplications of our precious Savior in the garden. He prayed to the Father, not to avoid the cross, but to be resurrected from the dead, to be saved, it says "from" or "out of" death. And you will recall that for this reason, an angel from heaven appeared to him to strengthen him, Luke 22:44, "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." His distress brought him to the very threshold of death. And when you examine our Lord's life and ministry, you see that indeed, he was a man of sorrows, he was acquainted with grief. But he experienced the full spectrum of human suffering, of human temptation. And this made him eminently qualified to be our sympathetic high priest.

In verse eight of that text, "Although He was the Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." Isn't it interesting, the Father didn't give him a pass; he was given no exemption from all of the sorrow, and all of the pain associated with the human condition. And because of his perfect obedience to do the will of the Father, he experienced death. So there's nothing that we can experience that he has not experienced and done so far greater. For this reason, he can be affirmed as our sympathetic high priest.

And then finally in verse nine of Hebrews five, he says, "And having been made perfect"-- he's not speaking here of metaphysical perfection, but in terms of function, in other words, having completed all that was necessary to make him perfectly fitted to become our Savior and priest-- "He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation." Is that not magnificent? "Being designated by God as a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek." And I might add, as a footnote, that this was the inspired argument given to the Hebrews to prove the superiority and the deity of Christ.

Well, in closing, dear friends, may I challenge you to contemplate what we've examined here this morning; to contemplate the Son's willing submission to the Father's purpose, and to examine our own lives. My, don't you see our own weaknesses here, and the necessity to watch and to pray. And I close with just two verses of the lyrics of a 19th century English hymnist, James Montgomery, where he said this in his hymn: "Go to dark Gethsemane, you who feel the tempters power; your Redeemer's conflict see, watch with him one bitter hour; turn not from His griefs away, learn of Jesus Christ to pray." And then he also says "Follow to the judgment hall, view the Lord of life arraigned of the wormwood and the gall; O, the pains His soul sustained; Shun not suffering, shame or loss; learn of him to bear the cross."

Let's bow our heads together. Father, we humble ourselves before you realizing that what we've just examined is so far beyond our ability to comprehend, and yet you have given us enough to grasp some measure of what our Savior has done for us. May this evoke from each of us a higher level of praise perhaps than ever before? And may it also cause us to examine our hearts that we might indeed, be watchful; that we might pray, that we might not enter into temptation because we want to honor Christ with all of our heart, all of our lives. And we want to enjoy the full expression of all that he is given to the Redeemer. So we commit this to you and we pray it in Jesus' name, and for his sake. Amen.

Once again, we have a wonderful opportunity that we never want to take for granted, be able to worship together and open up the Word of the living God. And I would invite you to do that right now by turning to Mark's gospel, chapter 14. We're going to be looking at verses 17 through 26, as we continue to make our way, verse by verse, through this gospel. And I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "Instructive Drama in the Upper Room." And you will see that drama played out as we examine the text. Let me give you a little context here before I read the passage.

It is Thursday evening, the night before Jesus went to the cross to be the final sacrifice for all whom the Father had given him in eternity past before the foundation of the world; an innocent substitute, the spotless Lamb of God, the only sacrifice that would atone for our sins. And on that evening, Jesus celebrated the last divinely authorized Passover meal established some 1500 years earlier, by God, when he delivered his covenant people from the bondage of Egypt. And in this meal, he will close out the old celebration - which would close out actually the entire sacrificial system that could never fully atone for sin - and he would inaugurate a new celebration; the first communion that we also call the Lord's Supper, celebrating the final sacrifice that would be slain.

But there is much instructive drama in this scenario, here, especially if we look at all of the Gospels, we will see everything from hypocrisy, to betrayal, deception, immaturity, pride, spiritual overconfidence, basically, all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. And I might add to that, the sting of the lash will fall on all of our backs this morning. Because as we look at the text, we can all see ourselves in various ways. And I might also add, if you are unable to see yourself, you really have no basis to claim genuine saving faith. For the conviction of sin is one of the greatest works of the Spirit in regeneration. In fact, he was given to us, given to the world, to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. And it's my earnest prayer that we will all be convicted, that we will all be instructed and that we will all be encouraged by what we see here in this text, and most importantly, it is my prayer that we will all behold the glory of Christ in a new and a fresh way.

So with that, let me read the text. Mark 14, beginning with verse 17.

"When it was evening, He came with the 12.

As they were reclining at the table and eating Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, that one of you will betray Me - one who is eating with Me.'

They began to be grieved and to say to Him one by one, 'Surely not I?'

And He said to them, 'It is one of the 12, one who dips with Me in the bowl.

For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.'

While they were eating, he took some bread and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to them and said, 'Take, eat, this is my body.'

And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them and they all drank from it.

And He said to them, 'This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many.

Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.'

After singing a hymn that went out to the Mount of Olives."

I'd like to look at this section of Scripture, we'll stop there, under two real simple headings. First of all, we're going to see the damning nature of self-deception. And secondly, we're going to see the inaugural celebration of the Lord's Supper. And I might also add that I have discovered over the many years that I've been in ministry that very few evangelicals understand either of those headings: the damning nature of self-deception, and really what the Lord's Supper is all about.

Now, let me give you a little historical context, the Passover celebration, was not like our sit down dinner, right? Where we would probably spend an hour, maybe an hour and a half at most, but rather, it would last for several hours. In fact, if we look at all of the Gospels, we will see that there would have been enough time for Jesus to wash the disciples’ feet, who by the way, were bickering over which one's going to be first in the kingdom. Also, there will be time for Jesus to confront Judas Iscariot; they will go through the various stages of the Passover meal, there will be time for him to institute the Lord's table or communion, as well as provide many lengthy discussions and instructions to the disciples. And we could read about all of them in John 13 through chapter 16; obviously will not cover all of this. But I want you to know that these are the things that are taking place on the eve of his sacrifice on our behalf.

But first, this morning, I want us to look at number one, the damning nature of self-deception. This is a frightening reality that we must all guard against in our heart. Notice verse 17, "When it was evening He came with the 12. And as they were reclining at the table, eating and drinking." I should say, it says table and eating. Let me pause there for a moment, here's what would have happened after opening with a prayer of thanksgiving for all that God has done. The first of four cups of diluted red wine would be offered followed by a ceremonial washing of the hands. Those of you that have participated in a Seder service, you probably remember how you wash the hands, which symbolizes the need for the cleansing of sin. And if you think about it, how easy it is, in the midst of a worship service, for that worship to become nothing more than ceremony, for it to become nothing more than a ritual, rather than a time of really examining our own hearts before the Lord. Instead, even in the midst of worship, as we're going to see here, you can be harboring all manner of pride and deception and somehow justify it in your heart. Because after all, you're worshiping the Lord. This is what was going on in the upper room.

Now, it was during this first stage of the ritual Passover meal, when they should have been honestly assessing their own heart, their own sinfulness and their desperate need for a Savior. That according to Luke 22:24, quote, "There arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest." Their worship, therefore, was merely kind of a mechanical, empty ritual at this point. To put it in our vernacular, it was all sizzle but no steak. From my cowboy days, it was all hat and no cattle. All right? You know, God condemned Judah for the same thing. In Isaiah 29, verse 13. He said this, "...people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition, learned by rote..." In fact, we see in Matthew five and Mark seven Jesus used that very verse to describe the phony worship of Judah in his Day. And we should all take heed, in light of that warning. We must all examine the attitudes of our heart when we come into the presence of the Lord, both privately as well as corporately. God hates religious hypocrisy. And dear friends, if you come to church, for example, on a Sunday morning, and you're not really here to worship the Lord, because you really don't love the Lord, you're doing it because that's just kind of what you do on Sundays, just kind of going through the motions, you want to see your friends, you want to show off your latest shoes, or whatever it might be, that is a mockery to God. If you truly know the Lord, there's something terribly wrong with your spiritual heart attitude. And if you continue that, it will get worse. And you will forfeit divine blessing in your life and even place yourself under a cloud of divine chastening. So I lovingly warn you, to that end, God hates religious hypocrisy.

So the disciples perform their perfunctory ritual which mask the outworking of pride in their heart as they demanded, which one should be greatest in the kingdom? I find it interesting. What did Jesus do? Well he used their sinfulness as a teaching moment to somehow expose their pride, to give them a lesson in humility. And after the ceremonial cleansing of the hands, we're going to see even more of what happened. But at this point, it would appear from the text that Jesus washed their feet. Can you imagine what they must have experienced--to know what they'd been up to in the midst of a worship service, so to speak. And Jesus now in essence, confronts them and washes their feet.

Well, after the cleansing of the hands, they would eat a mixture of a bitter herbs. Typically, horseradish, mixed with romaine lettuce as we would call it dipped in charoset, which was a paste, perhaps you've had it before I have nuts and apples, pears, and I believe they have some wine in it. And all of that symbolized their bitter bondage in Egypt. And then next, they would sing the first of two songs of the Hallel, as I mentioned earlier: Psalm 113, through 118, Psalms of praise. And then they would drink the second cup of wine. And at that point, the head of the house, in this case, it would be Jesus, would rehearse the miraculous deliverance from the bondage of Egypt and thus explain the meaning of the Passover, all the great theological truths that are embedded in that scenario.

And next, the hands would be washed, and Jesus would serve them the unleavened bread. So you have another hand washing, the serving of Unleavened Bread along with the sacrificial roasted lamb, which would be the main course. And after this, a third cup of wine would be poured and then drunk, and then they would have sung the rest of the Hallel, followed by the drinking of the fourth cup of wine. Now, somewhere in this process, we read this at the end of verse 18, Jesus said, "'Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me - one who is eating with Me.' They began to be grieved, and to say to Him one by one, 'Surely not I?'" My, talk about popping the worship bubble, right? Although Jesus had previously predicted his death on several occasions, this was the first time that he spoke of a betrayal by one of his own disciples, incomprehensible. But think about it, what better time to make such a shocking announcement than during a time celebrating his grace, his goodness, his deliverance, and at the same time, therefore exposing the very sin that deserve just the opposite.

You think about it, the sparkling diamond of saving grace shines most brightly on the black velvet of sin, does it not? And that's what we see happening here. And don't you know that there was never a time thereafter, when the disciples participated in communion and the Lord's Supper that they did not think about this. I mean, what a vivid memory of the exposure of their own sin and the reality that there can be sin that we don't even see amongst us. But a warning of the damning nature of self-deception. And this should be on all of our minds when we come to the Lord's table. We do it in remembrance of Him for all that he has done for us, in light of what we really deserve; all that awaits us in Christ. No man can truly sing "Amazing Grace" until he has first been amazed at his own sin.

Verse 19, they began to be grieved. The term in the original bears the idea of profoundly distressed. The text says, "They said to him, one by one, 'Surely not I?'" My, the power of the Word of the Lord, to cause us to ask the right questions; questions of our deceitful heart, a heart that we can't even fully know apart from the Spirit's work. So they're not only stunned with the fact that there was a traitor amongst them, but they're also at a stage now where they're seriously questioning their own love for Christ, their own loyalty? "Surely, not I?" Especially after he just exposed their self-promoting pride by washing their feet. What is even more astounding, according to Matthew's account in chapter 26, beginning in verse 25, we read, "And Judas, who was betraying Him said, 'Surely it is not I Rabbi?' Jesus said to him, 'You have said it yourself.'" Beloved, there we witness the damning nature of self-deception. Judas knew who Jesus was, he knew he was the Son of God, he witnessed his miracles. And he had to have known, that Jesus knew, he was lying through his teeth. He had witnessed things like that before. In fact, in John chapter two, beginning of verse 24, we read the Jesus, "...knew all men." And in verse 25, it goes on to say, "...and he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man." Yet here we see the deceitful power of the human heart, to somehow be so desperately wicked, that you could justify lying to God, and think that he doesn't see it, or you're going to get away with it. I'm just glad I've never done that. Haven't we all in very subtle ways, and sometimes not so subtle ways. I pray that you don't do that, folks. We need to guard ourselves against this, especially as we come to worship the Lord our God. If you lie to God, by pretending your sin isn't that bad, and that you're going to somehow make the cut, thinking that somehow, you're good enough to impress him; that on the scale of divine justice, your goodness outweighs your badness, you are a fool. And if you continue to lie to yourself and to Him, you will perish in your sins.

So they're eating the bitter herbs. They're dipping now their flat bread in the charoset, that paste, when Jesus announces a betrayer among them. And one by one, they say, "Surely not I?" Verse 20, "And He said to them, 'It is one of the 12, one who dips with Me in the bowl.'" Now, apparently, Judas was sitting close enough to Jesus that he was sharing the bowl with him and maybe with some of the others. But what's interesting is the disciples are completely lost here. They have no idea who it is. They're not even sure of their own heart. We read more about this in John's account in John 13, beginning in verse 24, "So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, 'Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.' He, leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom said to Him, 'Lord, who is it?' Jesus then answered, 'That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.' So when he had dipped the morsel, he took, and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore, Jesus said to him, 'What you do, do quickly.' Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. For some more supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, 'Buy the things we need for the feast'; or else, that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night." Oh, how clever the cloaks of hypocrisy. The damning nature of self-deception. The disciples never suspected Judas. And then to think Judas thought he could fool his creator. Like the self-deceived Christians in name only, who will one day stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, at the Great White Throne of Judgment. And with incredulity, they will try to defend themselves, continuing to lie to themselves and lying to God. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew seven, beginning in verse 22, "'Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name, cast out demons, and in Your name, perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'"

So Jesus says, "'It is one of the 12, one who dips with Me in the bowl. Verse 21, "For the Son of Man is to go...'" Notice this, "'...just as it is written of Him.'" So in other words, this is all part of God's plan, "...but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.'" Now, you would think that perhaps they would have remembered that which was written of him, obviously, in the Old Testament. Remember Psalm 41, verse nine, "Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me." The prophet Zechariah says in chapter 11, beginning of verse 12, "I said to them, 'If it is good in your sight give me my wages; but if not, nevermind!' So they weighed out 30 shekels of silver as my wages. Then the LORD said to me, 'Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.' So I took the 30 shekels of silver, and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD." All of this was part of God's sovereign plan. Now, please understand, though, God ordained to allow Judas' treachery; an act as we see here, according to Scripture, Judas is still considered culpable for his sin. I mean, think about this. He has spent basically three years with the Son of God. He has witnessed all of these miracles. He's experienced the power and the perfection of his character of his love. He's heard the clear and compelling truths of the gospel. He has even enjoyed Jesus compassionate care for him. Yet he squanders all of this. How can a person do that?

It was because he followed Jesus for the wrong reason, like so many people do today. He followed Jesus for what he could gain in this life to serve himself, not because he saw the horror of his sin and wanted to be reconciled to a holy God and live to the praise of his glory. He had no love for Christ. He had no brokenness over his own sin. So Jesus was merely a means to his selfish ends, rather than the all sufficient, all glorious end himself. "It would have been good for that man if he had not been born," Jesus said. O dear friends think of this, to exist on this earth, and then to willfully reject Christ, with full knowledge, hat is not only a mockery of our Creator, but that is also a rejection of the very purpose for our existence, which is to live to the praise of his glory, rather than to live just for ourselves. As I think about this, I'm reminded of the words we read in Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 29, "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, 'VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.' And again, 'THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.' It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

As we were coming to church this morning, after we had spent time over at the Allens, knowing that our brother had just been called home to be with the Lord. It was fresh on our minds, how important it is for people to know and love Christ, because that day will come for all of us. And I remember driving by one man out mowing his yard, another man with his boat getting ready to go to the lake and fish. And we stopped to get a cup of coffee and something here at the little store, and I watched the people coming in. I watched the one lady come in with a little girl, you could tell they were very poor. She comes out with a pack of cigarettes and the little girl with a pack of doughnuts. And I said to Nancy, 'Honey, isn't it sad to see these people living their lives apart from Christ. They have no desire to be in church today, to worship the Lord, because they're at enmity with him. They're alienated from him." O how people need the gospel, how they need Christ. And folks, were it not for his grace, every one of us would be right there with them.

When it comes to Judas, later, we know according to Matthew 27 and verse three, "...he felt remorse and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders...and went away and hanged himself." And Luke tells us in Acts one beginning in verse 18, "(Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his intestines gushed out. And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem; so that in their own language, that field was called Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) For it is written in the book of Psalms, 'LET HIS HOMESTEAD BE MADE DESOLATE, AND LET NO ONE DWELL IN IT'; and, LET ANOTHERMAN TAKE HIS OFFICE.'" Which later happened with Matthias. You know, when I think of the damning nature of self-deception, that is illustrated so graphically in the life of Judas, I'm reminded of what Jesus said regarding the Christ haters that Satan will deliberately plant in the world. And therefore, many of them will superficially attach themselves to the church, and many of them will build false churches. Wolves in sheep's clothing, and we're repeatedly warned about them. I'm reminded of the parable that Jesus gave in Matthew 13. Remember, it was a parable of a man who sowed seed in his field and then the enemy comes along and sabotages the field. Sows tares which are weeds, look like, virtually identical to wheat, but you won't know it until it matures and ripens. So this is a deliberate act of vandalism that's being described; it will destroy a person's crop. It will choke out all of the good growth and deprive the wheat of the nutrients they need, and therefore greatly reduced the yield. In fact, in the days in the first century, they had a Roman law against that very thing. So eventually, when the wheat ripens, the workers are horrified to discover all the tares amongst the wheat. And they ask, you know, "how could this happen?" And then we read that an enemy has done this. And then they asked, well, what should we try to pull them up? And the wise farmer says, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that. Even though all the roots are intertwined in the growth, if you uproot them, you will destroy the good with the bad. So in verse 30, we read, "'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.'" And all of this is explained later in verse 37, "'The one who sews the good seed is the Son of Man,'" verse 38, says, "'...and the field is the world,'" not the church. But the picture here is not the enemy planting seeds in the church, but rather Christ planting seeds in the world. And the good seed are "the sons of the kingdom," it says, the true believers, and the tares are "the sons of the evil one." And in verse 39, we read that, "...the enemy who sowed them is the devil."

And of course, the spiritual truth is simply this, Jesus plants true believers all around the world, sons of the kingdom. And then Satan, plants, even more unbelievers, and many of them filter into the church; sabotage not only the world, but the church; try to choke out the church. So what should we do? Should we uproot them? Do we go to war against unbelievers? Do we try to legislate Christianity, like Constantine once did, but kill all the Muslims? Resurrect the Crusades? Execute torture and imprison those who will not bow the knee to Christ, as the Roman Catholics did during the inquisitions of the Reformation? No, no, no, no, no. We're not to go to war against the enemies of Christ, but to coexist with them and love them for the sake of the gospel. Let the Christians and the non-Christians live together, though they will try to choke us out, though they will try to malign us and destroy us, even as Judas did, and many others. We know that vengeance is the Lord's, so we never tried to uproot the tares.

In verse 39, of that text it says, "'...the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.'" My what a sobering reminder of the inconceivable judgment that awaits those who reject Christ. His angels will be dispatched as divine reapers, to execute judgment. Think about that, those magnificent beings created by God to communicate his will, to do his... execute his purposes, to celebrate the glory and eternal praise of God. To us, they are ministering spirits, they rejoice over every sinner that is saved, but to unbelievers, they are the enumerable and indomitable executioners of divine judgment. Imagine what that will be like when Christ returns, in all of his glory as the almighty judge. And we read finally in verse 42, of that text that these will be cast, "...into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

Well, my point with all of this is true, there's always going to be Judas' in the world, Judas' is in the church. In fact, in First Corinthians 11, we read how there's always going to be divisive and factious people in every church, quote, "...so that those who were approved may become evident among them." First Corinthians 11:19. In other words, when evil factions manifest themselves, it provides a fitting contrast of the true believers that will remain that are approved of God. But repeatedly we're warned to be on guard against these kinds of people. That's why it's so important to have sound doctrine because that's what protects us from unsound doctrine from false teachers. I was thinking about this, just this last week in some things that I was reading, I was reminded that in the 1700s in colonial America, God raised up men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield to bring about the Great Awakening. And now, in the last 20 years in my lifetime, we see Satan raising up people like Andy Stanley and Rick Warren and Russell Moore, Beth Moore, even Tim Keller, to bring about the "Great Awokening." So called Christians promoting social justice and critical race theory, DEI, intersectionality, the LGBTQ cult, on and on it goes. Folks, this is how Satan works, and he has a million Judas' at his command. They serve in every system of influence from government to our public schools and universities, from big tech to big pharma, and the liberal media to liberal churches and seminaries. And because of the living illustration, of the damning nature of self-deception, that the disciples witnessed in Judas, they could see the tremendous threat, the tremendous danger of this in the church. And therefore, their discernment level skyrocketed. And we read about this, and all of their warnings, throughout the New Testament, in the gospels, as well as in the epistles.

So we move from the damning nature of self-deception to something much more positive. And that is the inaugural celebration of the Lord's Supper. Now, mind you, what we're about to read here would have occurred somewhere in the middle stage of the Passover celebration when the roasted lamb and the unleavened bread were served. Verse 22, "While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, 'Take it; this is My body.' And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank it. And He said to them, 'This is My blood of the covenant which is poured out for many.'" Now remember, the Passover looked back to the temporary rescue of God's covenant people from the physical bondage that they were enduring in Egypt. Whereas the Lord's supper now, points to the ultimate deliverance of God's people from the slavery and even the penalty of sin; the eternal death and separation from God that we deserve. And this now marked the end of all of the Old Covenant ceremonies and sacrifices and rituals, all of which pointed to Christ. The lamb slaughtered at Passover, merely foreshadowed the final sacrifice and perfect sacrifice of the spotless Lamb of God, who died on the cross to redeem sinners once for all. His atoning work on the cross, perfectly fulfilled all of those things that were promised in Scripture.

Peter, later on, wrote about this in First Peter one, verse 18, he says, "...you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." I want to point something out here that is very important and very precious. And that is the symbolism here of the bread; you're familiar with the symbolism of the wine and the blood of Christ, and so on, but I want to speak about the bread just for a moment. While the unleavened bread of the original Passover, represented their need to leave all of the influences of their idolatry of Egypt's idolatry and immorality and wickedness to leave all of that behind, in the Lord's Supper, the Lord Jesus gave the bread a new meaning. While certainly all of those things are true, there's a new meaning here, it became a figure representing his body, which he would soon offer as the final sacrifice to propitiate the just wrath of God, that should fall upon every sinner. Moreover, and this is very important, it symbolized the believer’s union with Christ, because each of the disciples ate of the same loaf. In fact, it's very important, we have very strict guidelines for our communion service; we have one loaf; you don't get to see it's all broken up, alright? By the time you get there, but it's one loaf. In First Corinthians 10, the apostle Paul says this in verse 16, "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread." So there's wonderful unity that is symbolized in the bread. Roman six, verse five, "For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection." Folks, I pray that you will never lose the wonder of our union with Christ; what a magnificent truth. Colossians one beginning of verse 21, "...you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach..." And folks, this must be central to our Gospel message - those without Christ must be told about the terrifying separation that exists between them and a holy God. In every gospel presentation, there must be a sober recognition of that horrifying reality, which makes our union with Christ all the more glorious. Because remember, sin is lawlessness. It separates man from a holy God. It exposes his rebellion against God. In fact, sin is man's innate inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God. And so apart from faith in Christ, apart from the human being united to Christ, every person without Christ, lives in alienation, a state of alienation and hostility toward God, whether they realize it or not, and the wrath of God abides upon them.

In Ephesians four, verse 17, we read about the unsaved. And this was us before we came to Christ by his grace. It says to, "...walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk." And here's how the unsaved walk, "...in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness." And certainly, that is a perfect picture of the culture in which we live. But dear friends, unless God breathed spiritual life into the sinner, that sinner's mind will remain set on his own flesh. That's all he lives for. He's absolutely ruled by his flesh, by the desires of his heart. Romans eight beginning of verse six, "For the mind, set on the flesh is death." That's where it's going to lead. "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." But what an amazing promise when we think of our union with Christ that the bread will symbolize. For example, in Ephesians, one, beginning in verse three and following, we read that before the foundation of the world, God chose by himself and for himself, those who determined to bless quote, "in Christ," that's where the blessing is. It's in Christ. Ephesians one beginning of verse five, "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." Folks, this is absolutely astounding--God's everlasting grace that united his elect to Christ, was ordained and it was accomplished in eternity past. In some inscrutable sense, this is what God has done for us already. And therefore it is not something that needs to happen and that's going to be somehow determined upon us, that's waiting to happen to us through self-effort.

This is why we must never pervert the Lord's Supper, as the Roman Catholics do, with the doctrine of Transubstantiation, in which the substance of the bread and the cup are supposedly transformed into the actual body and the actual blood of Jesus Christ. You see, for them, the Eucharist is regarded as an actual sacrifice that has to be repeated. What a damning heresy. Obviously, this undermines the reality that Christ's death on the cross was once for all sacrifice, fully completed at Calvary. In John 19 and verse 30, Jesus said, "'It is...'" what? "'It is finished!'" He didn't say "It is possible." He didn't say "It is available." He didn't say "It is now potential." No, "'It is finished!'"

Moreover, we must understand that although the application of redemption is effectually, applied at the moment of regeneration--when the Spirit of God raises a sinner from spiritual death to spiritual life, and implants within him a governing disposition of the soul that is radically new, that governs his life--he must understand that he has already, quote, "made us alive together with Christ," Ephesians, two, five. What a glorious thought, that once separated from God by sin, because of his great mercy, and his great love that was set upon us before the foundation of the world, when he chose us in Christ, according to Second Timothy one and verse nine, Paul says, he "...saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity." Literally, before time began. And all these magnificent truths, dear friends, are symbolized in the Lord's Supper.

Now, Jesus himself commanded that we commemorate his death on a consistent basis, we read about this in First Corinthians 11:24, and following, and we do so here at Calvary Bible Church, on the first Sunday of every month. We choose not to do it every Sunday, as some people do, to avoid reducing it to some kind of mechanical, kind of an empty ritual, that loses its meaning through constant repetition and runs the danger of fostering indifference towards what's going on in that celebration. But whenever we celebrate the Lord's table, we are told that we are to examine our heart, to repent of any known sin, less we make a mockery of the whole thing that we're celebrating here. In fact, Paul says in first Corinthians 11, beginning of verse 27, "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly." Which by the way, the disciples were not doing at that time. But I have a feeling they did thereafter, given all that happened. And then finally, Paul says, "For this reason, many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep." God is very serious about the way we approach him, and the way we honor him in our worship.

John MacArthur and Richard Mahew, who have a good summary, they say this, quote, "The Lord's Table is best understood as a memorial celebration that strengthens believers in their walk with Christ because it one, commemorates Jesus substitutionary sacrifice, symbolized by the elements of the bread and the cup. Two, reminds believers of the historical truths of the gospel, including Christ's incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension. Three, prompts believers, to repent of any known sin. Four, causes them to rejoice in their redemption from sin, and in their saving union with Christ. Five, motivates them to continue walking in loving obedience to the Lord. And six, reminds them to hope in His imminent return." And that's what Jesus said here in verse 25, "'Truly, I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.'" But don't you know, that was a wonderful word of encouragement to those disciples. What were they longing for? The kingdom. And now Jesus is going to leave? I mean, they're all confused. But he's basically saying, I'm going to return. And I believe this is referring to his millennial kingdom that they all long for, you will recall in Acts one and verse three, Jesus "...presented Himself," it says, "alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God." This is what he did after his resurrection. And verse six we read, "So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, 'Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?' And of course, that part of the kingdom was yet to come. But that's where their hearts longed, and wasn't at wonderful for Jesus to say, you know what day is going to come when we're going to do this in the kingdom?

Well, it's foreign to our Gentile minds. I might add that there are certain commemorative sacrifices from the Old Testament that will be restored during the Millennial Kingdom. We read about this in Ezekiel chapters 43 and 45, through 45, in particular. In fact, annual feasts of the nations will include three of the six Levitical feasts: Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles. However, it's also interesting that three Levitical feasts that looked forward to what Christ fulfilled at Calvary will be excluded: the Feast of Pentecost, Trumpets and Atonement.

But until Christ's promised return, as King of kings and Lord of lords, we are to consistently celebrate communion; not only to look back at the cross--to remember what Christ has done on our behalf, but to also look forward to his glorious return. Despite the bittersweet realities of that eventful night, and though Jesus knew the torture that awaited him, I find it interesting that they sing a hymn of thanksgiving and praise. Verse 26, "After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." My what a lesson there is for all of us, despite the difficulties that are known, as well as unknown, we still have a song to sing because of what Christ has done, amen? So let's sing it with all of our hearts. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. May they bear much fruit in our heart to the praise of your glory. And Lord, for those who may not know what it is to truly, be born again, to truly be saved, to truly be in a right relationship with you through faith in Christ, Father, I pray that you will bring such overwhelming conviction to their soul that today will be the day that they bow in humble recognition of their sinfulness and embrace the cross fully, and experience the miracle of the new birth. And then live to the praise of your glory. We thank you; we give you praise in all things, that in all of our lives, Christ might have the preeminence. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles this morning and turn to Mark 13, we will continue our verse-by-verse examination of this gospel. We're going to be looking at verses 32 through 37, in a few minutes, and then we're going to launch from there into Revelation 19. And this is actually the seventh and final part of a study on Jesus's prophetic discourse on the end of the age. It's exciting to see what God has revealed to us in His word concerning how things are ultimately going to end up, I'm glad to know what the final chapter is going to look like because right now, it would seem like the world is out of control; that there's a train that has lost its brakes, and it's winding around a mountain. And it's inevitably going to crash. And I think that's how most people feel.

Jesus has been responding to the disciple’s questions regarding the when and the what; in other words, the nature and the duration of Israel's desolation, and the sign of his coming, of his appearing. And he has described six very specific signs called "birth pangs." Including the abomination of desolation and so forth, that will occur just before he returns. Then he elaborated on the sequence of events that will lead up to his glorious appearing, the ultimate and unmistakable sign of his very presence, visible for the whole world to see. And he warns the generation that will be alive during that time, about the nature of his pre kingdom judgments, that which will occur during the time of the tribulation. But in so doing, every believer who has access to the Bible, can be profoundly blessed. Because again, we see here how the story ends; we see how God is ultimately going to fulfill his covenant promises to Israel, how he's going to defeat Satan, judge the world and ultimately bring glory to himself.

Now, before we look at the text, I would like to remind you that in Jesus’ day in the first century, although most of Judaism was thoroughly apostate, they nevertheless had a very accurate understanding of eschatology. Even without the help of the New Testament revelation, in fact, in Emil Schurer's classical work entitled "A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus," he outlines the Jewish understanding of the "eschaton," of the last things; concepts derived from the Old Testament which bear remarkable resemblance to the pre-millennial motifs, and themes that I've just described, and that we've studied.

According to Jewish eschatology, I'll just kind of list some bullet points. They believe that there would be a coming tribulation and confusion upon the earth, called "messianic woes." That Elijah would come before Messiah. They believed in the appearance of the Messiah, a final attack by the nation's own Messiah, and then a destruction of those powers; a restoration of the Jews, according to Ezekiel 40, through 48. And then a return of dispersed Israel, Kingdom glory with Jerusalem at the center, a renewal of the world and a general resurrection and final judgment. That's what they believe.

Now, as Christians, I want you to bear in mind the big picture of what is happening in redemptive history. In fact, this is a bit of a summary of the entire Bible, if you will remember that there are just two simple dominant themes in Scripture. Number one, we see that God is going to redeem the people. And number two, he is going to restore the Kingdom. Very simple. He's going to redeem the people. And of course, this is pictured throughout Scripture, with Jesus being the sacrificial lamb, the Savior, the suffering servant. But also with respect to restoring the kingdom, we read about him as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, as the Messiah King. We see a picture of a promise lamb and Genesis after the original sin. You remember when God killed an innocent animal to be a substitute that had to die to cover sin; a shadow of a coming Redeemer that would one day make atonement for sin, pointing to Christ. We see this Lamb pictured in the deliverance of Egypt in the sacrificial system and prophesied all through the Old Testament. And then we see he arrives in the Gospels.

And in the gospels, we see Christ in his humiliation, the Lamb that opened not his mouth; the one who died to save sinners. But also, all through the New Testament, we see him portrayed as king. As we learn more about his plan of redemption, we learn about the signs that point to him as the King of kings, and how we are to live for his glory. Again, bear in mind, the Gospels present him in his humiliation as the sacrificial Lamb. But in the book of Revelation, he's depicted in his exultation, as the Lion of Judah; as the king of Israel, who has promised to return and establish a glorious kingdom, where he will put his glory on display for 1000 years; a millennial kingdom that will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state. Now, that's the big picture.

As we come back to Mark's gospel, we've seen that four times in these final verses of Mark 13, Jesus solemnly warns the generation that we'll be living in that day to stay alert. And this ultimately applies to us as well in a little bit different way, as we will see. Although the events leading up to his arrival, will cause them to know the general time of his return; the exact moment of his appearing is unknown, so they have to stay alert. And this brings us to verse 32. "'But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.'" Now, bear in mind, during the Incarnation, Jesus deliberately set aside temporarily certain aspects of his divinity. And indeed, in his incarnation, he did not know the specific moment of his future arrival. But he did know the signs that would lead up to that certainly, he knows it now. And so in verse 33, he goes on to say, "'Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come.'"

I might add, that every generation should remain vigilant. As we fervently anticipate our translation into glory, when he comes to snatch away his church in the rapture of the church, which will take place prior, I believe, to Daniel's 70th week, which is distinctively Jewish in nature. In First Thessalonians 1:10, the apostle Paul says that we are "...to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come." He will take us out and then pour out His wrath upon the earth during the time of the tribulation. But we have to remember that we are at war, we need to stay alert. There's no place for complacency in the Christian life.

Now back to Mark 13. Next, Jesus gives the tribulation saints an analogy to emphasize this need to stay alert. Notice what he says beginning in verse 34, "'It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore, be on the alert - for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning - in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you, I say to all, 'Be on the alert.''"

We see Luke adding further insight into Jesus' warning when he records this in Luke 21 beginning in verse 34, "'Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of the of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.'" John MacArthur adds this, quote, "Though the events predicted in the Olivet Discourse are still future, it's truth serves to instruct every generation of believers throughout church history. On the one hand, it serves as a vivid reminder that the things of this world are temporary, and that the redeemed are citizens of an eternal kingdom that is yet to be revealed on earth when the Lord comes in glory. On the other hand, it provides a compelling motivation for believers to proclaim the glorious gospel of Christ, to those who are perishing, so that they might be saved from the impending judgment of God."

Now, let's project ourselves into the future. What will the people see when the Lord Jesus Christ descends to earth in his pre-incarnate glory, attended by the heavenly hosts of his heavenly angels, and his glorified saints? What will it be like when the world will behold the Lord our God; the one that they have mocked for so many millennia? What will it be like when they see his utter transcendence? When they see his consummate perfections, when they see his eternal glory? And what will they think when they witness the climax of human history? The climax of the Christian's hope; the fulfillment, yeah, the vindication of every saint down through redemptive history. I mean, think of this folks with unimaginable majesty and uncontested regal authority, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come as both a judge and warrior; the Messiah, the warrior king. The king of kings, and the Lord of lords. And he will return as he promised, physically, to exercise his judicial power, and to destroy the remaining Christ haters on the earth, who have mocked him. The ones who have survived so far, the pre-kingdom judgments, of the past several years before he would return. And he's going to crush the Antichrist. He is going to defeat his minions, he's going to bind Satan, and he will put an end to all of man's foolish politics; to abolish all rule and authority. When Christ returns, man's long rebellion against God will be crushed. My how I long for that day. Don't you get tired of seeing our Lord so defiled so mocked and ridiculed? The Messianic Kingdom of Old Testament prophecy, long anticipated by both Jews and Gentiles will finally be established upon the earth for 1000 years, as God has promised, leading to the eternal and universal judgment of both the living and the dead.

Now, to further elaborate on this, I would like to take you to the book of Revelation, the book of Revelation turned to Revelation chapter 19. I just returned with several of our dear people, some couldn't be with us today, some are still in Europe. But we just came back from an educational tour of Turkey and Greece retracing Paul's second missionary journey, and we went down into the Aegean Sea, and we were able to visit the Isle of Patmos, to be able to see the cave that John stayed in. Tradition has it, pretty strongly, that this is where he was. And so with this in mind, I can just imagine in my mind's eye where John was when he received the Apokalypsis lesou Christos, the revealing of Jesus Christ; the revelation of Jesus Christ. And one of the things that I can tell you firsthand, having been, for example, in Ephesus and Corinth, and Athens, I can tell you that all you will see are ruins. Zeus and Athena didn't do all that they promised. All of the gods, the pantheon of gods of Greece and Rome, are dead. In fact, they never even existed. How sad. The idols of those ancient civilizations were all powerless. Even the human emperors that they would deify. ("Is that better?" audio glitch being fixed). Even the human Emperor's that they would deify are all dead. I mean, think about it. They worship the Pharaohs of Egypt; dead. They worship Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians; they worshiped Cyrus of the Medes and the Persians. They worship Alexander the Great of Greece. And they worshiped all of the Caesars of Rome. They're all dead. Oh, they're still alive, but they're in the torments of hell. It's so sad to see paganism. And today, it is still there, even though they worship in different ways. I think of going into Turkey, in what used to be Constantinople. Now, it's Istanbul, 21 million people, secular Muslims, and to see that these people have no understanding of who Christ is and don't want to know. Greece is different, but it's still a pagan land. So, so sad.

Folks, there is only one God who exists in three persons--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that's what God brought to those lands many years ago. The apostle Paul in particular sowed the seeds of the gospel, and many were saved. And it is the unrivaled preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ that is the chief object of our praise, not some idol that we have manufactured in our mind. We must bear in mind that he is the Creator, he is the sustainer. He is the deliverer. He is the controller. He is the Redeemer, and he is the consummate author of all things. And he is coming again. In fact, the prophet Isaiah tells us in 46, verse nine, "For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'" And what is that? To redeem his people and to restore his kingdom. And it is his glory, that is at the very center of gravity of the theological universe, and it is his glory that our lives should orbit around that is the center of gravity for every believer. As the inspired Psalmist declared in Psalm 96, verse 10, we must do this, "Say among the nations, 'The Lord reign; indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.' Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice; et the sea roar and all it contains; let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the LORD, for He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness."

Now, back to our text as we consider Jesus' Olivet Discourse, his final words concerning his glorious return, I'd like to, kind of, further ignite your hearts about what this return is going to look like because God has given us a glimpse of it in Revelation 19, for example, verses 11 through 21. And there are four themes concerning what I would call the warrior king that emerged from this text that I would like to look at, briefly here with you this morning. We're going to look at his arrival, his army, his authority and his attack, very simple.

Again, what must have gone on through John's mind as he witnessed the glorious future that awaited him and all of the saints? I'm sure the sufferings of Patmos paled into insignificance as he beheld the ineffable realities of God's sovereign purposes, to bring glory to himself. So we began with verse 11. This is really the first scene shall we say that introduces all the others. This is under the first heading, his arrival, verse 11, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war." This is an absolutely amazing scene, to see the spiritual world, beyond the veil of our limited sight. "I saw heaven opened." As I reflected upon this, John is one of the few that God selected to witness heaven being opened. You remember prior to this, he witnessed mighty angels of judgment, quote, "coming down out of heaven." We see this in chapter 10, verse one; chapter 14, verse 17; Chapter 18 and verse one. Imagine that you could see this. And now in chapter 19, moments before he sees heaven opened, and beholds, the Lord of glory on a white horse. He says in verse one, "I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.'" And now here in verse 11, we see the reality of these words. Okay?

Again, verse 11, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war." Think what a stark contrast this is. From the first time he came in obscurity, and in humiliation. Remember, the king came into Jerusalem riding a donkey, a beast of burden. And indeed, he was coming there to bear the burden of our sins. But now he symbolically rides a magnificent mount, a steed of splendor, if you will. The kind of that conquering generals would ride into Rome. In the great processional marches of triumph. A white horse of triumph really points to his uncontested authority. And notice the rider here, "He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True." I mean, can there be a more perfect title for the King? Can there be a more fitting description of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ? I think not. Notice, first John learns that he who sat upon the white horse is called "Faithful and True." Alright? Faithful, as we know, carries the force of being totally trustworthy, totally dependable. Did not the distraught Prophet express his hope in the Lord saying in Lamentations 3:22, "The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for his compassions never fail; they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness." We just sang it a few minutes ago. And in Second Thessalonians three and verse three, the apostle Paul says, "the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one." And did not the Apostle Paul comfort us in First Corinthians 10:13, saying, "God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able." Oh, dear Christian, this is our faithful Savior, and King, who will sit upon the steed of final triumph.

And notice he is also "True." This term carries the idea of real or genuine. In other words, he is the very essence of truth. John 14, verse six, "'I am the way and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.'" John said of him in First John 5:20, "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." My, what a contrast to our politicians, that we can't trust. So here the Lord describes himself as trustworthy, the very essence of truth. Earlier in chapter three and verse 14, he is described as, quote, "...the faithful and true witness."

Now practically speaking, in our world of satanic deception, of smoke and mirrors; of fake news; of the instability and unfaithfulness and lies, isn't it wonderful that we can rest assured that our Savior, our Lord, and our King is absolutely faithful and true. Notice also it says, "...and in righteousness He judges and wages war." Now think about it, here we see both the motive and the mission of his return. He's coming to judge and to conquer. We know from other passages that he is going to conquer the beast, the Antichrist. He will be vanquished and all who have opposed him will be punished. And in verse 12, he goes on to say and, "...his eyes are a flame of fire..." This symbolism can also be seen in chapter one and verse 14 and chapter two and verse 18. And it speaks of certainly the fierceness of his wrath against his enemies. But it also speaks of the penetrating eyes of his divine omniscience, that can, like a laser, burn through every barricade of rebellion; every fortress of deception and search and destroy hardened sinners. Daniel witnessed this as well in chapter 10 and verse six, when he beheld the pre-incarnate Christ. There we read, "His body was also like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words, were like the sound of a tumult." Beloved, please hear me, this is my Savior, and my King, and my Lord, I hope he is yours.

And here we are reminded of what the author of Hebrews has said in chapter four verse 13, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." He also tells us that upon his head are many diadems. You see, this is the crown of royalty. A ruler's crown was always emblematic of a king's authority. And we know that it was the ancient custom of conquering kings, to place their foot upon the neck of a vanquished king, and place that king's crown upon their head, to demonstrate how that they had completely subjugated that fall. In fact, many of the ruins that you will see in the Middle East are great statutes. Statues of this very thing.

But John sees something else that identifies this rider. Notice at the end of verse 12, "...and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself." Now, obviously, it's futile to speculate what that name might be. He alone knows what it is. He alone knows what it means. It was inscrutable to John, it's inscrutable to us and here we are reminded, are we not, of the ineffable, indescribable nature of our Savior King. Perhaps in glory, we will know what that name is; we're not told.

But notice what else John sees as he witnesses the arrival of the warrior king in verse 13, he says, "He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood." Robe here is a term, "himation"--it was a cloak that was worn by a horseman, but especially the cloak of a Roman general. And I want you to understand, this has nothing to do with the blood of Christ shed upon the cross. The context here has nothing to do with his work of atonement, or His work of redemption. It has everything to do with war. This is a reference to the blood of his enemies. And this imagery is drawn from Isaiah 63, especially verses one through six, where we read about this time of God's vengeance upon the nations that will come? He says, "Who is this who comes from Edom." Edom, by the way, here represents the world that hates Christ-- "...with garments of glowing colors from Bozrah." Bozrah was the ancient capital of Edom, that wicked civilization. "This One who is majestic in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? I have trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there has no man with Me. I also trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, and I stained all My raiment. For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and My year of redemption has come. 'I looked, and there was no one to help, and I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; so My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My wrath upheld Me. And I trod down the peoples in My anger and made them drunk in My wrath, and I poured out their life blood on the earth." So the imagery of the King clothed with a robe dipped in blood, speaks of the slaughter of Armageddon. When the Lion of the tribe of Judah reeks vengeance on his enemies.

And then the scene of his arrival closes with yet another mention of the warrior Messiah's name. It says, verse 13, "..and His name is called The Word of God." The inspired apostle also records this same concept and his gospel referring to Christ Jesus, remember in John one, one, as the Logos - the word of God. And now here again, he learns afresh that, "...His name is called The Word of God." And, of course, this speaks of the revelation of the purposes of God; His purposes that are being fulfilled even now but will find their full expression in the person and work of Christ at the end of the age.

So first, John speaks of the warrior king’s arrival; secondly, his army, verse 14, "And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses." My friends, this is the regiment of the redeemed, I like to call it. This is consistent with chapter 17, verse 14, quote, those who are with actually the King of kings and Lord of lords, "...are the called and chosen and faithful." In other words, this regimen is made up of the elect of God. This is further confirmed by their attire, notice they're clothed in "fine linen, white and clean." And this is the same portrayal that's used in verses seven and eight of chapter 19, to describe the Lamb's bride, the bride of Christ, who has quote, "...made herself ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." And we know that when we come to saving faith in Christ, and the Spirit of God causes us to be born again. We are declared righteous, we are justified and at that point, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ; His righteousness is imputed to us. That's what he's speaking about here. Folks, this is the regiment of the redeemed. It's also important to remember that we're merely going to accompany our commander, we're not going to be fighting. And Paul tells us in Colossians, three and verse four, "When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

And I might add, just parenthetically, that the unarmed troops can really be placed in four categories, you're going to have the bride of the Lamb, which will include the rapture church, described earlier in chapter 19. Then you're going to have the tribulation saints; those saints that are going to be saved during the tribulation, who are pictured in heaven, in the identical attire that we read about in chapter seven and verse nine, and then the Old Testament saints who will be resurrected at the end of the tribulation, according to Daniel 12, verses one and two. And finally, the angelic host of heaven that Jesus describes in Matthew 25, verse 31. Also, Second Thessalonians one seven, and there we read, "...when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."

So we've seen his arrival in his army. Notice next, his authority, in verse 15. And "From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty." You see, the weaponry of the warrior king speaks of his divine authority, and it consists here of both a sword and a rod. And this imagery is also drawn from Isaiah's prophecy concerning the righteous reign of "the Branch," which is a messianic title in the Old Testament, let me read a little of this for you. And by the way, this is how you know how to interpret some of these passages; you see where these terms are used in other places. In Isaiah, chapter 11, verse one, we read that, "A shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from its roots will bear fruit."

Now let me pause there for a moment. Remember the Assyrians, they came in and they destroyed the northern kingdom. Then you have the Babylonians coming in and basically and all of the others that followed. And so it's like, the Davidic dynasty, the Jews, they're just gone, right? That's what many thought. But we're seeing here that a shoot it's going to spring up, it's like a shoot from a stump. You know, we've got trees like that here, unfortunately, you know, you cut them down as low as you can and within a few weeks, you begin to see branches coming up out of it again. That's the imagery here. He goes on to say, verse four, speaking about this shoot, the branch from the Davidic dynasty, referring ultimately to the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater son of David, "but with righteousness," verse four, "he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips, He will slay the wicked." Here we see that Christ alone will slay the wicked with just the power of his Word, including the arrogant antichrist. You will remember that Paul described his arrogance, and his very nature in Second Thessalonians two and verse eight. He's described as "the lawless one, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming." And notice in verse 15, he wields the sword of his retribution, why? "That he may smite the nations."

Now we know in chapter one and verse 16, that "out of His mouth, comes a sharp two-edged sword." And there he is depicted as the Lord of the church who protects the church from the onslaughts of Satan. And then in chapter two and verse 16, he says that he quote, makes war against them with the sword of his mouth, okay, but here his sword, quote, "smites the nation" as he delivers Israel, from the hour of their greatest peril, and he puts an end to all who rebelled against Him. Bear in mind that when he returns, he will destroy all of the wicked gathered against Israel in the slaughter of Armageddon.

I was talking with some of my Jewish friends, one in particular that I was with while I was overseas, and it's so sad to see the world turning against Israel. Even though many of the peoples of the world for example, the people in Iran, they love the Israelis, the people in Turkey love the Israelis, people in Greece love, they vacation there, but it's their leaders that are militant Islamic fundamentalists that hate them. And you see how the whole world is being gathered together in this antisemitism, but we know that he's going to preserve a remnant of his elect from both Israel and from the Gentile nations. But the remaining unregenerate people on the earth will stand condemned before the warrior king.

I might add that it will be at that time, when he returns, that He will separate them; the sheep and the goats in that judgment. Read about that in Matthew 25:31, through 46. And at the end of that section, the Lord says something very powerful, "and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." And then after rendering judgment upon the wicked, God's own mediatorial King--the greater son of David, the son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ--will finally put an end to Satan's long misrule upon the earth, through the agency of ungodly men. And we see further evidence of his regal authority in the next part of this verse 15, at the end, "...and He will rule them with a rod of iron..." A rod of iron, this is the same term in Hebrew for a king's scepter, a "shavat," a king's scepter; a symbol of rule. And here we see the combining of the king, as well as the shepherd. And we see this combination used throughout the Old Testament. He's the one who, not only as a Shepherd leads and provides and nurtures, but he also protects, and he delivers. And he avenges. And indeed, the scepter of the monarch always symbolizes the authority that God has granted to the Messiah King to rule over the nations. And he will do so with unassailable might and unrivaled authority. My, how I long for that day. And again, dear friends, this is my Savior. This is my king; I hope he is yours.

And it's amazing, in Revelation two beginning of verse 26. Jesus has also promised that quote, "overcomers," will rule with Him. By the way, overcomers, that's a designation of true Christians that persevere, even in the midst of great trial. And the only way any of us will ever persevere in the fires of extreme adversity, is by the power of the indwelling Spirit; we could never do it on our own. So they're called overcomers, and says, They will rule with him. And there we read it again, Revelation two, verse 26, "'He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father.'" So when we return with him, we also will rule and reign with Him.

So again, verse 15, and, "From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it, He may smite the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron." At that time, all of the rebellion will cease, and his law will be the only law. I notice here in verse 15, it says, "And He;" this is a repetition from the preceding clause denoting the idea in the original language that he, himself, he alone will do this. And this graphic symbolism of an absolute bloodbath, is drawn from the ancient practice of winemaking where people would literally, and I'm sure you've seen pictures of this, they would use their bare feet to trample grapes in a large vat to acquire the juice for making wine.

And the language that is used here is derived from two Old Testament texts, Isaiah 63, one and four in particular that I just read a minute ago, but also in Joel three, in verse 11, Joel three verse 11, and following, "Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down, O LORD, Your mighty ones. Let the nations be aroused, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat." "Jehoshaphat" means "YAWEH Judges;" "For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness. The LORD roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth tremble. The LORD is a refuge for His people, and a stronghold to the sons of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will pass through it no more."

And then as if to underscore the absolute authority of the Warrior King, John sees a prominent name written even further on the Lord; this may be a banner that's draped across his shoulders, we don't know, or across his chest or hung from his side. But in verse 16, we read, "And on His robe and on His thigh, He has a name written, 'KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.'" Beloved, Israel's long anticipated Messiah will finally ascend to his earthly throne in a literal Jerusalem and establish a literal kingdom, as he has promised. And all of the unconditional, irreversible covenants that God has given Abraham and David and even the New Covenant, all of those will finally be fulfilled to the letter; the seventh eighth week of pre kingdom judgments prophesied by Daniel will finally be over.

And in closing just a footnote, in the present church age we're looking for the rapture. In fact, the objective of the entire 70 weeks of judgment, bear in mind, is for Israel, not the church. I do not see the church involved in any of this. Daniel 9:24, "70 weeks had been decreed for Your people in Your holy city." And here's why, "...to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and anoint the most holy place." These were promises pertaining to Israel's messianic kingdom. The Lord promised that the church would be "kept from"-- Revelation 3:10, "kept from the hour of testing; that hour which is about to come upon the whole world." Again, I believe that the Gentile church has temporarily replaced rebellious Israel as the custodians of divine truth. But that church will be snatched away. Remember, we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye and then God will resume his final seven years of judgment upon his chosen nation, Israel. That again is Daniel 70th week, you can read about that in Daniel 9:24, and following.

And also bear in mind that the rapture of the church is a sign less event, it could happen right now. But the Second Coming has many signs. And I might also add that we are looking for Christ, not the Antichrist. We are looking for Christ, not the Antichrist. In the rapture, the Lord comes for his saints, and we meet him in the air. And the second coming, he comes with his saints. It's very different. And all other views apart from a Pretribulation rapture tend to cause men to be preoccupied with themselves, rather than Christ, who is our hope.

I might add, just very practically, I fear there's far too many Christians who devote themselves to preparing for survival during the time of the tribulation; are obsessed with politics and environment and social ills. And they arm themselves and all these things. By the way, when you read what's going to happen during the Tribulation, I don't think we will be here. But none of those things are going to help you. I don't care how good of a shot you are. All right? And this is a common device of the enemy. Be careful that you don't get ensnared with this. Has not Paul said, "...keep seeking the things above, where Christ is. Seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth." Colossians three, one. Now I'm all for having some extra water and protecting my family and all of that. But folks, we have a great commission and t's all about the gospel. It's not about getting ready to fight all of the bad people and being preoccupied with all of those things. That is a, that is a great distraction of the enemy that will bring you to ruin, it will cause you to forfeit divine blessing and actually place you in the pathway of divine chastening.

So in closing, I hope that each of you will examine your heart because the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior, and he is my King. And I know he is, for most all of you, and I hope all of you, your Savior and your King, and he is coming again. Let's live in light of that. Let's be excited about that. Yes, the world will mock you, they will ridicule. You know, the Lord knows that. I mean, Satan is the god of this world right now. Right? But the purposes of God will not be thwarted. And let's be excited about these things. Let's be evangelistic and live to the praise of his glory. And as saints, rejoice in Christ, who is our hope, amen? Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. They bring such a joy to our heart, because we know that even though it appears that everything is opposed to the knowledge of Christ and the glory of the gospel, we know that in fact, you are ultimately in charge. And we know that you have promised to build your church, and that death itself cannot prevent that. Lord, thank you for saving us in eternity past, drawing us unto yourself. Thank you that we are a part of a love gift that the Father has given the Son. Thank you that there is nothing that can separate us from that love. So, Lord, take the words that we have studied today, apply them to our hearts, that you might be exalted in each one of us. I ask in the precious name of Jesus, our Savior and our Lord and King. Amen.

We come now to part six of Jesus's prophetic discourse on the end of the age and we find ourselves in Mark's gospel, chapter 13, verses 26 through 31. If you've been with us over the past five Sundays that I've talked about this, you realize we're going through Mark's account verse by verse. Before we look at the text, let me set the stage for what we are about to examine. Everybody that knows and loves Christ will acknowledge that our country is under God's judgment. We are experiencing the wrath of divine abandonment, whereby, consistent with Romans one, he has given this people over to the consequences of their depraved choices that they love so desperately. We see college campuses filled with chaos, people protesting against Israel, and demanding other leftist causes. I was reading that more than 22.3% of Generation Z adults now identify as LGBTQ plus. According to the Daily Mail, the number of transgender troops in the United States Army has doubled since 2020. The Pentagon has spent more than $26 million dollars treating transgender troops since 2020. According to the Department of Defense, the number of US Army staff with gender dysphoria has doubled in that time, from around 1800 to 3700. 65% of Americans do not approve of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. And a Rasmussen report that I read recently gives us a poll that shows that 41% of the United States voters say the country is likely to experience a second Civil War within five years. Folks, our only hope is in God, it's not in man. It's not in who gets elected next. And certainly, the return of Christ is ultimately what we look for, not the return, or the rising up of some great politician. And Jesus promised that he would return. But only after according to Mark 13, verse 19, "a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation, which God created until now, and never will." Mark 13:19. Indeed, the world is being prepared for the rule of the Antichrist. And then Christ will return and power and great glory.

But before that, Jesus tells us in our text this morning, that certain things are going to happen. Let me get a running start to this in verse 24 of Mark 13. Jesus says, "'But in those days, after that tribulation, THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL BE FALLING from heaven and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power and glory. And then He will send forth the angels and will gather together His elect from the four winds from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven. Now, learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branches already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away but My words will not pass away.'"

Here, the Spirit of God speaks to us, revealing to us where the world is heading, and gives us sobering warnings in all of these passages to help us understand what will come about on the face of the earth, especially for those who are alive during the time of the tribulation, the pre-kingdom judgments. And also in this text, he reassures us of the infallibility and the authority and the unchangeable nature of his word. Now, I've divided this section into three very simple headings that I hope will be helpful to you; three categories to grasp with the Spirit of God has to say. Number one, we're going to see the sign of his coming. Number two, the season of his coming and then finally, the surety of his coming.

First, let's look at the sign of his coming beginning in verse 26. "'Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power and great glory.'" Now, you may recall, in the transfiguration when Jesus was on the mount with Peter, James and John, we had a preview of the glory of Christ, that will be seen when he returns. There you will recall the effulgence of his pre incarnate glory, burst forth from him. Glory that was veiled while he walked here on Earth in the flesh. Matthew tells us in chapter 17, verse two that, "...His face shone like the sun, and His clothes becameas white as light.'" Peter even reminds us of this occasion in Second Peter one beginning of verse 16. He said, "We did not follow cleverly devised tails when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." Don't you wish you could have been there to have seen that? Ah, but we will. The apostle John described the same magnificent reality in Revelation one beginning of verse 14. There we read, "His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength." Can you imagine the horror on the face of the god mockers when the Lord Jesus Christ returns? Suddenly all of their perverted pride parades and all of their social justice demands, and all of their godless ideologies will dissipate like fog, when the sun rises. Matthew's account says this in Matthew 24, verse 30, "'And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky.'" Fascinating statement. The phrase, "the sign of"--the grammar here in the original language, does not refer to something pointing to the Son of Man, as it would be in what we would call an objective genitive, but rather the sign will be the Son of Man of subjective genitive. In other words, against the backdrop of all of this darkness and chaos, the ineffable light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ will glaze forth in ways that we can't even imagine. Suddenly, the astounding, dazzling brilliance of his Shekinah will appear. And people will see the resplendent light of his majesty. And then according to Revelation, one seven, "...every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him."

Now, no student of the Bible would be unfamiliar with what the Lord Jesus is describing here, especially when it comes to this idea of the light of His presence, the light of His glory. You will recall that we can see this in the Old Testament. His presence led the children of Israel through the wilderness. It was a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, leading them out of the bondage of Egypt through the wilderness. The light of his glory blazed forth on Mount Sinai at the giving of the law. And you will recall how the Shekinah blazed forth above the Ark of the Covenant between the outstretched arms of the cherubim, there in the Holy of Holies. And his first advent, we could see just the glowing light of his presence in his person, especially at the birth of Christ, when he was surrounded by light. Remember, in Luke two the angel announced his birth to the shepherds, and we read, "the glory of the Lord shown around them." And in Matthew two, we see the blazing light of God's presence that led the Persian kingmakers from the east to the very sight of their Savior and King. And later Jesus said in John 12, verse 46, "'I have come as'" a what? As "a light." "'I have come as a light into the world that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness.'" So again, at the Transfiguration, we see the ineffable brightness of the glory of God that radiated from him affirming his transcendent majesty.

This, by the way, was the same light that Paul encountered on the road to Damascus. I want to digress for a moment to help you understand what I believe is important with respect to what Jesus is describing. We know that God is immaterial. And we see in Scripture that often when he would materialize himself, he would do so in this glorious light, which was called the Shekinah. It comes from a Hebrew word "mishkan", which means “to dwell.” So it's his presence that we see shining. And his presence would always be this resplendent, brilliant, unapproachable light. By the way, we had a little glimpse of this, did we not the other night here in Nashville, we got pictures of it when we saw the Aurora Borealis here in Nashville. Which I might say, pales into absolute insignificance compared to what it looks like in the north countries where I've been on many occasions, but it was still beautiful. But the prophet Daniel tells us in chapter two verse 22, that he emanates light without shadow saying "...light dwells with Him." And in Psalm 104, verse two, he covers himself "...with light, as with a garment." Paul describes Christ Jesus to Timothy in First Timothy six, verse 16, as quote, dwelling "in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and everlasting power." And John tells us in First John one five "...that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all." And what is truly fascinating is that scientists have no explanation for the origin of light. They cannot tell us where it came from. But of course, God has told us where it came from, in his self-disclosure in Scripture. On day one of creation, after creating the material universe, God created light by divine fiat. He spoke it into existence. Genesis one and verse three, "Let there be light and there was light, and God saw the light, and it was good." Instantaneously, think about this, the uncreated Creator of the universe, who dwells in unapproachable light, spoke the first light into existence.

Now, why it's easy for us to take for granted. Yet, it's an amazing thing, because when you think about it, it emanates from God who created it. Can you imagine a world without light, nothing would be able to exist. In fact, light is the single most important source of heat and energy on Earth. Light is the very essence of God that gives life to all things. Physicists struggled to understand light. And I struggled to understand what the physicists tell us about light, but I will do my best. They tell us that light is a form of energy that's made up of both particles and waves. That's what I thought, I'm sure that's what you thought to, right? And they tell us that light acts like particles, that light photons are like minuscule little bullets, that stream from its source and move at a measurable velocity. And of course, we know that, that's the speed of light. And when certain objects obstruct those tiny objects, we have shadows. But light is also very different from a particle, they tell us, it is also characterized as a wave that does not exist in finite space. In other words, it has no beginning. And it has no end. A perfect illustration of the eternally existent God that has created us; the one who was the Father of Light, the one who dwells in unapproachable light. And they tell us that live light waves are like ripples in space, instead of bullets. And this explains how rainbows work. They call it the wave particle duality. And it's one of the most mystifying aspects of physics. Light waves behave like particles, and the particle-like photons can behave like waves. Well, that clears it up for me, I'm sure it does for you, right? Isn't it funny, I mean, when you try to explain who God is, and what he has done, I mean we get some idea, but it's like whoa, it's beyond me. And they tell us that waves transfer energy from one point to another point without the transfer of matter. And so it's very different than the particle motion of photons, these waves are very different. And because light has both electric and magnetic fields, it is also referred to as electromagnetic radiation. Light waves come in a continuous variety of sizes and frequencies and energies. And this continuum of light waves is referred to as the electromagnetic spectrum. And what's really amazing is that the human eye cannot see light. Light is completely invisible; all we see is light interacting with the tiny particles of matter in the air that reflect it. And the colors we see in light depend upon varying wavelengths in the spectrum of light. In fact, they tell us that visible light occupies only 1/1000 of a percent of that spectrum of light. And think about that, and that minut portion of that spectrum, we can see all that we can see, all the beautiful colors.

They tell us that the energy spectrum of light goes from radio, to microwave to infrared, then you have visible light in the middle, then ultraviolet, X ray, gamma ray, and so forth. And it's absolutely staggering to me, that all that we can see, is able to be seen in that 1/1000 of a percent of that spectrum. And as I think about it, God has only allowed us to see a tiny bit of who he is. Yet in that miniscule range of spiritual light that he has given us, we see all of the dazzling realities of who he is. We can see his creation, and we can see him through his word. But oh dear friends, what will the world see when the glory of the Son of Man appears in the sky? Number 24 verse 17, the Prophet says, "...a star would come forth from Jacob." In Hebrew, a "kōkāb" have which is a blazing forth of light. You know, people say, Well, I just don't believe anything that I can't see. Well, one day you will see it. One day you will see it.

Now back to our text. In Matthew, I'm going to look at Matthew 24 verse 30, where Matthew is expanding on Mark's account, in verse 30, it says, "'And then the sign of the of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all of the tribes of the earth will mourn.'" Now, this will primarily be a mourning of despair over impending judgment. Most will be mourning over the terror of impending judgment. Some will mourn in heartfelt repentance. We read more about this in Zechariah 12, beginning in verse nine. And this portrays in a very graphic terms, the repentance of the Jewish people during that time. We read and, "In that day, I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." By the way, there we see, as in other places, that all of the nations are going to come against Israel. And we're already seeing that alignment, are we not? We see it in the United Nations and so forth. So there we have a prophecy of physical deliverance; the conquest of the promised land will finally be over. But God also promises a spiritual deliverance. He goes on to say, "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son. And they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. In that day, there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo." That, by the way, is a reference to the death of Josiah recorded in Second Chronicles 35 that brought such mourning and such grief to the people.

So once again, Jesus says in Matthew 24:30, "'...all of the tribes..." --that could be translated "families"-- "of the earth will mourn.'" And again, most will be mourning in despair, the horrific prospect of divine judgment. And this is consistent with Revelation one in verse seven, where we read, "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him." No doubt, in that day, many will be mourning over the blasphemies that they have spoken in the past weeks and months and years. Maybe they will come to mind at that point. In Revelation 16, verse nine, we read about this. Think about this, despite the inconceivable agonies of divine wrath that's being poured out upon the world during that time, in the pre kingdom judgments, we read, quote, "They blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory." And in verse 11, it goes on to say, "They blaspheme the God of heaven, because of their pains, and their sores, and they did not repent of their deeds." Verse 21, "And huge hailstones, about 100 pounds, each came down from heaven upon men, and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; because its plague was extremely severe." And Luke's account underscores, even more, the horror of those who reject Christ. In Luke 21, verse 25, Jesus says, "'There will be signs in sun and moon and stars and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.'" Dear friends, today, men and women scoff and laugh, but a day is coming when that scoffing and that laughter will turn to trembling, and mourning. Jesus went on to say in that section in Luke 21, beginning verse 27, "'Then they will see THE SON OF MAN DCOMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory.'"

Now back to Mark 13, verse 26, That's what he says, Jesus there, in that account, says, "'Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power and glory.'" Matthew 24:30 says the same thing, "'They will see THE SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS.'" He adds "'OF THE SKY with power and great glory.'" We're unsure what this means, can't be dogmatic, but it's probably a reference to a supernatural phenomenon that will occur when the glorious light of his presence will be seen around the globe all at one time. Daniel helps us see a bit of this in Daniel seven, and verse 13. And there God's revealing himself to Daniel as one who will be coming with "...the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him." And again, as I said earlier, Revelation one seven, "BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS and every eye will see Him..." I mean, this is an amazing scene. I try to visualize it as best I can, in my mind; suddenly then effable brilliance of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ will illuminate the whole world. And what's even more amazing is that when he appears, do you realize, we will be revealed with him in glory. The raptured church, the Bride of Christ, has been attending, quote, "the marriage supper of the Lamb" in Revelation 19 And verse seven, along with the Old Testament saints, quote, "Those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb," in verse nine. Apparently, both Old Testament believers who placed their faith in God's grace, before the Incarnation, along with his bride, who will need no invitation to the wedding feast, will accompany the Savior and King when he goes into battle, when he returns in power and great glory. In Revelation 19, verse 14, we read, "And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses." So we see here that somehow we will be an unarmed group of saints following him in his glory. He is armed, shall we say, with a broad sort of holiness in truth that's coming from his mouth, Revelation 19:15, "...that He may smite the nations and rule them with a rod of iron..." I remember the first time I was in Israel, a number of years ago, and I ascended up to Mount Carmel. That's where Elijah battled the prophets of Baal, you recall in First Kings 18. And I gazed across the vast valley of Megiddo, where the battle of Armageddon will be fought, or at least that's the main staging area; much of it will be fought all the way into Jerusalem. And I thought about these amazing truths that one day as one of his own, I will be with him, and I will be revealed with him in glory as he descends upon a wicked world. And I was trying to imagine what will that be like, as I look above this vast valley, following the invincible warrior king as he enters the fray, a heavenly army of overcomers. I remember it just brought tears to my eyes. And there was a hymn that came to my mind, "Lead on Oh King eternal, we follow not with fears, for gladness breaks like morning, where er they face appears. Thy cross is lifted or us we journey in its light, the Crown awaits the conquest, Lead on, oh God of might."

So indeed, he will come, as Jesus said in Matthew 24:30, "...with power and great glory." Bear in mind, dear friends, the first time he came, he came in humility. But not so the second time, he will come in glory. The first time he came in obscurity, the second time, nobody will miss him. The first time he came, there was no room for him in the inn. The second time he comes, the whole universe will not be able to contain his glory. The first time he came to seek and to save sinners. The second time he comes, he will come to conquer and judge sinners. The first time he came, the world mocked him and crucified him. But when he returns again, they will bow before him and indescribable horror as they await their sentence. Indeed, he will come in power to defeat all who oppose him. All of the scoffers will be silenced forever. And he will come in his unveiled glory, something that no human is ever seen completely. He will be accompanied by quote "many 1000s of His holy ones," according to Jude 14; which will include both angels and the raptured saints.

Colossians three, verse four, Paul says, "When Christ, who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." Let that sink in for a minute. First Thessalonians three verse 13. He says that "He may establish your hearts with without blame and holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints." You see at the translation of the saints, when he takes the world away in the rapture, he will come for his saints, but when he returns the second time, he will come with his saints. Revelation 19, verse 14, "...and the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, we're following Him on white horses." Symbolic of just the glory of what is going to transpire. It will be a time of judgment, but also a time of reconciliation for his elect remnant; a time of renovation, when he will return the world back to Edenic splendor. The long-awaited promises to Israel will finally be fulfilled. You must understand that at this point, the fullness of the Gentiles as described in Romans 11, verse 25, will finally come to fruition. And as it says in verse 26, "...and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.'" And then Jesus adds this in Mark 13:27, "'And then He will send forth the angels and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.'" And Matthew's account of our Lord's words, in Matthew 24, verse 31, says, "'And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.'"

Now, this is an astounding thought. A mighty host of holy angels will gather the remnant of his elect to receive the rewards and eternal blessings as they prepare to enter into the millennial kingdom; not only those who trusted Christ during the seven-year tribulation, but also the Old Testament saints will receive their resurrection bodies, according to First Corinthians 15, verse 23. And unbelievers also will be brought before their judge. We read about this in our Lord's words in Matthew 13, beginning in verse 39, he says, "...and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. Therefore, just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so it shall be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

Let me pause here to remind you, that what he's talking here talking about here, is the solitary confinement of an eternal hell. This is not going to be party time, as some mistakenly believe. In fact, in Revelation 20 and verse 10, we read that, "The devil who deceived them who was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." Many people reject the doctrine of eternal hell. And the reason they do so is because they have a low view of God and a high view of man. If you do not understand the transcendent otherness--the holiness of God--then you will think that he is not all that different than we are, and that we're not all that bad. But dear friends the chasm between his holiness and our sinfulness is beyond anything that you could even begin to imagine. The end of that section in Matthew 13, verse 43, Jesus said, "'Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears let him hear.'" I pray, my friends, that you have ears to hear. Another description of this reaping is found in the Apostle Paul's words in Second Thessalonians, one beginning of verse six. He says, "For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed--for our testimony to you was believed." Once again, lest anyone laughs at what God has promised in his word, if you do not belong to Him, this will be your fate. And that's why Jesus says, "'He who has ears let him hear.'"

So we've seen the sign of his coming, secondly, the season of his coming; verse 28, "'Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branches has already become tender, it puts forth its leaves, and you know that summer is near.'" So here. Jesus is giving a very uncomplicated parable to help the disciples understand what the signs will--that he's just been describing--what will happen and what you need to be looking for. And he's speaking primarily now to the Jewish remnant that will be alive during that time. He speaks about when the "parousia" is about to occur--the manifestation, the presence of Christ at his return. And that, by the way, is very important here; hat's the dominant theme of his entire discourse here--the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice he says here in verse 28, "'Now learn.'" See this is more than just an intellectual understanding about something, but it speaks of a wholehearted reception of truth that motivates your entire life. In fact, the apostle Paul, used this term in Philippians 4:11. It says that Paul, quote, "...learned to be content in whatever circumstances..." God placed him in. In other words, Paul grasped the truth of divine sovereignty to such a degree, that his understanding shaped his life. So he could relax in the midst of his sorrow; he could be content and not complain. So likewise, Jesus is saying, "'Now learn the parable from the fig tree.'" In other words, let the simple analogy regulate your life. And he says in verse 28, "'...when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.'" We understand this, I mean, whether it's a fig tree or any other kind of tree, everyone knows that in the springtime, the sap begins to rise, and branches become pliable and tender, and you begin to see leaves budding and so forth. It's a sure sign that summer is right around the corner.

Verse 29, "'Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door.'" In other words, when you see these signs that he's been describing; these birth pangs, these pre-kingdom judgments; even as you know summer is near when the fig tree begins to bud in the springtime; when you see all of these signs, "...recognize that He is near, right at the door.'"

I might add that the pronoun "He" can also be rendered "it." "It is near." "It" referring to the glorious appearing of the king and the inauguration of the kingdom and so forth. In fact, Jesus said in Luke 21:31, "that the kingdom is near." So Jesus helps us understand the general timeframe, or the season of these events. And then he adds in verse 30, "'Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.'" It's interesting, the signs will not be stretched across 1000s or hundreds of years, but they're going to occur within the lifespan of the generation alive at that time. And I'll speak more to that in a moment. Other prophecies give amazing mathematical detail--and we've gone over many of these in the past--concerning the time of Daniel 70th week, Daniel nine, the seven years, the last half of the Tribulation Jesus described as "the great tribulation" in Matthew 24:21, lasting three and a half years as described in Daniel 7:25, Revelation 11 two through three, Revelation 12 and verse six, and so forth. And I might add that, in my humble opinion, this is further evidence that these prophecies are not to be spiritualized. They're not to be treated as some kind of a mysterious allegory and force into the events that occurred at ad 70. So the span, or the duration of these signs, these birth pangs, and all the events that Jesus has described, will occur before those witnessing them, it says, pass away. In other words, those who experienced the birth pangs will also experience the birth, if I can put it that way.

Now, it's important throughout his discourse, Jesus has been discussing those who will be living in the future. In verse four, "'See to it that no one misleads you.'" Verse six, you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. Verse nine, they will deliver you to tribulation, you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. Verse 15, "...when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION..." Verse 23, "'Behold, I have told you in advance.'" So Jesus has been consistently speaking, prophesying, to a future generation, even as Daniel did, and the other prophets. Now some will argue that this term, "this generation," refers to the Jewish race that will not pass away until their Messiah ushers in the kingdom. That makes no sense to me. That seems contrived and confusing, even pointless. Of course, they will be alive. Moreover, if that was what Jesus meant, he would have simply stated "Israel" or "My people" will not pass away. Others will argue that since Jesus admitted in Matthew 24 verse 36, that he did not know, quote, "the day or the hour" that only the Father knows, that he just guessed and was referring to the disciple's generation, and it was kind of a bad guess. Well, so much for divine authority in Jesus teaching, right?

But in reality, during the time of his incarnation, you will recall that Jesus deliberately and temporarily set aside certain aspects of his divinity. In his incarnation, he admittedly did not know the specific moment of his future arrival, even though he did know the signs that we're going to lead up to it. Certainly he knows it now. And then others argue that "this generation" refers to those who were alive in Jesus' day, very popular view. Thus, they experienced all the events that Jesus described in Jerusalem in AD 70; that all of this was just talking about what happened at the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans. And I fear this position is fueled more by a commitment to preserve the philosophical system of Covenant Theology than the exegetical and contextual considerations of the text. If you begin with what I believe is an errant presupposition that insists that somehow the church has permanently replaced Israel, then you're going to interpret, you're going to have to interpret, the prophetic literature into such a way as to avoid any possibility of Israel as a nation ever becoming the undeserved recipients of divine blessing as God has promised them in the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New Covenants. Again, nothing that occurred in AD 70, in Jerusalem, compares to the universal scope, and the cataclysmic severity of the staggering events that Jesus, and the other prophets describe. Furthermore, given the exceedingly more horrific slaughter of the Jews, under the Nazis in the Holocaust, how would it make sense to say that all of these events occurred in ad 70? Because Jesus said in Matthew 24:21, "'...there will be a great tribulation, such as not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved...'" Well, if that's referring to ad 70, how do you account for The Holocaust that was far greater than ad 70?

Also, I would humbly add, that such a view discounts the undeniable parallels that we see in the content and sequence of the events found in the Book of Revelation, which was written in 96 ad--long after the fall of Jerusalem. John MacArthur adds, perhaps the greatest single refutation of that view when he said, quote, "Most important of all, Jesus certainly did not appear then (referring to ad 70.) It is a strange logic," he says, "to argue that Jesus could accurately foretell the destruction of Jerusalem, some 40 years hence, but be mistaken about his returning at that time, or if at some suggest, the teaching here was merely symbolic and allegorical with the limited destruction of Jerusalem representing the vastly greater destruction of the end time. What event in AD 70 could possibly have symbolized Jesus return, which is the main subject of the discourse?" End quote. So I believe that the generation, of which Jesus refers, is that generation of people that will be alive during the tribulation.

We've seen the sign of his coming, the season of his coming, finally, the surety of his coming. This is so precious. Notice verse 31, "'Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.'" Indeed, we know from Scripture that Jesus has promised, this universe, this old universe, will soon pass away; it's filled with sin, it must be purged. And later it will be replaced with quote, "...a new heaven and a new earth.." Revelation 21 and verse one. And Peter tells us in Second Peter 3:10, "...the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." And in Revelation 20 and verse 11, "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them." That will be the judgment of the wicked as they stand in total space, no place to hide, no place to run, as they stand before the judge.

Folks, you want to remember, according to the Second Corinthians four and verse 18, "...we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." So again, Jesus says, "'Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.'" In other words, everything that I have promised is going to happen, just as I have said. Indeed, "His word endures forever", Psalm 19 and verse 19. And in Matthew five and verse 18, Jesus says, "'For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.'" Luke 16, verse 17, "'But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.'" Oh, dear Christian, what comfort we have in the unassailable and unchanging sovereignty of God. He has promised to do two primary things: to redeem his people and to restore his kingdom. And that is absolutely going to happen. What confidence we can have in his word.

May I remind you, as we bring this to a close this morning, folks, we serve a sovereign God, not a contingent God. He is the one, according to Isaiah 46 and verse 10, who has declared "...the end from the beginning..." And because of this, I want to leave you with three truths. Number one, God never changes his mind and pursues a Plan B, because Plan A was always perfect. First Samuel 15:29, we read, "Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind."

Secondly, God does not make promises with his fingers crossed behind his back. His purposes is never change. Psalm 33 beginning of verse 11, "The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance." And in that great passage in Hebrews six beginning in verse 17, we read "...God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us."

And finally, God does not clearly say one thing, but in fact, mean something totally different. He did not clearly articulate what he was going to do in the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the New Covenants, but really, in the back of his mind knew that none of those things, or most of those things, weren't really going to actually come true, especially the material blessings for Israel. But rather, one day people would wise up and see that all of that is merely spiritual talk merely an allegory. Isaiah 31, beginning of verse one, it says, in verse two, the Holy One of Israel, it says, "...does not call back His words." In Malachi three and verse six, "'For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore, you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.'" And in Romans 11, verse 29, "...the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."

Dear Christian, may you be encouraged as we think about these things. God is absolutely in control, he is going to accomplish his purposes; neither demon, nor man can thwart his purposes. And we can relax in that. And we can fearlessly proclaim the gospel, despite those that would mock us. May I also say that as undeserving sons and daughters of the kingdom, we should be captivated by a burden for the lost. We should have a heart to give the gospel to people in need. We need to love these people that so viciously hate us. We need to pray for them. We need to boldly stand in their face, and share the love of Christ forthrightly, but without compromise. We need to show mercy to them. We shouldn't disregard them. And in so doing, we prove as Paul said in Philippians, two verse 15, we prove ourselves to be quote, "...blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom we will appear as lights in the world." Will you join me as we close in prayer?

Father, as always, we rejoice in the hope that we have in Christ. We thank you that you have given us your word that gives us at least some general idea of how the story ends. And we rejoice knowing that it ends with you on the throne, but in a way that is visible to all those who mock that reality. And this morning, once again, I thank you that we don't mock that reality. Not because we're so smart, or we're so good, but solely because you have done a work of grace in our hearts. You've caused us to see the horror of our sin and the glory of the cross. You have forgiven us our sins because you gave us eyes to see. You cause us to be born again. You imputed the righteousness of Christ to our account. You made us new creatures in Christ. And now we have the hope of heaven. And we can understand your word because of the indwelling illuminating work of your Spirit, that we give you praise for all of these things. Cause us to be bold for the sake of Christ in the presentation of the gospel. And finally, Lord, if there be one here today that does not know you in a very real, personal way, I pray that you will bring such overwhelming conviction to their soul that they will have no rest until they come and throw themselves at the foot of the cross and receive the mercy that you will give all those who bow and repentant they. We thank you. We give you praise in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.

We return once again to our verse-by-verse examination of the gospel of Mark. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark 13. This morning, we will be looking at verses 14 through 26. And this is actually the fifth part of a series on our Lord's Olivet Discourse that I've entitled "Jesus Prophetic Discourse on the End of the Age."

Before we read the text and look at it closely, there are a few things that I would like to share with you with respect to some of the key essentials in understanding and interpreting Bible prophecy. As you are aware, we as a church, and certainly me as a pastor, are committed to a consistent literal, grammatical hermeneutic. Hermeneutics being the science and the art of biblical interpretation. Therefore, the prophetic Scriptures should be interpreted in a literal, natural, normal sense, taking into consideration figures of speech and, and symbols and so forth. Therefore, I reject the method of interpretation that believes that the prophetic Scriptures should be spiritualized or seen as some kind of an allegory; that you look for hidden meanings in the Old Testament passages, and then try to get the New Testament to somehow shape and inform those meanings. But from my perspective, when interpreted in a literal, clear cut, normal, consistent hermeneutic, the original message of the Old Testament authors will be continued in the New Testament. The narrative of the Old Testament prophets will be explained even further, not transformed. The New Testament doesn't transform what was said in the Old Testament, it doesn't transcend what was said in the Old Testament. Practically speaking, among other things, this means that Jesus is actually going to reign on this earth in an intermediate kingdom, prior to the eternal state, and this will happen between His Second Coming and the final consummation of all things, which will be the end of all things. And this particular position is known as premillennialism. I am unabashedly a pre millenarian. It's sometimes called Chiliasm, as well, from the Greek term that means 1000. And practically speaking, this simply means that as you look at the prophetic Scriptures, you must keep in mind that there is a distinction between Israel and the church; they are not one of the same thing. The church has not permanently replaced Israel.

Secondly, you have to realize that Israel has a future as God has promised, He is not finished with them. And thirdly, we must realize that there will be a literal kingdom on earth, where Christ will reign in all of his glory; that this will be preceded by a period of seven years judgment upon the earth, and especially upon Israel, consistent with Daniel 70th week that's detailed in Daniel 924, as Jesus declared in Matthew 24:14.

Now, this position I might add, contrary to the opinion of some, was not invented in 19th century Ireland by John Nelson Darby, who's considered the father of modern dispensationalism and futurism, and you may have seen some of his arbitrary charts and others have used things like that to somehow explain scripture. But clearly, the New Testament writers and the first century saints were premillennial. This was not some invented concept. In fact, in Acts chapter one and verse three, we read that Jesus presented himself alive after his suffering "by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God." Now, this would have been the absolute perfect time to tell them, guys look, you need to understand that the church now has replaced Israel, that all of those promises made in the Old Testament now need to be understood in a spiritual way; they will have a spiritual fulfillment in the church, that all the promises to ethnic Israel need to be understood in a spiritual way, they're not material, etc. But he obviously didn't tell them that, because what did they respond to him by saying in verse six? "So when they had come together, they were asking Him saying, 'Lord, is it at this time You're restoring the kingdom to Israel?'" Clearly, they were premillennial.

Moreover, Premillennialism was the Orthodox and exclusive view of the early church fathers. This would include all the major writers of the early periods of the church, even the disciples of the apostle John were premillennial. Men like Papias, the Greek apostolic father and Bishop of Hierapolis. Or like Polycarp of Smyrna, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian. And an examination of church history will reveal some very undeniable conclusions as my friend Dr. Doug Bookman, a New Testament scholar, has stated quote, "In the earliest days of Christianity, that is the centuries immediately after the apostles, Chiliasm, that is the persuasion that history would culminate with a 1000-year literal reign of Jesus on the earth, was virtually universal. The denial of Chiliasm and the concomitant rise of amillennialism were closely related to the acceptance of Christianity in the Roman Empire as a result of the conversion of Constantine and the subsequent rise of an official, authoritative centralized Church, which had a vested interest in the notion of a present spiritual kingdom. Throughout the eras of church history, there have been various groups of dissenting believers who affirmed and cherished the hope of Christ's earthly literal end time kingdom. When the Reformers, primarily Luther and Calvin, confronted and corrected the soteriological heresies of the Roman Catholic Church, they did not ultimately challenge or abandon the essential eschatology of that church." End quote. And so, I reject Roman Catholic eschatology, sometimes called amillennialism, or supersessionism. And my point with all of this is to simply say that when we approach the prophetic Scriptures, what you will see is that we will use a literal, grammatical hermeneutic that interprets all of Scripture, including the prophetic Scriptures in a literal, natural, normal sense. The church shares in the promises of Israel, but not in her unique identity as a nation. They are as Paul described them in Romans 11:16 through 24, the quote "natural branches" from a cultivated olive tree, some of which have now been broken off at the present time due to the hardening of their heart and the Gentile church is the wild olive branch that has been grafted into the quote, "rich root." The rich root of covenant or blessing, privileges originally promised to Abraham. And the church shares these promises with Israel, but never takes their place as a nation, despite the reject rebellion, even to this day. God has not abandoned them. He has not abandoned his chosen people. Paul understood this in Romans 9:10 and 11. You will remember in Romans nine you read about Israel's election, Romans 10, Israel's defection, Romans 11, Israel salvation when their Messiah King returns, and what an amazing history of these people.

Israel is a magnificent object lesson of how God deals with all mankind, saving some, judging others, all to reveal His glory, through the Lord Jesus Christ who is both Lamb as well as Lion. Who is both a suffering servant, as well as the conquering Sovereign King of Kings and Lord of lords. But before he returns, as we see in the prophetic Scriptures, Israel will experience tribulation as well as all of the people on the earth. And that's the thing that breaks my heart as I watch people today blindly following the insanity of our politicians and of Islam and on and on and on. Jesus said in Matthew 24:21 and following, before he comes, there will be a "'...great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.'"

Now, as we approach our text with that little introduction, bear in mind that this is occurring on Wednesday evening before our Lord's crucifixion on Friday. Jesus is leaving the temple precincts with his disciples, making their way up the steep slopes of the Mount of Olives. That's why it's called the Olivet Discourse. And I've divided his lengthy answer to them under seven headings, we've looked at some of them already. We've looked at number one, the temples demolition, number two, the signs of the end, number three, the prospect of persecution. And the last time we were together, we looked some at number four, the abomination of desolation; we'll look at a little bit more of that today. But we're also going to examine number five, numbers five and six, the false Christ and prophets, the coming of the Son of Man, and then eventually we'll get to the final one, the warning to be prepared. Okay?

So let me read the text to you, Mark 13, beginning in verse 14, Jesus says, "'But when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, standing where it should not be (let the reader understand) Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. The one who is on the housetop must not go down, or go in to get anything out of his house; and the one who is in the field must not turn back to get his coat. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! But pray that it may not happen in the winter. For those days will be a time of tribulation, such as not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will. Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days. And then if anyone says to him, "Behold, here is the Christ" or "Behold, He is there"; do not believe him; for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, they elect. But take heed; behold, I've told you everything in advance. But in those days, after that tribulation, THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL BE FALLING from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power and glory. And then He will send forth the angels and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.'"

Now, by way of quick review, the last time we looked at this issue of "the abomination of desolation," may I remind you in Matthew 24, beginning of verse 15, Jesus said, "'Therefore, when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.'" When you see the "abomination of desolation," literally the abomination which makes desolate. And Jesus is referring here to Daniel 9:27. And there we read, "And he will make a firm covenant," "he" being the Antichrist, "with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate." So in the middle of the week, and this is referring to weeks of years, in other words, at three and a half years, this satanically empowered and satanically possessed Antichrist, will seize a restored temple in Jerusalem, betray the Jews, and demand to be worshipped for 42 months, according to Revelation 13 and verse five. That's the last half of the seven years.

Now there's a fascinating footnote I'd draw your attention to in Revelation 11 verses one and two. There we have John's vision that includes instructions for the measuring of the temple in that day that will be built in the first half of the tribulation. But there's a fascinating omission in verse two that suggests that the Church will no longer be around. It says, "'Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it.'" Now this refers to the Court of the Gentiles located outside the courtyard. And that court served as a, shall we say, a border beyond which Gentiles were not allowed to pass. And if they did, they could be executed. The Jews, or the Romans, would allow the Jews to do that; it was a first forbidden place. They didn't want them to, God didn't want them to defile that inner part with the brazen altar, and so forth. In fact, you will recall an Acts 21. You remember when the Jews falsely accused the apostle Paul, of bringing Gentiles into the temple. That was the whole issue, and it caused a riot and they got put in prison and so forth. And so the fact that when he says "Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it," seems to symbolize God's utter rejection of the Gentile persecutors of that day, because of their wickedness. And although there will be Gentiles that will continue to be saved during the time of the tribulation, most of them during this time will be allied with Satan and the Antichrist in their hatred of the covenant people in Israel, and of course, believers as well.

Moreover, this marked distinction between Gentiles and Jews, suggests that the church is no longer around because we know according to Colossians, 3:11, as well as in Ephesians two, that there is no distinction between Greek and Jew. So the unbelieving Jews are apparently alone at this point; alone in their beliefs, isolated by their stand, and the Gentiles are hating them. So the outer court of the Gentiles will not be allowed to exist. Well, why is that? Well, it goes on to say, "'...it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under the foot, the holy city for 42 months.'" That's three and a half year, the career of the Antichrist. And so what we're seeing here is a prophecy of just unparalleled oppression against the Jews that will ultimately culminate in the fulfillment of the times of the Gentiles when the Lord returns. In fact, and Luke 21, verse 24, Jesus describes this time, he says, "'...they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.'" And we're waiting for that time to ultimately be fulfilled. I might also point out that in Zechariah 13, verses eight and nine, we read how that two thirds of Israel will be destroyed during that time and only 1/3 a remnant will be saved and restored.

So the abomination that causes desolation triggers what the Lord describes in Matthew 24:21, as the quote, "great tribulation such has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will." I might add, parenthetically, that rules out that particular statement right there alone; rules out this idea that all of these prophecies were fulfilled in ad 70. Remember also that the first four seal judgments in Revelation, that of a pseudo peace, wars, famines, and death, all of those have taken place now, by this time, by the middle of the week. And Jesus calls this in Matthew 24, eight, just the beginning of birth pangs. So it's going to get far worse. And the first half was the beginning of God's wrath, because we see how God holds the seven sealed scroll, the title deed of the universe, and it's the Lamb right? That unfolds, it, that unrolls it. We know, of course, according to Second Thessalonians two seven, the Holy Spirit is going to step aside, allowing Satan to have full vent of all that he wants to do during that time, to deceive and to kill. But now in the second half of the tribulation, the frequency and the severity of the birth pangs will increase as God pours out his wrath and his fury upon the nations of the world and even his covenant people to bring them to a place of genuine repentance.

So the temple has been rebuilt, the sacrificial system has been put in place and all of the Sabbath restrictions, plus the feasts and convocations of Leviticus 23 are being observed. The nation of Israel has now negotiated the contract with the Antichrist to be protected. And all of that is all fine and dandy until the Antichrist demands to be worshipped, betrays the Jews and seeks to kill them. That's what happens in the abomination of desolation. Daniel describes his violent career in Daniel 8:24, "He will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; he will destroy mighty men and the holy people."

Now back to Mark 13:14, and here we see another example of our Savior's infinite compassion for his own, because what he's doing here is warning people--a remnant--living in that day of what's going to happen. And so we see in verse 14, "...but when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), that those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. "Flee" in the original language is "pheugō" We got our word fugitive, actually from that. And this is what we see him telling them to do. You need to run for your life. Remember now, the satanically possessed Antichrist is desperate for revenge. He's insane with a jealous rage. He's demanding to be worshipped. They're not going to have any part of it, Christians aren't going to have any part of it. So he is incensed. So God is telling them here to flee to the safety of the mountains. The mountains and the cliffs in that area, I've been there a number of times, you can see that that's a place where you could hide and evidently that's what's going to happen. This east and south of Jerusalem; rugged, inaccessible kinds of terrain. Uninhabitable, apart from divine intervention, which is interesting in Revelation 12 and verse 14, we have a prophecy concerning God's providential care for his people during that time. There we read..."the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent"--again, the last three and a half years of the tribulation. Now, in the Old Testament, wings often picture divine protection. And this is probably, we can't say for sure, a reference to the angel, Michael, who is always seen in Scripture as the protector of Israel. He's certainly hard at work right now, is he not? And he will probably be the one that supernaturally transports the chosen people in some way, helps them in some way.

So Jesus warns those living in that day, "'those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.'" In other words, you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now, I want you to imagine for a moment 1000s and 1000s, if not millions, of anti Semites, foaming at the mouth, wanting to kill Jewish people. And this is not a leap at all for us to understand because we see it multiple times every day on the news. We see the spoiled, entitled, social justice brats in our colleges and universities, calling for the destruction of Israel. And of course, many of these people are Muslims as well. And they hate America, they hate Christianity, they hate Jews and so forth. And others are just ignorant fools and agitators that are being paid. I noticed maybe you saw this there was an interviewer that stuck the mic in front of some of these gals that were screaming, and they had their COVID masks on along with all of the Palestinian headdress. And he asked them "So you're screaming for an Intifada? What does Intifada mean?" And he kept going around with the mic and they were just looking all you could see is their eyes. They were absolutely clueless. By the way that comes from an Arab Arabic word that means uprising, or to shake off. I mean, these dear people, they're dumber than dung beetles. They have absolutely no clue what's going on in Israel, what's going on in the world, and certainly no clue of what God says. And so what they're calling for is violence against Israel and they don't even know it. Another headline caught my attention. It was this madness of the left "Queer Storytime for Palestine." Did you see that one? It said "Lil Miss Hot Mess, a drag queen, led the event where he read from his book." And of course, it got a picture of this guy all dressed up with all the drag queen stuff. And he read from this book, "the hips on the drag queen go swish, swish swish." After which he led the children in the chant. "If you are a drag queen, and you know it, shout Free Palestine." And all these little children are screaming this.

Beloved, I want you to hear me say this loud and clear. You cannot imagine the depth of depravity that's going on in the world today. What we're seeing in the news is the proverbial snowflake on the tip of the iceberg. And a day is coming when the nostrils of the Lord Jesus Christ are going to flare and he is going to rise from his throne and he is going to wreak havoc on this world, as he has promised. We are witnessing the wrath of divine abandonment today, Romans 11, the unrestrained freedom of the human heart to manifest the unspeakable depravity within the demands of full expression. How sad when you see these people. I see them, I pray for them, I think, oh, they have no idea the eternal terrors of hell that awaits them, unless they repent and believe in Christ. I was reminded the other day of Job 20 and verse five, where we read "...the triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrites but for a moment." Little do they know what the Prophet said in Isaiah 13, beginning in verse nine, under the inspiration of the Spirit, "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless." And I might also add my friends, this antisemitism is not going to end with them. It's moving rapidly towards Christianity as well. Because Christianity cannot coexist in this satanic world that they're wanting in our country and around the world.

You see, the purity of our lives, as well as the testimony of the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus Christ, serve as a living rebuke to their debauched lifestyles, and to the wickedness of their heart as they try to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. May I remind you a bit of history, the persecution of the church under the rule of the Roman Empire was unimaginably wicked. I won't take time to get into all of it, you're probably aware of a lot of it, but it did not end with the end of the Roman Empire. It did not stop. The Roman Catholic Church replaced Imperial Rome as the dominant power during the Middle Ages, and they were hell bent on eradicating the gospel of Jesus Christ. And through the so-called Christians, unimaginable persecution broke out. It continued on past Rome, you could see it in the Spanish Inquisition, You could see it in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and in the 1500s when the Catholic mob broke out against the Huguenots in France. Huguenots, by the way, were people that believed exactly what we believe. Communist regimes and Islamic regimes have killed millions down through the centuries. John MacArthur said this, "In fact, it has been estimated by none other than a Roman Catholic source, that in all of church history, roughly 70 million Christians have been killed for their profession of faith. With two thirds of those martyrdoms occurring after the start of the 20th century. The actual number is likely much greater. The same Catholic journalist that he cites, in a news article estimates that an average of 1 million Christians have been killed every year since 1990."

So indeed, the final days of human history that God has ordained will include Satan being unleashed upon anybody that defies him, especially the Jewish people. And then, of course, both Jews and Gentiles that come to faith in Christ during that time, as God has promised. In fact, in Revelation 17, verse six, we read how the ungodly of those days will be, quote, "...drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus." I might also remind you that during the first half of the Tribulation, we have the two witnesses, that will probably be Moses and Elijah, consistent with Revelation 11. And they will have proclaimed the gospel right out of Jerusalem, many people will be saved. And then we read how that they're going to be martyred, causing the world to gloat and to celebrate, and then they're going to rise from the dead, resulting in great fear among the people, many more will be saved among the elect. And that will be a huge embarrassment to the Antichrist, which will cause him to become even more incensed So by the midpoint of the Tribulation, he will be absolutely apoplectic and determined to extinguish all resistance.

So Jesus knows all of this and he's warning, compassionately warning, those who will be targets of the enemy, verse 15, "'The one who is on the housetop must not go down, or go in to get anything out of his house.'" If you know anything about that land, even to this day, they have kind of a deck on the tops of their homes where they go in the evening to relax. And he's saying that when this happens, don't even go downstairs to get your provisions, run down the sidesteps and flee for your life. Verse 16, "'and the one who is in the field must not turn back to get his coat. But woe to those who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days!'" Can you imagine ladies how hard it would be to have to be pregnant during that time, or to have a little one that you're trying to care for. You're going to need nourishment to stay alive and to nourish the child. And then he says, "'But pray that it may not happen in the winter.'" And of course, the wintertime is a rainy time, a cold time. Sometimes there's snow; extremely difficult to survive. Jesus said in Matthew 24:20, "'pray that the flight may not be in the winter or on Sabbath." Interesting thought, by this time Old Testament Judaism will once again be enacted; be put in place. And of course, those Jews, at that point, prior to all that happening, think that the Antichrist is not going to harm them, that all was good. And evidently they will act as they did in the Old Testament and in Jesus' day. And they would attack anybody that would dare move about on the Sabbath. Perhaps what this is, that's what this is describing. We can't be certain.

So Jesus is warning about the perils of this time. They will be severe. The danger is so great. Don't risk being caught, trying to gather your supplies and your possessions. Imagine if it were to happen to us, the first thing you would want to do right? Is go home and get all your stuff, pack up your truck and head out, say you don't have time for that.

Well, next we turn to three more signs to signal his soon return. The first one is unprecedented death and destruction in verse 19. "'For those days will be a time of tribulation such as not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will.'" This holocaust is described by the Lord Jesus Christ in this text, but also in Daniel and in John. Daniel seven, verse 25. We read and, "He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times and half a time." Again, the last three and a half years. And John speaks of this in Revelation 11 two, again, speaking of the temple, "...it has been given to the nations; and they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months." Three and a half years.

Verse 20, "'Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days.'" Now, interesting concept. What does he mean he "shortened the days?" Well, it could refer to this three-and-a-half-year period being cut short, which literally means to curtail or to stop instantly. But I struggle with that interpretation because it begs for relevance, since this time is already predetermined, it's going to be three and a half years. So it's possible that this is speaking of daylight hours of the actual 24 day that will be shortened perhaps to provide safety under the cover of darkness. We know that he did this before. He did this in the age of the Egyptian charioteers, when they were pursuing the Jews in Exodus 14; a pillar of cloud by day and came between them and a pillar of fire at night. And so, there was light for the Jews at night, darkness for the Egyptians. There's also three texts that I noticed in Revelation that seems to strengthen this possibility. Remember, when the sixth Seal Judgment is unleashed upon the world according to Revelation six beginning of verse 12, a great earthquake will occur, and the sun will become like blood and the stars of the sky will fall to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky will be split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up. And so here we see catastrophic destruction. And this destruction could disrupt the normal light of the sun. Likewise, in chapter eight and verse 12, of Revelation, there's a similar description of a peoples in the luminaries, it says, "...a third of the sun and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars will be smitten so that a third of them might be darkened and the day might not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way." Likewise, in Revelation 16, verse 10, where we have a description of the fifth bowl judgment. There we read, and "the fifth angel poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened." So we can't be dogmatic, but certainly we can see that the Lord is going to protect them. In some ways, as Jesus says in Matthew 24:22, he says, "'...no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.'"

It's interesting, by the way, I noticed in Matthew 24:22, that's the first time in the New Testament that the term "elect" is used--the reference to all whom God has sovereignly, predestined to be saved, both Jew and Gentile. But Jesus then goes on to describe yet another sign, not only will there be unprecedented death and destruction, but secondly, demonic deception, notice verse 21, "'And then if anyone says to you, "Behold, here is the Christ," or, "Behold, He is there"; do not believe him; for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.'" By the way, this is another passage that you simply cannot force into ad 70. This is the most precious and compassionate warning for those people. I thought about this. I mean, imagine being at that time living in that time, you're desperate for help, you're easy prey for anybody that would offer you help. And of course, Satan is going to provide as he always does, charlatans, to show you the way to show you to the Christ. But then, with all of the expectations for believers at that time, waiting for the Messiah, naturally, they're looking for him. The human and demonic agents of the Antichrist at this time, we're going to be butchering Gentiles and Jewish Christians, even nonbelieving Jews. Again, as I read earlier, Revelation 17 six, they are "drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus." So obviously, at that time, everybody is going to be in survival mode. Believers at that time, they're going to be looking for the Messiah. Imagine if that is your family. And you're going through all of this. You're terrified, you're excited, you're hungry, you're exhausted, you're trying to care for your family, and you are vulnerable. And then some demonic phony, infiltrates your ranks, wherever that might be, and says, "I am the Christ" or "I know where he is." And then you fall for it. And you're turned into the Antichrist and you're destroyed.

And they're going to have demonic powers to validate their claims. They're going to have great signs and wonders. By the way, this is this the same old tricks that Satan has used down through the centuries, all designed to mislead and deceive. But isn't it interesting? He promises that the elect aren't going to be deceived. My what a promise, an amazing thought. I think of John 10, beginning of verse 27, "'My sheep hear,'" what? "My voice and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.'" You all know what that's like? You hear some wing nut, say some theological absurdity. It's like, no, that's not right. At least I hope that your reaction.

Now, it's interesting had Jesus just stopped there in verse 22 and said "false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show signs and wonders in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect." Naturally the question will be, okay, again, you're living in that time, now in the future, and you're wondering, well, how will I know, how will I be able to discern fact from fiction? How will I be able to recognize the true Christ? Oh, the Lord is so faithful here. He says in verse 23, "But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.'" Which indicates that he's already talked with him about this much in the past, but there's going to be more now, and this brings us to the third sign, the dazzling display of His glory. Here's how they're going to recognize the true Christ, verse 24. "But in those days, after that tribulation, THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL BE FALLING from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.'" And they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power and glory.'" Again, as a footnote that did not happen in ad 70. Jesus said in Matthew 24 and verse 27, commenting on the same thing, "'For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.'" In other words, what Jesus is saying is, look, don't worry. You'll know when it's me. There will be no mistake when I arrive. That's what he's saying. I think about lightning, lightning comes instantly, right? And then you have the deafening thunder. Lightning never goes unnoticed, right? We all see it. Everything stops, it's awesome. It is a glorious spectacle, even terrifying. It may come from the east, but it's visible even in the west.

Beloved, this adds new meaning to a grand entrance, right? This adds new meaning to, shall we say the grand finale. I mean, this is the Lord returning. In Revelation one, verse seven. There's a description that the Lord gives us of his appearance. "BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITHTHE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him." And in Psalm 97, verses, one through nine, we read of the anticipation of the coming of the Lord to judge the earth and there the same scene as described. "The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness surrounds Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries round about. His lightnings lit up the world; the earth saw and trembled. The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness and all the people have seen His glory. Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, who boasted themselves of idols; worship Him, all you gods. Zion heard this and was glad, and the daughters of Judah have rejoiced because of Thy judgments O LORD. For Thou art the Lord Most High over all the earth; Thou art exalted, far above all gods." What a glorious spectacle that will be when the Lord returns.

After all of the darkness, both physical darkness and spiritual darkness, suddenly, the sky is illuminated with the brilliance of his Shekinah--the effulgence of His glory will blaze forth and no one will miss him. They missed him the first time when he came in humility. They won't miss him the second time when he comes in glory. Jesus predicted this once before in Acts 1:11. Remember when his flabbergasted disciples watched Jesus ascend into heaven. Two angels come and say to them, "this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come just in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." O child of God, this is the Jesus that I worship. This is the Jesus that we proclaim. We do not proclaim some effeminate social justice warrior that's carrying a banner that says "Jews Lives Matter." That is not the Jesus of the Bible. This is not some smiley face, God that winks at sin, and somehow wraps himself in rainbow garb and parades around with drag queens and sodomites and lesbians as his messengers. This is not some genie in a bottle, who can satisfy all of your desires if you just learn how to manipulate him just right. This is not some smiley face, God that winks at sin. This is not some impotent deity that paces the throne room of heaven, hoping that people will finally hear him knocking at the door of their heart and let him in because if they don't, they'll never be saved. Folks, that is not the God of the Bible. This Jesus, dear friends, is the thrice Holy God of Isaiah six. This is the ineffable tetragrammaton, the too wondrous to utter from the lips, four letters, this is the Lord this is YAWEH.

In Acts 17, beginning in verse 30, we read, that he is the one who is now "declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men, by raising Him from the dead." Folks the Jesus that I preach, the Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus that I plead with you, to believe in and to trust as your only hope of salvation is the Lord of hosts. He is a jealous God, he is an avenging God, he is a holy God, and an awesome God in His judgment. And never forget this, he is going to do all that he has promised, He is going to judge the world in his Second Coming, as we read in Revelation 19, verse 12, when he returns, "His eyes are a flame of fire." In verse 15, and following, "From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh, He has a name written, 'KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.'" Oh, dear friends, the glory of Christ's second return, and the promise of his Kingdom to be established, the whole world will be the theater that will manifest his ineffable glory--how I long for that day. I am so tired of seeing my Savior and King mocked and ridiculed. I long for that day, as Habakkuk describes in Habakkuk, two and verse 14, "when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." When finally his kingdom comes, and His will is done, on earth as it is in heaven.

I was thinking about this last week. What if there were no earthly kingdom? What if the cataclysmic culmination of human history is nothing more but a devastated planet. Think about that. How unbelievably tragic for the Creator, the Messiah King to return in breathtaking glory, come to this earth and all there is are the ashes of devastation and the stench of death. That is not a glorious ending. And that is not the ending that we read in Scripture. May it never be. No, he has promised through his servant Daniel, chapter two and verse 35, that the stone referring to Messiah "...that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." You see, again, the Messianic, or the millennial kingdom will be the consummating bridge between a cursed human history and the kingdom in the new heaven and the new earth of Second Peter 3:13 when the last Adam will rule and reign, where the first Adam failed, when the four eternal, unconditional biblical covenants the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant will finally be fulfilled. When Israel will finally say "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," as Jesus predicted; when all Israel is saved, and finally able to fulfill their role, as the Lord originally intended them to be, as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, Exodus 19 six. When the Lord will fill the new millennial temple, portrayed in Ezekiel 40 through 48. Oh, how I long for that day. As my friend David Larsen once said, "An ideal vision of the perfected kingdom of God, referring to the Millennial Kingdom, where every detail and facet discloses how spiritual truth and doctrine are enshrined and embodied in physical form and shape."

Now friend I asked you is this the Jesus that you worship? If so, you will fear him, you will tremble at his word. You will serve Him with all of your heart, he will be the priority of your life. Because a day of judgment is coming beyond my ability to describe. And if you have refused to trust in Christ as your Savior, that day will be unimaginably horrific if you live through it. And if you don't, it will be exponentially worse in the eternal torments of hell. Because you're going to stand before Him one day, as the Lord of the universe, and you will have nothing to offer him. We're told of this in Zephaniah one, verse 18, "Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD's wrath, in the fire of His jealousy, the whole world will be consumed, for He will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth." So my friend if you have never been reconciled to God through faith in Christ, if you've never honestly admitted the depths of your depravity, and cried out to him for mercy, and for his saving grace, I plead with you to do that today before it's too late, come to Christ, in repentant faith. And for those of us who know and love Christ, I hope that you will be encouraged with what you've heard today. And here's why, our God reigns. We know how the story ends. It's going to be tough between now and then; it's going to get a whole lot worse than it is now. We've lived in a bubble, you know, but it's going to get far worse. And that's okay, because the Lord will sustain us. He will prove himself powerful on our behalf. And he will continue to ignite our hearts with a longing for His glory. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the magnificent self-disclosure that you have given us in your word. Thank you for the great prophetic truths of your word, that give us a sense of what is going to happen. We can't possibly know all of the details, nor do you even want us to, otherwise you would have given us more. But you've given us enough to know that you are indeed going to accomplish all that you have declared and decreed and determined in eternity past. And in this we relax and we rejoice, but we cry out to you to reveal yourself more and more to us and through us that we may experience all of the blessings that are undeservedly ours because of your grace. Use us mightily for the sake of the kingdom. Give us opportunities to present the gospel and to live it out with boldness and with clarity. That in our lives Christ will have the preeminence in all things. For it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

Hallelujah, what a savior, one of my favorite hymns. Certainly, the testimony of my heart as well as it is yours, I'm sure. Please take your bibles and turn to Mark chapter 13. We continue to do our verse-by-verse study of this gospel. And as always, my goal in preaching is to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ, that you might know him as Savior, and Lord. Because if you don't, you have no hope, you have no purpose, you have no lasting joy. And, frankly, you live in a fool's paradise, that will ultimately end a divine judgment. That's why it's so important to know what God has said in his word. And certainly, the title of this series says it all. And that is "Jesus Prophetic Discourse on the End of the Age."

This is actually part four of that series. I will not take time to review all that we've studied thus far, I have to assume that you are with me. But certainly, when it comes to the biblical promises of divine judgment, most people laugh, and they scoff. They can't believe people would actually believe anything that laughably absurd. And equally ridiculous is the promise of an eternal hell for those who refuse to trust in God's saving offer of faith in Christ. And certainly, this was the days, or this was the attitude of those that lived in the days of Noah. They laughed, they mocked, they scoffed until the waters began to rise, and then it was too late. I don't want that to be the case for you. So this is a warning, as well as a clarification, of what God has promised, that is going to happen in the world just before he returns. Because God is infinitely holy, we understand that he must punish sin, and we see this described in God's curse on Satan when Adam and Eve and their progeny, which would include all of us, including all of creation. We witness the tragic consequences of sins curse, in the things that we experience in our world, everything from tornadoes and tsunamis and volcanoes and earthquakes and war, to depression, disease, and death.

Moreover, God has revealed his judgment on moral creatures in both scripture and in history. The Apostle Peter spoke of this in Second Peter two beginning in verse four. He said, "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly." Let me pause there for a moment. Evidence of that judgment is all over our world; our earth is scarred with irrefutable evidence of a worldwide flood. It's amazing how scientists don't want to see this. We see marine creatures fossilized in sedimentary rocks on every continent. Even on the highest of mountains. We see massive numbers of animals, including dinosaurs, in fossil graveyards where whole skeletons have been preserved, providing convincing evidence that they were buried very rapidly. A testimony of massive flooding. Every continent reveals sedimentary rock layers laid down by catastrophic flood conditions. It's everywhere. Layers that show no evidence of erosion over long periods of time. Moreover, you can see these layers and how they are folded and how they are curved, indicating that they were once soft and pliable when first deposited and yet people mock the idea of the flood.

Peter went on to say in Second Peter two and verse six, "And if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority." We now have irrefutable evidence of this in the discovery of the charred ruins of the five cities of the plain as we read about in Genesis 14 and verse eight, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and the city of Zoar. Zoar was the only city you will recall that God is spared when Lot and his two daughters fled there for safety, Genesis 19. You can see on YouTube videos, that there are golf ball sized pieces of brimstone, of pure sulfur, that are absolutely all over the place. When God poured it down upon those cities, a lot of it fell into the Dead Sea and when you drop the ball into the Dead Sea, it will be extinguished. It washes up and then sediment covers it. By the way, you need to look up Joel Kramer and his Expedition Bible. He's got a video called "Sodom Burned - Zoar Did Not: the full story of the discovery of the Cities of the Plain." He's a colleague that works with our friends at Shepherd Seminary.

And prior to this God also used supernatural means to judge the Sodomites with blindness, you will recall, in Genesis 19. And he judged Egypt with all of the plagues that he poured out upon them during the time of the Exodus. He poured down fire consuming, murmuring Israelites in Numbers 11. We see that he caused the earth to swallow up Korah and his rebels in Numbers 16. We read about the fall of Jericho in Joshua six. We read about the Syrian army struck with blindness in Second King's six and on it goes.

And in the New Testament, we see how God's judgment was supernaturally poured out upon His Son, the Lord Jesus, on the cross. And at that moment, the veil was torn in two in the temple and the earth went dark from the hours of 12 o'clock, midday to three in the afternoon. There was a great earthquake; rocks were broken, tombs were opened, many dead saints were raised. And then of course, we see the resurrection of Christ. God is a God of wrath, a God that will judge. We saw that in the death of Ananias and Sapphira, that he killed in Acts five. And in Revelation, we read of the future judgments that will come upon the earth. And yet with all of this evidence, and I've mentioned just a few, people continue to mock, and they continue to scoff. And they will continue to do this until the waters rise. Peter also spoke of this in Second Peter three beginning in verse three. "Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.' For when they maintained this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men."

And dear friends, if you are a mocker, or a scoffer at these things, all I can say is that unless you humble your heart before a holy God and come to Christ in saving faith, you will continue to mock, because only he can give you eyes to see and ears to hear and soften your heart to the undeniable reality that God has, he is, and he will judge the earth to bring glory to his name.

And this also helps us understand some of the current events that are going on in the Middle East today, as we look at the virulent, irrational, antisemitism, that's sweeping across the world. We know as we've studied in the past, that this is a result of two things. Number one, Satan's hatred of God's chosen people. And because of that hatred, he deceives, and he empowers his followers to hate Jewish people, to remove Israel and all these types of things. And it's also a result of God's judgment on his chosen people, his beloved enemy, and all of this is going to ultimately lead to their salvation and national restoration. God made this abundantly clear in Deuteronomy 28, when he said that he would bless them for their obedience to his law and curse them for their disobedience. He promised that ultimately, he would bless those who bless them and curse those who curse them, Genesis 12 verse three. We know that prior to Christ's return, according to Bible prophecy that he would bring the people of Israel back into their land. And we saw that happen beginning in 1948, when Israel became a nation. He promised that they would once again have control of Jerusalem and that happened in 1967. That they would be surrounded by enemies, that they would become an "exceedingly great army" according to Ezekiel 37 and verse 10. He went on to say in Zechariah 12 and verse six, "I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem." And it's amazing, is it not, that despite the fact that they are outnumbered 50 plus to one, they continue to win every battle because of God's protection.

In a recent post from the quote, "Behold Israel" website, which I would encourage you to follow. Its founder is Amir Tsarfati, who is a native Israeli and a former Major in the IDF, who's also a born again believer and Bible teacher, he said this regarding the attack on Israel just the other day, "An Israeli scientists who works for the security system and is a doctor of physics, wrote the following words to his rabbi yesterday. Here's what he said, 'I wanted to share with the rabbi something that is much more than a feeling that on Shabbat night, something happened here on the scale of the splitting of the Red Sea. I am a Doctor of Physics and I worked for several years in the defense industry in Israel, and projects that are still the cutting edge of the State of Israel. When I look at what happened on Saturday night, on a scientific level, it simply cannot happen. Everyone, I mean, everyone acted as one man in overall unity.'" He continued "'The likelihood that everything works out just as it should does not exist in complex systems, like the defense systems that were operating. They never have, I mean, never even beyond the State of Israel, then tried in real time. I took a pencil and dove into the calculations to check the likelihood that such a result would materialize. The large number of events that had to be handled at precisely the right time doubles the chance of making a mistake. With all the high technologies, the expectations was for a breach in the defense of the skies of the State of Israel. Even if we got 90% protection, it would be a miracle. What happened though, is that everyone, I mean, everyone the pilots, the system operators, the technology operators, acted as one man, at one moment in total unity. If this is not an act of God, then I no longer know what a miracle is.'" And then the doctor marvels and adds this, "'This is sharper than the victory of the Six Day War, or the War of Independence. There it can be explained according to nature. The rescue that took place for the people of Israel on Shabbat night is simply impossible naturally. I believe that this miracle saved the lives of many people from Israel. If the defense system had failed to intercept a number of cruise missiles, the result would have dragged us into a very complex campaign. I wouldn't bet that next time it will work like this without divine supervision. The simple proof of what I said is that the managers of the security industries who develop and manufacture these systems guarantee no more than 90% success. '" Then he close saying, "'Since the day you came out of the land of Egypt, we have shown you wonderful things. ' And with that he ended his words." It's truly astonishing to see how God continues to protect Israel. But also, it's truly astonishing to see how the world is being made ready for the rule of the Antichrist even as God has promised, which will include horrific judgments upon the peoples of this world, including Israel, but will ultimately lead to their salvation and restoration.

And with this, we return to the pre-kingdom judgments that Jesus described in Matthew 13, an explanation of what's going to take place after the end of the age when the Lord returns and establishes His kingdom. And of course, there are parallel accounts in Matthew 24, and 25, and Luke 21, which add further details. Let me remind you of the context. What Jesus is saying here occurred on Wednesday evening of the Passion Week; he would be crucified on Friday. This was the final hours of Jewish rejection, as he's responding to the questions of his disciples. So now as Jesus leaves the temple precincts, and with his disciples, they make their way up the steep Mount of Olives. And that's why many times this is called the Olivet Discourse.

I've divided Jesus' lengthy answer into seven headings. And we've seen the first three, number one: the temples demolition, number two: the signs of the end, and number three: the prospect of persecution. And today we're going to look at the abomination of desolation. And following that we will look at the false Christ and prophets, the coming of the Son of Man and the warning to be prepared. With this, we come to our text in Mark 13 and verse 14. Jesus said this, "'But when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION standing, where it should not be, (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountain.'" Matthew's account puts it this way in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 15. "'Therefore, when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.'"

The little phrase "let the reader understand" is an indication that Jesus is not addressing his disciples or the current generation, but believers who would one day read these warnings in the pages of Scripture, and through that be able to understand what was coming upon them how to respond, and the glory that will follow.

Dave Harrell

"'When you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION'“ literally, the abomination which makes desolate, or causes desolation, or lays waste. The word abomination speaks of a detestable thing, an object of utter abhorrence; that which is repulsive. We see it used for example, in the Old Testament did it to describe moral abominations like bestiality, homosexuality, transgenderism, child sacrifice, and even occult practices, dishonest business practices, and so forth. And in the Septuagint, we see it used to describe cultic sacrilegious objects, paraphernalia and rites of wicked pagan worship. Things that are repulsive, that are vile, that are revolting, that desecrate a holy place. In fact, that term is used in Revelation 17, verses four and five to describe the great horror of the final apostasy that is called "'BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OFF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.'" That will be the ultimate ecumenical church that will exist. An enormous amalgam of apostate religious people led by the false prophet that deceives the world. So bottom line, abomination speaks of anything that offends the holiness of God and evokes His wrath.

So Jesus warns those, who will be alive in that day, when you see this abomination that causes desolation, standing in the holy place, which will be a reference to the temple as we see in Acts 21:18, Run for your life. Seek refuge.

Now, what is this abomination? What is this vile object? Well, Jesus gives us a hint. He says, it was that "'which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet.'" And we see this mentioned in Daniel's prophecies in Daniel chapter nine and verse 27, Daniel 11, and verse 31, and Daniel 12, and verse 11. Now, let me take you there for a moment, first of all, in Daniel 11. It's also immediately a clear reference to the hideous defilement of the temple by the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes the Fourth, who ruled Palestine as a surrogate of the Greek Empire, between 175 and 165 BC. And we see this in Daniel 11:21 through 35. And we know that Antiochus Epiphanes demanded to be called Theos Epiphanes, which means manifest God. We read from history that he slaughtered 1000s of Jewish men and sold wives and children into into slavery. He sacrificed a pig upon the altar, even forced the priests to eat the flesh of the most unclean of all animals. Worse yet, he erected an idol of Zeus in the temple. And he even considered himself to be the manifestation of Zeus. It's interesting that his enemies nicknamed him "Epimanes," rather than "Epiphanes," because Epimanes means madman or the insane one. And ironically, his inability to defeat the Jews, you will recall, led by Judas Maccabeus, actually drove him insane. And he died a madman in 165 BC.

But obviously, Jesus wasn't talking only about a past historical event, nor was Daniel, but something yet future. Daniel's prophecy of Antiochus Epiphanes was a preview of the ultimate abomination of desolation that would be committed by the Antichrist. Let me give you a little context in Daniel, where you will remember that Daniel was exiled in Babylonian captivity. In Daniel two he explained Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great statue and there God revealed to him the successive stages of Gentile world domination that would exist throughout world history: the Babylonians, the MedoPersians, the Grecians, the Romans, and then a revived Roman Empire that would eventually come. And finally, he revealed how the Messiah would defeat all of them and reconcile his covenant to people to Himself and reestablish them back into the land of promise. This is what we read in Daniel and many other prophetic books. And so he prays for his people. And in Daniel nine, two, he recalls the years of captivity that the Lord had prophesied through Jeremiah and 70 years; that time was almost over. So he implores the Lord to reestablish his beloved people back into the land of promise. And then God speaks to him through an Angel Gabriel in Daniel 9:24. And here's what he said, "'70 weeks,'" literally 70 sevens or 70 heptad which is units of seven that would be 70 years, "'have been decreed for your people and your holy city.'" And then he lists six goals. And by the way, the 70 sevens would be 490 years. And so he then lists six goals all yet to be fulfilled. Here's why that 70-week period must occur: "'to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.'" And hear God reveals the future far beyond and Antiochus, all the way to Antichrist. There must be 490 years of judgment that must occur before the six glorious objectives can be realized. And the next verse tells us when the clock would start ticking in verse 25. "'So you are to know and discern that from the issue of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks,'" that's 69 weeks or 483 years. "'It will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.'" And as promised, as we read in Nehemiah chapter two, King Artaxerxes, issued the decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem in 445 BC. Then, as God promised, seven weeks and 62 weeks, in other words, the 483 years elapsed until Messiah the Prince, the Lord Jesus Christ, passed through the multitudes and entered Jerusalem as their Messiah, precisely as Jesus predicted.

And then notice in verse 26, "'then after the 62 weeks,'" you add the seven weeks are total of 69 weeks, "'the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.'" Indeed, after the 62, sevens are 483 years, after that 69 weeks had begun, the Messiah was cut off and had nothing. It could be translated, literally no one, had no one. All of his followers abandon him, or they were arrested during his trial and crucifixion. And at that point, the 69 weeks were fulfilled. And then 43 years later, "'the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary,'" which is a clear reference to the Roman invasion in 70 ad. But it's important to note that all of this occurred before the final 70th week is even revealed in verse 27.

And then God reveals what's going to happen after the fall of Jerusalem. He says at the end of verse 26, "'And its end will come with a flood; even to the end, there will be war; desolations, or are determined.'" A more literal rendering could be "and the end of it will be in the overflowing, and unto the end, there will be war, a strict determination of desolations, or the determined amount of desolations." So you can see God is in charge of all of this. And I might add that there are undeniable parallels of Jesus' prediction in Matthew 24:7 through verse 22. So this refers to the entire intervening period before the final 70th week. And when we examine the content of verse 27, and other parallel passages, we must conclude that many years must transpire before verse 27.

We ultimately discover that the 70th week, occurs just prior to Christ's second coming. I believe that is the most compelling way of understanding these things. Therefore, a long period of war and desolations, verse 26, will be the fate of the covenant people, until the 70th week finally ushers in the kingdom. And indeed, this has been the history of the Jewish people from that day to the present, but then notice the events of the 70th week.

And once again now the prophetic texts sweeps Daniel from the near, to the distant future. He says in verse 27, "'And he.'" Now let's stop there. Hebrew grammar suggests that the subject of the verb is linked to the last eligible antecedent, namely, verse 26, "the prince who is to come, who will destroy the city and the sanctuary." Now because of the unheard, unrivaled, unparalleled events, described at the end of verse 27, or verse 26, and in verse 27, as well as other parallel passages, this cannot refer to the Roman ruler in ad 70. None of those types of things happened. So it'd be reasonable to assume that it refers to another ruler of a yet future Roman Empire, that we believe is the 10-horned beast of Daniel seven and Revelation 13, namely, the Antichrist.

Daniel 7:24, tells us that the Antichrist will rule a massive kingdom that will basically comprise the old Roman Empire. This will probably be a confederacy of a united Europe, that Daniel describes as a 10-nation empire. As a footnote, you will recall when we examined this battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 37, and 38, or 38, and 39. If that battle occurs before all of this, then bear in mind that the Islamic power base will be defeated, and a new world order will obviously emerge in order to maintain global stability. And this will probably be some kind of a NATO-like alliance of nations, which would account for the 10-nation empire that Daniel described. We can't be dogmatic, but that is plausible. But certainly this would provide the perfect scenario for the Antichrist to rise to power. However, we also know that he will eventually declare war on the 10 kings of that alliance, according to Daniel 11:44, through verse 45, and he will even kill three of them--Daniel 7:24, and Revelation 17, verses 12 through 13.

Now, back to Daniel 9:27. And the reason I'm taking you to Daniel, is because Jesus did that, to explain what he was saying. So we need to understand some of this. "'And he will make a firm covenant with the many,'" referring to the Antichrist. "'He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.'" I find it interesting. I did a lot of research on the word "wing." The "wing of abominations." The Hebrew term "kānāp" is the subject of many controversial explanations, and some of them are rather fanciful, but I agree with a number of Old Testament scholars including Randall Price, who suggests quote, "The kānāp or the wing, might suggest the location where the abomination of desolation is placed, that is, in the Holy of Holies, in relation to the winged cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant." Which I by add must be recreated since there is no indication that the original Ark will be discovered and be used. And you will recall in Second Thessalonians two and verse four, the Apostle Paul describes what will happen, that he will take "his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God." Moreover, in Psalm 80 and verse one and 99, in verse one, we read that the throne of the Lord in the tabernacle, and later on in the first temple was said to be, quote, seated above or between the cherubim. And whenever you look at any of the archaeological reliefs, we see kings seated on winged thrones. What better place for the Antichrist to desecrate and defile the temple and to usurp the throne of the LORD the God of Israel, than by seeding himself between the wings of the cherubim from above some facsimile of an ark in the Holy of Holies.

Commentator Frederick Tatford stated quote, "Evidently the audacious rebel will blasphemously take his seat in the sanctum sanctorum itself." Again, verse 27, "'He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week,'" in other words, the middle of that seven years, weeks of years is what he's talking about, "'he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate.'" So 69 weeks of judgment have elapsed, 483 years from the decree of Artaxerxes to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, but 70 weeks were decreed. There's one more heptad that still awaits; seven more years. And here in Daniel 9:27, we have the very text that Jesus refers to, as shall we say, the prophetic template, to be used to determine the chronological sequence of the beginning of birth pangs, as we read in Matthew 24, verses 15 and 16. And Mark 13 and verse 14. Which I also might add, correlates perfectly with the seal judgments in Revelation chapter four through six.

So all of that to say, here we get a glimpse of what will happen before Christ returns and what the saints of that day must look for and endure. This text describes a great deceiver will lure Israel into a protective agreement called a "firm covenant." And we know according to Revelation chapter six, and verse two, and following--we read about the sealed judgment--it will be in an era of unparalleled world peace, but it will be a great hoax; it will be the calm before a storm. We read how a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow, a bow with no arrows, implying probably some kind of diplomatic rather than a military victory; a peace sealed by a covenant, not by war. He also has a crown given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer. I believe a picture of the Antichrist; the one who will conquer the world in a bloodless triumph.

And given all that we are witnessing today, it's easy to understand why modern Israel would be interested in peace protection, right? In some kind of a covenant. I was thinking of this again, think about this. Israel today is the size of New Jersey about 9000 square miles. It's surrounded by 22 Arab countries that have 5 million square miles. 650 million people who are supported and aligned with a whole Muslim world consisting of over 1 billion people in an area twice the size of the United States; a region 672 times the size of miniscule Israel. Israel today has a population of 9.24 million people, and only 7.2 of them are Jews. It's interesting, they continue to grow every year. And yet we have antisemitism sweeping the nation, as it always has, sweeping the world. According to FLAME, which is "Facts and Logic About the Middle East," we find some things very interesting. I want to read this quote to you and it was written in 2005. Bear in mind, 2005. "The new anti Semites do not publicly proclaim their desire to bring about a second Holocaust, or to subject the Jews to mass murder or annihilation." Interesting, isn't it? They don't publicly do that. They didn't do that in 2005. They do today. It's very public here in the United States. They went on to say, "The hatred is aimed against the State of Israel, which according to the new anti Semites represents all that is evil in the world in which is the main violator of human rights and guilty of virtually every other abuse that can be conceived. This poison is now so widespread that a poll taken in Europe not too long ago found Israel to be the greatest menace to the peace of the world, far ahead of such murderous regimes as those of Iran or North Korea. The leaders and instigators of this new anti-semitism are concentrated on the political left. Its most active and vocal spokesman being found in our prestige universities, such as the anti-Zionist or anti-semitic focus of the left that almost incomprehensibly, it includes a fair number of Jewish professors and other intellectuals, not just here in the United States, but even in Israel itself. Those on the extreme left call for the abolition of the State of Israel outright, although they do not tell us what they propose to do with the 5 million Israeli Jews." It's 7.2 million now. "They would presumably be left to the tender mercies of the Arabs, who would, of course, have no greater joy than to emulate or perhaps even to improve on the Nazi model and to give final solution to the Jewish problem once and for all. That isn't going to happen. Of course, not because anybody in the world would lift a finger to prevent it, but because fortunately, Israel is a very strong and most capable nation." End quote. I would add that that is not the reason, the reason is because God is protecting them.

Daniel 9:27, "he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering.'" Obviously, a new temple has been built. And we know that today plans are our already made. You can even take a virtual tour of what they want to build, it will take less than a year to build it. But he will demand that their worship be stopped. And according to Revelation 12, verses seven through nine we see how Satan, at this time, and his minions will be cast to the earth in the middle of the seven years. And this will be infuriating to Satan, who now becomes even more desperate and more determined. And according to verse 12, he says "'Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.'" And so in Daniel 9:27, "'on the wing of abominations will come this one who will make desolate.'" And we know that in the middle of the week, three and a half years, this satanically empowered antichrist will seize the temple and betray the Jews, demand to be worshipped like his four runner Antiochus Epiphanes. And he will do this for 42 months according to Revelation 13 and verse five; the last half of the seven years. And this is the one pictured in Revelation 13, verses one and five as the beast that's coming up out of the sea, given quote, "a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months was given to him." In verse seven and following he says "it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him; everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain."

And what will he do that will be such an abomination? That will be so abhorrent in the eyes of God? Paul gives us insight here again in Second Thessalonians two verse three. It describes him as "the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god, or object of worship." And he says that he "takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God." Now, we know from Scripture that Satan has always wanted to be worshipped. He's always been jealous of God. And this is why he is so determined to deceive people through false religions, false messiahs, false teachers. He is the father of lies. And we read as well, in verses nine and 10, that he is "the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, so as to be this, so as to be saved." Now, the grammar that is used here indicates that this detestable thing that's going to be standing in the holy place will be some kind of a permanent image, probably of the Antichrist, that will be displayed there in the temple. And so this is the abomination of desolation, that Jesus refers to Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14.

As a footnote, in Daniel 12 and verse 11, we read "and from the time that the regular sacrifice faces abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1290 days." Now, it's interesting that's 30 days beyond the three and a half years. Revelation 12 and verse six indicates that this period of unprecedented persecution against Israel, and this great tribulation, as it's called, where God miraculously protects some of his people, last 1260 days. So what's going on here? Well, the additional 30 days of Daniel's prophecy is thought to account for the period of time between when the Lord descends upon the Mount of Olives, and you know that it will create the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The valley of decision that Joel describes; the time between that and his judgment of the nations, in Zechariah 14 verses four through five. Moreover, in Daniel 12, and verse 12, he even adds 45 more days that would seem to be a time to establish leadership throughout the glorious kingdom. So again, 1260 days of unprecedented tribulation. And then you have 30 days after the Lord's return until he judges the nations 45 more days to establish His kingdom around the world.

Now, if I can pause for just a moment, it is absolutely beyond me how anyone can spiritualize all of these precise number of days and get them to mean something that is inconsistent with the normal use of language, especially to try to squeeze all of these things into what happened in AD 70. That simply makes no sense whatsoever to me. Dear friends, make no mistake, the prophetic Scriptures are replete with descriptions of upcoming tribulation that will culminate in the end of man's reign upon the earth, and will inaugurate the reign of the one that we love and serve, the Lord Jesus Christ. The time of inconceivable calamities will one day encompass the world. But it will be a time where God will especially focus his attention on the on his people Israel.

Let me give you a few passages in closing this morning. Isaiah 10 verse 20 and following, "Now it will come about in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will return; a destruction is determined overflowing with righteousness." And the prophet Jeremiah says this, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God in chapter 30, beginning in verse 5, "For thus says the LORD, 'I have heard a sound of terror, of dread and there is no peace. Ask now, and see if a male can give birth. Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in childbirth, and why have all faces turned pale? '" This is describing suffering where people will be writhing in pain. He went on to say, "'Alas! for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob's distress, but he will be saved from it. And it shall come about on that day,' declares the LORD of hosts, 'that I will break his yoke from off their neck, and will tear off their bonds; and strangers shall no longer make them their slaves. But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.'"

Daniel the prophet likewise says in Daniel 12, beginning in verse one, "'Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a great time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time, your people, everyone who was found written in the book will be rescued.'"

The prophet Zechariah says in chapter 13, beginning in verse eight, "'It will come about in all the land,' declares the Lord, 'That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; but the third will be left in it. And I will bring the third part through fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say "They are My people," and they will say, "The LORD is my God." Behold, a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured and houses plundered, the women ravished and half the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.'" And so indeed, we see as Jesus promised, in Mark 13:14, "'When you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION standing where it should not be (let the reader understand) then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.'"

Dear friends, the world is being prepared for the rule of the Antichrist. According to Revelation 13, three, the "whole world was astonished and followed the beast." That's what's going to happen. I want to close with a true story. On June 7, 1967, in the final moments of the Arab Israeli Six Day War, the Jews finally repossessed the temple area for the first time in 1897 years. Israeli soldiers with tears in their eyes, even ran past their Arab enemies in the final assault, because they were driven with an insane with intense passion to be near the temple mount. Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi Shlomo Goren, stepped out of a half-track with a long black robe and he approached the Wailing Wall. And he sounded the shofar, calling his fellow Jews home. And he announced, quote, "The days of Messiah have begun." Many believe and have been taught that the generation that recovers the site must rebuild the temple. And Rabbi Mendel Lewis has stated, quote, "The rebuilding of the temple will be the acme of the redemption process." But also on that day, General, Moishe Dayan approached the Western Wall and here's what he said, "We have returned to our holiest of holy places, never to be parted from it again. We earnestly stretch out our hands to our Arab brethren in peace, but, we have returned to Jerusalem, never to depart from her again."

Beloved, while we would never want to use current events to interpret Bible prophecy, we would be fools not to see the miracle of modern Israel as at least a demonstration of divine preservation, if not a harbinger of the tribulation. I would submit to you on the basis of scripture that God is not finished with Israel. Isaiah 62:11 says, "Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth. Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Lo, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.'" Then he adds this, "and they will call them, 'The holy people, the redeemed of the LORD', and you will be called, 'Sought out, a city not forsaken.'"

I trust that these prophetic truths will impact your heart and help you to realize that again, God is a holy God. He will judge sin, he has a plan, he's working it perfectly. And if you do not know Christ as your Savior, one day you will know Him as your judge. And I plead with you not to let that happen. But to trust in Him even this day. Come to him in repentant faith and be saved. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. As always, I would plead with you to penetrate every heart with that which you would have them hear to understand more of who you are. To perhaps be reconciled to you and saving faith, or for those of us, who by your grace have been saved, for us to be more diligent and our desire to serve you in these last days. And to pray as you have asked, that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. We commit these things to you for the glory of Christ in whose name I pray. Amen.

We return again this morning to Mark's gospel. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there to Mark chapter 13. In a few minutes, we will be examining verses nine through 13 as we continue to understand Jesus prophetic discourse on the end of the age. This is actually part three of that series.

Of course, we're all aware of what's going on in the Middle East-- Iran's attack upon Israel, which is, frankly, evidence of liberal buffoonery that we see in our country and other places around the world. The idea that you can appease Islamic terrorists is insane. To think that you can somehow warm fuzzy these kinds of people into the civilized world is insane. And frankly, they have a faulty anthropology. They believe that man is more deprived than depraved. And if you just give him what he needs, then he will be a good person. Nothing could be further from the truth. And of course, this all points to the fact that the world is inexorably heading toward unprecedented conflict. Conflict consistent with the battle of Gog and Magog as we read in Ezekiel 38 and 39, where there will be an alliance of nations that will come upon Israel, and ultimately God will destroy them. Boy don't you get weary of all the evil in the world, every time you turn on the news, you just want to shake your head and turn it off and watch cartoons or something right? I mean, I long to see the name of the Lord vindicated. I am so tired of seeing him mocked and ridiculed. I long for that day, when true, social justice will be meted out by the only infinitely just and righteous God.

And we've been examining the signs that Jesus has given, predicting what will happen on the earth at the end of the age, just prior to his physical return to the earth. And you know, Jesus commanded us to pray in Matthew 16 "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." A technical point here, but it is significant--the Greek text is very revealing, in that in each of these petitions, the verb is not only in the emphatic position, but it is also what we call an aorist active imperative, noting that this will be a single instantaneous action. This is something that is going to explode upon the earth, something dramatic and glorious. This is not merely some spiritualized kingdom that already exists upon the earth. It's not something that's gradually going to appear over time. So we pray for that day when the glory of God will explode upon this earth and his kingdom will come, it will instantaneously burst forth; I long for that day. In fact, the godly and learned 19th century Hungarian Jewish convert to Christianity, and Presbyterian minister missionary by the name of Adolph Saphir, longed for this day to come as I do, and you do. And he stated that the kingdom of God must come quote "on Earth, where God has been denied and forgotten. Where his honor has been disregarded and His commandments have been transgressed; where nations and kingdoms instead of seeking His glory, and showing forth His praise, have not bowed to His authority and referenced His name. It is on earth, that the Lord shall reign, injustice, cruelty and war shall be banished, and instead of idolatry, selfishness and sin, the fear and love and beauty of God will be manifest."

And of course, the Old Testament prophets foretold of this day of Messianic glory, his rule upon the earth; a day when the historical theocracy of Israel would be restored to a perfect theocratic kingdom. A day when the coming King will, according to Isaiah nine, seven, "sit on the throne of David," and execute according to Jeremiah 33:15 "judgment and righteousness in the land." Can you imagine that? And this is consistent with God's covenant promises that cannot be broken, nor can they be transferred. As God declared in Jeremiah 33, beginning in verse 20, "Thus says the LORD, 'If you can break My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne." The prophet Amos said as well, in Amos nine and verse 11, "In that day, I will raise up the fallen booth of David and wall up its breaches. And I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old." And folks, this is why Satan and his minions are so hell bent on the genocide of Jewish people around the world, especially in Israel. This is why they're trying to take back the land from them. Of course, it's an embarrassment to them that somehow Yahweh is more powerful than Allah, right? That's a huge humiliation.

But we know biblically that the capital city of the Messianic Kingdom will be the city of Jerusalem. And according to Isaiah 24 in verse 23, the divine king "shall reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem." And there according to Isaiah 33 and verse 17, the people of the kingdom will, quote, "see the King in His beauty." And as the prophet Habakkuk said, in Habakkuk, two and verse 14, that will be the day when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." And eventually regenerated and restored Israel will enjoy the divine promises that were given to them, for example, the one in Ezekiel 37, beginning in verse 25, "'They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons' sons, forever; and David, My servant, will be their prince forever." A reference to the Lord Jesus - "I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. And the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forever.'" Aren't you glad you know the end of the story, right?

Most Jewish people today are practical atheists. I have many friends in that camp. I grew up with many Jewish people. And those who are religious, do not worship the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. We understand this from Scripture; they are currently, what we could say, as God's beloved enemy. The Apostle Paul understood this, and he wrote in Romans 11, beginning in verse 25, that a "partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.'" From the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies, for your sake..." speaking to Gentiles, "but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved, for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." And Satan is frantically and brilliantly, trying to thwart the purposes of God, to these ends, and naturally, the New Testament underscores the same promise of a mediatorial kingdom - an intermediate Kingdom - between the end of human history and the eternal state, which will be the millennial kingdom, the kingdom on earth where Christ will reign.

We see this for example, in the witness of the angel, announcing Jesus’ birth to Mary, remember Luke 1:31. This is what he said, "'And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.'" Now let me pause there. That was fulfilled literally, we know that. And when interpreted in its natural, normal sense, the rest of the statement should also be interpreted literally as well. He goes on to say, "'and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father, David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.'" Only some form of theological prejudice would justify a spiritualized interpretation of that passage of scripture. The promise to Mary cannot be limited to some kind of a spiritual kingdom that only exists in the hearts of men; even though there is an element of that that is very true; but rather it reflects the political connotations of the historic theocracy of Israel that the prophets described at length in the Old Testament.

And this, of course, is also consistent with Jesus' promise to his disciples, remember, in Matthew 19 and verse 28, this is what he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." No wonder the very well instructed followers of Jesus persistently questioned Him after His resurrection. As we read in Acts one six, saying, "'Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom?'" And while he went on to make it clear that it wasn't for them to know the time, he did not correct their assumption that the restoration of the kingdom of Israel would be certain. And later Peter understood this, as recorded in Acts three and verse 21, that Christ must remain in heaven. He says, quote, "until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time."

So therefore, like the early apostles whom Jesus sent out to proclaim the kingdom of God, Luke nine and verse two, we do the same, we do the same. Now to be sure, the kingdom of God is the all-encompassing and unifying theme of Scripture. And this will be ultimately the outworking of God's unilateral, unconditional, irreversible, irrevocable covenants through which his kingdom will come that God made to his people. That would include the Noahic Covenant of Genesis six and nine, the Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 12, and 17, as well as the priestly covenant that we read about in Numbers 25, the Davidic Covenant that we read about in First Samuel, or Second Samuel chapter seven, and of course, the New Covenant that we read about in Jeremiah 31. And therefore, the very last chapter of the Bible, in Revelation 22, verses three and verses five, we read the final rule of God, and the Lamb and God's people ruling upon a new earth. And there the text says, "There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and His bondservants will serve Him...and they will reign forever and ever."

But, prior to all of this, great judgment is coming upon the earth, as the scriptures make very clear. Judgments that will come upon Israel, as well as the nations of the world consistent with, for example, Daniel's 70th week promises. And beginning here in Mark's gospel, few weeks ago, we started here in Mark 13 and verse five, Jesus describes certain signs that will appear upon the earth before he returns. Six specific signs, which he calls "birth pangs," according to Mark 13 and verse eight. And these are going to occur just before his appearing. You will recall they include false messiahs, nations at war, natural disasters of epic proportions, and we've already covered those three. And now today we will look at the last three: persecution of tribulation saints, mass evangelism and defection of, and betrayal by, false believers.

Now bear in mind while all of these things have existed throughout the course of redemptive history in various ways; they merely foreshadow what will come upon the earth during the time of the tribulation. These will be events of far greater severity, and frequency and scope. So let's look at now the fourth sign of his coming that Jesus gives: persecution of tribulation saints. And we read about this in verse nine of Mark 13. "'But be on your guard;'" Jesus says, "'For they will deliver you to the courts.'" By the way, courts is literally "sanhedrins" which would describe local Jewish courts attached to synagogues. "'They will deliver you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them.'" Now, we know that Jesus has warned in other places about this kind of persecution against Christians. We can read about it, for example, in Matthew 10, verses 16 and 17. And we know in the upper room when Jesus was with his disciples, in John 16, beginning in verse two, he said this, "'They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.'" And of course, we've seen elements of this again down through history, some of them are recorded in the New Testament. We think of the story of John the Baptist and Stephen and the Apostle Paul, and of course, the Lord Jesus Himself. In fact, Paul said in Second Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 24, "Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods." If you could have seen the Apostle Paul's chest and back, it would look like spaghetti. We know of the governors that are recorded in the New Testament, Pontius Pilate, Felix, Festus, and kings like Herod Agrippa the First in Acts 12, Herod Agrippa the Second in Acts 25, and even Herod Antipas that beheaded John the Baptist; all examples of wicked rulers who hated Christ and all who belong to Him.

But folks think about this, what will it be like when the Antichrist helps the Jews build their next temple in Jerusalem? After making a covenant with them. The Islamic rule in the world will have been defeated in the battle of Gog and Magog. The Jewish people will be ecstatic, they will think that now the kingdom has arrived. This will be a season of national revival, a regathering of Jewish people from among the nations. And at that point, they will have zero tolerance for any kind of a Christian witness. Despite the many Jews and Gentiles that will come to faith in Christ during that period. And no doubt, the world will rejoice at the removal of the church and the rapture--the snatching away. And yet, now, they will say my goodness, here they are, again. People following after this Jesus of Nazareth. One can only imagine the bit bizarre explanations that will be given to explain that supernatural event; explanations that will somehow tickle the ears of those who are confused in that godless world. And remember, the end of the age is going to be characterized by unparallel deception. Paul describes the Antichrist in Second Thessalonians two beginning in verse nine, as "the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness."

We see elements of that today, do we not? People that are completely deluded. Many things are tantamount to two plus two is five. And no matter what you say, that's what they see. And for this reason, every man, woman and child who will profess the Lord Jesus Christ during the Tribulation will be hated by all, especially those in the unbelieving Jewish community. In Revelation six, beginning in verse nine, we are given a little glimpse of the fate, and the mournful prayer of the saints who will be martyred in that day. There we read, "When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' And that was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also." And folks, we shouldn't be surprised if much of the same treatment comes upon us, before these days arrive. In fact, suffering and mistreatment have always been the experience of the redeemed. And Paul told Timothy about this, remember in Second Timothy, chapter three and verse 12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

So, Jesus gives these signs in answer to his disciples who are questioning him; there's going to be false messiahs, nations that war, natural disasters of epic proportions, persecution of tribulation saints. And then he says in verse 10, "'the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.'" And this brings us to our fifth sign, the fifth birth pang--that of mass evangelism. Now, this is absolutely astounding. If you understand the context, let me give you a few thoughts in that regard. We know that the final world system will be ruled by a demon possessed man, the Antichrist. He will be according to Scripture, a brilliant man with captivating charisma that is able to deceive the world. And we're told that he will blaspheme God and lead others to do the same. In fact, the whole drama of the apocalypse is the vicious beast trying to destroy the Lamb. But we also know biblically that during the time of the tribulation, unparalleled wickedness and death will appear upon the earth. And in that time, we read that God is going to raise up 144,000 gospel preachers from every tribe of the sons of Israel, Revelation seven and verse four. Now, why is he going to do this? To fulfill what Jesus promised in Mark 13 and verse 10, "the gospel must be preached to all the nations." We also know that God is going to raise up two supernaturally empowered gospel preachers, the two witnesses, we read about this in Revelation 11 and verse three says, "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy." It doesn't mean foretell, it means to forth tell, "'they will preach the gospel for 1260 days, clothed and sackcloth.'" Now, there's much speculation regarding the identity of these two witnesses. We can't be dogmatic, but the most compelling evidence points to the actual Moses and Elijah, as I have preached before, in other passages, verse five of Revelation 11. "And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies and if anyone would desire to harm them in this manner, he must be killed." So by implication, many are going to want to harm them. And later we know that the beast, the Antichrist, is going to overcome them, and their dead bodies, the text says, will "lie in the street of the great city.... for three and a half days." The world is going to celebrate their demise; these gospel preachers, these morons, these idiots are finally gone. And then verse 11, of Revelation 11, we read, and "after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came unto them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were beholding them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them." Now, why would God allow all of this to happen? The answer is simple. Because the Gospel must first be preached to all the nations, as Jesus promised.

And according to Revelation 13, we know that soon after this, the Antichrist is going to fake his death and resurrection to further deceive the world into following him. Revelation 13, beginning of verse seven, "It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain." And we know that it is in that context, that another character will arise that is called the False Prophet. He comes on the scene, he is called "the second beast," "the one out of the earth" in Revelation 13. Now bear in mind, the Antichrist is going to be a political and military leader, but the False Prophet is going to be a religious leader, and he too will be controlled by a powerful demon. Think about it, even as the rulers of Rome once to control the masses politically, they also did so religiously, and Satan is going to continue to use the strategy as he has down through recorded history. And this will be manifested in the rule of the Antichrist and the False Prophet. And as we study the various passages, we see that the False Prophet is going to assist the Antichrist by forming the final false church; a great amalgam, religious amalgam called "the great horror" of Revelation 17. And we know that the False Prophet will basically be a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit, he will be able to perform mighty wonders and point unceasingly at the beast, even as the Holy Spirit points unceasingly to Christ. And frankly, the False Prophet will make up the third person in the unholy trinity. Satan is always creating counterfeits, and the unholy trinity will consist of Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet. And according to Revelation 13 and verse 11 and following, we read how he is going to deceive the inhabitants of the earth with signs that he has given to perform in the presence of the beast. And of course, the unregenerate are already easily deceived. If you're here today, and you've never come to saving faith in Christ, you are easily deceived. You not only believe your own lies, but the lies of the world and the Word of God is foolishness to you. And this will be even more so in that day; they will be easily deceived. We read about the unregenerate, those apart from Christ, their foolish heart is darkened, right? Satan blinds the minds of the unbelieving, and so forth. And we read about this in Revelation 13, beginning in verse 14, "and he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image of the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life."

So, you have a fake resurrection from the dead. "And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the freemen and the slaves, to be given a mark on the right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name." Now think about this, notwithstanding all this militant unbelief, all of this deception, many converted Jews and Gentiles are going to stand defiantly against the Antichrist, and refuse to take the mark of the beast. And in so doing, their testimony will once again fulfill what Jesus has promised in our text here, in Mark 13 and verse 10, "The gospel must first be preached to all the nations."

So, think about the context, God will provide 144,000 Jewish missionaries, he will provide two witnesses, new converts, and if that isn't enough, he is going to dispatch angelic evangelists. We see this for example, in Revelation 14, beginning in verse six, "And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.' And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine, of the passion of her immorality. Then another angel, a third one, followed them saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.'" Now, why all of this witness? Why all of this proclamation? The answer is simple. Because "the Gospel must first be preached to all the nations," as Jesus promised.

So, on the earth, there will be unimaginable chaos and deception and suffering and death. Again, think of the unfolding judgments in the Apocalypse, that will cause even man, all of mankind to cry out for the mountains and rocks, according to Revelation six, verse 16, to "'Fall on us, hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" In this context, we read how there will be demonic hordes that are released to torment the inhabitants of the earth causing men according to Revelation nine, six, "to seek death, but will not find it, they will long to die, but death will elude to them." So despite all of the horror, the deception, the group think, the threat of death, the gospel is going to be preached to all the nations.

I might also add that here we see God's covenant people beginning to fulfill the role for which they were intended. Genesis 22:18, God said, "'In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.'" Exodus 19 verse six, "'You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.'" You see, Israel was to be a witness nation of the Lord our God. They were to be the custodians of divine truth. And during Daniel's 70th judgment, many are going to finally join in that mission. We read a little of this in Isaiah 43, beginning in verse nine, "All the nations have gathered together so that the peoples may be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified, or let them hear and say 'It is true.' 'You are My witnesses,' declares the Lord, 'And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me.'"

And do you realize that this kind of praise is even going to continue into the millennium, according to Joel two and verse 28, "'It will come about that after this I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions.'" But even during the time of the tribulation, the gospel is going to go forth for. Why? Because this is God's sovereign plan. Because as Jesus said, "the gospel must first be preached to all the nations." And to think that it will be preached in that kind of chaos and horror. O Child of God, never be ashamed of the gospel. Never underestimate the power of the gospel. Many of your family members and your friends, and the majority of the world will laugh at you. But you continue to preach it because the word of God will either harden or soften hearts. And God will absolutely save those that he has set his love upon. And in this we can rejoice. Never forget that Christ promised "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." And although the world may will overpower us, it will not overpower his church.

And for this reason, Jesus warns the saints during the time of the tribulation, in Mark 13, verse nine, "'But be on your guard; for they will deliver you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them.'" And then he goes on to offer a marvelous word of encouragement that we would all do well to remember notice in verse 11, he says, "'When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say, whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.'" Perhaps you're like me, there's been times when I've thought that a day may come when I face death, because of my love for Christ. And I'm comforted to know that I don't have to worry about what I'm going to say because the Spirit of God is going to help me say what needs to be said. Isn't that a marvelous thought? And that's what we're saying here. And certainly, down through redemptive history, we've witnessed the power of the Spirit of God in his people as they face martyrdom. I mean, think of Peter and John who proclaim the truth of the gospel to the Sanhedrin, when they were arrested in Acts four. Think of the courage of Stephen, who gave a bold testimony before the Jewish Council, and even as he was being stoned as we read about in Acts seven. I think of the apostle Paul, who gave unflinching proclamations before governors and kings. In fact, he told Timothy in Second Timothy four beginning in verse 17, "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. So that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. "Then he says this, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen."

I wish to draw your attention to another example of how the Spirit of God empowered various men and women for that matter, in the face of martyrdom. And here I use an example of which I've written about in my book Warrior Preachers, regarding Spirit empowered, warrior field preachers of Scotland. I was fascinated with this because my ancestry hails from that area. So, I've written this, "Redemptive history records many such men, including the young" quote, "field preachers. Who under the threat of fine and imprisonment, of torture or death, preach the gospel in Scotland during the dreadful years of persecution between 1663 and 1688. Because of the edicts of King Charles Second of England, they were forbidden to proclaim a decidedly Calvinistic soteriology that extolled the doctrines of grace. Though thoroughly biblical, their teachings were considered to be hostile to the doctrines of Pelagianism and Arminianism that ultimately developed into Deism and indifferentism. Doctrinal errors that dominate American evangelicalism today. During that dreadful season of persecution--that also may be our fate in the coming years of American tyranny--the 19th century historian and theologian William Blakey wrote this in his monumental work "The preachers of Scotland, from the sixth to the 19th century." Here's what he said, 'The wildest efforts were made by the bishops and their friends to put down conventicle.'" Conventicle was an unlawful religious assembly. "'Grievous fines were imposed on men of property who might attend to them. To harbor a preacher or to help them in any way exposed one either to a heavy fine or to imprisonment; perchance with the boot and thumbscrew.'" The boot and thumbscrew were instruments of torture, possibly even to death. "'The preacher with a great price on his head had no certain dwelling place, and where there was no friendly cottage to shelter him, had to wonder about in wild lonely places, sleeping in woods and caves, often cold and wet and hungry, wracked by rheumatism or prostrated by dysentery. Glad if he could succeed in keeping his pocket Bible dry. And not so much as dreaming of the luxury of books or of a quiet room for study. These were considered the warrior preachers of Scotland. Men like,'" and this is my example to you, ''James Renwick, who was captured, tortured and hung at the Grassmarket of Edinburgh on 17 February 1688. He was a man like many who refuse to bow to the demonic edicts of a Stuart King, and the apostate Christianity he forced upon his subjects through his own tyranny, and that of the phony religionists that served him. In his timeless work, "Fair sunshine: character studies of the Scottish Covenanters" Jock Purves records, the final minutes of this warrior preacher, who was strong and courageous to the end.'" Now what I'm about to read is an example of the Spirit of God empowering one of his own, in the face of certain death. "'By the side of the scaffold, a curate said, 'Own our King and we shall pray for you. 'He answered, 'I will have none of your prayers. I have come to bear my testimony against you and such as you are.' The curate persisted, 'Own our King and pray for him, whatever you say against us.' And Renwick replied, 'I will discourse no more with you. I am within a little to appear before him who is King of Kings and Lord of lords, who shall pour shame, contempt and confusion upon all the kings of the earth who have not ruled for him.' While the drums beat out their wild disharmony, he magnified and blessed the Lord in singing from the 103 Psalm, and in reading his last chapter, Revelation 19. Amid all the din, his manly voice thrilled with rapturous faith, as he read the words, quote, 'He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.' To prayer he went, again, while the drums continued their deafening, earthbound thunder, and was heard of him in heaven, his dwelling place. The harsh order was given to him to go to the death ladder. He climbed up and prayed again, being heard to say, quote, 'Lord, I die in the faith that thou wilt not leave Scotland, but that thou will to make the blood of thy witness the seed of thy church, and return again to be glorious in our land. And now, Lord, I am ready. The bride, the Lamb's wife, hath made herself ready.' The blinding napkin was tied about his face. And he spoke to his friend close by his side saying, quote, 'Farewell. Be diligent and duty, make your peace with God through Christ. There is a great trial coming. As to the remnant I leave, I have committed them to God. Tell them for me not to weary nor be discouraged and maintaining the testimony of the Lord will provide you teachers and ministers. And when He comes, He will make these despised truths glorious in the earth.' His last words were, 'Lord into the hands I commend my spirit. For thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of truth.' And at that the hangman turned him over.'" Oh, dear Christian, never underestimate the power of the Spirit, even in the face of death should it come your way.

The sixth sign that we will close with this morning is defection of and betrayal by, false believers. And here Jesus warns about the unparalleled persecution of the tribulation saints. He says in verse 12, "'Brother will betray brother to death and the father, his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.'" Amazing, isn't it, even those who should love us the most will turn against us. And many of you have and are experiencing that right now. Verse 13, '"You will be hated by all because of My name.'" Matthew records it this way in Matthew 24, beginning in verse nine, "'Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.'" Jesus said in John seven, seven, that "'the world hates me because I testify of it, that it's deeds are evil.'" See, people don't want to hear that they don't want to hear the gospel. Matthew went on to record what Jesus said at that time, "'many will fall away,'" literally to disbelieve permanently or finally. In other words, these will be phony Christians in that day. "They went out from us, because they were never a part of us," as we read in First John 2:19. And he says, "'they will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and mislead many because lawlessness is increased.'" Meaning that it's going to grow great in amount. You think it's bad now, it'd be far worse then. And he said, "'most people's love will grow cold.'" Foremost commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. And then secondly, to love our neighbor as ourself. And as that love for God and neighbor is extinguished, betrayal of loved ones will be much easier. Even as Judas betrayed the family of the 12 in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But then the Lord says this at the end of verse 13, "'but the one who endures to the end he will be saved.'" Now this isn't a works righteousness statement, but rather perseverance is the fruit, not the root of genuine salvation. Jesus said in John 8:31, "'If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.'" And this of course, is the work of the Holy Spirit in the redeemed. And for this reason, James would say in James one beginning of verse to "Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces," not apostasy, but "endurance. And let endurance have its perfect results so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Dear friends, remember that God uses the fires of testing, to burn off the impurities that draw us that is a part of our faith, and to temper the steel of our faith that we might be useful for the sake of the kingdom. And like Job, those whom God saves will stay saved, come what may, because of the power of God that is within them.

For this reason, Paul said in Second Timothy 4:18, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever, amen." And because of this, the Apostle Paul could say in Romans eight beginning in verse 30, "These whom He predestined, He also called; and these He called He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified." And he went on to say, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" He went on to add, "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And when we understand these great doctrinal truths, and we embrace them wholeheartedly, by the power of the Spirit, no matter what the trial, we will be able to sing the lyrics of the hymn that was written in the days of the warrior preachers in Scotland. The words of a hymn "What God ordains is always Good” written by Samuel Rodigast in 1675. I'm just going to close with the last three stanzas. "What God ordains is always good; He is my Friend and Father. His hand protects from every harm, though many storms may gather. Now I may know both joy and woe; someday I shall see clearly that He has loved me dearly. What God ordains is always good. This truth remains unshaken. Tho' sorrow, need or death be mine, I shall not be forsaken. I fear no harm, for with His arm, He shall embrace and shield me; so to my God, I yield me."

Oh, dear friend, I hope you know Christ as Savior. If you don't, I plead with you as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you come to him this day in repented faith, and trust in Him as your only hope of salvation, lest you perish in your sins. And for those of us who know and love Christ, may we celebrate him all the more as we contemplate not only what he has done for us, and what he is currently doing for us, but what will happen when he returns and fulfills all of his promises. Oh, what a day that will be, amen? Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. May they penetrate our hearts in such a way as to cause us to bow before your presence in abject humility and thanksgiving because of the hope that is ours in Christ, may we all rejoice. So, we commit your word and all that you will do with it, to you, for the sake of Jesus, Amen.We return again this morning to Mark's gospel. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there to Mark chapter 13. In a few minutes, we will be examining verses nine through 13 as we continue to understand Jesus prophetic discourse on the end of the age. This is actually part three of that series.

Of course, we're all aware of what's going on in the Middle East-- Iran's attack upon Israel, which is, frankly, evidence of liberal buffoonery that we see in our country and other places around the world. The idea that you can appease Islamic terrorists is insane. To think that you can somehow warm fuzzy these kinds of people into the civilized world is insane. And frankly, they have a faulty anthropology. They believe that man is more deprived than depraved. And if you just give him what he needs, then he will be a good person. Nothing could be further from the truth. And of course, this all points to the fact that the world is inexorably heading toward unprecedented conflict. Conflict consistent with the battle of Gog and Magog as we read in Ezekiel 38 and 39, where there will be an alliance of nations that will come upon Israel, and ultimately God will destroy them. Boy don't you get weary of all the evil in the world, every time you turn on the news, you just want to shake your head and turn it off and watch cartoons or something right? I mean, I long to see the name of the Lord vindicated. I am so tired of seeing him mocked and ridiculed. I long for that day, when true, social justice will be meted out by the only infinitely just and righteous God.

And we've been examining the signs that Jesus has given, predicting what will happen on the earth at the end of the age, just prior to his physical return to the earth. And you know, Jesus commanded us to pray in Matthew 16 "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." A technical point here, but it is significant--the Greek text is very revealing, in that in each of these petitions, the verb is not only in the emphatic position, but it is also what we call an aorist active imperative, noting that this will be a single instantaneous action. This is something that is going to explode upon the earth, something dramatic and glorious. This is not merely some spiritualized kingdom that already exists upon the earth. It's not something that's gradually going to appear over time. So we pray for that day when the glory of God will explode upon this earth and his kingdom will come, it will instantaneously burst forth; I long for that day. In fact, the godly and learned 19th century Hungarian Jewish convert to Christianity, and Presbyterian minister missionary by the name of Adolph Saphir, longed for this day to come as I do, and you do. And he stated that the kingdom of God must come quote "on Earth, where God has been denied and forgotten. Where his honor has been disregarded and His commandments have been transgressed; where nations and kingdoms instead of seeking His glory, and showing forth His praise, have not bowed to His authority and referenced His name. It is on earth, that the Lord shall reign, injustice, cruelty and war shall be banished, and instead of idolatry, selfishness and sin, the fear and love and beauty of God will be manifest."

And of course, the Old Testament prophets foretold of this day of Messianic glory, his rule upon the earth; a day when the historical theocracy of Israel would be restored to a perfect theocratic kingdom. A day when the coming King will, according to Isaiah nine, seven, "sit on the throne of David," and execute according to Jeremiah 33:15 "judgment and righteousness in the land." Can you imagine that? And this is consistent with God's covenant promises that cannot be broken, nor can they be transferred. As God declared in Jeremiah 33, beginning in verse 20, "Thus says the LORD, 'If you can break My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne." The prophet Amos said as well, in Amos nine and verse 11, "In that day, I will raise up the fallen booth of David and wall up its breaches. And I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old." And folks, this is why Satan and his minions are so hell bent on the genocide of Jewish people around the world, especially in Israel. This is why they're trying to take back the land from them. Of course, it's an embarrassment to them that somehow Yahweh is more powerful than Allah, right? That's a huge humiliation.

But we know biblically that the capital city of the Messianic Kingdom will be the city of Jerusalem. And according to Isaiah 24 in verse 23, the divine king "shall reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem." And there according to Isaiah 33 and verse 17, the people of the kingdom will, quote, "see the King in His beauty." And as the prophet Habakkuk said, in Habakkuk, two and verse 14, that will be the day when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." And eventually regenerated and restored Israel will enjoy the divine promises that were given to them, for example, the one in Ezekiel 37, beginning in verse 25, "'They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons' sons, forever; and David, My servant, will be their prince forever." A reference to the Lord Jesus - "I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. And the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forever.'" Aren't you glad you know the end of the story, right?

Most Jewish people today are practical atheists. I have many friends in that camp. I grew up with many Jewish people. And those who are religious, do not worship the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. We understand this from Scripture; they are currently, what we could say, as God's beloved enemy. The Apostle Paul understood this, and he wrote in Romans 11, beginning in verse 25, that a "partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.'" From the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies, for your sake..." speaking to Gentiles, "but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved, for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." And Satan is frantically and brilliantly, trying to thwart the purposes of God, to these ends, and naturally, the New Testament underscores the same promise of a mediatorial kingdom - an intermediate Kingdom - between the end of human history and the eternal state, which will be the millennial kingdom, the kingdom on earth where Christ will reign.

We see this for example, in the witness of the angel, announcing Jesus’ birth to Mary, remember Luke 1:31. This is what he said, "'And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.'" Now let me pause there. That was fulfilled literally, we know that. And when interpreted in its natural, normal sense, the rest of the statement should also be interpreted literally as well. He goes on to say, "'and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father, David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.'" Only some form of theological prejudice would justify a spiritualized interpretation of that passage of scripture. The promise to Mary cannot be limited to some kind of a spiritual kingdom that only exists in the hearts of men; even though there is an element of that that is very true; but rather it reflects the political connotations of the historic theocracy of Israel that the prophets described at length in the Old Testament.

And this, of course, is also consistent with Jesus' promise to his disciples, remember, in Matthew 19 and verse 28, this is what he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." No wonder the very well instructed followers of Jesus persistently questioned Him after His resurrection. As we read in Acts one six, saying, "'Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom?'" And while he went on to make it clear that it wasn't for them to know the time, he did not correct their assumption that the restoration of the kingdom of Israel would be certain. And later Peter understood this, as recorded in Acts three and verse 21, that Christ must remain in heaven. He says, quote, "until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time."

So therefore, like the early apostles whom Jesus sent out to proclaim the kingdom of God, Luke nine and verse two, we do the same, we do the same. Now to be sure, the kingdom of God is the all-encompassing and unifying theme of Scripture. And this will be ultimately the outworking of God's unilateral, unconditional, irreversible, irrevocable covenants through which his kingdom will come that God made to his people. That would include the Noahic Covenant of Genesis six and nine, the Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 12, and 17, as well as the priestly covenant that we read about in Numbers 25, the Davidic Covenant that we read about in First Samuel, or Second Samuel chapter seven, and of course, the New Covenant that we read about in Jeremiah 31. And therefore, the very last chapter of the Bible, in Revelation 22, verses three and verses five, we read the final rule of God, and the Lamb and God's people ruling upon a new earth. And there the text says, "There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and His bondservants will serve Him...and they will reign forever and ever."

But, prior to all of this, great judgment is coming upon the earth, as the scriptures make very clear. Judgments that will come upon Israel, as well as the nations of the world consistent with, for example, Daniel's 70th week promises. And beginning here in Mark's gospel, few weeks ago, we started here in Mark 13 and verse five, Jesus describes certain signs that will appear upon the earth before he returns. Six specific signs, which he calls "birth pangs," according to Mark 13 and verse eight. And these are going to occur just before his appearing. You will recall they include false messiahs, nations at war, natural disasters of epic proportions, and we've already covered those three. And now today we will look at the last three: persecution of tribulation saints, mass evangelism and defection of, and betrayal by, false believers.

Now bear in mind while all of these things have existed throughout the course of redemptive history in various ways; they merely foreshadow what will come upon the earth during the time of the tribulation. These will be events of far greater severity, and frequency and scope. So let's look at now the fourth sign of his coming that Jesus gives: persecution of tribulation saints. And we read about this in verse nine of Mark 13. "'But be on your guard;'" Jesus says, "'For they will deliver you to the courts.'" By the way, courts is literally "sanhedrins" which would describe local Jewish courts attached to synagogues. "'They will deliver you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them.'" Now, we know that Jesus has warned in other places about this kind of persecution against Christians. We can read about it, for example, in Matthew 10, verses 16 and 17. And we know in the upper room when Jesus was with his disciples, in John 16, beginning in verse two, he said this, "'They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.'" And of course, we've seen elements of this again down through history, some of them are recorded in the New Testament. We think of the story of John the Baptist and Stephen and the Apostle Paul, and of course, the Lord Jesus Himself. In fact, Paul said in Second Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 24, "Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods." If you could have seen the Apostle Paul's chest and back, it would look like spaghetti. We know of the governors that are recorded in the New Testament, Pontius Pilate, Felix, Festus, and kings like Herod Agrippa the First in Acts 12, Herod Agrippa the Second in Acts 25, and even Herod Antipas that beheaded John the Baptist; all examples of wicked rulers who hated Christ and all who belong to Him.

But folks think about this, what will it be like when the Antichrist helps the Jews build their next temple in Jerusalem? After making a covenant with them. The Islamic rule in the world will have been defeated in the battle of Gog and Magog. The Jewish people will be ecstatic, they will think that now the kingdom has arrived. This will be a season of national revival, a regathering of Jewish people from among the nations. And at that point, they will have zero tolerance for any kind of a Christian witness. Despite the many Jews and Gentiles that will come to faith in Christ during that period. And no doubt, the world will rejoice at the removal of the church and the rapture--the snatching away. And yet, now, they will say my goodness, here they are, again. People following after this Jesus of Nazareth. One can only imagine the bit bizarre explanations that will be given to explain that supernatural event; explanations that will somehow tickle the ears of those who are confused in that godless world. And remember, the end of the age is going to be characterized by unparallel deception. Paul describes the Antichrist in Second Thessalonians two beginning in verse nine, as "the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness."

We see elements of that today, do we not? People that are completely deluded. Many things are tantamount to two plus two is five. And no matter what you say, that's what they see. And for this reason, every man, woman and child who will profess the Lord Jesus Christ during the Tribulation will be hated by all, especially those in the unbelieving Jewish community. In Revelation six, beginning in verse nine, we are given a little glimpse of the fate, and the mournful prayer of the saints who will be martyred in that day. There we read, "When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' And that was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also." And folks, we shouldn't be surprised if much of the same treatment comes upon us, before these days arrive. In fact, suffering and mistreatment have always been the experience of the redeemed. And Paul told Timothy about this, remember in Second Timothy, chapter three and verse 12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

So, Jesus gives these signs in answer to his disciples who are questioning him; there's going to be false messiahs, nations that war, natural disasters of epic proportions, persecution of tribulation saints. And then he says in verse 10, "'the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.'" And this brings us to our fifth sign, the fifth birth pang--that of mass evangelism. Now, this is absolutely astounding. If you understand the context, let me give you a few thoughts in that regard. We know that the final world system will be ruled by a demon possessed man, the Antichrist. He will be according to Scripture, a brilliant man with captivating charisma that is able to deceive the world. And we're told that he will blaspheme God and lead others to do the same. In fact, the whole drama of the apocalypse is the vicious beast trying to destroy the Lamb. But we also know biblically that during the time of the tribulation, unparalleled wickedness and death will appear upon the earth. And in that time, we read that God is going to raise up 144,000 gospel preachers from every tribe of the sons of Israel, Revelation seven and verse four. Now, why is he going to do this? To fulfill what Jesus promised in Mark 13 and verse 10, "the gospel must be preached to all the nations." We also know that God is going to raise up two supernaturally empowered gospel preachers, the two witnesses, we read about this in Revelation 11 and verse three says, "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy." It doesn't mean foretell, it means to forth tell, "'they will preach the gospel for 1260 days, clothed and sackcloth.'" Now, there's much speculation regarding the identity of these two witnesses. We can't be dogmatic, but the most compelling evidence points to the actual Moses and Elijah, as I have preached before, in other passages, verse five of Revelation 11. "And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies and if anyone would desire to harm them in this manner, he must be killed." So by implication, many are going to want to harm them. And later we know that the beast, the Antichrist, is going to overcome them, and their dead bodies, the text says, will "lie in the street of the great city.... for three and a half days." The world is going to celebrate their demise; these gospel preachers, these morons, these idiots are finally gone. And then verse 11, of Revelation 11, we read, and "after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came unto them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were beholding them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them." Now, why would God allow all of this to happen? The answer is simple. Because the Gospel must first be preached to all the nations, as Jesus promised.

And according to Revelation 13, we know that soon after this, the Antichrist is going to fake his death and resurrection to further deceive the world into following him. Revelation 13, beginning of verse seven, "It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain." And we know that it is in that context, that another character will arise that is called the False Prophet. He comes on the scene, he is called "the second beast," "the one out of the earth" in Revelation 13. Now bear in mind, the Antichrist is going to be a political and military leader, but the False Prophet is going to be a religious leader, and he too will be controlled by a powerful demon. Think about it, even as the rulers of Rome once to control the masses politically, they also did so religiously, and Satan is going to continue to use the strategy as he has down through recorded history. And this will be manifested in the rule of the Antichrist and the False Prophet. And as we study the various passages, we see that the False Prophet is going to assist the Antichrist by forming the final false church; a great amalgam, religious amalgam called "the great horror" of Revelation 17. And we know that the False Prophet will basically be a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit, he will be able to perform mighty wonders and point unceasingly at the beast, even as the Holy Spirit points unceasingly to Christ. And frankly, the False Prophet will make up the third person in the unholy trinity. Satan is always creating counterfeits, and the unholy trinity will consist of Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet. And according to Revelation 13 and verse 11 and following, we read how he is going to deceive the inhabitants of the earth with signs that he has given to perform in the presence of the beast. And of course, the unregenerate are already easily deceived. If you're here today, and you've never come to saving faith in Christ, you are easily deceived. You not only believe your own lies, but the lies of the world and the Word of God is foolishness to you. And this will be even more so in that day; they will be easily deceived. We read about the unregenerate, those apart from Christ, their foolish heart is darkened, right? Satan blinds the minds of the unbelieving, and so forth. And we read about this in Revelation 13, beginning in verse 14, "and he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image of the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life."

So, you have a fake resurrection from the dead. "And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the freemen and the slaves, to be given a mark on the right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name." Now think about this, notwithstanding all this militant unbelief, all of this deception, many converted Jews and Gentiles are going to stand defiantly against the Antichrist, and refuse to take the mark of the beast. And in so doing, their testimony will once again fulfill what Jesus has promised in our text here, in Mark 13 and verse 10, "The gospel must first be preached to all the nations."

So, think about the context, God will provide 144,000 Jewish missionaries, he will provide two witnesses, new converts, and if that isn't enough, he is going to dispatch angelic evangelists. We see this for example, in Revelation 14, beginning in verse six, "And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.' And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine, of the passion of her immorality. Then another angel, a third one, followed them saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.'" Now, why all of this witness? Why all of this proclamation? The answer is simple. Because "the Gospel must first be preached to all the nations," as Jesus promised.

So, on the earth, there will be unimaginable chaos and deception and suffering and death. Again, think of the unfolding judgments in the Apocalypse, that will cause even man, all of mankind to cry out for the mountains and rocks, according to Revelation six, verse 16, to "'Fall on us, hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" In this context, we read how there will be demonic hordes that are released to torment the inhabitants of the earth causing men according to Revelation nine, six, "to seek death, but will not find it, they will long to die, but death will elude to them." So despite all of the horror, the deception, the group think, the threat of death, the gospel is going to be preached to all the nations.

I might also add that here we see God's covenant people beginning to fulfill the role for which they were intended. Genesis 22:18, God said, "'In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.'" Exodus 19 verse six, "'You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.'" You see, Israel was to be a witness nation of the Lord our God. They were to be the custodians of divine truth. And during Daniel's 70th judgment, many are going to finally join in that mission. We read a little of this in Isaiah 43, beginning in verse nine, "All the nations have gathered together so that the peoples may be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified, or let them hear and say 'It is true.' 'You are My witnesses,' declares the Lord, 'And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me.'"

And do you realize that this kind of praise is even going to continue into the millennium, according to Joel two and verse 28, "'It will come about that after this I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions.'" But even during the time of the tribulation, the gospel is going to go forth for. Why? Because this is God's sovereign plan. Because as Jesus said, "the gospel must first be preached to all the nations." And to think that it will be preached in that kind of chaos and horror. O Child of God, never be ashamed of the gospel. Never underestimate the power of the gospel. Many of your family members and your friends, and the majority of the world will laugh at you. But you continue to preach it because the word of God will either harden or soften hearts. And God will absolutely save those that he has set his love upon. And in this we can rejoice. Never forget that Christ promised "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." And although the world may will overpower us, it will not overpower his church.

And for this reason, Jesus warns the saints during the time of the tribulation, in Mark 13, verse nine, "'But be on your guard; for they will deliver you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them.'" And then he goes on to offer a marvelous word of encouragement that we would all do well to remember notice in verse 11, he says, "'When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say, whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.'" Perhaps you're like me, there's been times when I've thought that a day may come when I face death, because of my love for Christ. And I'm comforted to know that I don't have to worry about what I'm going to say because the Spirit of God is going to help me say what needs to be said. Isn't that a marvelous thought? And that's what we're saying here. And certainly, down through redemptive history, we've witnessed the power of the Spirit of God in his people as they face martyrdom. I mean, think of Peter and John who proclaim the truth of the gospel to the Sanhedrin, when they were arrested in Acts four. Think of the courage of Stephen, who gave a bold testimony before the Jewish Council, and even as he was being stoned as we read about in Acts seven. I think of the apostle Paul, who gave unflinching proclamations before governors and kings. In fact, he told Timothy in Second Timothy four beginning in verse 17, "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. So that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. "Then he says this, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen."

I wish to draw your attention to another example of how the Spirit of God empowered various men and women for that matter, in the face of martyrdom. And here I use an example of which I've written about in my book Warrior Preachers, regarding Spirit empowered, warrior field preachers of Scotland. I was fascinated with this because my ancestry hails from that area. So, I've written this, "Redemptive history records many such men, including the young" quote, "field preachers. Who under the threat of fine and imprisonment, of torture or death, preach the gospel in Scotland during the dreadful years of persecution between 1663 and 1688. Because of the edicts of King Charles Second of England, they were forbidden to proclaim a decidedly Calvinistic soteriology that extolled the doctrines of grace. Though thoroughly biblical, their teachings were considered to be hostile to the doctrines of Pelagianism and Arminianism that ultimately developed into Deism and indifferentism. Doctrinal errors that dominate American evangelicalism today. During that dreadful season of persecution--that also may be our fate in the coming years of American tyranny--the 19th century historian and theologian William Blakey wrote this in his monumental work "The preachers of Scotland, from the sixth to the 19th century." Here's what he said, 'The wildest efforts were made by the bishops and their friends to put down conventicle.'" Conventicle was an unlawful religious assembly. "'Grievous fines were imposed on men of property who might attend to them. To harbor a preacher or to help them in any way exposed one either to a heavy fine or to imprisonment; perchance with the boot and thumbscrew.'" The boot and thumbscrew were instruments of torture, possibly even to death. "'The preacher with a great price on his head had no certain dwelling place, and where there was no friendly cottage to shelter him, had to wonder about in wild lonely places, sleeping in woods and caves, often cold and wet and hungry, wracked by rheumatism or prostrated by dysentery. Glad if he could succeed in keeping his pocket Bible dry. And not so much as dreaming of the luxury of books or of a quiet room for study. These were considered the warrior preachers of Scotland. Men like,'" and this is my example to you, ''James Renwick, who was captured, tortured and hung at the Grassmarket of Edinburgh on 17 February 1688. He was a man like many who refuse to bow to the demonic edicts of a Stuart King, and the apostate Christianity he forced upon his subjects through his own tyranny, and that of the phony religionists that served him. In his timeless work, "Fair sunshine: character studies of the Scottish Covenanters" Jock Purves records, the final minutes of this warrior preacher, who was strong and courageous to the end.'" Now what I'm about to read is an example of the Spirit of God empowering one of his own, in the face of certain death. "'By the side of the scaffold, a curate said, 'Own our King and we shall pray for you. 'He answered, 'I will have none of your prayers. I have come to bear my testimony against you and such as you are.' The curate persisted, 'Own our King and pray for him, whatever you say against us.' And Renwick replied, 'I will discourse no more with you. I am within a little to appear before him who is King of Kings and Lord of lords, who shall pour shame, contempt and confusion upon all the kings of the earth who have not ruled for him.' While the drums beat out their wild disharmony, he magnified and blessed the Lord in singing from the 103 Psalm, and in reading his last chapter, Revelation 19. Amid all the din, his manly voice thrilled with rapturous faith, as he read the words, quote, 'He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.' To prayer he went, again, while the drums continued their deafening, earthbound thunder, and was heard of him in heaven, his dwelling place. The harsh order was given to him to go to the death ladder. He climbed up and prayed again, being heard to say, quote, 'Lord, I die in the faith that thou wilt not leave Scotland, but that thou will to make the blood of thy witness the seed of thy church, and return again to be glorious in our land. And now, Lord, I am ready. The bride, the Lamb's wife, hath made herself ready.' The blinding napkin was tied about his face. And he spoke to his friend close by his side saying, quote, 'Farewell. Be diligent and duty, make your peace with God through Christ. There is a great trial coming. As to the remnant I leave, I have committed them to God. Tell them for me not to weary nor be discouraged and maintaining the testimony of the Lord will provide you teachers and ministers. And when He comes, He will make these despised truths glorious in the earth.' His last words were, 'Lord into the hands I commend my spirit. For thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of truth.' And at that the hangman turned him over.'" Oh, dear Christian, never underestimate the power of the Spirit, even in the face of death should it come your way.

The sixth sign that we will close with this morning is defection of and betrayal by, false believers. And here Jesus warns about the unparalleled persecution of the tribulation saints. He says in verse 12, "'Brother will betray brother to death and the father, his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.'" Amazing, isn't it, even those who should love us the most will turn against us. And many of you have and are experiencing that right now. Verse 13, '"You will be hated by all because of My name.'" Matthew records it this way in Matthew 24, beginning in verse nine, "'Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.'" Jesus said in John seven, seven, that "'the world hates me because I testify of it, that it's deeds are evil.'" See, people don't want to hear that they don't want to hear the gospel. Matthew went on to record what Jesus said at that time, "'many will fall away,'" literally to disbelieve permanently or finally. In other words, these will be phony Christians in that day. "They went out from us, because they were never a part of us," as we read in First John 2:19. And he says, "'they will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and mislead many because lawlessness is increased.'" Meaning that it's going to grow great in amount. You think it's bad now, it'd be far worse then. And he said, "'most people's love will grow cold.'" Foremost commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. And then secondly, to love our neighbor as ourself. And as that love for God and neighbor is extinguished, betrayal of loved ones will be much easier. Even as Judas betrayed the family of the 12 in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But then the Lord says this at the end of verse 13, "'but the one who endures to the end he will be saved.'" Now this isn't a works righteousness statement, but rather perseverance is the fruit, not the root of genuine salvation. Jesus said in John 8:31, "'If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.'" And this of course, is the work of the Holy Spirit in the redeemed. And for this reason, James would say in James one beginning of verse to "Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces," not apostasy, but "endurance. And let endurance have its perfect results so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Dear friends, remember that God uses the fires of testing, to burn off the impurities that draw us that is a part of our faith, and to temper the steel of our faith that we might be useful for the sake of the kingdom. And like Job, those whom God saves will stay saved, come what may, because of the power of God that is within them.

For this reason, Paul said in Second Timothy 4:18, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever, amen." And because of this, the Apostle Paul could say in Romans eight beginning in verse 30, "These whom He predestined, He also called; and these He called He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified." And he went on to say, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" He went on to add, "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And when we understand these great doctrinal truths, and we embrace them wholeheartedly, by the power of the Spirit, no matter what the trial, we will be able to sing the lyrics of the hymn that was written in the days of the warrior preachers in Scotland. The words of a hymn "What God ordains is always Good” written by Samuel Rodigast in 1675. I'm just going to close with the last three stanzas. "What God ordains is always good; He is my Friend and Father. His hand protects from every harm, though many storms may gather. Now I may know both joy and woe; someday I shall see clearly that He has loved me dearly. What God ordains is always good. This truth remains unshaken. Tho' sorrow, need or death be mine, I shall not be forsaken. I fear no harm, for with His arm, He shall embrace and shield me; so to my God, I yield me."

Oh, dear friend, I hope you know Christ as Savior. If you don't, I plead with you as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you come to him this day in repented faith, and trust in Him as your only hope of salvation, lest you perish in your sins. And for those of us who know and love Christ, may we celebrate him all the more as we contemplate not only what he has done for us, and what he is currently doing for us, but what will happen when he returns and fulfills all of his promises. Oh, what a day that will be, amen? Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. May they penetrate our hearts in such a way as to cause us to bow before your presence in abject humility and thanksgiving because of the hope that is ours in Christ, may we all rejoice. So, we commit your word and all that you will do with it, to you, for the sake of Jesus, Amen.

After taking a break, for Resurrection Sunday, we now return once again to our verse-by-verse study of Mark's gospel. So will you turn to Mark chapter 13, as we look at part two of a series that I'm doing from this passage of Scripture, entitled "Jesus Prophetic Discourse on the End of the Age." A few thoughts before we read the passage and begin to examine it closely.

It's fascinating in Scripture, how light is used as a metaphor for truth. The Psalmist tells us, for example, in Psalm 119:105, that "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." And Jesus said in John 8:12, "'I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of life.'" And indeed, the absence of light is darkness. Likewise, the absence of truth is darkness, spiritually. And intellectually, we all know what it's like to be in the dark, both literally and figuratively. Literally, when you're in the dark, you don't know where you're going. You don't know what's in front of you. And it's dangerous. And frankly, that's how most people live spiritually. In fact, Jesus describes hell in Matthew 8:12 as "'outer darkness; in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"And we are witnessing today in our country the sunset of truth, and the onset of darkness; a foretaste of hell, frankly, an eternal existence apart from the presence of God. Unimaginable. To be sure, we're witnessing the self-induced destruction of what was once the most powerful nation in the history of the world. We're watching the wrath of divine abandonment play out as we read, for example, in Romans one. We're now being governed by people who have no fear of God in their eyes, they are corrupt and greedy and violent. Murderers of unborn infants; unimaginably and grossly immoral. I was reading the other day that we now have approximately 50 special days set aside to celebrate the vile perversions of the LGBTQ mafia. Our educators deny God as the Creator and teach our children that we are really nothing more than sophisticated germs, the result of random selection, all part of evolutionary theory. We have been lied to about the health of our economy. We've been lied to about the whole COVID pandemic, and the efficacy of the vaccines and all of those types of things. We're continually being lied to about global warming. We're being fed lies about systemic racism and gender identity, and orientation. We're lied to about the benefits of gender affirming treatments and procedures. We're lied to about illegal immigration and the implications of all of that. And frankly, it reminds me of Hitler's commitment to deceptive propaganda, as stated in Mein Kampf where he said, quote, "The skillful and unrelenting use of propaganda can persuade people that heaven is hell. For the broad mass of the people, and the primitive simplicity of its heart, more readily falls victim to a big lie than a small one." End quote.

Frankly, the whole lie of the woke agenda is more evil than you can even begin to imagine. I'm not going to take time to get into all of it, but it is satanic to its very core. As I have written elsewhere, "An evil cloud of satanic darkness encompasses the world today. The fierce winds of deception are pummeling all that God deems righteous. The very foundations of basic civility and common sense are being shaken. And without question, the Church of Jesus Christ is under siege. Only the most naive, undiscerning and biblically illiterate Christians can deny this. Like never before a violent storm of persecution against authentic Christianity is gaining strength across the globe." And indeed, we've seen the failed policies of the progressive Marxist agenda continue to divide our country; and gullible people are sucked into all that they're trying to do. And ultimately, what they must do is eradicate genuine Biblical Christianity, because that cannot coexist with a socialist state. They must destroy the nuclear family, they must destroy capitalism, and on and on it goes. And sadly, many gullible Christians of all political stripes, even pastors, are falling victim to the Marxist goal of an atheist utopia.

Well, none of this surprises any serious student of the Bible. This is all part of God's judgment on America. The world is being prepared for the rule of the Antichrist. The "man of lawlessness" according to Second Thessalonians two. We know biblically that he will come about eventually, and he will pretend to be the answer for all of man's problems; he will offer himself as Israel's savior, a counterfeit Messiah, that will make a phony treaty with Israel, according to Daniel 9:27. But he will be against Christ and all who belong to him and he will persecute Israel in the middle of Daniel's 70th week and so forth. A lot of these things you've heard discussed in the past. We know that he is going to rise out of a revived Roman Empire, according to Daniel nine, verse 26. He will be what is called "the wicked prince" who will exert his power, essentially through a united Europe. And as we read the biblical record, we see that he will fuse the world into a political collectivism. The scourge of tribalism, as we would see, for example, in the whole jihadist movement, and hyper-nationalism will finally be replaced with a super national utopia, a one world government, one world economy, one world religion. And after all, you must understand that this is the evolutionary vision of the progressives today. As David Larsen puts it, quote, "Human progress for them is linear, automatic and upward, and the accelerating tendencies toward a world religion with the surrender of biblical supernaturalism in favor of a syncretistic plural liberal pluralism." He went on to say, "Under the aegis of the false prophet, religion will join the Antichrist. The super-church is described in Revelation 17 as "Babylon"; She Lords it over the nations of the earth displays great pageantry and sits upon the beast. This ecclesiastical and ecumenical big top will have brief usefulness and serviceability to the world ruler, but her doom is sealed because she is unfaithful and untrue to the Lord. Her spiritual adulteries are infamous."

Folks, this is where the world is heading. Just prior to the pre-kingdom judgments, we're going to see these things being manifested as the prophetic Scriptures tell us; just prior to our Lord's second coming. And we see Matthew chapter 24, and 25, along with Mark 13, and Luke 21, that we just read a few minutes ago, and Revelation six through 19, providing much detail regarding these matters.

And I might also add that these great prophetic truths out of the New Testament must also be viewed through the lens of the Old Testament, especially Ezekiel's prophecy, Daniel's prophecy, Zechariah's prophecy.

Now with this in mind, we come to what's happening here in our text in the first century. You will recall that this is Jesus' final pronouncement of judgment upon apostate Judaism. And this is followed then with a lengthy explanation of what must take place just prior to his return in power and great glory. And we know that this occurs on Wednesday evening of the Passion Week, in the final hours of Jewish rejection. And you will also recall in Matthew 23, there's a record of the conclusion of Jesus's terrifying pronouncement upon Israel and a farewell promise. In verse 36, we read, "'Your house'"--referring to the temple, where he was standing at the time--"'Your house is being left to you desolate.'" Then he added in verse 39, "'I say to you from now on, you shall not see Me until you say, "BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!"'" Jesus did not say "unless" he said, "until." There's glorious hope there.

So, after his scathing denunciation of their phony religious system, and his ominous prediction of their temple's demise, he concludes with a message of hope, and he quietly withdraws himself from the presence of the multitudes there, on the temple precinct. And obviously, this prediction of judgment upon Israel, animated intense concern with the disciples. Again, they were hoping that he was going to establish his kingdom, right then; that Rome would finally be destroyed. And so they're wondering, "What are you talking about here? What will be the nature and the duration of Israel's desolation? When is this going to happen? And what do you mean 'You shall not see Me until we say, "BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'" So that's the context here.

Now you will recall the last time we were together, looking at these things, I have given you a little bit of an outline to help you understand Jesus lengthly answer to their question. We're going to look at a little bit more of it here this morning. Let me give you the outline once again. First of all, he speaks of the temple’s demolition; secondly, the signs of the end. Thirdly, the prospect of persecution, then the abomination of desolation, the false Christ and prophets, the coming of the Son of Man, and the warning to be prepared. And this will take us all the way through, beyond where we have just read. And while we do not know the date or the time when the Lord will return, we do know that the stage is being set, even now, as we look at the constellation of prophetic signs.

Now let me read the passage to you in Mark 13, beginning in verse one, "As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to him, 'Teacher, behold, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!' And Jesus said to him, 'Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.' As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning Him privately, 'Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled? 'And Jesus began to say to them, 'See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name saying I am He! and will mislead many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. And these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.'"

Now, by way of review, verses one and two, he's going out of the temple. They're looking at this beautiful edifice, and Jesus says, "'You see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.'" So, we examined number one: the temple's demolition. And again, this was an astonishing edifice, a magnificent building, and they are viewing it from the adjacent mountain, the Mount of Olives. Those of you have been there with me, or even on your own, you've been able to see where that would be. The Al Aqsa Mosque is there now, but that's where the temple was. But sadly, the temple had become a symbol, a tragic symbol, of apostate Judaism. And we know that in 70 AD, the Romans came to the Temple Mount, they set fire to the entire thing, and it was so hot the stones crumbled into powder. And the stones that we see there today are just merely the foundation, the retaining stones of the original temple.

And so, if there's not going to be a temple, then that means there's not going to be a Messiah to return to his temple as promised. And that means there's no kingdom, so they're confused. So, in verse three, we read this, "As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew, were questioning Him privately, 'Tell us when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?'" Matthew adds this in Matthew 24, verse three, "'Tell us, when will all these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?'" "Coming"--"parousia." He uses this in the technical sense, in the original language, to describe his appearing, his manifestation at his second coming.

So beginning in verse five, now, Jesus begins to answer their questions in reverse order. And he begins by addressing the signs of his coming, of his "parousia." And in the combined accounts of Mark, or Matthew and Mark, and Luke, Jesus describes six very specific signs called, quote, "birth pangs," as we see in Mark 13, verse eight. And these things are going to appear just before he arrives during the time of the Tribulation. Let me give you those six signs. Number one, false messiah; secondly, nations at war; number three, natural disasters of epic proportions; number four, persecution of tribulation saints; number five, detection of and betrayal by false believers. And then number six, there's going to be a time of mass evangelism. And I might also add that these six signs have undeniable parallels that we see with the seal trumpet and bowl judgments written in the Book of Revelation, which was written in about AD 96. The seal judgments are going to take maybe a few years, the trumpet judgments perhap weeks, and then the bowl judgments, just days and hours.

So we saw the temple's demolition, the last time we were together. Also, we saw a bit of the signs of the end, that would be the second section here. And there's six signs, six birth pangs, of the pre-kingdom judgments. You will recall, we looked at the first one, which was false messiahs; there's going to be great deceivers--false teachers, leading to the worship of the ultimate false messiah, the Antichrist. And that's why Jesus says in verse five, "'See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name, saying, "I am He!" and will mislead many.'" And Jesus repeats this in verses 22 and three, "'For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.'" Now we all know that false messiahs and false teachers have always existed. They're out there today. In fact, today they multiply like maggots on manure. They're everywhere, especially with the Internet. And they will greatly increase in numbers and in power at the end of the age. And imagine what chaos there will be upon the earth when the church is caught up, when the church is snatched away, according to First Thessalonians four and verse 17. People will be looking for answers; they will be more confused than ever. And of course, that is fertile soil for false messiahs and false teachers to take advantage of people.

And we know that sometime after the rapture of the church, the seal judgments will begin to occur in the first three and a half years, which is in the broad sense called The Tribulation, as we read in Second Thessalonians, one six. And at the beginning of the Tribulation, bear in mind, that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to unleash the first Seal Judgment. We read about that in Revelation six verses one and two, that will be a pseudo peace that will lull the world, including Israel, into a false sense of security and visions of utopia. But it will only be the calm before the storm. And it's fascinating even today, as we watch the social phenomena of group hypnosis, which is often called "mass formation”; we see deceived people believing things that are just utterly absurd. The demonstrably false tenets of critical race theory, the gross immorality of the whole LGBTQ mob, the totalitarian ideologies of Marxism, with the whole woke mafia, and we marvel at man's utter desertion of common sense and critical thinking; while at the same time, employing totalitarian methods to somehow vilify and silence those who differ with them. And this has always been the modus operandi of the liberal elite. This is how they function. They believe that they know what's best, and everyone must do what they say; they must control the populace.

But again, imagine the chaos, imagine the confusion when the church is removed. The Rapture will provide the perfect storm for the arrival of the Antichrist. People are desperate today, looking for answers, imagine what it will be like at that time. Daniel eight, verse 23, gives us a sense of what this will be like. There we read, "A king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue. His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; he will destroy mighty men and the holy people. And through his shrewdness, he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; and he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many, while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without human agency." And Daniel goes on and tells us in Daniel 11, beginning in verse 36, "Then the King will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done." The apostle Paul adds to this in Second Thessalonians two beginning in verse three, "Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come"--referring to the day of the Lord--"unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed as the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God."

So that's a bit of a review of what we looked at the last time and now we move to another prediction here that Jesus gives us, and that is, nations at war. Notice verse seven, "'When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom.'" And Matthew adds this in chapter 24, beginning in verse six, "'And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars.'" The grammar here indicates that you're going to constantly be hearing of actual wars and impending wars. And then he goes on to say, "'See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.'" "Telos," in the original language, which speaks of the very end, the ultimate end of the age when conflict will cease. In other words, there's still more to come. That's the point. And again, this is only the beginning of birth pangs. Verse seven, "'For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.'" And of course, we can already see how there is escalating violence in the world today. I was reading from the Geneva Academy, they monitor, right now, more than 110 armed conflicts around the world. They say that some of them have started recently, while others have lasted for more than 50 years. And according to the International Crisis Group, there are 10 conflicts they say that we should watch even in 2024. They say by the way, quote, "More leaders are pursuing their ends militarily. More believe they can get away with it." And the 10 conflicts that they have, are as follows: Gaza, wider Middle East war, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia, Myanmar, Ethiopia, the Sahel. That, by the way, would include six countries in Central Africa; there's a vast semi-arid region in Africa separating the Sahara Desert to the north, and the more tropical savannas to the south; and that place is just exploding right now. And then Haiti, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and of course, US and China. And today, we know that most of the world hates the United States. Pundits and politicians frequently address the growing fears that we have pertaining to Russia and China and North Korea and the Arab Islamic nations; South America that is now flooding our borders and becoming part of us.

But what we especially must bear in mind is what Ezekiel says in Ezekiel 38, and 39. There is a detailed description of a coalition of nations that will come upon Jerusalem come into Israel. Including Russia, along with numerous other Muslim nations, including Iran, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, regions of Armenia and Turkey. This, of course, speaks of the great battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38, and 39. And that very well could be the event that sets the first seal into motion. And that battle describes a Russian/Arab alliance of, again, predominantly Muslim nations coming down on Israel from the north and being supernaturally defeated. And there's nothing in that text that would rule out the conditions, even of the State of Israel prior to the Hamas attack on October 7. Is it possible that that attack is kind of the beginning of where this is ultimately going to lead in the battle of Gog and Magog? And it has certainly triggered more violence from the north with Hezbollah. And it's galvanized the Islamic nations around the world against Israel, including those nations that are described in Ezekiel 38, verses five and six.

In fact, Israel's devastating ground operations in Gaza, that's going on right now has outraged the Islamic world, including Turkey, along with millions of non-Islamic Marxists in the United States and so forth. And we see antisemitism and anti-Israeli protests growing at an alarming rate. And we know too, that our current president is losing support of his radical left and continuing to back away from helping Israel. I mean, just think about it, what if we back away completely, what if the rapture of the church occurs and so forth. Israel is already vulnerable, but we know that God will continue to protect them at some measure, because ultimately a remnant of them will be saved. Could this be God's way of fulfilling his promise in Ezekiel 38 and verse four, where he says, "'I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army.'" And then we see that he will destroy them on the mountains of Israel. And Russia, as I have, and others have said in the past, could very well fulfill the role of Gog in Ezekiel 38 and 39. And currently, Russia has six of the former Soviet republics to the north of Israel that are now independent Islamic nations, and they're all calling for Israel's annihilation. Russia is getting arms we know from North Korea, getting arms from Iran, getting arms from China, forming alliances with all of them, along with Turkey and Pakistan and Iran and Libya, Syria, Sudan and Ethiopia. But whoever makes up the alliance of nations God causes to come upon Israel, and they will ultimately be destroyed. My point with all of this is to say that we know of some things that are going to happen during that period of time, of nations and kingdoms in conflict, so it's easy to see, with all of the powder kegs in the world today, how all of this could ultimately explode.

And what's interesting is we look at Scripture, if we go to Revelation, chapter five, the first seven verses, we see how God the Father, hands Christ Jesus, a scroll, the title deed to the universe, and it's sealed seven times, which was customary, of Roman laws of that day, to be sealed in that way. And beginning and then in chapter six, we see how Christ begins to open up those seals and look into the scroll. Seven seals, each of which is a specific category of divine judgment, that God will pour out upon the earth prior to the Lord's return, and they will be sequentially discharged upon the earth. I wanted to just, I've written these out for you just so that you have a sense of this, obviously, we're not going to look at all these but just to give you a flavor of it, we see that the Worthy Lamb opens the scroll and the seals are as follows. First, you have the arrival of the Antichrist. And there you have the white horse and then the red horse of war. Thirdly, the black horse of famine; fourthly, the ashen horse of death; sometimes these are called "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." And that ashen horse we know, kills 1/4 of the Earth's population with the sword, with famine and pestilence and wild beasts. We'll look at that in a moment. And then number five, you have the seal of martyrdom, and then earthquakes.

It's also worth noting that at that point, in the time of the tribulation, the world will know that they are experiencing the wrath of God, and the Lamb, the Lord Jesus. They will know it. Revelation six, beginning of verse 15, tells us "they hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of the wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'"

And then you have the seventh seal, which unleashes the seven trumpets, and again, these parallel the birth pangs that Jesus describes in the gospels, and then you have the trumpet judgments. The first 1/3 of the earth trees and grass are burned up, then 1/3 of the sea creatures die and the ships are destroyed, then 1/3 of the waters are polluted and many die. 1/3 of the sun, moon and stars are dark and locusts, demons are released to torment people. Four bound demons are released to kill 1/3 of humanity that's left at that point. And then Christ's kingdom reign is proclaimed. And then you have the bowl judgments that will come even more quickly. Painful sores come on people. The sea becomes like blood and everything in the sea dies; the rivers and springs of water are turned to blood. The sun scorches people with fire and heat; darkness and intense pain afflict humanity; the Euphrates River is dried up to prepare the way for kings from the east. Then you have severe earthquakes that split the great city into three parts; cities fall, and severe hail falls from heaven.

And Daniel's prophecy gives us further insight into these types of conflicts of that day. Again, remember in Daniel 9:27, Israel makes a covenant with the Antichrist, he deceives them with his promises to protect them, and in Daniel 7:24, he will rule a massive kingdom that will basically comprise a Roman Empire, a Western confederacy of a united Europe that Daniel describes as a 10-nation empire. And we'd been given more insight here in Daniel 11, beginning in verse 40, which by the way, in this prophecy, he juxtaposes both near and far historical events, which is common in the prophetic literature. The near prophecies were fulfilled by the Persian kingdom and the reign of Greece through Antiochus Epiphanes, and then the future prophecies are concerning the Antichrist. And there Daniel says, "'At the end of time, the king of the South will collide with the Antichrist, and the king of the North will storm against him with chariots.'" This is likely a Russian and Arab Alliance. He goes on to speak of how they will be "'with horsemen and many ships; and he will enter countries, overflow them and pass through. He will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand: Edom, Moab and the foremost of the sons of Ammon. Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels'" Evidently, there is a temporary defeat of these nations, but the the northern and eastern forces, as we study it, will regroup and kindling his wrath, and so he's going to attack them. That's why he goes on to say, "'But rumors from the East and from the North will disturb him.'"

Let me pause there for a moment. In Revelation nine, verses 14 through 16, we read of an eastern army, composed of 200 million that will destroy a third of the remaining inhabitants of the earth. And it's interesting that today, the Chinese army has an active personnel of 2,035,000. So it gives you some sense of what could be some day. So this will disturb him and "'He will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many. He will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain.'" In other words, his headquarters is going to be between the Mediterranean Sea and Mount Zion. "'Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.'"

This is also described in Revelation 19, the Battle of Armageddon, the pinnacle of the Day of the Lord, when the Antichrist is defeated, and the Lord Jesus Christ executes all the kings of the earth and the armies. So in summary, this is inconceivable what God predicts, absolutely unimaginable. All of these nations will be destroyed--Russia, to the north, and all of those that are a part of that group, the Confederated Europe to the West, Africa to the South, Asia to the east. They all converge upon tiny, little Israel, which is fascinating. It is the most fought over and most fought on piece of real estate on the planet. They're all going to be destroyed. And the prophet Zechariah tells us in chapter 14, beginning of verse two, that the Lord "will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle." People say, "Where's America in all of this?" It'll be right there. "All of the nations against Jerusalem to battle, the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle." Bottom line, all of these conflicts are going to increase in severity and scope just before the Lord returns. No one, regardless of where they live, will be exempt from these worldwide conflicts. And today, I would submit to you that the stage is being set for these things to eventually explode.

Back to Mark 13 verse seven, "'When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom.'" And again, Matthew 24th at the end of verse six, "'See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place.'" Isn't that a word of encouragement there? It tells us that God is sovereign, that God has a plan, God is in control. And he will be here soon, is the point. He will be here soon. So Jesus describes false messiahs, nations at war, and now thirdly, the next birth pang, natural disasters of epic proportions. Notice at the end of verse eight, "there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.'" And Matthew puts it this way in Matthew 24 at the end of verse seven, "'and in various places there will be famines, and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.'" Now we have a whole lot more detail, for example, in Revelation six eight; we see Christ breaking the fourth seal of the scroll. And there we read, "I looked, and behold, and ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth." Folks, this is such a macabre scene; a terrifying scene, horrifying beyond imagination. This ashen horse, it's fascinating. Ashen is "chlōros" in the original language. We get chlorophyll and chlorine from that. But it's a pale-yellow green color. The color of sickness; it's the color of a decomposing corpse if you've ever seen that. It's a hideous sight. It's also the blanched appearance of a person that is struck with paralyzing fear.

And of course, global war will inevitably lead to famine, especially if nuclear arms are used. And here John sees Hades--meaning the grave--following this ashen horse mounted by Death. We read of the sword, famine and pestilence, and whenever those are mentioned in Scripture, the context is that this is what will lead to death. Pestilence--"thanatos" in the original language. It's also translated "death." In this context, it encompasses all of the natural disasters, like famines and earthquakes that Jesus has predicted. But many of the diseases, it would include many of the diseases, that inevitably accompany such cataclysmic events like typhus fevers, which is one of the greatest killers throughout history. Typhus is different types of bacteria as I recall from my very brief days in biology. They can be carried by fleas and lice and chiggers. In fact, more casualties in the Civil War were due to disease than battle. So you can imagine what it will be like during that time. The great influenza epidemic of 1918 and 19 killed an estimated 30 million people. And we know historically, that wherever you have corpses and famine, you will have wide scale disasters and disease, described by the term pestilence. And you will have wild beasts. It's interesting the original language--"thērion"--it could refer to any kind of wild carnivore starving for a meal. But the term is also used to translate "birds and insects." It could very well, and probably will, include rats. Imagine the disease born even by mosquitoes. Mayo Clinic estimates that malaria is responsible for killing 2.7 million people annually. There's great fears of bird flu being spread today. Imagine during this time, hospitals will be scarce if not non-existent. Supply of life saving drugs are interrupted. And of course, rats thrive in highly populated areas notorious for spreading disease. You will recall in the 14th century, rats spread the bubonic plague that wiped out 1/4 to 1/3 of Europe. It's called the Black Death. This is horrible. It's inconceivable. And this is just the fourth seal of Revelation eight; the third birth pang of Jesus' prophecy.

You see, by the time the Lamb breaks all the seals, and all the trumpet and bowl judgments are poured out upon the earth, the planet as we know it will cease to exist. I can't even begin to imagine what this place will look alike. And those who refuse to repent, will be in such unimaginable torment that we are told, according to Revelation nine beginning in verse five that they will "seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them." Revelation 16 verse 10, says they will "gnaw their tongues because of pain."

By the way, nothing of this severity and scope took place in ad 70. Which is one more reason why I reject the argument that this is merely a description of what happened with the Jews and the Romans at that time. And to think Jesus says in Matthew 24, verse eight, "'all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.'"

As we close this morning, I was thinking, how ironic it is--mankind loves to worship himself, exalt himself above God. Mankind loves to worship the planet, rather than the God that created all things. In fact, today, pets and animals have more protection than unborn babies. Isn't it amazing when you think about that? People worship the environment, but not the Creator. But isn't it interesting in the pre-kingdom judgments, God is going to tear down all of those idols, every single one of them, and then they will know that he is Lord. Beloved, we need to all rejoice in the comforting promise that we have, that the apostle Paul records in First Thessalonians five beginning in verse one where we read, let us, who "are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and has a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." We're not going to be a part of that, I believe the church will be snatched away before that happens.

But certainly today, the world scoffs at the existence of God. If you tell the world that he is the Creator, as I often say, the Sustainer, the Redeemer, and consummate are of all things, they think you are a knuckle dragging Neanderthal that needs to live in a cave. And that would be putting it nicely. People absolutely mock at Christ's saving work on the cross. Isn't it amazing that the President would call for a transgender day of visibility on the day where we celebrate His resurrection. Celebrate these self-loathing people that desperately need Christ. Celebrate people who are damaged and depressed and dysfunctional, delusional; some even being demonized--as we saw with one of the transgender shooters here recently in Nashville. People who despise God so much that they deny his stamp of his image placed on their biological God-given body. I mean this is soul suicide, and we're supposed to celebrate that. This is the mockery of God. And this is what is going to bring about his judgment one day. But people have always mocked his second coming and judgment. Peter tells us in Second Peter three, three, "In the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming?'"

And may I remind you all of Jesus' warning in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 37, he said, "'For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.'" And what were those days like in days of Noah? Genesis six tells us it tells us that they were days of unmitigated evil and rebellion against God. Moreover, days of granite, indifference and apathy, concerning his judgment upon their sin. I give you the world today. Dear friends, I pray that this doesn't describe your attitude. Because if it does, I would plead with you to put your trust in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ lest you perish in your sin. And for those of us who know and love Christ, may I remind you, dear Christian, we are at war. And we will not bow. So, we need to be vigilant, we need to be alert, we need to be marching on our knees in prayer. We cannot be ashamed of the gospel. We need to unleash it in all of its force and fury, in love and in compassion; that others will come to a saving knowledge of Christ even as we have, solely by his grace. And then we just all need to keep looking. Because Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming again. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for revealing so much to us in your word. While we cannot understand the full implications of everything that you give us in your prophetic word, we we can understand enough to know that things are gonna get much worse before they get better. And that you are a holy God that will pour out his judgment upon the wicked, just as sure as the sun rises in the east. And so therefore, we thank you for your word; may it animate each of our hearts, to live in light of it, as people that are alert, that are sober, as people whose world orbits around the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the glory of his return. Speak to those who are without you today. Give them no rest until they truly, genuinely, come to a place of repentant faith and experience the miracle of the new birth. And bless us now, all of us who know and love you, as we rejoice in all that is ours in Christ, for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

As we watch our world, sink deeper and deeper into the abyss of depravity, isn't it wonderful to be able to come together and hear the glorious truths of God's Word and be reminded afresh that he is sovereign over all of his creation, he is still on his throne. He has a plan, he has a purpose, and it will be accomplished. And to know that somehow, we're a part of all of it. What an amazing thought. Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 13; we continue to examine this portion of Scripture, this gospel. We're going to be looking basically at the first eight verses, but this is the beginning of a series that I want to do that I'm entitling "Jesus Prophetic Discourse on the End of the Age." And here we will see Jesus telling his disciples what is going to happen because they're asking the question. And the context here is, he has made his final pronouncement of judgment against apostate Judaism. And he's given now a long explanation of what must take place prior to the end of the age prior to the establishment of his kingdom. We see parallel accounts in Matthew's gospel chapter 24, and 25, and Luke's gospel chapter 21. And we're going to see more of those details as well. And what's happening here now occurs on Wednesday of the Passion Week. The Lord is about to go to his death on the cross a few days later, on Friday. And we know that in Matthew 23, we have a record of Jesus's public sermon; a detailed denunciation of the false shepherds that stood right before him. Those false teachers, the scribes and Pharisees that really represented apostate Israel. And after pronouncing seven curses of divine judgment upon them, he concluded with one final, climactic pronouncement in verse 33, he said, "'You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?'" And then he gave a final warning in verses 34 and 36, promising judgment that would eventually fall upon them. And we know that in AD 70, that happened. 50,000 elite Roman troops marched upon Jerusalem, they immediately captured about 500 of the Jewish leaders, some of them, no doubt, that were in Jesus' presence. And they crucified them. No doubt, again, some of the scribes and Pharisees that he had just condemned. And then we know from history that the Romans slaughtered 1.1 million Jewish people. They took an estimated 100,000 captives and took them to Egypt, glutting the market with slaves. And so Jesus' words must have been shocking to the disciples. Luke tells us in chapter 19, verse 11, that they "supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately."

So what is all this talk? He's been talking about his death, about his resurrection. And now, all of these things. And certainly, Jesus' triumphal entry just a few days earlier into Jerusalem, really heightened their expectations, but they failed to understand how all of that works together with Jesus' talk about death and resurrection. And as I think about it, like all of us, the disciples only heard what they wanted to hear and believe what they wanted to believe, without any regard for truth or reality. And in Matthew 23, we have a record of Jesus's terrifying response upon Israel with a farewell promise. In verse 38 he said, "'Your house,'" referring to the temple, "Your house is being left to you desolate.'" But in verse 39, he said, "'I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, "BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!"'" Well you notice, Jesus did not say unless, but rather, he said, "until." And therein is the glorious hope, because there is a future conversion that awaits the Jewish people; a time of genuine repentance, a time that has been carved into the granite of divine sovereignty. But Jesus gives us no hint as to when the interval of time is holy indeterminate. He simply says "until." And he used the very text the multitudes quoted a few days later, or a few days earlier, the triumphal entry when they said, out of Psalm 118, verse 26, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." And when Jesus returns the next time, as we have read in our scripture reading, we know that it will be very different. And at that time, what was once said in ignorance, and in unbelief, will be said, with full knowledge and genuine faith.

Zechariah speaks of this in his prophecy in chapter 12, beginning in verse nine. "'And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.'" Indeed, a day is coming when a remnant of Jewish people will join us in singing, Amazing Grace; won't that be a wonderful day?

The Apostle Paul spoke of this as well in Romans 11, beginning verse in verse 25. He reminds us that there is a "partial hardening that has happened to Jerusalem, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.'" And so after his scathing denunciation of their phony religious system; their hypocrisy, their corruption, and after his ominous prediction of the temple's demise, he concludes with a message of hope, and then quietly withdraws from the presence of the multitudes there on the temple area.

And obviously, this prediction of judgment on Israel's temple would have aroused great suspicion and intense desire, on the part of the disciples, to understand what in the world are you talking about? What will be the nature? What will be the duration of this time of desolation? When is this going to happen? And what do you mean you shall not see me until we say blessed it is he who comes in the name of the Lord? Didn't we just say that? Their Messiah King had just passed final judgment upon their nation, upon their temple. The disciples are confused. And so now what happens, if you can imagine, Jesus and his disciples leave the Temple Mount, go down across the Kidron Valley, and they begin to ascend up the Mount of Olives. And it is at this point that Jesus gives what is called his Olivet Discourse.

That brings us to our text here, in Mark 13, beginning in verse one. "As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!' And Jesus said to him, 'Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.' As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning Him privately, 'Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?' And Jesus began to say to them, 'See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name saying 'I am He' and will mislead many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.'"

Now, much of what I have to say this morning is going to be largely introductory to what we are going to study over the next several weeks. But I want you to think about this, many people, if not most people, scoff at the existence of a creator god. Most people scoff at the idea that he is infinitely holy. Most people laugh if you tell them that the one true God, the God of the Bible, is sovereign over all of his creation; that he is actively involved in history. Most people think that is absurd. They will laugh if you tell them that he is going to come one day and judge the nations, as well as individual people. Most say that God, if he exists, isn't involved in history. Either he doesn't exist, or at least he's uninvolved, therefore, for most people, history is cyclical. It's just an endless cycle of meaningless existence fueled by the process of evolution. There is no purpose. There is no plan, there is no destiny. We are merely sophisticated germs that came into existence by accident. And we have evolved over billions of years by random chance. That's what our children have been taught for years in our public schools. That's what most people believe. There is no design because there is no designer. There is no creator and therefore there is no judge. There is no one to whom we are accountable. There is no ultimate and eternal consequences for anything that we do. So let's just eat and drink, be merry, for tomorrow we die. This is Satan's great lie. It certainly appeals to man's depraved nature. And collectively, the masses of the world believe this type of deception, causing people to actually think that that's the truth. If you get enough people to believe a lie, it becomes the truth. Quote, unquote.

The biblical Christian worldview is very different. History is not cyclical, but God controls history; history is linear, there is a beginning there is an end. The one true God is the Creator, the Sustainer, and the consummator of all things. He is currently moving history toward a final destination, one that he sovereignly decreed and ordained in eternity past. And his plan is to ultimately bring glory to himself in ways that we can't even begin to comprehend. And that plan absolutely cannot be thwarted. And this plan is delineated in his revelation to man, which is the inspired, the inerrant, the infallible, authoritative, all-sufficient Word of the living God, recorded in the canon of Scripture--the Bible. And therefore, the unfathomably complex order, design and functionality of the natural world screams the fact that there must be an intelligent creator, there must be one that sustains all of these things. And therefore, that same one, is the one that will consummate all things. And for those who believe God doesn't exist, or if he does, he's not involved in history, obviously, the Bible is nothing more than a book of myths. And the gospel is foolishness. And the hundreds of Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled, literally, are merely coincidental.

My friend, if that is you, God calls you a fool. Indeed, the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 14 beginning in verse one, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" It goes on to say "They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together, they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one." These people have no fear of God; therefore they have no wisdom, spiritually speaking, down deep. They foolishly hope that if there is a God, their own perceived goodness will be enough to help them make whatever cut there is for salvation, that God grades on the curve and they've been good enough to beat out most other people. This is how the world lives, even many in the religious world. Indeed, the unregenerate know nothing of the one true God, they know nothing of the creation, of what Scripture says about that, of the person, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His true church. And so most of the world simply lives for itself. People are constantly pursuing the fleeting pleasures of this life. And eventually, like all of us, they are going to grow old. They are going to be diseased and decrepit. And then they will die in their unbelief and spend an eternity in hell. That's what God has said. In fact, Jesus tells us in John 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." And we know according to Hebrews nine and verse 27, that "it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes," what? "comes judgment."

But for those who by God's grace alone believe that history is linear, that God is ultimately in control of history, those people and I'm sure I'm speaking of those who are within the sound of my voice, will long to know all they can about his plan of the ages, and his plan for them personally. And they will search for every biblical insight available to them, so that they can know the season in which they live. They will be like the disciples who said to Jesus, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?"

Now I wish to unpack Jesus' lengthy answer under seven headings over the next several weeks. Let me give you the headings. We're going to first of all see the temple's demolition. And then the signs of the end, the prospect of persecution, the abomination of desolation, the false Christ and prophets, the coming of the Son of Man, and the warning to be prepared. I'm taking them in the order that Jesus delineates them. And while we do not know a specific date when all of this occur, we can see how that the stage is being set, right now in our world, for the constellation of all of the prophetic signs to be manifested. So the bottom line is, we all need to be ready. And we all need to be excited. In fact, we need to be thrilled to know that all of this is going to come to an end and Jesus will be glorified. Aren't you tired of hearing him mocked so, it breaks my heart. So let's look at the text.

"As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Teacher, behold, what wonderful stones, what wonderful buildings!' And Jesus said to him, 'Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.'" And here we come to the first little point in our outline, and that is, the temple's demolition.

You must understand that according to history, this was an amazing piece of architecture. Herod the Great had spent a fortune refurbishing the modest temple structure that had been erected many years earlier under the rule of Cyrus, remember when the Jews returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. And actually, the final touches were still being made during Jesus' day. The temple wasn't actually completely finished until AD 64, six years before it was destroyed; it was a magnificent building. They said that some stones measured 40 feet by 12 by 12 feet and weighed up to 100 tons. Can you imagine moving stones like that without cranes? The walls were luminous white marble that glistened with decorations of pure gold. Wealthy worshipers would contribute countless precious stones and priceless ornaments to adorn the walls. And the temple complex would accommodate many 1000s of worshippers and in it it had symmetrical porticoes and patios and colonnades and courtyards. The opulence of this edifice was absolutely mind boggling. In fact, its splendid grandeur, was even described in the Babylonian Talmud, stating, quote, "He that never saw the temple of Herod never saw a fine building." End quote. The eastern side, that would have been visible to Jesus and the disciples from the Mount of Olives--for those of us that have been there, you know exactly what it would look like. In fact, now, if you look at pictures, you see the Dome of the Mosque, you know, you're up hight and you're looking over, now the dome of the mosque is there, but that's the Mount of Olives, looking back on where the temple once stood. But they viewed this from the adjacent mountain, and they could see it glistening, especially in the evening. And I would say even more so in the morning when the sun would light it up. And sadly, however, this astonishing edifice that they viewed from the adjacent mountain had become a tragic symbol of apostate Judaism. And it was about to be destroyed, along with their apostasies.

And this led to Jesus solemn prediction recorded in Matthew, chapter 23, verse 38, that "'Your house is left to you desolate.'" And then in Matthew 24, verse two, "'not one stone shall be left upon another, which shall not be torn down.'" Can you imagine the shock and the confusion of the disciples. And history records that when the Romans attacked the Temple Mount, they set fire to the main temple structure, and the heat was so immense that the stones crumbled into powder. And the stones that we see there today were merely the the retaining walls of the temple. And then they sifted through all of the ashes to retrieve the fine jewels, the gold and the silver. And indeed, as Jesus promised, not one stone was left standing. The great Jewish historian of that day, Josephus, said that when the Roman army had finished, the temple area looked like "a wilderness that had never been inhabited." So the Messianic hopes of the disciples being dashed, they don't understand what's going on. And if their beloved temple is going to be gone, so too is the nation, so they're doomed. And I'm sure in their mind, they're thinking, no temple means no Messiah. And yet he's here. Undoubtedly, Malachi's prophesy in chapter three and verse one is ringing in their ears. There we read, "T'he Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,' says the Lord of hosts." But again, if you have no temple, you have no place for the Messiah to come, no kingdom.

Later on, when all of this happened, Jews understood this. They are still waiting to build their temple are they not? By the way, Malachi's prophecy was reference to the millennial temple, that the Lord himself will construct at his second coming and you see the details of it, described in Ezekiel chapter 40 through 48. So we read in verse three, "As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James and John and Andrew were questioning him privately. "Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?" Matthew 24 three adds this, "Tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" Three questions, very appropriate questions. When will these things be? When are you going to destroy the temple? And are you going to miraculously rebuild it? I mean, is it going to happen next week, next month, next year? And how does all this fit into your talk about dying and resurrection?

The second question, what will be the sign of your coming? "Parousia" is the term that is used, which means "presence" or "arrival" or "manifestation". In other words, when are you going to ascend the throne of Israel as our messianic king, and the effulgence of your glory is going to beam forth? That's what we're waiting for. When is this going to happen? And what's going to be the sign of your "parousia"? And what will be the sign of the end of the age? The term "end" in the original language translates a compound word denoting an ultimate consummation, or a culmination, a completion of plot, of a planned series of events. In other words, what can we look for that will indicate that you will finally manifest your power and your glory as our Messiah? What sign? Tell us what it will be when this age of wickedness and rebellion is finally over.

Now, it's important to understand as well that the disciples thought that all of these mysterious events that Jesus was talking about would happened shortly and in quick succession, in a single continuum. They had no idea that he was going to leave; they had no idea of a church age that would intervene before his ultimate parousia. Again, Luke 19:11, The twelve, "supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately." And you realize that even after the resurrection, just before Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples asked in Acts 1:6, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" So they could only comprehend a swift sequence of dramatic events that would culminate in this promised Messianic kingdom. So beginning in verse five, Jesus begins to answer their questions in reverse order. He begins by addressing the signs of his coming. And I again, he is using the term parousia, in the technical sense, referring to his second coming. And as we look at the combined records of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see that there are six specific signs that Jesus gives them, and he calls them "birth pangs" in Mark 13 eight for example. These are the things that will occur just before his appearing: false messiahs, nations at war, natural disasters of epic proportions, persecution of tribulation saints, defection of, and betrayal by false believers, and interestingly, enough mass evangelism.

Now, as a footnote, these six signs have undeniable parallels with the seal trumpet and bowl judgments that are delineated in Revelation chapter six through 19. The seal judgments, we know from the text, will take years. The trumpet judgments weeks, the bowl judgments days and hours.

Now, a very important digression, because this comes up from time to time. After Jesus predicted the imminent demolition of the temple, he began to foretell events that would occur in the distant, not the immediate future. But some disagree with this. And they have what's called a "preterist" view, or maybe you've heard of Preterism; that comes from the Latin term, “praeter" which means past. And this interpretation of eschatology, and particularly the Olivet Discourse and the book of Revelation, would argue that the events referred to had already taken place or were taking place at the time of the writing. And that all of the eschatological passages describing the Tribulation and the return of Jesus were fulfilled with first century events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. They insist that the timing indicators in the New Testament where words are used, like "near," "soon," "quickly," and "this generation," demand that Jesus had to return in just a short amount of time, maybe a few years or decades. There's a number of reasons why we rejected that view. I'll give you just a few samples of it so that you have some sense of it. And if you want to know more of the details of all of this, I'd be glad to refer you to other documents. But when you look at terms like "near," "soon," "quickly," you must understand that they're merely conveying the idea of imminence, which Jesus spoke of, for example, in Matthew 23:36, "'No one knows the day or the hour only the Father.'" Acts one seven, "'It is not for you to know, times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.'" And every generation should live with the imminent expectation that these events could suddenly burst on the scene and regarding the phrase in Matthew 24:34, "'This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.'" That cannot be referring to the time of Christ. Why? Because there was nothing even remotely like the catastrophic global and cosmic cataclysms described in the Olivet Discourse and in the sealed trumpet and bowl judgments, none of that occurred. Nothing even close to that occurred in ad 70. There was no abomination of desolation, where an Antichrist appears and desecrates the temple and sets himself up to be God. How are you going to spiritualize all that away? There is no place where you see the sun being darkened, the moon will not give its light, stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. You don't see any of that in AD 70. There is no sign of the Son of Man that will appear in the sky and then all of the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. None of that happened. There's no sending forth of angels with great trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other. None of these things that Jesus predicted. No gospel being preached to all the nations, as we see here in verse 10. In fact, Jesus described this time as quote, this is in verse 19, "'A time of tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation, which God created until now, and never will.'" Moreover, the Preterist position would mean that the book of Revelation had to have been written before AD 67. But the consensus view in church history is that its writing occurred during the reign of Domitian, around AD 95. And so all of the signs predicted after the demolition of the temple, have to be distant future, way beyond the events of ad 70, as we will see.

Now, while certain aspects of each of these signs have occurred down through history, we've never seen anything like the severity and the scope of the staggering events that Jesus described, and others that go along with it, in other passages of Scripture. And, also think about this, Jesus says that these six signs are quote, "merely the beginning of the birth pangs." In other words, they're going to get far more severe and increase in frequency. We all understand that when a woman gives birth to a child. And so to claim that these events all take place in AD 70, simply does not fit the facts of this text. Again, think about it, birth pangs do not occur at conception. They do not occur at pregnancy, but just prior to birth. And so it makes no sense to apply this to the destruction of Jerusalem--an event that occurred at the very beginning of the church age. Paul reminds us that Christ will return as a "thief in the night" right? He's going to return suddenly, unexpectedly. And he uses the same figure of birth pangs that Jesus uses here. We see that this in first Thessalonians five, verses one through three. There we read, "While they are saying, 'Peace and safety!' then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape."

So we still wait these labor pains that will culminate in the inconceivable and unprecedented catastrophes that Jesus describes. These dear friends, I believe, are pre-kingdom judges that will occur at the very end, during the time of Daniel's 70th week that we've studied in the past, just prior to Jesus second coming. And these are events consistent with the prophecies that are delineated there in Daniel's 70th week, and the pre-kingdom judgments as well, as I've said in Revelation six through 19, just prior to the Lord establishing his kingdom.

It's also important to understand, again, this is preparatory, I want you to get some theological understanding that frames what we're about to study. And that is this, although God's economy in dealing with Israel finds numerous fulfillments in the church, nevertheless, Daniel's 70th week is distinctively Jewish in context, pertaining to God's covenants with Israel. They cannot be describing something in the church age, I would argue. When Israel enters, according to Jeremiah 30, and verse seven, "the time of Jacob's trouble," that's a period of unprecedented oppression for Israel. The context describes Israel's final restoration, just before their Messiah returns as described again in Revelation six through 19. So Jesus clearly indicates in Matthew 24, verses 15 and 16, as well as Mark 13:14, that the 70th week prophecy of Daniel is to be the template of the chronological sequence of the beginning of birth pangs. These are pre kingdom judgments consistent with God's purposes and his plan for Israel, not the church. Daniel 9:24, "70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place." And while Israel has been set aside temporarily, as we read in Romans 11:11, through 15, the normal reading of scripture would make it clear that they will once again emerge; Israel will once again emerge as the object of divine intention, as he has promised. So today, we await to this. I believe now, just so that you get a sense of the premillennial dispensational position that we hold here at this church--one that is despised by many--I would argue that we're awaiting the translation of the church--the rapture of the church--the church to be snatched away, before the seven years called the Tribulation begins, or Daniel's 70th week. And the signs Jesus describes are secret events, again, analogous to a woman entering into labor and these events will increase in severity and rapidity until the Messianic Kingdom is birthed.

So typical of Old Testament prophecies, where God speaks in the second person, often addressing people who are not yet born, we see the Lord now answering these questions. And indeed, Jesus' answer speaks to all of us today, not just to them; all who will follow, but especially to those who will be alive at the time of his arrival. However, again, he doesn't answer their question regarding when, until Mark 13:32, and then he simply says, "But of the day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." By the way, that passage does not mean that Jesus was not God--that somehow, he was stating that he was not deity but rather, we can see that during the days of his humiliation, in the days of his incarnation, we know that Jesus voluntarily limited his omniscience and the exercise of his divine attributes and his prerogatives. We see this in Philippians, two six, for example. He only knew what the Father revealed to him during his earthly ministry. But after his resurrection, the omniscience he possessed from eternity past was fully restored.

So we've seen number one: the temple's demolition being promised. Secondly, the signs of the end. Now, what are the six signs, these birth pangs, these pre-kingdom judgments that Jesus described? Well, today we're going to look at the first one. And that is in verses five and six, false messiahs; that there are going to be great deceivers and deceptions that will lead to the worship of the ultimate false teacher, false messiah, the Antichrist. Notice verse five. "And Jesus began to say to them, 'See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name, saying, I" am He!" and will mislead many.'" And Jesus repeats this in verses 22 and following, "'For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance. '" And we know that they exist even today. And Satan does all kinds of false signs and wonders. I mean, think about the power of AI and what it is able to do. I think of Revelation 13, where the Antichrist even, is going to be wounded, and he's going to die. And it's interesting that God is going to raise him to increase the deception. So this is what is coming. And he extends this warning to all people, in chapter 13 of Mark and verse 37, "'What I say to you I say to all, "Be on the alert!"'"

Now, while false messiahs and false teachers have always existed--certainly they exist today-- and we are warned about them all through the New Testament, you must understand that their numbers are going to greatly increase, and their power is going to greatly increase at the very end of the age. Think of the future contact of this morning, context of this morning. Understand the chronology here of these events. By this time, the church has been caught up; the church has been raptured (First Thessalonians 4:17). We know according to Revelation 3:10, the Lord promised to keep the church from the "'hour of testing, that hour, which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth.'" Imagine what's going to happen when all of the believers of the world suddenly disappear. It's going to be chaos beyond comprehension, confusion, people will be desperate for spiritual answers. And of course, that is always fertile soil for false prophets and false teachers. And sometime after the rapture, we know that the sealed judgments will begin to occur during the first three and a half years of what is called in a broad sense, the Tribulation, (Second Thessalonians, one six.) And it's interesting that at the beginning of the Tribulation, the Lord Jesus Christ will unleash the first Seal Judgment, we read about in Revelation six, one and two, which describes a pseudo peace, a false peace that will lull the world into an understanding of all that has happened. Lull them into a false sense of security; visions of Utopia will finally be promised and manifested, supposedly. Of course, this is the calm before the storm. And all of the deceptive charlatans that will arise during that time, to make a buck off of everybody's confusion, will actually pave the way and foreshadow the most vile, false Christ of all--the Antichrist. And even now the steady deterioration of societies is a real dilemma to the liberal elite who remain committed to classic Darwinian evolutionary theory and the vision that ultimately human progress is going to trend upward. Right? That's what we've been promised. And any idiot can look and see that that's not happening. And so since it's not happening, we have to have the elites to do social engineering to make it happen. And that's what we're dealing with now. And of course, this requires the superior wisdom of the liberal elite who must control the populace, who they consider to be ignorant rabble, especially, born again Christians. But after the rapture, again, imagine the chaos and even now man is desperate for a leader, right? Even in our country, we see all this chaos. The whole Biden/Trump thing, as if either one of them could ever deliver us from the abyss that we've entered into. Man is desperate for a leader. And mankind is predisposed to worshipping anyone that can offer them change we can believe in, remember Obama? That's worked out real well. Imagine how much worse it'll be dear friends. When the true church is translated into heaven. No more salt to slow down the decomposition no more light to expose it. Just darkness. David Larsen said, quote, "Problems on earth seem insurmountable. No human leadership seems competent to address the complexity of the issues. But demographic explosion with moral social, economic, ecological and political ramifications baffles the think tanks of the world, humankind's vaunted self-sufficiency, evaporates in the face of insoluble questions. The church, notwithstanding her frequent impotence and perennial failure, is now gone. And the salt and light she has afforded are missing. Homo sapiens are adrift, rudderless." End quote. Even now, the world needs a leader and how much more so in that day. The world is craving a political hero. One prominent Belgian diplomat and astute European strategist by the name of Paul-Henri Spaak. Put it this way, quote, "We do not want another committee. We have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature, to hold the allegiance of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking send us such a man be he God or devil, we will receive him." End quote. Paul Missoura, prominent European economist/banker commented on this leadership vacuum. And here's the prediction that he made. Quote, "The large number of government bureaus that will have their orbits in the atmosphere of our planet cannot be allowed the freedom to compete and comply, collide with one another. So, in order to control the diverse bureaucracies required, a Politburo will develop. And over this group organization, there is likely to arise the final and single arbiter, the master of the order, the total dictator."

Well, this is from a human perspective. Let me give you the truth from a divine perspective in Daniel's prophecy. Daniel chapter eight, beginning in verse 23, we read of this antichrist that is coming on the scene. There we read, "A king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue. His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; he will destroy mighty men and the holy people. And through his shrewdness, he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence, and he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without human agency."

As we look at biblical eschatology, we see that after the rapture of the church, according to Daniel 9:27, the prince to come, who is the Antichrist, will make a covenant with Israel, which actually will be the beginning of Daniel's 70th week judgment. And really the beginning of the Tribulation, not so much the rapture, but the signing of the covenant with Israel. And at that time, the Jews will finally be able to rebuild their temple on Mount Zion, something that they already have the plans for, they're just waiting, waiting to do it. And that will be the temple that the Antichrist will desecrate in the middle of the week, the middle of that seven-year period, three and a half years. But during that time, Daniel also tells us in Daniel 11, beginning in verse 36, "Then the king will do as he pleases," referring to the Antichrist, "and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done." The Spirit of God gives us more through the apostle Paul in Second Thessalonians two beginning in verse three, where we read, "Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless," referring to the day of the Lord, "it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God."

This is what's coming, dear friends. But there will be many that will come to saving faith during the time of the tribulation, after the rest of us have gone on to be with the Lord either through death or through the rapture. But he will not be able to deceive the elect of God, we're told, who will be saved during the time of the of the Tribulation. Jesus even said in John 10, beginning of verse four, that the sheep follow their shepherd because "they know his voice.'" Isn't that a wonderful statement? He went on to say, "'a stranger, they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.'"

Oh, dear friends, in closing, all of this is going to happen but what we see today is the stage being set for it. The momentum is gaining with all of the deceptive teachers, religious teachers, philosophers, politicians. In fact, Paul says in Second Timothy 3:13, "But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." The level of deception in the world today is absolutely mind boggling, isn't it? I mean, you turn on the news, you don't know what to believe, all these conflicting things. Sometimes they'll show us a split screen and on one side, you'll see, for example, hundreds of 1000s of illegal people coming across our border, and the next screen, you'll hear some guy saying our border is secure. You know, it's just double-think, it's mind boggling. And with the the advent now of AI, and the internet, social media that can propagate lies by the billions instantly; corrupt politicians and educators and prosecutors and judges in the media, we don't know who to trust in the world. But we know who to trust outside of the world, and that is the Lord our God, whose has given us his Word. Remember, Satan is the father of lies, and God has allowed him right now, to temporarily rule this current world, until the Lord returns. So dear friends, may I challenge you--guard your heart, guard your minds, be people of the Word. Read it, study it, meditate on it. Speak it to your spouse, to your children, to your friends, feed upon the word of God, and God will protect your heart and your mind, in the midst of all of this wickedness, and he will encourage you because the reality is, Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again. I hope you're ready.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that give us some sense of even the particulars of what you're going to do and what you have done. But Lord, there's so much we don't know. And that's okay. You are God and we are not. And were you to even tell us, we wouldn't be able to comprehend at all. But we know what you have given us is sufficient. And I pray therefore, that we will rejoice in the major truths that we can be certain of, and that is that you are in control of history, and that nothing can prevent your plan from coming to fruition and in this, helps us to relax and to rejoice. And for those who do not know you truly know you as Savior, o Father, won't you bring such conviction to their heart that they will run to the foot of the cross and cry out for your undeserved mercy available through Christ our Savior? Bless us, encourage us, strengthen us and come quickly. We pray in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.

We continue to make our way verse by verse through Mark's gospel. So, if you will take your Bibles and turn to Mark, chapter 12, we're going to be examining verses 38 through 44. And I've entitled my discourse to you, "Beware of Religious Phonies". That is certainly the theme of this text. And it is the goal of this exposition, to give you the discernment that you need to do exactly what the Lord Jesus tells us to do here in this text.

By way of brief context, Jesus is now less than two days from his crucifixion. He's been teaching and preaching in the temple court, and there's been many, many people listening; he has thoroughly embarrassed and humiliated those who have tried to embarrass him and humiliate him; namely, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and so forth. They have been trying to trick him. They, of course, were the religiously elite and they were trying to demonstrate in front of all of the people what a fraud Jesus was, because ultimately, they wanted to kill him. And now I want you to get the picture in your mind. You're in the court of the Gentiles, there's maybe as many as 1000 people around and you've got the scribes and the Pharisees right up front for everybody can see them standing before him. And we read this in Mark 12: 38, "In His teaching He was saying: 'Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings in the marketplaces and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows' houses, and for appearance's sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation.' And He sat down opposite the treasury and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put into small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.'"

I have a bit of a lengthy introduction that I think is important to help frame this passage. And so if you will bear with me, and then we will get exactly to these particular words. I've been in Christian ministry for about 40 years. And I've had to battle two formidable enemies. One within me and one outside of me. I've had to battle my own flesh, and I've had to battle Satan and his deceptions in the world. And only by the grace of God have I been able to gain any measure of victory in my life. And I think all of you can identify with this. And as a seasoned pastor, over the years, I have developed a very keen eye for spiritual danger that might destroy me personally, that might destroy my family, and certainly might destroy the sheep of the pasture that God has given me to shepherd. And every faithful pastor that has been called My God, not my man, especially older pastors, can attest to the profound danger of wolves in sheep's clothing of those that would preach and teach doctrinal error of those, that in very subtle and ingenious ways, do the bidding of Satan in his diabolical schemes. We see it in the culture, and we see it in many churches. And frankly, Satan does his greatest work not by doing something from the outside to the church but joining the church and destroying it from within.

But I would say that Satan's most diabolical, his most dangerous strategy, and his most effective strategy to thwart the purposes of God, is through the use of religious phonies. And that's what Jesus dealt with throughout his entire ministry with the scribes, the Pharisees the Sadducees. But they have always existed in various forms. We can go into the Old Testament, for example, and see examples of many heretics, false prophets, false teachers; I think of what Paul reminds us of in terms of the early heretics in Second Timothy three verses eight and nine, he spoke of Jannes and Jambres, who "opposed Moses," remember that? Men that oppose the truth, men of a depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. We can go to numbers 22 through 25 and read about the false prophet Balaam. Earlier in our scripture reading, we read out of Jeremiah 23. For example, verse 16, says, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; they speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the LORD.'" We go on to read beginning in verse 31, "'Behold, I am against the prophets,' declares the LORD, 'who use their tongues and declare "The LORD declares," Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,' declares the LORD and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods, and reckless boasting; yet I did not send to them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,' declares the LORD."

Indeed, these were men that were self-appointed; they were not God ordained. Men that would twist the scripture in order to promote themselves, promote their own agenda. You can go into the New Testament; you see examples of this with the Judaizers. Remember in Acts 15 they're trying to mix law with grace, insisting the Gentile, for example, must be circumcised in order to obey the law of Moses and to be saved. In Galatians chapter one, verse six and following we read how they were teaching, quote, "a different distorted gospel." One that was contrary to what the apostles preached, and they were to be accursed. In Second Thessalonians, you read about false teachers that had confused the people thoroughly about the Lord's return. And then Colossae, Jewish legalists, that also embraced pagan mysticism and rigid asceticism, were polluting the church. It's what is commonly known as the Colossian Heresy. And Paul warned about this in Colossians, two and verse eight. He says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."

And that same warning goes to each of us today. You will remember in Revelation two, you had the warning against the Nicolaitans, in the church of Pergamum. And then in the church of Thyatira, you have, quote, "the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bondservants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols." Paul warned of this in First Timothy four beginning in verse one, "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron." And then we are warned in Second Timothy chapter two beginning in verse 16, "But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some." And then that familiar passage in Second Timothy, chapter three beginning in verse one, "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revelers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Peter warned of this as well. We read about it, for example, in Second Peter two beginning in verse one through verse two, in particular. He speaks of false teachers, and how they will "secretly introduce destructive heresies". He goes on to say that "many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned." Beginning in verse 12, he speaks of them as "unreasoning animals...reviling in their deceptions" (v. 13) ...having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed (v.14). He went on to say, "These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escaped from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved." In other words, these false teachers are motivated primarily by sexual lust, that is immorality, by greed and by power. So, Titus says, or Paul said to Titus, I should say in chapter one, verse 16, "They profess to know God, but by their deeds, they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed."

I would submit to you that there are at least three general categories of false teachers that we need to be aware of. There's the heretic, the hypocrite, and the incompetent. And there's much overlap with these. When I think of the heretic, and I speak of that, I'm talking about apostates that speak things that are contrary to Scripture. These are typically self-appointed men, a lot of times women, they are predators in pulpits. They often have huge followings, and they're primarily entrepreneurs.

Jude gives a great summary of them. I won't read all of the passages--I'll just give you the designations. They are ungodly, morally perverted; they deny and distort the person work of Christ; defile the flesh. They're rebellious, they revile holy angels. They're dreamers, ignorant self-destructive, grumblers, fault finders, self-seeking, arrogant speakers. flatterers, mockers cause the division, their worldly-minded and without the Spirit. And he even says something that is especially important for us to remember, is that they creep into the church quote, "unnoticed". They creep into the church, unnoticed, they join our fellowship; seem like great people--smart, charismatic type people, they know the word. And then they begin to introduce these deceptions, satanic counterfeiters. Now, in that day, it was primarily referring to itinerant preachers that would do this stuff, but today, it's everywhere, especially with the internet, man-centered people, not God-centered. They preach a man-centered rather than a God-centered gospel. They speak a lot about man and his needs, not God and his glory. And you will see this for example, in the prosperity gospel, the social justice gospel, the LGBTQ gospel, the seeker sensitive gospel, the whole Ecumenical Movement, and so forth.

But not only do you have the heretic, but you also have the hypocrite. Of course, this would include all heretics, but it would also include those that teach sound doctrine. There are hypocrites that teach sound doctrine. Now all of us are sinners, but here I'm referring to that man who has a secret life that is dominated by sin. And his secret life does not match his public message. This man is ruled by life-dominating sin rather than the indwelling Spirit. This is what was going on with the scribes and Pharisees. They were not only heretics, but they were hypocrites. Not too long ago, a world-renowned evangelical minister and Christian apologist, a man by the name of Ravi Zacharias was exposed for his secret immorality; soon after that he died. So, you have the heretic and you have the hypocrite.

And the third one, maybe as dangerous as the two former ones, and that is the incompetent. This is typically the self-appointed, not the God-ordained or God-gifted man. This is the type of man that has a superficial grasp of theology, a superficial grasp of the word. The content of his sermons are as shallow is icing on a doughnut. And equally as malnourishing. Many times, when you listen to them preach, they just kind of ramble around, they have conversations with the people, you can tell they don't really know much about what they're talking about. And they tend to make the obvious, even more obvious. I've seen this so many times. These are men that are typically irreverent, they're undignified, they're overly casual and they’re as boring as watching paint dry. Many of them are entrepreneurs, entertainers, ear ticklers; they certainly don't meet the qualifications of an elder in First Timothy three and Titus one. For example, in Titus one, they're unable to meet this most important qualification, "holding fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able to both exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict." May I remind you that God has given the church, pastor teachers. According to Ephesians, four beginning in verse 12, we read that these pastors and teachers are for the "equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; so that we all attain to the unity of the faith"--referring to doctrinal unity--"and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful, scheming." And whenever you see a church that is easily carried away by every wind of doctrine, that falls into the trickery of men, the craftiness, the deceitful, scheming, you know that they don't have a pastor teacher. And you can quickly see the level of incompetence in these type of men by what they preach, how they preach. Typically, again, rambling, superficial, man-centered topical sermons. And unfortunately, many churches today are little more than religious social clubs, rather than the pillar in the support of the truth. This is so dangerous because what happens is congregations are banished to an island of spiritual infancy; they just don't grow. They don't develop any discernment. Therefore, they're vulnerable to the schemes of the devil. We're constantly warning our kids about things that are out there, what to look for, and how to combat that. Sadly, many churches don't get that from the pulpit. And often the problem is not even so much of in what they teach, but what they leave out. This is why so many evangelicals today have capitulated to the progressive ideologies that celebrate sexual perversions, transgenderism, critical race theory, abortion, all these types of things.

A recent article from The Gospel Coalition actually juxtaposes the lyrics of Taylor Swift with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I read in one article a few months ago, The Gospel Coalition published an article and then deleted it (it's still available at archive.org) that warrants nothing but mockery and scorn, the piece titled "Seven Things Christians Can Learn from Taylor Swift's Eras Tour," and aims to reveal how the pro LGBTQ anti-Christian secular pop icon, Taylor Swift's music tour is apparently fertile ground for Christian education." Folks, this is the kind of venom that comes straight from the fangs of the serpent. This is what heretics teach, what hypocrites teach, and many times what incompetent ignoramuses will allow in the church. It's devastating. And bear in mind that incompetent preachers are unqualified preachers. And by preaching, I mean, a clear and compelling exposition, explanation, application of the Word of God that is so convicting, that is so edifying, that is so encouraging, that all the listeners will know that they have been in the presence of the Most High God, and they will be forever changed because of what they heard.

In the Puritan era, pastors were considered physicians of the soul. Therefore, they needed to be what we would call board certified. A physician of the body today needs to be board certified, right? You don't want to go to a doctor that just decided one day, he wants to be a doctor; he's got to go through rigorous training. Well, that's the way it was in those days. In fact, it was illegal for a man to, what they would say ascend the sacred desk, which would mean come into a pulpit, without having first met the highest standards of his theological acumen, his grasp of the Word of God, his character. Where those that were great, and godly theologians could vet him and see that he was clearly gifted by God to preach with unusual clarity and conviction and what they called unction, which was Spirit empowered preaching that moves people to be able to understand and apply the Word of God and bring them face to face with God in his preaching. Well, today if you can fog a mirror you can preach, and that's about it.

Remember, when Paul went into Corinth, wicked, wicked, unbelievably wicked city. First Corinthians two we read, beginning of verse two, "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." Dear friends, the character, and the message of this kind of man will be validated by his likeness to Christ. And I like to call this a godly presence. I think I've included this, or they've included this even in your bulletin--as I have written elsewhere. "A gospel preacher with a "godly presence" is a man with a noticeable aura of godliness about him, both in and out of the pulpit--a man like Jesus; a man who possesses a palpable sense of humility and love that draws you into His presence; a man who exudes spiritual strength, confidence, boldness, wisdom, and a noticeable fervency that marks him as a man of God, and a man on a mission; a man so lost in the wonder of the majesty of God, so filled with the Divine presence, that nothing in this world causes him to despair or tempts him to distraction."

"This is that rare man whose authority enters a room with him, and commands respect without ever asking for it. I am speaking of that extraordinary man who is quote, 'full of the Spirit and of wisdom (Acts 6:3) ...This is that exceptional man who has such a great likeness to Jesus, that he actually emanates his power in ways that are mysteriously transcendent and profoundly influential. His godly presence comes only from the unrestricted rule of the Spirit of God in his heart...this is the kind of men that you want on your side when you go into battle." And I add that, "It is very rare to encounter a man who can simply open up the Word of God with divine authority and disappear behind quote, "the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6), and with convicting power bring men and women, young and old, into the presence of the Most High God."

Dave Harrell

I've only met a few men like that, and I would long to be one. But I want you to see this as a contrast to the type of heretics and hypocrites and incompetent pastors that we have today. And certainly, those three appellations describe this, the scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And for this reason, and now we come to the text in verse 38, Jesus is teaching, and he says, "'Beware of the scribes." "Beware"-- it means be vigilant, be on the lookout, proceed with attention; watch them carefully. I love the picture in my mind here. I mean, they're standing right in front of him, right? There are hundreds of onlookers. Notice he didn't say beware of false teachers. No, that would be too ambiguous. Beware of the scribe. It doesn't say this, but I would imagine he pointed at them. You know, on the news, when they say that a criminal has escaped from prison, and we need to be aware of them. What do they do? They show you their picture, right? Give them your name. They don't say "Hey, folks, you know, there's a criminal out there, it's really dangerous." You know, you'd be out for look out for him. "Yeah, we don't want to use his name or show his picture. We don't want to offend him, you know, but just beware."

Now don't you know, the atmosphere was electric here. And frankly, Jesus is throwing gas on a fire that's already raging. They want to kill him. You know, he made this warning before, Mark eight, verse 15. He says, "'Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,'"-- leaven being that which influences; beware of the damming and deadly influence of the Pharisees that will permeate your mind and your life and bring you to destruction. Matthew records this in Matthew 16, verse six, he says, "'Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'" In verse 12, we read, "Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'" This again, reminds me what Paul said about the false teachers Hymenaeus and Philetus in Second Timothy two, verse 16. And following, that their message, their talk will "spread like gangrene." It's deadly stuff. It's contagious. The incompetent, heretical, hypocrite speaks words that are toxic. They teach things that are contagious, your kids hear these things, they repeat these things, and on and on it goes. And sadly, every church is going to reflect its pastor ultimately as did the people of Israel reflect their leaders.

Now, the scribes and the Pharisees again, Jesus makes it so clear, you can't miss them. He goes on to say, "They walk around in long robes.'" In other words, they have some kind of ostentatious attire. Some even say that historically, they wore white silk. I can't verify that for sure. But the point is, whatever they wore, it set them apart. So, people knew, well there's a scribe and a Pharisee; no mistaking them. They also wore a shawl. They would all wear a shawl during prayer time and other religious acts in the synagogues, but evidently some of them even wore them in public to attract attention. And clearly this was a uniform that would set them apart. Those of you that have graduated from college or whatever, you know, how we have these cap and gowns, you got these ornate gowns, and you know, mine's kind of a little, it's not a cap, it's more of a beret type of thing. Imagine if I wore that around all the time--you know, I go to the grocery "o, there he is." I mean, that's what was going on. Religious phonies are always desperate to be noticed. And he says they "like respectful greetings in the marketplace." And course the respectful greeting was "Rabbi" and that's what they would do; they would kind of bow. Oh, they love to hear that, they thrived on recognition.

Jesus doesn't stop there, in verse 39, that they love "the chief seats in the synagogues." Now these would be the front seats in the synagogues where the rulers would sit. They would face the synagogue where they would be able to answer questions from the people and so forth. So, this was a place of prominence. Now, we're aware of this, I mean, we see this for example, at wedding receptions or ceremonies of state where the most important people, that are there at that particular event, will have a seat of prominence. Well, that's where these guys wanted to sit.

By the way, as a footnote, out of this came, what's called the "cathedra", a cathedra was a raised seat or a throne of a bishop in the early Christian basilica. And we also hear about it like, you know, the chair of a department, you know, that's the most prominent person in academia in a particular department. And we know, for example, the Pope, who supposedly infallible, often speaks "ex cathedra". That's Latin for "out of the chair." In other words, he speaks with the authority and the supposed rank of that particular office. And so, we see this when the Pope makes papal announcements on matters of faith and doctrine and morals and so forth. He supposedly has the final authority on those things, which is blasphemous beyond words. I was reading where Pope Francis formally approved letting Catholic priests bless same sex couples. So much what the Scripture says, which is a radical shift in policy that aimed at making the church more inclusive, while maintaining its strict ban on gay marriage. Well, you get the idea.

On a final note, in order to refute, this arrogant hypocrisy that surrounded this whole issue of the chief seats, and then later on the cathedra, that came out of that historically, we see that in the Protestant Reformation, pastors would come out from the congregation, in order to ascend the sacred desk; in order to come to preach, rather than being seated in some big chair up front, as if he's something important. And the reason for this is to demonstrate that the pastor is merely one of everybody else. He has a unique calling, but he's just like all of you. And the message is coming from the church, through this man, through the Word, and so forth, and certainly a practice that we observe here. And this wasn't the case with the religious phonies, they wanted the chief seats, they wanted to sit up here with the robes on so that you can all see them and "oh, wow, there they are." They love the "chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets." The banquet was the "deipnon" in the original language; an evening meal where guests would be invited. And it's interesting, that if you study it, the most important person would always be seated to the far left of these couches that they would reside upon and recline on. And that was because when you're at the far left, you could easily see the entire table without turning your head, you could just turn like this, you wouldn't have to be looking all around. And so, the most prominent place would be to the far left of the couch arrangement. That's what they wanted. They'd be reserved for the scribes and the Pharisees.

Verse 40, they also "devour widows' houses." Now this must have really rang a bell with the people because they were notorious for this. Let me give you some background, the scribes were the official administrators for widows' estates when their husbands died; to help them administer the inheritance. I mean, that's all that they had. And of course, your inheritance was very important to you. I mean, even as it is today for us, you know, you ladies if your husband passes away, you've got, you know, what the two of you had together, you have your inheritance. And the widows and the orphans and the Levites would have no inheritance apart from the provisions that God made for them. And so, we read, for example, in Deuteronomy 24, beginning of verse 19. God's provision for them you will remember this, "When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you will go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan and for the widow." "When you beat," later on, he says, "When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow." So, this was a way of caring for people, very important, in God's economy. In Deuteronomy 24 verse 17, God condemns the leader, he says "You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan nor take a widow's garment in pledge." In other words, the administration of the law must be carried out equally among all of the people, including the most helpless in society.

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Now, a little more background. Widows would therefore entrust their estate to the scribes to help them administer all of the transactions. But what the scribes were notorious for doing, was swindling them; getting them to set it up legally so that a portion of their inheritance would be allocated to them. This is what Jesus is referring to when he says that you "devour widows' houses." See, they had the legal knowledge to know where the loopholes were, how to set things up, just like our attorneys, you know, you go and talk to an attorney and they speak a different language, and you just have to trust them. But imagine if your attorney did this, and they set it all up legally, and then later on, you find out that much of what you had belongs to them. We read about the wickedness of this, for example, in Isaiah one, verse 23, "Your rulers are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and chase after rewards. They do not defend the orphan, nor does the widow's plea come before them." Don't you know that those who were guilty of this heinous crime, standing there in front of Jesus and all those people, were squirming in their robes? They were exposed once again. And probably some of the people were looking on them with disdain, because they knew that that's exactly what had happened; some of their loved ones.

Jesus goes on and he says, "And for appearances sake, they offer long prayers." You see their prayers were nothing more than a pretense to impress people with their spirituality, and with their theological acumen, so that you will trust me when it comes time for me to deal with your estate, et cetera, et cetera. Hypocrites are always looking for a platform on which to perform; always looking for the spotlight so that they can run in it, run underneath it, and take a bow. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew six, beginning of verse five. He says, "'When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have the reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.'"

Jesus has so many scathing rebukes concerning these false teachers. In Matthew 23, verse 15, it says, "'Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much as son of hell as yourselves.'" Boy, Jesus didn't mince any words, did he? Verse 23, and following, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law; justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside, they are full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. So, you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy, and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say, 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them, and shedding the blood of the prophets.' So, you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?'" And what's sad, is repeatedly in Scripture, we see that these men knew the truth on so many error areas of doctrine matters, especially pertaining to Jesus, and yet they rejected that. Instead, they taught heresy. And because of their hypocrisy at the end of verse 40, we read what Jesus says, "'these will receive greater condemnation.'" I mean, folks, it's one thing to reject the truth with full knowledge, but it is all together something else to lead other people into deception. That is a heinous wickedness. Therefore, there is a greater condemnation. And sadly, we see this all the time. You see it in the word faith movement, in the prosperity gospel, the woke, LGBTQ, social justice gospels, these are all satanic schemes. These are all demonic conspiracies designed to malign the gospel; to eradicate Biblical Christianity from the planet, and to thwart the purposes of God and redemption. And for this reason, there's a "greater condemnation." "Condemnation"--"krima" in the original language. It speaks of a guilty verdict in a criminal case where the punishment is well understood, its execution. This is the terrifying fate of an apostate.

Psalm 146, verse nine, we read, "The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, but He thwarts the way of the wicked." Let me camp for a moment on another passage that gives further light into this issue of condemnation. It's in Hebrews 10, verse 29. There the writer says, "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God." And that's what these men were doing. And what many people do today. "To trample something underfoot," it was an expression that describes the most extreme form of disdain and disrespect. It was as if you're saying, "you were so worthless and so filthy, you're like the dust under my superior feet." That's what they were doing to Jesus, as many people do today. I mean, what impudence to know what God has provided through His Son, and to know what the Son endured on behalf of sinners, and then to reject it, that's what the writer of Hebrews is speaking to. They would continually return to the sacrificial system of the old covenant that pointed to the sacrifice of Christ. This was just an inconceivable act of defiance, because the law of Moses was a shadow of the coming Redeemer, the one that fulfilled the law. And so, to see that, to understand that, and then turn your back on that-- I mean, how much severer punishments must that kind of blasphemy deserve? Not only do they trample underfoot the Son of God, but it says, and they have "regarded"--or you could translate that considered--"as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified." By the way he here is not referring to the apostate. This is how many people will interpret this passage who want to argue that a man can lose his salvation; that is an errant position, and it cannot be defended in this passage, rather the closest antecedent is the "Son of God." So, the "He" refers to Jesus and apostate has never been sanctified I'd proven by the fact that he regards the blood of the covenant as unclean so the "he" refers to Christ. In fact, in his high priestly prayer, John 17:19, you will remember that Jesus prays to the Father, saying, and "For their sake, I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." In other words, he totally set himself apart to do the Father's will, by securing our salvation that we might be set apart unto God through faith in Him. And the point with all of this passage is this, it is utterly unfathomable to consider the Son of God as worthless, as filthy. And that's what they were doing. The one who poured out his blood, and became sin on our behalf, that we might have his righteousness--to come along and to hear these magnificent truths, and to hear Jesus speak of them, and to count it all is worthless. So, God views the apostate with the utmost disdain. If I can pause for a moment, I hope you are not among these people.

Not only did they trample underfoot the Son of God, and regard as unclean the blood of the covenant, but he says, they have "insulted the Spirit of grace." The Spirit of God has come into the world to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. He has given us His Word; he's put the glory of Christ on display. He's revealed to us the truth of the gospel, and you're going to insult him by rejecting all of this. Verse 30, and 31, "For we know Him, who said, 'VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY. 'And again, 'THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.' It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I think back in Hebrews six and you don't have this text. But many of the people that were standing before Jesus had heard all of these things and Hebrews six verses four and following speaks about how they had "once been enlightened." In other words, they had once been informed, they had once been instructed about the gospel. This passage is not speaking to believers, it's speaking to unbelievers. They've "once been enlightened," it says that they've "tasted of the heavenly gift." In other words, they had basically enjoyed some measure of the gift of God through common grace. They had gotten a little flavor of the new life, of kingdom blessings. I mean, they had tasted it. They had sampled it, but they had never drank it in; they'd never been changed by it. They had never ingested him fully. It even says that you've been "made partakers of the Holy Spirit." In other words, these unbelieving Jews had shared in a common association of the Holy Spirit. They were exposed to the works of God; they were exposed to the Word of God. Some of them had may even been healed by His power. Some of them have may have eaten of the five loaves and fishes; they had experienced all these things, but they did not possess him. They were never truly born again. But the point is, to experience all of this, these people are hearing Jesus, the scribes are right here, the Pharisees are right here; to hear and to know and experience all of this, and then walk away from it? This is incomprehensibly offensive to our triune God. Oh, dear friends, the consequences of hypocrisy and apostasy.

Hebrews 10, verse 27, it's a "terrifying expectation of judgment, AND THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES." Now, think about this, the horrors of the Roman invasions a few years later, would come upon these people. And yet, all of that pales in comparison to the eternal terror of hell.

Well, finally, in closing back to Mark 12, we read that Jesus "sat down opposite the treasury and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, 'Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus; but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.'" Now, many use the story as an example of sacrificial giving; that she gave everything she had. But obviously, that is not what God expects. That's not what is taught and in Scripture. And frankly, such an interpretation is completely foreign to the narrative. Remember here, the context is that of warning, of judgment upon the corrupt religious leaders, who were deceiving people, especially widows, with the false promises of Jewish legalism. And basically, they were saying, like the prosperity teachers do today, "the more you give, the more you're going to get." And there's no indication here in this story, that this woman loved Christ, that she was a believer. There's no mention of the attitude of her heart. There's no commendation for the amount that she gave. There is no mention of any principle of giving in the whole story. Beloved, what this is, is an example of another person, a victim, that's been duped by the greedy religionists that God condemned with the harshest warnings. This poor lady. These were religious predators, and we have them today. Greedy phonies, that took her last cent. So don't use the story of the widow's mite as a lesson on stewardship.

By the way, biblically, God honoring giving is never determined by the amount, but by the attitude. It should be a joyful privilege, not an obligation, an act of worship in love, devotion to Christ. As we look at the New Testament, giving...I mean, a lot of people want to say, "well, you need to tithe." Tithing is not in the New Testament folks, that might be a nice principle for you to use, but you don't have to give 10%. Some people will argue, "yeah, you do, you got to give 10% of gross." Others will say "no, you got to give 10% of net." All of that is ridiculous. All of that comes out of the Old Testament. In the New Testament the principles could simply be described as we need to be sacrificial. We need to give generously, we need to give proportionately to our ability to give, we need to give voluntarily and regularly. We are commanded, for example, to put aside and save as we may prosper, First Corinthians 16 two. Second Corinthians eight three give "according to your ability and beyond your ability, they gave of their own accord." Second Corinthians nine seven, "Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart." That's how we give.

Folks, in closing, beware of religious phonies, heretics, hypocrites, and incompetent pastors and elders, church leaders that are self-appointed, they're unqualified. And one final note. Never attend a church that tries to be attractive and relevant to the culture. That is a very dangerous church. Those churches that are constantly trying to reinvent themselves; churches that adjust the gospel message, they have a commitment to be less dogmatic, more therapeutic, more tolerant, more entertaining. Never attend a church that focuses on taking up social issues. That is always a sure mark of defection. As I say, Jesus and the apostles didn't march around with the "Jews Lives Matter" banner. It was all about the gospel. Look for a church that will not conform to the culture but will lovingly confront it.

Look for a church whose pastor and whose elders are, and I've given you seven things that come out of one of the books that I've written. And I'll use this in closing--look for the pastor who is number one: consumed with God's glory. Number two: content with his suffering. Convinced of his calling, controlled by one message--which is the gospel Christ and Him crucified--confident with one method. And that is the in-depth systematic, expositional doctrinal preaching of the Word and committed to one end, which is presenting every man completed Christ. And confirmed by one power, namely the power of The Holy Spirit. All of this will be the opposite of the false teacher, of the religious phony. May God help us guard our hearts that he might be honored in us and through us and because of us, Amen.

Father, thank you for the truths of your word. Help us to grasp them, not only intellectually, but to embrace them with our heart that we might live consistently with them. We long for your blessing, We long to be salt and light. And for those that may not know you as Savior, O Lord, won't you please bring such overwhelming conviction to them even this hour, that they will run to the cross, and cry out in repentance and place their faith in the living Christ. By your power and for your glory, for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

I trust that your hearts are indeed hungering for the Lord our God who reveals himself so clearly in his words. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel chapter 12, as we continue to make our way through it, verse by verse this morning. We will be dealing with the issue of "Who is Jesus Christ?" And this is what the Lord is dealing with in the text in verses 35 through 37. By way of brief context, Jesus knew that the Jewish leaders rejected his claim to be God, very God; they rejected his deity. They considered that to be blasphemy, worthy of death. In fact, the Jews actually believed that their Messiah would be a mere man; a human, being a descendant of Abraham, and David, but a great charismatic type of leader, great amount of power and influence, but not God in human flesh. And here Jesus asks the religious elite, a very important question. And the answer to this question is going to be irrefutable proof that he is indeed, God. As he said, let me read the text Mark 12, beginning of verse 35. "And Jesus began to say, as He taught in the temple, 'How is it that the scribes say that Christ is the Son of David? David himself said, in the Holy Spirit, 'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET."' David himself calls Him 'Lord'; so in what sense is He his son?' And the large crowd enjoyed listening to Him."

Most people today deny the deity of Jesus Christ, and therefore they refuse to worship him, to obey him. We certainly see this in the cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons. You see it in other false religions, like Islam, that believes that he was just a human prophet. And you see it in many apostate Christian groups that have so distorted the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it bears virtually no resemblance to who he really is, the true Jesus. And this is certainly true of most so-called Christians in our country. This week, I was thinking of our president who claims to be a Christian, a Roman Catholic. And I was reading that on January 28, he spoke at St. John Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina, an African American church. And the purpose, of course, was not to preach the gospel, because he has no clue what the gospel really is, but rather to bolster black support for his re-election. And at the end of the service, President Biden spoke from the pulpit saying, quote, "In my life, I've tried to walk my faith. Here's what I've learned. We're all imperfect beings. We don't know where faith is going to take us or when it's going to take us. But we can do our best to seek the light, the hope, the love. Where I come from, that's the power of faith."

Well, of course, this kind of frivolous drivel is typical of those who have no understanding of what genuine faith really is. They know nothing of the person and the work and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And certainly, we witnessed this in a profound way in the State of the Union address where we saw basically an angry, angry rant from a senile narcissist promoting the platform of the Democratic party that's rooted in ideologies that are nothing short of blasphemous to the Lord, our God. Tragic thing. You see, the issue is not "do you have faith?" The issue is, "in whom have you placed your faith? Who is the object of your faith? And why is he the object of your faith?" I wish the President would have quoted First John five beginning in verse four that reads, "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

So, the question before us is, "Who is Jesus Christ?" The world does not know, nor does it want to know. And Satan makes sure that most people do not know and do not care. Perhaps you've seen the "He Gets Us" marketing campaign that you see on, see it on billboards, TV ads, and so forth. I checked out their website, there's no Bible verses in it. It's a $100 million advertising campaign designed to quote, "rediscover the life and teachings of Jesus, the world's most radical love activist. That is our agenda at He Gets Us; to move beyond the mess of our current cultural moment, to a place where all of us are invited to rediscover the love story of Jesus." Wouldn't it have been nice that the purpose would have been to fulfill the Great Commission. The Jesus that they emphasize is the kind of Jesus the world wants; an idol that winks at sin and judges no one. John Lee, one of the primary organizers of the campaign said this, "Our goal is to give voice to the pent-up energy of like-minded Jesus followers, those who are in the pews and the ones who aren't, who are ready to reclaim the name of Jesus from those who abuse it to judge, harm and divide people." In other words, they want to present a Jesus that the world will love, that the world will follow. Something that obviously Jesus was unable to accomplish. Jesus even said in John seven in verse seven, "'The world hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.'" And in Matthew 10, beginning of verse 34, Jesus said, "'Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.'"

In the frequently asked questions on the website, they asked this, "Who do you believe Jesus is?" And of course, the answer now is going to reek of the stench of wokeism. Here's the answer. "How did the story of Jesus the world's greatest love story get twisted into a tool to judge harm and divide? How do we remind people that the story of Jesus belongs to everyone? These questions are the beating heart of He Gets Us. We hope to remind everyone, including ourselves, that Jesus’ teachings are a warm embrace, not a cold shoulder. That he didn't let "pro this" and "anti that" opinions prohibit him from seeing the value in all people. He Gets Us invites you to explore Jesus' story, on your own terms and at your own pace." It goes on to say, "Our campaign comprises humble perspective, from a diverse group of Jesus fans and followers with a variety of faith journeys, and lived experiences, bound by a common desire." Don't you wish that their perspectives were derived from the word of God? Goes on to say that, "The common desire is to rediscover and share the compelling story of Jesus' life in a new way. The campaign exists to remind us of the example that Jesus set, while inviting all to explore his teaching so we can all follow his example of confounding, unconditional love. Because he gets us, all of us."

So sad, dear friends, there's nothing in the website about the gospel, which begins with the violated law of a holy God. The president of the marketing agency behind it says quote, "Ultimately, the goal is inspiration, not recruitment or conversion." Dear friends, Jesus did not come to this earth to be our example. He came to this earth to be our Savior. He did not come to this earth to be our inspiration. He came to this earth to be our Lord, our master our God because he is infinitely holy. He is not only a God of love, providing salvation for all who will place their trust in Him, but He is also a God of justice that requires that all sin be punished. The true Jesus said in John 3:36, "'He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.'" And yet there is no place that that is described.

It asks the question, in the Frequently Asked Questions section, "What is your stance on the LGBTQ plus community?" Now here, I wish that they would have said, "Well, our stance is God's stance; that unfortunately, for people that live that, who practice that, they will never enter the kingdom unless they repent of that. That that is an abomination, and we need to love people enough to warn them, and to point them to the forgiveness and the transformation that is in Christ." But no, here's the answer. "These are probably the most common questions we receive. And we understand why many of those who represent Jesus have made people in the LGBTQ plus community feel judged and excluded, and others in the Jesus community have simply ignored their stories and lived experiences. So let us be clear, in our opinion, Jesus loves gay people, and Jesus loves trans people. The LGBTQ plus community, like all people, is invited to explore the story of Jesus and consider his example of unconditional love, grace and forgiveness of others. No matter who you are, you are invited to explore the story of Jesus and consider what it means for your life." They failed to mention that in Leviticus 18, the abomination of homosexuality is sandwiched between the prohibition of child sacrifice and bestiality. They didn't mention that. It didn't talk anything about Sodom and Gomorrah, First Corinthians six, nine and 10, that says the people that practice these things will never enter the kingdom. The emphasis is always love, love, love, but no mention of holiness. In Revelation 21, in verse eight, we read that "the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons, and sorcerers and idolatersa and all liars, their part will be in the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." No mention of that. The true Jesus said, indeed, "'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.'" But it also went on to say, in verse 18, of John three, Jesus said this, "'He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already.'" In other words, he stands condemned already, and "God's wrath remains upon Him," verse 36. And he goes on to say, "'because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than Light, for their deeds were evil.'"

My point with all of this illustration is to simply give you an example of how Christ's deity, and his holiness and His authority over all creation, has been replaced by a politically correct woke, sin tolerant Jesus that doesn't exist. My friends, what the culture needs, is a soul terrifying, sin destroying vision of the true Christ. In Isaiah six you will remember that Isaiah had a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, lifted up upon his throne, and the serafim all around him. And he did not say "he gets me." He said, "Woe is me." My friends, these are doctrines of demons. These are clever, brilliant counterfeits. And for this reason, John warned in First John four beginning in verse one, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God." Here's the test. "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." In other words, those that would never deny the true nature, and therefore the purpose, of Christ's incarnation. And then he contrasts this with "every spirit that that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world." You see, apostate evangelicalism, wants a Christian faith that will accommodate people that really want nothing to do with the true Jesus. And sadly, this is a damning example of inclusivism that is responsible for sowing countless tears among the wheat; weakening the church, weakening believers that are in the church, by putting so many unbelievers in the church, and therefore they have no discernment, no power, no sacrificial love for Christ and for his people, because they have no saving faith. As Paul said, in Titus one and verse 16, "They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed."

It is so sad to see people call Jesus Lord and yet they have no desire whatsoever of worshiping and honoring Him; obeying Him. Jesus spoke about this in Matthew seven, verse 21, when he said, "'Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven,'" that's the ones that will, then he will even do many astounding religious works, but never enter the kingdom. As he goes on to say in verse 22, and following, "'Many will say to Me on that day,'" the day of judgment, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name, perform many miracles?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS."'"

Beloved, I wish this morning to immerse you into the great depths of the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, so that we can contemplate the infinite perfections of his nature and His work of redemption. And I pray we will all humble ourselves before his Lordship, as together, we examine these profound and eternal truths concerning Christ. Before we look at the text, again, this is Wednesday probably, of the Passion Week. Jesus is literally hours from his crucifixion; he's teaching in the temple court. He has handily fought off the religious political elite, seeking to humiliate him. He has parried every blow of the devil, with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; leaving them utterly defeated, but not contrite. And here we see the long suffering, love of Jesus as he boldly proclaims the only truth that can save, even to people who absolutely do not want to hear it and hate him for speaking it.

In Ezekiel 18, verse 23, we read that God takes no pleasure "in the death of the wicked." But he knows the wickedness of their hearts, that they're plotting to kill him, to embarrass him, to expose him, to challenge his authority. And he also knows that they refuse to acknowledge what they know to be true. Namely, that this son of a Nazarene ccarpenter, is in fact, the Messiah; the Anointed One, the son of David, the son of God. And again, may I underscore this reality, that truth that Jesus is God, is the quintessential truth of Christianity, the truth that separates Christianity from all other religions which are false. So just remember Jesus was and is, and will always be God, very God.

So here in Mark 12, as we come to the text, beginning in verse 35, Jesus is is challenging the conventional understanding regarding the nature of the Messiah. He says in verse 35, "And Jesus began to say, as He taught in the temple, 'How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?'" Matthew puts it this way in chapter 22, beginning in verse 41. "Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 'What do you think about the Christ, whose Son is He?'" Literally what he's saying is, what is his pedigree, what his his genealogical record? What is his ancestry, from what Jewish line is he descended? And then the text says, "They said to Him, 'The son of David.'"

Now, this is a bit humorous. I mean, Jesus knew that they knew, but he also knew that they couldn't stand what they knew to be true. You see, the Jews kept meticulous records, genealogical records. They were destroyed in 70 AD when the Romans came in and obliterated the temple. But no one could hold any position of authority in Judaism without verification of their genealogy. Priests, for example, had to be descendants of Levi in order to serve. So, without question, the temple authorities had poured over the genealogical records that they hadm to check the veracity of Jesus outlandish, and frankly blasphemous, claim to be the descendant of David, making him the Messiah. And his claim to be all the more credible. If that was not the case, they would have long since exposed him as a fraud.

Now, I wish to remind you of the Old Testament background, that they were trying to disregard, that they were trying to distort in order to justify their rejection. But also, I might add, the source of the answer, they rightly gave, as you will see. And by the way, what's always interesting with people, is folks want to believe certain things, and they don't want to believe other things. And so they pick and choose in the Bible what they want to believe. But, for example, the concept of Christ, the Messiah, being the son of David, comes from the covenant that God made with David in Second Samuel seven, beginning in verse 12. There we read God, now speaking to David through Nathan, "'When your days are complete, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.'" Went on to say in verse 15, "'My loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house, and your kingdom shall endure before Me, forever; your throne shall be established forever.'" Obviously, this was not a reference to Solomon. Also, they would have known Psalm 89, verses three and four, that further proves the Messiah would be from the line of David. There we read, "'I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant, I will establish your seed forever and build up your throne to all generations.'" Moreover, they would have known Ezekiel 37, from which we read earlier, especially verse 21. And following, there, the Holy Spirit speaks through the prophet Ezekial about the future of his covenant people. And he says, "'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; nd I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king over all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms."''" And then he went on to add, "'I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them, and they will be My people and I will be their God.'" And then in verse 24, he says this, "'And My servant David, will be king over them.'" This is a reference to their ultimate final, eternal King, the greater son of David, often called David, as a reference to the Messiah's ancestral name. He goes on to add, "'And they will all have one shepherd and they will walk in My ordinances and keep my statutes and observe them and they shall live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons forever; and David, My servant shall be their prince forever.'" That ultimately will happen, oh, what hope we have in Christ dear friends. When Jesus returns, and he establishes His earthly kingdom, the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven, from the third heaven and hover over the earth, like a giant space module, like a glorious chandelier, suspended over the earth, illuminating the Earth with the glory of God. And this will be an interim kingdom prior to the eternal state where the Lord Jesus Christ will rule upon his throne. And his bride will be able to travel back and forth from the glory of city that Abraham anticipated. We read about it in Hebrews 11, verse 10, "for he was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God." And that kingdom will be inaugurated by God, binding Satan. The tribulation martyrs will be resurrected, the sheep and the goat nations will be judged, the entire topography of the holy city will be changed. The millennial temple that is described in such great detail, in Ezekiel chapter 40, through 48 will be built, and the son of King David will rule and he will reign upon Mount Zion. And New Testament saints who constitute the church will reign with him. Folks, this is the long-awaited consummation of redemption, that has been the blessed hope of the saints down through the years. Jeremiah speaks of this in Jeremiah 23, beginning in verse five. where the Lord says, "'When I shall raise up for David's a righteous Branch; He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name, by which he will be called, the LORD our Righteousness.'"

Now, there's some of the Old Testament background, that these scribes and these Pharisees would have understood surely. But they hated to admit it because the genealogy of Jesus Christ could be traced back to David, making him the son of David, the rightful heir to the promised throne. And you will also recall that Matthew's genealogy validated the very same thing that indeed Jesus is the Son of David. Well, that being the case, which the scribes and the Pharisees could not deny, Jesus asked this penetrating question in verse 35. "'How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? David himself said, in the Holy Spirit,'" in other words, under the inspiration of the Spirit, "'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET."'" And there he's quoting Psalm 110, verse one, David himself calls him Lord, so in what sense Is he his son? In other words, how can the Messiah merely be a human descendant of David? And if you look more closely at Psalm 110 and verse one, we see something very interesting. It says, "The Lord says to my Lord: 'Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.'"

Now, to help us understand this, there's a distinction in the Greek translation of the Hebrew. That makes it clear. Here we see Yahweh, being the first Lord that You see, I believe, I have it underlined. I do. Yahweh, Jehovah, that's the covenant name of God, the first Lord in the phrase, "The Lord said to my Lord,"and the second Lord is "Adonai", a reference to David's Lord, the title name of the Messiah. Yahweh, remember, is the covenant name of God, the tetragrammaton, the four letters, the English translation is capital letters, and Adonai is a substitute for his covenant name. That's a title name, translated with capital or sometimes lowercase letters. So, David is saying this, Yaweh, Jehovah God, addressed my Lord, the Messiah, my ancestral son, the very Son of God, by extension, the Lord Jesus Christ, and here's what Yahweh said to my Lord Messiah, "Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet." In other words, Yaweh promised his mediator, the Messiah--David's Lord, that he would give him the final and ultimate glory and majesty and power. This is a promise of preeminence that could only be given by God himself. So, Jesus is saying, since you agreed that the expected Messiah Christ would be the son of David, why would David call his own son, Lord? Mark 12:37, "'David himself calls Him, "Lord"; so in what sense is He his son?'" And the answer is, David's Lord is far more than merely his son, merely his descendant, no, no, he is also the Messiah. He is the Son of God, and they couldn't stand it. And by implication, what Jesus is saying to them is, "I am he--if you reject me, you reject David's Lord."

Now dear friends, please hear me, Jesus Christ is the Promised Messiah. He is the Son of God, the Son of David. Paul also expressed his eternal preexisted deity, you will recall and in Colossians, one, verse 15, where we read, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." He is the firstborn, the "prototokos", the preeminent one, the superior one. And the writer of Hebrews says this in Hebrews chapter one, beginning of verse two, "In these last days, God has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory, and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power." I would plead with you, do not be like the Jewish elite and try to deny the deity of Christ. Over and over, he proved his deity. He had power over the seas, he had power over the wind, he had power over sickness and sin and Satan and death. And only willful rejection can possibly deny such an obvious truth. You see, friends, the issue in unbelief is not one of insufficient evidence, nor is it an issue of presentation. The issue is hardness of heart. People simply do not want to believe and how sad to see the response of the Jewish elite. Can't you imagine their response as he asked them this question? You know, like we would say down here, I mean, it was like a mule staring at a new gate. Didn't know what to say? Overwhelmed. There's silenced in their guilt before their Creator. In Matthew 22, verse 46 ee read, "and no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question." You know, truth will always silence error ultimately. To argue with truth is like spitting into a gale force wind. Ultimately, error will always yield to the omnipotent power of divine truth.

Notice in Mark 12:37, we read, "the great crowd enjoyed listening to Him." My how nice, what a clever man, what a clever man. You see, they heard him with their ears, but they did not hear him with their heart. Frankly, in a matter of hours, they would cry out, "Crucify Him." Can there be any better illustration of spiritual blindness than this? This is what Paul talked about in Second Corinthians four, four, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." I mean, when it is pitch black and somebody flashes a light and you can't see it, you are blind. Satan uses every means possible at his disposal to prevent people from seeing and understanding the truth and the astounding attractiveness of the gospel. He uses errant theology, false teachers, often they're unwitting. The dribble like I gave you a little bit ago--He Gets Us. All these deceptive schemes that appeal to man's fallen nature. In Ephesians four Paul says this about unbelievers beginning in verse 17, "Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind being, darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them." And here's why, "because of the hardness of their heart; and they having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness." I mean, these people witnessed countless miracles from Jesus. He manifested unparalleled love, and kindness and compassion before them. They marveled at his wisdom, they marveled at his command of Scripture. In fact, in John 7:46, we read what they said, "Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks." And when he asked his most bitter, bitter enemies in John 8:46, "'Which one of you convicts Me of sin?'" None of them was able to respond to his challenge. Indeed, he is holy, he is innocent, he is undefiled; "separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens", Hebrews seven and verse 26. Yet despite all of this, they rejected him.

This is illustrated as well in First Corinthians two and verse 14, you're familiar with the text, it says, "But a natural man,"--it could literally be translated, "a man of animal soul," "one led by lower animal nature", "a person that is ruled by his bodily appetites", he's estranged from divine life. In fact, in James three, verse 14, and following you read about it, it says, "you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant, and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is not attached to this earthly, natural, demonic." Wisdom that is earthly, natural and demonic. The description, quite frankly, of the vast majority of our political leaders today that are in authority over us. "But a natural man", a man that is bereft of the indwelling Spirit and lives for himself and the things of the world, "does not accept" or literally, does not welcome the things, "of the Spirit of God." In other words, he rejects those things, he refuses those things, and here's why, "for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them." Here I'm reminded of Romans eight and verse seven, where Paul says, "the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." Oh, what would we do were it not for the regenerating power of the Spirit of God? They are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised, spiritually judged, spiritually discerned. In other words, because they judge according to their depraved animal nature, they are unable to render a proper verdict, because they can't recognize the facts. Well, in light of this amazing scenario, I wish to address just two final subjects that I believe emerge from this text that are very practical to each of us.

First of all, I would encourage each one of us to number one, revel in his glorious character. I like that word, "revel". We don't use it much. It means to celebrate, to rejoice in, to delight in. This so sad, Jesus so clearly, and compellingly revealed himself to the people. And yet they turned away their ears from the truth and turned aside under myths. I'm reminded of Second Timothy two as I was meditating upon this passage this week, beginning of verse 24, we read, "The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses, and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will." Oh, dear friends, we revel in the glorious character of Christ, and what he has done for us in His saving work of redemption. And here we see Jesus, doing exactly what we just read about here. He is compassionately, but forthrightly presenting the truths of the gospel. And yet most of them remained incarcerated, captured by the ghoulish clause of Satan's deception. They refuse to believe that he was who he said he was, and proved he was. And oh what mercy is ours to know the truth, and what indescribably precious gift that we have in our faith that has come to us by the power of regeneration.

I'm reminded of James one and verse 17, "Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow." And then he says this, "In the exercise of His will"--not my will--but, "in the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth." Oh, dear child of God, we need to revel in his glorious character and be devoted to him. And be able to say, "Oh Savior, what a blessed thought, to know of your great love, yet, Lord, I pray for what I ought to live for you above."

That brings me to my second point for you. Just really, practically, not only should we revel in his glorious character, but I would challenge you to rediscover the implications of his Lordship, in your life. Even as David called him, "Lord", and therefore worshipped and obeyed him as Lord, so too, we must submit to him, as our Lord, as our Master. We should willingly and joyfully call him Lord, because he loved us and gave himself for us. For example, in First Corinthians six, verse 19, we read that our "body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God." Isn't it amazing? As I say so often, because it's such a powerful truth to me, he redeemed us that he might inhabit us. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. He goes on to say, "You are not your own, for you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." Think of the implications of that. Our master has laid claim to us, and rightfully so, how dare we dispute such a claim? In Romans four in verse 24, the Holy Spirit caused the inspired apostle to speak of him as quote, "Jesus our Lord." "Jesus", in other words, our Master, the one we obey. Can you honestly refer to him in such a way? We are to obey none besides him, for he alone has the right to rule in our life.

May I ask you is it your passion to offer him your very life? To love him more than even your own family? Your earthly goods, your personal ambitions? Is it the desire of your heart to labor for him, and labor to love what he loves, and hate what he hates; to train your mind, as I say, to love him. Is it the passion of your heart to flee from anything that would grieve Him; that would cause him to be sorrowful for what you are doing, and thus forfeit blessing in your life and even put yourself in a position of divine chastening. Is it the passion of your heart to patiently endure every trial? Trusting completely in his sovereign care. Is it the passion of your heart to consecrate all that you have to his service, to live in light of his return? To cherish him more than life itself? This is the stuff of the Lordship of Christ, dear friend. Do you love fellowship with the saints? Do love to serve the saints? To sing with the saints? Let me put it this way, does the name of Jesus stir your blood like nothing else? Does the thought of Jesus and his Word and his ineffable sweetness come stealing over your soul habitually, as you spend time with the lover of your soul? Do you long to see Christ face to face? Can you honestly say, "Even so, Lord Jesus come quickly." That's the stuff of the Lordship of Christ. Can you say with the Apostle Paul in Philippians, three, verse seven, "Whatever things were gained to me, those things I've counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ." Beloved, this is the stuff of the Lordship of Christ. And the result in your life is going to be one of great blessing and great power--come what may.

In closing, there are stories that abound regarding saints who claim Jesus as Lord and even in the face of persecution, they never flinched, they never bowed to another God. I think of those that were persecuted under Rome. The things the Romans did were unimaginably demonic and brutal. I think of Ignatius Theodorus, who's also called Ignatius of Antioch. By the way, he succeeded Peter, as the pastor at Antioch. He was seized by the Romans because of his faith in Christ Jesus as Lord and sentenced to be devoured by wild beasts in Rome. And as he passed through the cities, from Syria, all the way to Rome on the way to be delivered to martyrdom, he encouraged other believers all along the way. Let me give you a quotation of some of what he said, quote, "Now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing of visible or invisible things so that I made but win Christ. Let fire and the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones and tearing of limbs, let the grinding of the whole body and all the malice of the devil come upon me. Be it so. Only may I win Christ Jesus."

I have a plaque that I put right here many years ago and it simply says, "we would see Jesus." Is that the cry of your heart? Polycarp, the venerable Bishop of Smyrna, asked to pray before he was burned. And what's fascinating is that he prayed with such fervency that his guards actually repented. And the Proconsul urged him, quote, "Swear and I will release thee. Reproach Christ." And here's how he answered, quote, "Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never once wronged me. How then shall I blaspheme my king who hath saved." 1000s of similar stories. Beloved, you will know that Christ is your Savior and Lord if your life proves that he is your Lord. If he is not your Lord, you need to seriously examine the veracity of your faith, because it is probably spurious. Those of you, who perhaps are like the Pharisees, who refuse to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the only Savior of sin, I plead with you this morning as a minister of the gospel, that you trust in Him, that you will repent and place your faith in him before it's too late. And for those of us who have bowed the knee to Christ, as everyone will, either in triumph or in terror, may we all celebrate even more; all that he has given us. And pray that indeed, he will come quickly. But until he does, may we be found faithful in serving, worshiping, and honoring Jesus, our Lord and our Savior, amen? Let's pray together.

Father, the eternal truths of your word are always so penetrating to us. Whenever we examine them, we find our hearts being laid bare. And how thankful we are that there is grace, that there is mercy, that there is forgiveness at the foot of the cross. Lord, for those who perhaps only know you by name, but they don't love you as Savior, and obey you as Lord, may today be the day that you overwhelm them with such conviction that they writhe in misery until they come to you in repentant faith. And Lord for all of us, who are debtors to your grace, may we have a renewed spirit of joy and excitement as we anticipate all that is ours in Christ? For it's in his name that I pray, Amen.

It is absolutely astounding to me to realize that God has disclosed himself to us, his creation, not only in his creation, but also in his written revelation, the Bible and the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, I hope and pray that you will never lose the wonder of these realities, especially now this morning as we look into his word that he has given to us. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark 12. We are still in verses 28 through 34, under the heading "God's Foremost Commandments." Let me read the text to you, Mark 12, beginning in verse 28, "One of the scribes came and heard them arguing and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, 'What commandment is the foremost of all?' Jesus answered, 'The foremost is, 'HEEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL., AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STENGTH.' The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these.' The scribe said to Him, 'Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; AND TO LOVE HIM WIITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THEUNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all bird offerings and sacrifices.' When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.' After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions."

The context here is the Temple Mount. Jesus is about to days...(audio not available).... lawyer of the Law of Moses, brilliant in the Old Testament scriptures in the rabbinic traditions. He steps forward now to take a shot at Jesus as the Herodians and the Pharisees had done previously, as well as those from the Sanhedrin. And as you will recall, the last time we were together, he had a baited question. And I gave you a three-point outline. We looked at the last two, I'll review them very quickly. The first two points were number one, we see the baited question, secondly, the indicting response. And then finally, the practical implications, which we will look at today. But let me give you a review to remind you what's going on here.

Under the heading the baited question, he says, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Remember, the ancient Jews had a real dilemma. They believe there were 613 laws in the Pentateuch, and they know that they couldn't keep all of the laws. Plus they had all kinds of other traditions that they had added. And they divided them into heavy laws and light laws. So they had to come up with a solution. How can we impress God so that he will save us with all of these laws? And so what we need to do is at least keep the heavy ones; the essential ones. So the question that they debated quite often was, well, what's the foremost commandment of all? If we keep that one, then surely God will be impressed. And of course, that is the great error of works righteousness. But Jesus knew their motivation. They knew that he knew that that scribe and all of them were trying to discredit him. And he also knew that they had some really bad theology.

So he responded to the baited question, secondly, with the indicting response. He said, "'The foremost is 'HEAR, O Israel, THE LORD OUR GODE IS ONE LORD; ANDD YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these.'" Now bear in mind that the Jewish people were very, very familiar with what Jesus just said. In fact, they would recite that two times per day. And they even wrote it on parchment and put it in phylacteries, which were little leather boxes; they had one that would be strapped onto the wrist on the left side closest to the heart. And you can see Orthodox Jews today, they will wrap them around their arm and then they will have one on their head too and they will, Jewish men, will use these during morning prayer. And they would also place the written law here in a little box, "Mezuzah," which means "door post," actually. They would put that on their door post. And if you go to Israel today, you'll see this; if you go into a hotel room, if you go into a restaurant, wherever you go, you'll see a little box and inside of that is this law. In fact, it's always fascinating to me, even when you go into a restaurant, I remember one gal she was busy running in and out of the kitchen and every time she walked through the kitchen door, there was a mezuzah, and she'd kiss it like this. And her left arm was just going like this constantly. So the point is, they knew about all of this. It was the Shema, which is the Hebrew word for "hear." It comes from Deuteronomy six beginning of verse four "'Hear'", which by the way, is tantamount to obey. "'Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God the Lord is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down nd when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.'" In other words, you must love the one true God perfectly, comprehensively, singularly with the totality of your being--that's the foremost commandment. Moreover, as you live that out, your children are going to ask what's going on here? Why are we doing these things? Why do we say these things?

By the way, folks, we all need to confuse our children with our godliness. So they will ask those questions. And then you can tell them, you can explain it to them. Now, of course, they didn't live this out as they should, as we examined the last time. And I believe that each of us struggle in this area as well. And so I wanted to take some time, and just write down some practical implications of what it means to love the Lord our God. And I came up with four, kind of overlapping realities, that I hope will be helpful to you. First of all, when he says that we should "love" him, realize that number one, this is a commanded love. This is not a suggestion. This is a command. In fact, in the Greek grammar, we see that the actions that will be performed in the future by the subject of the sentence must definitely occur. And that will only happen by the power of the indwelling Spirit.

Now, the question comes to all of us, how can God or anyone else, command us to love him? Or to love anyone for that matter? And that's a question that really comes out of a superficial understanding, a shallow understanding of the biblical term "love" as we see in Scripture. You see, we tend to think of love as an emotion. Like in romance, and of course, we use the term to describe everything from puppies to pizza, right? I mean, we love all kinds of things. But the term "love"--"ahavah" in Hebrew is from a root word "hav"--that which means to give or to care for or to have loyalty towards. So you must understand that the concept of love here doesn't describe how we feel, it describes how we act, how we behave, how we live, and who we live for. The Hebrew equivalent in New Testament Greek is "agapaó" or agape love; loyal, self-sacrificing love of choice, not emotion; even though many times emotion will be a part of that. I mean, think about it. Sadly, most romantic relationships are built upon a wrong understanding of love. I mean, think about most young people, they start to get to that age where they think about finding a mate, and all of a sudden, they get a quiver in their liver, and they can't talk, they can't breathe, the person's just so overwhelming to them. And they have this emotion of love, right? And I'm not saying that that's all bad, but when that's all it is, there's going to be problems. Most people fall in lust rather than in love. I was thinking about this and because of some things that happened last week, I thought I would check out the lyrics of one of the, evidently the most famous singer that we have today, Taylor Swift. I've never heard her, nor do I have any desire to hear her. But I thought I would check it out. And in fact, I heard that the idolatry of this woman is--the people are called “Swifties.” And I thought, well, that's really interesting. And I thought I would, by the way, I read a few things that she had said, and she's extremely hostile to biblical Christianity. A very woke, ungodly, young woman, I guess she's packs out stadiums all over the world. In fact, had a family member, that you wouldn't know, that had bought tickets for their family of $300 apiece, they bought four of them to go hear her in Chicago, and they said that they could sell them for $3000 a piece. So it's incomprehensible to me, that anybody would want to do that. But that shows you the level of idolatry and what the world wants. By the way, that it's such a testimony of what God does to a regenerate heart, it just changes our desires. You know I find that whole thing to be absolutely repulsive. It is repugnant to me, and to you. You know, it's like, I always think of my horses, they will absolutely run over you to get sweet feed and alfalfa hay, but you offer him a good steak, they want nothing to do with it. They have to have a change of nature. And that's what God has done with us.

Well, anyway, I was checking out the lyrics; I looked it up her number one song right now it's called "Is it Over?" And I read through the lyrics, they're too vulgar for me to recite. It's all about an immoral lover, who dumped one woman to fornicate with another woman. I mean, that's just the theme of so much of music that we have today. But that is a perfect example of a distorted understanding of love. A passion that's basically produced by sexual lust. And most marriages, sadly, are built upon emotion, rather than loyalty. They're built upon receiving, rather than giving; a kind of mutual manipulation rather than selfless devotion. It's kind of like walking up in front of everyone to be married and you're saying, to your wife to be or maybe your husband to be sweetheart, you make me feel so good. I'm just overwhelmed when I get around to you. And I'll tell you what, I'm going to give you an opportunity to keep making me feel that way for the rest of my life. Now, love is going to include emotion, but it shouldn't be built upon it. Because dear friends, biblical love that is commanded here is selfless. It is self-sacrificing. It is a conscious commitment to meet the other person's needs; to prefer yourself over or to prefer them over yourself. You don't marry someone so that they will meet your needs. That's not love. That's selfish manipulation. And eventually, that will lead to all manner of covenantal unfaithfulness.

I think of what Paul warned in Second Timothy three and verse two about men being quote, "lovers of self rather than lovers of God." Now, it's true that, again, there's going to be emotion here with love; we're going to have that in our love for God, but especially as we think about how it's distorted--rather than most people coming into a relationship, and saying, "I am devoted to you," it's more of a subtle sense of, "I'm devoted to me, and I'm gonna use you to make me feel good." Well, true love is the type of love that Christ gave to us. Did he not choose to set his love upon us even when we were wretched and depraved sinners? Romans five and verse eight that I read earlier, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." We see this pictured in Christ's love for his bridal church; the supreme example in how we are to love Ephesians five, verse 25, and following "Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her." You know, when Christ gave himself up for me, there wasn't anything there worthy of his love. But it was a choice. Why did he do that? "So that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water, and the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body."

So friends, this is what God commands. This is the kind of love that he commands. A conscious commitment that enlists every aspect of our being. So first, our love is a commanded love. Again, a conscious, decisive, determined, self-sacrificing love of choice, not mere emotion. But secondly, it is a complete love. Notice in verse 30, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.'" Now, together, these terms describe the complete essence of man, and the focused, passionate devotion and desires and inclinations that we are to have toward God. In other words, our love shouldn't be some half-hearted, insincere, superficial, occasional kind of love, but a wholehearted, sincere kind of love; a deep love, a consistent love, with the totality of all that we are.

But I want you to notice something here. If we look at Deuteronomy six five that I read earlier, from which the Lord quoted, it says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might." Now mind you, these are overlapping shades of meaning, describing the totality of our personhood, as I described last time. But it's interesting, that Jesus, the Lord of the church, with full authority, adds something in his statement here and Mark 12:30, as well and as well as in Matthew 22:37. He said that we should love Him "with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength." I find this interesting. "Dianoia" in the original language, the "mind" here, it refers to the intellectual part of us; our thoughts, our understanding. And the verb means literally, to reflect upon something to or to ponder, to pensively reflect or perceive. And it's interesting that only men and angels have the capacity to do this. You don't see your dog sitting out there in the yard contemplating the infinite perfections of the One who created him. He's just waiting for his next meal, right? But the mind is the seat of comprehension. It is where reason takes place. It is the wellspring of our emotions. Now think about this. The scribes and the Pharisees perceive themselves to be intellectually superior to everyone else. Especially the hoi polloi that was beneath them. And they did have a towering intellect. I mean, these are brilliant scholars--experts in interpreting the law, or so they thought, Now perhaps Jesus included the faculty of the mind to somehow demonstrate their ignorance and their indolence. We can't say for sure. But it's worth pondering in and of itself. Because they failed to understand the crucial role of the mind in loving God. And as I thought about this, it reinforced in my mind the importance of training my mind, to love the Lord. We read in Ephesians four, verse 17, that unbelievers "walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness." And then he goes on in verse 23, talking about believer saying that we must be "renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." So there's been a supernatural transformation here of a believer's mind. And we read in Romans eight beginning of verse six, "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God." So all through Scripture, what we see is that the mind must be transformed. It must be renewed, so that it can fully engage in loving God. It must be illumined, it must be trained, it must be disciplined, to love the Lord our God, and by the power of the indwelling Spirit. We have, as we read in First Corinthians 2:16, "the mind of Christ"--literally the understanding of Christ; the thoughts of Christ. It's a magnificent, miraculous work of grace that occurs in every believer, it is a spirit wrought transformation in the mind, in our thinking. That's why Jesus said in John 171:7, "'Father, sanctify them in the truth, Your word is truth.'" Because you see, it is the Scripture, by the power of the Holy Spirit , hat informs the mind. And the mind informs the conscience, which activates the will, which animates the emotions. Second Corinthians four, a familiar passage, beginning in verse four, we read, that "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." In other words, unbelievers just live for themselves. They're absorbed in their own life; they're absorbed in the fleeting pleasures of life. That's why you see people constantly walking around like this. They're completely worshipping all the stuff that's on their phones, a form of idolatry. They live out their lives and suppress the truth of who God is. In fact, the Psalmist says in Psalm 10, verse four, "The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thought thoughts are, 'There is no God.'" There's no God, I don't need to worry about all that stuff. And so they will worship someone like a Taylor Swift, and mock God, as she does, and so many others. And we see this played out in so many ways, I think of the whole DEI, woke world in which we live. It's just insane. Somebody told me the other day that woke stands for "willfully overlooking known evil." Kind of a good way of putting it. I added my own twist to DEI, "demonically, empowered insanity." That's what we see. That's the way the world thinks.

So indeed, the god of this world "has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God." But he goes on in verse six and says, "God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,'" which he did at creation, "is the One who has shown in our hearts to give the Light, of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Beloved, that is the power of regeneration, when he raises us from spiritual death to spiritual life, changes everything about us and makes us a new creature in Christ. Dear Christian, rejoice in the transformed mind, but learn to train your mind to love God. "Set your mind on the things above," Colossians, three, two, "not the things that are on the earth." Romans 12 two says that we are to be "transformed by the renewing of your mind." Transformed comes from a Greek word "metamorphoó" where we get the word metamorphosis, and it's in the passive voice, which means it's the renewing of your mind that's going to cause a metamorphosis to occur. And what is that metamorphosis? The metamorphosis is so that you, as a new creature in Christ, will manifest that reality on the outside, so that everyone can see it. It's just the opposite of the phrase right before "do not be conformed to this world," which literally means do not let the world squeeze you into its mold, where you begin to look like it. In fact, the term there for, conformed, "syschēmatizō" is, it means "a masquerade." Don't let the world out there cause you to unwittingly wear a masquerade that is inconsistent with who you really are on the inside, as a believer; as one clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Don't let that happen to you, but rather "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Dear friends, when that happens, we can say with Paul that "I count all things to be lost in view of their surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."

Oh, I trust that you know him. And I must ask you, are you disciplined in training your mind to love God? May put it a little bit differently, perhaps? How often do you find a quiet place and just contemplate the glory of God? How often do you do that? I would argue that most Christians couldn't do that for more than about a minute and maybe two. You ever sit down and think, God, where did you come from? Immediately your head begins to explode. Right? God you've said in your word that you are the self-existent, pre-existent, uncreated Creator of the universe, oh, God, as I reflect upon that all I can do is bow before you. How often do you reflect, reflect upon his attributes, his goodness, his grace, his mercy, his love, his faithfulness, his wrath? How often do you think about his holiness, which is the all-encompassing attribute of God describing his hidden glory, that attribute that portrays his infinite otherness. His incomprehensible transcendence; the consummate perfection and moral purity of his eternal character. How often do you think about Christ as your Redeemer? The one who came to this earth in the incarnation, who went to the cross to bear the sins of all who would trust in him; to give you forgiveness, so that you could be reconciled to a holy God through faith in him? How often do you think about what Christ did in the past? What he is doing in the present? And what he's going to do in the future? How often do you think about your union with Christ? As Paul said, in Galatians, 2:20, to think that "I have been crucified with Christ." So now, "it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." The life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loves me and delivered himself up for me. How often do you just sit there and think about that? Reflect upon that? Peter said in First Peter two seven that Christ is "precious," for those who believe. Is he precious to you? How often do you think about what Peter said, in Second Peter one, beginning of verse three, that he "has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness." We set and just think about what some of those things are. Or as he went on, to say that "He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them, you may become partakers of the divine nature." My there is at least an hour's worth of contemplation right there. Folks, my point is, this is what it looks like to train your mind to love God. I mean, think about it, in First Peter 1:12. We read that these are things "into which angels long to look." Don't you think we ought to as well?

One of my favorite books is entitled "Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ." It was written by John Owen, 17th century Puritan theologian, he was the academic administrator at Oxford University. Let me read what he had to say, just a small portion, and you'll have to bear with me with some of the old English. He said, "God's glory is incomprehensible, and His praises are unutterable. That real view which we may have of Christ and His glory in this world, by faith, however, we can obscure that knowledge which we may attain of them by divine revelation, is inexpressibly to be preferred above all other wisdom, understanding or knowledge, whatever. So it is declared by whom, who will be acknowledged to competent judge in these things, yay, doubtless sayeth he. I count all these things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. He who does not so has no part in Him." He went on to say, "The revelation made of Christ in the blessed gospel is far more excellent, more glorious, and more filled with arrays of divine wisdom and goodness, than the whole creation and the just comprehension of it, if attainable, can contain or afford. Without the knowledge hereof, the mind of man, however priding itself in other inventions and discoveries, is wrapped up in darkness and confusion. This, therefore, deserve the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations and our utmost diligence in them." End quote.

So this is a commanded love. It is a complete love garnering the totality of our being, including our mind, I might even say, especially our mind. But thirdly, it is a covenant of love. Were it not so, it would be impossible for us to love him, even as poorly as we do. Let me give you the big picture so that you understand what I'm saying here. You will recall that in Genesis 12, one and two, God promised Abraham that he would have many descendants, and that they would become a great nation and that they would mediate blessings to all the families of the earth. And then later on in Exodus 19 and 20, God gave Israel a bilateral, conditional, nullifiable covenant--unlike the Abrahamic covenant--it's called the Mosaic Covenant, the Mosaic law. And this was the means through which Israel could stay connected to the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant, not a means of salvation. And then later in Second Samuel seven, verses 12, through 16, God made a covenant with David, promising him a kingly line that would rule Israel, and ultimately rule over all of the Earth, as we read in Zechariah, 14 nine and Isaiah nine, six through seven. But God also knew that he had to do something to fallen humanity, to change their nature, so that they would truly love him with all of their heart and obey him willfully, with all of their heart, their soul, their mind, their strength. And so he made a new, unconditional, unilateral, irrevocable, eternal covenant, whereby he would enable and empower people, including Gentiles, to do just that. We read of this, for example, in Jeremiah 31, beginning in verse 31, "'Behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,' declares the Lord. And of course, there he's referring to the Mosaic Covenant, the only covenant that was conditional and nullifiable and temporary. But he goes on to say, "'But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the Lord, 'I will put My law within them on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD' for thy will know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' declares the Lord, 'for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.'"

Now, while the Mosaic Law was "holy and righteous and good," as we read in Romans seven and verse 12, it did not enable people to love the Lord with their whole heart. But the New Covenant did , and this required the regenerating power of the Spirit, as we read in Ezekiel 36, beginning in verse 26, God says, "'Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.'" And of course, the New Testament presents Jesus as the Son of David. He was the mediator of the new covenant, and the only one who can bring new covenant blessings to people who have faith in him. And that's why at the Last Supper, Jesus explicitly linked his death with the new covenant. That's why he said in Luke 22:20, "'This cup that is poured for you is the new covenant in My blood.'" And believers today in the church proclaim the New Covenant as we preach the Gospel. Paul said in Second Corinthians three, six, God has made us "sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit." "Of the letter," referring to the superficial, external, legalistic conformity to the law that was supposed to somehow make a person see their sinfulness. That's why God gave the law. But instead, it promoted a spirit of self -righteousness to them. Worse yet, their externalism prevented them from joyfully obeying the most basic requirement of the law, the foremost commandment to love God perfectly, and their neighbors as their selves.

So here's the good news of the gospel. Because of God's covenantal love for us, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the agency of the Spirit can transform our hearts so that we can love God and our neighbor, albeit imperfectly, until we enter into heaven, and the last vestige of our unredeemed humanity will finally and forever be removed. But between now and then, as we read earlier, in Romans five, verse five, we read that "the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." And because of his infinite love, and grace expressed in the new covenant, we see that he is the one that first loved us, so that we could love him. And John summarizes this perfectly as we looked at briefly last time, we were together in First John four verse 19. "We love," why?, "because He first loved us. If someone says, 'I love God' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." In other words, the point with all of this is a genuine, wholehearted love for God must be initiated by God Himself. We are incapable of doing that. It requires the regenerating work of the Spirit of God within us to cause us to be born again. This is what the Jewish leaders, the Jewish people, did not understand, but needed to hear.

And this leads us to a fourth reality about what it means to love God. Not only is it a commanded love, and a complete love and a covenant of love, but it is a confirmed love. Think about this, what is the test that proves our sincere, wholehearted love for God? What is it that validates the joy and the satisfaction that we have in him? What is it that really proves that he is the priority of our life? That we are living for him that we are serving for him and not just ourselves? Well, the answer is very clear here in the second commandment, that's why he says in verse 31, "'The second is this, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these.'" Remember, while this was a direct quote from the Mosaic law that they claimed to revere, as recorded in Leviticus 19 And verse 18, the rabbi's taught something different. And I went into this in great detail last time, but let me just review it quickly. They taught that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Jesus described this in Matthew five and verse 43. Remember, the Jewish rabbis were very selective in their interpretation and application of the law. That said, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, Leviticus 19:18. But instead, they did, really four things. Number one, they ignored the meaning of love--"ahavah"--the loyal sectors, self-sacrificing love of choice, not mere emotion. Secondly, they defined neighbor in the most narrow terms so that they could justify their prejudices and my were prejudice. Plus, they ignored the last phrase "as yourself." And instead, number four, they added "and hate your enemy;" the pretty bold distortion of Scripture. And again, they did this because they arbitrarily extrapolated certain passages out of the Old Testament scriptures; like passages referring to exterminating the Canaanites, and the imprecatory Psalms, and so forth, to somehow justify themselves. But what they deliberately failed to understand, in all of those illustrations, in the Old Testament, is that there is a huge difference between personal injury and divine justice.

And this is worth me camping on again for just a few minutes in applying this. God's judgments and his curses that we read about in Scripture were judicial acts of an infinitely Holy God. And they have no application to us in terms of our own personal injury, and somehow redressing individual grievances and offenses. And so therefore, it is absolutely absurd to think that we can apply the actions of divine justice as an excuse to hate and to kill other people that have offended us. And some will argue, Well, wait a minute, you know, we're told to love our enemies. If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, turn the other cheek, return good for evil, and forgive those who mistreat us. But again, bear in mind that those commands and virtues are aimed at the mortification of personal pride that seeks retaliation for a personal offense. They have nothing to do with the abdication of justice and the vindication of righteousness that God alone can do with Jesus commands, with respect to loving our enemies, must be balanced with the whole idea that he is the sole and holy avenger of those who are violently opposed to him.

Now, I know that people will ask therefore, in light of all these things, is it appropriate for Christians to defend themselves when they are attacked? Very important question in this violent culture in which we live, where criminals have more rights than victims? Well, the answer is, well, of course it is. Of course it is, even if it means arming yourself. I mean, that's common sense. Jesus even said in Luke 22:36, "'Whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one.'" I mean, self-defense and self-preservation is an innate mechanism in all of us. We see it in our immune system, we see it in how we naturally respond to things. If somebody comes up to you and does this, you immediately back away and put your hands up. If somebody gets too close to your face, you back away and your eyes blink. I mean, it's just the way we are built. You don't have to teach a young mother or a young father, that they need to protect their baby when somebody comes and grabs it. All right? It's just a natural response. When it says love our neighbors as ourselves, again, it's referring to anyone who is in need; families, for friends, and we have to love them enough to protect them. And it's absurd to think that if your enemy breaks into your home or does something to hurt you, that you just kind of let them do whatever they want. It's absurd to say that Jesus taught that Christians cannot defend themselves from evil people. In fact, Jesus said "'Greater love has is no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Now I want to elaborate on this just a little bit more. Remember that after the flood, God introduced capital punishment, through the force and ultimate threat of government, because human life is valuable. We're made in the image of God. And we read in Genesis nine beginning of verse five, for example, "'Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast, I will require it. And from every man from every man's brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood by his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, He made man.'" And of course, we read in Romans 13 and verse four, that government is "a minister of God, to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."

In fact, as we study it, war is an extension of capital punishment designed to protect innocent people, or restrain evil, to maintain social order. Otherwise, you have anarchy. And we've seen evidence of that, especially in the last several years in our country. But you must bear in mind that the government, while it's there to protect you, while we do have police, and sheriff's deputies, and military, they're not going to be there when you really need it, and you have to call 911. You're going to have to protect yourself. Most of the time, it's going to take them a while to get there, right? Of course, you have to protect yourself.

Now back to the issue of love. You see, loving your neighbor, is what validates your love for God. And what a testimony in this "me first" world in which we live. John 13:35 Jesus said, "'By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.'" And indeed the world is going to hate us. Second Timothy 3:12, "Indeed," he says, "all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." But again, we must love them for the cause of the gospel. Even though we may have to protect ourselves from them, if they attack us or our family. And remember, as Jesus said in Matthew five, beginning of verse 10, "'Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, who falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.'" We've all experienced that, right? And if you haven't, you're going to as you serve Christ, and stand up for him; that's just part of being in a fallen world. Those are personal injury types of things; that's where we turn the other cheek and so forth. But he goes on to say, "'Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.'" What a wonderful promise right? The Lord sees, the Lord will reward.

So dear friends, what does it mean to love God and to love your neighbor? Just bear in mind that this is a commanded love, a complete love, a covenant of love and a confirmed love. And you want to ask, "does this describe me?" How do people who know me best describe me? Well, as we close, so sad, the scribe who heard Jesus answered in reply, "Right, Teacher; You have truly stated.'" In other words, your theology is correct Jesus. Verse 34, "When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom.'" You're not in the kingdom, but you're not far. That's the point. Dear friend, it's one thing to embrace accurate theology. Hell will be filled with people with accurate theology, but it is all together something else, to embrace the lover of your soul, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. The hypocrite merely gives lip service to true worship. And that's why the prophet Isaiah quotes the Lord in Isaiah 29:13 "These people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips but have removed their hearts far from me."

So in closing, I would challenge you, train your mind, discipline your mind to love the Lord your God. If you want to know other ways that you can do that, I'd be glad to sit down with you. There are certain exercises that I, you know, it's the same thing with your body, right? You know, if you just sit around and don't do anything and eat sugary foods and processed foods, you know, you're going to be horribly out of shape. And the same thing is true, as a believer, you've got to learn to discipline yourself for the sake of godliness. That's how you really love the Lord your God more and more, and your neighbor as yourself. And may I challenge you as well to just target people that are in your sphere of influence, so that you can love them better, right? So that you have an opportunity for evangelism and pray for them. Pray for them. Pray for those opportunities. And when the Spirit of God gives those opportunities to you, and he will, pray that you will have boldness and patience and love enough to enter in through that door, and give them the truth of the gospel that they might be saved.

Let's pray together. Father, we rejoice in the eternal truths of your word. And I pray as always, that our hearts will be soft and tender to these truths. That we might hear them and heed them, so that we can love you more and love others more. Because Lord, we know when we don’t, we forfeit your blessing in our life. Moreover, we can really place ourselves under a cloud of divine chastening. So, Lord, we pray, that by the power of your Spirit, you will change us according to the truths of your word, for Christ's sake, and it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

As always, it's a great joy to be able to minister the word of God to you. And we continue in our verse by verse examination of Mark's gospel, Mark chapter 12, verses 28 through 34 under the heading "God's Foremost Commandments," And this will probably take a few Sundays to really examine closely and apply. Let me read the text to you, Mark 12 beginning in verse 28, "One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, 'What commandment is the foremost of all?' Jesus answered, 'The foremost is, "HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH AALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIMD, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' The second is this, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." , There is no other commandment greater than these.' The scribe said to Him, 'Right Teacher; you have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AAND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.' When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God. 'After that, no one would venture to ask him any more questions."

Wicked people, especially those in power, can accurately be described as narcissistic control freaks. They absolutely cannot tolerate any dissent. And we see this certainly in progressive liberalism of the Democratic Party, their weaponization of every governmental department, both state and federal. They seek to control everything with their nefarious deceptions, and they propagate those deceptions through the media, through public schools, Hollywood entertainers, athletes. And worse yet, they criminalize righteousness, and legalize unrighteousness. And, of course, it's all part of God's judgment on America. God has given our country over to a worthless mind to pursue its iniquities and experience the consequences of them. And of course, these satanic schemes are not new to our country. And they also exist all around the world. But these things have existed countless times in every generation with every nation down through redemptive history. But you must understand that the religious leaders of apostate Judaism in the first century, were equally as immoral and corrupt as our political authorities are today in America; they absolutely hated the gospel message that Jesus preached. Moreover, they hated the fact that he was becoming far more popular than them. They were jealous. They were fearful of losing power, and prestige. Furthermore, they despised him because he exposed their hypocrisy and their ignorance of Scripture. So, they conspired together to defeat him.

You will remember earlier when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, and he publicly embarrassed the Pharisees. In Mark three verse six, we read, "The Pharisees went out, immediately began, conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him." And in our text this morning, we see them, shall we say, huddling together to run another play? If I can use a football analogy. I mean, it's fourth and long and time is running out here. So, they've got to do something. In fact, Matthew gives us this in his account. Chapter 22, verse 34, "But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing Him, 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?'"

Now, the historical context here; Jesus is about roughly two days from the cross. First, the Pharisees and the Herodians came to him to try to discredit him in the eyes of the people by asking him if it was lawful to pay the poll tax to Caesar. And then after the Pharisees and the Herodians, got finished then Sadducees come together with a baited question concerning the resurrection. Again, trying to make him look stupid. And now a scribe who was a scholar, a lawyer of the Law of Moses of the Old Testament of the rabbinical traditions--a scribe steps forward from the Sanhedrin and tries to take a stab at Jesus. And over the next few weeks, we're going to examine what happened here, under three headings, number one, we are going to look at the baited question. Number two, the indicting response. And then number three, the practical implications.

Let me give you a little hint about this. What does it really mean to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength? What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? Who is your neighbor? Does this include your enemies? How are we to love our enemies? For example, how do we love a self-loathing, sociopathic transgender, who comes in to a Christian school and starts killing children? How do you love that person? How do you love a demonic gangbanger that breaks into your home and threatens to rape your wife and your daughters? And kill your family? Are we to turn the other cheek? How do you love a terrorist? How do you love corrupt politicians that are trying to enslave us under a totalitarian Marxism? Does loving your enemies mean that you cannot protect your family? Does it allow us to be armed? To defend ourselves? If we are to love our enemies, why would God require Israel to exterminate the Canaanites? What about the imprecatory Psalms? Where David calls down judgment on evil people? That doesn't sound too loving. For example, why would David say in Psalm 139, beginning in verse 21, "Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies." How do we understand those passages in Scripture? Where God states that he hates and abhors sinners? Seems to be a contradiction here. Why would Jesus use a whip and run money changers out of the temple precincts? I mean, how do we balance righteous indignation with loving our enemies? Well, these are the kinds of things that we need to understand. And many of them are addressed in this text as well as many other that help us understand what Jesus is saying.

Now let's look closely at the text. But remember now, the Sanhedrin believed that Jesus was a heretic, that he was a satanically empowered person whose message was contrary to the law of Moses. That's how they saw him. So they wanted to ask him a question that would put him at odds with Moses and thus betray him as a heretic. That way he could be discredited in the eyes of all of the people.

So, we come first of all, to the baited question. Notice verse 28, "One of the scribes came and heard them arguing and recognizing that he had answered them well, asked Him, 'What commandment is the foremost of all?'" Now, we must understand some of the historical background here. This was a hotly debated question among rabbis in that day. Rabbis were absolutely infatuated with what they considered to be a crucial exegetical tool called "Letterism." And since there were 613 letters in the Hebrew text of the 10 commandments, as recorded in Numbers, the consensus among the rabbis was that there were 613 laws in the Pentateuch book. And they were divided into 365, negative prohibitions and 248, positive affirmations. But with all these laws, they were faced with a dilemma. How can you obey all of them? And of course, as we understand Scripture, the answer is, you can't. That's why you need a Savior. That was the purpose of the law. Psalm 19 seven says that, "The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul." And Paul said in Galatians, three beginning of verse 23, "Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith."

Well, they didn't understand any of this. They didn't want to understand it. So what did they do? Well, they divided the laws into two categories, "heavy laws" that were absolutely binding and then "light laws" that were less binding. And while there is no direct reference to this categorization in Scripture, there are allusions to it. In Matthew 23, for example, Jesus said in verse 23, "'Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.'"

Now, we also, in order to understand this passage of Scripture, must put ourselves in the mindset and see the world through the eyes of a legalist. And we must bear in mind the deceptive nature of legalism, which is really nothing more than external adherence to the law of God with no intimate love for him. In fact, RC Sproul put it this way, quote, "Basically, legalism involves abstracting the law of God from its original context." He went on to say, "The legalist isolates the law from the God who gave the law. He is not so much seeking to obey God or honor Christ, as he is to obey rules that are devoid of any personal relationship. There is no love, joy, life or passion. It's a rote, mechanical form of law keeping that we call 'externalism.'"

Now, bear in mind that all false religions teach some form of works-righteousness; some method in their system that would help a person merit salvation. And this was true of apostate Judaism in the first century. And frankly, we see it a lot today as well. I mean, they believe that one could earn his or her salvation by keeping the laws. So, to be sure, externalism, even today as we see it--this legalism--provides an illusion of spirituality. It makes you feel as though you're spiritual, when in fact, you might have no love for God at all.

So again, the ancient Jews were in a real dilemma here; how can you keep all of the laws? So they came up with a great solution. And this is how they thought, to kind of paraphrase it, they would say, well, let's impress God, by at least keeping the heavy laws, the essential ones, along with all kinds of other manmade traditions that they had come up with, that would be kind of easy to keep. That way you could kind of make sure that the scale is going in their favor, that the good is outweighing the bad. That's how they saw it. So they also had another problem with all of this and that is okay. Which is the most essential commandment. If we're going to focus on that one, what commandment is the foremost? Because if we can know what that commandment is, and we keep that commandment, then perhaps we can make the cut, like the rich young man in Matthew 19:16, that quote, "Came to Jesus and said, 'Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?'"

So knowing the scribe's motivation here, in the crowd, knowing what he was up to, knowing his bad theology, Jesus responds to the baited question with secondly, the indicting response. Verse 29, "Jesus answered, 'The foremost is, 'Hear, O ISRAEL! THE LORD UR GOD IS ONE LORD AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these.'" Now, this was all very familiar to the Jewish people. I mean, this was central to their worship. This was a central affirmation of Judaism. And frankly, it should be for all of us as well, as we will see. God gave this command to Moses as the Israelites were about to enter into the promised land. I read it in our scripture reading earlier. Let me read it again. Deuteronomy six beginning in verse four, it says, "'Hear, O Israel!'" "Hear", the Hebrew word is "šāma." And Hebrew lexicography tells us that this is tantamount to the concept of obey, especially in the context of covenantal loyalty. "'Hear, O Israel! the LORD is our God, the Lord is one!'" So, this emphasizes the absolute exclusivity of Israel's God, "Yahweh our God is the one and only Yahweh." That's the idea. "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." In other words, what he is saying here is, you are to love the one true God perfectly, comprehensively, singularly with the totality of your being. That's why he says, "with all your heart." The heart would be considered the conscious self, the inner core of who we are. "And with all your soul," the term carries the idea of the core of our personal existence; all the vital things that drive us and our desires; the seat of our emotions and will. And it's often translated "life" or "person" or "being" or "self."

Then he adds this "with all your might." could be translated with all your strength, the exertion of your mental and physical abilities. And by the way, these are overlapping terms. They're not different entities within us. So, together these terms describe the complete essence of man; the focused passionate devotion, our desires, our inclinations, all that we must use to love God. The foremost commandment therefore requires wholehearted devotion, undivided allegiance to the Lord our God. And we need to think of it this way--our love for him and his covenant demands are to be the dominant and passionate interest of our life. Even in this text it is to be the most fundamental of all truths that parents teach their children. So much so that this needs to dominate much of your conversation with your children. And parents, I challenge you to that end. But you say, "my this is impossible, how could you possibly do this?" Well, that's exactly God's point with the whole thing. You can't. I think of Ecclesiastes seven and verse 20, "There is not a righteous man on earth, who continually does good and who never sins." It's got my picture right next to it. And yours is right there, too. You see, the purpose of God's law was to demonstrate man's inability to keep it. It was never meant to be a means of salvation. As I read earlier, in Galatians 3:24, it is "our tutor, to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith." This is reminiscent of what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five and verse 20. He said, "'For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.'" And then he concluded that sermon with his summary statement in verse 48, "'Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.'"

You know, when I hear that I have to cry out like the sinner, the publican, in Luke 18, "God be merciful to me." Or think of the story of the rich young man in Matthew 19, that I mentioned earlier. Remember, he left Jesus defeated because he couldn't earn his way into heaven by keeping the law, nor could he buy his way into heaven.

By the way, the Jews believed that rich people had a better chance of getting into the into the kingdom, because they had more money than other people, therefore, they could purchase more sacrifices, and they could give more money to the temple treasury. In Matthew 19:23 and following, "Jesus said to His disciples," in that context, "'Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.' When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished, and said, 'Then who can be saved?' And looking at them, Jesus said to them, 'With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" So Jesus gives the scribe, along with his hypocritical, murderous cronies, a very indicting response to the question concerning the foremost commandment, and basically, he's saying, again, you must love the Lord your God, perfectly, comprehensively singularly with the totality of your being. And at another time, I'm going to elaborate on that greatly.

But then he follows up with a second commandment. And this one is utterly contrary to not only what the Jewish Rabbis taught but was also the antithesis of how they behaved. In verse 31, "'The second is this, Jesus said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these.'" I mean, folks in an economy of words, Jesus just popped their elitist, self-righteous bubble. Now, it's interesting, while what Jesus said was a direct quote from the Mosaic law that they claim to revere, recorded in Leviticus 19 and verse 18, the rabbis taught something different. Here was their version, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Jesus confronted them on this, for example of Matthew five, verse 43 and following, "'You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.'"

So here in Mark 12 and verse 31, Jesus exposes their hypocrisy. "'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBO AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." In fact, in Matthew 22, in verse 40, we read, "'On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.'" Let me give you a little refresher course on the Law. There is a twofold summarization of the law in Scripture, the one that we are looking at here in Jesus' response. You are to love God and love your neighbor. And then there's a tenfold summarization beyond the twofold and that is the Decalogue--that is the 10 commandments--the tablets of stone, the Mosaic law given to Moses on Mount Sinai; Exodus, 19, and 20. Sometimes also called the Old Covenant; if you keep these laws, you will be blessed. If you don't, you will be judged. The first three in the Decalogue are how to love God perfectly, then you have the Sabbath, and then the last six how to love your neighbor. And then we typically say that there is what's called thirdly, a manifold summarization of the law, the words of the covenant in Exodus 24 and verse seven. That's the entire Book of Leviticus, great detail and expansion of the law. And what was interesting is, all of that was written down and it was placed in a receptacle on the side of the Ark of the Covenant, along with the tablets of stone that were inside the ark. We read about this in Deuteronomy 31, verse 26, "Take this book of the law and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you." You see, folks, once again, the purpose of the law was to expose sin in the light of the divine standard of righteousness stated in the foremost commandment and manifested in the second.

So, Jesus told the scribe and all of his co-conspirators "on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." In other words, the entirety of the Old Testament scripture hangs on these two commandments to love. We must understand that all other commandments are derived from these. They point back to these they are summed up in these. That's why Paul said in Romans 13 and verse eight, "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." William Hendriksen, said this quote, "This twofold command, love for God and for the neighbor, is the peg on which the whole law and the prophets hang. Remove that peg and all is lost for the entire Old Testament with its commandments and covenants, prophecies and promises, types and testimonies, invitations and exhortations, points to the love of God, which demands the answer of love in return." John summarized this perfectly in First John four beginning of verse 19, “We love because He first loved us. If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he's a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."

You see, friends, a genuine, wholehearted love for God must be initiated by God Himself. We are incapable of that. This requires the regenerating power of the Spirit of God, that work whereby he causes us to be raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, he opens our eyes and, in our hearts, and he gives us the gift of faith and conversion, and so forth. And therefore, according to Romans five and verse five, when this happens, the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And then because we truly love God, by the power of the Spirit, albeit imperfectly, that love manifests itself in our determined decisive commitment to love others. But as we read in this text "we love because He first loved us." This is what the Jewish leaders needed to hear, what the people needed to hear, what we all need to hear. Dear Christian, don't miss this. Here, Jesus states, the two greatest commandments. The quintessential commandments these "summum bonum" or highest, the greatest, ultimate good; the standard of divine righteousness in which all moral values are included, and from which they all derive. This is so important, but we all fall short, don't we? And therefore, we need mercy. We need grace. We need forgiveness, we need a righteousness that is not our own. Therefore, we need a savior. That's why the Spirit of God was sent right? To convict the world of what? Sin, righteousness and judgment.

Now think about it, the Jews were fastidious in keeping certain laws and traditions. And like every legalist, they were fooling themselves into believing that somehow they were able to impress God, when in fact, in their hearts, they had no real love for God. I mean, folks, this is externalism. And this may be speaking to some of you, I don't know your heart. But you need to examine your heart. There are so many Christians today that are all sizzle, but no steak. A lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of hollow hypocrisy.

Now, it's interesting as you study Judaism, in that ancient day, in particular, I mean, they took prejudice and sectarianism to new levels. I mean, if I can use a baseball analogy, there's T-ball, there's little league, there's college ball, there's minor leagues, and there's major leagues. This is major league prejudice; major league hatred of anybody that wasn't in their group. In fact, the Romans accused them of hating the whole human race. It's not a very good reputation. Now, what's interesting is they defined "neighbor" in the narrowest terms possible to accommodate their disdain for other people. In fact, in a similar incident that's described in Luke 10, verses 25 and following, the scribe’s final reaction is recorded in verse 29. It says, "But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" And then you remember, Jesus responded to him, gave him the story of the Good Samaritan. Remember, you want to know who your neighbor is, let me tell you a little story. And you know, the guy is hurt, he's wounded. The priest, the Levite, that passed by Samaritan comes along and helps him. And at the end of that passage, Jesus tells the guy, "Go and do the same." In other words, your neighbor is anybody that's in need. Doesn't matter if it's your enemy or who he is. But for the Jews, "neighbor," only referred to their preferred group. They hated everybody else. I mean, they hated the Gentiles in ways that you can't imagine. And they let them know it. They hated the half breed Samaritans; they wouldn't even walk through their region. And if they did, they'd shake the dust off their garments and off their shoes; made a big scene of the whole thing. They hated even other Jews. They hated the Jews in Galilee; "can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Remember? They hated tax collectors. We read this in the New Testament. They hated prostitutes. They hated the poor. They hated the diseased and the disabled, because they felt like they were really sinful people. That's why they were experiencing what they were experiencing. Basically, anybody outside of their favorite group.

One of the sects of Judaism was a monastic sect that lived on the edge of the Dead Sea. They were called the Essenes. That's the region--I've been there, some of you have as well--it's where we found the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Essenes lived there. And here's what they taught, quote, "Love all that God has chosen and hate all that he has rejected. Love all the sons of light, each according to his lot in God's community and hate all the sons of darkness." Now, it's remarkable to see how Jewish rabbis came up with all of this. They were very selective in their interpretation and their application of the law, and again, Leviticus 19 verse 18, that Jesus is quoting here it says, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." But the rabbis really did four things. The first thing they did is they ignored the meaning of love; in Hebrew, "ahavah." It comes from a Hebrew root, "ahav," which means to give. And the Hebrew equivalent by the way in the New Testament, and the Greek is "agapaó"; the agape love. A self-sacrificing love of choice, not necessarily of emotion. So they ignored the meaning of love.

Secondly, they defined "neighbor" in the most narrow terms they possibly could. And they ignored the last phrase "as yourself." That's a pretty indicting phrase, right? Love your neighbor, just leave it at that. Don't say as yourself, I mean, good grief, I really love myself, I'm not gonna love you like that. And then, worst of all, they added "and hate your enemy." Notice the entire verse in its context, Leviticus 19:18, it begins this way, "'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.'" They also ignored other passages, I won't take time to list them all, but other passages that really broaden and help define "neighbor" in that whole context in Leviticus 19, which includes even loving your enemies. For example, in verse 16, God says, "'You shall not go about as a slander among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor,'" verse 17, "'You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart.'" Verse 34, "'The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself.'" Isn't it interesting how we can conveniently pick and choose those passages of Scripture that help us justify what we think and what we do?

One of the stated principles of the Pharisees is as follows and I quote, "If a Jew sees a Gentile fallen into the sea, let him by no means lift him out fence, for it is written, 'Thou shall not rise up against the blood of thy neighbor,' but this man is not thy neighbor." I mean, folks, this is this is prejudice on steroids, right? You see a Gentile is drowning, let him drown. He's not your neighbor. Now, how did they come up with this nonsense? Obviously, Satan is the father of lies. But what Satan loves to do is take certain aspects of truth and twist it, distort it. And before you know it, you've got a total deception. What they did is they would arbitrarily extrapolate certain Old Testament texts, and then adapt them to themselves personally to justify their prejudices. For example, in Deuteronomy 23, beginning of verse three, we read, "'No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the 10th generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt.'" So they would let's take this passage and then also take the passages like Deuteronomy seven where the Israelites were told to absolutely exterminate the Canaanites and slaughter the Midianites in Numbers 31. You could read about the rejection of the Amalekites and the Moabites in Deuteronomy 23. So they're taking these things, and you know, if God could do this, you know, I guess there's room for some real hatred here. Make sense to me, don't you? Then what about the imprecatory psalms? The cursing psalms like Psalm 69, beginning of verse 22, "Pour out Your indignation on them, and may Your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be desolate; may not dwell in their tents. For they have persecuted him who You Yourself have smitten, and they tell of the pain of those whom You have wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity, and may they not come into Your righteousness. May they be blotted out of the book of life, and may they not be recorded with the righteous." Let's add that to our column here. Or Psalm 139 verse 21, "Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies." But you see, what they fail to understand is the difference between personal injury and divine justice. God's judgment and curses on the wicked were and are judicial acts of an infinitely holy God and they have no application to us personally when we are injured. When we have wounded pride, they have no application in redressing an individual offense. God's purpose, for example, in eradicating the Canaanites was to cleanse the land from the most vile satanic savages that have probably ever walked on the face of the earth. I don't have time to take you into the types of things that these people did. But this was divine justice. This was a judicial act of God meted out by a holy war where he used his people to accomplish his purging purposes. God wanted to protect his people. He wanted to preserve for himself a righteous seed, from which the Messiah would come.

You read about this, like in Leviticus 18. But it is absurd to think that we can apply the actions of divine justice, or even the judicial law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and somehow use them as an excuse to hate, even kill those that we do not like. I mean, that's God's justice, not mine. Romans 12 verse 19, "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God , or it his written, 'VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,' says the Lord. 'BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.' Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good."

But what about the imprecatory psalms? Those imprecations, those calling for God's judgment on the wicked, like you would see in Psalm seven in Psalm 69. And I believe Psalm 35. Maybe in Psalm 109, I forget all of them. Well, those were motivated, dear friends, by David's passion for the glory of God. Not out of some frustration and vengeance for his own personal injury. I mean, this was righteous indignation. We read about this like in Psalm 69, beginning in verse nine, "For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. When I wept in my soul with fasting, it became my reproach." You see, the imprecations, were statements that stipulated the kind of divine judgment that was necessary to befall upon those who violated the treaty. And here David calls upon the Lord for justice, for deliverance from the hands of these wicked people. And he calls upon God to be faithful to his covenant promises that he gave to Abraham, for example, in Genesis 12. And his motivation was not some kind of petty personal vindictiveness. For in this context, David is suffering as a representative of the Lord. His motivation for divine retribution upon unrepentant sinners is ultimately for the glory of God, not for the glory of David. Now, some will argue, "Well, hey, wait a minute now we're supposed to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, return good for evil; forgive those who mistreat us and so on." Yes, indeed, that's all true. But you must understand that those commands and virtues are aimed at the mortification of personal pride. That's the purpose for those, not the abdication of justice, or the vindication of righteousness. Jesus commands with respect to loving our enemies must be balanced with his role as the avenger of those who are violently opposed to him. They got all of that twisted around; conveniently so.

Once again notice Psalm 139, beginning of verse 19, "O that You would slay the wicked, O God; depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed. For they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies to take Your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies." See, again, this had nothing to do with personal animosity or personal spite, but zeal for God's glory. This is righteous indignation. This is not personal revenge. Would that we all have such hatred for the ungodly who dishonor God. But folks, there is no room for this, when it comes to those who dishonor us. In fact, David went on, in that very context, to ask the Lord to examine his heart, he went on to say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way."

So we come to the question, how are we to respond to the wicked who persecute us? We are to love them. Matthew five, verse 43, "'You have heard it said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.'" The Greek term "agapaó," the term for love, is the love of choice, not mere emotion. It is a purposeful act of the will that chooses to love and to seek the highest good for another person, even if we don't like them, even if we can't stand being around them, even if they are wicked and vile. That's the idea of having a burden for the lost.

By the way, in the Greek, words for love are much more distinct. There's really four different words there is the "philia" love, the brotherly love that we would have towards another friend; like the love that I would have for you, or that you would have for me. And then there's the "storge" love. That's the kind of love that we would have towards a family member. I love my family in a different way than I love you. And you would be the same way. And then there's the "eros" love. That's the the love of romance that leads to sexual love. There's only one person in the world that I love that way, and that is my wife. And then there's the "agape" love. Love that is passionate and unwavering in its commitment to seek the highest good for another person, regardless of who they are. And this is a love of the will, not necessarily a love of emotion, where you've got all kinds of warm fuzzies. But always a love of action, not a love of abstraction. That's why you see all of the verbs in First Corinthians 13. Proverbs 25, verse 21, you see the action of love, "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you."

I might also add that here in Matthew five verse 44. The verb is in the present imperative, which means it is to be a continuous attitude of benevolence, a continuous attitude of goodwill. It has to be a continuous desire to treat another person in a way that would hopefully bring them to saving knowledge of Christ, even those who hate us. And it implies meekness, does it not. It implies gentleness and implies humility. And this is indicative of kingdom citizens. That's why Jesus would say to the scribe, you know, you're close, but you're not in the kingdom yet. That's the point. This is the type of love that patiently endures evil; extinguishes thoughts of revenge. This is the type of love that starves those cravings of pride that would demand vengeance. Spurgeon put it this way, "Love and self-denial for the object loved go hand in hand. If profess to love a certain person, and yet will neither give my silver nor my gold to relieve his wants, nor in any way deny myself comfort or ease, for his sake, such love is contemptible. It wears the name but lacks the reality of love. True love must be measured by the degree to which the person loving, will be willing to subject himself to crosses and losses; to suffering and self-denials. After all, the value of a thing in the market is what a man will give for it. And you must estimate the value of a man's love by that which he is willing to give up for it."

As we wrap this up this morning, I want you to notice also what love includes. Matthew 5:44, "'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.'" "Father, I don't like this person. Biblically, I have no reason to respect this person. This person is vile, this person is wretched. This person is utterly enslaved by their sin. But I plead with you to lavish your love upon them and by your mercy. Save them by your grace, even as you have saved me." Is that your attitude towards your enemies? That's what loving them looks like. It even includes praying for our wicked immoral, godless, Christ hating leaders. I mean, we have some of the most vile leaders in the history of the world, in charge of our country today.

Paul says in First Timothy two beginning in verse one, "First of all, then, I urge you that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men." And then he adds this, "For kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." In other words, we're to pray for their salvation. And we can also pray that God would protect us from them. Remember, Stephen, when he was being stoned, in Acts seven? He said, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." I mean folks, that's the work of the Spirit in a person. What did Jesus say on the cross in Luke 23. "'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.'"

I might also add you realize the blessings that God will lavish upon you when you love your enemies in this way. This is so encouraging to me. Matthew five, verse 10, Jesus said, "'Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you, because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.'" It's an amazing thought, isn't it? God sees all of that he knows all of that, but our attitude is to be one of love, that prays for these people and does everything it can to bring them to a place of saving grace.

So in closing here, Jesus responds to the scribe and all of his cronies standing around with a message of condemnation. And then it's interesting verse 32, "The scribe to said to Him, 'Right, Teacher; you have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL TH EUNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burn offerings and sacrifices." In other words, he's affirming that. I mean, what else could he say, right? Even though in his heart, it's like that's not at all consistent with really who I am.

Then I love what Jesus says here, verse 34, "When Jesus saw that he answered intelligently, He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.'" You're not in the kingdom, but you're not far from it. By the way, isn't it ironic the scribe comes to pass judgment on Jesus, and Jesus flips it around and passes judgment on him. It's an amazing thing. There's a lesson to be learned here too, by the way. Folks, you can have precise doctrine and be as lost as a goose in a hailstorm. The only thing that you must embrace beyond right doctrine is a wholehearted love for Christ.

Then it says, "After that no one would venture to ask Him any more questions." Well, this was a hard pill for them to swallow. But I hope you will see that there is no place in our life for hatred for prejudice, for personal vengeance. We are to love the Lord our God, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the one and only true God, perfectly, comprehensively singularly with the totality of our being. And love our neighbors, as ourselves, including our enemies. And certainly, we cannot do that perfectly. So we need a Savior, and hallelujah, we have one right?

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. As always, when we hear them, we find ourselves being convicted. But we also find ourselves being deeply encouraged. We are humbled by the love that you have lavished upon us and help us, by the power of your spirit, to love you and to love our neighbors, including our enemies as we ought. For the glory of Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.

I would encourage you to take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel chapter 12. If you've not been with us, we go through various books of the Bible verse by verse so that we don't miss out on a single word of what God has revealed to us. And this morning, we find ourselves in Mark 12, verses 18 through 27. And after we look at this text, I'm gonna take you as well, to some passages in First Corinthians 15, from which we have just read, let me read the passage here, Mark 12, beginning in verse 18, "Some Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection) came to Jesus, and began questioning Him saying, 'Teacher, Moses wrote for us that IF A MAN'S BROTHER DIES and leaves behind a wife AND LEAVES NO CHILD, HIS BROTHER SHOULD MARRY THE WIFE AND RAISE UP CHILDREN TO HIS BROTHER. There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife and died leaving no children. The second one married her, and died, leaving behind no children, and the third likewise; and so all seven left no children. Last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one's wife will she be? For all seven, had married her.' Jesus said to them, 'Is this not the reason you are mistaken that you do not understand the Scriptures, or the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB'?I He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.'"

Here we witness a great example of the power of religious hypocrites in powerful places weaponizing theological error to discredit Jesus in the eyes of an adoring crowd. And they use a false presupposition to humiliate him. And this is very common. I've dealt with it over the years, I'm sure you have as well, where people misinterpret or they misapply some passage of scripture, and then they confront you with the teaching that they believe in order to discredit you. And of course, their motive is not to learn, to better understand the word of God, but to humiliate you. That's what's going on here.

Now, you need to understand a little bit about Sadducees. They were the wealthy religious aristocrats in charge of the temple. They oversaw everything that happened in the temple, the sacrifices and so forth. They made up the high priests and the chief priests and they had the ruling majority, even in the Sanhedrin, and they were often cooperative with Rome. They were also positive toward Hellenism, they did not believe in the resurrection, they did not believe in an afterlife. They did not believe in angels or a spiritual world; did not believe in predestination, the sovereignty of God. Nor did they believe in a coming Messiah. They rejected virtually everything, interestingly enough, that the Pharisees believed. In fact, Luke speaks of this in Acts chapter 23, beginning in verse six, "But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, 'Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!' As he said this, there occurred to dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all."

Now, as you are aware, Jesus now is in the court of the Gentiles, just basically two days before his crucifixion. There's a large crowd that is gathered all around to watch what is going on; there has been a series of attempts to humiliate him. And Jesus, of course, has threatened the power base of the Sadducees because he drove out the money changers, which really upended their lucrative business enterprise in the temple precincts. So, he has humiliated them. Therefore he had to go. A couple of days later, he would be crucified. And so the tactic here is to somehow discredit him in the eyes of the adoring crowds. Especially by presenting to Jesus an impossible dilemma concerning a supposed resurrection. The problem is the theological basis for their question was errant. And they were too ignorant and deceived to understand it.

Now, to make this very practical, this is common, we've seen this down through history where one group will attack their political rival by claiming they reject, frankly, a demonstrably false presupposition. We see that in our culture today, they present this false presupposition concerning for example, critical race theory or transgenderism or the woke insanity. And they confront you with that, and then criticize you for not agreeing with them, or they accuse you of committing some fabricated crime. We saw this very clearly, for example, in the Russian collusion hoax against Donald Trump, or we've seen it like when the parents stood up against the school board, because they were upset with the indoctrination that was going on in the school, and they were called domestic terrorists. And so we're familiar with this type of thing. So this is not something isolated. And so what we have happening here, as we've seen, in our culture is you have one group of people weaponizing whatever resources they have to destroy someone else. And the Sadducees used this nefarious strategy--use the people in powerful positions, to first of all, promote false accusations and then deceive the public, discredit their political rival, then indict them, incarcerate them, and if possible, execute them.

Now, it's also very important for me to pause for a moment and help you remember that this is not taking Jesus by surprise. This is not taking God by surprise. In fact, as we look at Scripture, we see that God has ordained to allow this very thing to happen to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, while evil men put Jesus on the cross. This was all part of God's plan. Because Scripture makes it clear, for example, in Revelation 13 and verse eight, that the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world. And Peter said in his sermon in Acts two, verse 23, that, "This man," referring to Jesus, "delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God." I mean, this is absolutely astounding when you think about it, the Son of God died to purchase the salvation of those whom God had chosen, according to his uninfluenced, eternal plan. And this is all part of that plan. We read of this, for example, in Ephesians, chapter one beginning in verse three, it says that, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." He goes on to say, "In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ who himself, according to the kind intention of his will." And Paul made this clear as well in Second Timothy one in verse nine, where it says that he, "saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus, from all eternity." Literally, in the original language "before time began."

Of course, all of this is part of the gospel that Jesus taught, and it was infuriating to many of the people in his day. Frankly, as it is today. In fact, whenever you bring up in many circles the doctrine of election and predestination, you see people getting upset because they simply find that to be abhorrent. It's interesting, in John six, Jesus clearly articulated those great truths--the doctrines of sovereign grace in salvation, often disparagingly labeled as "Calvinism." In fact, it was so offensive, as we read in verse 65, of John six, when Jesus said, "'No one can come to Me unless it has been granted him for the Father.' As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and we're not walking him with him anymore." And of course, these doctrines are highly offensive to people that do not understand the gospel. So they invent their own version of how it all is supposed to work, and makes man, not God, sovereign over salvation, making God's will subject to man's will, and so forth.

Now, some important background here regarding the resurrection. The Pharisees and the Jewish people rightly believed in both a national as well as a personal bodily resurrection. And by the way, what I'm about to say is absolutely true. And this should exhilarate each one of us to know that we have a resurrection waiting for us. They believed a national resurrection was consistent with the promises of God and the Abrahamic Covenant and the Davidic covenant, which would include the coming of the Messiah. You will recall Ezekial's vision of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, beginning of verse 11. Then Ezekiel said, "God said to me, 'Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is perished. We are completely cut off. 'Therefore prophesy, and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I will open up your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened up your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people."'" This, by the way, will also include spiritual regeneration. He goes on to say, "'I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life and I will place you on your own land.'" The prophet Isaiah said, likewise, in Isaiah 26, verse 19, "Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the doom of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits."

So there's reason to believe, as they did, in a national resurrection, but they also believed in a bodily resurrection. For example, in Exodus three and verse six, the text that the Lord uses, we read, "'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.'" Present tense. Not I "was," but I "am." And the clear implication is that these men are clearly dead, but they are still alive in the Spirit. And God is still their God. Job speaks of a resurrection as well, and Job 19:25 and following, "As for me," he says, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh; I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see in not another." David spoke of this as well in Psalm 16, beginning in verse nine, "Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely, for You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 49, verse 15, "God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me. In Psalm 73, beginning in verse 24, "With Your counsel, You will guide me and afterward receive me to glory." Psalm 139, verse eight, "If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there." Isaiah 25 and verse eight, "He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from their all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken." Let me give you one more, in Daniel 12 and verse two, "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt."

Moreover, I might add that in the Old Testament apocryphal writings and the Talmud, which was the primary source of Jewish law and theology, also conveyed the same resurrection promises. And they were familiar with all of this--the Pharisees, the Jewish people. So they believed in a national, as well as a personal, resurrection. I might also add that the Pharisees had some wacko ideas about the resurrection that they derived from other Jewish sources, not from Scripture. And whenever you deviate from the Word of God, you come up with wacko things right? MacArthur speaks of this. He says, quote, "For example, the consensus among the Pharisees was that people would be raised with the same infirmities, defects, characteristics, and relationships they had when they died." That's not very comforting, is it? He went on to add, "Many also believe that all Jews would be raised in Israel, some even arguing that there were tunnels all over the earth, through which the bodies of Jews buried elsewhere, would roll to Israel," end quote. Well, obviously, none of that is true.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. Of course, the Sadducees rejected all of these things, including the Old Testament texts that I read, because they believed only in the Pentateuch. Which they erroneously believed made no mention of a bodily resurrection from the dead. They did not understand the implication of Exodus three, and verse six, as we will see. So for them, Sheol, the opposed abode of the departed dead, was the final resting place for people that die. All that lived on was one's legacy or one's reputation, or one's posterity. So they believe that you just need to live life to the fullest. No afterlife, no punishment, no reward. Just live it up. And this was the same attitude of the unrepentant inhabitants of Jerusalem many years earlier, when they scoffed at the prophet's warnings concerning God's judgment upon them. And Isaiah reproached the people for participating in wild parties when they should have been mourning in repentance. They're trying to anesthetize the reality that God's judgment is upon them, and that it is coming. They did not want to listen to that. So we read in Isaiah 22, beginning in verse 12, "'In that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, to shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.'" So this attitude is nothing new. And I would submit to you, sadly, that it's probably the attitude that some of you have. Certainly this is consistent with most people's attitude. Most people scoff at the idea, for example of an eternal hell of eternal punishment. And most people will say, Well, if there is a God, whoever he or she might be, I think that my good has outweighed my bad. So I'm quite certain he'll grade on the curve and I'll make the cut. That's how people think. Paul dealt with this in Corinth, First Corinthians 15 as we read earlier, beginning of verse 32. He said, "If the dead are not raised, LET US EAT AND DRINK, FOR TOMORROW WE DIE." That's what the people were saying. And he's quoting this passage out of Isaiah. He went on to say, "Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.' Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God, I speak this to your shame."

Now with this background, let's look more closely at the text for a few minutes. I want to do so under two headings that I hope will be helpful for you. Number one, we're going to see the insoluble dilemma and number two, the infallible solution. Again, now let's visualize the situation. Jesus has horribly offended the Pharisees, the Herodians that came against him and now the Sadducees. He's just making sure that everybody is really upset with him in leadership. People are standing around in the court of the Gentiles and then here comes the Sadducees. And with their garb it’s real obvious who they were. And the Sadducees don't walk, they kind of glide. So they glide up to Jesus and they confront him. And here we see first, the insoluble dilemma, verse 18, "Some Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection) came to Jesus, and began questioning Him saying, 'Teacher'"--notice the flattery there, "'Teacher, Moses wrote for us that IF A MAN'S BROTHER DIES and leaves behind a wife AND LEAVES NO CHILD, HIS BROTHER SHOULD MARRY THE WIFE AND RAISE UP CHILDREN TO HIS BROTHER.'" Now let's pause for a moment. It's important that you understand the background here, where this came from, out of Deuteronomy 25, verses five and six concerning what's called a "Levirate marriage." "Levirate" comes from the Latin "levir" which means husband's brother. Here's the background with that, and why God put this in the law. Because the perpetuation of a man's name, as a member of the covenant people, was so important, along with the property inheritance in the family; it was important that that name should be passed on. And so we read God's word in Deuteronomy 25, beginning in verse five, "When brothers live together," in other words, most of the time, they would all live on one estate, okay? "'When brothers live together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her." So in other words, a brother dies, leaves his wife, no child, the other brother, who would have to be one that is single--and as we read another passage, he couldn't divorce his wife and do this, nor could he marry his deceased brother's wife, and have her live with him and his existing wife--but he would then go into her and take her as his bride. And then it says, "It shall be that the firstborn whom she bear shall also assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blank blotted out from Israel." This is not without precedent, you may recall in in Genesis 38, the story of Tamar. Remember, she was a widow, and she acted wickedly. She played the role of the harlot, she tempted Judah, when his son Onan failed to fulfill his duty, and was impregnated by him and so forth. I might also add that if there was no unmarried brother available, to marry, the widow, another close relative, would be required to fulfill the levarite responsibility. This was the case of Boaz, as you will recall, who married his relative Elimelech's widowed daughter-in-law, her name was Ruth. So that's the background here.

So the Sadducees come up with this insoluble dilemma. It goes on, or they go on to say, verse 21, "'There were seven brothers; and the first a took wife, and died leaving no children. The second one married her, and died leaving behind no children; and the third likewise; and so all seven left no children. Last of all, the woman died also. In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one's wife will she be? For all seven had married her.'" In logic, this is called "reductio ad absurdum"-- reduction to absurdity. And it's a device that basically is an attempt to prove the fallacy of a presupposition by showing that its logical consequences are utterly absurd and/or contradictory. That's what's going on here.

By the way, I always have to smile at this to think of the arrogance of ungodly people. To think that somehow, they can fool their Creator; that they can trick him. Truly, this is a fool's errand. Now Jesus knows their wicked motivation. He knows what they're thinking. And in response, he's going to demonstrate two errors. Number one, he's going to demonstrate that they were ignorant of both the content and the correct interpretation of the scriptures, which they were supposed to be the experts that knew more than anybody else. But secondly, he is going to prove that they know nothing about the power of God in their lives. By the way, there's an important lesson to be learned here. Both faults, characterize most people, even many evangelicals. I mean, think of the heretical teachings that are out there today, by people who simply do not understand the scriptures, therefore they do not understand the power of God. They're unsaved; the Spirit of God does not dwell within them. And as a result, you get the social gospel, you get the prosperity gospel, you get the continual compromise with the LGBTQ abominations, and on and on it goes, I think of all the professing Christians whose character and conduct cannot be distinguished from most rank pagans. Think of Titus one and verse 16, "They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good thing." That's what's going on here with the Sadducees.

So first, we have the insoluble dilemma. Now we have secondly, the infallible solution. Notice how Jesus responds to them by asking a question. Verse 24, "Jesus said to them, 'Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?'" You know, I have to smile at this. Folks, this is how you deal with theological error. You deal with it forthrightly, and authoritatively based upon the word of God. And again, he's going to expose two fundamental issues. Number one, you are ignorant of both the content and the correct interpretation of the Scriptures, and you know nothing of the power of God in your life. Talk about humiliating. I think of how Paul dealt with this with the false teachers in his day, as we should even in our day. He describes it in Second Timothy three false teachers, phony Christians, he says, "But realize this, that in the last days," referring to the time between Christ's first and second coming, "difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God." By the way, now, he's describing people that are in the church. And he goes on to say, "holding to a form of godliness"-- they claim to be followers of Christ, and they have all the outward trappings of Christianity. But then, he says, "although they have denied its power;" that is the power of the indwelling Spirit, to save and to transform to sanctify. And he says, "avoid such men as these." The term "avoid" literally means to shun, to stay away from them, have no part with them.

By the way, the list that he just gave is also consistent with Paul's list in 2 Timothy 3:6, and he describes how they conduct themselves, "For among them," he says, "are those who enter into households and captivate weak women." Literally childish women, of which he must have been aware of some that were susceptible to this in his day by the false teachers. They're "weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses." In other words, they're ruled by their emotions. They're ruled by their lusts, not the truth of the Word of God; "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Of course, this is a huge problem in the church today as it was then, as it was in the first century. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were also a part of this in apostate Judaism, and many today are like that they fill pulpits, they will even fill stadiums, they will teach in seminaries and they often use the same tactics misinterpret, misapply scripture and try to discredit those who differ with them.

Dave Harrell

Now, I want you to notice Jesus' response here. And this is one, frankly, that we can all use. He says, "'Is this not the reason you were mistaken. “Let me pause, "mistaken" is from "planao," in the original language. It means to wander, to go astray, or to be misled from a proper belief or a course of action. In fact, we get our English word planet from this term. He's basically saying you guys are way off base, alright? Forthright, right to the point. It's like, Hey, you're mistaken, way off base here. He says, "'You do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God." By the way one leads to another. If you don't understand the Scriptures, if you don't understand the gospel, you will never be saved. And if you're not saved, the Spirit of God will not dwell within you. You will have nothing to restrain your flesh, and you will operate in the flesh and one day you will perish in your sins. So he confronts them. And he does so by disproving their error from Scripture. Not from just his opinion, but from Scripture. Now, don't you know a hush must have come over the crowd at this point. It's like, I can't believe Jesus said that to the Sadducees. And can't you imagine the look on the faces of the Sadducees? I imagine, you know, steams coming out their ears, you know the veins in your neck or bulging, and they're biting their teeth and they're wanting to get to this guy.

So now Jesus responds to the insoluble dilemma with an infallible solution. And he says in verse 25, "For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven." I might add also Luke's account of this in Luke 20:34, Luke, for the word "they,"... for when "they", Luke uses a Hebraism, "sons of this age." "For when the sons of this age rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they're like the angels in heaven.'" Clear, concise, authoritative. Also, it's fascinating is it not, I mean, there's no marriage in heaven. No need for procreation in heaven, no need for the appropriate ways to enjoy sexual activity, none of that will be there. No need for a living illustration of Christ's covenantal love for his bridal church, because we're there. No marriage in heaven is probably a great relief for some, some are probably saying, "Oh, thank you, Lord." For others like me, I think Oh, Lord, as wonderful as it is with my dear wife, I'm sure it's gonna have to be a whole lot better for me to enjoy heaven, right? A lot of us are that way. And rightfully so. But that's because we can't imagine the bliss of sinless glory, being in perfect relationship with God, with the angels, with perfected saints and all of that. And also, isn't it interesting, he says, "like the angels in heaven." I mean, this is a not-so-subtle refutation of their rejection of the afterlife, right? I mean, they didn't even believe in angels, the existence of angels.

And then Jesus supports his statement with Scripture. And he does so in vintage rabbinic practice. He says in verse 26, "But regarding the fact that the dead rise again." Again, now he's refuting their notion that the dead don't rise, even though that's the illustration that you're giving, because the dead do rise. It's also interesting, I might add that the word "rise," in the original language is in the passive voice, which is very significant. It indicates that resurrection is not something automatic, but it is the result of the active power of God; a reality that they cannot fathom, because he's already said in verse 24, "You do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God."

So he says, "But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses." Now let's stop. In the Pentateuch, the only section of Scripture that you believe, have you not read this? He says, "in the passage about the burning bush." I mean, everybody knows that one right? "How God spoke to him saying, I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB'. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.'" You see, this is at the very heart of the Pentateuch--that Yahweh is the living God who has made a covenant with his people; a commitment through Abraham, even through Moses. One that will last through time and eternity. Again, he says, "I am." It didn't say I was. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So how could dead men consider Yahweh to be their God and worship Him worship him as such if they were not still alive spiritually, if there was no afterlife, if there was no resurrection. It's like, end of discussion. In fact, Luke 20 gives this account beginning of verse 39, "Some of the scribes answered and said, 'Teacher, You have spoken well.'" I mean, they gotta save face in front of the crowd right? "'Teacher, You have you have spoken well.’” And then it goes on to say, "For they did not have courage to question Him any longer about anything." You know, I get that.

Now, I want to take you to First Corinthians 15 for a few minutes. Because this is so important, more truths on the resurrection. We're going to look at verses 20 through 28. Just kind of in a brief way, let me give you the context, as we read earlier in our scripture reading. Verses 12 through 19 is where the apostle delineated seven absurd theological consequences that would occur if believers were not raised from the dead, like Christ. If we do not believe in a bodily resurrection, then Christ would not have been risen, the preaching of the gospel would be meaningless, faith in Christ would be worthless, all who witnessed the resurrection and all who preach it would be liars, all men would die in their sins, all former believers would have eternally perished, and finally Christians would be the most pitiable people on earth. In other words, the Christian life would be a charade; t would be a sick, ridiculous joke. But in verse 20, he says, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep," referring to the righteous dead whose spirits have gone on to be with the Lord, but whose body awaits the composition, in the resurrection, they are asleep--"koimao" in the original language. It's often used to describe believers who have died. First Thessalonians 4:14 speaks of those who have "fallen asleep in Jesus." And then later on in verse 16, they're identified as the "dead in Christ." Second Corinthians five in verse eight, "I say, and prefer rather to be absent for the body, and to be at home with the Lord." And you will recall, as well, that Christ comforted the thief on the cross, Luke 23, verse 43, when he said, "'Truly I say to you, today, you shall be with me in paradise.'" So this is a fascinating statement here, that Christ is the first fruits of those who are asleep in him. Now, this does not mean that Jesus was the first person to be resurrected from the dead. The scriptures give us other examples of that. But what it's referring to is, that unlike Jesus, all those people died again. Only Christ himself was the one that was raised never to die again.

Now fascinating this idea of "first fruits." In Leviticus 23 and verse 10, we read how God commanded his covenant people to do something very important before they harvested their barley crops. They were required to bring a representative sample of the harvest to the priests as an offering to the Lord. This was called the first fruits. And this symbolized the consecration of the whole harvest to God, and it was a pledge of the harvest to come. So Christ's resurrection is the first truths. In other words, it is the first installment of a harvest that already exists. And what is that? It's the harvest of the elect. And He speaks of those who have falling asleep. They're going to be considered the full harvest. So this is exciting. Think about this. Paul is saying that Christ's resurrection didn't occur somehow in isolation as if it had no impact on the rest of the harvest. No, no, no, no, he was the first fruit of the rest of the harvest that already existed. You don't bring a first fruit if nothing else exists, right? And that existing crop was, and is, the elect of God that existed in eternity past. You know, I think of this when I think of our departed loved ones, I can still see my mom and dad that sat right over there that are now with the Lord. We all have loved ones that are with the Lord. Isn't it comforting to know that they are asleep in Christ Jesus. Their spirits are alive yeah, their bodies are dead. And although their soul is in heaven, their body, which is in the case of my parents, bodies were fatigued and a bit diseased and disabled. Remember how mom used to say, I just feel like I'm all used up. I'm beginning to feel more and more that way, aren't you? Their bodies are in the grave. Or for some people, their bodies are scattered all over the earth. But one day, the DNA that was a part of that decomposed body will recompose by the power of God and they will wake up in unimaginable power and glory and be united with their glorified soul. Death is the great symbol of sowing in Scripture. First Corinthians 15:42, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised in imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." Beloved, the implications of the resurrection of Christ exceed the importance and the power and the potential of all other events in the universe. It can only be rivaled by the actual creation of the universe. You see, when the resurrection body of Christ Jesus existed, as it exists, I should say even now. Within it contains the supernatural source of eternal life, the power of God's universal kingdom, it's unimaginable and a mystery beyond our capacity to understand. He dwells within His redeemed. As I say, He has redeemed us that he might inhabit us, and we exist in him. Colossians three and verse three, our life is "hidden with Christ in God." Paul says, "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead," Romans 8:11, "dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." You see, dormant within the resurrection body of Christ, was the seed of resurrection glory for all whom the Father had given him. And the magnificent truth of the gospel is that if you are united to Christ and saving faith, you are like, if you will, a nuclear warhead that is ready to explode in unimaginable power and glory, by the power of God in whom you are united. And what a precious and profound comfort that should be to each one of us. That's why Paul says in Second Corinthians four beginning in verse 16, "Therefore, we do not lose hope, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Therefore, we can rejoice with the writer of Hebrews in chapter 11 and verse one, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." You see, in Christ, we have been given a new kind of existence. His body was made perfect, no longer subject to weakness, to disease to death, but able to live eternally. He put on immortality. And like his, our resurrection body, will also be raised imperishable in glory, in power, a spiritual body as we read in First Corinthians 15.

So we will be given a body like Christ, one that is fit for heaven, no longer subject to sickness or disease, or the shame of sin. No longer easily seduced by the temptations of the world that our flesh so naturally wants to gratify. So the power contained in the resurrection body of Jesus was infinitely powerful. For it houses in it, the omnipotent power of Creator God, and one day we will behold His glory. And you know, when we do, he will look like us as a human being. From his glorified body will emanate the effulgence of the celestial majesty. The resplendent glory of the light of his shekinah will blaze forth like the brilliance of the sun. And again, to think, Christ is the first fruits. In other words, he is a precise sample of the coming harvest, which means our resurrection bodies will be like his in many ways, minus the incommunicable attributes of God that are his alone, Beloved, may I make it real practical to you the next time you see the corpse of a believing loved one, look beyond that decaying body, and see the glory of that glorified saint. Focus on the transformation from the corruptible--that is the passing away--and the incorruptible that will take its place.

And next Paul goes on to explain the profound implications of Christ's resurrection on all who are united to him in faith. He says, "For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ, all will be made alive." There's two men, there's two acts, there's two consequences. Adam was the head of the old creation, Christ is the head of the new creation. He is the first born from the dead. In other words, Colossians 1:18, He is, in other words, the preeminent one, the one of highest rank, the firstborn, the "prototokos" was the ranking son who received the right of the inheritance from the Father. And Christ possesses the right of all of the inheritance over his creation. He existed before the creation, and he is exalted in rank over it, because he is the pre-existent, self-existent, uncreated Creator of the universe.

Two men, to acts, two consequences. Romans five, verse 19, "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous." In other words, when Adam sinned, he represented all humanity, therefore, his sin was reckoned to all his descendants. But the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, radically reverses all that the first Adam initiated. And today we await, not only our personal resurrection, but the world to come. And notice what he says in verse 22, "in Christ, all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming." So Paul goes on to describe the rest of the harvest of which Christ was the first fruits, and he says, "each in his own order." "Order"-- "tagma", a military term, used to describe the arrangement of troops, there's order here. And here we see, once again, that God is both orderly, he is purposeful in all that he does. And here we learn that the resurrection harvest comes in, in three stages at Christ's coming, "Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming." The first stage will be those who have come to saving faith from Pentecost to the rapture, and they will be joined by living saints at the rapture. First, Thessalonians four verse 16, When the Lord himself it says, "descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words."

The second stage of those who will be raised from the dead refers to those who come to faith during the Tribulation, as well as the Old Testament saints, they will be raised to reign with Christ during the millennium. You read about this in Revelation 20 and verse four. Daniel spoke of this in Daniel 12 two, "Many of those who are asleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgraced and everlasting contempt."

And the third stage are those who died during the Millennial Kingdom, they will probably be instantly transformed at death into their eternal bodies, and so forth. The only people left to be raised will be the ungodly, that occurs at the end of the millennial kingdom, at the Great White Throne Judgment of God, Revelation 20, which will be followed by an eternal hell. Acts 24:15, "There will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust." And John says in John five and verse 29, that there will be a "resurrection of life" and a "resurrection of judgment." So let's rejoice in certain promise of our resurrection. Paul speaks of this in Romans eight, verse 23, "We ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved." Aren't you thankful that even though now we groan, and sometimes we groan loudly, we do so in hope of what God has in store for us.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. May we not only understand them, but may we apply them. May they govern our thoughts, our behavior. May they animate our hearts not only to further study of your word, but Lord, to worship, so that we may enjoy the absolute fullness of all that we have in Christ. And Father, for those that really do not know you as Savior, maybe they are religious, maybe they've even made a profession of faith, but they really have no love for Christ. They have no burden for the lost, no hunger for the Word, no hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Lord, they're still ruled by their flesh. Oh, Lord, won't you by the power of your spirit, bring conviction to their heart, that today they would repent and cry out for you to save them through faith in Christ and by his grace. We pray all have these things in the precious name of Jesus, our Savior in our Lord. Amen.

This morning I would like to speak to you about the Satanic power of religious hypocrisy. And we see this emerging from our text this morning, found in Mark chapter 12, if you will turn there; Mark chapter 12, verses 13 through 17. Before I read the text, and we examine it, may I remind you of something that we tend to forget. And that is what the Apostle Paul admonishes us to do in Ephesians six, beginning in verse 11, he says, "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Satan's schemes are as ingenious as they are deadly. And we are witnessing the consequences of his schemes not only in the culture in which we find ourselves, but even in ostensibly evangelical churches. In fact, today is America's most celebrated pagan worship service. It's called the Super Bowl where over 100 million people will be watching. I understand that the average ticket cost is about $10,000. This is the ultimate distraction from the difficulties of life. People's lives that will end up in death, and eternally they will either find themselves in hell or in heaven. Screaming fans can watch fabulously wealthy, athletic entertainers, frankly, try to advance a pigskin over opposing lines. It's really rather funny when you think about it. And I understand that the halftime shows are typically vulgar and immoral, I would certainly never encourage you to watch it. Shield your children from these things. But there you will be entertained, I'm sure by musicians and dancers, skilled in celebrating the immoral values of the world that is passing away in divine judgment. I guess it's fitting that it's being held this year in Sin City. Well, indeed, Satan tempts our depraved hearts, with irresistibly delicious delicacies that promise life, but will only deliver death. In fact, we read in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12, "There is a way which seems right to a man but its end is the way of death." And perhaps his most powerful weapon to accomplish his schemes is through the religious hypocrite. Men and women that seduce the naive and often the desperate with deceptions, and they do this under the pretense of sincerity and integrity, and truth.

You know, this began in the garden when Satan tempted Eve. You will recall in Genesis three one that "the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the LORD God had made." And you will recall that he appeared to her alone; she was vulnerable to seduction, unprotected by Adam's experience and counsel. And portraying himself as a beautiful emissary of enlightenment, he then caused her to doubt God's word, to question the goodness of his will and offer her another, more accurate and more appealing interpretation of what God had said. How sad to think that God will restrict you from partaking of all the good pleasures of the garden. Surely you misunderstood him because he knows that in the day that you eat from that forbidden tree, your eyes will be opened. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. And sadly, she was convinced that she was doing the right thing. So, she disobeyed God; she believed a lie. And the rest, of course, is history.

And this kind of deception continues to this very day. False teachers, often unwittingly, and sometimes wittingly, deceive undiscerning people that are ruled by the lusts of their heart, causing them to believe the schemes of the devil. Whether it's the greedy deceptions of the prosperity and social justice gospels, or perhaps the gross immoralities of the alphabet cult. Or the insanity of the liberal woketards or the buffoonery and corruption of our current administration led by a senile old man; whatever it is, dear friends, it all comes from the father of lies. And those lies, the schemes of the devil, always appeal to the lusts of fallen flesh; to those who love darkness rather than light. And again, one of Satan's greatest allies in his assault on the purposes of God, are religious hypocrites; pretenders whose actions belie their stated beliefs, and values. The apostle Paul warned us of this in Second Corinthians 11, verse 15. "Therefore," he says "it is not surprising if his servants also disguised themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds." And as we will see this morning, we are not left without resource. In this battle, we have the word of God, we have the gospel--which is the power of God unto salvation--we have the sort of the Spirit, his word that can effectively parry the blows of the enemy. In fact, Paul reminds us of this as well in Second Corinthians 10, verse 3-5, he says, "For though we walk in the flesh." In other words, though we have human limitations, "we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." And in our text, this morning, we will see this satanic power of religious hypocrisy, again, a power that we often underestimate, even in our own lives. And we do so to our own peril. To be sure, we must always be suspect of our own spirituality, as Jesus warned the naive and overconfident disciples when he found them sleeping in the garden in Matthew 26:41. He says, "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is,” What? "Is weak." This is especially crucial given the growing hostility of genuine Christianity here in the United States. As rare as that is, indeed, America has sown the wind of wickedness and it is now reaping the whirlwind of divine abandonment. I think if God would judge his chosen people Israel so harshly throughout redemptive history, what will he do to nations that mock him?

So, let's examine the Satanic power of religious hypocrisy, as it is revealed in our text here in Mark 12, beginning with verse 13. "Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. They came and said to Him, 'Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?' But He, knowing their hypocrisy said to them, 'Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.' They brought one and He said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?' And they said to him, 'Caesar's.' And Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' And they were amazed at Him."

This text is very instructive in helping us understand the character and conduct of religious hypocrites. And I might add that because of the internet in our day, they flourish like maggots on roadkill, along with all of their deceptions. And I wish to examine this section of scripture under three headings. First of all, we will see that hypocrites make unholy alliances to undermine the truth. Secondly, hypocrites masquerade as emissaries of truth, to promote deception. And finally, hypocrites lay traps to discredit their enemies and advance their agenda. And I trust you will examine your life under the light of divine scrutiny, and that we will all grow in spiritual integrity and discernment.

So, first of all, in our little outline, let's look at this issue of hypocrites making unholy alliances to undermine the truth, verse 13. "Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him, in order to trap Him in a statement." Now friends, this is a great example of the little saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," right? I mean, the Pharisees and the Herodians despised each other, and yet they're coming together in this situation. It'd be similar to liberals and conservatives today or even worse yet the astounding antithesis between liberals and authentic Christians. Think of this, the Pharisees were fastidious keepers of religious law-- though a lot of it had been invented by themselves--but the Herodians couldn't care less about the law of God. The Pharisees were fervently loyal to Israel, the Herodians were fervently loyal to Rome. They were basically sycophants of Caesar, not Yahweh. And you might remember that Herod Antipas was not even Jewish, he was half Idumean. In other words, he was an Edomite that comes from the Hebrew Edom, which is, which means "red," a description of its founder, which was Esau, the elder son of Isaac; Jacob being the younger son. So he was half Idumean, but he was also half Samaritan, whom the Jews considered to be unclean pagans. And Rome allowed him to rule after his father, Herod the Great's, death. And he was, at this time, the current governor of Galilee and Perea. The Pharisees wanted a descendant of David, the Messiah, to ascend to the throne, but the Herodians wanted Herod. But despite their differences, the Pharisees and the Herodians both had one thing in common, and that was their sheer hatred of Jesus.

You will remember earlier when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, the Pharisees were absolutely infuriated. In Mark three verse six, we read that, "The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him." Of course, the Pharisees were furious, because Jesus exposed their religious hypocrisy, their corruption, and the Herodian saw Jesus as a rival to Herod the king. But they both understood that they had no authority to execute Jesus; only Rome could do that. However, Rome wouldn't even arrest him, much less execute him simply because Jesus embarrassed the Jews or disagreed with their theology. So they had to trap him somehow; trick him into saying something that would cause Rome to believe that he was an insurrectionist. After all, just a few days earlier, 1000s, probably hundreds of 1000s were hailing him as their Messiah. Moreover, he had come into the temple, and run out all of the money changers and occupied its precincts. Astounding.

But here again, we see how these hypocrites make unholy alliances, to undermine the truth. By way of contrast, Jesus never sought common ground with his enemies. Never. Nor should we, Jesus and the apostles never once sought to "build bridges," as you hear people say, they built walls. Those walls were built with the mortar of doctrinal precision. People say today well, doctrine divides, absolutely it does. That's what you want. It divides between truth and error. The eternal destiny of men's souls depends upon the truth. This is the deadly deception of ecumenism that we see today. The attempt to somehow find unity among people of faith, whatever that means, despite their heretical beliefs. Historically, the cause of Israel's failure, and God's judgment upon them, was because they tried to blend the worship of Yahweh and being obedient in their own ways to the Mosaic law with the pagan idol worship of their culture. We see this today in evangelical pragmatism where many churches will say, you know, in order to win the world, we must become like the world. We must become more attractive, more relevant, more therapeutic, less dogmatic. Got to be more entertaining. And then the world will like us and buy into our gospel light. I was reading about a place called Life Church in Edmond, Oklahoma; the third largest church in America, like 30,000 people going there. And they're advertising a Super Bowl Sunday, a tailgating party, themed church service where the pastor will exegete Superbowl commercials. We see ostensibly evangelical churches inviting Muslims and Roman Catholics and prosperity cult preachers and social justice preachers. Even perverted pedophile, drag queens and sodomites to come speak to their people. Second Corinthians six verse 14, we read, "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?" And he goes on to say in verse 17, "'THEREFORE, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord. AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNLCEAN.'" In other words, we are never to partnership, never, somehow, build a bridge with some other religious organization, or participate in any kind of a religious event with those who deny the authority of Scripture, and in any way distort the gospel.

I touched on this briefly, I believe the last time we were together, that this is why we would never attend a homosexual wedding, which is no wedding at all in God's eyes. But it is a blasphemous mockery of the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, ordained by God, to illustrate the covenantal love that God has through Christ for his bridal church. I mean, we would never want to not only make people comfortable in their sin, but to join in a celebration that taunts God. It's inconceivable. Paul says in Ephesians 5:11, "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret." Our response to those kinds of things, and there are many, but especially the homosexual wedding thing, should be like Lot's response that Peter described in Second Peter two beginning in verse seven. There we read that Lot was "oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them,)" that is living in Sodom, "(felt his righteous soul tormented day by day at by their lawless deeds.)" He saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day by day, by their lawless deeds, that's how we should be in anything that dishonors the Lord. So again, Jesus and the apostles never ever made any kind of unholy alliances with apostates to somehow accomplish the purposes of God. You never see Jesus saying to the Pharisees, Hey, guys, look, I know I've been a little tough on you guys. I tell you what, we need to find some common ground here, right? I mean, after all, we're all after the same thing, you know, to experience the love of God and to help people. And I know we've got our differences on things, but let's just find the most common denominator of everything so that we can work together rather than work against each other. Instead of that, Jesus simply unleashed the gospel and let it do what only it can do. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, "'Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; AND A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.'"

Well hypocrites not only make unholy alliances to undermine the truth, but secondly, they will masquerade as emissaries of truth to promote deception. Notice what happens here in the text, verse 13. Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap him in a statement." This is the Sanhedrin, no doubt, here sending them, and "They came and said to Him, 'Teacher, we know that You are truthful.'" Luke's account in Luke 20 verse 21, we read, "'Teacher we know that You speak and teach correctly.'" "Correctly" comes from the Greek word "orthos," which means accurate, we get our word orthodox from that. So they're really buttering him up here. Not only do we know that you are truthful, but they say "'and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any but teach the way of God in truth.'" And I'm sure the many people that are standing around are saying, well, yeah, that's what we think too. But oh, such insincere, saccharin flattery. It's sickening. What a setup and to thin-- that they would think--that the Lord is going to fall for this. Of course, they knew the people thought all of this, and the you've got to win the people if you're a hypocrite. Plus, they would communicate to the people, or this would communicate to the people that you know, like you, we too are seeking the truth here.

We must always be on guard for this kind of hypocrisy. I've seen it so often down through the years. And often these people are winsome, knowledgeable, talented, charismatic, in the sense of their personality, their interpersonal style of relating many times; they're even orthodox. But they will have some aberrant twist in their theology somewhere. And quickly, you'll see them garner a following. But gradually, little by little, issues begin to emerge, you'll begin to hear strange stories about what's happening with them and other people, divisions begin to develop. And gradually, a once hidden agenda of control and manipulation becomes increasingly obvious. I've seen that happen in our church. And then there's conflict. Boom, things begin to blow up. Many times, there's moral failure associated with all of that. Paul warned about this in First Timothy five verse 24. He said, "The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after." In other words, there's somewhere you can tell "no way, we can see this deal a mile away." But others, you have to wait and then you begin to see what's really going on. Again, we've had that in this church. We may even have some of that going on right now. I'm not aware of it, but it probably is and eventually, it'll surface. I've been here almost 30 years. I know how these things work, so do the other elders. In fact, Paul said that this is inevitable in churches, First Corinthians 11, beginning of verse 18, "When you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it." And here's why, "For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you." In other words, God uses factions, he uses hypocrisy in the church, to reveal those who are spiritually mature and trying to honor Christ, versus those who are not. And this is especially a difficult situation when a pastor or a church leader is involved. Because my friends, the pulpit has no place for cowards, for charlatans, for entertainers, for entrepreneurs, and certainly not for hypocrites. Jude spoke of this beginning of verse 12, "These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever." And certainly, this is a perfect description of the religious leaders of Israel, who were trying to trap the Son of God.

Now back to our text. These hypocritical Pharisees and Herodians are masquerading now as these emissaries of truth. They're trying to promote their own deceptions. They're serving their father, the devil, who is master of all of this, like the phony Apostles in Corinth. Remember, Paul described them in Second Corinthians 11, beginning of verse 13, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds."

So, they approach Jesus, "oh wonderful teacher who defers to no one. You who are impartial to anyone, but only teaches the way of God in the truth, like us." And this brings us to the third point, and that is, hypocrites lay traps to discredit their enemies and advance their agenda. You see what they must do is publicly humiliate and discredit the Lord Jesus Christ, while at the same time portraying him as an insurrectionist rebelling against Roman authority. That's what the whole motivation is here. Notice in verse 14, they asked the question, "'Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?'" Oh, this is ingenious. Satan is a genius in his schemes. Now, the Jews had to pay a variety of taxes to Rome. And it was deeply humiliating to them. Frankly, it was forced idolatry. They hated it. But the worst tax of all, was the poll-tax. It was also called the head tax, the "tributum capitis." And it required one denarius per year--that would be about one day's wages. It was payable by all males 14 through 65. And we believe that they had to even pay for their wives as well. But the poll tax was different than all of the other taxes, taxes on things like property and agricultural yield of crops they had, they had sales taxes and toll taxes and duties on agricultural goods and all kinds of things. But this was especially reprehensible to the Jews. And that's why the Pharisees and Herodians picked this one. Notice they didn't say, Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, but rather specifically pay a poll-tax to Caesar? Why was it reprehensible? Well, number one because of denarius, which was a silver coin, bore the image of the emperor, Tiberius Caesar, along with inscriptions claiming divinity. Of course, this is idolatry. This is a violation of the second commandment, that you are not to make or bow down or serve a graven image. They're being forced to do this.

But the second reason why it was so reprehensible is because the clear implication of this tax was simply this-- that Caesar owned them; that they were his possession. Not Yahweh's. And just for this reason that the Jews wouldn't even carry a denarius. So this was a hot button issue. In fact, 25 years earlier, in about AD six, a Galilean named Judas founded the Zealots to revolt against Rome, quoting from the wars of the Jews two, comma 118, from Flavius Josephus, who was a first century Jewish Roman historian. He wrote this, this was written about AD 75. Here's what he said, "Under his administration," and this was referring to Coponius, who was the Roman procurator, at that time, "under his administration, it was that a certain Galilean whose name was Judas prevailed with his countrymen to revolt, and said that they were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans, and would after God, submit to mortal men as their lords. This man was a teacher of a peculiar sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those their leaders." We read about him as well in Acts 5:37. There we read "Judas of Galilee, rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after him; he too, perished and all those who followed him, were captured." By the way, one of Jesus's disciples was Simon the Zealot, and he belonged to this movement prior to coming to Christ. It's also worth noting that this highly offensive taxation led to another revolt against Rome, between AD 66 and 70. And it was put down by the Romans in AD 70, when they utterly annihilated Jerusalem.

So, knowing how the Jews despise Roman taxation, their question to Jesus was quite a setup. You know, think about this, if Jesus says, "Well, you need to pay it," then Jesus would be promoting idolatry, and he would lose favor with the people. But if he said, "don't pay it," and Herodians would label him as an insurrectionist and would report him to Rome. So, either way he loses. But I have to laugh at this; like all narcissistic hypocrites, they thought they could outsmart God. One thing you will discover in seasoned hypocrites, is they are a legend in their own mind. In fact, you will see this all the time with people who are in power. No matter how stupid they may be, they think they're smarter than everyone else. We deal with this on a regular basis in our modern politics. We've got people in positions of authority that are dangerously dumb. I don't say that to be unkind. I mean, they're intellectually challenged. And when you listen to them, you think, how could anybody be that stupid? Worse yet, how could anybody be that stupid to vote for these people?

Dear friends, let me put it to you practically, because we all have to guard our hearts with this. You may think that you are pulling the wool over other people's eyes. And you may be very effective in doing this, but know this, the penetrating eye of divine omniscience can see right to the very soul of your being. You are not fooling God. He knows your every motive. And you think of the doctrine of divine omniscience, and we see biblically that he knows everything that is actual and everything that is possible. There has never been a time where he lacked knowledge, where he lacked information. John 2:25, "He Himself knows what is in man." Hebrews 4:13, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." And the Psalmist puts it this way in Psalm 139, verse four, "Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know at all." So, in verse 15, we read, "But He, knowing their hypocrisy." In other words, he knew their motive, he knew what was going on. "Said to them, 'Why are you testing me?'" Luke's account in Luke 20 and verse 23, we read, "He detected their trickery." And Matthew's account in chapter 22, verse 18, he "perceived their malice." So, Jesus said to them, "'Bring me a denarius to look at.'" He didn't carry one. Most of the Jews wouldn't carry one, they are not going to carry a little image of an idol around with them. Probably it was only the Herodians that had some and so they had to find one or here's one. "'Bring me a denarius to look at.' They brought one. And He said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?' And they said to Him, 'Caesar's.' And Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' And they were amazed at Him." Well, that's an understatement, right? Can you imagine being there? I mean, to argue with him would have required them to favor one of either of those sides, if they were to argue in favor of paying it, then they indicted themselves. If they said that, well, no, you shouldn't pay it, then all the people would be against them. So Jesus just flipped the whole thing on them. And I'm sure that people realize that they were no match for Jesus intellectually. Reminds me of the little saying "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Right?

And it's also interesting to think about this; this dialogue took place in the public arena of the Court of the Gentiles. So everyone heard it. Everyone's hearing this. And yet you don't hear anybody in the crowd say, "Excuse me, Rabbi." No, nobody's gonna say anything. Luke's account, says this in chapter 20, verse 26, "And they were unable to catch Him in a saying in the presence of the people; and being amazed at His answer, they became silent." Matthew 22, verse 22. "And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away."

Now, there's an important lesson here that needs to be learned if I can digress for a moment. Jesus clearly teaches that we must pay our taxes to a secular government, even though much of its policies are wicked. When Jesus said, "Render to Caesar," the term "apodidomi" in the original language literally speaks of the repayment of something owed. So you owe them this. And what is it that is owed? Well, they're providing for you: peace, safety, protection, infrastructure, roads, bridges; for us electrical grid, and on and on it goes. Paul spoke of this in Romans 13, beginning in verse one, "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is do them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor."

Now, much of what our governing authorities do, is reprehensible in the eyes of God. And we have to expect this. I mean, these people are at enmity with God, they're spiritually dead. They're acting consistently with their depraved nature. They're ruled by that. Ephesians I'm sorry, Romans chapter eight, and verse five. Paul describes him as "Those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh." He goes on to say in verse seven, "the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. For those who are in the flesh cannot please God." So naturally, our fallen leaders are going to act consistently with their depraved hearts and how Satan works in them to accomplish his purposes to thwart the purposes of God. Nevertheless, civil authorities are ordained by God. It's an example of God's common grace, I think, where we would be if we didn't have any governing authority, right? If you want to get just a little sample of what it might look like, look at liberally controlled cities today and you see the anarchy, you see drug addicts and sexual perverts and criminal gangs and homeless encampments; unimaginable filth, syringe needles laying around. That's why a lot of you have moved here to Tennessee, right? But where government and sanity and the rule of law prevail, we as citizens are protected. And we can live in peace and in varying degrees of prosperity. Peter spoke of this as well, First Peter two beginning in verse 13, "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and the praise of those who do right. For such as the will of God that by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil but use it as bondslaves of God." In other words, willing slaves of God. "Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king." I mean, the only time we can ever rebel against civil authority is when they force us to do something that God forbids or forbids us to do that which God commands. And for this reason, we're even commanded to pray for those that God has placed in authority over us. Paul spoke about this in First Timothy two beginning of verse one, "I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men." And then he adds this "For kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." And I pray often that God will protect us and our children from the exceedingly wicked authorities that he has placed over us to accomplish his purposes, in ways that we can't fully understand.

Now you have to wonder, if the Pharisees and Herodians really heard what Jesus said, When they were trying to trap him, again, "'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,'" and then this last phrase, "'and to God the things that are God's.'" Now, they may have had to have thought this through, as I have thought it through. But here what we see is the ultimate authority speaks with ultimate authority. All right. I want you to notice again in verse 16, he says, "'Whose likeness,'" it could be translated image an inscription, '"is this?' And they said to him, 'Caesar's.' This is so powerful in light of what is happening here. I mean, think about this--God is the only and ultimate sovereign and we as human beings are made in his image. Therefore, it is God, not man, who possesses the only rightful claim on his image bearers. Therefore, by implication, as James Edward states, quote, "If coins bear Caesar's image, than they belong to Caesar. But humanity which bears God's image, belongs to God." So, let's render to God the things that are God's. And how do we do that? Well, by obeying the supreme commandment to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, love our neighbors as ourselves. And only by God's grace, can we even begin to do that? Romans 12, beginning of verse one, "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." In other words, don't allow the world to impose its values on you, in such a way as you begin to look like it and act like it and think like it. But rather, by the renewing of your mind, let there be a metamorphosis, where who you really are in Christ begins to be manifested more and more.

So, we want to ask ourselves, does any of this apply to me? Are you an actor? Are you a pretender? Do you just come here to church on Sunday, and you say some spiritual things, and you claim to be a follower of Christ, but in reality, you don't really love him. You don't really have any desire to honor him in your life, to be a holy living sacrifice, to give glory to God. Are you and here I'm going to use the quintessential hypocrite example. Are you a Judas Iscariot? The prototypical pretender, the greatest of all phonies, like all hypocrites. Judas was motivated by self-will for the purpose of self-aggrandizement and self-promotion. I mean, he was a skilled hypocrite. I mean, none of the others in the group could see it, right? He was callous in his hatred of Christ. In fact, he was so proficient in his masquerade that Matthew says that all of the disciples responded to the Lord's chilling announcement that one of you are going to betray me by saying, is it I, Lord? And even Judas said, according to Matthew 26, is it I, Rabbi? You want an example of the power and the insanity of sin. Solomon described this perfectly in Ecclesiastes nine three when he said, "The hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives." I mean, Judas knew that Jesus knew about his plan to betray him. Because Jesus had made that clear in his earlier statements, but Judas was so hardened in his hypocrisy, and his hatred of Christ. He didn't care. The only reason he chimed in with the other disciples by saying, "Is it I, rabbi?" was to somehow keep up the appearance of being like everyone else, with no care of how God saw him.

I want to close this morning with just some pastoral thoughts to you. Okay? Some things that I thought would be helpful, just very briefly, with respect to hypocrisy, because we all have to guard ourselves against it. I want to give you five concepts number one hypocrisy can thrive in any soil.

Beloved, a hypocrite can thrive in a godly church, as well as an ungodly church. In fact, I would argue that the more Christ honoring the church, the more skilled the hypocrite. And they will form alliances with other hypocrites within the church, to promote themselves, to promote their agenda. Guard against that beloved.

Secondly, hypocrisy breeds increasingly worse sins. I mean, sin always goes from bad to worse right? Never the opposite. Hypocrisy is like cancer that weakens the entire body. Cancer never comes in and says, you know what, this organ is enough, we'll just stay here. No, it will metastasize and go on and on. And that's what happens. Hypocrisy gradually sears the conscience and makes us more susceptible to even greater and more destructive sins. I mean, think of the Pharisees in Luke 12 one Jesus said, "'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.'" And as you know, leaven is what you put in bread; it permeates through a process of fermentation. And in Scripture, it's used to describe influence, corruption, defilement, sin. And that's what happens; hypocrisy begins to ferment in you, shall we say. It permeates your life. It permeated the lives of the scribes and the Pharisees to a point that they would murder an innocent man--

their Messiah. Thirdly, hypocrisy believes public piety outweighs secret sins. The hypocrite merely gives lip service to true worship. We see this in the Lord's words in Isaiah 29:13. "Therefore, the Lord said, 'These people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips but have removed their hearts far from Me.'" Hypocrites love to find the spotlight so that they can go run and take a bow in it. This is what the Pharisees did with their religious garb, their public prayers, setting in the chief seats, demanding people to respect them. I might add that self-promotion is always a certain sign of hypocrisy. The humble will be willing to serve God in obscurity but not the hypocrite.

Fourthly, hypocrisy seers the conscience and predisposes the soul against heartfelt repentance. I mean Judas is a classic example of this, was he not? Jesus gave him every opportunity to repent, and he never did. He remained unrepentant and determined, the same with the scribes and Pharisees. They saw all of Jesus's miracles, all of his teaching; they heard that and yet they attributed his miraculous works to Satan. As a result, God judicially sealed them in their unbelief.

And finally, hypocrisy will attack and abandon anyone who can see through its masquerade. Consider the scribes and the Pharisees. They were absolutely apoplectic at the very name of Jesus, because he exposed them. Jesus saw right through them. In fact, he reserved his most scathing rebuke for their hypocrisy. But rather than humbling themselves in brokenness and repentance, they determined to kill him. The hypocrite is always on duty, to avoid detection, and he will attack and abandon anyone who dares to unmask him. This, my friends, is the Satanic power, of religious hypocrisy. May we all guard ourselves from it. May we all cultivate within our hearts, devotion to God. Live it out in private worship, and public service, but be willing to do that in absolute obscurity, for the glory of Christ knowing that he sees and he will reward. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that have such power in our hearts. May we all respond with obedience, knowing that you love us and you want us to experience the fullness of all that is ours in Christ Jesus. And Lord for those that perhaps are convicted under the weight of what has been said, I pray that you will bring them to a place of true brokenness and repentance and reconciled them to you in genuine saving faith. We thank you, we give you praise. In Jesus name. Amen.

As believers, we simply will not grow in Christ apart from the systematic, in-depth teaching, preaching and application of the Word of God. And therefore, we will forfeit many of the blessings that could be hours. With that in mind, we return once again to the study of His Word by looking at Mark's gospel chapter 12. For those of you that, perhaps have not been with us, we go through various books of the Bible verse by verse so that we don't miss anything. And we have been in Mark 12 now, the Gospel of Mark and now we come to Mark 12, having taken a little bit of a detour into Isaiah five to better understand what Jesus is saying in this text. This is the third and final part of a little series that I've entitled "Judgment Upon the Failed Vineyard."

Let me remind you of the context here; it is now Wednesday before his crucifixion, the Lord Jesus Christ has cleansed the temple; purged it of money changers and other nefarious characters. This has infuriated the Jewish leaders. He has also been preaching the gospel, refuting the works righteousness system of apostate Judaism of that day. And as a result, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, were attacking him. In chapter 11, verse 28, they say, "By what authority? Are you doing these things or who gave you this authority to do these things?" And of course, his response, humiliated them in front of all of the people, and as a result, they stood self-condemned before the judge of heaven and earth. And because of their deliberate, conscious rejection of the truth, Jesus judicially sealed them in their unbelief, extinguishing forever in the light of divine revelation, that they might endure the eternal darkness that they loved.

So this brings us now to chapter 12. Jesus is speaking to a crowd that has surrounded him. It would have been literally hundreds of people, including the religious leaders, that are trying to trap him. They want to arrest him; they want him dead. And with that, we read in verse one of Mark 12, that Jesus, "began to speak to them in parables. 'A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. At the harvest time, he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. They took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. And he sent another and that one they killed; and so, with many others, beating some and killing others. He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But those vine-growers said one another, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!' They took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read the Scripture? THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER STONE; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES.' And they were seeking to seize Him. And yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left him and went away."

As we look at the parable, we can see very clearly what Jesus is referring to here. The slaves that were sent and mistreated and killed depict the prophets of God from Moses all the way to the last Old Testament prophet John the Baptist. The "son" that was killed refers to Jesus, the Son of God. And the "vineyard," as we've studied over the last couple of weeks out of Isaiah five, refers to the house of Israel and the men of Judah, his delightful plant--Isaiah five seven. And the journey really symbolizes that period between God's original dealing with the descendants of Abraham, the transformation of the people into a nation, the covenantal expectations of them through the Mosaic Law, the rebellion and the divine dispersion that he caused to occur all the way through the arrival of the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus, that stood before them. And the harvest that he expected was the spiritual fruit of godliness. Because he had called the people of Israel to be the ones that proclaim the true God. And all of this was illustrated by his miraculous works, even in their midst. They are the ones that were to reveal the Messiah, the anointed one, who would be the savior of the world. They were to be God's "priest nation." As God told Moses on Sinai, in Exodus 19, six, "'You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and holy nation.'" A priest is a mediator between God and man and all of Israel was to serve as that mediator for God to the rest of the world. But as you know, they failed miserably. They rejected Christ. And this parable is therefore a graphic picture of the outrageous wickedness of not just Israel, but the religious leaders, the vine-growers, given the responsibility to care for God's vineyard, Israel.

And in verse one, as we come here, Jesus quotes the Parable of the Vineyard from Isaiah five that we've studied in great detail the last couple of weeks, and there you find a summary of God's lament over the rebellion of his people and the specific categories of sin that brought about his judgment upon them, and the same kinds of things Jesus accused them of. And this parable really parallels what we see in Isaiah five, Let me remind you of the six woes of Isaiah five--the categories of sin that kindled his wrath against them. There was first of all, the sin of covetousness, the avarice, greedy materialism. Secondly, the sin of dissipation; self-indulgence that really resulted in a refusal to contemplate the works of God and creation and history and redemption. The sin of mockery; they dared God to judge them. They shook their fist in his face. The sin of perversity where they called good, evil and evil good. This included by the way, the sin of homosexuality, that's an abomination to God. We read about this, for example, in Isaiah three and verse eight, and following, "For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their actions are against the LORD, to rebel against His glorious presence. Their expression of their faces, bears witness against them, and they display their sin like Sodom, they do not even conceal it, Woe to them, for they have brought evil on themselves." And then there was also the sin of self-deification; the height of arrogance, the text says, "they were wise in their own eyes." They knew more than God, so they did their own thing. And finally, the sin of corruption; dishonest drunken leaders that could be bribed to advance the agenda of the wicked. And together, variations of this list of wickedness continued to characterize Israel even through the days of the Lord Jesus.

Now let's look more closely at the parable. Again, verse one, "He began to speak to them in parables: 'A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER.'" And you will recall that this demonstrates that there was thorough preparation and protection of this precious vineyard of Israel. He lavished his love upon them and blessed them with supernatural endowments and resources. Nothing was left to chance. Nothing more was to be desired in that land in which he placed them. And he expected his people to produce good grapes; grapes of righteousness, if you will. But the harvest was that of "beusim"-- the inedible sour berries that had to be discarded. And what a graphic picture of the vile nature of Judah's corruption. And now here it is, even in this first century, Jesus dealing with it again. He goes on to say in verse one that he rented out this vine grove to "the vine-growers and went on a journey."

Now this was a common practice in that day, even as it is today, there are tenant farmers that work the fields of other people and then they would share in the harvest. Verse two, "'At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers.'" But then notice what happens, "'They took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.'" I mean, this is shockingly outrageous. The people that are hearing this would be flabbergasted. They would be overwhelmed. I mean, this is not only a violation of the contractual arrangement, but this is this is despicably cruel. But the violence gets even worse. Verse four, "'Again, he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another. and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others.'" I mean, this is an amazing display of patience, and sacrifice on part on the part of the one that owned the vineyard. He kept sending slave after slave to collect what was rightfully his. In the parallel account in Matthew 21, verse 35, we read, "'The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned a third.'" Now as you can see, the allegory here is building to a climax of sheer rage over such atrocities. Jesus is leading them exactly where he wants them to go. They are being set up. No rational person could excuse the violent reaction of the vine growers. I mean, no one could excuse that. But now the story reaches just the pinnacle of drama. Rather than being justified and sending armed forces to annihilate the wicked tenants, the owner takes an incredible risk by sending his beloved son, notice verse six, "'He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.''" Excuse me, this unexpected response would be considered equally outrageous to Jesus audience. No doubt they were saying, "my what a stupid thing to do. I mean, look what has happened, you're not going to send your son--you know what they're going to do to him." But the owner sends his son and they treated him as everyone would expect verse seven. "'But those vine growers said to one another, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!'" Now I might add that this was consistent with the laws of that day, they would have understood that land that is unclaimed for three years, reverts to the people that have been working it and they become the owners. So verse eight, "'They took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.'" In other words, they didn't even give him a decent burial. Unbelievable. Now, the scribes and the Pharisees would have been horrified with such ungrateful criminal behavior. And this is exactly the reaction that Jesus wanted them to have. However, as we will see, they did not realize at first that this whole story was an indictment against Israel in general, and them specifically.

So, to the astonishment of the listeners, the owner of the vineyard sends his beloved son hoping that they would respect him, that they would listen to him. As I reflected upon this, my mind went to the Mount of Transfiguration where, with Jesus, Peter, James and John together, saw Moses and Elijah. And then you will recall in Mark nine, seven, a cloud formed overshadowing them. And a voice came out of the cloud. "This is my beloved Son," what? "Listen to Him!" LISTEN to Him. But "He came to His own," John 1:11, "but those who were His own did not receive him." And sadly, some of you will hear the glorious truths of the gospel and see the infinite perfections of the person and work of Christ, and yet you will not receive him.

I'm also reminded of the time when Jesus would be arrested and made to stand before the corrupt high priest. And this would have happened just a couple of days later. He would hear all of the insults against him. And according to Mark 14, beginning in verse 61, it says that "Jesus kept silent and did not answer. Again, the high priest was questioning Him and saying to Him, 'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?' And Jesus said, 'I am; and you shall see the SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWERE AND COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.'"

So again, in the story, they did not listen to the son; had no respect for him. Verse eight, "'They took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.'" And then Jesus brings it to a climax and says, in verse nine, "'What will the owner of the vineyard do?'" Matthew adds this in his account in Matthew 21, beginning in verse 40. "'Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?'" Now, what he is going to record is what the religious leaders said. "They said to Him, 'He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.'" And I imagine after they said that they're, you know, prancing around high five, and you know, we will nail that guy, or those guys, right? And then "Jesus said to them," in Matthew's account, "'Did you never read the Scriptures.'" I Imagine you could have heard a pin drop at that point. "'Did you never read the Scriptures? THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME TE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES'?" Mark puts it this way, in verse nine, "What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others." And Luke gives us even more clarification of what went on there. In Luke 20, beginning of verse 16, Jesus says "'He will come and destroy these vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others.'" And then it says this; see now they're catching on. "When they heard it, they said, 'May it never be!'" The strongest way of putting a negative in the language. Suddenly they realized they were the ungrateful, ungodly vine-growers deserving of death that they had just pronounced upon themselves. Imagine the look on their faces. And then Jesus looked at them. Folks, you got to put yourself there. Can you imagine the Son of God looking at you? Jesus looked at them, eyeball to eyeball. What then, is this that is written:" He said, THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but whomever it falls, it will scatter like dust.'" Mark expresses the same thing in verse 10. "'Have you not even read the Scripture: THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES.’” There by the way, Jesus is quoting a messianic psalm, Psalm 118, verses 22 and 23, pointing them to the reality of his Messiahship. Like the cornerstone of a building, whose perfect symmetry and strength was crucial for the construction and the stability of a building so too the Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the kingdom of God.

You will remember later on at Pentecost, Peter would proclaim to the same murderers what is recorded in Acts four beginning in verse 10, "let it be known to all of you, and to all of the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead...'He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but which BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. And there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven, that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.'"

So indeed, the Jews inspected the cornerstone, but he didn't measure up to their selfish needs. They wanted a deliverer from Rome, not a deliverer from sin, like so many people today. They wanted to blesser, not a savior. They wanted someone to make them happy, not holy. They wanted a life of success and prosperity and fulfillment. Because after all, God exists for me, right? Rather than I exist for him, they rejected the cornerstone. It's interesting, in his first epistle, Peter said, this in First Peter two beginning in verse six, "'BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.' This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, 'THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone and A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE'; for they stumble because they are," catch this now, "They are disobedient to the word And to this doom, they were also appointed." Meaning they were fixed conclusively, and authoritative ly as a consequence of their own unbelief. Paul describes those who are united to Christ as those who can rejoice. He said this in Ephesians, two verse 19, "You are no longer strangers and aliens, but are fellow citizens, with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone."

So, Jesus trapped the scribes and the Pharisees, causing them to literally pronounce judgment upon themselves. And once they realized that they had condemned themselves, notice their reaction. It was not one of repentance, verse 12, "And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so, they left Him and went away." And because they rejected the cornerstone, Matthew tells us this, what Jesus said, in Matthew 21 verse 43, "'Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.'" I believe this is a reference to the church of which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, as well as a future remnant of believing Israel. This is the only vine able to produce the fruit of the kingdom. Jesus said, "'I am the vine, you are the branches, He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from Me, you can do nothing.'" Peter says this in First Peter two nine referring to the church as "A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's own possession." Holy nation refers, it's literally a people that are set apart. They're divinely separated from the world, to have intimate fellowship with God. And eventually we know that the kingdom promises of Israel in the Old Testament will be literally fulfilled when the Jewish people finally embrace their King in saving faith. Romans 11:25 through 29 makes this abundantly clear. And at his second coming, they will finally receive their Messiah, Zechariah 12 and verse 10, and Zechariah 14 and verses eight and nine speak of this, and then he will finally establish his kingdom on earth for 1000 years and so forth.

But Jesus went on to offer further condemnation. Matthew records this in Matthew 21 verse 44. He says this, "'And he who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces; but on whoever it falls, it will scatter him, like dust.'" My friends herein is the eternal tragedy of those who reject Christ and fall upon him, so to speak, in rejection again. As I said, In First Peter two eight where he quotes Isaiah 8:14, he describes Christ as "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." Well, isn't that the truth? All you have to do is present Christ to people and see how offended they are. It goes on to say why. "For they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom, they were appointed." And indeed, the Jews fell upon that stone by crucifying him. But all who refuse to repent and bow the knee to Christ will eventually be as the text says, "scattered like dust." Think of it this wa, those who fall on the stone will be crushed. But those upon whom the stone falls, will be pulverized. This is judgment.

Here we're also reminded of Daniel's prophecy, if I can take you there just for a moment. Remember, the prophecy of the 10 toes of the iron kingdom. It's described in Daniel two--we've studied that before--verses 41 and following, that points to 10 future kings that will eventually come about during the rule of the Antichrist; they will control the territory of a revived Roman Empire during the 70th week of judgment upon Israel, that Daniel describes in Daniel 9:24 through 27. That will be a future seven-year period of pre-kingdom judgments that will end with sin's final judgment, and Christ's reign of righteousness, the return of Christ on the establishment of his millennial rule upon the earth. But in that passage in Daniel two verse 44, we read this. "'In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. In as much as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountains, without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.'" The symbolism of a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, clearly indicates divine origination, and clearly the kingdom of God will not replace will not only, I should say, replace every vestige of all preceding kingdoms, but it will utterly destroy them. That's my king and that's the kingdom that I'm longing for. I hope you share in that.

So here in Mark 12 one through 12, Jesus pronounces judgment upon the failed vineyard. And I wish to help you see a little bit more of the wickedness of the leaders of that day and draw some parallels with contemporary evangelicalism. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes one nine "there is nothing new under the sun." There, we can go for a few minutes to Matthew 23. Jesus unleashed a scathing denunciation on these false shepherds. I want to give you first of all, just five, briefly, five characteristics of false religious leaders. They had them then, we've got them now.

First of all, we see in Matthew 23, number one that they are self-appointed, not God ordained. Verse two, "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses.'" You see, the Jews understood that the chair of Moses was a reference to divine authority. Moses was God's spokesman. He was the law giver. He was divinely appointed. He was divinely ordained, he was divinely gifted to be able to say to the people, "Thus saith the Lord." But they have seated themselves in the "chair." "Chair"-- "kathedra"--we get cathedral from that, originally referred to a position of, or even a place of, spiritual or ecclesiastical authority. For example, in universities, you know, they have department "chairs", esteemed professors. And the term also referred to the actual seat that was found in the front of a synagogue where the authoritative teacher would go and sit. And Jesus is basically saying that you scribes, and you Pharisees, you seat yourself in a position of authority. I have not put you there. You are self-appointed. Like so many people we have today in pulpits, they're self-appointed. They're not God ordained. They're not God-appointed, God-gifted. They're self-styled teachers. Peter speaks of this in Second Peter two. He describes them as those who "secretly introduce destructive heresies." He says that "many will follow their sensuality," and "in their greed they will exploit you with false words." They will "indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties." He goes on to say their eyes are "full of adultery," and they "never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed." He went on to add that they speak "out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escaped from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to corruption." And all of this begins with naive, and often, very desperate people, give them that authority.

So not only are they self-appointed, rather than God ordained, but secondly, they're hypocrites that do not practice what they preach. Verse three, "'Therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.'" Scribes and the Pharisees were notorious for telling everyone how to live, how to honor God, how to obey the law, and they had endless lists of duties--right and wrong, but they were unable to even practice what they preached. And the reason for that is they were unregenerate. The Spirit of God did not dwell within them; nothing to restrain the flesh. I might add, according to Romans seven and verse 22, only a person who has been born again, can quote, "joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man." If you've never been born again, then you're going to hear the Word of God, it's going to be foolishness to you, and you can't understand it and apply it.

Jesus goes on to describe them as not only self-appointed hypocrites, who don't practice what they preach, but thirdly, they lacked genuine compassion. I mean, these guys were overbearing, legalists. Verse four, and "'They tie up heavy loads and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.'" And Judaism, in that day, was absolutely unbearable for the people. They were burdened with countless rules that you couldn't even remember, much less keep. They were saddled with loads that they could not bear. And then the leaders would berate them because of their disobedience. What a way to control people. This is so indicative of false religions today; works righteousness systems. The Jews were taught basically that your good will outweigh your bad, and if it does you will, you know, make it to the kingdom. A lot of people think that way today, don't they? That God basically grades on the curve, and you know, I'm not as bad as some, not as good as others, but I, you know, I think I'll make the cut. The Jewish leaders had no compassion, no sympathy for the people. They were overbearing, abusive legalists. What a contrast to the gentle Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who according to Matthew 9:36, "felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd." That's why He said in Matthew 11 verse 28, "'Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my load is light.'" But inevitably, these false religious leaders would contrive elaborate systems of works righteousness as an effort to maintain control of their followers. In fact, Peter said in Second Peter two and verse three, he warned how that "in their greed they will exploit you with false words." You ask anyone that's been around some of these cults, or some of these legalistic systems, and they will tell you of the onerous rules; never ending rules, bizarre interpretations of Scripture.

Fourthly, they were desperate to be noticed. Verse five, says, "'But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments.'" Now, the Pharisees were notorious for ostentatious garb. If you want to get a little sense of that look at Roman Catholicism, because much of the way they dress and the things they do, came out of how the Pharisees looked and conducted themselves. There was a pretense of spirituality without the reality of it. It says that they would broaden their phylacteries. "Phylactery" is a transliteration of a Greek term, "phylakteria," meaning protection or safeguard. And frankly, there was no record of their use until around 400 BC during the intertestamental period. Sometimes it was called the "tefillin," derived from a Hebrew word translated "frontals." And it was worn on the head, and they had one that's worn on the left arm which is closest to your heart. You'll see this in various aspects of Judaism today. You see what they did is, the Jews took literally the four commands in the Pentateuch, that his law was to be on their hands and foreheads to remind them of his holy standard. And however, it should be understood figuratively, and symbolically that God's law should basically govern all that we think and all that we do. But the description was this--it was a little box made of ceremonially clean animal, and it was dyed black, with leather that was sewn into a box with 12 stitches, the 12 stitches refer to, or symbolized the 12 tribes of Israel. And the phylactery worn on the head, consisted of four compartments, each containing one of the four texts in the Pentateuch book, written on a tiny piece of parchment, and the phylactery that was worn on the hand, on the left hand, contain one piece of parchment with all four texts written upon it. And sadly, the term itself came to be used as a synonym for a magical amulet or charm in pagan cultures. And many Jews gradually adopted that, and they would use it to ward off spirits and evil spirits and so forth. Most Jewish men wore them when they prayed. Today with a bar mitzvah, when a young man turns 13, he's given a set of phylacteries to be worn during morning prayer. But what happened is the Pharisees wore this all the time. It became a symbol of pride, and the Pharisees even broadened these things so that it would be even more obvious; symbolizing the advanced status of their spiritual superiority. They even lengthened their tassels. Now Jesus did not wear phylacteries, but he did wear tassels. Remember the woman with the hemorrhage of blood that touched the tassel? In, what was it Mark, or Matthew. Matthew nine I believe it is. And this originated from Numbers 15, beginning of verse 38, where the Lord commanded Moses to tell his people to "'make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, that they shall put on the tassel of each corner, a cord of blue. It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot in order that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God.'" But sadly, what God intended to draw people unto himself, became a pretentious means of drawing attention to themselves. They were desperate to be noticed by men and anytime you see religious garb, religious clothing and paraphernalia, you know that you're dealing with a false teacher.

Fifthly, They were egomaniacs. I like to put it that way. Verse six, and "'they love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and being called by men Rabbi.'" In other words, they looked for the place where the spotlight would shine on them. You see this with a lot of false teachers today; the most dangerous place on earth is between them and a camera, especially if it's a television camera. False shepherds thrive on being on stage. I've been around them a lot over the years. I used to work with a lot of them, especially in the music industry. Prima donnas, many of them, temperamental; explode into anger if they're inconvenienced, or they're criticized; demanding special privileges, demanding enormous fees from booking agents. Would never come to a small church, only the big churches. They had to have limos in the best hotels and eat in five-star restaurants. They had to have fruit baskets with certain favors, in the baskets in the dressing rooms. I know all about that stuff, folks--that's the stuff of false teachers. This is what the Pharisees were like. Jesus said they love the "'respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called by men Rabbi'." This was a title that had the connotation of the most knowledgeable one. Right? The supreme one.

Jesus then pronounced a series of woes against them. I'll just read them to you as we wrap this up this morning. He went on to say, "'But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.'" By the way, I want you to know how un seeker-sensitive this is. I want you to notice how in love Jesus spoke the truth directly to them. He went on to say but, "'Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, because you devour widow’s houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.'" In other words, they had their own trickery in how they could make oaths and be obligated to some, but not to others, depending upon what they placed the oath upon. "'You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold of the temple or the temple that sanctified the gold?"

Verse 23, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel! Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they're full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them and shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves, that you were sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?'" Imagine the look on their faces after enduring that, knowing full well that was absolutely true.

Folks, this is what happens when people deny the Word of God and the will of God. It's a slippery slope, isn't it? And this is what has happened even in our culture. People have a superficial understanding of the word of God. They lack biblical discernment. Little by little the world squeezes them into its mold and conforms people into its image. People begin to compromise. We see apostate churches, for example, embracing the whole LGBTQ perversions. They embrace apostate churches and preachers. I've witnessed over the years, the destruction, the damage of theological liberalism, that has morphed into political liberalism. And as a result, you have people in churches, and now in government, that are immoral, incompetent, and corrupt. I mean just look at our government. Today, it's a DEI government. People deny the inspiration and the inerrancy and the authority of Scripture. They're wise in their own eyes, they call evil good, and good evil. And as a result, you've got churches that just make up stuff. You see this in the charismatic movement. You see it in the Messianic movement, the prosperity gospel, the social gospel, on and on it goes. They despise sound doctrine, so they don't have any discernment. And there's just no end to the insanity.

And I want to close with four areas of sin that I really want us to guard ourselves against. Because it's easy for us to see these things and not apply it to our own lives. And I want to say this with great love and kindness to each of you. But these are the types of things that can cause us to forfeit God's blessing and place us in the pathway of divine chastening. One of the first sins that I see in evangelicalism is a failure to cultivate intimate fellowship with the Lord. Are you developing a deeper and deeper love for Christ? Are you hungry and thirsting for righteousness? Do you have, real practically, have an appetite for the Word, so that you long for those times when you can sit down alone with the Lord, and immerse yourself into his word, and hear His voice, and allow him to speak to your heart and nourish your soul. And give you discernment. Are you a Psalm one, kind of Christian that meditates upon the Word? If not, you're going to be subject to failure, you're going to forfeit blessing in your life.

Secondly, there's a failure in the church today to come out and be separate from the world. The internet has been blowing up over this whole issue of one prominent preacher that told a grandmother that it was okay to go to their grandson or daughter, I forget, wedding, a homosexual wedding, being married to a transsexual person, and that maybe you could even take a gift and that way you wouldn't be perceived a judgmental and maybe then have an opportunity to witness to them. And I know some of you have asked me what I think about that. Would I recommend that you go to a homosexual wedding? With them knowing that you disagree with that? And the answer is, in the most emphatic way I could possibly put it, absolutely not. Absolutely not. To attend a homosexual wedding, is a supreme act of blasphemy against the Most High God. Do you realize that God in his great love made us to be men and women as image bearers and he ordained marriage to be a picture of his love for his bridal church? And Satan has distorted all of that. And to go to something like that would communicate to them that somehow you're okay with this. I mean, when does accommodating the world and compromising with the world and making sure the world likes you become a strategy for evangelism that's better than preaching the gospel. I think of Psalm 12 and verse eight, where we read, "The wicked strut about on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men." I mean, to affirm and to celebrate that which God sees as blasphemous is a horrific thing. I think of Second Corinthians six, where we are told that we are not to be partners with unbelievers in any kind of a religious enterprise. I mean, what does light have to do with darkness, right? What is righteousness and lawlessness, how can that work together? What fellowship does Christ have with "Belial." Later in that passage, it talks about how we're to come out and to be separate from them. You see, what I would recommend if you have a situation like this, that you tell those people forthrightly, with love, that in good conscience, I could never do something that would be so reprehensible to me and to God, because what you're doing is blasphemous. It's making a mockery of who God is, and what he has said in his word. But I tell you what I will do on your wedding day, and even in the night, when you begin to enjoy the pleasures of your wickedness--I will fast, and I will pray all day and into the night, that God will be merciful to you. And that he will make you absolutely miserable in your sin, until you come to a place of brokenness; that you will repent, and that you will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Failure to come out and be separate from the world, folks, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, but be "transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Thirdly, there's a failure in the church to raise children in the discipline in the instruction of the Lord. Let me ask you parents, how often do you sit down with your child and talk with them about Jesus? How often do you tell them about the glories of his grace, who he is what he's done, what he's doing now, how he's transformed your life? How often do you tell your children the things that I'm telling you now about, for example, the whole LGBTQ thing? These dear people need the gospel, they need our love. They need to hear these truths. And our children therefore need to hear these things. We simply must get serious about protecting our children from the ways of the world and communicating the great truths of the gospel to them. Nancy told me something that blessed my heart the other day. Our little nine-year-old granddaughter, just out of the blue said, "Nana, what's your favorite Bible verse?" You know, Nancy is trying to think, well, which one, you know? And she talked with her second, well, I can't wait, I want to tell you my favorite verse, you know. And I forget where it was, First Peter, something and she knew a verse and spouted it off. And I was, you know, we're just thrilled. I mean, that's what you want for your kids, right?

And then the final thing, folks, that can be a sin, that we tend to overlook, and that is, a failure to evangelize because we don't have a burden for the lost. If you truly love those who are lost, you're going to get to know them, you're going to spend time with them. And you're never ever going to be ashamed of the gospel. You're going to give it to them with clarity, with conviction, and you're going to pray for them. And by God's grace, many of them will come to a place of genuine saving faith. So let's guard our hearts against these things because even as the ancient Jewish people failed, because they did not listen to the Word of God, we too, can do likewise, if we don't guard ourselves. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. I pray that all that you have communicated through it here today will not only be a blessing and an encouragement to our heart but also that you will use it to edify us, to equip us as we do battle against the enemy of our souls. And for those that do not know you as Savior, oh God, how I pray that you will break their heart, that you will give them eyes to see who you really are and what you have provided in Christ Jesus, for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

This morning we return to part two of a discourse on God's judgment on a failed vineyard. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter five? We're actually studying Mark 12 but in order to better understand what Jesus is saying in Mark 12, we need to step aside and understand his illustration taken out of Isaiah five. Let me remind you of the context. It's been a while since we were together, and I want to make sure you get the flow here of what's happening. It is the Wednesday before Christ's crucifixion. And he has forcefully taken over and occupied the temple precincts. He has humiliated the Jewish leaders who are scheming to kill him, and he has been preaching the gospel to many people. And that temple area, which could have been several 1000 people, and now with a large crowd gathered around him in Mark 12, verses one one and following, Jesus gives a parable of a vineyard that had been perfectly prepared, had been perfectly cared for and therefore you would expect that vineyard to produce wonderful fruit. But instead, it produced worthless inedible berries. And of course, this symbolized all that God had done for Israel and, unfortunately, the way she had turned out. And in this parable, in Mark 12, Jesus quotes, the same parable in Isaiah five. And the purpose of the parable in Isaiah five is basically twofold-- as well as what he's saying and Mark 12-- basically to expose the outrageous wickedness of the religious leaders; the vine growers who were given the responsibility of caring for this vine of Israel, that he had planted and cared for so carefully. But the second purpose was to steer his audience toward self condemnation, to actually pass judgment on themselves because no rational person listening to the parable would side with the wicked vine growers, but instead, they would denounce them in the strongest terms, and in so doing pass judgment on themselves.

So to better interpret and apply Jesus parable in Mark 12, we must examine the historical background of Jesus combination, along with the specific categories of sin that kindled his wrath against Israel many years prior. And now once again, in the first century. The last time we were together, we examined this whole historical context where God speaks through Isaiah to warn Judah of impending judgment because of her wickedness. There were really three categories that we looked at: number one, the Lord's rigorous preparation of the vineyard. Secondly, the Lord's reasonable expectation of the kind of fruit it should produce, and then finally, the Lord's righteous retribution. And that's where we're at here today to finish this up. And in that context of his righteous retribution, is indictment is made up of six categories of evil that finally kindled his wrath against them. And each one of these categories of sinfulness begins with the word "woe."

By way of review--because we looked at the first three the last time we were together--the first sin was that of covetousness, avarice, greedy materialism, which was a violation of the 10th commandment. As we read in Exodus 20 and verse 17, God said, "You shall not covet." Which means to selfishly desire, or somehow take pleasure in your neighbor's house. "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." And so with this background, knowing that they had violated that, and many different ways, he said, as he says, in Isaiah five and verse eight, woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, until there is no more room, so that you have to live alone and the midst of the land!" And you may recall that the problem here was that wealthy land speculators, wealthy people, would devise ways of driving out poor people from their land, and then they would steal their property to create for themselves enormous estates. And as we read here in the text, they would "add house to house," which basically means they would take an existing structure, and they would just keep adding on to it and adding on to it, until they had their own magnificent, massive mansion. This also, by the way, disregarded the law that God had gave them concerning land ownership. The land was sacred to the Lord. It was a sacred trust that he had given to the people. Individual families were allowed to live on their own land, but it was all part of his estate. And the land they possessed as his stewards was an inheritance from the Lord and it was supposed to remain in those families. But obviously, all of this went awry because of the sin of covetousness.

And I might add that this sin of covetousness, wanting that which you do not have; being discontent with what has given God has given you, is a very wicked thing. And it rules the hearts of many people, especially in our culture, especially those who do not find their satisfaction and joy in the Lord. But instead, they have to have other things that they feel will bring them happiness. Well, God went on to promise Judah, a taste of hell on earth because of their covetousness; promising famine conditions in the lands that they had stolen. And I might add, and bear this in mind now, when Jesus accused the Pharisees in Mark 12, he's accusing them of the same thing. Because they too were guilty of robbing the poor to enrich themselves.

The second woe was that of dissipation or drunken debauchery, gluttony, self-indulgence and so forth. Verse 11, "Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may pursue strong drink, who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!" And as I brought out the last time we were together, the issue here is not so much in temperance and the wickedness of drunkenness and alcohol addiction that this describes--as wicked as that is, but rather, you go on to look at the next verse. The real issue is a refusal to pay attention to the deeds of the Lord and consider the work of his hands; all that God has done with respect to creation, and redemption. People that live that way give no thought of that which is truly important, and they deal with things that are eternally inconsequential. Few people ever pensively reflect on the realities of what God has done is doing and will do in those who live that way; Paul says in Romans one "are without excuse." Romans one and verse 20, and in verse 21, he goes on to say why, "for even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened." And to be sure, those that are alcoholics, that are kind of constantly inebriated, are constantly using some kind of chemical to add all their emotions; those type of people never give thought to the deeds of the Lord or the works of his hand. They have no desire to know the God of history and redemption. And so they are devoted to self-indulgence, and pursuing the fleeting pleasures of this world, with no regard for the glory of God. And with respect to the ancient people of Judah, they too were unable to discern these things; the things that they heard from the prophets, as well as that which had been given to them and the scriptures, and they therefore ignored the warnings of the prophets. So God pronounced judgment on them in verse 13. "Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude is parched with thirst. Therefore, Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure and Jerusalem splendor, her multitude, her den of revelry and the jubilant within her descend into it. So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased, the eyes of the proud also will be abased. But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness. Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy."

The third sin that they were guilty of is that of mockery. They blasphemed God, they dared God to judge them. Verse 18, "Woe to those," God says, "who drag iniquity with the cores of falsehood, and sin as if with cart ropes." In other words, they exert themselves to sin, like beasts pulling a heavy float of iniquity. We see this for example, the gay pride parades and things like that that are so reprehensible in our culture. Verse 19, he went on to say what they say, "'Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work that we may see it; and let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel Draw near and come to pass that we may know it!'" Of course, this depicts the utter disregard even contempt for the moral authority of God. This is spiritual arrogance at its worst. This is depraved defiance--strike me down if you're there. That's the attitude. And Jeremiah also described the same kind of ridicule that he endured. We read about this in Jeremiah 17:15. He says, "Look, they keep saying to me, 'Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!'" And you see, that was the zeitgeist of that day, as it is in our culture. In other words, the spirit of the age, the general attitude that resulted in behaviors, that dominated their culture. And we again, see this so prevalent here today. And it's fascinating in Isaiah chapter eight the first four verses, we read something more about this particular mockery. There Isaiah says, "Then the Lord said to me, 'Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.'" In other words, I want you to take a large placard and I want you to engrave on that and Hebrew, "Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz," which means "quick to the plunder swift to the spoil." Which depicted the speedy and the imminent defeat of Israel and Aram also known as Syria, under the hands of the Assyrians. And in verse two of Isaiah eight it says, "'And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah, the son of Jeberechiah.' So I approached the prophetess," which by the way, just means the wife of a prophet; she had no miraculous abilities and this is Isaiah's wife, "and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, 'Name him name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz; for before the boy knows how to cry out 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria." So he announced his son's name before he was even conceived, which underscored the in editability of his birth. And the certainty, therefore, of the Assyrian invasion, that would occur before Isaiah's child was even able to say daddy or mommy. Walvoord and Zuck state quote, "Isaiah's son, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, was a sign of the coming break in the Aram-Israel alliance against Judah. In about a year and nine months--nine months for the pregnancy and one year of the child's life-- Assyria would plunder both Damascus, which was Aram's capital city and Samaria, Israel's capital. This happened in 732 BC, which confirms the date of 734 for Isaiah's prophecy, and when Damascus and Samaria fell, all Judah should have turned to God, as Isaiah had told them to do. But unfortunately, Uriah, one of the two witnesses, followed Ahaz's orders after 732 BC, and changed the temple worship, to conform with the pagan worship practiced at Damascus." Unbelievable. Folks, I don't want you to lose the big picture of what the Spirit of God is saying here, through the prophet. In this series of woes, which again, have practical applications for each of us individually, as well as all nations as a whole, one must expect mockery of God's promised judgment to follow those first two categories of wickedness. There's a progression of sin that we see here. I mean, think about it, those whose hearts are filled with covetousness are ruled by every imaginable form of loss. They have no fear of God. They fear climate change in our culture, they fear disease, they fear terrorism threats from other nations, but they have no fear of God. They're too busy going after other things that they think will make them happy in life. And even though they know he exists; they will not submit to Him. Paul says in Romans one that they "suppress the truth in unrighteousness." In verse 20, he says, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse." Now, what's the best way to somehow suppressed the inconvenient truth of inescapable divine judgment because of a holy God that you have offended? Well, the answer is simple. Anesthetize, anesthetize. Silence your conscience with alcohol, with drugs, with parties, with entertainment, with materialism, and then join the mockery mob in blaspheming God; daring him to judge you. Why do you think we have such a drug and alcohol problem in our country? It's such a materialistic problem. And the result of this is people are unable to discern the truth of who God is. They're blind to according to Isaiah 5:12, "the deeds of the Lord and they do not consider the work of His hands." Reminds me of First Corinthians 2:14, that to the natural man, the unsaved man, "the things of the Spirit of God"... "are foolishness." The text says, "and he cannot understand them," because he's spiritually appraised. So what do people do? They mock God. They shake their fist in his face and dare him to judge them. I'm going to live the way I want to live. I don't care what God says in His Word. And when I look at his word, I'm going to twist his word to somehow make it say that which will help me fulfill my agenda. So people laugh at the thought of God's judgment. Isn't an interesting despite the evidence of God's past judgments that we see in Scripture, and in the annals of history, not to mention the undeniable evidence of a worldwide flood, despite all of that, people today laugh at the thought of the Second Coming of Christ and the judgment that he has promised. And isn't it incredible that approximately 1200, or I'm sorry, 2500 prophecies that are in the Bible, about 2000 of them have been fulfilled literally. In fact, the Old Testament contains more than 300 references to the Messiah of Israel, that Christ fulfilled when he came. Despite all of that, people laugh at what God has said.

Well, with all of this, the next category of sin that God promised to judge will be of no surprise. They progress from the woe against covetousness, dissipation and mockery to number four perversity. The sin of perversity; a practice by perverts who redefine morality. And this is one of Satan's most powerful and most deadly deceptions. Those who think they know better than God, and therefore they have a skewed perspective of right and wrong. I was thinking of Proverbs 11:20, as I was studying this, "The perverse in heart are an abomination to the Lord." And that's what we see in this fourth woe. Notice it in verse 20. "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness."

Now, throughout Scripture, light and darkness symbolizes good and evil. And here we basically have a description of a person who is utterly bereft of reason. I mean, only a madman would look at the daylight and say it's dark, and vice versa. I'm reminded of what God said to Paul, when he sent him to preach the gospel to the lost. It's recorded in Acts 26, verse 18. The Lord sent him to preach the gospel and "to open their eyes," it says, "so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me."

Notice what else God says through his prophet. In verse 20 of Isaiah five they "substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" In scripture, bitter often symbolizes evil, which will taste good to the pervert but bitter to those who love God. I think of Psalm 19, beginning in verse 10, there we read that those who fear the Lord, the righteous judgments of God are, quote, "sweeter also than honey." I hope that's how you perceive the Scripture, folks. It's just sweeter than honey, it is so tasty, it's so precious, "sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward." You see that is the heart of genuine saving faith, to have an insatiable appetite for the Word of God, and a longing to obey it for the glory of God.

Contrast this to the description of the nature of the wicked that we read about in Deuteronomy 32, beginning in verse 32, "For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters, bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, and the deadly poison of cobras." Now, there are numerous examples of this kind of perversity in Israel's history, as well as in every nation's history, but I'll give you just a sample of a few of them where they call what is good evil and vice versa. Jeremiah seven for example, in verse 18, we read that "The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me." Now, the "queen of heaven" was another name for the Assyrian deity Ishtar, the Canaanite Astarte they believe to be the wife of a Baal or sometimes called Molech; the goddess of war and love and fertility. And this worship included all manner of sexual immorality. Israel's corruption was so severe that they would sacrifice their newborn children to their god Molech. There's evidence of the statues of Molech; a large metal statue of a man with a bull's head and outstretched arms that would be red hot with the fire. And he would hold out his arms you would toss your infant into his arms. Jeremiah describes the "high places of Topheth" it's called, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is an East/West Valley at the south end of Jerusalem. The term Topheth comes from a Hebrew word "tof" for drum because they would actually play flutes and beat drums to drown out the screams of the children. And so with holy outrage God described this horror in Jeremiah 7:31, "They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnon, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind." I mean, this is incomprehensible. This is satanic expression in ways that really boggle the mind, do they not? I mean, how could anybody do that? And here's the thing, they actually believed that such acts of barbarism would bring blessing to their life. What was evil, they saw as good. They believe that the Canaanite God Molech would reward them. You can read about this, for example, in Second Kings 23 and verse 10. As I've written elsewhere, this is where Judah's religious apostasy had led them and they had no fear of God. They scoffed at his law, and thought they were above it. So with a seared conscience, they were comfortable with this depraved practice, one that is no different than when millions of preborn infants are brutally sacrificed every year to the God of self on the altar of personal expediency and corporate profits. Folks, this is moral perversity, a result of satanic blindness. This is the doctrines of demons. And the ungodly deceive themselves, and they're deceived by others. So they end up redefining morality to fit their own agenda. Think of how we see this in in our culture today, things that God calls an abomination. For example, homosexuality is now called an alternative lifestyle, it's considered to be a good thing. Same sex marriage is now the freedom to love who you want. Gender now is fluid, it's not fixed. So if your gender identity doesn't match the sex assigned to you on your original birth certificate, you can change it to become whoever you want it to be. I think they call it nonbinary. I can't keep up with all these terms they come up with. Pedophilia is now destigmatized by calling these people minor attracted persons. Abortion for convenience is called pro-choice, it's part of a woman's reproductive rights. Social justice, which is nothing more than cultural Marxism that has been responsible for the destruction of so many nations and the death of so many people. These people see themselves as liberators that must somehow usher in a new world where rational thought and scientific reason and social justice govern humanity rather than the Word of God. And of course, all of this requires the elimination of biblical Christianity. You've got concerned parents today speaking up in school board meetings appalled over the teaching of the whole LGBTQ perversions. And in many circles in the government, they're called domestic terrorists.

I mean, these are people, dear friends with no moral compass, no moral authority, other than their own lusts. And of course, this is all part of the whole woke agenda that we see where our government is legislating immorality and criminalizing morality. This is the sin of perversity; redefining morality to accommodate your own depravity. The ancient Israelites were guilty of this. In fact, in Matthew 17, verse 17, Jesus described his own kinsmen as quote, "an unbelieving and perverted generation."

Let me add just for a moment--what is our responsibility to this culture that is so wicked? Paul addresses this in Philippians two verse 15. He says "prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life." And isn't it wonderful to see how God is a redeeming God and continues to save people out of the kinds of wicked things that we are describing?

Well, perversity leads to number five, the sin of self-deification. This is the height of arrogance. Notice verse 21, "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight." I might add this is the exact opposite of what we would read in other passages. For example, in Proverbs three and verse seven, we read, "Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil." Well, what they did is they violated God's law in favor of their own opinions. They rejected the word of the Lord from his prophets. They were offended by the truth--"don't tell me those things, it hurts my feelings; tell me what I want to hear; I don't care what God says." And so they replaced the holy wisdom of God with the depraved foolishness of man. You know, Paul warned about this, did he not? Remember First Corinthians three, verse 18, he says, "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, 'HE IS THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS'; and again, 'THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.'" Self-deification--I will be the God of my life, I don't care what God has said in his word. I will be the one who speaks with final authority in my life. And Israel’s history is filled with examples of this kind of thing, of how we know better than God. For example, in Numbers 33, verse 55. God says there, "'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your side, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. And as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you.'" No, we're going to be wise in our own eyes, clever in our own sight; we're going to reject the word of the Lord and we're going to allow these people to continue to live with us.

Let me give you an individual example of what can happen when this occurs. Remember the story of King Saul? He refused to obey God's command to destroy the Amalekites and kill their king Agag. The Amalekites were among the most vicious of all of the people; they would attack the Israelites and their wilderness wandering especially from the rear. First Samuel 15, three we read, "'Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him, but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'" Utter genocide because of their wickedness. In chapter 15, and verse eight, we read what he did. "He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly.'" You see, this is tantamount to tolerating their sin, and their hatred of Yahweh. So God sent the prophet Samuel, as you will recall, to tell Saul of his fate, First Corinthians, I'm sorry First Samuel 15, verse 23, "'Since you rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you from being king.'" And you know the rest of the story. And sadly, this kind of disregard has plagued Israel down through the ages.

Again, think about what he said in Numbers 33:55 that I just read, that you are to "drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you." Otherwise, he went on to say, they will "become as pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides and they will trouble you in the land in which you live." And we see this command reiterated during the age of the judges. In Judges two beginning in verse two we read, "'You shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed Me, what is this you have done? Therefore, I also said, 'I will not drive them out from before you; but they will become as thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.'" And look what has happened with Israel ever since. In 1993 they signed the Oslo Accords, which gave their avowed enemies, the Palestinian Authority, much control over Judea and Samaria. Then they abandoned the Gaza Strip, you remember seeing that in 2005? I'll never forget it, seeing it on the news. Destroying 22 Jewish settlements that were flourishing in that region. And in turn, they allowed Hamas terrorists to take control. And the result was the Second Intifada. It broke out and we are continuing to witness the horrific consequences of all of that to this very day, endless strife. 18 years of nonstop rocket attacks, terrorism, inhumane torture and murder and hostage taking. Move ahead a little bit to 2011. Israel freed 1207 murderous Hamas terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shali, an Israeli soldier abducted by Hamas. What kind of trade is that? And one of those released was Yahiya Sinwar, the master be mind behind the October 7 slaughter, who now surrounds himself with hostages to protect him. And you don't think God means what he says?

Now you have the godless and gullible leaders of the United States, Great Britain, of the UN, demanding a two-state solution. Just the opposite of what God has instructed. You can only wonder if Israel will choose to resettle the Gaza Strip; since by the way, it is part of the land that God promised them. The details of all of that described in Joshua 15, which includes according to verse 47, quote, "Gaza, its towns and its villages as far as the brook of Egypt, and the great sea even its coastline." But too often, Israel ignored God and went their own way instead. So God cursed them. In verse 21, "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight." The consequences are absolutely devastating. In fact, Amos, the prophet Amos, said this in chapter two, verse four, "Thus says the Lord, 'For three transgressions of Judah, and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because" and here's what they did, "they rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept His statutes. Their lies also have led them astray; those after which their fathers walked, so I will send fire upon Judah, and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.'" Oh dear friends, guard yourself against self-deification. "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight."

I might add that this is why Paul commanded Timothy, and all of us, to preach the what? Preach the word. Why? Second Timothy four beginning verse three, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." So the progression of woes begins with covetousness. It moves on to dissipation and mockery, perversity, self-deification, and finally, to just corruption. Corruption--dishonest drunken leaders and judges that can be bribed. Verse 22, "Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men,"--that is powerful men, "in mixing strong drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of ones of the ones who are in the right!" You see those guilty of the previous five sins, will have no problem just kind of living in a state of inebriation, and accepting bribes to somehow rule in favor of the guilty and against the innocent. Amos described this as well, in Amos five verse 10. He says, "They hate him, "referring to the plaintiff--"They hate the plaintiff who reproves in the gate." And the gate is where they would typically adjudicate these things; it was kind of like their court room. "They hate the plaintiff who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks with integrity." In other words, they abhor the witnesses that could provide the necessary information to indict the guilty and promote justice. They hate that. So, God says "Therefore because you impose a heavy rent on the poor and exact a tribute of grain from them, though you have built houses of well-hewn stone, you will not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine. For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great, you who distress the righteous and accept bribes and turn aside the poor and the gate. Therefore, at such a time the prudent person keep silent, for it is an evil time."

And my again, the illustrations of this in our culture today are many. I mean, we see this in our own government, and we see how the DOJ and the FBI and other government agencies have been weaponized to silence political opponents and promote leftist agendas. It's just so commonplace anymore. I was reading in The Daily Mail the other day about the quote "Treasury Department officials suggested that banks review transactions at sporting and recreational supply stores like Cabela's, Dick's Sporting Goods and Bass Pro Shops, in order” to quote, "to detect customers whose transactions may reflect potential active shooters." I mean, I got a Cabela's card that I've had for probably 20 years. So, I guess I'm on that list. And I shop at Bass Pro all the time. They went on to say in addition, "Officials warned banks of" quote "extremism indicators, like the purchase of a bus or plane ticket" quote, "for traveled to areas with no apparent purpose, or the purchase of a religious text like a Bible." And I was reading according to a September 19, 2023 study, conducted by the Pew Research Center that said quote, "Currently fewer than two in 10 Americans say they trust government in Washington to do what is" quote, "right just about always or most of the time. This is among the lowest trust measures in nearly seven decades of polling."

Six sins that ignited God's wrath against his stubborn people, Israel and Judah. The same types of sins that Jesus alludes to in Mark 12: covetousness, dissipation, mockery, perversity, self-deification and corruption. Back to Isaiah five as we close this morning, we read God's judgment begin in verse 24, "Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble and dry grass collapses into the flame, so their root will become like rot, and their blossom blow away as dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. On this account, the anger of the Lord has burned against His people, nd He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down. And the mountains quaked." That's always evidence of the divine presence. "And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets. For all His anger is not spent, but His hand is still stretched out." Verse 26, "He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation and will whistle for it from the ends of the earth; and behold, it will come with speeds swiftly." (whistles) Assyria that's what he's talking about. Verse 27, "No one in it is weary or stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps; nor is the belt of its waist undone, nor its sandal strap broken. Its arrows are sharp, and all its bows are bent; the hoofs of its horses seem like flint and it's chariot wheels like whirlwind. It's roaring is like a lioness and it roars like young lions; it growls as it seizes the prey and carries it off with no one to deliver it." I mean, this is describing an irresistible predator. "And it will growl over it in the day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress; even the light is darkened by its clouds." And if you read the ancient history of what the Assyrians did, and some of it you can see, for example, in the Lachish relief, that is now housed in the British Museum, you will see that these people were barbaric, and did things that you cannot even begin to conceive. Dear friends, this is speaking of divine rage. And this is what happens when we live inconsistent with the word and the will of a holy God. And aren't you thankful for his grace, because apart from it, we would all be doomed. But as believers, we must do everything we can to guard ourselves against these very same sins that can creep up in our flesh and wreak havoc in our marriage, in our family and our workplace, and in our church. So let's all guard our hearts and celebrate the goodness of the Lord and saving us and giving us the hope of eternal life in Christ, amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. I pray that you will help us to grasp them with all of our heart and live consistently with them. And Lord, for those that are deceived, those that are blind, we know that only you can give them sight. Only you can raise them from spiritual death to spiritual life. And so we pray for the miracle of regeneration. And I pray that you will use us as instruments of righteousness, to present the gospel, preach the gospel, and to live out the Gospel to accomplish your eternal purposes. We thank you; we give you praise in Jesus name. Amen.

We will begin this morning in Mark's gospel, if you will turn there to Mark chapter 12. In a moment, I'm going to read verses one through 12. And we will use that as a launching pad into Isaiah five. And I hope you will understand why when we do so. This is a very sobering, convicting, relevant passage; relevant to our godless pagan culture in which we live. And I've entitled my discourse to you this morning "Judgment Upon the Failed Vineyard." And we will probably be here for three, maybe four weeks.

Let me give you the background so you are thinking in the proper context. Jesus has come into Jerusalem, now he's making his way inexorably towards the cross. He has purged the temple grounds from the very lucrative mini mall created by the high priest and us. In fact, it was called the Bazaar of Annas in that day. And this further infuriated the religious establishment for several reasons, not the least of which it cut off their money supply. They were getting wealthy from all of this, but it also threatened their power, and their prestige in the eyes of the people. And of course, money, power and prestige always motivate false teachers, religious phonies. And then the next day, Wednesday before his crucifixion, he goes back and he preaches the gospel, which refuted the works righteousness system of the Jewish apostate Judaism, I should say. And as a result, the chief priests and scribes and the elders attacked him. And in chapter 11, verse 28, we read what they said, "'By what authority are You doing these things or who gave You this authority to do these things?'" And then his response utterly humiliated them in front of all of the people that were standing around. And as a result, they all stood self-condemned before the judge of heaven and earth. And because of their deliberate, conscious rejection, Jesus then deliberately sealed them in their unbelief, extinguishing forever the light of truth, so that they could remain in the darkness that they loved.

And this brings us now to chapter 12, where Jesus speaks to the crowd, that's surrounding him, along with these humiliated religious leaders that are trying to trap him, so that he could be arrested and ultimately be put to death. So follow along as I read, Mark 12, beginning in verse one. HAnd he began to speak to them in parables: 'A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. At the harvest time, he sent a slave to the vine-growers in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. They took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent him another slave and they wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But those vine-growers said to one another, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!' They took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read the Scripture: 'THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THEIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND ITIS MARVEOUS IN OUR EYES'? And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left him and went away.'"

This is a very graphic parallel to many other passages of Scripture that depict the wickedness of the Jewish people. And in this parable, you can see very clearly the outrageous wickedness of the Jewish leaders--the vine growers--given the responsibility for caring for God's vineyard, Israel. Now, obviously, no rational person would hear this parable and side with the wicked vine growers. But instead, they would denounce them in the strongest of terms. And in so doing, they would pass judgment upon themselves. And that was Jesus' intention. And while it is important to interpret the parable, which as you will discover is really rather straightforward, I wish to spend more time helping you understand the historical background of Jesus' condemnation, and the specific categories of sin that kindled his wrath against his covenant people and their leaders. And this will also help us examine our lives, frankly, to hopefully bring us even to, perhaps some place of repentance. Because friends, what we will see here is that there's nothing new under the sun. The same evils that resulted in God's judgment against Israel and Judah, in the Old Testament, by the hands of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and later on, even the Greeks and the Romans, and all of the pogroms; in other words, the organized massacres that have occurred since then--all of those same type of sins that brought all that about, exists today. Evils not only in Israel, but evils that we see in every sinful nation. And frankly, we see in every sinful person, including ostensibly evangelical churches. The damning iniquities that infuriated God in the past, still exists today. And his judgment is as certain today as it was in days gone by. Now, to accomplish all of this, we have to go to Isaiah five, the passage that Jesus quoted in this very indicting Parable of the Vineyard .

Notice again in Mark one, or Mark 12, verse one, "And He began to speak to them in parables. A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to the vine-growers and went on a journey." Now you cannot fully understand why Jesus used this illustration and the implications of all of it, unless you have a grasp of Isaiah five, which I can assure you, those people understood very clearly. So we go to Isaiah five.

Let me give you the context of Isaiah five. Isaiah prophesied during the period of the divided kingdom, with his primary audience being the southern kingdom of Judah, which had developed into a very prosperous commercial entity. They were militarily invincible, or so they thought; they perceived themselves to be this way. And under the reign of Uzziah, their military preparedness and their economic prosperity were comparable to those that were experienced many years before in the reign of David and Solomon. I spent some time in studying some of the ancient Israelite Judean military service articles, things that most of you probably wouldn't want to spend much time reading, but it was quite fascinating. Especially one article by Haggai Olshanetsky, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Basel in Switzerland. And here's what he said so that you get a grasp of what they had there, okay, in terms of military power. Quote, "Massive chariot forces were recorded as being deployed by the Israelites as can be seen in the Kurkh monolith where the battle of Qarqar from 853 BCE is depicted. According to this monolith, King Ahab's Israelite force included 2000 chariots." He went on to say, another inscription from the period, which mentioned their military might, is the Tel Dan stele. A stele is a stone slab and a number of us we've been to Tel Dan, you may recall that. That stele also has; a stele is like a piece of stone that has engravings on it. It's also called the "House of David" inscription. It's displayed now at the Israel Museum. But it was found at Tel Dan--Dan was, is one of the oldest sites in Israel, it dates back to 5000 years, and you can actually see the gates that they've uncovered in the city when it was an ancient Canaanite city, and those would have been the gates that Abram would have gone through, when he was chasing the captors of Lot. So anyway, in that place, they found the stone slab and he says, "And on that slab, the armies of the kingdom of Israel under King Jehoram, and of the kingdom of Judea, under Ahaziah, of the house of David had 2000 chariots at their disposal." So you can imagine that type of military might. And sad, yet very typical, they feared their enemies, all around them and prepared to protect themselves. But they did not fear the Lord, the greatest enemy of all; they had no fear of God. I'm reminded of our own country, right? We fear China and Russia and all of these other places, but we have no fear of God. Proverbs says in chapter one, verse seven, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction." And the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 20, and verse seven, "Some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God.'

Now, ancient Judah, like all affluent countries, gradually ignored God, and began to embrace the wickedness of the culture around them. They intermarried with the pagans; began to adopt some of their thinking, some of their religious practices, and their Judaism became nothing more than empty ritualism combined with pagan idolatry, and all of the wicked practices that went with it. For example, and we'll study this more later, they sacrificed babies to the fires of Molech. And when we were in Israel, we saw some of the high places where they did that. And they also worship the Queen of Heaven, which was a goddess that was considered to be the wife of Baal or Molech, he was called either one, she was called Ishtar, or Ashtoreth, or sometimes Astarte. So all of this wickedness was going on. And as a result, it absolutely exhausted God's grace, given all that he had done for them. And he then brought the Assyrian invasion to the coastal regions of Israel, in about 701 BC. And as they were heading toward Egypt, they began to spill over into Judah. And in that process, Sennacherib conquered many of the cities there in the southern kingdom as well, all the way up to Lachish, which is not far from Jerusalem. And you can see what they did there. And the Lachish Relief that is now housed in the British Museum, unimaginable torture. The same types of things that you would see in many of their ancestors today, in that region. And you may recall that when they moved towards Jerusalem, Hezekiah-- because Isaiah had talked with them--refused to bow to him, and in Second Kings 19 we read how the angel of the Lord came and killed 185,000 Assyrians. And Sennacherib then returned to Nineveh. But then consistent with Isaiah's prophecy, where we're at here today, about 100 years later, the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem in about 597 BC. And it finally fell in 586 BC. And in Second Kings 25, verse nine, we read this "Nebuchadnezzar burned the house of the Lord, the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire. So all of the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Then the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters, who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the people, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away into exile."

Now, that was just a historical summary of what happened, and where we're at now is the prediction of all of those things. So beginning in Isaiah one, you basically have a courtroom scene, where the Lord is the plaintiff, and Israel is the defendant. And the charge against them is literally failure to obey the Holy One of Israel. In fact, you read that title, many times, I think it's about 25 times in Isaiah, the "Holy One of Israel”; the one who had lavished his undeserved love upon them and protected them and provided for them. And their rebellion against the "LORD of hosts," which is used 60 times by Isaiah, that rebellion was so irrational, because he was the one that could destroy all of their enemies in a word. Yet they did not fear him. And in chapter one, verse 10, God likens their wickedness, to the godless homosexual perverts in Sodom and Gomorrah, that he destroyed. So the first four chapters really sets forth his case, as well as a promised day of reckoning, a time of judgment. And chapter five, where we're at this morning, is basically a summary of his lament over the rebellion of his people, and the specific categories of sin that animated his wrath against them. The same type of sins, mind you, that Jesus accused his people, and the religious leaders, of committing in his parable of the failed vineyard in Mark 12. So all of this was very familiar to them.

I want to look at this passage of Scripture over the next few Sundays, under three headings. We're going to see number one, the Lord's rigorous preparation, secondly, his reasonable expectation and finally, his righteous retribution. So let's look first of all, at his rigorous his meticulous, careful, painstaking preparation, verse one of Isaiah five. "Let me sing now for my well-beloved"-- Isaiah is speaking here, speaking of the Lord his God as his well-beloved--"Let me sing now for my well-beloved. A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard." In verse seven tells us that the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is "the house of Israel and the men of Judah His delightful plant." I want to sing a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. "My well-beloved, had a vineyard on a fertile hill." By the way, you can imagine the Prophet here, visualize him in your mind, the prophet comes to speak, the people know he's a prophet, they begin to gather around, you could hear a pin drop as he began to speak. So they're very interested here, and they understand the imagery, because this was a part of their life. He says in verse two, "He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it and also hewed out of wine vat in it." So in other words, he went to great lengths to prepare the land. And certainly, we know that this is what God did with his people; he prepared that land for them. He removed the stones of the Canaanites, he placed them--the choicest vine--in it. And indeed, God's covenant people are among the most noble and brilliant strain of genetics on the planet. So there's enormous effort here. He built a tower in the middle of it, which they would do, to protect the vineyard, as well as to process some of the vines and so forth. And even hewed a wine vat in it, which would be a large stone type of structure. We've seen them over there, they still exist today. A stone that would have another stone on it, that would crush the grapes, and it would go into a large vat.

And then it says, "Then He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones." In Hebrew, it produced only "beushim", which was a sour, inedible, worthless grape, a fruit of some sort. It also denoted offensive putrefaction and the Arabs called the fruit of the nightshade "wolf grapes." We see the same imagery used in Deuteronomy 32, verse 32, where God describes the wickedness of Israel's enemies. It says, "For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters, bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, and the deadly poisons of cobras." So this is the type of thing that he sees now. What a tragedy. The Lord has done all of this, for his covenant people. He delivered them from the slavery of Egypt, he parted the Red Sea, he led them with his very presence. He cared for them in the wilderness. He gave them his law to govern them, morally, and socially and religiously. And he brought them into a promised land that was flowing with milk and honey. A land in the middle of two great civilizations, in that day of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Because of the Arabian Desert, all of Asia, Africa and Europe had to go through what was called "The Land Between", which was another designation--and even to this day is a designation of Israel. Israel connects three continents. He gave them victory over their enemies in miraculous ways. God took a family, the family of Abram, and eventually made them a nation. And as we look at Scripture, we see that their role was to proclaim the true God that was manifested in their midst through his miraculous deeds; to reveal the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior of the world would come through them. They were to be God's priest nation. As God told Moses on Sinai in Exodus 19, six, "You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." A priest, being a mediator between God and man; all Israel was to serve as a mediator for God to the rest of the world. We see in Scripture that they were charged with the preservation and transmission of divine revelation. They were to show the world the faithfulness of God, the blessedness of serving God, to show God's grace in dealing with sin. Indeed, He lavished his love upon them in ways that are unimaginable. He blessed them with supernatural endowments, and resources; nothing was left to chance. Nothing more was to be desired. So naturally, he expected his vineyard to produce good grapes of God glorifying righteousness, but instead, they produced "beushim." What a graphic picture of the viral nature of Judah's corruption. I hope you can hear the pathos of the heart of God in all of this. What a heartbreaking thing--I have done all of this for you. And this is how you turn out?

One of the great difficulties in shepherding is pastoring and caring for parents who did all they know to do for their children. And they ended up being "beushim." What a heartbreaking thing. I think of all that God has done for me, all that he has done for you, and I hope he looks at us and sees good grapes and not "beushim."

So this is the Lord's rigorous preparation, which moves us to the second point in our little outline, the Lord's reasonable expectation. Verse three, "And now all inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard." And again, you can hear this is just a plaintive lament, a song of mourning. God has greatly grieved. Verse four, "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?" Then the answer is, Well, that's obvious. There's nothing more that you could have done. He says, "Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones?" Despite his infinitely holy, righteous, rigorous preparation, they spurned his love, they squandered his provisions. They ignored his divine power, they mocked his wisdom, they disregarded his promises. And what's happening here is God is steering his audience towards self-condemnation. This is what's happening here, as well as what Jesus did in Mark 12.

And this brings us thirdly, now, and here, we will count for some time, the Lord's righteous retribution, verse five. "So now let Me tell you what I am going to do, to My vineyard,"--to my covenant people, distinct from all other people groups, the apple of my eye, the primary object of my supernatural care, the ones that I separated from all of the other nations to manifest my glory, here's what I'm going to do. "I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed." They put hedges around vineyards in many places around the world, they still do that. Hedges would be made up of large mounds of thistles and thorns that you couldn't possibly get through. I'm going to remove your hedge. "I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. I will lay it waste." And certainly this would happen later on when the foreign powers would come and invade and conquer. "It will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain, no rain on it." In other words, I am going to deprive you of any and all means of life. I'm going to make your land a complete wasteland. And you people the object of scorn and derision, which we see an anti semitism even to this day.

Verse seven, "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice but behold, bloodshed; In other words, he looked for the righteousness of God being manifested in his people, people that would be just in how they conducted themselves. Instead, he sees bloodshed. In other words, he sees violent murderers. Then he says he looked, "for righteousness, but behold a cry of distress." In other words, he would expect to see righteousness in the land and instead, he hears desperate expressions of anguish from people. And in the Hebrew, it's a play on words in this song. It basically says he looked for justice which is "mishpat," and instead behold, bloodshed which is "mispah." He looked for "mishpat" and he got "mispah." For "sedaqa" and he got "seaqa."

He then goes on to indict them with six categories of wickedness that kindled his wrath. Six woes--that is six judgment, six curses--against his people. "Woes" are the opposite of blessings. And we will look at three of them here this morning. The first one is the sin of covetousness. Or it could be avarice, greed, materialism, which by the way is a violation of the 10th commandment. In Exodus 20, verse 17, God said, "You shall not covet." Covet means to selfishly desire or to take pleasure in that which is not yours. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." You're not to do that; you are to be content and be thankful for what I have given you. So with this, we read the first woe of covetousness, in verse eight of Isaiah five. "Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is no more room so that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!" You see, this was a curse against greedy property and land acquisition by the rich people of Judah, a serious problem in that day. In fact, Micah speaks of this in Micah chapter two verse two. He said, "They covet fields and then seize them, and houses and take them away. They rob a man and his house, a man and his inheritance." You see, this is what godless people will do. They live only for themselves, not for God and his glory. And they will go to great lengths to accumulate things that don't belong to them. Because this life is all they live for. Land speculators in that day, would devise clever schemes to drive away land holders and then steal their property to create for themselves enormous estates. And we've seen this down through history, haven't we? And then they would, as Isaiah says, "Add house to house." This means they would add on to existing structures to erect massive mansions to exalt themselves. And they would join field to field until there is no more room. In other words, there is no more room for anybody in all of my estate except me and my family. But we must understand that the land was also a sacred trust belonging to the Lord. It all belonged to him, and he allowed his people to live on it. And he gave each of them a portion of the lot as part of their inheritance. Individual families were allowed to live on, shall we say, the Lord's estate, the land they possessed as his stewards was an inheritance from the Lord. And they were required to remain--that the land was required--to remain in the family. And it's for this reason that the law says in Leviticus 25 verse 23, "The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. Thus, for every piece of property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land. If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor, he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsmen, is to come and buy back what his relative has sold." I might add that God instituted the jubilee restoration of possessions in order to protect inherited belongings, and holdings of each family. We read about this, for example, in Leviticus 25:13, “On this year of jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property."

So what God describes here, in this first woe, is a very clear violation of his law, and exposes their avarice, their greed, their covetousness. And all through Scripture, we see how wicked that is. In fact, in First Kings 21, Ahab is a great illustration of this, you will recall, Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard, you remember that story? They both had a vineyard, and Ahab wanted it for himself because it was close to his property. He wanted to grow vegetables on it, and he told Naboth, hey, I want your vineyard. I'll either buy it from you, or I'll trade you for a better piece of land. But in First Kings 21 verse three, "Naboth said to Ahab, 'The Lord forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my father.'" And then you'll recall the rest of the story. The demon-possessed Jezebel schemed and had Naboth killed and on and on it goes, all through Scripture.

And certainly it's been my experience, we see that the sin of covetousness, when it is allowed to rule in a person's heart will ultimately destroy them and everyone around them. And it's a graphic illustration of the fact that they do not find their greatest source of joy in the Lord. The Lord is not their satisfaction. They have to have what other people have. And their commitment will not be to him, it will always be to themselves. I find it interesting to see how Americans today are absolutely drowning in debt. And much of this is fueled by the sin of covetousness. US credit card debt is 1.79 trillion, as of the third quarter of 2023. According to the latest consumer debt data from the Federal Reserve Bank, I was reading that 56 million credit card holders have been in debt for at least one year and nearly 30% are behind on debt payments in the nation's 100 largest metros. By the way, while I'm on it, debt is a cruel wicked taskmaster dear friends. Proverbs 22, seven, "The rich rules over the poor and the borrower becomes the lender's slave." You show me a greedy man who is always scheming to somehow have more material wealth and I'll show you a man that will never be satisfied. And I'll show you a man whose satisfaction and joy is not in the Lord, but in material things. In Matthew six, Jesus said in verse 21, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." In verse 24, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." And likewise, Paul told Timothy in First Timothy six, beginning in verse 10, "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." And then he went on to say, "But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness." Dear Christian, if God is not the source of your greatest satisfaction, and joy, you will be tempted to greed, and your heart will go in secret search of other lovers and you will act wickedly to gain what you think you must have. But on the basis of the Word of God, I can tell you that what you're pursuing will never satisfy and God will judge you for your idolatry. Because greed is idolatry. In fact, Paul says this in Colossians, three, beginning of verse five, "Therefore consider the members of the earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and," here it is, "greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience." So dear friends, guard yourself from this wickedness. Left unchecked, covetousness will depose God from the throne of your life, and you will be ruled by your own depravity and the father of lies. Like all idols, greed, will promise what it can never deliver. And because of this, this was one of the first sins that God condemned Israel, Judah about and this is what we see in Isaiah five, a woe to those who add house to house and join, field to field. In other words, woe to you covetous thieves, that have annexed the dwellings of other people's lands, poor neighbors, forcing them to live someplace else, so that you can have it all for yourself.

In fact, King Uzziah seemed to be one of the worst offenders. In Second Chronicles 26:10, we read that he built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many systems, for he had much livestock, both in the lowland and in the plane. He also had Plowman and vinedressers in the hill country, and the fertile fields for he loved the soil. Now, I want you to remember this because when we get back to Mark 12 you will see that Jesus accusations against the Pharisees included the sin because they were guilty of the same thing, robbing of the poor, to enrich themselves. So notice the consequences. In verse nine we read, "In my ears the Lord of hosts has sworn," in the Hebrew is very clearly it's fascinating here. It is essentially saying that Yahweh has directly, verbally revealed his outrage by exclaiming it in my ears. I've heard him say this, surely many houses shall become desolate, literally a desolation. The term the Hebrew, carries the idea of waste an appalling horror, that your houses shall become a waste, either through decay or by being destroyed. He goes on to say even great and fine ones, without occupants. In other words, all that you have accumulated unfairly will be a desolation. And then he described famine conditions, the curse of barrenness on their land, verse 10. "For 10 acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine." "10 acres" here could be translated ten yolks, which is a reference to the area 10 oxen could plow in a day, and 10 acres would normally yield an average of 500 baths. One bath is equal to about six gallons. So 10 acres would typically yield about 3000 gallons of wine, instead of one bath, which would be six gallons. And he says, "A homer of seed will yield but an ephah." An ephah is a 10th part of a homer, which is about one bushel of grain. So it would yield only a 10th of the seed sown. In other words, 90% failure.

Oh, dear friends, please hear this. If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. And that's what is happening here in this judgment. So we go from the first woe against covetousness. Secondly, to the woe of dissipation, which could also be described as drunken debauchery, gluttony, self-indulgence, and so forth. "Woe" verse 11, "to those who rise early in the morning, that they may pursue strong drink." This is indicative, is it not, of alcohol dependency and addiction, people that have to start with alcohol, kind of keep drinking it through the day. Then he says, "who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!" Now I want you to understand that this is not merely an attack against the spring break crowd as we would understand it; not merely those who live in bars and honky tonks and nightclubs, and who love the drunken debauchery of music concerts, and all of that type of thing. Certainly, this is describing more of a person that just lives in a state of mild intoxication all day, and then kind of throws a binder at night. And certainly, it speaks to that, but as you're going to see, it's more than that. People do that in order to deaden their senses. They need to silence their conscience and squelch the horrifying reality of death and judgment, and they need chemicals to somehow alter their state of consciousness so they can kind of get through life, and they become dependent upon this. And of course, those chemicals give a temporary state of euphoria. And gradually that euphoria is less and less. So you have to have more and more chemical. And there you have the whole cycle of addiction. But the issue here is not so much in temperance in the wickedness of drunkenness and alcohol addiction, as wicked as that is, but rather, it is primarily a refusal to pay attention to the deeds of the Lord and consider the work of his hands. In other words, you people are just--you're like a bunch of drunks, and in many cases they were and therefore you're not paying any attention to the deeds of the Lord. You're not considering the work of his hands as it relates to creation as it relates to redemption. I mean, to be sure you talk to a party animal about these essential truths and they don't pay any attention to any of this; they never think about this. You talk to an alcoholic or a drug addict and ask him, do you ever give any thought to the deeds of the Lord or the works of his hand? They just kind of laugh at you. Like, huh,? What are you talking about. But this applies to anyone who uses alcohol or any other means to somehow escape the realities of life, as it pertains to God and his glory, and who he is in history; what he's up to in history and in your life, and the judgment that is to come. But these people couldn't care less about what the Lord is up to. They have no appetite for his word, they have no desire to know Him to worship Him, to serve Him; they just live for themselves in a state of stupor. So they have no sense of what God is doing. And obviously, these people were unable to therefore discern the word of the Lord that was given to them through the prophets. They disregarded the judgment, the warnings given to them. In fact, as we will see, they will eventually kill Isaiah. People don't want to hear the truth. You try having a spiritual conversation with folks like this. People that are just drunks, and you all know that. Maybe they're not drunk all the time, but they just kind of always have to have a glass of wine in their hand. You know, it's just how they live. You try to ask them something about theology, ask them about their love for Christ, they're longing to know more of him. And you'll see real quickly there's no one home. Unbelievers depend upon the anesthetizers of life, to help them suppress the truth in unrighteousness, that gnaws at their conscience, as Paul said, in Romans one, eight, "because the wrath of God has revealed from heaven against all men who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness." And they will do this, even though, as Paul went on to say, "that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them." And this is certainly indicative of what was going on with the people of Judah. I mean, they knew who God was, they had his law. They could see him in nature and the prophets. But they love darkness rather than light. They knew they were violating God's law, but after a while, they don't really care because after all, there's doesn't seem to be any consequences. So let's just keep living for ourselves. And so they defied him to judge them. But deep down, they're trying to silence their conscience. So they are devoted to self-indulgence. They're devoted to the fleeting pleasures of this world.

Verse 12, "Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and heart by tambourine and flute, and by wine; but they do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord, nor do they consider the work of His hands." Certainly, we have to guard ourselves against this temptation. Peter addressed this in Second Peter three verse three, where he warns believers about falling back into that kind of wicked mindset. He said, he describes it as "the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you; but they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead."

You're all familiar with Ephesians five in verse 18, where the apostle tells us under the inspiration of the scripture of the spirit, "do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." God then speaks through his prophet and he pronounces judgment on those who further blind themselves to the word and will of God, verse 13, "Therefore, My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge." Lack of knowledge concerning the judgment of God that was upon them, especially since the false prophets were preaching to them peace and safety, everything's gonna be okay. Haven’t we heard that before? "And their honorable men are famished, and their multitude is parched with thirst. Therefore, Sheol," which is the place of the departed dead, or the grave, "has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure." What a striking passage. Here, the grave is personified as, as some hideous monster with an insatiable appetite, ready to devour the wicked. And they will go to their grave in the same stupefied, befuddled state, that spiritually dull condition in which they lived.

And then he goes on to say, "And Jerusalem's splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it. So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased, the eyes of the crowd also will be abased. But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness. Then the lambs will graze in their pasture, and strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy." This is a picture that J.A Motyer describes as, quote, "The empty achievement of human vanity, the net profit of pride." How sad to see people flaunt their ungodliness living in a fool's paradise.

And we'll close this morning with one last woe; one last sin, and that is the sin, number three, of mockery. This is to blaspheme and dare God. Verse 18, "Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood, and sin as if with cart ropes." In other words, they exert themselves, like beasts of burden, pulling a cart of their iniquities. It reminds me of how Sodomites flaunt their gross immorality on large floats, and gay pride parades, daring anyone, including God, to challenge them. What a heartbreaking scene it is.

Verse 19, "Who say, 'Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it. Let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come to pass that we may know it!'" Obviously, this is what Isaiah is hearing from the people. This depicts the utter disregard of the people, their utter contempt for the moral authority of God. Dear friends, this is spiritual arrogance at its worst. This is depraved defiance, like we see in our lives. How many times have we heard people arrogantly get up in front of others and say, "oh if there's a God, I dare him strike me down right now." And nothing happens. And so that's proof that there is no God. You would expect this, because these people were unable to discern the truth of God. They were, according to verse 12, "blind to the deeds of the Lord and they did not consider the work of His hands." So they shook their fist in God's face, and they dared him to judge them.

Peter reminds us of this very thing, and certainly we all are aware of this, Second Peter three beginning of verse three know this. First of all, he says, that, "in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world and that time was destroyed, being flooded with water." Obviously, speaking of the worldwide flood in Noah's days. But he went on to say, "But by His word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like 1000 years and 1000 years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance."

Well, the next time we get together we will examine the other three woes, but I pray that you will examine your own heart in light of these great truths, because indeed, God is a righteous judge and he will not allow sin to go unpunished. But aren't you thankful that there is grace in the gospel that God is a redeeming, long suffering, forgiving, gracious God? Were that not so we would have no hope. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the glorious truths of your word. May we grasp them, not merely in an intellectual way, in an academic way, but may we embrace them with our whole heart that they might motivate us with a longing to know more of Christ, to experience more of the joy of serving, of worshiping Him, and we thank you that there is grace in Christ. And we thank you that you are coming again one day to take us home. And for all of this, we give you praise. In Jesus name. Amen.

We return once again to Mark's gospel. So if you will take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 11. We've been away from our verse-by-verse exposition of this gospel, because of the holidays, and this morning we're going to examine verses 27 through 33, under the heading "By What Authority."

Let me give you the context before I read the passage. This scenario occurred on the Wednesday of the Passion Week, just a couple of days before our Lord went to the cross on our behalf. And the day before Jesus had purged the temple and occupied its precincts, which further infuriated the Jewish leadership, who had for some time determined to kill him. He had been, for three years, exposing their hypocrisy, their greed, their corruption, their ignorance, their works righteousness system; he challenged their authority. And that's something you never do to a narcissist. And so they were furious with him. So they had three years of pent up hatred for Jesus. But they were afraid to push him too far, because the people were truly impressed with him, albeit for all the wrong reasons. So once again, the Jewish authorities decide they're going to trick Jesus into saying something that would expose him as a fraud, as a blasphemer, perhaps even an insurrectionist. So with this in mind, we come to Mark 11, verse 27.

"They," referring to Christ, and his disciples, "came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him, and began saying to Him, 'By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?' And Jesus said to them, 'I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Answer Me.' They began reasoning among themselves, saying, 'If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Then why did you not believe him?' But shall we say, 'From men?' --they were afraid of the people. For everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. Answering Jesus, they said, 'We do not know.' And Jesus said to them, 'Nor will I tell you, by what authority I do these things.'"

Obviously, this is a passage that deals with the issue of spiritual moral authority. And I would ask you, by what authority do you function in your life? By God's authority, by man's authority, by your own authority? Many Christians will say, "Well, the Bible is my authority." And yet, often when you look at their lives, you see that some of the things the Bible says they will agree with but other things they won't. So it's easy to pick to choose. And others will have some other religious document that they believe is their authority. Muslims have the Koran, and so forth. For many people religious tradition is their authority, or some religious denomination. Perhaps one of the most dominant ones in our country, perhaps even around the world, is the Roman Catholic Church. They have three sources of authority: scripture, tradition, and the magisterium. And they believe that all three are equal sources when it comes to spiritual religious authority. When it comes to Scripture, they reject sola scriptura; you will see as part of the five solas in this worship center. Sola scriptura was one of the dominant themes of the Reformation; the reason why the Protestants broke away from the Roman Catholics. Sola scriptura simply meant that scripture was the sole, and infallible authority for the Christian faith. But they rejected that because they would say, no man is fallible. So God uses two other forms of authority to help safeguard his word. And one of those forms is tradition. Tradition being passed down from the apostles to the early church fathers and so forth. In fact, they would argue that tradition actually preceded Scripture. They would say that the official canon of the Bible was not established until around 382 AD at the Council of Rome, which again, they would say, would refute this idea of sola scriptura. By the way, that is false. The church did not establish the canon, it recognized it. A book is canonical because it was declared to be the word of God and the people of God recognize that, and there was consensus regarding that, especially with the Old Testament. That consensus was was finalized basically by the time of Christ. And the Gospels and Paul's letters were considered canonical by AD 90. And canonicity was based upon three things: their divine qualities, the consensus of God's people, and the connection to an apostle. People recognize that and based upon these three factors, the Canon was recognized by the people and then officially recognized by around the fourth century. But Christians coalesced around the Old and New Testament books very early.

Dave Harrell

I might also add that Roman Catholics include the Old Testament and New Testament apocryphal books in their canon. These are books that are considered by most as esoteric or suspicious; even heretical. It actually came from a Greek adjective, "apokryphos," which means private and "apokryptein," which was the verb that means to hide away. And so it literally, early on, meant to be a text to be read in private. But it later came to mean that which is esoteric or that which is suspicious or heretical. And the Old Testament apocryphal books that they have added to Scripture were written sometime between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. And they were not considered canonical by the Jews, even of Jesus time, nor by most of the early church fathers. And the New Testament apocryphal books were written in the second and third century and many of them include systems of doctrine, that are contrary to, or even antithetical to, other doctrines in the canon of Scripture.

So they believe in Scripture, but also you have to have tradition for your authority, but you also have to have one more thing and that is the magisterium, which is a compendium of Creed's and councils and articles of faith and traditions. Ex cathedra pronouncements by infallible Popes; and all of this is considered authoritative and binding upon the souls of men and women, even if it contradicts Scripture. Some of you may hold to that. In other words, Roman Catholicism as your authority, and sadly because of this, you have numerous heresies--that salvation is not by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone--but it's by faith plus works; grace plus works and so forth. You have the unbiblical concept of the mass where you have repeated sacrifices and the substance of the bread and the wine supposedly, become truly the body and blood of Christ. So, you have this constant infusion of grace in the sacraments which is blatantly unbiblical. You have the veneration of saints, the veneration of church relics, the immaculate conception or the sinlessness of Mary, and her ascension into heaven, her perpetual virginity, literally the worship of Mary. You have punishment and purification in a place called purgatory. And you have the infallible pope that can say just about anything. And now of course, he's blessing that which God calls an abomination with respect to same sex marriage and so forth.

Well, for others, the spiritual authority is really society. Its culture. It's what you were taught at home, what you were taught at school, what you were taught at the university, kind of the spirit of the age--after all majority rules, right? Some people just trust their gut. If it feels good, I'll do it, as long as it doesn't hurt somebody else. That's my authority. And for some, maybe you're a synchretist. You just combine all kinds of different beliefs, different philosophies, different religion, until you come up with your own. And frankly, that's where most people are at.

But the most important question before us today, dear friends, is, what is your spiritual authority? And if I can put it a little bit differently? What authority does Jesus have in your life? Is he the Lord and the master of your life? Or do you just say he is, and then go and do your own thing? Along with this, we need to remember who Jesus said he was? Is he really God? Or was he just a man? If he was truly God, how do we know how to obey his authority? What happens if we don't? So all of these were issues that the first century Jews, and many of the Gentiles were grappling with, and what every person should answer correctly. So let's look closely at what happened here, and then let's allow the Bible--God's Word, which should be our spiritual authority--to answer these questions. And we're going to do so under two headings this morning. We're going to look at number one, the attack on his authority. And then number two, the consequence of rejecting His authority. And I pray that each of you will listen very carefully, as well, especially you young people. Because the authority that governs your life, will determine the eternal destiny of your soul.

So let's look first of all, at what happened in this historical narrative under the heading: the attack on his authority. Verse 27, "They came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple," let's stop there. Remember, the temple area was filled with courtyards, there were hundreds, perhaps several 1000 people constantly milling around. And rabbis would typically walk around, and they would teach groups of people. That's what Jesus was doing. Luke adds a little bit more of a perspective regarding what was happening in Luke 19, beginning in verse 47, we read, "And He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes, and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him, and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to every word He said. And then in chapter 20, bringing it right to where we're at, in Mark 11, this is what Luke says, beginning in verse one, "On one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted Him, and they spoke, saying to Him, 'Tell us by what authority You are doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?'" Now we read in that passage that he was teaching and he's preaching the gospel. May I remind you what that is. What he would have said to them had to do with the holiness of God; that God is infinitely holy and that we are a sinful people, that we have violated his law. That we are depraved people. We have an inability to save ourselves, frankly, to even see our sin unless God does something. And therefore, it is crazy to think that through keeping laws or rituals or whatever, that somehow you could merit God's grace in saving you. He would teach them about the inevitability of divine judgment and eternal hell. He would speak to them about the love of God and the promises of God and, and all of the authority that is in his word. He would speak to them how the saving truths of Christ and his kingdom were veiled in the types, and the shadows of the law; and how they were promised in the writings of the prophets until John the Baptist announced Jesus as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world; the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. In fact, we read in Luke 16, verse 16, that he said, "'The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.'" What does that mean? They are passionately, with great zeal and with great fervor, demonstrating their need for Christ, and crying out to him for saving faith. But what he said was incredibly contradictory to what they had been taught. And horribly blasphemous, because he actually is telling them that he had the authority to forgive sin.

Of course, we know this from other passages. Remember when they took the paralytic and they cut a hole in the roof and they dropped him down in front of Jesus, in front of the crowd, and Pharisees and the scribes are watching all of this. And in Luke 5:21, Jesus said to him, "'Friend, your sins are forgiven.'" And of course, the Pharisees at this point, they were apoplectic. I mean, they just exploded in rage. And in verse 21 they said, "'Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?'" And then Jesus responded in verse 24, "'the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.'" This is what Jesus was teaching and preaching in the temple.

We have other examples of his authority to forgive. In John one and verse 12, we read very familiar passage, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right." In other words, to them, he had the authority to make them "children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born out of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God." We have another public acclamations of his authority to forgive in John seven, verse 37. We read, "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out"-- can't you imagine this? They're having a feast and all of a sudden, Jesus stands up, and he cries out so everybody can hear--"'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" Likewise, in Matthew 11, beginning of verse 28, Jesus said, "'Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle, and humble in heart, AND YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For my yoke is easy, and My burden is light.'"

Furthermore, you will remember after Christ's death, this was at the very heart of Peter sermon, recorded an Acts four beginning in verse 11, where he said, "He," referring to Jesus, "IS THE STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED BY YOU, THE BUILDERS, BUT WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." So these are the essential truths of the gospel, that Jesus would have been preaching in the temple, that infuriated the Jewish leaders.

So again, "He was walking in the temple, and verse 27 goes on to say that as he was doing this, "the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him and began saying to Him, 'By what authority are You doing these things or who gave You this authority to do these things?'" Now, they knew full well what the answer was, because he had clearly and publicly stated it before. For example, in Matthew 11, verse 27, we read that, "'All things have been handed over to me by My Father.'" Plus they witnessed His authority over the demons, did they not? All the people had seen this. In fact, in Mark 1:27, in light of that, we see that, "they debated among themselves saying, 'What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.'" And in John five, beginning in verse 21, we read Jesus words, "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.'" He goes on to say in verse 26, "'For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.'" And then in verse 30, "'I can do nothing.'" Jesus said, "'on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.'" There is where his authority is from. He had made that abundantly clear. The scribes and the Pharisees knew it. John 6:38, Jesus said, "'I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.'" And of course, they witnessed the power of His authority, even from the response of the crowds. You remember, after Jesus finished his sermon on the mount, recorded in Matthew five through seven, in chapter seven, verse 28, we read, "When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes." You see, what they were used to, were the scribes and the Pharisees just quoting what other rabbis had said; not speaking on their own authority.

So again, Mark 11:28, "They began saying to him, 'By what authority are You doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do these things?'" Basically, what they're challenging him on is, is your authority, human or divine? Are you speaking the Word of God or the word of man? Because they thought in their minds, if he says his authority is divine, then we can say, he's a blasphemer. And we can insist upon his execution. So they're setting a trap, and waiting for Jesus to step in it. And if he says, it's not divine, then well, he's a fraud. And once again, he's doomed.

Verse 29, you learn a very clear lesson. Don't ever try to outsmart God. Don't ever try to trick God. Verse 29, "Jesus said to them, 'I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I tell you by what authority I do these things.'" And here's the question, verse 30, "'Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Answer me.'" By the way, answering a question with another question was a common thing for rabbis to do. But this was a real quandary for these guys. They had to choose between two very difficult and frankly, dangerous, choices; two equally difficult alternatives. Because the people recognize John the Baptist as a true prophet of God, who called them to repentance, who declared Jesus to be the Messiah.

So in verse 31, we read, "They began reasoning among themselves saying," Ooh. By the way, "ooh" isn't in there, okay? But I hope you see that I think you could kind of put it in there in your mind. Can't you see these guys? It's like, guys, we got to huddle here, we got a big problem. "If we say 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Then why did you not believe him?'" Well, what were the things that they should have believed if John was from heaven? By the way, this is rather comical, I think, because John the Baptist, he made it very clear what he thought of these guys, and he exposed them. Remember, in Matthew three and verse seven. "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you that from the stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.'"

So they're thinking, My goodness, if we say, John, the Baptist authority is from heaven, then he will say, Well, then why didn't you believe him? Verse 32, But shall we say that his authority is "From men," then we got to deal with the people, right? The text there in verse 32, goes on to say, "they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet." So what did these unparalleled theological experts--the wisest of the wise, the spiritual authorities--have to say to all of this? Now, mind you, there'd be all kinds of people gathered around, waiting to hear this. Don't you know, you could heard a pin drop?

Verse 33, "Answering Jesus, they said, 'We do not know.' Now, the text doesn't say this, but I would imagine Jesus said, "Say what?" "I did not, or we didn't, we do not know." "A little bit louder."" We do not know." Jesus said to them, "'Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.'" You see, friends, these men knew the answer, but they stubbornly refused to submit to it, and therefore, to submit to Jesus, and they had murder and violence in their heart. So they stood before himself condemned. If you want an example of the unpardonable or the unforgivable sin, here it is. It is the deliberate, conscious rejection of the truth that has been given to you through the convicting work of the Holy Spirit of God--the very Word of God, from the very lips of God. And we don't have Jesus here today, but we have his Word. And that is the authority. Three years of undeniable examples of his deity in his miracles. Three years of irrefutable, compelling, divine truths. And now because of their persistent, hard-hearted rejection, the door of opportunity will be forever closed. Frightening thing. The light of divine revelation will now be forever extinguished.

Perhaps like some of you, they rejected Jesus warning, recorded in John 12, beginning of verse 35. "Jesus said to them, 'For a little while longer, the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.'" Well, they rejected the Light, and so there would be no further Light. They would be sealed now, permanently, in the darkness that they loved.

And this brings us to our second category of thought, and that is the consequence of rejecting his authority. And folks, this is where the rubber really meets the road. Jesus said, "'Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.'" This is a terrifying condemnation. They knew exactly what Jesus had said, they knew exactly who he claimed to be. It was irrefutable, but they rejected him. And they found every possible reason to condemn him. Satan had blinded their minds as we read in Second Corinthians four, four. And by extinguishing the convicting light of truth, Jesus acted consistently with what he said in Matthew seven in verse six. "'Do not give what is holy to dogs, do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.'" You see, friends, these men loved the darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. So God judicially sealed them forever in the darkness that they loved. Jesus said in Matthew six, verse 22, "'If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!'" And one day they will be according to Matthew 22:13 thrown "'into the outer darkness; in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

This is not easy to preach, but I want to give it to you as clearly and as forthright as I possibly can because I fear that some of you may be perilously close to having the light forever extinguished from you; that some of you might be forever sealed in the darkness that you love. Here we see an example of the wrath of divine abandonment where God judicially seals hard-hearted unbelievers in their unbelief. This is a terrifying form of judgment. You know, Jesus saw this coming when he entered Jerusalem on his final journey. Remember Luke 19:41, we read, "When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and he wept over it." The idea that he cried aloud over what he saw; it was breaking his heart. And here's what he said, "'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.'" We see this illustrated in a number of passages of Scripture. You may recall if you go to the book of Nehemiah, in Nehemiah chapter nine, verses five through 37, there's a long confession there and a recitation of God's mighty acts; it's probably written by Ezra. And it was read by a group of Levites to the people. And in verse 30, of Nehemiah nine, we read this, "You bore with them for many years, and admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets, yet they would not give ear. Therefore, You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the land." Isaiah speaks of this in chapter six, familiar passage, beginning in verse nine. When God commissioned Isaiah, He said, "'Go and tell this people: Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking but do not understand.'" Then he tells him "'render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and return and be healed.'" We read more of this in Isaiah 29, beginning in verse nine, where he says to the apostate rebellious people, "Be delayed and wait, blind yourselves and be blind; they become drunk, but not with wine, they stagger but not with strong drink. For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep, He has shut your eyes, the prophets; and H has covered your heads the seers." In other words, when you deliberately blind yourself to the truth, you will be blinded by lies. And that's what happened to the people. They refused to heed the words of the true prophets. So God allowed them to be deceived by the false prophets. And he judicially seal them in the lies they embraced.

In fact, Paul later described the same condition in Romans 11, verse eight, "Just as it is written, 'GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.'" You realize this is why Jesus began speaking in parables. It was an act of judicial hardening. Matthew 13, verse 12, he says, "'For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have abundance;, but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled which says, 'YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCRCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'"

We read about this as well, how it will happen during the days of the Tribulation, under the rule of the Antichrist. Paul speaks of this in Second Thessalonians two beginning in verse 11. He said, "For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness." And certainly, that is occurring even now, in our culture, as it has been down through redemptive history. Paul spoke of this so clearly, you will recall in Romans one, beginning in verse 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." In other words, they try to keep a lid on the truth so it won't spring forth, and they have to deal with it. So they will suppress the truth in unrighteousness because, "that" he says, "which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them." Later on in verse 28, we read that he finally gives them over to "a depraved mind," he says, "and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind"-- literally a worthless mind, a mind that cannot function as it should--"to do those things," he says, "which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving and merciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." And certainly, we can see this being played out in our society today. We live in a postmodern, post-Christian world, that does not recognize the authority of God as it is revealed in Scripture. They do not recognize the authority of Christ. People no longer believe in absolute moral truth and so skepticism and subjectivism and relativism now rule the day. You hear people saying often, "these folks have no moral compass." And it's true. And as a result, all viewpoints no matter how absurd, or how contradictory, must be considered equally valid, unless of course, it is a viewpoint that comes from the Bible. So biblical values have been replaced by laws that impose a godless, immoral, oppressive social agenda on our country. The priority of the left today includes absurdities like climate change, white supremacy, DEI, racial reparations, abortion on demand, adherence to Coronavirus group think, transgenderism, unquestioned allegiance to the LGBTQ ideologies; and certainly, the woke cult in our country has successfully divided our country into oppressors and the oppressed. And Satan's end game through the use of this cultural Marxism that receives its authority from Satan himself is to somehow legalize unrighteousness and criminalize righteousness and then prosecute those who refuse to submit.

Reminds me of the Israelites after they had settled in the Promised Land. They were filled with apostasy and idolatry, gross immorality, And in Judges 17 verse six, we read, "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what is right in his own eyes." Dear friends, you must understand that Jesus Christ has the sovereign authority over all that he has created. And he repeatedly demonstrated this in his incarnation and affirmed this. In Matthew 28, verse 18, he declared, "'All authority has been given to me on heaven and on earth.'" And He has revealed the essence of his authority in his word, because Christ is the living word. As we read in John one, for example, the same one who spoke the universe into existence is the one that imparted revelation to the prophets, often being personally there with them. And we know that the Father sent the Son as his Messenger, and then the Holy Spirit superintended, the inscripturation of the message that he was delivering through his inspired writers. And this resulted in divinely authoritative, and inerrant words written in the original autographs. And for this reason, Paul says in Second Timothy three, this passage that you're also familiar with, beginning in verse 16, "All Scripture is inspired,"--"theopneustos" in the original language--it is God breathed; God breathed out the word of God that we have in the canon of Scripture. "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Dear friends, can there be any greater proof of the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture, when it comes to my life and how I need to live my life to honor God, and to enjoy his blessings? I don't need a psychologist. I don't need a philosopher. I don't need psychotherapy. And I certainly don't need the government. I need the Word of the living God who created me.

So the question is, is Jesus and His word, your sole authority? Or do you just give lip service to his lordship in your life rather than genuinely obeying him from the heart? Jesus addressed this in Luke 6:46. "'Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?'" He went on to say, "'Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.'" Dear friends, I fear that for some of you.

I wish to give you an example of what happens when people depart from the authority of Christ and his word; one that we would be familiar with in our culture. We're all familiar of Harvard and the other Ivy League schools that are so antisemitic. And you know, all of the full blown woke stuff that we've seen on the news and so forth. That reminded me of something. Harvard was founded in 1636, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by English Puritans that migrated to New England. And they would have believed, as we do, the five solas of the Reformation. They saw a need to train clergyman in their new Commonwealth; men who would proclaim the saving truths of the gospel; truths so instrumental in the founding of our country, and frankly, inherent in our Constitution. And at Harvard, even today, there are tablets flanking the Johnston gate which read, quote, "After God had carried us safe to New England and we had builded our houses provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. And as we were thinking in consulting how to affect this great work, it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly gentleman and a lover of learning then living amongst us) to give one half of his estate, it being an all about 1700 pounds towards the erecting of a college and all his library. After him and other 300 pounds others after them cashed in more in the public hand of the state added the rest. The college was by common consent appointed to be at Cambridge. A very pleasant and accommodating place and it is called according to the name of the first founder, Harvard College. Alright, there's the history. But now, because they gradually, little by little, at times imperceptibly, rejected the authority of Christ and his word, we see an institution that is not only hostile to Christianity, but it is violently opposed to it, even their seminary. I went to the website of Harvard Divinity School and here's part of what they said, "Students come to Harvard Divinity School from a variety of spiritual and religious backgrounds, including non-religious backgrounds." In other words, you can come to Harvard Divinity School, you don't have to be a Christian; goes on to say, "Some of our students come with a faith tradition. We have a number of students that are not affiliated with a religious tradition. What all Harvard Divinity students share in common is a willingness to explore the complexities of religious thought, and life through academic curiosity and practical encouragement." Another part of their statement has the goal. And the goal of the training is, quote, "to study religion with attentiveness, to issues of diversity in regard to race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religious tradition and ideology." And it went on to say, "to foster a welcoming and inclusive community among our faculty, students, alumni and staff." And then finally, it says, "to commit to ecological sustainability and good environmental stewardship." I mean, that's just woke insanity. It has nothing to do with the gospel, with the Word of God; the authority of Christ in His Word. Contrast that with The Master's Seminary, I went on their website. And here's part of what they had to say--here's what they're trying to produce, "to have a ministry that pleases God, pastors must prioritize His Word. Our doctrinal statement carefully outlines the seminaries teaching position on major biblical doctrines. It is the framework for every class, syllabus and lecture." And in their preamble, they said this, "The affirmations which follow carefully specify our teaching position with regard to the major biblical doctrines and thus provide a framework for curriculum and instruction at the seminary. They also provide an anchor to protect the institution against theological drift. For this reason, members of the Board of Directors, administration and faculty members are annually required to sign a statement affirming agreement with this statement of faith." And their goal is to produce "a well-rounded pastor and preacher; The Master of Divinity program prepares you to handle God's word precisely and shepherd God's people effectively." You see the difference?

I'm reminded of what Paul told Titus in Titus two and verse 15. He said to the young pastor, "These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you." What things was he talking about? Well, the things in verse one, "Speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine." That's what you teach. With all authority. I have no authority over you, whatsoever. The only authority that I have is what comes from God through his word. There's the authority. He even said, in verses 11 and following, here's the type of thing you've got to teach, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, and instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, and righteously in the present age looking for the blessed hope in the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you."

Dear friends, new revelations conjured up in the imagination of someone's mind has no spiritual authority. Self-appointed, phony apostles have no spiritual authority. Creeds and councils and tradition, and a pope has no spiritual authority. The government has no spiritual authority when it comes to faith and practice. Nothing apart from the Word of God recorded in this canon of Scripture has any binding spiritual authority on the souls of men. And for this reason, Paul charged Timothy to preach the word right? "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside under myths." The grammar in the original language indicates that when they hear the truth, they will deliberately, consciously reject it. And when that happens, without realizing it, the myths will take them over and deceive them as an act of divine judgment. Beloved, every time you have an opportunity, you need to speak the truth of the Word of God. Unleash its power on people. Never underestimate its power, "for the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, both joint and marrow, to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare in the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

So this morning, I pray that you will examine your heart. Ask yourself, is the Lord Jesus and his word my authority? Or is it something else? Is my authority from God or from man? When I raise my kids, do I look at the authority of the Word of God or the authority of man? When I conduct my business do I look at the words of God from the Bible or something else? When I choose a wife or a husband? Or whatever it is? Do I go first and last to the only divine authority? Or do I come up with my own? Dear friends, once again the destiny of your soul depends upon how you answer that question. And so I leave it with you that by the Spirit of God, he will bring conviction to your heart. And if you don't know Christ, today is the day that you need to believe on him. Place your faith in him. Repent of your sins and cry out for his saving grace and he will absolutely forgive your sins and change you in ways that you cannot imagine. And then the authority of his Word and of his person will not be onerous, it will be the very desire of your heart. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. I pray that by the power of your Spirit, they will find access into every heart and that you will do what only you can do. And that is to save sinners and sanctify saints. We thank you, we give you praise in Jesus name. Amen.

We return once again to Mark's gospel. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there, Mark chapter 11. We're going to be examining verses 22 through 25, under the heading, "Essentials of Effectual Prayer." The great 19th century Scottish preacher, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, once said, "What a man is on his knees before God, that He is and nothing more." How do you see yourself as a Christian? What measure do you use to accurately assess who you really are? Does your self-evaluation match God's evaluation of you? Dear Christian, the most accurate measure of our true character is our secret devotion to God in prayer. What we are on our knees before God, that we are and nothing more. Christ was in constant prayer. Don't you think we should be as well? After healing many people with various diseases and casting out many demons, we read in Mark one verse 35, "In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place and was praying there." Matthew tells us in chapter 14, verse 21, and following, that Jesus after feeding "5000 men who ate besides women and children...Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side while He sent the crowds away. After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. And when it was evening, He was there alone." And in Matthew 26, beginning of verse 36, we read, "Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to his disciples, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.' And he took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved, and distressed. Then He said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.' And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet, not as I will, but as You will.'" Jesus said in Matthew six, verse six, "'when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father, who is in secret. And your Father who sees what is done and secret will reward you.'" And Paul said in First Thessalonians five and verse 17, that we should "pray without ceasing." We need to just be in a constant state of communion with our Lord.

Our passage here in Mark 11 is very instructive regarding the essentials of effectual prayer. There will basically be three that we will look at. Let me remind you of the context; Jesus has entered into Jerusalem and been he's been hailed as the Messiah, they're long-awaited deliverer. Then the next day as Jesus and his disciples return to Jerusalem, he cursed and unproductive fig tree which was a powerful parable, portraying the pretense of spirituality that was indicative of the people and to give a preview of the coming destruction upon the temple. And there Jesus symbolically denounced the nation Israel for their unbelief. Next, Jesus cleansed the temple; he physically removed the criminal merchants that had occupied its precincts. Men that were working on behalf of the high priest. Jesus claimed possession of the temple, we believe, for probably two days, Monday and Tuesday of the Passion Week. And there he ruled as sovereign. And every stratum of official Judaism came and challenged his authority. They did this publicly, and he not only defeated every one of their arguments, he humiliated them. And during this time, Matthew 21 records Jesus speaking three parables that clearly condemned Israel. There was the parable of the two sons in Matthew 21, verses 28 through 32, that speaks of the rebellion of the nation, then the parable of the wicked husbandman in Matthew 21, verses 33 through 46, which speaks of the retribution of the nation. And then the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22 one through 14, which speaks of the rejection of the nation. And we know that during that time, some of the Pharisees and even some of the Herodians, approached Jesus to ask whether it is proper to pay tribute to Caesar. And Jesus answers them, you will recall, with the illustration of the coin, we will read more about that in Mark 12. The Sadducees approached Jesus with their favorite question about the resurrection because they didn't believe in a resurrection; they didn't believe in an afterlife. And he answers them and literally rebukes them openly for their ignorance of the scriptures. And again, we will see this more when we get to Mark 12. And later in Mark 12 we also read what was going on during this time there was a Pharisaic lawyer that asks a legal question of Jesus. He says, "which is the greatest commandment?" Mark 12:28. Jesus answered, 'The foremost is , "HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE TEH LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOULD, AND WITH ALL YOUR MOND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH." The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these. ‘The scribe said to Him, 'Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burned offerings and sacrifices.' When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, he said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.'" Not far, but not in, which was a shocking insult to the Pharisee. And then we read, "After that no one would venture to ask Him any more questions."

And then, on the heels of that, Jesus went on to prove his Messiahship by means of an appeal to David, out of Psalm 110. So, I'm telling you all this to help you see that by now, the antagonism of the Jewish religious leaders was absolutely at a boiling point; that they were afraid to do anything to him, because the people were in awe of Jesus, albeit superficially so; they didn't really understand who he really was. Jesus had been living among the common people outside of Jerusalem all this time, but now he has invaded the very territory of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Worse yet, he has publicly humiliated them by not only taking over the temple, but by completely besting them in all of their arguments.

Now, back to our text. If we look at Mark 11, actually, in verse 19, we can kind of get the flow here. "When evening came, they would go out of the city. As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to Him, 'Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed, has withered.'" And then we come to our text for this morning. "And Jesus answered, saying to them, 'Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them. And they will be granted you. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.'"

Now, as we read this, it's appropriate to ask why such an abrupt transition in the narrative. Peter says to him, "Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed, has withered." And then Jesus answers and says, "'Have faith in God.'" Then he teaches a lesson on prayer. At first glance, there was this, would seem to be a non sequitur. It doesn't seem to follow; it doesn't quite connect. But when you understand the context, when you understand what was happening at that moment, in time, it becomes very, very clear what Jesus was doing. Bear in mind that the Jewish leaders now are trying to kill him. And soon they would succeed. And soon after that the temple, which was called the House of Prayer, would be destroyed. Now think about it. Jesus has been with the disciples. He's been teaching them. He's been providing and protecting them. He's been encouraging them, strengthening them, but in a few days, he's going to be gone. They're going to be all on their own. They will be utterly dependent upon the power of prayer, to access God when Jesus is gone, therefore, now catch this. Therefore, they must be absolutely confident that they have access to the same power that withered the fig tree. And I wish to explain and apply this passage under three headings. I hope this will be helpful to you. And think of it this way, effectual prayer--in other words, prayer that God hears and answers--requires three essential convictions. Number one, we must be confident of God's power. Secondly, confident of God's character. And thirdly, conscious of God's forgiveness. Want you to examine your heart, as we look at this. And I might say that it's been my experience over the years and dealing with so many people, that what we are about to examine is foreign to a lot of Christians. So let's pray that the Spirit of God will help us see these things.

First of all, let's understand the issue of being confident of God's power. Notice again, how the Lord's teaching on prayer follows this miraculous withering of the fig tree, that he has cursed. Now, obviously, this isn't by coincidence, it's by design. You see, what the Lord wanted to do is give them a living illustration of what God can do. One, that they would remember, one that they would never forget. Because what was happening symbolically in the withering of the tree was going to happen in reality, especially in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans, but first they must learn the essentials of effectual prayer. And that begins, it begins by remembering his supernatural works in the past. And this is what bolsters our confidence in who God is and what he can do in the present. Notice again, in Mark 11, verse 21, "Peter said to Him, 'Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed, has withered.'" Matthew adds this in Matthew 21, verse 20, "Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, 'How did the fig tree wither all at once?' And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea', it will happen.'" Obviously, Jesus is using hyperbole here to make his point. Then he says, "'And all things you ask and prayer, believing, You will receive.'" So what we see here is the profound importance that God places on remembering the miraculous works of deliverance that he has performed in the past. And this is what fortifies us in our prayer life. And the key is the word "remember"-- the word "remember." Let me give you some examples. In Exodus 13, verse three, Moses said to the people, "Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand, the Lord brought you out from this place." And repeatedly, God instructed Moses to tell the covenant people to remember the powerful acts of God on their behalf in the past, in order to prepare them for what they would encounter in the future as they entered into the land of Canaan. Earlier we read out of First Chronicles 16, the story of when they brought the Ark of God and placed it inside the tent, which David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God; and then David assigned Asaph and his relatives to give thanks to the Lord. And in verse eight, we read, "Oh, give thanks to the Lord." He says, "Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; speak of all His wonders, seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face continually." And here it is, folks "Remember His wonderful deeds, which He has done, His marvels and the judgments of His mouth." Psalm 105, beginning of verse five, the Psalmist says, "Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth, O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God, His judgments are in all the earth."

And think about what David did when he was in the depths of despair, fearing for his own life, because in the enemies were about to destroy him; he was desperately in need of deliverance. We read about this in Psalm 143, verse five. It says, "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doings. I muse on the work of Your hands, I stretch out my hands to You; my soul longs for You, as a parched land." And, folks, this is so instructive to us. I mean, think about those times when we are in the depths of despair. When terror has overwhelmed us, where there is great sorrow or there is great pain. What we learn here is one of the things that we need to do. In fact, the very first thing we need to do when we call out to the Lord is remember who he is and what he's done. Oh, Lord, in the midst of my pain, right now, I am crying out for deliverance. My mind goes back to all that you have done down through redemptive history, my mind can rehearse those things that I read in the Old Testament, and what I can see in the New Testament, and what I can see in my life, thank you for that. Therefore, I will trust you come what may. Isaiah spoke of this in Isaiah 46, beginning in verse eight. "'Remember this," he says, "and be assured; recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.''" But friends, I would ask you, is this characteristic of your prayer life? When you come before the Lord in prayer, do you take time to remember what he has done?

If not, you're going to lack confidence in God's power. You will operate in the flesh. And frankly, your prayers will, in many ways, be an insult to God's character. I encourage you to emulate Asaph. We read about him some earlier today and Psalm 77, for example, there's a record there of a communal lament where he expresses past and present fears and wonders if God is willing and even able, to deal with his concerns. And as one of God's chosen servants to lead the people of Israel spiritually, Asaph would have been accustomed to traversing the oceans of sorrow. And I'm sure he had weathered many a gale in his own life and his ministry. And often the storms of trials associated with serving the master can tempt one to even be drowned in your own tears. We can all identify with his agony of soul. Here's what he says in Psalm 77, beginning of verse one, "My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud; my voice rises to God and He will hear me." So in other words, he begins by just voicing his complaint to God, rather than allowing his depression to cause him to sink even further into some self-centered morass. He verbalizes his problems before the throne of grace. He goes on to say, "In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord." In verse four, we read, "You have held my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak." You know what those sleepless nights are like, don't you? I do. We've all been there. It's easy to sink further into a quagmire of depression and despair, to doubt God's goodness, to somehow think that he's abandoned us. How can we have confidence in God's power and goodness, if these deceptions are somehow ruling our mind? We can't. So we need to do what Asaph did in Psalm 77. He says this beginning in verse 11, "I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds." You see, again, dear friends, rehearsing God's mighty acts in the past, bolsters our confidence that he could certainly perform them yet again. In particular Asaph recalls the Exodus, perhaps the most glorious of all the deliverances in the history of Israel, when the earth trembled, and God miraculously delivered them beginning in verse 13. We read "Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. You have by Your power redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob, and Joseph. The waters saw You O God; the water saw you, they were in anguish; the deeps also trembled. The clouds poured out water; and skies gave forth a sound; Your arrows flashed here and there. The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; the lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea and your paths in the mighty waters, and your footprints may not be known. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Folks, this is the stuff of effectual prayer. This is what one does when one is confident in the power of God.

But secondly, we must be confident of God's character. Notice again, verse 21 of our text and Mark 11. "Being reminded, Peter said to Him, 'Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed, has withered.'" And Jesus answered saying to them, 'Have faith in God.' Interesting statement, "have faith in God." You see, by itself, faith is powerless. Contrary to the teachings of so many charlatans in the word faith movement, our confidence you see must not be in our faith, but in the object of our faith. Namely, in the character of God. Faith is merely the door to having access to the power of God. Our faith is what successfully invokes God's supernatural power to accomplish his purposes, for His glory, whatever that might be. And most of the time, we don't really know what his purposes are, but we relax in them. In fact, I was thinking about this, it's easy for me to blur that line, in my thinking, in my prayers. It's easy for me, wanting God to somehow make me more glorious than what I would deserve; to somehow answer my prayer just for me personally, in some special way, because I'm deserving of this as if I'm the number one priority rather than him. And I'm thankful that the indwelling Spirit can help align my prayers to the will of God. Because we don't know how to pray as we should, right? We read about this in Romans eight, verse 26, "The Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." There's some kind of inner Trinitarian communication that occurs, even while we're praying. "He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints, according to the will of God." I might add that the Spirit's work in our prayers, really parallel, Christ's high priestly work of intercession. But at the most fundamental level, we've got to have faith in God. And He will always respond consistent with his character. He will always respond in perfect holiness. He will always respond in perfect righteousness, judgment, according to his will, and according to his timing; always for the purpose of bringing glory to himself. Because you and I are merely incidental to his purposes. We can be confident knowing that he will never act contrary to the infinite perfections of his character. And it is this confidence that is so essential for effectual prayer. First, John 5:14, "this is the confidence which we have before him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, and whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him." Practically, think of it this way. Father, it is my great desire to be healed from this dreadful disease. Father, it is my great desire to be healed from what has tormented me from years or to be delivered from this horrible situation? It is my will that somehow, we have a government that isn't corrupt, and oppressive. Father, I've got a whole list of things, but I am absolutely confident as I cry out to you with my requests, that you are going to hear the cry of my heart and you will act consistent with your holy character. I know that whatever your answer will be, it will be holy, it will be just, it will be righteous. And ultimately, it will be good for me and mainly for your glory. And therefore I know that you're always up to something grand and glorious in my life, something that I might not even experience and enjoy until glory. So I trust in your good purpose, to bring glory to yourself. Because I trust in your character. Because I'm united with you, I will one day experience the fullness of what that means.

So Jesus instructs them "'Have faith in God.'" And of course, what he's thinking is, things are gonna get really rough pretty soon. So you need to trust me, I'm not going to be here. And know that there is nothing that can thwart my purposes. Know that there is nothing that can separate you from my love. Know that I can do all things. Verse 23 goes on, "'Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and you will, and they will be granted to you.'" Interesting phrase, "all things for which you pray and ask." Obviously, this would not include anything and everything that we would throw before God as if there's, you know, carte blanche; whatever we want, he's gonna give it to us. But anything that we pray and ask that is consistent with his will, to bring glory to his name. I was thinking about the Lord Himself. Remember, in the depths of the unimaginable agony that he experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane? Jesus cried out to the Father in Mark 14:36, saying, "'Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet, not what I will, but what You will.'" And folks, this has to be the attitude of our heart.

Now, it's also very important that we do as we read in the text of verse 24, that we "pray and we ask." James four two says, "You do not have because you do not ask." We know that it goes on to talk about how that many times we ask with the wrong motives, right? But to be able to say, you know, Father, I do not know your will on this particular matter but it is certainly my desire that you grant my request. But as always, I will submit to you, and in the humbleness of my heart, I know that you can do all of these things, but I don't know what your will is. But certainly, this would be the cry of my heart. John 16, beginning of verse 23, knowing that he would soon depart, and his disciples who would be left alone, he said, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive so that your joy may be made full.'" Oftentimes, people will say, Well, how do I know what the will of God is on a matter? Well, many times we don't know. But much of it, we do know, because it is written in His Word. If you want to know what the will of God is, become a student of his word and his will, will become part of your will, because you will understand who he is, how he thinks, what he's up to, what would bring honor to him. I marvel at the Lord's provision for his own, how he blesses us. You know, I was thinking, as I was contemplating these great truths, you know, as a father, and as a grandfather, there is nothing that I wouldn't do for my kids, or my grandkids. You all know this, you're the same way. There's nothing I wouldn't do for them. Except granting them some wish, that I knew was absolutely stupid, and foolish, and it would destroy them. Right? And many times, I know what that is, and they don't. Often, especially teenage logic, you know, it ends up two plus two is five and you know, it snot going to be five. But I'm always deeply touched when my kids or my grandkids ask me for something when they want my help. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew seven, beginning of verse seven, "'Ask and it will be given to you. seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give what is good to those who ask Him!'" And so here again, we see the holy, gracious character of God.

But Jesus adds yet a third component of effectual prayer. And this is really intriguing. And that is,we need to be conscious of God's forgiveness. Let me explain what I mean by this. He goes on in verse 25 to say "'Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you and your transgressions.'" In other words, when you pray, be conscious of the fact that you have been forgiven, and therefore you need to have a forgiving spirit towards others.

Verse 26, "But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.'" Just as a side note, because some of you might ask this, in some of your Bibles that might have a little parentheses around it. Verse 26 is actually absent from the earliest and most important Greek manuscripts and was not part of Mark's original text. Its presence in the latter manuscript tradition is best explained by the insertion by scribal copyist imitating Jesus words recorded in Matthew six where he did say this in verse 15. "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."

Now, back to the text here, what Jesus is saying is this. We've got to have a forgiving heart when we come before Him and petition him in prayer. Because to do otherwise would somehow insult the grace that he has given us. Now, bear in mind the forgiveness Jesus is referring to here is not our eternal pardon, that one receives and justification, which is a comprehensive, a total acquittal from the guilt and just penalty of sin based solely on God's grace. That's not what he's talking about here. Instead, Jesus is referring to our unwillingness to forgive others that will inevitably result in divine chastening in our life. It carries the idea of holding a grudge against a fellow believer, that's the idea, which I might add, always betrays an exaggerated sense of self-importance. And I've also known that those who tend to be easily offended are always those that have a hard time forgiving other people. Think of someone perhaps that has offended you or injured you in some way? Maybe, at work, maybe in your family? I've even heard of it happening in the church, you know, think about that. What's your attitude towards them? Is it one of bitterness? Do you look for opportunities to slander them? To get other people to join your cause against them? You won't speak to them. Do you seek revenge? Or do you seek reconciliation? Big difference? Do you seek to destroy them? Or are you willing to suffer indignities with grace and humility; with forbearance, with patience, trusting God to accomplish his purposes in the ordeal; in you and in them and other people? Bearing in mind Ephesians 4:30, to "be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Yes, but pastor, you don't understand what he did to me, or what she did to me. Oh, my, well, in that case, you need to get your pound of flesh? Absolutely. I mean, you can't forgive a person like that. That person doesn't deserve your forgiveness. Aren't you glad God doesn't try to get his pound of flesh from us? Think about that. We certainly don't deserve his forgiveness.

Over the years in counseling, I think of those times when I sit down with someone, and will say, okay, how can I help? And suddenly, they just unload on me. All of the things that someone has done to them. I mean, it's like suddenly you get sucked into outer space with them in this world of offenses; often, things that happened years ago. And they describe these things in vivid detail. Many people will literally have notebooks. I've had spiral notebooks filled with all that has happened. I remember one lady saying here, "I want you to read this." And I said, "no, I'm not going to read it. You know, Scripture says we're not to keep a record of wrongs. Why don't you just summarize it for me? And then let's deal with it here." You see, that's an unforgiving heart, and when you're that way, the wound, the wound never heals. And frankly, if that is you, you're self-absorbed. You're self-centered, you're self-righteous and you're self-deceived. And you wonder why you're miserable. And why everybody that knows you is miserable when they really get to know you, and they don't want to be around you. You see an unforgiving heart is certain proof that you're walking in the flesh and not with a spirit. You grieve the Spirit, you quench the Spirit. And folks, unforgiveness will inevitably produce bitterness and hatred and revenge, and it will imprison you in a dungeon of negative emotions. It's a very sad thing. You will be filled with self-pity, alienation, broken relationships, a fruitless powerless Christian life. I mean it's the opposite of First Corinthians 13 verse four and following, "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own; is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things. I mean, what a mockery to petition God in prayer when you mock his grace in forgiving you, by not forgiving others. That's the point. And see, Jesus knew this with the disciples because remember, they're always bickering, wondering, you know, who's going to be first in the kingdom. You know all that stuff. Psalm 66:18, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear." James two verse 13, "Judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy." Micah tells us this in chapter seven, verse 18, "Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?" You see folks, we are most like God when we forgive, when we have that kind of an attitude, and that is essential for effectual prayer.

So again, "forgive" he says in verse 25, Mark 11. "If you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions". And as I mentioned earlier, Matthew 6:15, Jesus said," If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions." The idea of divine chastening. Using the example of an abusive master, Peter said this in First Peter two beginning of verse 19, "Servants," literally slaves, "be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right, and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God." I'm sure you're like me, my flesh wars against that. That's where you feel that battle between the spirit and the flesh right? Galatians five. And while suffering unimaginable torture on the cross, Jesus even loved his enemies and prayed in Luke 23 Verse 34, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

I want to camp on this forgiveness concept for just a few more minutes as we wrap this up this morning, I was thinking how we would all do well to learn the lessons in forgiveness found in Second Corinthians two, verses five through 11. Let me give you real briefly the context. Remember, Paul had dealt with a sending member in the congregation there in Corinth, a man was sexually involved with his stepmother. First Corinthians five talks about it. The church then officially excommunicated him and as a result, the man repented. And now it's time to forgive and extend mercy. So in Second Corinthians two, verse five, Paul says, "But if any has caused sorrow," and he's referring to the offender but he's guarding him by not even using his name, "but if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much--to all of you." It's interesting. Here we see the heart of tender forbearance towards this man who mistreated Paul as well as the rest of the congregation. And he not only avoids mentioning his name, he doesn't even say anything about the nature of the offense. That's a heart of forgiveness. Imagine the unnecessary grief and shame Paul would have placed upon the penative sinner had he mentioned his name and then elaborated on the injury. "Yeah, well, so and so over here, you remember, he did this"...No, he's not doing any of that. He's protecting him. He's diffusing the whole thing. The man had been punished enough. He's repented. So he says, "he has caused sorrow, not to me, but to some degree--in order not to say too much." In other words, I'm not going to exaggerate this thing. I'm not going to blow it out of proportion. So folks, lesson number one, when it comes to forgiveness, don't keep stoking the fire, drop it, drop it, rejoice, the person has repented. They've asked for forgiveness, move on. Don't keep a record of wrongs. Don't keep reminding the offender of his or her sin. Psalm 103, verse 12. We see God as our example here, "As far as the east is from the west so far has He removed our transgressions from us." In other words, so as to no longer having any effect on our relationship with Him. How wicked it would be for us to remember what God has chosen to remember no more. As we read in Hebrews 10, I think it's verse 17.

So don't keep stoking the fire. Second, be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent. Verse six "Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority." You see, the great sorrow associated with being removed from the fellowship of his Christian brothers and sisters, produced what it was intended to produce, and that's genuine repentance. And then there can be genuine reconciliation. Church discipline really provides a living illustration of the broken fellowship that an unrepentant person has between him or her and God. And certainly the purpose of church discipline is reconciliation, never retribution. Verse six again, "Sufficient for such a one is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary, you should rather"--catch this now-- "forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow." Yes, the punishment was deserved, but it had its desired effect. This is what Paul longed for. When we've been offended and perhaps severely; do we have a longing for that person to see their offense? And to be reconciled to God because he has been more offended than we are? Is that the passion of our heart? Or do we want our pound of flesh? So now it's time to forgive and comfort. Which by the way, are two essentials for genuine restoration. So be quick to forgive and comfort, the truly penitent. I mean, this is it. This is at the heart of Christian love, beloved. And you want to ask yourself, does this describe me? Paul says in Colossians 3:13, that we are to be characterized by quote, "bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone." Again, this is our supreme example in forgiveness. And how can we, who have been forgiven the most heinous of sins against the Most High, not forgive the lesser sins that have been committed against us? That's the point.

If we don't have that kind of an attitude, we're just really out of fellowship with the Lord and it is going to hamper our prayers. A third lesson is we need to reaffirm our love for the truly penitent through acts of private and public restoration. Notice verse eight, he says, "Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm"-- "kyroo" in Greek, the original language; it carries the idea of "to rule judicially" or "to decide" or "make a formal declaration of something." "I urge you to reaffirm your love for him." In other words, he's asking them to be reaffirming, both privately and publicly in loving restoration. Now, I know oftentimes people or unrepentant. People will ask me, "Well, how can you forgive somebody that's unrepentant?" Then most of the time, that's the case by the way, and the answer is simply this well you pray for them with a forgiving heart that sincerely, passionately desires their repentance and their restoration and reconciliation; first with God and then with you. And if that doesn't happen, you move on. That's between them and God at that point. This is precisely the kind of situation dear friends in which we are commanded to turn the other cheek, Matthew 5:39. "Yes, but he or she did and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..." Well, yeah, that's really bad and I'm sorry that's happened. We need to pray for his or her repentance and reconciliation. But you also know that you deserve far worse, so do I. So let's be open. Let's pray. Let's have an attitude of forgiveness. And pray that God will do a work in their heart. Now, granted, there are some times where people are so evil, that we have implications against them like the imprecatory psalms. I mean, there are times where you say, "Lord, I pray that you will pour out your wrath upon their unholy head." We understand that because God you have been offended. And there we're defending the glory of God. But my, so often what we do is we hold grudges against people, rather than going to them, like in Galatians six and try to restore them in a spirit of gentleness. So many times, I've had people mad at me, I have to laugh about it. Because, I mean, sometimes I deserve it, really, I truly do. And other times, I truly don't. But you know, whatever is the case, when fellowship is broken, you have to have an attitude of forgiveness and you try to be reconciled and if people don't do that, then you just have to move on. You just have to love them and let God deal with them in his own time. We've got to be like the father of the prodigal son, right. I mean, we're praying for the son to come down the road one day and then all my word there he is, well, what do we do? We run out to meet him. We kill the fatted calf, and on it gone, it goes. Proverbs 19:11, it's "man's discretion, makes him slow to anger and it's his glory to overlook a transgression." So friends, I exhort you, learn to forgive. Otherwise, you will remain bitter. And you will demand redress of your injuries, and you'll just stay that way. I won't take time to go through it. But in Romans 12:18 and following it says, "if possible, as much as it is up to you be at peace with all men." Don't be ruled by your wounded pride. Learn to forgive. Otherwise, you will forfeit blessing in your life. You will live under a cloud of divine chastening, and God will not answer your prayers, because you're out of fellowship with Him.

So in summary, this is what Jesus wanted his disciples to do. And by extension, all of us. Effectual prayer, prayer that God hears and answers, requires us to be confident in its power, to be confident of his character, and to be conscious of God's forgiveness of us, so that we too will forgive others. The disciples had to learn this, they did learn this, and so too should all of us, amen? Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that speaks so directly to each of us. Thank you for your goodness and your Grace. And oh, Lord, thank you for forgiving us. Thank you for providing a way, for we, as sinful people, to be reconciled to you as a holy God, through your gift to us, your Son that paid the penalty for the sins of all who would trust in Him. And Lord, not only have you forgiven us, but you have radically changed us. You've given us a new heart, a new mind, a new song, a new nature. And, most importantly, you have imputed to us the righteousness of Christ. So that no, even as we sin, and certainly we do, you do not see our sin, but the righteousness of your son, our Savior, and whom we are forever hidden. So we thank you for these eternal truths. May they bear much fruit in our lives. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.

This morning we returned to Mark's gospel chapter 11. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there, we will be examining verses 12 through 2 under the heading "Jesus Curses Fruitless Religion." Follow along as I read this text, beginning in verse 12 of Mark 11. "The next day when they had left Bethany, he became hungry. Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again!' And His disciples were listening. Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. And He began to teach and say to them, 'Is it not written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS'? But you have made it a ROBBERS' DEN.' The chief priests and the scribes heard this and began seeking how to destroy Him, for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at Hs teaching. When evening came, they would go out of the city. As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to 'Him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered.'"

Dear friends, there is nothing more offensive to God than hypocrisy. To pretend that somehow you are worshipping Him; and perhaps you do so with your lips or with some of your actions, but in your heart it is a lie. Pretend religion. No fear of God. No love for God, no passionate, personal pursuit of holiness in your life. No hunger for his word. No obedience really to his word. In fact, for many people that claim to be religious, those types of things never enter into their mind. No secret devotion to God, in intimate communion, no prayer life. Only superficial, perfunctory meaningless worship, living as if he really didn't even exist. God described this going on in his ancient people. In Isaiah, chapter 29, beginning in verse 13, he says, "'People who draw near me with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me. And their reverence for Me consists of tradition, learned by rote.’” In other words, hollow ritualism. Doing what is expected, without any real understanding, without any passion, just routine ceremony. And frankly, we see the same thing here in our culture. I call it Sunday in the South. Sunday in the south, you go through the motions of worship, but it really doesn't mean that much to you. Your mind is elsewhere, typically self-focused, where it has been all week. Sadly, many people will come to church every Sunday, with the same attitude as the ancient Israelites, whom God described when they listened to his prophet Ezekiel but had no intention of really hearing and applying what he said we read about this in Ezekiel chapter 33, beginning in verse 31. God says, "'But as for you, son of man, your fellow citizen who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother saying, 'Come now and hear what the message is which comes forth from the Lord.' They come to you as people come and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them. For they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain. Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not practice them.'" And sadly, many churches cater to this kind of religious pretense with sensual music, ear tickling sermons, that entertain but do not edify, that comfort but never convict.

So indeed, dear friends, as we look at this passage here today, we want to examine our hearts in light of all this because we're all prone to various forms of hypocrisy. It's so easy to pretend to love Christ, to act religious, to say the right things, and perhaps to even be Orthodox in your doctrine. But in fact, you're doing nothing more than promoting yourself, or trying to convince yourself that you are more spiritual than you really are. And in a desperate pursuit of affirmation, the self-promoting hypocrite will seek every spotlight to be seen, will grab every microphone to be heard, and will attack everyone who refuses to bow to his or her demands. Now these can be true believers ruled by the Spirit, or by the flesh rather than the spirit. Like the fleshy Corinthians, you will recall, in First Corinthians three. "Men of flesh," the first few verses, it describes them. "Infants in Christ," unable to digest deep doctrinal truths. They're filled with jealousy and strife, they walk like mere men, meaning they live as if they're not even saved. Or there can be those believers in a church that are just factious and divisive. Every church has them. I'm sure we have some here. First Corinthians 11 tells us that that's going to be true in every church. Or they can be unbelievers who are Christian, in name only, like the false prophets that Jesus described in Matthew seven, whose quote, "bad fruit betrayed that they were a bad tree that produced it. There in Matthew seven, beginning of verse 20, we read, "'So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.'"

Well, we see this very clearly in the legalists of ancient Judaism. What was going on for far too many was just a pretense of worship. They would come to the temple and just pursue empty ritualism. They would perform external obedience to somehow merit God's grace, a works righteousness system of religion. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 15, beginning of verse seven, "'You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men?'" Well, this hollow kind of worship again is horribly offensive to God. And this is why Jesus assaults the temple.

We want to examine this text under two real basic categories, number one, here we will see empty religious pretense, illustrated by a barren fig tree. And then secondly, empty religious pretense assaulted by the Messianic priest King, referring to the Lord Jesus. So first of all, let's look at this empty religious pretense that's illustrated by the barren fig tree beginning in verse 12. "On the next day when they had left Bethany. He became hungry. Seeing at a distance of fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps he would find anything on it. And when he came to it; He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again!' And his disciples were listening." This is a very intriguing scenario, is it not? Imagine what the disciples were thinking? What on earth is going on here? Well, let's bear in mind that throughout Scripture, we see a fig tree as something that was very important, very important fruit in ancient life. It provided wonderful, delicious fruit. I've been in Israel, I love to eat those figs. They are absolutely delicious. And frequently a fig tree is used as a symbol of the nation Israel. We read about this in Hosea nine as well as Joel one, but also a symbol of peace and prosperity. Figs were one of the fruits described to the children of Israel as part of the blessing of the promised land. In fact, in First Kings four and verse 25, describing the prosperity of Solomon's reign, we read "Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and fig tree." Moreover, divine judgment upon his people often included the destruction of their fig trees by marauding invaders, as we would read in Jeremiah five and verse 17. Now, what's interesting with the fig tree, as it begins to sprout leaves, figs would normally produce at least some immature, and even edible fruit. In this case, the tree had some leaves, but no fruit. Mark 11:13, "it was not even the season for figs," it says. So it's especially interesting that this particular tree offered the pretense of being fruitful, and yet it was barren. Unlike most fig trees that would have leaves, there would be some fruit on it, even though it wouldn't be fully developed. I also find it interesting as I think about it, it takes three years from planting a fig tree until it bears fruit. And this reminds me of the three years of Jesus's ministry that should have produced the fruit of repentance in Israel, but it did not. So, seeing this unproductive, barren tree that was planted in good soil and through its foliage should have borne at least some fruit, but it did not, Jesus cursed it. What a powerful parable. This is designed to portray the pretense of spirituality, the pretense of godliness, if you will; hypocrisy that really produces no love of God from the heart. I find it interesting as well in Isaiah five you may remember that great text. There we read how God cursed his vineyard, which was symbolic of the house of Israel. He cursed them because of their hypocrisy, and because of their apostasy, their idolatry. And in that text, we read how that he gave them everything that they needed to bear fruit. He planted them in the right vineyard of the Promised Land. On a fertile Hill, he says he removed all of the stones and planted the choicest vine. And in verse five of Isaiah five we read then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it only produced worthless ones. "Beushim," inedible sour berries. Verse seven he goes on to say , "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress." Justice and bloodshed as well as righteousness and distress, is really a play on words. In Hebrew, it says that he looked for "mispat" and he got "mizpah." He looked for "sadaqa" and he got "seaqa." And as a result, he pronounced judgment upon them.

By the way, the things that he accused them of, and certainly of which they were guilty, are the very things that we see in our country today. Greedy materialism, drunken, dissipation, defiant debauchery, sexual immorality, redefining morality so that you call good evil and evil good. Haughty humanism, which is the wholesale tolerance of every imaginable form of wickedness, crooked politicians and judges, corrupt spiritual leaders, and on it went. And as a result, soon Babylon came and destroyed them. So too here, in Mark 11, Jesus curses the fig tree. And what he's doing here is symbolically denouncing the nation of Israel for their unbelief. For indeed, he came into His own and His own did not receive him. And to this day, Israel is a nation that is a spiritually barren tree awaiting the second coming of Christ when God will soften their hearts. Bear in mind, according to Romans 11 and verse 25, currently God has hardened their hearts until the time, or the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so when the very last person in the church age is saved, and God then comes and snatches us away in the rapture, God will then judge the both the apostate church and apostate Israel, in Daniel's 70th week, the time of the tribulation. And according to Romans 11:26, we read "And thus all Israel will be saved." But what a powerful lesson to all of us how God hates hollow professions of faith, how he hates pretend Christianity, that fails to manifest Christ like humility, and a love for Christ, a love for His word love for God's people, and a burden for the lost.

By the way, this type of hypocrisy, this type of pretend Christianity is really something that cannot be seen often in our heart, especially those who are steeped in it over a long period of time. It's not like people all of a sudden wake up one day and say, "You know what, I think I'm gonna pretend to be a Christian." That's not how it works, but rather, they get a little bit of religion, and they begin to do a few things and they're around other kinds of superficial hypocrites. They begin to learn what to say and what not to say and what to do and what not to do. And then their religious peers or the church, their denomination, begins to reinforce what they think is true of themselves, that they are godly, that they are to be obedient to the Lord. But in truth, they will be weak in doctrine. They will love shallow preaching, shallow teaching, shallow worship, they will be undiscerning. They will typically attach themselves to religious organizations or denominations or churches that have lots of programs, lots of things going on, that provide the illusion of spirituality. But it's hollow, because there is no heartfelt love in those people. And folks, we must guard against that. We must guard against this. And as a result, their hypocrisy is affirmed by all of the trappings of religion around them. And by the way, it's even worse when people are Orthodox in their doctrine. And yet, they really have no love for Christ, and you do not see it manifest in their life. Well, this was true of apostate Judaism in the first century.

Again, quoting Isaiah 29:13. Jesus excoriated the scribes and the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. Matthew 15 Seven that I read earlier, "'You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.''" And of course, this fruitless display of religion could be manifested in the temple. And this was what was so infuriating and offensive to Jesus. The apostle Paul perfectly described the heart of their character and their conduct. In Romans 10, beginning of verse two, he says, "For I testify about them, that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." Indeed, as Paul said, in Philippians, three and verse three true worshipers of God are those who, "worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh." Well, the opposite was going on in Jesus day. So cursing the fig tree, Jesus, again, symbolically denounced the nation, Israel for their unbelief. And in verse 20, we read that it withered from the roots up. And we know about 40 years later, Israel was cut down when the Romans came in, and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

So we move from the empty religious pretense, illustrated by a barren fruit fig tree, to secondly, this empty religious pretense, assaulted by the Messiah priest king. And what a shocking thing this must have been to the Jewish people, the day before they had hailed him as their Messiah. And now they're watching him come in and do a number on the temple precincts. Verse 15, "Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple." Now, the term temple here "hieron" in the original language, is a reference to basically the temple campus that would accommodate 1000s of worshippers. It had various courts and inner courts and so forth, the most inner court being the Holy of Holies. And the Holy Place, which was designated by another term "naos" the most outer court was called the Court of the Gentiles. And that's where all of these shenanigans were taking place. Okay? Non-Jews were allowed in the outer court of the temple. And this is where the priests had basically set up their own mini mall, all right? Where they were making money, non-Jews were allowed out there, but the priests could also be out there. In fact, the high priest, Annas was, shall we say, the kingpin of all of this, he was kind of like the mafia Don? Or what would you call him like a mob boss, perhaps that's kind of what he was. In fact, the Court of the Gentiles was called the bazaar Annas. And this marketplace was comprised of a variety of franchises. And what would happen is, merchants would literally purchase a franchise right from the high priest so that they could sell wine and food and salt and oil and sacrificial animals. And the big thing here was exchanging money, because you have to have the right currency to purchase the temple offerings. And what they would do is charge exorbitant fees to change the money. It was basically extortion. And what's interesting is, whatever they sold a percentage of, it went to guess who? The high priests and other priests who had a cut on all of the loot.

And worse yet, according to the Levitical law, you have to have sacrificial animals that pass the inspection of the priest. You beginning to see how the fox is guarding the henhouse here? Well, of course, only those purchased from the priests would make the cut, and historians indicate that they would pay as much as 10 times for their sacrificial animal. You know, as I thought about this, we can't be too shocked. I mean, this stuff still goes on today, doesn't it? It's called faith healers and prosperity teachers, make billions off of desperate, naive, ignorant people collecting seed faith donations. I remember this one guy, I forget which one he was he was selling prayer hankies for 20 bucks, you know, hundreds of gimmicks. In fact, the whole word faith movement is nothing more than a Christian drug cartel. It's basically what it is. It's popularized on certain television networks. You've heard me say before, it's just a religious version of World Wrestling. I mean, everybody knows it's fake, but it's entertaining and a lot of people get sucked up into it, and they give all of their money, hoping to somehow buy a miracle. Somebody sent me a video clip the other day, it was a clip of one of the prosperity, charlatans. His name was Jesse Duplantis and he was interacting with some others, including Kenneth Copeland, on this large platform in front of a bunch of people. And he was bragging about being not a millionaire, he said, but a multi, multi, millionaire. In fact, he said the reason Jesus, this is a quote, I wrote it down. "The reason Jesus has the reason Jesus has not yet come is because Christians aren't giving enough." Well, you're familiar with this, you see churches, you know, they’ve become mega malls, Disney World. They got fitness centers, and coffee shops and all kinds of things like that. Even theaters, restaurants. So much of contemporary gospel music that I used to be a part of when I used to counsel many of the artists and the and the people in that industry, the executives, is filled with this type of thing. They're constantly giving themselves awards, you know, the Dove Awards. I always wonder why not pastor awards, right? And the pastor of the year is Joel Osteen or whatever. I mean, that's kind of how it would work. Well, by the way, in other words, I'm very familiar with what would go on behind the scenes in that and I can assure you that Jesus would have never been nominated. Never.

So like the first century Jewish con artists, we've got hucksters today, that make 1000s of dollars, fleecing people, just like the money changers. So having seen this kind of sacrilege, in his father's house, Jesus returns to the temple, and he physically removes the religious phonies. I wish I could have seen that. And thereby he pronounced his condemnation upon Israel's worship. Verse 15, "He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple." Now, I am aware that there are people who are shocked that this passage of Scripture, they cannot believe Jesus behavior. What happened to the gentle Jesus, the Jesus who is just filled with love. And unfortunately, people that think this way, simply do not understand the holiness of God. Holiness is actually the all-encompassing attribute of his infinite perfection, his purity and his power. People don't understand that people have a low view of God and a very high view of themselves. And his holiness is really the very essence of his glory. You will recall that God gave us a terrifying vision of his glory when he manifested it visibly in the pillar of cloud and fire that once covered Mount Sinai, and then led the Israelites through the wilderness to the promised land. And in Scripture, every time we see a demonstration of God's glory, we behold his holiness. Again, the all-encompassing attribute of his infinite perfection, purity and power.

And beloved, it is a zeal for God's glory that unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is what produces genuine worship, and makes false worship, pretend worship disgusting, even to ourselves as it is to God. And a zeal for God's glory, causes our lives to redound to the glory of God and our souls to be flooded with the inexpressible joy of his presence. And you want to ask yourself, Do I have a zeal for the glory of God? Do I have a passion for the holiness of God? If not, please know that this kind of zeal simply cannot exist apart from a soul captivating, a sin destroying vision of the majesty of God. And if you cannot see the majesty of God, you will never understand what I'm trying to communicate to you, nor will you ever understand why Jesus was so incensed when he came to his Father's house. This is what's greatly missing in our evangelical culture today. Many worship what David Welch describes as a quote, "weightless God." Here's what he had to say, "It is one of the defining marks of our time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is a ethereal, but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so in consequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God's existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television. His commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence. His judgment, no more inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness." End quote. Dear Christian, Don’t miss this. Jesus is God, he is infinitely holy. He is utterly separate from sin. And the temple was his Father's house that was to be the place where the divine presence would rest. And the infinite holiness of God, throughout Scripture, was always associated with God's presence in the temple. And unless you understand some of this, you will never have a zeal for God's glory and for His Holiness.

I want to camp on this concept for a moment and elaborate on the idea of God's presence in his holiness. You will recall, in Genesis chapter three and verse eight, we read, Adam and Eve, "heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden." The little phrase there "from the presence of" literally in the original language is "from before." And this is a technical type of terminology that is used to describe the sanctuary in the temple. In other words, God is walking now in the garden, and his presence is being manifested. In fact, grammatically, the Hebrew verb translated "walk"--"mithalek," is a unique kind of participle, indicating God's presence moved about constantly in the garden. I might add that the only other place this verb appears in this particular grammatical construction in the Hebrew is in passages describing God's presence descending upon the sanctuary. For example, in Exodus 33, nine whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. So what we read there in Genesis three is Adam and Eve hid themselves from God's presence that was moving about in his Edenic sanctuary.

Now what happened when they sinned? Well, they were removed from his presence in the garden. They violated one law, just one thing, that God asked, Do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. My point with this, dear friends is God's abiding presence will be withdrawn from his people when they disobey him. The ultimate punishment being death. We saw this in the garden, but we also see it in the sanctuary of his temple. Whenever his laws would be violated, especially those in Leviticus 26, his presence would be removed. And ultimately punishment would even include for the Israelites, being exiled from the land which contained the temple.

Let me elaborate upon this a little bit more because I want you to grasp the weight of all of this. It's interesting that God arranged both the Garden of Eden and the sanctuary to the tabernacle and temple, in an East/West orientation. Really interesting as we look at this. The scripture in Genesis chapter two beginning in verse eight, we read that, "The Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden." And the Hebrew word for East, "qadim" literally means faceward or frontward, indicating God's presence was in the western part of the garden. Genesis 3:24, "He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life." In other words, to prevent sinful man from returning to the west. Later Cain was driven to a land east of Eden, Genesis 4:16, away from God's presence. And throughout the Old Testament, we see an East/West arrangement of the tabernacle and the temple, an orientation that's attributed to the garden. It's also fascinating. East is always the direction of idolatry in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel eight verse 16, the Prophet says, then God "brought me into the inner corner of the Lord's house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun." He's describing idolatry there. And in Exodus 27 verses 13 through 16. We read how that the altar in the tabernacle and later in the temple was positioned to the east of the edifice. And the only entrance to the Holy of Holies, positioned in the most westward part, opened eastward. Meaning that the priest had to approach the holy of holies from the east, to the west, to enter into the Holy of Holies. And it's interesting that just as God stationed his cherubim in Eden to guard the eastern entrance, so too God's presence above the Ark of the Covenant was entered from the east. And the cherubim served as the guardians of his holy presence, the divine presence that hovered over the mercy seat between the outstretched wings of the cherubim. And each year on Yom Kippur, the high priest would move from the east outside the camp and move westwardly toward the Holy of Holies. For example, when he would enter the tabernacle, he would pass by the sacred objects like the menorah, that probably symbolized the tree of life. And finally, he would enter into the Holy of Holies to offer the blood of the sacrifice, to propitiate, or to satisfy, the wrath of God that originally drove man away from God outside of the garden. What we see there is a reversal of the exile from God, experienced by Adam, and through Adam to all mankind. And we know, as we think about Israel, only through the shedding of innocent blood in their sacrificial system that God initiated, which pointed to Christ; only then could the nation be reconciled to God. And only through faith in his shed blood, can we be reconciled to God and only through Christ. Can Israel eventually be restored and fulfillment of both the Abrahamic and the new covenants? And there are there are numerous other passages that we don't have time to look at here that are undeniable parallels between Eden and the earthly temple. But the point that I'm trying to make here, that I'm laboring to make on your behalf, is that the ineffable presence of God is something that should overwhelm us. And it was this very presence that would be manifested in the tabernacle, and later the temple. And we could spend hours studying all of the stipulations that God had gave to protect the sanctuary, to protect from ritual impurity.

And I fear that a lot of these concepts, especially with respect to the holiness of God, and the glory of God, have been lost in our culture, where we worship a weightless God, a God that winks at sin, that tolerates everything and anything. This has manifested many times in modern worship; that is typically irreverent, bereft of awe. If you notice, there's very little that is transcendent these days. There is very little that is dignified today. Today, even in churches, everything has to be casual and flippant, lacking in dignity. It's interesting, because you think about the holiness of God, illustrated even in the portable sanctuary. Israelites could enter the courtyard, but bear in mind, they could not enter the tent in the tabernacle. Ordinary priests were allowed to enter into the holy place, but only the high priest could enter into the Holy of Holies one time per year. And what's interesting is God's holiness was even manifested in the craftsmanship of the tabernacle, and in the items that were used. Again, I want to show you how serious God is about his holiness. The two outer courts were constructed mainly by bronze, but gold was used in the inner court. Even the curtains that covered the frame of the tent reflected degrees of holiness. The innermost layer was made of fine linen that was manufactured from a plant and considered to be the purest of material. And then the next layer was of goat's hair. And then the outer layer was made of animal skins; skins were associated with death and were therefore the least holy. As you study the Scriptures, you see that there were differing levels of uncleanness that required various kinds of ritual purifications after being defiled. What God was constantly communicating to his people and what has been lost in our culture today, even in evangelicalism, is we can no longer discern between what is clean and what is unclean. We can no longer discern what is holy, and what is common. T. Desmond Alexander, in an excellent book "Face to Face with God: A Biblical Theology of Christ as Priest and Mediator," wrote this, quote, "Those who enter the holy place must conform to a level of holiness that exceeds what is expected of others. Leviticus 10 provides a vivid illustration of the danger posed by approaching God inappropriately." He went on to add, "The world of the Israelites is transformed by God's continual presence among them, as they reflect on the regulations and rituals that accompanied the construction of the portable sanctuary. They quickly appreciate that holiness is associated with perfection, purity and wholeness, whereas uncleanness is linked to imperfection, impurity and incompleteness." He went on to add, "Since holiness and uncleanness are associated with perfection and imperfection, respectively, it follows that holy living demands perfect behavior. The moral standards are reflected in the covenant obligations that God places on the Israelites to underline their importance the principal obligations of the Sinai covenant which God speaks directly to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, are later inscribed by God on stone tablets, and placed within the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. God expects the Israelites to obey Him and keep His covenant so that they may become a holy nation, Exodus 19."

Well, obviously, all these matters pertaining to God's holiness, were carried over into the temple. And yet dear friends, it was against this unimaginable purity, that Jesus comes into the temple and sees all of this wickedness. Bear in mind that Jesus was an observant Jew in his life, to offer himself as the promised consolation of Israel. Remember at his birth, Jesus was presented at the temple in Luke 2:21. He was circumcised on the eighth day, according to the law, his mother Mary's ritual "mikveh" immersion, was in obedience to the purification laws. Even his dedication was accompanied by prescribed sacrifices, according to what was said in the law of the Lord, we read about this in Luke 2:24, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, coming out of Leviticus 5:11. His family, according to Luke 2:39, performed everything according to the law of the Lord. And this continued as they made annual pilgrimages to the temple for Passover. Jesus even performed the Jewish mitzvah on his 12th year when he reached puberty, Luke 2:42. And we read how Jesus even spent several days after Passover in the synagogue, which was located within the temple precinct, sitting at the feet of the rabbis. So my point with all of this is to help you see that throughout his life, and throughout eternity, Jesus had a holy and high regard for the temple.

Even the apostle Paul was an observant Jew in connection with the laws of the temple and assisted fellow Jewish believers that had become Christians in performing their temple obligations. We read about this in Acts. Perhaps now you have a better understanding of Jesus's zeal for his father's house, and part of his messianic role was to align the functions of the temple to the will of God. But that cannot happen ultimately, until he returns in judgment when Israel repents, in brokenness, and in mournful acknowledgement of their sin, especially as relates to the rejection of their Messiah. Then Israel will be saved, and it will be restored. Only then according to Malachi, three four will quote, "the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years." In fact, Zechariah describes the glory of his future coronation ceremony in Zechariah, six beginning of verse 12, "'Behold a man whose name is Branch,'" which by the way, was a messianic title that Zechariah used in one of his earlier visions, "'Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is, and He will build the temple of the Lord. Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord and He will bear the honor and set and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices'"-- referring to the priest and the king that typically fought amongst one another, because he will be both priest and king.

So with all of this background, Jesus runs off the merchants, verse 17. And it says, "And He began to teach and say to them, 'is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?'" For all the nations. We will see this ultimately in the millennial kingdom. You may recall in his dedicatory prayer for the temple, in First Kings eight, Solomon prayed in verse 41, and following, "'concerning the foreigner who is not of Your people, Israel, when he comes from a foreign country for Your namesake, (for they will hear of Your great name and Your mighty hand and of Your outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, to fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.'"

We know that even Gentile proselytes worshipped at the temple. And many of them, like many of the Jews, were godly people. And how embarrassed godly Jews must have been, even in Jesus’ day to invite someone to church, so to speak, and to see all of this wickedness. You recall the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, who according to Acts 8:27, came to Jerusalem to worship. So again, he begins to teach. And at the end of verse 17, he says, "'But you have made it a robber’s den.'"

And then in conclusion, "The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking to destroy Him." Naturally, right? They were being exposed. You know, lies, demand tolerance. But truth welcomes scrutiny. And we read that "they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching. When evening came, they would go out of the city." In other words, they would return back to Bethany. "And as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from its roots. Being reminded, Peter said to Him, 'Rabbi look, the fig tree which You cursed, has withered.'" So indeed, there will be no harvest in that temple. And that temple even would soon be destroyed. O, dear friends, the power of Christ, to both bless as well as to curse. May I challenge you to examine your heart with respect to your own attitude towards worshiping the Lord? Is it a pretense? Is it merely Sunday in the South? Or is it a genuine expression of your love for God, and your passion to live for his glory, that your life would redound to his glory, that others would see Christ in you. If that is not the case and it's a mere pretense, I would plead with you to repent of that wickedness, lest God judges you severely. And if your worship is indeed as it should be, know this, it will not be something that only happens on Sunday morning. Sunday morning will merely be the ultimate expression of what you've been experiencing all week long. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that exposes each one of us. My how easy it is for us to play the hypocrite. Forgive us, wherever we do that. And give us a zeal for your glory, a passion for your holiness. And we know that that can only come by the power of your Spirit working in us through the use of your Word, and the fellowship of your people. So we commit that to you. And Father, for those that do not know you, perhaps those who are Christian in name only. I pray that your convicting work will be powerful, even this day, that they too might come to a place of genuine repentance and enjoy the miracle of the new birth. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.

Would you take your bibles and turn to Mark's gospel. We are returning once again to our verse-by-verse study of the gospel of Mark; and we are in Mark 11. And in a few minutes, we will look at verses one through 14. And actually, this is, and I'm somewhat embarrassed to say this, the second part of the Royal Entrance and False Coronation, that I preached on, I think, September 24. So we've had a little bit of a break there. I will review some of part one so that you get the connection, Lord willing. But before we look at it, may I just say, it is such a privilege to be able to come together and study truth in this age of deception. I'm sure you're like me, you just get so tired of being gaslighted, right? Of seeing one thing and having somebody tell me that that's not what you're seeing; to be constantly lied to. And so to have the word of God, and to be able to look at it, to read it, to study it; and to experience the Spirit wrought change that it produces in our heart, is something that we should never lose the wonder of.

I was thinking this week, we're all very familiar with the things going on in Israel. I just finished a four-part series on that, and we see the wickedness of the false religion of Islam and the types of things it can produce. And certainly, we are also experiencing in our culture, one of the most deadly destructive false religions that that I've seen in a long time, and it's basically the woke cult of Cultural Marxism. With its diversity, equity and inclusion, its social justice deceptions, is one of the deadliest false religions Satan has ever devised. A fanatical system that demands complete devotion and demonic religion, preparing the world for the rule of the Antichrist. And as you think about it, one of the things we must do, as we come together as believers is understand how Satan works. We're warned to be aware of the schemes of the devil. And certainly, this particular cult is invading our country and many others around the world. From kindergarten to 12th grade, from our universities to big tech; big business, journalism, science, entertainment, government, military-- the woke lunacy has successfully taken over every institution that can transmit their immoral and tyrannical agenda. Every institution except two. Every institution except the two that God has ordained: Christian marriage and the church. And it is not able to take over Christian marriage and the church, though they are trying with every breath. And what we are doing today is one of the primary reasons why they will not take over Christian marriage and the church. We belong to Christ. And we will continue to thrive regardless of the persecution because we are submitting ourselves to the most powerful, supernatural weapon in the universe. And that is the Word of the living God.

In Second Corinthians 10, verse three and following the Apostle Paul reminds us, "For though we walk in the flesh"--in other words, though we have human limitations--"we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." And certainly, there he's speaking of our weaponry of the word and prayer. He goes on to say, "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." And beloved, that must be our motivation, yet again this morning, as we come together and submit ourselves to the teaching of the Word of God.

Now with that, let me read our text in Mark 11. Actually, I'm going to go through verse 11. So Mark 11, beginning in verse one through verse 11. "As they approached Jerusalem at Bethpage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' you say, 'The Lord has need of it'; and immediately he will send it back here.'" They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street; and they untied it. Some of the bystanders were saying to them, 'What are you doing, untying the colt?' They spoke to them, just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission. They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it. And many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting: 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David; Hosanna! in the highest!' Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany, with the twelve, since it was already late."

This is an amazing passage that has astounding theological significance, historical significance; especially as it relates to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. By way of review, in everything that Jesus did up to this point, as recorded in the gospels, was orchestrated to reach a high point on the day of what is commonly called the triumphal entry. Remember, he has raised Lazarus from the dead, that got enormous attention. He encountered then the rich young ruler, he gave sight to two blind men in Jericho. We see the conversion of Zacchaeus, the rich tax collector. And then he gives his parable in Luke 19, concerning a nobleman--referring to Christ--who travels to a distant country--referring to Heaven--to receive a kingdom; in other words, to receive official authority to reign and then he returns to rule over his kingdom. Then we read about Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, over the tragedy that the Israelites could not see; that this was the time that the things that would make for peace, as Jesus said, and now he says that they will be hidden from your eyes, and therefore the earthly kingdom that they longed for would be postponed for a future time. Even his time of arrival in Jerusalem, was precisely the date promised by Daniel in Daniel 9:25. A prophecy given over 600 years earlier. Even his mount, a colt; the foal of a donkey was consistent with Zechariah's prophecy in Zechariah nine and verse nine; a prophecy given a few years later, probably around 550 or so BC. So everything that Jesus did, pointed to the day of his messianic presentation foretold by the Old Testament prophets. Prophets that predicted the manner, the moment and even the meaning of the king’s final offer to Israel, for indeed he came to present himself to Israel as the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy.

Following his entry, as we're going to see later, he will speak a new series of parables about the kingdom. He will do battle with, one last time, with the religious elite, and then state his last lament over the city. And then he will give his last and his longest eschatological discourse concerning the prophetic program of the end of the age, including the parenthesis of time and events which must intervene between his departure and his return again as King of kings. There in His Olivet Discourse, in preparation for that interregnum, he will emphasize two main events. Number one, God's judgment on Israel, especially in Jerusalem, involving the destruction of the temple. And also secondly, the glorious return of Christ to finally consummate the age and establish his earthly kingdom.

So, in our text this morning, we can see God's kingdom program and how this fits in to where he is going. This is the certain hope of the redeemed. The Messianic kingdom of our Lord will be a glorious metamorphosis one day that will merge the old world under the rule of the Antichrist into the radically new world under the rule of Christ; a renovated, a reconstituted earth that will exist under new and perfect conditions. And then, may I remind you that when death is finally defeated--death being the last enemy--the mediatorial kingdom will merge into the universal kingdom. As Alva J. MClain said, quote, "The mediatorial kingdom of our Lord will constitute the glorious consummating era of the first order of things and will serve as the divine bridge between the temporal order and the eternal order." End quote. And Paul spoke of this in First Corinthians 15, beginning of verse 24. "...then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death." And then in verse 28, "When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all." What a glorious promise. The mediatorial kingdom will no longer exist as a separate entity from the universal kingdom of God, but rather as an everlasting part of it. But may I remind you that even after the millennial kingdom, the Lord is going to continue to reign, but not on a separate throne, not a messianic throne, and the other, the Father's throne. Instead, the two will reign together in perfect unity. We read of this, Revelation three verse 21, "'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." So there's a little bit of an overview of where all of this is ultimately going, hitting some of the highlights of eschatology.

Now, let's return to the historical record here of our Lord's royal entrance and false coronation. Again, this is an official offer that had to be made to the nation, as a whole, to determine their final decision. As we read in Scripture, this was the time of Israel's final visitation to receive their king. But because they will ultimately reject their Messiah, the kingdom is going to be temporarily withdrawn and postponed on Earth awaiting a day, yet future, when he returns. Now, before I get into the weeds here of some of this text that is really fascinating, I want to answer a question that someone posed, and it's a fair question. How could Jesus offer kingdom blessings to these people? How could that be a genuine offer when he knew that they were going to reject it? Well, first of all, a holy God cannot lie. And so he would never say something to trick people or to deceive them, nor would he ever need to do so. First Peter two verse 22, we read that Christ, "committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth." So it wasn't like he was trying to trick them or deceive them in any way. Moreover, the kingdom blessings of the Abrahamic covenant were always conditioned upon Israel's national repentance and belief, something that only God could almost ultimately accomplish in them through the regenerating work of the Spirit of God. For example, in Leviticus 26, beginning in verse 40. We read, "If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me--I was also acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies--or," he goes on to say, "if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land."

So of course, Jesus' kingdom offer to Israel was genuine, even though he knew they would reject it. I mean, think about it--is God's offer of salvation and eternal life disingenuous when it is presented to those he knows will reject it? Of course not. In Genesis two, you will recall that God offered Adam life if he obeyed by not eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But death if he disobeyed, which he did. And God in his sovereignty and omniscience, knew that he would. I might even add that the necessity of Christ's saving work on the cross was decreed in eternity past. So it's not like if Adam hadn't have sinned, then Christ would have never gone to the cross. So again, God's sovereign plan even involved Adam sin; he knew that that would happen, and yet Adam had a real choice. So again, God's offer of salvation was genuine.

If I can give you another example, it was God's plan all along for David to be the one through whom the Messiah would come and the eternal dynasty over Israel ultimately exist. And yet, in First Samuel 13, verses 13 through 14, we read that God would have given Saul a permanent kingdom over Israel if he had obeyed; a genuine offer. But Saul disobeyed. And yet that did not mean that God's offer was disingenuous. So again, Christ's entrance into Jerusalem was a genuine, official and final, offer to the nation as a whole, to determine their final decision.

Now, something else is important as we approach this text, and I want you to get your mind wrapped around the scene here. Those of you that have been to Israel, you can kind of see in your mind's eye where the Lord would have been, you must understand that the Lord Jesus Christ did not enter his city with joy. But he did so with immense sorrow, with tears running down his cheeks. In Luke 19 verse 41, and following, we read about this. "And when He approached, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the day shall come upon you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade before you and surround you and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.'" And of course, that happened literally a few years later, on April 9th 70, AD. Titus laid siege, actually in the summer, he slowly starved the inhabitants. And the Romans systematically slaughtered all of them, attacking one part of the city at a time. By the way, many of the people that heard Jesus and were there at the triumphal entry, endured that and died there. They utterly destroyed the temple. And they took many captives to Rome to be mocked and butchered in the Roman circus and gladiatorial bouts.

So with all that background, now we come to Mark 11 verse one, "As they approached Jerusalem at Bethpage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives." Let's pause here. Remember now multitudes, literally 1000s of people are with Jesus, following him from Jericho. They're going to the Passover and many others from Bethpage, which was a small village close to Bethany, which was the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus where he had been. John 12, beginning of verse one, we read that Jesus visited them six days before the Passover. No doubt he wanted to find comfort in fellowship, to find strength in fellowship, knowing that he was about to be the Passover lamb that would be slain. And again, this now is Passover. 1000s of Jewish faithful are making their annual pilgrimage. In fact, census records of that era 10 years later, tells us that there were 2.6 million worshipers with 260,000 lambs that were slaughtered, which would be a minimum, one for every 10 people. And there's every reason to believe that there was more than that, there on that day when Jesus came. So that's the scene here.

"As they approach Jerusalem, at Bethpage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples and said to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here.'" Dear friends, such foreknowledge and omniscience is yet another illustration of the deity of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse three, 'If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' you say, 'The Lord has need of it'; and immediately he will send it back here.' They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside the street; and they untied it. Some of the bystanders were saying to them, 'What are you doing, untying the colt?' And they spoke to them, just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission. They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it. And many spread their coats in the road and others spread leafy branches, which they had cut from the fields."

Now, I have preached on this before, some of you will remember what I'm about to say, but it's important for you to see something that's going on here. First of all, you've got two donkeys, you've got a mare, and a colt; they would have probably been the same size. Mark and Luke also tell us very specifically that no one has ever sat upon the coat. Now, why is this significant? Being raised with horses, and having worked with training horses, I can tell you that it would be an absolute miracle for someone, for anyone, to sit on a coal that has never been ridden. You would hope that there'd be some real soft ground around there because you're going to be on it in just a moment. It's interesting, in Genesis nine, God warned Noah of a drastic change that was going to take place that he would experience with the animals on the ark. He said in verse two, and "'The fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth.'" And certainly, that is what happened when the animals got off; it's part of the curse, we see that to this day. All creatures are terrified of man. And you must understand that donkeys are herbivores. They're also highly intelligent. But herbivores are naturally afraid of carnivores. I am a carnivore, I love meat. You are carnivores, too. We can eat some of the other stuff, but we especially like meat. Now, another thing that's interesting, if you know anything about donkeys, is they have excellent eyesight, and excellent hearing abilities. And they are able to smell things highly developed sense of smell. They're quick to spot predators. And you've probably heard them when they do they sound ridiculous with their baying. We've got five of them that live 500 yards from us. And every time a coyote or anything gets near, you'll hear that ridiculous sound. And that's why you see, by the way, many people around here and they're in their fields with their cattle, they'll have a couple of donkeys because the donkeys are able to protect them from wild dogs, coyotes. They've even been known to kill mountain lions. So these are serious little fellas but they're also; they also have an issue, because they are so sensitive to predators. They have a very difficult time trusting human beings; they live in constant fear because of the curse. Now you think about all of this with what the text says, you know, try putting a human garment, that to a horse or a donkey smells like a carnivore, try putting that--just put the garment on them, I mean, that's where you're gonna have to start and watch what they will do. And then try riding that young male donkey, who thinks all of a sudden, he's on the menu for dinner. A donkey that's never been ridden. And then let's add to that, let's take all of these carnivore's robes, garments, and let's put them on the road and ask him to walk on them. And let's even add to that, all kinds of these palm leaves. And to make it really interesting, let's have 1000s of people stand next to him, and scream and shout and wave palm branches. Folks, I can tell you that even a highly trained crowd control police horse would freak out with all of that. But obviously, the creator calmed his little creature down and was able to mount him and to ride him. I believe dear friends, what we see here is a foretaste of millennial blessing. That promised time of restoration and regeneration, both physically and spiritually when the King returns in all of his glory, for example, Isaiah 11, beginning in verse six gives us a glimpse of that. It will be a time when, "the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den." You see, this will be a time of national restoration for Israel. This will be the time of the kingdom age the disciples and multitudes were longing for. This is why they were shouting "Hosanna!" thinking that Jesus now is going to inaugurate this kingdom. That glorious time when all of the redeemed will reign with Jesus, the Anointed One, as Daniel prophesied. In Daniel seven verse 27, "'Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.'"

So Beloved, I believe that hidden here, in this amazing scenario, is an example of the power of Jesus to miraculously cancel the effects of the curse in this young donkey that had never been ridden. And this was a subtle affirmation that he is saying, in essence, yes, I am the Almighty, I am the creator. I am the promised Messiah, the one who will one day accomplish all that I have promised. The pristine happiness and peace of Eden in the time of the regeneration, a time of tranquility that's even evidenced here, in this little scenario with the donkey.

And he goes on verse eight again, "And many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields." By the way, throwing your garments on the road was an ancient custom whereby king's subjects would do this as a demonstration of their utter submission to the lordship of their ruler. And palm branches, in that day, and biblically, are always symbolic of the joy of salvation. So imagine the scene, this enormous multitude, that's in front of Jesus, and behind Jesus, and they're shouting, verse nine, "Hosanna!" to the Son of David. "Hosanna" means "save now", son of David. An exclamation of both supplication, as well as adoration. "Blessed it is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And there is a quotation from Psalm 118 and verse six; part of six Psalms known as the Hallel. "Hallel, meaning "praise." And these psalms were sung at Passover, celebrating their deliverance from Egypt.

So they're thinking in their mind, here's Jesus now, and he's going to save us from Rome; not save us from our sins so we can become fit citizens to enter into the kingdom, but to save us from Rome. Here's the great miracle worker, the one that has fed 1000s; that has cast out demons, healed the sick. Here's the one who has given sight to the blind, even raised the dead. Surely this is the one who will now deliver us from Roman bondage. Surely this is the one now that will meet all of our physical needs, bringing the long-awaited kingdom. You know, as you think about this, it's like many people today who believe in a fabricated Jesus for the wrong reasons. People that are more concerned about temporal blessings than eternal blessings; they have no thought of eternity. And certainly these people, ancient Jewish people, felt like they were good to go for the kingdom. After all, they're sons of Abraham, they keep the law, etcetera, etcetera. They had no conviction of personal sin. No understanding that because of sin, they're separated from a holy God, and that they were in desperate need of being reconciled, and the only one that could reconcile them would be the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't understand that. People today don't understand that. People today like people then, are looking for what they believe would be a well-deserved utopia.

In fact, the people shouting here in the first century were kind of like, I guess you could say, the original entitlement generation. But like most people today, they did not bow down and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And I shudder to think of the eternal judgment that awaits. Those people even today, the god mocking politicians and professors of our day, that promote all of the blasphemous deceptions that are part of our culture, intersectionality and radical feminism, the critical race theory. Oh, how these people need the gospel, dear friends. How they need the gospel and how we should love them for the sake of the gospel and give them the gospel. Let them see the gospel in our lives. The social justice warriors, Black Lives Matter, anarchists, prosperity preachers. The ayatollahs and every other religious phony that mocks Christ. Vile men and women who prey upon desperate, and yet depraved souls, concerned only with the things of this world. And so many people go to church looking for a Jesus that's going to somehow meet all of those physical earthly needs with no thought of who he really is. And no thought of the desperate need that they have to be saved by his grace.

Verse nine, "Those who went in front and those who were following, were shouting: 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David; Hosanna, in the highest!'" And yet again, they failed to understand that Jesus did not come the first time to be crowned, but to be crucified; to be an atonement for sin, that people who believe in Him could be reconciled to a holy God because of his imputed righteousness, because we have none of our own. And tragically, they failed to make the connection even with Zechariah nine and verse nine where we read "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; he is just in having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey; a colt, the foal of a donkey."

They fail to understand that even their religious leaders In Israel--the scribes and the Pharisees, the Sadducees-- even those people had fabricated a deliverer of their own making. One that bore no resemblance to who Christ really was. And that's why they hated him. And certainly they did not know as they're shouting "Hosanna" that Jesus had initiated all of this as a judgment against them, causing them to affirm his messianic credentials. With full throat exuberance, crying out "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!" And yet by the end of the week, they will say we will not have this man reign over us, "Crucify Him." Sadly, many today do the same thing.

I want you to notice the first thing that Jesus did when he entered Jerusalem. Very important, verse 11, "Jesus entered Jerusalem, and came into the temple." You see, this was his priority. This was his destination. And then we read, "and after looking around at everything, he left for Bethany with the 12, since it was already late." So he, I guess you could say, is reconnoitering the temple. He comes, he sees what's there. Of course, he already knew. But he looks at it. And all of this sets the stage for what's going to happen the next day when he assaults the temple and occupies its precincts.

Let me give you a little preview of where this is going to take us as I wrap this up this morning. What Jesus saw was disgusting. What Jesus saw, was blasphemous. Later in verse 17, we read "'Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a robbers' den.'" You see, it had become a place where phony religious leaders and their merchant associates would exploit worshippers by charging exorbitant fees for sacrificial animals. And to make it even worse, they would charge exorbitant fees to exchange their foreign currency. So they had a real racket going on. And you see, the temple was supposed to be a place of sanctity and worship. Why? Because God's presence was to be manifested there. This was his father's house. This was always the heart of Israelite worship. It was instituted by God. The temple was the place where his word was taught. And his infinite perfections were manifested, and exalted. But hypocrites and greedy con artists had taken over its precincts and its teachings. You know, Jesus saw this even at the beginning of his earthly ministry. Remember in John two, verses 13 through 16, we read that for at least a day he physically occupied the precincts of the temple grounds, and he evicted the corrupt merchants from the temple courts. And you must understand that all of this is a graphic picture of Israel's apostasy and her need to repent, which Jesus preached throughout his ministry. His message was always one of genuine worship. But that could only work through repented faith in the person in the work of Christ.

Here I'm reminded of what happened, even at the onset of Christ's ministry. You remember, in Matthew four, verse one we read, that he was "led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil," remember that? And that was the same place where Israel was tempted and tested and failed. But where Christ now the Messiah succeeds. And then next in Matthew four beginning of verse five, we read this, "Then the devil took Him into the holy city, and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command His angels concerning you.' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Think about this, why would Satan take Jesus to the temple? The answer is simple. Because that's where the presence of his father existed. It was sacred, it was precious to him. And what father would only let his son perish. That's Satan's whole goal in that scene. But if Jesus had cast himself into his father's protective care, he would have exploited the privilege of his sonship that he had set aside in his humiliation. Moreover, he would have acted independently from the will of his Father. And thus forfeited his status as the spotless Lamb of God, and thus violate the plan of God. My point with this little illustration is to simply underscore how precious the temple was and is to Jesus. Satan understood that. Satan knew how Jesus' great love for his father would be a powerful influence on him. And how the most precious place on earth to be near that protective love would be the temple. In fact, I find it interesting. Jesus first recorded words in the Gospel were in response to his parent's question concerning his continued presence in the temple, Luke 2:49. They're looking for him and he says to them, "'Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house."' And it's no wonder why Jesus disciples reacted the way they did when Jesus ran the money changers out of the temple the first time at the beginning of his ministry. In John 2:15, we read, "His disciples remembered that is it is written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me.'" Oh, dear friends, would that we share his zeal for genuine worship? A genuine love for the truth.

Now, while the temple was the centerpiece of Israel's worship, where God's people went to worship Him, through the mediation of a priest, the church is now described as the temple of God in the New Testament. Jesus is the builder. The apostle Paul uses temple imagery to depict believers both independently as well as corporately. We read how the church is a spiritual edifice, the abode of the Holy Spirit. In fact, in First Timothy 3:15, we read that it is, "the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth." And in the New Testament, we read how we are living stones in God's temple. We offer spiritual sacrifices, right? But sadly, many in the church today are like the first century Israelites who praise Jesus for what they believe he can do for them on Earth; for they have no understanding, no desire to worship the Father in spirit and in truth in the church. And sadly, many churches cater to this. They become centers for entertainment, promoters of superficial, even false worship; are a place where entrepreneurs that disguise themselves as pastors can make millions of dollars. And, folks, we've got to all guard ourselves against this personally, as well as corporately. But I want you to remember that during the Tribulation, another temple is going to be built. A third temple and it will be desecrated by the Antichrist; you read about this in Christ's Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24. You also read about it in a Second Thessalonians two. And then after that, when the Lord returns, a fourth temple will be built by the Lord Himself, in the millennial kingdom. You read about that, for example, in Ezekiel chapter 43. In fact, Jesus actions, as we're going to see, in cleansing the temple, were really an initial fulfillment of Messiah, purifying the religious worship of his people. Malachi speaks of this at the end of the Old Testament, talking about when the Lord returns in Malachi three, beginning in verse one, "'Behold, I am going to send My messenger and he will clear the way before Me'"--referring to John the Baptist. "'And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,' says the Lord of hosts. 'But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.'" Oh, what a glorious day that will be. As the Prophet said, a day when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." My how I long for that day. To get out of all of this corruption and filth and deception, and immorality, and chaos and violence.

And then finally, when the messianic kingdom comes to an end, at the conclusion of that 1000 year reign, we read in the Bible prophecies that Satan will be released from the abyss. And he will lead a final rebellion against Christ in the holy city of Jerusalem. We read how God will then destroy the rebels with fire from heaven, and Satan will be cast into the lake of fire forever, Revelation 20. And then we read how God will uncreate the universe, a complete annihilation, Second, Peter 3:10, for example. There we read, "the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up." In verse 13, he goes on to say, "But according to His promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 24, verse 35, "'Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.'" And then we read how a new Jerusalem will come. It'll be the capital city of the new earth, Revelation 21 and verse two; imagine that scene. But there will be no temple in the eternal state, no more temple. Revelation 21, beginning in verse 22, the Apostle says, "I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb." It's as if we will be living in the Holy of Holies.

Well, may I challenge each of you to worship the Lord Jesus Christ for who he truly is. He is the Messiah King. He is the Savior of all who trust in Him. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, who will return as he has promised, who will judge the nation's and judge all who mock him, who ignore him, who live as if he does not exist. Would to God that you not be amongst those. For one day, you will stand before him, either in triumph or in terror, but your knee will bow, as will mine. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Because he is Lord, dear friends, we must bow before him every day of our life we should worship him. And our worship includes our love for him, our love for others even the lost; our love for his Word, our desire to have intimate communion and fellowship with him in the secret devotion of prayer. We should praise him, offer him our gratitude, our obedience, or service. We should hunger and we should thirst for righteousness because one day we will see Him face to face. And I long for that day. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. Thank you that we can worship you, truly, in spirit and in truth. Thank you that we know who Jesus really is. Not because we're so smart, or we're so good. For none of those things are true. But we know these things because of the Spirit wrought regeneration within our souls. Because by your grace, you gave us eyes to see. And you have given us your word, and your spirit that illuminates your words so that we can understand it, and we can apply it to our lives. So for this, we are eternally grateful. And we long for our Lord to come and to take us away. But until he does, may we be found faithful and serving him. We ask all of this in the precious name of Jesus, our Savior and for his sake. Amen.

This morning, we return to Mark's gospel. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 11; we're going to be examining verses one through 14 in a very general way this morning and then, in a few weeks when I'm back with you, we will look at it more closely. And I've entitled my discourse to you, "The Royal Entrance and False Coronation." This will be part one. Let me read the text to you. Mark 11, beginning in verse one. " As they approached Jerusalem at Bethpage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples and said to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt there, on which no one yet has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' You say the Lord has need of it. And immediately he will send it back here.' They went away and found a colt tied at the door outside the street, and they untied it. Some of the bystanders were saying to them, 'What are you doing untying the colt?' They spoke to them, just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission. They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it. And He sat on it. And many spread their coats in the road and others spread leafy branches, which they had cut from the fields. Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting: 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David; Hosanna! in the highest!' Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the 12, since it was already late."

This is a very familiar passage of scripture to most Christians. They have read it, they've heard it preached before probably many times. And yet, I have found that for most, they have a very shallow understanding of the historical and theological implications of this magnificent piece of scripture, this amazing event that speaks of God's Kingdom purposes, and how they relate to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And my goal this morning, is to help deepen your understanding of these things, so that you will not only understand better this text but be more and more amazed at all that God is doing. So today will not be a typical verse by verse exposition. But rather, and that will happen the next time I'm with you, but rather, this will largely be a historical and theological introduction. And I trust that the truth you're about to hear will shed light upon this very dark and depraved world, which is a veritable Sodom and Gomorrah, awaiting divine judgment. And the more we contemplate the person and the work of Christ, especially as it relates to the kingdom of God, and our future in it, the more our hearts will long for his return.

Now, may I remind you from the outset that the kingdom of God is the dominant and unifying theme of Scripture. And it is the climactic fulfillment of God's redemptive purposes. And that, of course, is going to include Israel as well as the church. Now, spiritually we know that God is currently reigning in the hearts of the redeemed. We understand that. In fact, the apostle Paul says in Philippians, three, in verse 24, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." But we also know that the most glorious aspect of the kingdom is yet future, it's yet to come. For example, in Isaiah chapter nine in verse seven, we read, "There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore." And my how I long for that day, every moment of my life. And for this reason, you will recall that Jesus taught us to pray, in Matthew six, "Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name." In other words, make your name sanctified, make it holy, in my life and throughout the world. And then Jesus said, you're to go on and say, "Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And I might add that all three petitions regarding God's name, regarding the kingdom and his will, in the original language, all of those verbs are in the emphatic position, which attests to their profound importance. And each one of them, grammatically, is in what we call the aorist active imperative form, which indicates that this is going to be a single or instantaneous event, that there will be something that will explode upon the scene, namely, the hallowing of his name, the kingdom that's coming; his will being "done on earth as it is in heaven," all consistent with kingdom prophecy. So, in other words, this is not merely speaking of some spiritualized kingdom that already exists. That would cause those texts to beg for relevance. Moreover, it's not speaking of a kingdom that is going to gradually appear as the church brings it to fruition. But rather, we're asked to pray for God to suddenly and instantaneously burst forth in all of his glory, so that his name will be hallowed, so that his kingdom will come, and that his will be done.

Now, let me give you some more historical and theological background to this amazing scene of Jesus coming into Jerusalem. First of all, we know that God chose Israel to be his covenant people, to be a holy nation, to be a holy kingdom. They were chosen to represent God among the nations as we read in Deuteronomy four. We are told that they were ultimately to bring blessing to all of the nations consistent with the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12. And also, they are to demonstrate God's great love and God's great faithfulness. But they disobeyed God, and they were enslaved by the nations. And what we see throughout Scripture is Israel is basically depicted as a microcosm of God's redemptive purposes and all of his elect. For example, if you go to Romans chapter nine, you will see the apostle Paul speaking of Israel's election. In chapter 10, you will read about Israel's defection. In chapter 11, you will read about Israel's salvation and eventual restoration. But for now, because Israel rejected her Messiah, they are currently experiencing a period of temporary and partial hardening as God saves many Gentiles. We read about this in, for example, Romans 11 and verse 25. But because God is faithful to his covenant promises, Israel's unbelief will one day be reversed, during the time of the day of the Lord, the coming day of the Lord. And God will restore them, God will save them when Christ returns, consistent with Zechariah's prophecy in Zechariah, chapter 10 and verse 12. And at that point, the Messianic kingdom will be established when the Lord returns. And Israel will enjoy the blessings of the kingdom. They will assume their role of leadership and service among the nations and those blessings of course, will be extended to Gentiles as well.

Now you will recall and here's some big picture perspective. Remember when the angel came to Mary? When she was to conceive a son that would be king. In Luke chapter one, verse 32, we read this, "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most and the Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." And certainly, throughout Jesus's life he proved himself to be the Son of God. From his miracles to his parables, he demonstrated that he indeed was the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy, who had come to officially and finally offer himself as the king of the Messianic Kingdom, an exact fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. An offer, however, that was conditioned upon Israel's national repentance. In fact, he was fully prepared to establish his earthly kingdom as the prophets predicted when he first came. We read about this, in Mark one and verse 15, Jesus said, "'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.'" So indeed, this announcement of the kingdom required Israel to make a decision, to repent, and to believe in who he was. Because we know that God's promises to Abraham had to be received by faith. But they refused, despite all of the miracles that they saw and experienced, and perhaps even benefited from; they rejected him. The rejection by the civil leaders and religious leaders was unmistakable. When they blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you will recall, in Mark 3:22, they said, that "'He is possessed by Beelzebul,' and 'He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons,'" and so forth. However, we know that, as in the realm of jurisprudence, a legal proffer, or in other words, an offer of proof, must be made. And so, an official offer had to be made to the nation of Israel as a whole, in order for them to determine their final decision of who he really was. This was Israel's time and her visitation to receive the king.

Now, many will argue that the kingdom of God that Jesus was offering was merely a spiritual kingdom, the rule of God in the hearts of men. And certainly, there's some merit to that. But such an announcement would have been silly to the people of that day because such a rule of God had always been recognized by them. That's not what the Old Testament prophets were prophesying. What Jesus was offering them, was God's mediatorial kingdom, on Earth, through the reign of the Messiah. But once again, while his promises cannot be abrogated, in other words, annulled, or rescinded, such a kingdom on earth was always conditioned upon regeneration, and repentance, resulting in faith and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So now Jesus comes to offer himself to Israel, as their promised Messiah, their promised king, who will establish the kingdom if they repent. And you will remember that prior to our Lord's entrance into Jerusalem, according to Luke 10, one, "The Lord appointed 70 others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come." And as we read that passage, we see that their mission was very simple. "'Every city that receives you,'" he said, "'heal those who are sick and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'" we read that in verses eight and nine of Luke 10. And then he said in verses 10, and 11, if they don't receive you, "'Go out into the streets and say, 'even the dust of your city which clings to our feet, wipe off and protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.'" So, everything that is happening here, in Jesus' final journey to Jerusalem, all that's recorded in the Gospels, is part of God's deliberate, purposeful, precise plan, which by the way, took probably around five months. And his plan is to present himself to Israel as the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy. And he's conducting himself once again as the public claimant to the messianic title.

Now, as we look at this, what I would call a royal entrance and false coronation, there are a number of circumstances that are worthy of our investigation to help us see how Jesus regarded this event as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, especially pertaining to the mediatorial kingdom upon the earth and the future nation of Israel; very important consideration. So let me give some of them to you. Number one, we must look at Jesus stage setting encounters and miracles. Now, some of this will be review, but it's important to keep it all kind of in context. To be sure, the messianic expectations were running high at this time of year. This was the Passover season. It was the time when the Jews are celebrating God's deliverance from the Egyptians that took place some 1400 years earlier. But this Passover was different because of what they had seen in Jesus, they had never seen anything like this. All of the miracles, healing of the sick, the blind, the deaf, lepers, raising the dead, absolutely astounding. And certainly, the raising of Lazarus from the dead was on the lips of virtually every person in the region. 1000s of pilgrims now are with Jesus, as he goes first through Jericho, and then eventually, ascends up to Mount Zion to Jerusalem. And many of these people are wanting not only to see Jesus, but they want to see Lazarus. I mean, wouldn't you? I want to see this guy that was raised from the dead, I understand he's with Him. We read about this in John 12 beginning in verse nine, "The large crowd of the Jews then learned that Jesus was there, and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead." Now catch this, "But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away, and were believing in Jesus." So that gives you a sense of what's going on. We have reason to believe that there were approximately 2 million Jews that are awaiting Jesus' entry in Jerusalem to the utter consternation of the religious leaders. Moreover, as Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem, remember, he encounters this rich young ruler. He demonstrates how that that kind of a person who is in love with material things will never enter the kingdom of God apart from divine intervention, he said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Then he went on to say, "but with God, all things are possible." And then we read next that he gives sight to two blind men, also there and Jericho. proving once again his deity, but also demonstrating the power of regenerating grace where he gives sight to the spiritually blind, as well as the physically blind. And then next, we see this amazing scenario with Zacchaeus that is essentially a juxtaposition of the most salient themes of those first two encounters, because he gives spiritual sight to a spiritually blind man who was fabulously wealthy and corrupt. And there we have an example of the camel going through the eye of the needle. What an amazing testimony, especially to his disciples that he's trying to instruct in preparing them for what is to come. And in the context of Zacchaeus' conversion, we know that Jesus preaches a sermon on a most important theme that ran absolutely contrary to all of the Jewish hopes and dreams, contrary to even what the disciples were thinking.

What he wanted to demonstrate to them is that he was not coming to conquer, but to seek and to save. Luke 19 and verse 10, Jesus says, "'For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.'" And that was the theme of the sermon that he gave there with Zacchaeus and the others that were listening. So, all of these miracles now are setting the stage for his regal entry into Jerusalem.

A second observation is Jesus stage setting parable in Luke 19. Bear in mind during this final season of Jesus ministry, he's going to describe the mystery form of the kingdom and how that that will assume all that will happen during the interregnum. An interregnum is just an interval between two successive periods; a time period where a king is not reigning, a kingdom doesn't have a leader. In this case, the interregnum will intervene between Jesus's death and his second coming, when he comes again as King of kings and Lord of lords. And his parable in Luke 19 is designed to prepare them for this interregnum. You will recall that in Luke 19, Jesus gives this parable of a noble man, referring to Christ, he travels to a distant country referring to Heaven, to receive a kingdom that is to receive official authority to reign and then he returns to rule over that kingdom. And we read in that parable that Jesus is saying that he's wanting to correct the erroneous assumption that they had, that the kingdom was going to appear immediately. Instead of appearing later on at a future time, after the nobleman's departure, after him receiving the authority and then returning as King--an interval of time that was unspecified, causing every generation to live in anticipation, you will recall that he describes two groups. He describes, first of all slaves, those that profess allegiance to him, those that are loyal subjects. And that represents those who profess to be faithful servants of Christ. Some are, some aren't, regardless of what they profess. And also he describes citizens that hated him, especially representing Israel, but also all who reject the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 14 of that passage we read, "'But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.'" And I might add, that this is what will begin to play out in the final week of Jesus ministry on earth, often called his Passion Week. And sadly, the multitudes that are shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David!" are soon going to turn on him and demonstrate their final rejection. In a few days Israel will scream, according to John 19:15, "'Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify him!'" Pilate said to them, 'Shall I crucify your King?' The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.'" And as we will see before the week is out, Israel will eventually be united in their repudiation of the nobleman's regal claim to be their king.

I might pause for a moment this is so typical of so many people that follow Christ today. The Jesus that they have concocted is not the true Jesus. Most people have come up with a Jesus, that's kind of the smiley face, God that winks at sin, that just kind of loves everybody, everybody is going to heaven. You can do anything you want. This is the Jesus of love. But they never understand that because of his holiness, he's also the Jesus of wrath, a Jesus of judgment. People don't want that. They want a false Messiah that came to make them happy, not holy. Kind of a genie in the bottle type of a thing that will do whatever they ask the genie to do. And certainly that's what the Jews wanted. They wanted a deliverer from Roman bondage. They wanted social justice, they wanted the end of poverty, the end of disease, they wanted the end of I don't know, poor self-esteem, they wanted no more unhappiness. They wanted, shall we say, a malleable Jesus, like the prosperity gospel Jesus, the one that you can manipulate, to give you stuff. Or they wanted, the leftist woke Jesus of the social justice gospel. And like the Jews, all of these people will reject the true Jesus.

Now to be sure, Jesus didn't meet the Jewish expectations. They wanted a conquering king; they did not want a suffering Savior. But Jesus, when he came, again said, "I came this time to seek and to save that which is lost," because only then can sinners enter the kingdom.

Now back to the parable. After receiving his kingdom authority from heaven, we know that the nobleman returns to earth over a realm of his subjects that are living in it, and the first regal action of the king now is to judges slaves who were entrusted with what he had given them in his absence. And he eventually executed judgment on both the disloyal slaves and the citizens that hated him. And of course, all of this parallels the eschatological prophecies that we read in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, especially as it relates to Israel's rejection of her Messiah, and the second coming of Christ. And I might also add that this is going to be a preview of all that will happen at the beginning of his Passion Week, because he's going to continue to expose Israel's hypocrisy. He's going to expose their apostasy by cleansing the temple, he is going to continue to do what he does so best and that is humiliate the Jewish leaders, embarrass them publicly, call them out. And in fact, what we're going to see is that for two days, he will rule in the temple precincts, answering the public charges and challenges against him. And he will pronounce the judgment of God on those who reject Him. The fickle crowd is going to turn against him, they will eventually be apoplectic with rage, and they will call for his crucifixion. I'm reminded of what Jesus said in John seven, seven, that "'The world hates Me because I testify of it, that it's deeds are evil.'" John one, verse 11, "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him." And Jesus will later promise them of coming judgment in Luke 19:44, "because you did not recognize the time of your visitation." And because of the rebellion, we know that the kingdom was temporarily withdrawn and postponed on Earth awaiting a future day.

And this brings us to a third circumstance that helps us understand what was going on as it relates to Old Testament prophecy, and the kingdom of God. Number three, we must look at Jesus' lament over Jerusalem. Luke 19:41, "When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it." The term wept, in the original language carries the idea of crying aloud profusely. saying, "'If you had known in this day.'" Let me pause there. This, as we will see from other passages in a moment, this is Israel's day, a precise day of opportunity that was prophesied by the prophet Daniel, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground, and your children within you. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.'" And of course, all of this came true in 70 AD with the Roman invasion. And tragically, Israel could not see as Jesus says, "'The things which make for peace.'" And because of that, God judged them. And now these things would be as he says, "hidden from your eyes." And the things that would make for peace, will be postponed until his second coming.

I'm always amazed when I read Bible prophecy. I'm just astounded at it. And there is no other religious book in the world that has prophecies because this is the only one written by God. Nobody else wants to write prophecies, and they don't come true and you look like an idiot, right? But this is so astounding. In fact, if you read Jesus' Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, and 25. And what we have here in Luke 19:41 through 44, we see that Jesus gives these incredibly detailed descriptions of what is going to happen. I mean, this isn't just vague things. This is a detailed description. And I was reading one scholar by the name of Pearson, he identified 25 distinct predictions in that context of Scripture. And he says, "And on the laws of compound probability, the chance of all meeting in one fulfilling event is one in 20 million." And my friend, David Larson, who has now gone home to be with the Lord, said this, "Comparing the predictions with the historical fulfillment, as described in Josephus, and an eyewitness, Antacitus, we cannot but agree with Eusebius. If anyone compares the words of our Savior with the accounts of the historian, how can anyone fail to wonder and to admit the foreknowledge and prophecy of our Savior were truly divine and marvelously strange." And then Larson concludes, "The words of Jesus spoken in another context come to mind." Then he quotes John 14:29. "I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe."

Let me give you another fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, in the context of all that's happening in his regal entry. This has to do, number four, with Jesus perfectly timed arrival into Jerusalem. Now a little bit of background. Since according to John 12, Jesus was at Bethany quote, "six days before the Passover," which was probably on Saturday, on Shabbat. It was on the next day, which would be Sunday, the Jewish crowds came to see Jesus. And according to John 12, Jesus, quote, "and Lazarus whom he raised from the dead." So when we look at John 12, verse 12, we read, "On the next day, the great multitude who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him and began to cry out 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.'" So when you look at this, you see that it is more likely that it was on Monday, not traditional Palm Sunday, after Jesus had been in Bethany with Lazarus, that he traveled through Bethpage making his way through the eastern gate of Jerusalem. And I might also add that a Monday triumphal entry is also very important. Because in Exodus chapter 12, verses two through six, we read that, according to the Mosaic Law, sacrificial lambs, for Passover had to be selected on the 10th day of the first month. They would select the lamb and then they would take the lamb into their home. And they would love the little lamb until the time for the sacrifice on the 14th. And only a Monday triumphal entry would fulfill this important symbolism. Because Jesus, the year Jesus was crucified, the 10th of Nissan was on Monday, of the Passover week. And this would allow, and I hope you see the symbolism, this would allow the Jewish people to nationally select Jesus as the Lamb, to take them unto themselves as the Passover lamb, to take them into their hearts, in their home symbolically, and to love Him. And yet, because of their sinfulness, to sacrifice him on Friday, the 14th of Nissan. Isn't it astonishing? I mean, think about this, the exact day of the king's presentation was not something random, but one determined, one that was decreed in eternity past by a sovereign God, who not only knows the end from the beginning, but has ordained the end from the beginning. In fact, 600 years before the Holy Spirit revealed to the prophet Daniel the precise date that this would happen, though he didn't fully understand what he was writing down. Daniel 9:25, "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks." This is referring to weeks of years, "heptads." 69 weeks of prophetic years, consisting of 360 days each add up to 173,880 days. So when we do the math, which I'm not going to take time to go through all of it, what you have is 483 years after the Persian Artaxerxes' decree to rebuild Jerusalem, which happened in 445 BC, the first advent of Messiah would be fulfilled precisely, at the triumphal entry on the 10th of Nissan, AD 30. And it was precisely on that day that our Lord rode into Jerusalem as the messianic king of Israel. This is when the Jewish people took in their Passover lamb, and they loved him for a while, until the time of the sacrifice on the 14th, consistent with Mosaic Law. You get the idea that God is not capricious in what he does? I might add, as a footnote, as we look at these judgments that Daniel describes, 69 weeks of years have been fulfilled, but there are 70 total. So there's one more week of years yet to be fulfilled. We typically call that Daniel's 70th week, and it refers to the pre-kingdom tribulation judgments right before our Lord returns. And during that time, the Antichrist will rule and we're seeing that being, the way for all of that, being paved right now, in our culture and in our world. These are days pertaining to the days of the Antichrist, as Daniel will go on to prophesy in verse 27. He adds this, "And he will make a firm covenant," referring to the Antichrist, "with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week," in other words, after three and a half years, "he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations, will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate."

Let me give you a fifth fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning the kingdom and the future of the nation Israel, in the context of what's happening here with Jesus regal entry into Jerusalem. And that has to do with Jesus prophecy, fulfilling mount. Now as a old horseman, this is always fascinating to me, and I'm not going to get into all of the details this time, I'll get into it at another time, but this is an miraculous thing. In Mark 11, two we read, Jesus, "said to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here.'" Beginning of verse seven, he says that "They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it." By the way, those are details, if you understand anything about horses, you know that that's not going to happen, unless a miracle happens. And the details of that are very, very important for us to see. Because dear friends this is a preview of millennial blessing in the animal kingdom. And it says, "And many spread their coats in the road, and other spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. Those who went in front of those who followed were shouting: 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David; Hosanna, in the highest!'" And Matthew records this in chapter 21, verse four, "This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet." And here's the prophecy: "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of the beast of burden.'" Zechariah nine nine is where he got that. Isn't it amazing how Jesus was careful to fulfill every single detail of the predictions of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem as the king of Israel? And to know that about 550 years before this happened, the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Zechariah to pen these words and Zechariah nine nine. A detailed description of the king's mount is foretold. And certainly this reveals the humility of the king and the honor that would mark the event. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph," this is Zachariah nine nine, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt the foal of a donkey."

I might also add that this is a messianic millennial prophecy that's also recorded in Genesis, chapter 49 and verse 11, spoken some 1859 years BC. You see the entire prophecy of all that Zechariah and all the prophets said, all of those things were fulfilled literally. In fact, I want to pause here. This is very important. It's a bit technical, but I find it very important to note. Matthew only quotes Zechariah nine, nine. He stops there. He doesn't quote verse 10. He only quotes verse nine, pertaining to the Messiah's entry into Jerusalem and his lowly mount. He mentions nothing about the next verse that speaks about the promises pertaining to the Messiah's rule and reign and bringing peace upon the earth. The very next verse says, "I will cut off," cut off by the way, in the original language carries the idea of a violent eradication of war, a termination of these things, "I will cut off," I will completely terminate, "the chariot from Ephraim," another word for Israel, "and the horse from Jerusalem; and the bow of war will be cut off. And he will speak peace to the nations; and His dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." Why didn't Matthew mention any of that? Well, the answer is simple. Because the king at that point, did not come to establish his kingdom and occupy his messianic throne and rule at that time. What verse 10 is speaking about is the peace that will exist during the kingdom age. Alva J. McClain says quote, "If the colt ridden by the king, upon his arrival had to be literal," and we know that it was, "so also," he goes on to say, "must the warfare be literal, which will be abolished when he reigns." All right? He goes on to say, "If Matthew had believed in a present Messianic reign, ushered in by the first coming of the King, here would have been the time and place to cite, in full, the details of Zechariah, nine, nine through 10." But he says, "Not a word about the wondrous things of verse 10." Well, of course, verse 10 is going to happen, but it didn't happen when Jesus came the first time, it will happen when he comes the second time. And I marvel at all this. Jesus' humble entry into Jerusalem, was really a precursor to his second coming when he will come riding on a white horse as its described in Revelation 19:11, when he will come to conquer his enemies, and usher in peace and prosperity, all consistent with his is Abrahamic and Davidic, and New Covenant promises.

Now notice what else Jesus did to demonstrate that he indeed was the messianic king of Israel, according to Old Testament prophecy. And this is my sixth point in this little outline. And here we look at Jesus permitting the public to proclaim his regal person, Jesus permitting the public to proclaim his regal person. This is really interesting. First of all, notice all four gospels describe how the people give full throated praise to Jesus as the Messiah. When he comes in, again, Mark 11, at the end of verse nine, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the coming Kingdom of our David, of our father David; Hosanna, in the highest!" Matthew chapter 21, verse eight, "Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds were going ahead of Him, and those who followed were shouting, 'Hosanna, to the son of David;" By the way, the "Son of David” was a common messianic title. They knew exactly who he was and claimed to be. "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!" And I might add that this was taken from Psalm 118 verse 26, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." That by the way, Psalm 118, is the sixth and final psalm of the Egyptian Hallel sung before and after the Passover meal in the Jewish community. And it was also sung at the Last Supper by Jesus and his disciples. So you see how all of these intricacies fit together precisely, to accomplish God's plan. Luke 19 verse 38, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" John 12, verse 12, "A large crowd who had come to the feast," goes on to say, "took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.'"

I might add that to the idea of spreading your garments in the road for a coming King was something that they would do. And it basically denoted your willingness to be in total submission to the king and let him just kind of march over you. So that's what they were doing here. And the waving of the palm branches was customary when welcoming an approaching monarch. Moreover, the waving of the palm branches was part of the Feast of Tabernacles. And this all fits in to the whole theme of what's happening here. That was a seven-day celebration commemorating the deliverance and the protection and the provision that God gave the Israelites during the wilderness wanderings of the Exodus. And it also was a testimony to God's blessing to them in the harvest time in the autumn, according to Leviticus 23:39 through 40. And I might also add that that will be celebrated during the Millennial Kingdom, according to Zechariah 14:16. So the people understood the Regal meaning of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem. But here's what's fascinating. Prior to this scenario, the Lord Jesus would not allow any public acclamation of his Messiahship.

Boy, there's a big shift here, what is going on? You remember Matthew 16:20, "Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ." Any public proclamation of Him as Messiah would really upset everything that he's trying to do, because then at that point, not only would they lose all attention to his gospel message, but also they're going to want to make him king right then and there. You see, people want free stuff. That's part of our human nature. I mean, be honest, we all want free stuff. And certainly, then they wanted free stuff. And that's what they saw with Jesus. You know, I'm not interested about this, you know, all this forgiveness of sin, I'm good. You know I keep the law. I mean, that's the idea. I'm a good person. I'm a child of Abraham, or whatever. People think that way today. I mean, people want reward without responsibility, right? And by the way, politicians have played this game for years, to get people reward without responsibility. This is how they stay in power. I mean, this has been the whole modus operandi of the Democratic Party for years and years and years; to offer people free stuff, reward without responsibility, so that they can stay in power. That's why we're $33 trillion in debt and we don't have a border; to let more and more people come in to vote them into office. So I mean, this is nothing new. And that's what was going on with those people.

You see if I can put it very clearly, man's lust for the fleeting pleasures of life will utterly eclipse any thought of needing to be reconciled to a holy God. Now bear in mind prior to this massive public ovation of his Messiah ship, Jesus just allowed his miraculous works and the prophetic scriptures and his teaching to give witness to him, but he would not allow public acclamation. You will recall in John six and verse 15, we read, "So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone." He didn't want that. And this was also why Jesus removed himself from the large cities and went into the desert regions, especially removed himself from Jerusalem in order to conduct his ministry, but now--now is the perfect time. This is the time. Now he allows the multitudes to shout the truth of who he is, with all of their might. Luke 19:38, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" But then notice what happens. "Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, rebuke Your disciples!' But Jesus answered, 'I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!'"

I might also add that Jesus is allowing this for another reason. You see Israel's public acknowledgement and praise of his royal credentials would later be used against them when they rejected him. Isn't it amazing what began with praise very quickly deteriorated into condemnation. My dear friends, how quickly sinful men and women will turn against the true Christ, once they understand that he is not the idol that they have created him to be. So everything Jesus did, was orchestrated to reach the high point of this day of his triumphal entry, a day of Messianic presentation foretold by the Old Testament prophets, predicting the manner, the moment, the meaning of the king's final offer.

And following this, as we are going to see, he will speak a new series of parables, once he's in Jerusalem; parables about the kingdom. He will do battle with the religious elite one last time and humiliate them and then he is going to state his last lament, and judgment upon all, who reject Him. So dear friends, I hope with this overview, you can begin to see the amazing realities historically, theologically that's going on here, in this incredible scene. And I would challenge you to reflect upon this passage, because it encompasses all that Christ has done and will do. And remember this, that the one who came in humility, the lowly Messiah, the suffering servant, who offered Himself as the Lamb of God, is going to return again one day in power and great glory. And he will conquer his enemies. He will judge the nations, he will judge the wicked, all those that mock at him today--our King is coming again and he will establish his kingdom. My how I long for that day--how I long for that day, to think that he came first in obscurity, but he will come again in dazzling clarity. He said in Matthew 24:27, "'For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.'" Nobody will miss it the next time he comes. He came the first time in humility, the second time, he's coming in glory. He came the first time to seek and to save--he will come again to judge the nations. He came the first time as a lamb, but he will come again as the Lion of Judah. He came the first time and he opened not his mouth, but he will return, as we read in Revelation 19:15, "and from His mouth comes a sharp sword ao that with it, He may strike down the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fear the wrath of God, the Almighty."

Dear friend, if you have trusted in Christ as your only hope of salvation, you don't have to fear any of this. But if you haven't, you need to be absolutely terrified. Because the day is coming, when you will have to face the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will either do so in triumph or in terror. The good news is the gospel--that God has provided a way for each one of us as sinful people to be reconciled to Him as a holy God by placing our faith in our substitute, who paid the penalty for our sin in his body on the cross. And if you reject that, and you mock at that, one day you will experience the wrath of the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is the judge of heaven and earth. So let's rejoice in all that is ours in Christ, amen? And celebrate what he has done, is doing and will do. Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for the power of your word. It brings such clarity to our understanding of all that we've seen historically, and it gives us such hope in what is yet future. So I pray once again, that you will move upon the heart of anyone that does not know you as Savior. Especially religious people who have played a religious game but they're Christian in name only. Lord, I pray that you will save them by your grace. And when you cause all of us who know and love you to live in light of your coming glory and we ask it for Jesus sake. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Luke's Gospel? Chapter 19; we will be looking at verses 11 through 27. In what will actually be a two-part series on the subject: Kingdom Delay and Future Rewards. May I remind you that we have been in Mark's gospel, but we're taking a little detour in order to maintain both the chronological and thematic flow of Jesus final journey to Jerusalem; his final journey. The leaders of Israel have already officially rejected Him, they are seeking to kill him but now he is going to present himself to basically all of Israel at the Passover feast in Jerusalem. And of course, all of this is leading up to what we call the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. So he's traveling with his disciples and with his pilgrims, and going to the Passover, where he will offer himself as the Lamb of God. And a couple of the incidences that occurred in that trip are not included in Mark's gospel so I wanted to jump over to Luke's gospel, so that you understand the flow.

Now, by way of review, remember that previously, he has encountered a rich, young synagogue ruler. And he has demonstrated through that man's rejection of Christ, that a rich man has a very difficult time entering into the kingdom apart from divine intervention. In fact, Jesus said, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And they asked, well, who can be saved? And he basically said that, apart from me, nobody can but with God, all things are possible. And then next, we read that He gives sight to some blind men, not only proving his deity, and by the way, this also happened in the region of Jericho, the same region. But this also demonstrated the miracle of regeneration where God gives sight to the spiritually blind. And then, as we studied last week, there was really a juxtaposition between those two incidences when Jesus dealt with another rich man, a rich tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus, who was also spiritually blind. And there we have a picture of God not only giving spiritual sight, to a man that was spiritually blind, but there you might say, we see the camel going through the eye of the needle, by the power of God. And in the context of Zacchaeus' conversion where Jesus is over at his house, others are watching, and so forth, Jesus preaches a sermon that is very important, one that certainly ran contrary to the hopes of the Jewish people. They were hoping that the Messiah had come and he was about to destroy Rome and establish the kingdom that has been promised all through the Old Testament; that he would be the conquering Messiah. But instead, we read that Jesus in Luke 19 and verse 10, is speaking about "the Son of Man who has come to seek and to save that which was lost." And so that was a sermon. We don't have all of the details of all that he said, but it's in the context of that sermon, that we come to verse 11, in Luke 19. "While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they suppose that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. So He said, 'A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then return. And he called 10 of his slaves and gave them 10 minas and said to them, 'do business with us until I come back.' But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.' When he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that the slaves to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know what business they had done. The first appeared saying, 'Master, your mina has made 10 minas more.' And he said to him, 'Well done good slave. Because you have been faithful in a very little thing you were to be in authority over 10 cities.' The second came saying, 'Your mina, master, has made five minas.' And he said to him also, 'And you are to be over five cities.' Another came saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I kept but put away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.' He said to him, By your own words, I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money in the bank and having come, I would have collected it with interest?' Then he said to the bystanders, 'Take the mina away from him, and give it to the one who has the 10 minas.' And they said to Him, 'Master, he has 10 minas already.' I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slayed them in my presence.'"

Now there is much historical as well as theological understanding that we have to have in order to clearly see what Jesus is saying in this amazing parable and Lord willing, this parable will be something that will clarify perhaps some theological issues for you, certainly as it relates to eschatology, but it is one that can bring conviction and encouragement, and certainly instruction. And in a world that is rapidly descending into an abyss of evil things that are threatening our livelihoods, our families, even our church, isn't it wonderful to have the word of God, the truth, so that we know how to live? And we know how the story ends up, right? We know that in the end, Jesus will reign supreme. And certainly the goal of my exposition to you this morning, besides helping you just to understand the text, is to apply it in such a way that you will have a clearer understanding of eschatology, the study of end times. And also based upon that, be all the more excited about the fact that Jesus is coming again. I mean, we are a second coming church, we long to see the Lord come and we know according to First John three that, that when he comes, "we shall be like Him, we will be able to see Him as He is." And we are told that everyone who has this hope, fixed on him, purifies himself, even as He is pure. And so that's what we want as we examine this

Now, this idea of a nobleman receiving authority to rule a kingdom was not something foreign to them, it would be to us in our culture, but it was not to them. They were familiar with noblemen going to a far country to receive a kingdom. This happened, for example, with Herod the Great, who had to go to Rome to receive his kingdom from Caesar. At his death in his will he divided his kingdom into into three regions to be ruled by his three sons, and all of them had to make their way to Rome to claim and receive their kingly authority to reign. So they were they were accustomed with this, but Jesus' parable especially resembles the historical account of Herod Archelaus, a ruler despised by the Jews. His father, Herod the Great, along with the army, proclaimed him to be leader prior to receiving the right to reign from Caesar in Rome. And the Jewish historian, Josephus, describes the wickedness of this ruler. I won't go into the details, but he was an evil, evil man. In fact, he slew 3000 of his Jewish subjects at Passover. So the Jewish people hated him. And later when Archelaus traveled to Rome, a deputation of Jews who contested his promotion, followed after him. And they successfully persuaded Caesar to only allow him to rule over half of his father's kingdom, and only with the status of ethnarch, not the status of King. And ethnarch was another word for a governor. And he could become king if he lived up to the kingly traits that were necessary, but he never proved himself worthy. So that's the background here.

And also, it's, it's fascinating to me that the story of Archelaus, according to Josephus, all of that happened primarily in that region of Jericho, because Archelaus built a complex aqueduct system that brought water to that whole 14-mile valley right there in Jericho. And that's where this parable was told. And he also built a magnificent palace in Jericho, probably one of his summer homes. So you can see some of the parallels here between that situation, and the story that Jesus tells in his parable. However, I want to caution you, you don't ever want to press the allegory and a parable too far and try to make it fit some historical context. But there is a loose connection here. And it was, it's certainly important for us to see this because it will help us understand the lens through which the Jewish people would have heard what Jesus was saying.

Now I want to offer some broad observations about this parable. Number one, notice the timing. The Passover season was a reminder of God's deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians. And so messianic expectations would always run high during the Passover season, hoping that another deliverance would occur. And certainly they were really excited because of this man, Jesus of Nazareth. They had seen what he could do, they had witnessed his miracles, some of them had even been ones that experienced his miracles.

Secondly, no one, I want you to think about this, no one believed that the kingdom here was some kind of just merely a spiritual kingdom that already existed. Verse 11, "They suppose that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately." Obviously, this is reference to the kingdom of Old Testament prophecy. And also they had no understanding that Jesus came first to seek and to save; they wanted a Messiah that would search and destroy.

Thirdly, no one believed that Israel, as some people believe today, would be permanently disenfranchised and replaced by a new entity called the church. And to be sure, no one believed that the physical and the material blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic and new covenants would somehow become nothing more than mere spiritual blessings to the church. Each of those covenants contain both spiritual as well as physical promises. And both of them coincided with one another, they existed together. In fact, if you go to Deuteronomy 30, verses one through 10, you will see that there are promises both for regeneration, which is the spiritual blessings that God would give to his people, and prosperity in the land, referring to the physical blessings.

Fourthly, the purpose of the parable, as we look at just a broad picture of what Jesus is saying, the purpose of the parable was to correct the erroneous supposition that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately, instead of appearing at a future time; after the nobleman his departure to gain authority, and then to return as king. Now, going from kind of the macro to a little bit more of the micro, I want you to notice some other details of this parable. And again, this will be with limited commentary, we will take up more of that, the next time we are together in part two.

Number one, the nobleman in verse 12, represents Christ who is not reigning, but rather he is going to travel to a quote, "distant country," referring to Heaven, to, quote, "receive a kingdom," in other words, to receive official authority to reign. And then after that, he returns to rule over that kingdom.

Secondly, with respect to the distant country, it must refer to heaven because Jesus' authority is linked to his resurrection and his ascension as we look at the scriptures. For example, in Matthew 28, in verse 18, Jesus said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven, and on earth." Let me give you some examples of this that we see in Scripture. You will recall the four beasts of Daniel seven, that pictures the Gentile kingdoms that will reign upon the earth, rule the earth, until they are destroyed, ultimately, by the Messiah who will come from heaven after receiving dominion, glory and a kingdom from God, the Father, let me read that to you, Daniel seven, beginning in verse 13, "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, what like a son of man was coming. And he came up to the Ancient of Days, and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed."

Now, we also see the distant city, referring to heaven or the distant country, referring to heaven, in the tribulation passages that we read in Matthew 24, Jesus describes his second coming in verse 30, and following, "'And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other.'"

Christ's earthly kingdom follows a heavenly scene, as well, after the Messiah has been at the right hand of God. We see that in Psalm 110 beginning in verse one, "The Lord says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.' The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, 'Rule in the midst of Your enemies.' Likewise, in Revelation five, verses four through eight, Jesus describes how he will receive a scroll from the right hand of the Father. And in that scrolls contain the title deed to the earth and the divine judgments that will be meted out upon the ungodly. Those pre kingdom judgments during the time of the tribulation, meted out upon those who reject Christ and in that heavenly scene, the saints and the angels will sing, Revelation five four, 'Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain and purchase for God with Your blood men, from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth," in verses nine and 10. Also in Acts three verse 21, we read, heaven must receive Jesus, "until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time." So there you get a clear understanding of the nobleman going into heaven. He's receiving authority to be able to come back and to reign.

A third detail as we look at the parable, will you notice that Jesus describes essentially two classes of people, slaves that profess allegiance to the nobleman. In other words, loyal subjects. They are even said to be, quote, "his," that is Christ, in verses 13 and 14. And these, of course, represent all who profess Christ, to profess to be faithful servants of Christ. And as we will see, some truly were, and others truly were not. And then the second group of people are the citizens that hated him. This is primarily a reference to Israel, but it extends to all who hate Christ. And we know that Israel was united and their repudiation of the nobleman’s regal claim to be their Messiah King. Verse 14 again, "But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.'" And we know that in a few days, they would scream, in John 19 verse 15, "'Away with Him, away with Him, crucify him!' Pilate said to them, 'Shall I crucify your King?' And the chief priests answered, 'We have no king, but Caesar.'"

Fourthly, another detail of the parable, will you notice, that he gives an equal amount of money, 10 minas, which will be about three months wages, to each of the 10 slaves. And he commands each of them to, quote, "do business with us until I come back." And of course, a good and faithful steward would manage an estate well, and they would do something with the funds that were entrusted to them, something that would be profitable, something that would be productive, to make a profit on behalf of the nobleman. Will you also notice that each one of them accepted the responsibility. And we know that some of them were loyal, some of them were not. But the loyal ones represent those faithful slaves of Christ, true believers, those who love Christ and want to serve Him, those faithful in proclaiming and living out the gospel of Christ, that they have received so freely. Those that are faithful, and fulfilling the Great Commission, to go and to make disciples and to baptize and to teach others all that Christ is commanded. And the implication is that when the nobleman returns as king, every slave will have to give an account for what he has done with what he was given and be rewarded or punished accordingly.

A fifth detail; after receiving his kingdom authority from heaven, we see that the nobleman returns to a realm. You really can't have a kingdom apart from a realm; apart from a territory, apart from a domain with subjects living in that domain. And this represents Christ's second coming when he returns again in power and great glory as King of kings and Lord of lords and establishes his millennial earthly kingdom that will last for 1000 years, as we're told in Revelation 20. I might add that the term "kingdom" in Hebrew, which is "malku", and "basileia," the word in Greek, includes three things if you look at their biblical usage, you will always see that there is a ruler that has power and authority. Secondly, there is a realm over which the ruler reigns. And then of course, there is rulership. The Kingdom involves the exercise of ruling. Now we get a sense of this in Revelation chapter one, at the very beginning of that magnificent book, beginning in verse four, "Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood, and he has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen." Once again, undeniable parallels of what Jesus is saying in this parable in Luke 19.

Another detail, will you notice, that the king's first regal action, when he comes to take his kingdom, is to judge his slaves who were entrusted with his money in his absence, and reward them according to their faithfulness or judge them. And of course, this represents the eternal rewards for believers, and of course, judgment for unbelievers. I'll talk more about that in a moment. But the application is that every believer should be faithful and making use of the gifts that God has given you; make full use of the opportunities that God has given you, and the resources that God has given you. And of course, those all vary. God doesn't expect us to be successful, he wants us to be faithful. And that's the point.

A seventh detail is that the reward for faithful stewardship of those gifts, those opportunities and resources given, focuses primarily on the authority to reign with the king over a specific region called cities. Later on, in Luke's gospel in chapter 22, beginning in verse 28, Jesus is speaking to his apostles here, he says, "'You are those who have stood by Me and My trials; and just as My father has granted Ma kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.'" Now, of course, this ruling and reigning with the king extends to all believers in his kingdom. First Corinthians six two Paul says, "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?" And Second Timothy 2:12, "If we endure, we also will reign with Him." Revelation two beginning in verse 26, "He who overcomes and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him, I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter and brokens are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My father." Revelation five and verse 10, "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth."

Number eight, as we look at the details, to give you this picture of what Jesus is saying; when the nobleman returns as king, he is also going to execute judgment on both his disloyal slaves, those that profess to be his loyal servants, but weren't, referring to phony Christians, as well as the citizens that hated him. So you have two groups represented here that he is going to judge, the phony pretend Christians who have no love for Christ; it's all show. They're all sizzle and no steak. Churches are filled with them. In fact, we have so called churches today that do nothing more than cater to them. They entertain the goats. They do not shepherd the sheep. And then that judgment will also extend to all of Israel, that will be Daniel's 70th week of judgment during the time of the tribulation, as well as all other unbelievers who reject his sovereign authority to reign over them.

And then number nine, the interval of time think about this, the interval of time between the nobleman's departure and return as king, is unspecified. We don't know how long that will be. And certainly the message is clear, this requires every generation to be watchful. So, there you have a general summary of our Lord's parable. And now I want to examine it more carefully, look into some of the great truths that are there. And we will do so under three headings, we're just going to do the first one here for a few more minutes. Since we have a baptism today, I'm abbreviating all of this, we're gonna look at what the Lord says under three headings, number one, enemies of the king, number two loyal subjects of the king, and number three, disloyal subjects of the king.

So number one, let's look at enemies of the king, verse 14, once again, "'But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.'" Likewise in verse 27, "But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.'" Now, unlike the historical drama of Archelaus, who was a wicked butcher, there is absolutely nothing about Jesus that indicates that the nobleman, that he's describing to be himself, that this nobleman did anything to anyone to warrant such hatred. And certainly this would apply to the Lord Jesus. The same was true of Israel's hatred of Jesus. I mean, he was compassionate, he was kind, they marveled at his teaching. He healed disease, everywhere he went, he fed them, he raised the dead. And we read in John 15, beginning of verse 24. Jesus saying, "They have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, 'They hated me, without a cause.'" And we read about this in Psalm 69. In that context, David is engulfed in the deep waters of despair and, and he's pleading with God to save him, to rescue him. And in that context, he portrays the reproach that he is experiencing from his enemies. And in verse four of Psalm 69, he says this, "Those who hate me without a cause, are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies. What I did not steal, I then have to restore." Which was probably a proverb depicting injustice that they used in that day. Similarly, in Psalm 35, verse 19, we read, "Do not let those who are wrongfully my enemies rejoice over me; nor let those who hate me without cause wink, maliciously." So the question comes up, and rightfully so, why would Israel hate Jesus so much? Moreover, let's extend it to the rest of the world. Why does the world hate Jesus like they do? Why do they hate Christ? Well, Jesus answers that in John seven and verse seven. There we read his words, "'The world hates me, because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.'" That's why they hated Christ. That's why they hate him today. I mean, if we're all honest, nobody likes being told that your deeds are evil, right? We don't like to fess up to anything. And all we have to do is look at our culture. I mean, people hate being exposed. As I was reading the headlines, even this last last week, our government and so many other people, they just don't want to admit they're wrong about anything. I've been reading about from these Nobel winners and so many great scientists, they are absolutely disproving this whole manmade global warming thing. It's just embarrassing. I mean, the whole thing has been a hoax. But you're not going to hear anybody say, you know, boy, we were wrong. You know, Al Gore is not going to say yeah, you know what, we really blew it in that movie. I mean, we missed some things. Sorry, folks, and the trillions of dollars that we have spent to pull this thing off that we were wrong. We need to back off. You're not going to hear that, people don't like to be exposed. They've proven now that these COVID lockdowns and the masking and the vaccine safety and its ability to do...all of those things were grossly exaggerated. So much of it's wrong but you're not going to hear anybody saying boy, yeah, you know, we really blew it here. The data is overwhelming that we made a mistake, whether it's abortion, whether it's the LGBTQ perversions, whether it's any of the woke stuff, nobody is going to say, my as we look at this thing playing out, it is an absolute disaster, we are wrong. So naturally, when Jesus comes along, or any preacher of the gospel, and says, Thus saith the Lord, and people in their heart are saying, no, no, they're gonna hate that message. But we need to remember that because of Adam's sin, the entire human race was plunged into sin. Romans five and verse 12. Every individual is conceived in a state of sin, a state of depravity, they're spiritually blind, they're spiritually dead. And apart from regenerating grace, as we look at Scripture, all that man is and all that man does is fundamentally offensive to a holy God. We're in desperate need of something beyond ourselves, not just forgiveness, but a righteousness that is not our own. That can only come through faith in Christ. But people don't want to hear that. The unsaved have no fear of God. Scripture says that they resent God's authority. They're at enmity with God. They walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, and on and on it goes. You will recall what Jesus told the Pharisees, John 8:44, that "You serve your father, the devil." I mean, that's not exactly a seeker sensitive, opening, right? He said, "'You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.'" And we know according to First John, five 19, that "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." And Second Corinthians four and verse four, we read that "The god of this world," referring to Satan, "has blinded the minds of the unbelieving." So unbelievers believe their own lies. They're hopelessly biased in their own favor. They don't want to hear from Jesus. They don't want to hear from the Word of God. So they conjure up their own phony religions create false gods. I was talking with some dear friends this last week who are familiar with what's going on in the military. And they told me that Odinism is really on the rise with a lot of military people. Odinism is a pre-Christian, pagan, polytheistic religion, involving the worship of the Norse and Germanic gods, especially Odin, who is the chief god. Folks, Satan doesn't care what you believe, as long as this is lie, right? And he's got a smorgasbord out there. You can choose whatever you want but people hate the truth. It's part of man's nature. And Jesus especially exposed all of that in apostate Judaism of the first century, where they had developed their own works righteousness system to somehow impress God, so that he would save them. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy. And moreover, he did not fit into their idea of what a Messiah should be. I mean, they, they basically wanted a, I don't know, a Barack Obama, they wanted somebody that was going to give them free stuff, right? And bring in some kind of a utopia, and of course, many other politicians, and, you know, they all kind of try to sell the same thing. And for the most part, we know that America hates biblical Christianity. In fact, I've written a book on that "Why America Hates Biblical Christianity." And fundamentally at the very core, it's because there are two evils in the world. Those evils are human depravity, and satanic deception. And they work together, so that when we hear the truth about who we are and what we need with respect to the Gospel, our immediate knee jerk response is one of disbelief and anger. So like the citizens in Jesus parable, Israel hated Jesus, and they were united in their rejection of his messianic claims. We do not want this man to reign over us. We have no king, but Caesar. And it's fascinating that despite their rejection of Jesus, both Israel and the whole world, you must understand, are ultimately under his sovereign authority. And for this reason, we are called citizens. You see, Jesus created the world. So many passages speak to that. Especially John one and verse three. So everyone is under his authority. And dear friends, please hear this. One day, each one of us will stand before Jesus, actually, we will bow before Jesus. And we will either do that in terror or we will do it in triumph. Philippians two, beginning in verse nine, the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Scripture says, "God highly exalted Him," referring to Jesus, "and bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Ah, but these enemies of mine in the parable, Jesus says those "who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here, and slay them in my presence." What a chilling prediction. Make no mistake, dear friends, Jesus has the authority to judge his subjects, as well as to slay them. With respect to his authority, to judge, may I remind you of what Jesus said in Matthew 25, beginning in verse 31, "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne, all the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'" And in verse 41, he says, "'Then He will also say to those on his left, 'Depart from me accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.'" In verse 46, we read, "'These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.'" And I must also add, that when the King returns, He has promised to slay his enemies. Let me read this to you out of Revelation 19, beginning in verse 11, and with this, we will close this morning, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True. And in righteousness, He judges and wages war, His eyes are a flame of fire and on His head are many diadems; and he has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed and fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it, He may strike down the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron. And He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty, and on His robe and on His thigh, He has a name written, 'KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.' Then I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in mid heaven, 'Come assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings in the flesh of commanders in the flesh, of mighty man and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them in the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves and small and great.' And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who worshipped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword, which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh." There we have a picture of the battle of Armageddon. And yet there will be another judgment, the great white throne judgment where the Lord will cast away all of those who have rejected him. Yes, dear friends, the earthly kingdom has been delayed, but it has not been forfeited. The Lord our God is going to return and he is going to reward those who love and serve Him. And He will judge and slay those who don't. You say, well, yeah, I mean, this is what some people believe. But I don't believe that. Well, I understand. Only the Spirit of God can soften your heart to the truth. But may I remind you that there are over 300 prophecies in the Bible that have been fulfilled precisely as they were predicted, in fact, 27 prophecies were fulfilled on the day that Jesus died. If you know anything about statistics, you know that there is a very high probability. In fact, on the basis of the Word of God, there is an absolute certainty that what God has promised, will come to pass. So I plead with you if you don't know Christ, oh, dear friend, today is the day of salvation, humble yourself before Him. Trust in him as the only hope of your salvation, and for those of us who know and love him, let's celebrate Amen? Our king is coming, I will be so glad to get away from all of this. I told you how much I hate heat, I hate the world way more than I hate the heat, right? And I know you do, too. We have so much to celebrate. And we're going to do that here in a few minutes as we celebrate what Christ has done in the lives of three young women. Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father, we thank You for Your Word that brings such clarity to this chaotic world. Truly, it is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path. I pray that you will bless each of us that know and love you. May we serve you all the more until that day, when we see you face to face. And Lord, for those that do not know you, especially those that pretend to know you, Oh, Lord, do your work of grace in their heart. Humble them that they might be saved. I ask in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.

This morning, I invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Luke's gospel chapter 19. We've been going through Mark's gospel verse by verse, and we will return and finish that. But this morning, I want to examine the story of Zacchaeus that we find in Luke 19, verses one through 10. And the reason for this, that you will understand more as we go along, is primarily because chronologically, this is the next thing that happened in Jesus' trip to Jerusalem. Moreover, as we will see, the story of Zacchaeus is a way of merging some of the other great themes that Jesus has been dealing with in some of his other encounters.

Now, let me remind you before I read the text that Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem the final time, to present himself as the Messiah, of Old Testament prophecy. He is traveling with his disciples and there is a large group of pilgrims going with him; he has orchestrated all of this. And they are going to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, where he will present himself ultimately, as the Passover lamb, that will take away the sins of all who believe in Him. Now bear in mind, his focus in this last journey is not only to lay claim to the Messianic mantle, but also to instruct his disciples. They needed a lot of instruction. Remember, they are still bickering over who's going to be first in the kingdom, because they're convinced that he's going to do away with Rome and establish the kingdom. Now, you will remember that Jesus has previously encountered a rich young synagogue ruler, who loved himself more than Christ who would not part with his wealth, because his wealth afforded him the opportunity to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of power and prestige in his life. And for this reason, in Mark's gospel, we read that, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And after Jesus said that, we read the disciples saying, well, then who can be saved. And in verse 27, he looks at them and says, "with people, it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God." And then next, we see him in Jericho giving birth to the sight of a blind man by the name of Bartimaeus. Actually, there was another blind man with him, we studied that last week in Mark 10, verses 46 and following. And once again, there he not only proved his messianic claims, that he was indeed God, very God, but also he illustrated the miracle of regeneration, whereby God gives sight to those who are spiritually blind.

But next, chronologically, while in Jericho, Jesus seeks and saves another spiritually blind man, by the name of Zacchaeus. And like Bartimaeus, he is determined to see Jesus. Moreover, like the rich young ruler, he is a very wealthy man. So what we have in the account of Zacchaeus is really a juxtaposition of the striking themes in this previous story, where they all come together. And what we see now is Jesus, giving sight to another spiritually blind man by the name of Zacchaeus, but also a rich man and therefore, here we have an example of the camel going through the eye of the needle, if you will, because all things are possible to God. So this is profoundly instructive for Jesus disciples. I might also add that Luke is the only gospel writer that records the story. Also, this historical narrative really summarizes the very essence of the gospel message and the purpose of Jesus's ministry on earth. And as we will see in verse 10. His goal is to seek and to save that which was lost. And aren't you thankful that he continues to do that this very day.

So with that in mind, let me read the text Luke 19, beginning in verse one. "He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for he was about to pass through that way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today, I must stay at your house.' And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, 'He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.' Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, 'Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much. And Jesus said to him, 'Today, salvation has come to this house, because he too, is the son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.'"

I'd like to examine this text under two very simple headings. Number one, we will see the Savior seeking and number two, we will see the Savior saving. And I might add, dear friends, that there is no greater privilege in the Christian life, than contemplating the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. My how I long to see him face to face, and we would all do well, to learn from the angels who, quote, "long to look upon the mystery of the incarnation," as we read in first Peter 1:12. The glory of Christ, dear friends is, worthy of our bold and unfettered proclamation, and meditation, especially as it is revealed in Christ's inconceivable condescension to our lowly estate. And his infinite mercy, and his unassailable power as he goes to the cross, to render powerless, the effects of sin, Satan and death. And to be able to fix our gaze upon his grace, is a miraculous thing in and of itself. Because in so doing, the Spirit of God uses that to conform us evermore into the likeness of Christ. And he gives us peace and power and joy, even in the midst of our trials. And I know some of you, a number of you are going through very serious trials right now. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to behold the glory of Christ. And I might also add that if your life is a train wreck, and if your marriage and your family is a dumpster fire, there's a high probability that you know very little of Christ. If anything at all, you're probably not walking by the Spirit, you're probably ruled by your flesh. And my goal this morning, as it is every time I stand before you and open up the word, is to point you to Christ, even as Paul did when he came into Corinth, in First Corinthians two and verse two, he said, "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." My prayer is that we'll all be able to echo what the Apostle Paul said recorded in Philippians three beginning in verse seven. "But whatever things were gained to me those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of their surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord."

So let's look at the text; number one we are going to see the Savior seeking. Notice verse one, "He entered Jericho and was passing through." I want you to see Jericho as it was in the first century. It was a magnificent oasis city, at the edge of the Judean wilderness about six miles from the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. It's a heap of ruins today in the Palestinian territory, but it was beautiful back then. It's about 15 miles northeast of Jerusalem down in the Jordan Valley. In that day, it was a magnificent place with gardens that landscaped the entire area planted by Herod. In fact, Jericho means "the perfumed" and it was a perfumed city. There were streams and aqueducts and palm trees and Balsam plantations, sycamores, cypress flowers on and on, it went. All growing in a plain of about 14 miles. In fact, many called it the Eden of Palestine in its day. Josephus described it as the richest part of the country, a little paradise. Magnificent commercial, and military center. It was positioned on the major caravan route from Damascus, and Arabia.

So what we have now is Jesus leading this large group, his disciples with him and this massive crowd, as he makes his way through Jericho. Verse two, "And there was a man called by the name of Zacchaeus." Ironically, that name means "the just;" he wasn't very just until God justified him. But that was his name. And then we read that, "he was a chief tax collector, and he was rich." Now, you must understand that in those days, tax collecting was tantamount to a cross between the IRS and the mafia. That's basically how they functioned. In many ways, it was legalized extortion. Some things never change, right? I know that's what you're thinking. And these people associated with the criminal element that they hung around with, that protected them. Other corrupt businesspeople, other tax collectors, prostitutes, as we read. Even in the gospels, they're always kind of together in a group because they weren't allowed to associate with the Jewish people, because they were unclean. And they collected taxes for Rome, they had to meet a certain quota. But they also had the authority to levy taxes as they saw fit. So they had the power to enforce their own wishes. And in fact, we know that Herod even sold tax collecting franchises to the highest bidder, and then they would split the profits. It's a very lucrative business venture if you're a crook. And that's what Zacchaeus was, a crook. And as I said, they were considered unclean by the Jewish people. They were barred from the synagogue so they couldn't associate with others. Only thing they could associate with were other lowlifes. And they were even considered traitors, because they worked for Rome, and took money from their own kinsmen to be used against them. Not to mention they line their own pockets with money they stole from the Jewish people. And I have to laugh, we see that the Pharisees were especially resentful of the tax collectors, but not for the reason you might think not because they were so ungodly and so unclean, but because they cut into their profits. But we also know that some were saved right? Remember when Jesus called Matthew in Mark two? And Matthew was a tax collector and followed Jesus and other tax collectors and prostitutes and so forth that hung with them, repented and came to Christ. We see some of that in Luke three, for example. But what we see here with Zacchaeus, is he wasn't just your run of the mill tax collector, he was a chief tax collector. So he was kind of like a mafia boss. Kind of like, I don't know, a drug lord. So he got a cut on all of the others that worked underneath him. So this guy was a notorious crook. However, as we read the story, we see that the Holy Spirit is already at work in his heart, we see that he's bringing conviction, a sense of shame and guilt, disrupting his life, with difficult circumstances, arousing his curiosity about Jesus. And perhaps he was even aware of Jesus reputation that he was a friend of tax collectors. I mean, that information would have spread like wildfire, right?

Verse three, "Zacchaeus, was trying to see who Jesus was." This is in the imperfect tense in the original language. And so what it helps us understand is that, that he was busy seeking Jesus, he was a man on a mission. An old adage comes to mind, the Hound of Heaven was after him, right? And the text goes on to say, "and he was unable because of the crowd where he was small in stature." And of course, this makes sense. You've got a massive crowd of people, they're lining the roads, they're also traveling with Jesus. And if you're short, you're not going to be able to see him. But the indication here, and the implication is, that he wanted to do more than just lay his eyes on him. He perhaps wanted to engage him. Verse four, "So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way." Here, we get the sense that Zacchaeus was both disturbed and determined. Now, when we think of a sycamore tree, we see something very different in Tennessee than what it would look like in the Middle East. It was really what was called a fig mulberry or a sycamore fig. It had fruits on it that kind of resembled figs and evergreen leaves that resemble the Mulberry. Its fruit was an insipid, kind of tasteless fruit that only the most poor would ever eat. But it had very low limbs, big limbs, easy to climb. And no doubt, Zacchaeus wanted to remain hidden from sight. After all, he was the most hated man in the whole country, right? That whole area at least. Moreover, it's not very dignified for a wealthy man to be climbing up in a tree like that. And as I meditate on, as I meditated on this scenario, I'm reminded of Jesus' words to the Syrophoenician woman. Remember before he saved her, recorded in Matthew 15, verse 24, Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And of course, that was, as you recall, a reference to his original ministry focus regarding the kingdom. But here now regarding Zacchaeus, we see the Great Shepherd of the sheep pursuing one of his last lambs up in a tree of all places. What happens next is truly remarkable. And here's where the plot thickens.

Verse five, "When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for today. I must stay at your house.'" Oh, I wish I could have seen the look on Zacchaeus his face. The deer in the headlight look right? The mule staring at a new gate look. He is suddenly exposed. Now, Luke just records the most basics of the whole story, but you know Jesus had to have stopped and when Jesus stops, everybody stops. Things get quiet and they see Jesus looking up. All of a sudden they see Zaccheus. It was probably quiet enough that they heard what Jesus said. And there's Zaccheus, utterly exposed. I imagine he was saying to himself, "I can't believe this is happening. I'm the most hated man in Jericho. Everybody's looking at me, including Jesus." The sovereign, omniscient, omnipotent, creator of heaven and earth, the long-awaited Messiah of Old Testament prophecy is now calling his name. How did he know his name? Zacchaeus must have been scratching his head, how does he know who I am? Dear friends, of course, he knew his name. Because Zacchaeus was chosen in eternity past, to be part of our Lord's bridal church.

Dave Harrell

This is such a magnificent truth; I need to camp on it for a moment. We know according to Ephesians, one four that the father chose believers in Him, referring to Jesus Christ, "before the foundation of the world," in eternity past, we know according to Romans 8:29, that they were "predestined" for justification also for "adoption," Ephesians, one, five, and even for "a heavenly inheritance, “Ephesians five and verse 11. And Paul said, in his epistle to Timothy in Second Timothy one nine, that he, "has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works." In other words, it's not because he somehow looked down the annals of time and saw who would and who wouldn't believe in him; Oh, there's one. Yeah, Zacchaeus is going to believe so I'm going to elect him. Now that is blatantly unbiblical, and frankly, quite silly, but rather, "not according to our works, but according to His own purpose, and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus, from all eternity." Which literally, in the original language, means "before time began." Second, Thessalonians two and verse 13, we read that we are "beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." Of course, he knew Zacchaeus' name. Jesus said in John six and verse 37, that "all that the Father gives Me, will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." And in verse 44, of John six, he says, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." This reminds me as well of what Jesus said in his high priestly prayer, when he was in the garden, before he went to the cross, it's recorded in John 17. Jesus prays in verse one of that passage, "'Father, the hour has come, glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.'" See, Jesus is about to go to the cross and redeem those whom the Father had chosen for him. And we read the phrase "all whom the Father has given Him," we read that repeatedly, verse two, verse six, verse nine, verse 24, says, "'Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.'" And of course, Zacchaeus was one of those whom the Father had given the Son. Dear friends, let this sink in. You must understand this magnificent truth. In eternity past, the Father ordained a plan to demonstrate his infinite love for his Son. And he chose for him a bride made up of undeserving sinners, that would one day be transformed by the power of his grace. And he chose them by name. And he recorded their names in a book of life. And these names make up the Son's bride, an elect group of redeemed humanity. And he pledged to his Son a gift; a gift of the Father's love. And this gift was a pledge that was sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. The Father would then intentionally draw unto himself, this great company of sinners through the convicting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit of God. This is utterly astounding. And to be sure, God has to seek us, because we would never seek Him. Romans three, verse 11, says, "There is none who seeks for God." You see, sinful man will always hide from God, even as Adam and Eve hid from God in the Garden after they had sinned. Yet we see the scarlet thread of redemption being woven through every page of holy writ, as God in his infinite mercy pursues those that he has elected by his grace.

Moreover, Jesus knew who Zacchaeus was, because Jesus was about to bear his sin, in his body, on the cross. His atonement was a specific act of substitution for specific individuals. Remember, Jesus came to do the will of the Father, and what was the will of the Father? To purchase the redemption of all whom the Father had given him. His plan was predetermined. And it was personal. Acts 2:23, we read Peter saying, "This man," referring to Jesus, "was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God." And what an amazing thing it is to know that we have been chosen by the Father, as a gift to the Son, who will one day give us back to the Father as a reciprocal expression of his love. This is the great plan of redemption, dear friends. And please hear this, we are merely incidental in that whole plan. He orchestrated our conception at our mother's womb, he superintended our development and our birth. We know from Scripture that he has even ordained the length of our life. Before we were born, he knew everything about us, because he created our DNA. Let that sink in for a moment. He even knew that we would rebel against him, that we would violate his law, that we would reject him. And despite all of this, because of his predetermined and personal plan of redemption, the apostle Paul says in Romans five eight, "that God demonstrated His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Oh, dear friend, if you have trusted Christ, as your Savior, please know that you are not some insignificant number that is part of some vast, impersonal, divine plan. But know this, the Lord Jesus Christ is intimately and personally and powerfully and compassionately involved in your life. The Father who chose us, drew us unto Himself, the Spirit convicted us and transformed us, the Son purchased our redemption. And as we can see, in the story of Zacchaeus, God takes the initiative in all of this. Oh, yes, he's working in the heart of Zacchaeus, but Jesus is the one who was seeking and saving. He has to do that because we're spiritually blind, right? We read in Ephesians four, verse 17, and following that, we are alienated from God that we "walk in the futility of our mind." And this is what we see in the unredeemed. We're darkened in our understanding, were excluded from the very life of God because of the ignorance that is in us; because of the hardness of our heart. But then God comes along, he pursues us and he saves us. Even when we are in bondage to our sin; morally, socially, mentally, spiritually. When everything about us was in rebellion to God, worthy of his eternal judgment, because prior to salvation, we were just like Zacchaeus, we were in a dungeon of wickedness, and we loved it so.

Some men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. We were "dead in our sins" according to Ephesians two and verse one. Of course, we know that sin produces death, therefore we are in desperate need of a resurrection, a spiritual resurrection, that only occurs when we are born again. Paul went on to say, in Ephesians, two beginning in verse five, and six, But God... even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him." And Paul adds in Romans six and verse four, that we have been, buried with Christ "through baptism and to death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead... we too might walk in newness of life." We must remember that the natural man, the unsaved, man, indeed is dead in his sin. And thus he is unable to even understand or accept the things of the Spirit of God, as we read in First Corinthians 2:14. Therefore, repentant faith cannot occur apart from the new birth. And that is a work that is entirely passive for the sinners. Because in John one, verse 13, Jesus said that we "were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God." So of course, Jesus knew Zacchaeus' name; he knew everything about him. He created him, the father chose him to be part of his bridal church. And soon Jesus is about to bear his sin in his body. And what we see here, as Jesus seeks after Zacchaeus, perched up in that sycamore tree, is a beautiful example of how the spirit convicts and draws and calls and, and regenerates an unbeliever. Jesus spoke of this in John three and verse eight, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from, and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." I remember when I was a little boy, when the wind of the Spirit blew my way. Do you remember when it blew your way? And now it's blowing Zacchaeus' way, as he's perched up in a sycamore tree. "'Zacchaeus hurry, come down, for today, I must stay at your house.'"

Now bear in mind in these great narratives, there's probably much more that was said. So we're getting the bare minimum. But can't you imagine? Not only what Zacchaeus is thinking, but what everybody else is thinking, including the disciples. It's like, "You're surely not going to save that guy. I mean, after all, we're aligned to be first in the kingdom, what's going on here?" Notice the response and Zacchaeus, verse six, "hurried and came down and received Him gladly." Dear friends, here's a marvelous example of the supernatural, efficacious call of God at work in the heart of a sinner. A work that would fill volumes were we able to read all of it in Zacchaeus' his life. I wonder, when we see him someday, if he will be able to tell us his story of all of the things that transpired in his life that caused him to come to that place where he's feeling more and more of the guilt and the shame of his sin. And how he's crying out for God to do something that he cannot do on his own. Perhaps you remember when the Lord drew you unto himself, and you began to see the holiness of God when your conscience was set a flame with guilt when he just upset your world; when he caused circumstances to converge in such a way, as to make you even more miserable in your life. So you begin to examine your heart. The gospel of God began to keep you up at night, you began to realize that you were lost. You must understand that for the elect of God, this call is irresistible. God is not a contingent God, he is a sovereign God and he will accomplish his good pleasure, come what may. Nothing can thwart his eternal purposes. We will see this summarized well in Romans eight beginning in verse 29. Where the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit says, "For those whom He foreknew," literally for ordained or for loved, "He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son," he went on to say, "and these whom He predestined, He also called and those whom He called, He also justified and these whom He justified, He also glorified."

But I want you to notice the mysterious convergence of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility in this scenario. And here we witness the compatibility between God's uninfluenced, sovereign grace to save, and man's responsibility to believe. God takes the initiative in calling sinners to repentance, but man must choose to believe. Indeed, human will and divine determination are complementary, therefore compatible in the purposes of God. And we see that here. The end of verse five, we read, "'Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for today I must stay at your house.'" And verse six, "and he hurried, and came down and received Him gladly." Here we see that God did not violate Zacchaeus, his will. He did not coerce him, but rather, he transformed his will, so that he would freely and voluntarily believe and be saved. What a magnificent truth. This is, it's inscrutable in our mind; perfectly clear in God's mind. A magnificent demonstration of how God works in the life of a sinner.

So first, we see the Savior seeking. The Savior taking the initiative. And secondly, we see the Savior saving. Zacchaeus, we can see from the story, received Jesus into his home. And we're not told anything about that home, or what happened inside that home. But certainly, he would have heard the gospel from the lips of the Savior Himself. Can you imagine that? And we know that he comes to genuine saving faith, as the text goes on to tell us. I was meditating upon what might have been said in that scenario. And again, this is conjecture, but I think it's has some merit because of other things that we know, biblically. Jesus would have told him who he really was, he would have exposed his sin. I know all about you. I know when you did this, I know when you did that. I know what you think here and what you do there. But I want you to know that I love you. And that I want to pay the penalty for your sin. But you must trust in me is the only hope of your salvation. Aren't you thankful that the good news of the gospel is proclaimed to outcasts, even the worst of sinners and how they will respond in repentant faith. When I was saved, when I was nine, I wasn't some great sinner, even though I was a sinner, and I knew it. But I had a depraved heart like everybody else, and left unto myself, no telling where I would have ended up. But God sees our sin, no matter how dark it might be. And of course, the Jews were convinced that only the righteous were recipients of divine blessing. So we see that the crowd is horrified at all of this.

Verse seven, "When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." It's interesting, when it says, "when they saw it." It carries the idea that they're watching here. It's not like they just kind of dispersed and went their way. They're watching this whole thing. They're probably following at a distance. And certainly Zacchaeus would have had some magnificent estate, and they're watching all of this. And they're grumbling; I don't need to explain that word. We all know what it is. Because we're all guilty of it. "He has gone to be the guest;” “kataylo" in the original language. It means "to lodge, to unpack one's pack animal or backpack or suitcase." Even carries the idea of losing one's garments to prepare to stay overnight. So they're watching all of this. He's going in to the house of a sinner. Well, obviously they saw themselves as far more righteous than Zaccheus. Aren't we all hopelessly biased in our own favor when we compare ourselves to other people?

Verse eight, we read, "Zacchaeus stopped," the term means that he stood respectfully and stated a position. Now mind you this, what he's about to state would have happened after much conversation, and after he had truly come to faith in Christ. And he says to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much." My what a beautiful picture of what Paul describes in Second Corinthians seven, as a godly sorrow versus a worldly sorrow. In that text, we read how a godly sorrow is one that longs for reconciliation. It mourns over sin. It has an earnest desire for righteousness for a vindication of one's reputation, and indignation towards evil and avenging of wrong, a seeking of justice. And all of that was wrought within his heart by the power of the Spirit of God when he was suddenly made a new creature in Christ. And won't you notice that he obeys the law of the theocratic kingdom of Israel, as recorded for example, in Exodus 22, and verse one, and he restores fourfold all that he had stolen. Friends, this is such powerful evidence of what happens when someone is genuinely born again. This is evidence of the fruit of repentance, the miracle of regeneration, there's a radical change in a person's heart, in their nature and their disposition. Second Corinthians 5:17, that I alluded to a moment ago, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away, behold, new things have come." The adjective "new," "kainos," means unseen of a kind, not seen before, new in quality, not in sequence. This is the miracle of the new birth, and regeneration, which is that instantaneous, supernatural impartation of spiritual life to a spiritual cadaver, where they are raised to walk in newness of life. This is the stuff of genuine Christianity, a radical departure a dramatic change takes place. A restructuring of one's life. Jesus said, "You will know them by their fruits," and boy, you see it right here, don't you? At the moment of our new birth we are made new creatures and God sets into motion this process of sanctification that will ultimately culminate in Christ's likeness.

Again, as Jesus said, in John three, six, "'For that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but which is born of the Spirit is spirit.'" The life of the newborn saint is characterized by overcoming the wicked influences of Satan's world. There's a radical hatred that begins to occur towards those things that we once loved. The Spirit plants within us new desires, new loves, new passions, a new direction in life, new values, new beliefs, so that we begin to manifest the fruit of the Spirit, as described in Galatians five. And with the disposition of the soul, so radically changed, God's desires become our desires, as we read in Psalm 37 in verse four. Then he causes us according to Romans 6:17, "to become obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which we were committed." For indeed, as we read in First John 2:29, "If you know that He," Jesus, "is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him." This is what we see with Zacchaeus. Is this what people see in your life, my friends? Do people see Christ in you? When they spend time around you are they drawn to Christ? I grieve over the self-deception that characterizes so many Christians today, at least ostensibly, Christian people. You look at so many; they claim to be followers of Christ, but there's nothing about their life that shows that they love Christ, that they have a desire to obey him. They are basically Christian in name only; part of cultural Christianity. There's no personal pursuit of holiness, no separation from the world. There's no mourning over sin. There's no hungering and thirsting after righteousness. There is no appetite for the Word of God. There is no desire to submit to the authority of God, so they just make stuff up. They have no spiritual discernment. No humility, no sacrifice, no burden for the lost, no real love for other believers. No desire to understand what biblical worship truly is. Both privately as well as corporately, and frankly, there's nothing to distinguish them from the world. And my friend, if that is you, you have no basis to claim genuine saving faith. And I would plead with you to examine your heart. Illustrations of this kind of hypocrisy are myriad. We see it in our friends, we see it in families, see it in apostate churches. As I said earlier, they claim to know Christ, but their life is a train wreck. And their marriage and their family is a dumpster fire.

In Luke six and verse 46, Jesus asked those who claimed to be His disciples, but had no desire to obey Him, saying, "'Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?'" And he went on to answer the question by saying that they are basically unregenerate. You're operating according to your fallen nature. You do not have the indwelling Spirit to help restrain your flesh. You've never been born again. He went on to say in verse 49, "'The one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built his house on the ground without any foundation, and the torrent burst against it. And immediately it collapsed and the ruin of that house was great.'" Friends, you must understand that saving faith is obedient faith. That will always be the fruit of a spiritual resurrection, of a spiritual transformation. Indeed, we've been raised to walk in newness of life. This is why Jesus said in Matthew seven in verse 21, "'Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven will enter.'" John three and verse 36, he says, "'He who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.'" And in James one and verse 22, we read "But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves." And my what an amazing miracle it is, to see someone radically changed when they come to faith in Christ. Sometimes, it takes a while for you to see it. With other people, it's like the next day, almost the next minute, and that's practically what you have here with Zaccheus. I remember one woman who came to the church a number of years ago and, and she was a godless woman, dressed very immodestly, and she became convicted of her sin and over the course of several months, she was saved, radically in her living room, on her face in front of her couch. And I remember when the day, I remember the day when I first met her husband, who was a godless man. And I remember he contacted me, and he came up to me and he said, I'll never forget this, "I want to know what has happened to my wife." And at first I thought it was going to be a confrontation. But then I realized, and he went on to say, "Look, I'm not mad, I just don't understand. I don't know who this is." And he went on to describe that, and by the way, about six months later, he came to faith in Christ. I heard him cry out in the midst of a communion service here in this church. That's the stuff of genuine saving faith dear friends.

"Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much. And Jesus said to him, 'Today, salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.'" Can you imagine the look on the disciple’s face when they heard all of this? "Oh, my goodness, he's one of us now. Wonder if he's gonna get a spot in the kingdom, you know, boy, the race is on here." And of course, the crowd hated him. At least for a while, until they realized that he was going to give back the money had taken from them. Then don't you know, they all lined up saying "hey, Zacko, buddy, I believed in you all along, never doubted, yeah, you know, put it right here."

By the way, according to a third century AD collection of ecclesiastical law, thought to have been written by the apostles, possibly. It's called the Apostolic Constitutions. We read that later on Zacchaeus became the first bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. And if that is true, God not only called him to saving faith, but called him to be a pastor. Let me read that to you. I just copied and pasted it. The Apostolic Constitutions, volume seven, chapter 46. Quote, "Now concerning those bishops who have been ordained in our lifetime, we make known to you that they are these of Jerusalem, James, the brother of Our Lord upon whose death the second was Simeon, the son of Cleopas, after whom Judas, the son of James," then he says this, "of Caesarea in Palestine, the first was Zacchaeus, who was once a publican."

It's interesting, isn't it, Jesus called him a son of Abraham. Now, he's not merely saying that you are a physical descendant of the patriarch Abraham, but rather a spiritual descendant in the inward sense of believing Jew. For example, in Romans two verse 28, "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not for men, but from God." We see something similar in Galatians, three, beginning in verse six, "Even so Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who were sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'all the nations will be blessed in you'. So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer." I remember in Israel one time, going to meet a congregation that was worshiping in secret to avoid persecution from the Jews. And the pastor said something that I wrote down, he said, "By God's grace, I am a true son of Abraham, part of the Israel of God." And then he said, "we're all part of the Israel of God." There were probably 60 or 70 people there in the forest, meeting on those little white chairs like you get at Walmart. By the way, the Israel of God is, is taken out of Galatians six and verse 16, is a reference to ethnic Jewish Christians because they had been circumcised in their hearts and not just physically, they were the true Israelites. It's not a reference to the church. And the church is never called Israel in Scripture. The Israel of God is the same group Paul described in Romans 9:6, "For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but 'through Isaac your descendants will be named.' That is it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants." And of course, Isaac is the perfect illustration of sovereign election. Remember, that long before he was conceived, he was chosen from among the descendants of Abraham to be the heir of promise. He was preordained, not only to become a physical child of Abraham, but a spiritual Child of God, made effective through faith, as with everyone who believes; so too was Zacchaeus.

Well got a picture dear friends, of what Peter said in First Peter two nine, that "He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light." As we close, my friend, if you reject Christ, if you reject his claims, if you have never trusted in Him as Savior, I plead that you will do so before it's too late. And I will tell you very boldly, but in love, that I will pray that you will be absolutely miserable until you come to repentant faith in our precious Savior. And for those of us who know and love him, let's use this historical account of Zacchaeus to cause us to celebrate. The Savior sought us and saved us.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for the magnificent truths of your word. May they bear much fruit in every heart. I ask in the precious name of Jesus, and for his sake. Amen.

What a joy it is to be able to minister the word of God to you once again on this Lord's day morning. Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel chapter 10. As we continue to make our way, verse by verse through it, I've been titled my discourse to you this morning "Jesus Gives Sight to the Blind," beginning in verse 46, of Mark 10. "Then they game they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples, and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. When He heard that it was Jesus, the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' Many were sternly telling him to be quiet. But he kept crying out all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!' And Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him here.' So they called the blind man saying to him, 'Take courage stand up! He is calling for you.' Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. And answering him, Jesus said, 'What do you want me to do for you?' And the blind man said to Him, Rabbioni, I want to regain my sight!' And Jesus said to him, 'Go, your faith has made you well.' Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road."

One of the clearest proofs of human depravity is man's inability to see the depths of his sin, in contrast to the holiness of God. They are spiritually blind apart from Christ. You ask any believer, are you ever troubled over the ways that you have offended a holy God? And their answer will typically be something like, oh, I never even think about that. I don't believe in that stuff. They would only be ashamed of their private sins, if they were made public. But they have no shame in sin itself. If you were to ask them, Have you no fear of God's judgment when you die? And again, the response is typically, oh, I never think about that. I really don't worry about that type of thing. After all, I'm a good person, if there is a God, whoever he or she might be. I'm sure that I'll make the cut. And so people live as if there is no God. People trifle with death and with judgment. And they use all of the anesthetizes that the world offers them. Drugs, alcohol, entertainment. The Football season is getting started up in colleges, and you'll see hundreds of 1000s of people going to worship in the stadiums. And by the way, I like college football. But the point is, for many people were it not for entertainment on television, and in their sports, they would have no life. They pursue the fleeting pleasures of this world. And consistent with what Peter warned in Second Peter three, three, "In the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts." And this is what we see in the world today. People go merrily along their way with no thought of God, no thought of judgment, no thought of their own sinfulness, just living their life as if there is no God because for them, there really isn't. And they will continue to do that until that fateful day when they are confronted with their own mortality, and they will die and then be confronted with the God they have ignored and mocked. Dear friends, this is the consequence of spiritual blindness. In first Corinthians 2:14, we're told by the apostle Paul, that "a natural man," and unsaved man, "does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because he is spiritually appraised." In other words, he has no capacity to discern spiritual truth, when the evidence is right in front of him. He's spiritually blind. Moreover, in Ephesians, chapter four, we read an excellent summary of where people are, that are apart from Christ, beginning in verse 17. "The Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart; and they having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness." Oh dear friends, the horror of spiritual blindness; to be spiritually incarcerated in a dungeon of deception and ignorance and arrogance; unable to see your hard hearted rebellion against the Most High God, blind to the reality that you are walking inexorably toward, and abyss of everlasting woes, what Jesus called in Matthew 22, "the outer darkness" that place there "will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And of course, there's that passage in Second Corinthians four and verse four, where we read that "the god of this world," small g, referring to Satan, "has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ."

But dear friends, when God gives spiritual sight, a miracle takes place that we should never, ever underestimate. Man has suddenly awakened to his own sin, he suddenly sees it for what it is. And like the sting of 1000 Hornets, he remembers his sin down through his life. And he shutters to know that he will one day stand in the presence of a holy God. Guilty unless he cries out for mercy. Unless he says, as blind Bartimaeus said, "Oh, God, have mercy on me." Indeed, "the word of the cross is foolishness," according to First Corinthians 1:18. It "is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." And how I rejoice in that. And I might say from the outset, if you're here today, or you're hearing my voice, please know that if you trifle with your sin, if you dismiss God's indictment against you, and you refuse to trust in Christ as your Savior, your arrogance proves that you are spiritually blind. And you simply must cry out to God for mercy. Sadly, this was the perfect description of Israel in the first century. And of course, the Gentile world as well. But as we see in this text, Jesus gives sight to the blind.

And let me remind you of the context, the setting here, so that you get the flow of what's happening. Jesus is coming to the end of His earthly ministry, his final days on earth and he's on his way to Jerusalem to suffer and to die and to rise again from the dead. And from his miracles to his parables, what he has been demonstrating to everyone, primarily Israel, is that he is who he claimed to be, the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy, the one who had come to offer himself officially and finally, as the king of the Messianic Kingdom, in exact fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. An offer conditioned upon national repentance. He has ministered in Galilee in the region of his homeland, and he's experienced enormous opposition. He ministered around the regions of the Galilee and the Gentile area, then journeyed to Jerusalem, and to Judea, constantly teaching, exposing the hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees, performing many miracles; many, many more than what we have recorded in the scriptures. He's made a brief tour through Samaria and Galilee. Then he was in and around Perea, the Gentile region, on the east side of the Jordan. And now he has crossed back over the Jordan, right there north of the Dead Sea. And he's now around the city of Jericho, which is about 15 miles from Jerusalem, and about 3300 feet below Jerusalem. So it will now be a steep climb to get up to Jerusalem. You must picture that there are massive crowds following Jesus. They have witnessed His miracles. A lot of them are merely thrill seekers, but others are really wondering what is going on here. Some of them undoubtedly were those whom he fed in the feeding of many 1000s earlier in his ministry. They've witnessed him cast out demons, give sight to the blind, give hearing to the deaf. They've seen mutilated bodies of lepers, completely healed, limbs appearing on people. They've even witnessed Lazarus coming out of the grave, the raising of the dead. And they're amazed at his teaching. They're amazed at his authority. In fact, in Luke 12, and verse one, we read about the massive crowds it says, so many 1000s of people had gathered together, that they were "stepping on one another."

And by the way, in the context of that massive crowd, it says that he began preaching, "'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.'" He was fearless in the face of all of the crowd. You must understand that everything that Jesus is doing, is moving inexorably towards a high point, which is namely his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. That will be a day of Messianic presentation foretold by the Old Testament prophets. In fact, as we've studied before, the Old Testament prophets predicted the manner, the moment and the meaning of the King's final offer to Israel. The rejection by the civil and religious leaders has been unmistakable. But now an official offer needed to be made to the nation as a whole. Even in the realm of jurisprudence, even in the days of the Old Testament, in the realm of the theocracy, a legal proffer, or an offer of proof, must be made. And that's what he is about to do. This was Israel's time of her visitation to receive her King. But Jesus will later promise them of coming judgment in Luke 19:44. He says, "'because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.'" So Jesus is now making his way to Jerusalem to present himself as the Messiah.

But I want you to know that prior to this, according to Luke 10, and verse one, "the Lord had appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come." And their mission, we know from reading the text, is very simple. "'Every city that receives you,'" he says in verses eight, and following, "'heal those who are sick and say to them, 'the kingdom of God has come near to you.' And if they don't receive you,' according to verse 10, and 11, 'go out into its streets and say, 'even the dust of your city, which clings to our feet, we wipe off and protest against you, yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.'" But the two words "to you" are not there, a frightening omission.

So, everything that is happening here, everything recorded in the gospels, is part of God's deliberate, precise plan to accomplish his purposes. Now, mind you, all of this is extended over the course of about five months. And what Jesus is ultimately doing is presenting himself to Israel as the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy. And please understand that everything that we see in the gospels points to this. We see it in our text this morning, when Jesus gives sight to this blind man and what did the blind man call him, he called him "Son of David," in verse 47, the ultimate Son of David, the one who would fulfill the Davidic covenant promises of Second Samuel seven, which were really a reaffirmation of the regal terms of the original Abrahamic covenant. And this is yet another miracle, connected with the arrival of the Messiah that was prophesied, for example, in Isaiah 35 five, "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened," when the Messiah comes.

Next chronologically, we're going to see that Jesus will meet a dishonest tax collector named Zacchaeus. Mark doesn't record that, Luke does. And I'll take you to Luke, to see this. And we see Zacchaeus is saved by his grace in Luke 19, a man who Jesus called, quote, "a son of Abraham." And because he was the son of Abraham, he therefore obeyed the law of the theocratic kingdom of Israel, like we would see in Exodus 22 one, "and he restored fourfold all that he had stolen." This is yet another reminder of Old Testament prophecy concerning the kingdom when, as the King James puts it in Isaiah 40, in verse three, "the crooked will be made straight." He's then going to heal 10 lepers in Luke 17. We know according to Micah four and verse two that he's going to come or that when he would come, he would "come with healing in His wings," other passages, speak to this as well. And then in Luke 19:11, and following, he will give that amazing parable concerning a nobleman who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and then he would return, and this, of course, portrayed his rejection, and an interval of delay that will exist until his future arrival a second time.

Dave Harrell

And as Jesus travels with this band of pilgrims, he is conducting himself once again, as the public claimant, to the Messianic mantle. And soon the multitudes are going to see him come into the city, and they're going to cry out "Hosanna!" to the son of David. And then that same crowd, will a few days later demand his crucifixion, demonstrating their final rejection. Well, there are many other events that are recorded and many others that we will examine in the days ahead, hat all fit into the same pattern going forward. There is a purpose in all that is happening here; these aren't just random stories, random events, but rather, Jesus is presenting himself as the Messiah of Israel, the king of the messianic kingdom, but it was conditioned upon Israel's repentance, national repentance.

By the way, whenever I think of these things, I find myself overwhelmed with the miracle of divine providence. Isn't it amazing that God can orchestrate all of these things in ways that we can't even imagine, to fulfill his prophetic word, and all that he has ordained in eternity past, to ultimately bring glory to himself. And to think that somehow in ways that we can't even imagine, we are a part of that. You know, only a fool would deny the infallibility and the inspiration of Scripture. Now, back to our text. Jericho if you go there today, as I've been on a number of occasions, it's not a very pretty place. It's in the Palestinian area. In fact, it's very dangerous to even go in there. They tried to destroy all of the ruins because it really proves that the Israelites were there and that it came down just exactly as Scriptures teach. But in Jesus day, Jericho was a magnificent oasis in a desert wilderness. It had a beautiful theater amphitheater, villas, baths. In fact, in 35 BC, the Roman politician Mark Anthony gave Jericho as a gift to his lover Cleopatra of Egypt. But Jericho was also a mecca for the blind. Because of the balsam bush that grew in that area they were able to extract certain elements of that bush to treat a salve for blindness. Ophthalmic diseases were a common problem in that day, a condition called ophthalmia. I need to get my words right here. We're not familiar with that as much, but it was common in those days. Its a severe form of conjunctivitis that would affect the inner eye highly contagious. It was transmitted by flies, aggravated by sun and the dust in that region. And it was very common in childbirth. They had a disease called trachoma, which was a virulent form of conjunctivitis, an infection that would blind infants, and also in pagan societies in that day, and even in this day, due to sexual promiscuity, venereal disease was common, and many women were infected by various kinds of bacteria, especially gonorrhea, or some other septic condition. And children would contact that at birth, and they would soon be blind. But the people in those days had no understanding as to what was really going on with this blindness, with eye disease. They didn't know how to treat it. And many believe that it was a result of sin, that only really sinful people go blind. You will recall in John nine, Jesus passed by a blind man and the disciples asked "Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" And of course, Jesus answered "neither."

Now, at times, we know in the Bible, blindness was a form of judgment. Blindness was a consequence of disobedience, in Deuteronomy 28 with the covenant people. We also know that he blinded the Syrians in Second Kings six. We know that he blinded the homosexuals of Sodom in Genesis 19. He blinded Saul on the road to Damascus to get his attention, that he might save him and he temporarily is blinding Israel even to this day, according to second Corinthians three and Romans 11. But here, and in many other passages, blindness is used to illustrate the condition of men's spiritual sight. You will recall, Jesus used blindness to illustrate man's utter inability to see the light of truth. For example, He said in Matthew 6:22, "'The lamp of the body is the eye if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!'" And certainly the vast majority of the people in Jesus day, as in our day, were filled with darkness. They were spiritually blind. And for this reason, Jesus said in Luke four and verse 18, that he was sent "'to preach the gospel to the poor'" and "'recovery of sight to the blind.'"

So, with many hundreds of blind beggars lining the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, Jesus is orchestrating all of these things to demonstrate not only his compassion, but also the terms of salvation necessary to come to him in repentant faith. And this would also be a lesson to the self-absorbed bickering disciples, who are still jockeying with one another to figure out who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom. Now, as we look at this, there are four essential components of genuine conversion that I see being manifested out of this text. Let me give them to you and expand upon them. First of all, we must recognize who Jesus is. Secondly, we must recognize the severity of our situation. Thirdly, we must recognize, we must cry out for undeserved mercy. And finally, we must believe Jesus alone can deliver us. So let's pick up the text in verse 46. "Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with his disciples in a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road." "Bar" means son, so he was the "son of Timaeus." Now, it's interesting, by the way, in Matthew's account in Matthew 20, verse 30, it says, "And behold, two blind men sitting by the road," but we see here that Mark only focuses on one of them, but there are actually two. And if we read all of the texts, we see that he too, was given sight and was saved by God's grace. Now, the road from Jericho to Jerusalem was prime real estate for begging because you have, especially around Passover, because you have 1000s of people going that way up to Jerusalem, for the Passover feast. So we have a blind beggar, named Bartimaeus.

So, he begins to cry out. To "cry out" literally could be translated, scream or shout at the top of his lungs; "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Friends, you must understand that no one will ever be saved from their sins and reconciled to a holy God unless they understand who Jesus is. He was not merely some great teacher, as many claim he was, not a manipulative type of God that could be, I should say, maybe a malleable type of God, that could be manipulated, to hand out the goodies to make you healthy, wealthy and successful. Nor was he some political revolutionary, as many say that he was in our day, one that came to tear down the established authority of Roman rule. Certainly, he was not some social justice warrior promoting the contemporary Marxist ideologies of liberation theology, particularly critical race theory, as many teach today. And as many ostensibly evangelicals have bought into, what a lie, he did not carry a sign that said, "Jews lives matter." He did not carry a sign that said, "down with Rome." No dear friends, the truth of who Jesus was, and is, can be seen in Peter's confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And we must understand that he is therefore the only acceptable object of saving faith. Jesus said in John 14 six "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but through me."

In verse 47, we read, "When he heard that it was Jesus, the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And this brings us to the first point that I would like for us to examine. And that is, if we're going to be saved, we must recognize who Jesus is. Most of the world today, do not. Everyone knew Jesus was a famous miracle worker. But not many believed that he was, quote, "The Son of David," another name for the Messiah that was promised in the Davidic Covenant in Second Samuel seven. The long-awaited Messiah, of that unconditional and irrevocable covenant, where God promised David a dynasty in a kingdom that would never end. And again, that is a covenant that parallels the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12, one through three. A covenant that will ultimately bless the Gentiles, the Gentile nations as well as Israel. In fact, in Acts two, Peter makes it clear that David, quote, "looked ahead." David looked ahead as a prophet and spoke of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the covenant he made to David. Let me read that text, Acts two beginning in verse 29, "Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. And so because he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath, to seek one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ." So in the miracle of regeneration, God now reaches down into the heart of this blind beggar and causes him to see the light of his sin and the light of who Jesus really is; the Messiah, the King, the Savior of sinners. No doubt he recognized Jesus to be the one of whom the angel spoke to Mary in Luke one verse 32, "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end." I believe that it's very possible that he along with many 1000s of others, were aware that this was the one of whom the angel described to Joseph and even the shepherds. Remember, the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 1:22, that "Mary will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us." It's fair to say that he would have also been aware of the testimony of the shepherds, because we know that they spread the word to everyone, as to what they saw. It's recorded into Luke 10, beginning of verse Luke to beginning of verse 10, "But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.'"

And I must ask you, do you know who Jesus is? Because one day you will face him. You will either face him and triumph or in terror. He's not only the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy, but he is the judge of the living and the dead. You remember what Paul said to the men of Athens in Acts 17. God is now declaring to men that all, everywhere should repent, "because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men, by raising Him from the dead." So we must not only recognize who Jesus is, but we, like Bartimaeus, must recognize the severity of our situation. And oh to be blind in those days was a horrible thing. It's hard today, terribly hard. But blind beggars were social outcasts. They were scorned. They were ridiculed, they were rejected. Because again, many people thought that their blindness was because of their sin. They were utterly helpless to care for themselves. Imagine what that would be like, dependent upon other people to do virtually everything for you. But you know the same is true spiritually. When we are blind spiritually, we are utterly helpless. We're walking in darkness; we can't see the truth. Two plus two is five theologically. We are spiritually "dead in our trespasses and sins," according to Ephesians two. Paul went on in Ephesians four to say that, "apart from Christ man is darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart." In Ephesians five it speaks of how that the unsaved "walk in darkness, and they participate in the deeds of darkness." And Paul said in Titus one and verse 15, "to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled." In other words, man's depravity, dear friends, is pervasive. Sin's corruption and pollution has made man both unable and unwilling to glorify God, and there is no hope of recovery in himself. He's utterly dependent upon God to do something. And so this dear man is begging Jesus not only for physical healing, but also for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. You say, Well, how would you know that? Well, in verse 52, we read, "And Jesus said to him, 'Go, your faith has made you well.'" The term that he uses there, for "well" is "sozo,"it's a term a Greek term, used frequently in the New Testament for salvation. And if being "made well" only referred to physical healing, he would have used the common word "iaomai," which means "to heal." Moreover, we immediately see the fruit of genuine saving faith being manifested in these men, verse 52, "Immediately he regained his sight, and began following him on the road." Matthew and Luke both record "following him glorifying God." So this indicates that they were not only physically healed, but also they were given the gift of saving faith, validated by their desire to submit to the Lordship of Christ in their life.

So, Bartimaeus recognizes his sinful condition. He recognizes his guilt and in desperation, he cries out to the Lord. And again, the foremost attitude necessary for spiritual sight is this one of desperation, where we see the reality of our sin. I think of the Canaanite woman with a daughter that was demon possessed in Matthew 15. Remember, she sought the Lord in humble persistence, and she said, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David." And the tax gatherer in Luke 18, "Unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, he beat upon his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me the sinner.'" You see friends, divine mercy, always responds to spiritual desperation. This is the prayer of the penitent. This is the cry of the contrite; those broken over their sin. Jesus said in Matthew five, verse three, "'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'" In other words, blessed are those who are collapsing under the weight of their sin; those who acknowledged the impoverished nature of their state, they recognize that they're alienated from God, that they are helpless, that they are corrupt, they are hopeless and apart from mercy, they will perish for eternity in their sins. So, they're longing for God to act on their behalf. That's the one God blesses. And I must ask you have you come to that place in your life where you realize who you really are before a holy God? Or are you still blind to the ways that you have violated his law and offended his holiness and therefore continued to live in spiritual darkness? We must recognize who Jesus is; we must recognize the severity of our situation and thirdly, we must cry out for undeserved mercy and that's what he did.

Verse 47, "'Jesus son of David, have mercy on me!'" Verse 48, "And many were sternly telling him to be quiet." But he kept crying out again screaming at the top of his lungs. "He kept crying out all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!'" And can't you see it? People saying, 'shut up, you blind beggar, he doesn't have time for you. In fact, you're probably getting what you deserved. He doesn't have time to deal with you. Plus, we were here first.' I bet some of that was going on. In fact, Luke hints at that and Luke 18:39, "Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet." That was probably the disciples, "He doesn’t have time for you, he's dealing with us right now, we're in the in crowd here."

Dear friends when the Spirit of God is at work in the heart of a man or a woman, there is absolutely nothing that can stop them from screaming. God is merciful. But he will only save those who recognize their need for his saving grace, and who will cry out for it. This is the response that God demands from us. And here I might also add that we recognize the irresistible power of regenerating grace. Jesus said in John 6:44, that "'no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.'" The idea of drawing means. in the original language. means to cease, or to grab hold of. There's an irresistible, supernatural, compelling at work. And this is what happens when the Father suddenly activates what was decreed in eternity passed; when the Holy Spirit breathes life into a spiritual cadaver and gives them sight to see the glory of the cross. And when God does that work, there is absolutely no force on earth, that can stop a sinner who, in desperation, begs for saving mercy. A sinner will not be silenced by any opposition, when in their spiritual desperation, they're seeking forgiveness and help. Sadly, most people today have a very superficial understanding of regeneration, what it means to be born again, that's what the term literally means. They talk about asking Jesus into their heart. But for many people, they really don't have much of an understanding of who Jesus is. Worse yet, they're clueless about the depths of their depravity, their spiritual condition; they have no sense of desperation. So they really don't cry out. This is why so many people today, and for many years, have used manipulative techniques to get people to get saved, to get them to walk in aisle, to get them to repeat a prayer.

If I can digress for a moment, they use Charles Finney's method, the altar call method. Charles Finney was a New York lawyer turned evangelist back in the early 1900s. And he believed that man was sovereign over salvation, not God. And so he devised some mechanical methods to manipulate the human will. And he created mainly what was called the anxious bench. And the key to this was a sequence of things that had to happen in in a meeting or a church service, in order to get people to make a decision for Christ. The first step was to create the mood with music, because we know that emotions tend to bypass reasoning. So the music had to be just right, to establish the mood. And then secondly, to offer something easy, like, you know, "won't you bow your head, and if God is moving in your heart, why don't you raise your hand." So let's make it easy at first, kind of prime the pump, and then prime it even more with a third step; have certain people begin to walk the aisle. If you remember the Billy Graham crusade, they would have hundreds of people who would begin to walk the aisles so that others would kind of decide that they would go as well. Kind of a herd instinct to go with the flow. And then fourthly, make it easy to believe. Repeat some prayer and bam, you're in the kingdom. There's no real crying out. In fact, In the famous Purpose Driven Life, bestselling book, you can read how people are invited to come to Jesus quote, "The author invites people to quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity." Here it is, "Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you." Oh, that's easy. And then Pastor Warren goes on to say, "if you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations, welcome to the family of God, you are now ready to discover and start living God's purpose for your life." Beloved, this is the danger of easy believeism, of cheap grace. Where's the desperation there? Do these people really understand the alienation that is going on between them and a holy God because of their sin? It's fascinating just before this event in Jericho, in Luke 13, an unnamed enquirer noticed all the multitudes. You may remember the story and realize that these people really aren't seeking salvation. They're, they're wanting you to do something for them. So in verse 23, he asks, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And of course, numbers aren't the issue. Jesus ignored the question and he answered it this way in the very next verse. He said, "'Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able.'" You see, Bartimaeus was striving. Now some will say, "Well, wait, I thought it was easy, I thought you just quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity, Jesus, I believe in you. And I receive you." I mean, where's the striving in that? You know, the term "strive" comes from a Greek word "agonizomai." It means to fight, it means to engage in hand-to-hand combat, to engage even in an athletic contest that requires great intensity, exhausting effort. So where's the fighting in this easy believeism? And what's this stuff of "many I tell you will seek and will not be able," again, people will say I thought the road was easy. Well, yeah, you know, Satan has offered a wide gate and a wide way, but not Jesus.

My friends, please understand salvation is far more than just kind of reaching out and accepting a free gift and whispering a prayer. There's a sense of desperation. There's a sense of striving, Matthew seven, verse 13, Jesus said, "'Enter through the narrow gate,'" narrow comes from the Greek word "stenos," which means the restrictive compressed gate, and it comes from a root word that means to groan. You don't enter this gate with ease. There will be intense pressure, you're going to fight your own flesh, you're going to be conscious of your own pride. There are going to be other people that are in your mind that you know are going to ridicule you and mock you, may even try to kill you. So when you come to Christ, there has to be a determined effort to seal out all of the crowd that's telling you to shut up. And to say, "I am going to focus exclusively on the Lord my God, I am desperate for mercy. I don't care what anybody says, I don't care what my flesh says, I see the horror of my sin." In Luke 16:16. We read how quote "the gospel of the kingdom of God, when it's preached, everyone is forcing his way into it." The idea of vigorously, forcefully pressing into the kingdom. You will remember in Matthew seven, Jesus said there are two ways to enter the kingdom, the narrow and the broad. There are two gates, the narrow and the wide. There are two destinations life and destruction. There are two groups, the few and the many. There are two trees, the good and the bad, producing two kinds of fruit, the good and the bad, two kinds of people who profess faith in Christ, the sincere and the false. There are two builders, the wise and the foolish. There are two foundations, rock and sand. And they build two houses, either one that is secure or insecure. And I would challenge you to ask yourself to which group do you belong? And once you sort through all of the deceptions of "this way to heaven, this is the real Jesus," once you sort through all of that, and you go into battle with yourself, then you begin to deal with your self-righteousness, your pride, your unwillingness to deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow Christ.

Well, without any need for manipulation, with no mood, music, or anything else, Bartimaeus, despite all that's going on, cries out for the Lord, to heal him. "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Then I love this verse. In verse 49, it says, "And Jesus stopped." I mean, folks, put yourself out there. I mean, when Jesus stopped, everybody stopped, because everybody was watching Jesus, he actually stopped. Now, it doesn't say this in the text. But I think it's fair to assume that suddenly, a hush comes over the crowd, perhaps 1000s of people. And all they can hear is a blind beggar crying out "Son of David, have mercy on me!" In fact, two of them doing this. You see, I don't believe Jesus wanted anyone to miss what they were saying, but for all to hear, and for all to see. And then it says, "And Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him here.'" Oh, what a blessed invitation. Here again, beloved, here, we witnessed the miracle of irresistible grace and regeneration. When God overcomes a man's natural resistance to the Gospel, when he gives man spiritual eyes to see the glory of Christ, when God frees man's rebellious will, so he will come freely and willingly and embrace the irresistible Christ, man's will is not violated, it is transformed. This is what's happening.

I remember it well, when I was a little boy of nine years old, when he moved upon my heart, and I must ask you, have you heard that call? Have you come to him? And if the answer is no, then you simply must recognize who Jesus is. You simply must recognize the severity of your situation and cry out for undeserved mercy.

And finally, as we see in this text, you must believe that Jesus alone can deliver you. "So they called the blind man, saying to him, 'Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you." In verse 50, this is really interesting when I thought about it, "Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus." Okay, now imagine being blind. There's all this going on, and you kind of know who he is, and you throw your cloak away, and you get up. Probably some people are helping him, but you get up and you move towards Christ. And I was thinking about this whole issue of the cloak. You know, a cloak in those days was a matter of life and death. The average temperature around Jericho, especially in the spring, goes from 54 degrees at night to 85 in the day. If you know anything about sleeping in the desert, being in that type of an environment, it is cool at night. And so he throws aside the cloak. It's like all of a sudden, that cloak doesn't matter anymore. And why would he think that? Because he had absolute faith that God was going to give him sight, and he could come back and find his cloak if he needed it. I mean, there's faith at work. But we must understand that there will be no hesitancy when a man or a woman responds earnest to the irresistible grace of regeneration, because God has sovereignly ordained in eternity past, the salvation of all of his elect, and there is nothing that can thwart his eternal purposes.

Verse 51, "And answering him, Jesus said, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' The blind man said to Him, 'Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!' And Jesus said to him, 'Go; your faith has made you well.' Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road." Matthew's statement regarding this is in chapter 20, verse 33, "They said to Him, 'Lord, we want our eyes to be opened,' and it says and "moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes, and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him." I'm reminded of Jesus words, "My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me." Luke 18:43, "Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it they gave praise to God."

What a beautiful picture of our compassionate savior. And what a magnificent illustration of his saving grace. I want to challenge you. Do you recognize who Jesus is? Do you recognize the severity of your situation? Have you ever come to a place where you cry out for undeserved mercy, believing that Jesus can and will deliver you? Those of us who have been given spiritual sight can appreciate this closing illustration. This reminds me of the great hymnists of the 1800s, who though she was physically blind, had perfect spiritual vision. Her name was Fanny Crosby. And once a well-intentioned Scottish minister, remarked to her quote, "I think it is a great pity that the Master, when he showered so many gifts upon you, did not give you sight." She was quick to respond and say to him, quote, "Do you know that, if at birth, I had been able to make one petition to my Creator, it would have been that I should have been born blind." He was surprised. He wanted her to explain and here's what she said. "Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight, will be that of my Savior." And out of that testimony, she wrote that great hymn that we've sung many times, "When my life work is ended, and I crossed the swelling tide, when the bright and glorious morning I shall see, I shall know my redeemer when I reached the other side, and his smile will be the first to welcome me." And the chorus goes, "I shall know him, I shall know him, and redeemed by his side I shall stand. I shall know him, I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand." One day we will meet Fanny Crosby and we will meet the man who was once blind by the name of Bartimaeus, and his buddy, and many others, amen? What a glorious hope we have in Christ. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the magnificent truths of your word that speak so clearly to each of our hearts. I pray if there be one here today that knows nothing of what it what it really means to be in fellowship with the lover of their soul, I pray that they will cry out to Christ this very day. Beg him for the mercy that he will so get so rich and freely give. And thank you, that the rest of us who know and love you solely by your grace, can celebrate these magnificent truths in our lives. May we live them out in such a way that others will see Christ in us. For it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

As many of you know, we are making our way through Mark's gospel and this morning we find ourselves once again in Mark chapter 10. If you will take your Bibles and turn there and we will be looking at verses 35 through 45. Under the heading "Greatness in the Eyes of God." Let me read the text to you. Mark chapter 10, beginning with verse 35. "James and John, the two sons of Zebedee came up to Jesus saying, Teacher, we want You to do for us, whatever we ask of You.' And He said to them, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' They said to Him, 'Grant that we may sit, one on Your right, and one on Your left in Your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?' They said to Him, 'We are able.' And Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I drink, you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. But to sit on My right or on My left, this is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.' Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant, with James and John. Calling them to Himself Jesus said to them, 'You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you, shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you, shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.'"

We read in Proverbs 18, in verse 12, "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty. But humility goes before honor." This is a lesson that the disciples needed to learn, as we all do. We live in a narcissistic culture, do we not? A culture that is dominated by attitudes of self love, self importance, "me first." All you have to do is drive on the interstates and you'll get a little sample of that. All you have to do is look on Facebook and you will see the ways people try to promote themselves and gain applause. People are self absorbed. They're filled with self love and they demand that everybody else love them too. And if you have any kind of a problem these days, it seems like it's always because you don't love yourself enough, right? You've got poor self esteem. But we're told that we're never to really feel guilt, or to feel shame, that's bad. Instead, you need to be who you want to be, do what you want to do. Even if it means changing your gender, even if it means going through hormone therapy, chemical and surgical castration. Double mastectomies for young girls. If that makes you happy, you need to do that. The Center for Disease Control says that suicides in the US are skyrocketing. They've been going up like 5% every year in 2020 to 49,500. I read an article, I believe it was this morning in the daily wire, it caught my attention. The headline was "Physician groups beg for help, with emergency rooms flooded by children in psychiatric crisis, anxiety, depression and suicide attempts are common causes. Folks, this is where all of this leads when pride is not restrained. And human pride cannot be restrained apart from the indwelling work of the Spirit of God who humbles us. The serpent of pride dwells in each of our hearts and it's deadly venom seeks to poison our heart. It's a venom that will spew forth from our tongue often when we speak. It's a venom that will animate haughty eyes to look down on other people. It's what produces the swagger that we see in our culture. The psalmist says in Psalm 75 and verse five, "Do not speak with insolent pride." And yet that is the very opposite of what we see in our culture. Rather, as Peter tells us and he had to learn this the hard way, in First Peter five, beginning in verse five, he says, "clothe yourselves with humility toward one another for God as opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time." Beloved, you must understand that God hates pride above all other sins. In fact, haughty eyes is the first example of the seven evils that God hates that are listed in Proverbs six, verses 16 through 17. In Proverbs 16 verse five states quote, "Everyone who was proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Assuredly, he will not be unpunished." The same pride that ruled Lucifer and caused him to be cast out of heaven was passed on to Adam and Eve in the garden. We know that it came in the shape of what was probably a magnificent looking lizard, and tempted them to be like God by merely eating the forbidden fruit. And as a result, that lizard was cursed to slither on its belly and eat dust all of the days of its life; a common figure for personal humiliation that's used elsewhere in Scripture, and ultimately, he would be destroyed by the seed of the woman. And we also know that our first parents were also cursed as well as all creation.

Dear friends, as we look at this passage, may I humbly, but forthrightly ask you to examine your own heart. The deceptive nature of pride is so powerful. It is pride that fuels the lusts of our heart. It is pride that separates friends and families. It is pride that destroys marriages. It is pride that enters into a church and disrupts it and breaks fellowship. And it is pride that turns to rage and violence when it is wounded. And frankly, it is pride that is ultimately destroying our country. Because we live in a country that will not humble itself before the one true God. Nevertheless, self-seeking, self-serving pride is truly the hallmark of our society. We see it in the LGBTQ pride parades where the most depraved amongst us celebrate the grossest kinds of immorality. They flaunt it, in God's face. That which God considers an abomination. We see it in the whole woke movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, Antifa, the social justice warriors that are so proud they're quite confident that they know how to produce utopia in the world today. If you will only succumb to their demands, so they alone are the self-appointed social redeemers. We certainly see this kind of pride in our corrupt, narcissistic, immoral political leaders who demand that we bow to their every wish. We see it in many pulpits were predatory preachers are so arrogant that they will distort the Word of God and add their own touch on things to somehow attract the masses and then demand to be praised and obeyed and lavishly compensated.

And dear friends, we see it in ourselves. The tendency towards self-love, self-worship, self-promotion, self-interest. It lies dormant within our hearts. And if we're not careful, it will demand obedience. And it will bring misery and destruction into our life. And the world in which we live offers every imaginable form of temptation to allow the full expression of our pride. I always go back to the two dominant ways of tempting us to manifest our pride, our Facebook and pocketbooks. Endless opportunities to sound off and show off. And for this reason, we're warned in first John two beginning in verse 15, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world." And sadly, the unregenerate laugh at all of this, they scoff at us in their unrestrained egotism, in their self-righteousness they oppose God who poses them and their pride. In Isaiah chapter two, God warned the people of the horrific and unparallel judgments that he's going to pour out upon the nations of the world during the time of the tribulation, the pre-kingdom judgments that we are now awaiting, just before His return. We read in Isaiah two beginning in verse 11, "The proud look of man will be abased and the loftiness of man will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who was proud and lofty, and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased." And then in verse 17, he says this, "The pride of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men will be abased." Now, of all people, Christ's disciples should have learned this lesson well. They should have learned the importance of conquering their pride, and putting on the garments of humility, but at this stage in their life, in their ministries, we see that they had a long way to go. And what they must learn is that greatness in the eyes of God does not come through self-advancement, or through self-promotion. But it comes through self-sacrifice, and servanthood. Principles, the world rejects and many Christians as well. Like the disciples in our text, we will all do well to examine our life under the penetrating truths of Scripture, for indeed the Word of God is a living word. It's active and sharper than any two-edged sword, it pierces through the very core of who we are and exposes us.

Now, let me remind you of the historical context once again. From his miracles to his parables, Jesus has demonstrated that he is who he said he was, that is the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy, who had come to offer himself officially and finally as the king of the Messianic Kingdom, in exact fulfillment of all of those prophecies. But this offer was conditioned upon national repentance. As we studied some last week, as indicated in passages like Leviticus 26:40 through 42, and Luke 9:19, 41, through 44. But tragically, the Pharisees, representing all of Israel, rejected the fullest possible revelation of the Messiah. Now after accusing Jesus of casting out demons, by the power of Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons, as we read in Matthew 12, the unpardonable sin, as it's often caused, Jesus announced the building of a new ecclesia, which he called "my church," in Matthew 16 verse 15. And throughout this season of his ministry, he will describe the mystery form, which the kingdom will assume, during the interregnum; an interval when a kingdom does not have a ruler. In this case, the interregnum would intervene between His death and His Second Coming as King of kings. We live in it now, in the church age. But it was only after the Pharisees rejection, and on the heels of that, Peter's confession, that Jesus was indeed, the Son of God, the Lord, the Messiah. It was only after that, that Jesus began to clearly describe his suffering, and death and resurrection. Matthew 16, verse 21, "From that time, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day." And as we look at the flow of the Gospel accounts, we see that it was immediately on the heels of all of this, to assure the disciples that he would return and fulfill his promises regarding a coming kingdom, he transfigured himself on a mountain, before Peter, James and John. He allowed the effulgence of His glory to beam forth in a way that was absolutely astounding, so that they could see His glory, because that was a preview of the glory that He would display at His second coming. It portended the glory that Jesus described in Matthew 24 and verse 30, the glory of "'the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.'" So now Jesus is making his final journey to Jerusalem.

We pick it up in verse 32, of Mark 10, "They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed and those who followed were fearful." Again, they know that he is heading into the lion's den in Jerusalem. Verse 33, he says to them, "'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him. And three days later, he will rise again.'" And remember, during this final journey, Jesus gave them the parable of the pounds in Luke chapter 19, a parable that describes a nobleman who went away to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. And this would not only correct the disciples misunderstanding that the kingdom would come immediately, but it would also make it clear that there would be an interregnum, there would be an interval of delay, followed by a future arrival. And it was also on this final journey that Jesus promised that those disciples would even share in the rule of His coming Kingdom. We read about this in Matthew 19:28, "'Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me in the regeneration,'" referring to the millennial kingdom, '"when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'"

But, Christ's ministry in preparation for the interregnum also included ethical instructions regarding how they were to function, how they were to behave, how they were to live for His glory until he returned, especially emphasizing the need for this self-denial and servanthood. Matthew 16:24 He said, "'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.'" And Mark chapter nine, verse 35, we read, Sitting down, he called the twelve, and said to them, 'If anyone wants to be first he shall be last of all, and servant of all.'" And then we see in Mark chapter 10, with Jesus encounter with the rich young ruler consumed with self-worship. There we see a living illustration of this very thing; a man who used his wealth to somehow promote himself, to empower himself, to gratify his flesh. A man who refused to embrace the true cost of discipleship and the self-surrender it involved. However, even with all of these instructions, all of these parables, all of these warnings and even though they were amazed, the text says, as he's walking ahead of them towards Jerusalem, even though they were afraid, as they witnessed him resolutely doing his father's will, going to his death, they could not free themselves from their self-serving pride. And Jesus knew it. And in his great love, he is going to do something about it, as he continues to do in my life, and in yours. As we look at this text, I wish to draw your attention to three overlapping principles of pride that will serve as a vivid contrast to the selfless humility that the Lord requires. Because it is through selfless humility that we become great in the eyes of God. Not in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God.

Now notice again, what happens, verse 35, of Mark 10, "James and John, the two sons of Zebedee," and they come, "up to Jesus saying, 'Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.' And He said to them, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' And they said to Him, 'Grant that we may sit, one on Your right hand and one on Your left in Your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?' They said to Him, 'We are able.' And Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.'"

The first principle that we see, dear friends, is number one: pride is always fueled by selective hearing. Jesus had repeatedly warned them about the need for self- denial and cross-bearing. Anyone who wishes to follow after me needs to step down off of the throne of his life. And follow me as the sovereign of his or her life; renounce your former self, break away from your former way of life that's dishonoring to God, surrender your plans and ambitions and your will and submit yourself wholly to my plan and my purposes, all of which I am revealing to you through my spirit and through His Word. If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last and servant of all. And think about this. He has just told them about his betrayal, his arrest, his trial, his crucifixion, his death, and His resurrection. And you can almost hear Jesus say, "and you're obsessed about your own personal status in the kingdom? Are you kidding me?" That's a paraphrase, by the way. No, dear friends, pride only hears what it wants to hear. How many times do you all sit in this audience and you hear things you don't want to hear? And so you no longer hear it? How many times have we been warned and instructed about spiritual realities, about God's plan of salvation, about God's sovereignty and salvation?....I don't want to hear that. God's principles for male and female role relationships....I don't want to hear that. How to enjoy the fullness of God's blessing in your life, the things that we need to avoid, the things we need to do, the things we need to put off and put on? But no, we only hear what we want to hear. We only believe what we want to believe. And there is this pervasive attitude in each of our hearts that basically says, "Don't confuse me with the facts, my way or the highway."

Paul warned about this in Second Timothy four beginning in verse three. And this certainly summarizes what we see in apostate evangelicalism today. He says, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves, teachers in accordance to their own desires. And they will turn away their ears from the truth and they will turn aside unto myths." You see, all the disciples could hear was this, "Jesus is the Messiah, and he's going to bring in the kingdom." And that's all they could hear. Therefore, I better put my name in the hat so I can be selected. So I can have a high place in the kingdom. That's what was driving them. Remember, Peter, James and John had witnessed the manifestation of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, something that would, would have been exhilarating, beyond words to have a little glimpse of the Shekinah glory of the living God. But almost immediately thereafter, we read this in Mark 9:31, "He was teaching His disciples and telling them, 'The Son of Man has to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.'" And then we have this remarkable statement, "But they did not understand the statement, and they were afraid to ask Him." You see, we tend to suppress those things we fear. We tend to suppress those things we don't want to hear. As we read in Romans one and verse 18, how sinners "suppress the truth of God, in unrighteousness." A dying Messiah would dash all of their hopes and all of their dreams, they didn't want to hear that.

In Luke nine, beginning of verse 44, Luke puts it this way, "'Let these words sink into your ears,'" this is Jesus speaking now, '"For the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.' But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them, so that they would not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about the statement." I mean, what's going on there? Well, I believe it is this, out of our Lord's great love, Jesus withheld from them the full meaning and implications of this revelation. Although his death was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, Jesus knew they couldn't handle it, because of their pride. He knew their sinful proclivity to hear only what they wanted to hear. He understood the self-serving, self-seeking power of pride in their hearts that would soon be manifested in their jealousy towards one another, as they enter into a competition to see who's going to be first in the kingdom. So he would need to soften the blow of his coming departure, by "concealing," the word is; concealing the full impact of it from them all at once. You know, as I was thinking about this, I am so thankful that the Lord doesn't reveal all of my sin at one time, aren't you? I couldn't handle it. But rather he patiently and gently exposes it, in his own timing and in his own way.

But as we see in our text, the self-serving pride of the disciples was still too strong to fully embrace the truth of Jesus death, and the self-denying, cross-bearing sacrifices that that would require of them. You know, many people come to the gospel, they come to Jesus with the same type of attitude. They don't count the cost of discipleship, all they hear is a get out of hell free card, right? That's all they want. Man, where do I sign up for this deal? And yet Jesus said in Luke 14 beginning of verse 28, "'which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?'" verse 31, he says, "'Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?'" You see, the disciples believe the road to self-fulfillment was through self-advancement, and not self-sacrifice.

So first of all, we see that pride is fueled by selective hearing. Secondly, pride ignores the needs of others. Jesus has just told him that he must suffer and die. Again, in verse 33, he predicts is betrayal, his arrest, the phony trials that would come, the crucifixion, his death, his resurrection; they're afraid, they're amazed. But rather than showing sympathy to the Lord, rather than trying to comfort and encourage him, they're preoccupied with their own self-interest. "Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You." Yeah, yeah, I know, you're, you're going to Jerusalem, you're going to be tortured and killed, we don't want to deal with that...we want you to hear us and do something for us. Are we not the same way at times? When we approach the Lord? "Grant that we may sit, one on Your right hand and one on Your left, in Your glory." Why on earth would they possibly say that? Here's why. Because the priority of pride is always personal ambition, and self-fulfillment. The needs of others simply get in the way. Serving Christ is an unwelcomed intrusion. We see this all the time, in our culture, men and women who are so preoccupied, for example, with their careers that they have no time, for their marriage, for their family. I had a conversation with a doctor friend of mine and an attorney friend of mine, both at the same time. And we were chatting about some of the difficulties of their careers and other careers. And the one attorney says, I don't know an attorney that hasn't been divorced at least once. I'm not saying that is true, by the way, but the point is, the enormous amount of hours that many people put into things that are eternally inconsequential eventually destroys marriages and families.

Think of how pride can even work in our own heart, where we just don't see the needs of others in the church. The husband who never offers to help his wife, the mother who never has time to really sit down and instruct her children. Those that will never stay to help clean up after meals. Let somebody else do it. Those who won't volunteer to come and help when the church needs cleaning or work. Those who will never help others to move or bring meals. Yeah, we're too busy. No, you're not, you're too proud. You're too lazy. You're too selfish. You're too self-absorbed. Because the priority of pride is always personal ambition and self-fulfillment, the opposite of humility, the key to greatness in the eyes of God. Beloved, humility is a virtue that God honors and God blesses. And it's so hard for us, I admit it's easier for me to preach it than to live it.

In Micah chapter six, beginning in verse eight, "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Now as a footnote, James and John's mother was, Solome, the sister of Mary, Jesus mother. Therefore, James, and John are Jesus first cousins. Jesus named them Sons of Thunder, probably because of their intense fiery personalities. And I find it interesting as you think about it, Mark, who's writing this was not there to see these things. But we know that Peter was discipling him. And Peter knew these things full well. And so he's helping by the power of the Spirit to instruct John to write what we are studying. And later on, we know that both of these dear brothers in Christ, learned the lessons of humility the hard way. We know for example, that James was the first apostle to die. He was beheaded by Herod Agrippa, around 44 AD in Palestine, not far from where he was a local missionary to the Jewish people in Judea. And John later on became the author of five books, the Gospel of John for second, third John and the book of Revelation. And what's interesting is when you read his accounts, he always referred to himself in the third person and described himself as the one, "the disciple whom Jesus loved." We also know of his humility that came later on while on the cross. We know that Jesus entrusted John with the care of his mother. And historians believe that Mary eventually died in Ephesus, under the direct care of John and after suffering on the Isle of Patmos, John would be the last of the apostles to die, the only one to die, we believe, of natural causes. We believe that happened at Ephesus, sometime around AD 98, during the reign of Trajan.

But prior to the humbling trials, in their sanctification, both James and John and others, were ruled by pride, by selfish ambition, self-fulfillment, they had not yet learned what the Apostle Paul would describe later on and Ephesians chapter four, you're familiar with the passage beginning in verse one. He says, "I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love." And he said, In Philippians, two, beginning in verse three, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another is more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard a quality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." There is the humbling.

But then notice the exaltation. He goes on to say, “For this reason, also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Dear Christian, the pathway to greatness, in the eyes of God, will always be a steep, a narrow, a windy, a treacherous trail of self-sacrifice and servanthood. But at the summit, there will be eternal glory beyond your wildest imagination. This is what we long for. You want to ask yourself, Is this the path that I have chosen? Is this the trail that I pursue? Or am I a legend in my own mind?

Pride is fueled by selective hearing. Pride ignores the needs of others and then thirdly, pride uses God for self-advancement. Notice again, verse 35, James and John. They come "up to Jesus saying, 'Teacher, we want You to do for us, whatever we ask of You." That's one of the most arrogant statements in all of Scripture. Notice the demanding nature that is inherent in the request. But is this not also the way we are prone to use God for our own ends? As if Jesus is somehow our servant, the means to accomplish our good pleasure; that somehow God exists for me? Is this not at the very heart of evangelical pragmatism, that essentially is a man centered theology, that somehow God is there to orbit around my needs. And certainly, this is at the heart of the heretical social justice gospel, prosperity gospel as well. The gospel is all about man and his needs, rather than God and his glory. Jesus becomes nothing more for many people, than a genie in a bottle, that you can somehow rub and he'll pop out and do whatever you want him to do. Or a Santa Claus that you can manipulate in certain ways, so that he will hand out the goodies. Or a divine social justice warrior that wants to redeem the planet, from white, patriarchal, Christian men and produce some preconceived utopia. Dear friends, please hear me. God will never use you or bless you, if you use him to somehow accomplish your own ends. That's just not how it works, even though our flesh would say otherwise.

So indeed, out of pride, they use God to advance themselves, "Teacher, we want You to do for us, whatever we ask of You." Rather than saying, "Teacher we want to do for you, whatever you ask, for our good and your glory." Bit of a difference, right? But is this not a deep-seated propensity in each of our hearts? Is this not the manipulative theme very often in our prayers? It's interesting, according to Matthew's account, the mother of James and John was with them when they approached Jesus. So there was somehow a little collaborative effort going on, they were probably playing the family card, you know how that would work. You know, the self-serving arrogance of parental pride is often manifested in the brazen attempts parents will go to, to exalt their children. All you have to do is go to these youth games and see how parents act and see that. I remember when our kids were little and we took them to the youth basketball teams, you'd watch parents make fools out of themselves. It was so bad that, I'm not making this up, they literally had sheriff's deputies escort the refs out of the games at the end of the game to protect them from the parents. This was the power of pride.

Back to the text, Jesus says to them, "'What do you want Me to do?'" And they said, "Grant that we may set on Your right and one on Your left in Your glory." See, again beloved, this is the deceptive power of self-advancement in the human heart, even among those who love Christ. These men weren't some pagan nut jobs. I mean, these people love Christ, they're trying to follow Christ. In other words, we want you to glorify us because somehow we believe we deserve it. I mean, that's literally what they're saying. Our glory is ultimately the end of our aspirations. And we want you to help us accomplish that. Rather than realizing, as they did later, that nothing about them deserved his grace. Nothing deserved his mercy. Beloved, we must remember that God is under no obligation to make us great, but rather, God rewards those who can sincerely sing, as we often do, in this worship center, "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, come I to thee for dress, bless helpless look to the for grace. Foul, eye to the fountain fly, wash me Savior, or I die." We must understand that God's purpose in saving us is not to somehow make us happy, although that is a byproduct of it. And certainly we will be happy beyond our wildest imagination in glory. But his primary purpose in saving us, is to bring glory to himself. We are only incidental to his plan to bring glory to himself. We are not the center of God's universe. Christ was our example with this. John 17 says he's praying to the Father before he goes to the cross. In the garden, he says in verse four, "'I have glorified You on the earth, I have finished the work which You have given me to do.'" That's what drove him, that was at the heart of all that he did, to do the will of his Father. The apostle Paul speaks of this as well in First Corinthians 10, verse 31. "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." You see, the great purpose in our sanctification is to conform us into the likeness of Christ, not somehow satisfy our every desire here on Earth. In Second Corinthians three, verse 18, the Spirit of God speaks to us through the Apostle Paul and says that "We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed." There's a metamorphosis that's going on here, as a work of the Spirit of God, as we behold the glory of the Lord. We're being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. And this process of sanctification is indeed a very painful process because it includes the ratification of that self-serving pride that deceives us into believing that we're worthy of some kind of special treatment from the Lord our God, and therefore we demand it, and we learn how to manipulate it. And then we forfeit blessing in our life.

Now, notwithstanding the solemn truths, James and John, beseech Jesus; Jesus says to them, "'You do not know,'" verse 38, "'what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?'" In this context, by the way, that is an Old Testament idiom, referring to the experiencing God's judgment. In other words, are you able to experience God's judgment as I'm about to do? He goes on to say, "'or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?'" The term here has nothing to do with water baptism, but rather the immersion into his sufferings. Are you willing to do that? Can you handle that? Humility would say, "No way." But pride says "we're able." Two empty naive ignorant words, right? We're able, we can handle it. Yeah, what happened when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the garden? They all ran like scalded dogs right? Oh, how hollow the boast of an overconfident fool. But of course, pride only hears what it wants to hear. It only believes what it wants to believe. Because the priority of pride is always personal ambition and self-fulfillment.

"Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I drink, you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.'" And we know, as we've already discussed, their lives were a mixture of joy and sorrow, all for the glory of Christ. Then he says in verse 40, "'But to sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those whom it has been prepared.'" In other words, these matters belong to the secret counsel and purposes of God the Father. And in his incarnation, Jesus was totally submissive to His Father's will.

And then what happens next is both sad and a bit comical. Verse41, "Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John." So in other words, they're hearing this whole thing, and we see that they feel indignant. Now, this indignation was not because "Oh, our brothers are so ruled by self-serving pride, I can't believe they said that." No, they were indignant because they beat them to the punch. They were filled with the same selfish ambition. Just because you're his cousin's? Yeah, you can you can see how that works. You know, again, this has been an ongoing problem back in nine, Mark nine, verse 33, "They came to Capernaum; and when Jesus was in the house, He began to question them, 'What were you discussing on the way?' But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another, which of them was the greatest." And folks, this problem went all the way into the Last Supper, Luke 22, verse 24, "There arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest." But notice what Jesus does. Verse 42, I love this phrase, "Calling them to Himself." By implication, they're spread out; they're murmuring, they're grumbling, they're whining. Wherever there's jealousy in Scripture, we also see another word right next to it. It's called strife. So they're divided. They're huffing and puffing. And you can just see Jesus saying, Hey, guys, I want all of you to come here. I want you to gather round where you will come to me right now. "Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, 'You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them.'" Certainly, they knew that, we're all familiar with that. I mean, you give people political power, and they turn into, you know, Barney Fife. You know, they've got a bullet and a badge. Everybody's in jail. You know, they're throwing their weight around. They become control freaks, omniscient, domineering autocrats. When you look at some of our leaders today, I mean, we got barmaids drag queens, every kind of pervert imaginable, but they've all got the answers and we're all supposed to bow to them.

Verse 43, "'But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant.'" "Diakonos," in the original language, we got our word "deacon" from there. It literally referred to one who waits on tables. Guys, are you willing to be that kind of person. And by the way, you will remember Jesus put a apron on himself and washed their feet. He went on to say in verse 44, "and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be a slave of all.'" "Doulos." Not just a servant, but a slave. You see, true leadership, and true greatness in the eyes of God, is characterized by a humble willingness to not only serve, but catch this, to place yourself under the authority, as it were, of others, like a slave. There's no place for self-worship. There's no place for self-love. There's no place for self-promotion or self-fulfillment. Those are the marks of pride which God hates.

And then Jesus uses himself as the supreme example, verse 45, "'For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.'" And of course, washing his disciples feet in the upper room was an illustration of that. But the greatest illustration of all is when he offered his life as a ransom, for each one of us. You're ransomed, because somehow you're imprisoned. And you might say he's paying the bail for those who needs to be released from the bondage of their self-serving pride and all of the rest of the sins.

And the key to what Jesus is saying is summarized best by the two verbs that we see here, that he uses "to serve" and "to give." When we do this, we manifest the essence of God, and bring glory to the one who deserves our utmost. Folks, this is true greatness in the eyes of God; when we serve and we give. So I challenge you to examine your life under the great truths of God's righteous standard, be brutally honest with yourself. Beware, it's easy to tout your humility, which is pride. I've known many who project the image of perpetual sackcloth and ashes. But you get to know them and you see there's something else going on there. I've known many men, whose prayers drip with a sweet honey of self-abasement. But in private, they have no prayer life. Those who know them best, know that they are arrogant, demanding, demeaning men. May we all learn to humble ourselves for the glory of God to serve and to give and to know that the Lord will prosper us in time? The Lord will exalt us at the proper time. Because again, this is how we become great in the eyes of God, amen? Amen. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that so clearly expose the realities of our heart. I pray that you will help us all as we battled the flesh. And we know that we can only do this by walking by the Spirit, which means to surrender to the Spirit of God holy completely, as he has revealed himself in his Word. May we be that kind of person, that you may be honored in our life and that we might enjoy the fullness of all that is ours in Christ. And finally, Lord, if there'll be one here today that knows nothing of what it means to truly be in relationship with Christ, having been reconciled to God through faith in their Savior, the only hope of their salvation. I pray that you will bring such overwhelming conviction that today they will bow the knee to Christ and be saved. We ask this in Jesus name, and for His glory. Amen.

For those of you that have not been with us, we are currently going through Mark's gospel verse by verse. And this morning we find ourselves in verses 32 and 34 of Mark 10. So, if you will take your Bibles and turn there. And this morning, I've been titled my discourse to you "Christ's Ministry of Prophetic Preparation." As we watch our country collapse under the weight of its own depravity, it's important for we, as Christians, to have a biblical worldview. We are told in First John 5:19, that "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" and we see that manifested every single day. We see his nefarious deceptions being implemented primarily through theological and political liberalism that has brought on a very virulent stream of Cultural Marxism. In fact, the woke cult is now the official religion of our culture. And we are all supposed to bow to it. Its demonic priests are among the most immoral and ungodly in our country, including transgenders and drag queens that are nothing more than painted up pedophile perverts trying to seduce our children and many apostate churches have embraced this insanity. Our responsibility, in light of all this, is to have a biblical worldview and live it out. And at the very heart of that, we must not only understand the gospel, but we must proclaim it and all of its power, with all of its clarity, and even with its offense. Moreover, we must live the gospel. And my responsibility before the Lord is to make sure I am equipping you to do just that, to make sure you have a biblical worldview. And our text this morning, along with a number of associated passages will help us see the big picture of God's Kingdom purposes, it's easy to come to a passage like we're going to look at and just kind of read it and grasp some great truths that emerge from it, and not see how it fits into not only the immediate historical context, but into the overall context of God's redemptive purposes. In our violent world of deception and perversion, and corruption the truth concerning what God has done, is doing and will do, is certainly a treasure of inestimable worth. In fact, the eternal destiny of men's souls depends upon it. And what we are going to see is that our God reigns in absolute sovereignty, and we can rest assured that he will accomplish his good purposes in his time. With that, let me read our text Mark, chapter 10, verse 32, "They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed and those who followed were fearful. And again, He took the 12 aside and He began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, saying, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him and scourge Him and kill Him. And three days later, He will rise again."

Now I wish to explain this passage under two headings that I hope will be helpful to you. The first heading is we want to look at the historical and theological contexts of Jesus prophecy in this particular passage. And secondly, we want to look at the specifics and fulfillments of Jesus prophecy. So let me begin, first of all, giving you the big picture of the historical and theological context of what Jesus is saying. There is a historical flow to the biblical storyline, as we see it unfold throughout Scripture and throughout history. It can be divided into four categories, we see that there is a creation, then there is a fall, there's redemption, and there's restoration. At creation, God made a magnificent and a perfect universe. At the fall, Satan deceived his image bearers, and they sinned. And as a result, God cursed them and all creation, and death enters into the world. Through redemption, God implements a plan, through His promises, and through his covenants, whereby he will restore his creation, through the person and the work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the final big category is one of restoration that we all are longing for. This plan includes the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, as a means of blessing to all of the nations, they would become the vessels through whom the Savior, the King, the Messiah would eventually come. He would be the rightful descendant of Abraham and David, thus fulfilling the Abrahamic and the Davidic covenants. And Jesus came as a literal fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies predicting a Messiah that would come and would one day rule over a worldwide kingdom. As we read, for example, in Zechariah, 14 in verse nine when "the LORD will be king over all the earth," but he would also suffer for the sins of the people, as we have read and Isaiah 53 earlier. And as we look at the big picture, we see that these purposes will be accomplished through two distinct arrivals, two "comings", a truth not clearly revealed in the Old Testament, but made abundantly clear in the New Testament. Scripture reveals that his suffering for sin on the cross was fulfilled in his first coming consistent with Old Testament prophecy. But the Old Testament prophets, concerning his worldwide reign, have yet to occur. For example, the prophecies related to the pre kingdom judgments of Daniel's 70th week as we would read in Daniel 9:27, the day of the Lord, the salvation and restoration of Israel, the reign and the defeat of the Antichrist, the millennial kingdom, all of these events are awaiting a second coming. And we can anticipate a literal fulfillment of all of the Old Testament prophecies and promises. Jesus made this abundantly clear. In Matthew five beginning in verse 17, he said, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets," that's a reference to the Hebrew Scriptures as a whole, including all of its prophecies. "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished."

Jesus illustrated a literal fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in his prophetic discourse, for example, in Matthew 24 and 25. To give you one example, in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 15, Jesus declared, "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation," now catch this, "which was spoken up through Daniel the prophet," when you see that "standing in the holy place, (let the reader understand) then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains," and so on. And we also know that Jesus prophecy, in the text that we have before us, concerning his betrayal, his arrest, his trials, his crucifixion, his death, and resurrection, were all fulfilled literally. And it's fascinating that all of these details and many more, were promised, were prophesied in the Old Testament. In fact, Luke records Jesus speaking to His disciples, and Luke 18:31, about quote, "all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man, that would be accomplished." And for this reason, I am committed to the consistent use of a grammatical, historical hermeneutic principle of interpretation in all areas of Scripture, including the prophetic sections, I am only concerned with the original, authorial intent of every passage. I'm only concerned with what the original readers would have understood through the normal meaning of language.

And I might add, by doing this, it avoids the theological confusion, especially in the realm of eschatology, where many Christians look for hidden or allegorical meanings in the prophetic literature. Spiritualizing the prophetic literature has led to the errant belief, for example, that the church is the new Israel, that despite all of God's promises, to the contrary, he has permanently disenfranchised his covenant people Israel from his redemptive program, and he has replaced them with his church, that somehow all of the material and physical blessings of the kingdom promises that he made to Old Testament Israel are really nothing more than spiritual blessings that belong to the church. And I believe that these claims run contrary to the revocable nature of divine election. For example, in Romans 11 in verse one, Paul says, "I say then God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!" He goes on to say in verse 25, "For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery--so that you will not be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB, THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.'" And then he says in verse 29, "for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." All of this is important for us to understand, as we approach Jesus prophecy here in Mark 10, especially as it relates to the chronology of Jesus's ministry. And I hope you will bear with me here. Sometimes as I put together my thoughts for the sermons I get finished and think, "Oh, my goodness, they're going to be so lost with all of this Lord, only you can illumine them, and help them to endure this." But dear friends, I believe that this is very important, you may not understand it all now; you may have to go back and listen to it, but this is absolutely foundational to a biblical worldview.

Now, the immediate context; the chronological flow of these historical narratives that we've been studying in the gospels can easily get lost when you just study one gospel at a time. For example, Matthew, Mark and Luke do not record the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and the subsequent decision of the Sanhedrin to put Jesus to death. And how, after that Jesus and his disciples took refuge for a few quiet weeks in a small village of Ephraim, awaiting the time when quote, "All things should be fulfilled." Yet you need to understand that this took place before the texts before us, before what Jesus prophesied. And this is really important. You see, no one knew where Jesus was after the raising of Lazarus. Although everyone was looking for him, and the question that was on everyone's mind is recorded in John 11, verses 55 and six, Do you think this Jesus of Nazareth will have the courage to come up to the feast, referring to the Feast of Passover?

Now, during the Passover season, great throngs of pilgrims, Jewish pilgrims, would leave the northern region of Israel, the region of Galilee, and travel south, down to the east side of the Jordan River in the region of Perea. They would do this to avoid Samaria, they would not set foot in Samaria. But Jesus was in Ephraim, on the southern boundary of Samaria. So, as Passover grew near, what we see is Jesus and his disciples leave the village of Ephraim, and travel north through Samaria. They could have just gone south, just a little ways to Jerusalem, but instead they go north through Samaria, because there's no Jews there. Therefore, he could avoid arrest. And he goes to the south edge of the Galilee, as we read in Luke 17, and verse 11. And then he crosses over the Jordan Rift, the little town basically of Pella. They cross over, and he joins one of the large pilgrim bands going south through Perea. Eventually, then, they will go south, and they will turn back west, they will cross the Jordan River at Jericho, a number of you have been with me, we've been on this trail before. And they will start to make about a 20 mile climb of 3500 feet up to Jerusalem. Now we know that Jesus and the disciples then stop at the village of Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem, stay with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and the ecstatic pilgrims continue on to find lodging. And there's many things that they heard and saw, miracles that Jesus did during that journey. Many parables that he spoke, but they're going to go on into Jerusalem, where they are going to announce that the king is coming. And they're going to describe the miracles that they saw that they witnessed on the way.

Now it's an also important for us to understand that Jesus is orchestrating all of this. He's moving it towards a high point, a climax on the day of His triumphal entry, by traveling with the Jewish pilgrims. By working these miracles, by rebuking the Pharisees during that journey, and then by stopping in Bethany and allowing the pilgrims to proceed on before him into Jerusalem, he really accomplished three objectives. The first objective that he accomplishes is that somebody is going to spread the word that he is going to appear in Jerusalem. Secondly, he fueled the fires of messianic expectation that would pave the way for his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And then thirdly, he frustrated the murderous plans of the Sanhedrin, making them afraid to arrest him because of his enormous popularity. Albeit it was a superficial and self-serving popularity that would soon turn to rejection of their king; and the same people would call for his crucifixion. His triumphal entry, you must understand, was a day of Messianic presentation foretold by the Old Testament prophets, predicting the manner, the moment and even the meaning of the King's presentation. In Zechariah nine verse nine, we have the prediction of the manner of the King's presentation, it's foretold. The prophet says "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph O, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey." In Daniel nine and verse 25, we even have the moment of the king's presentation being foretold. There we read "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks." This is a reference to weeks of years. Without getting into all of the details, suffice it to say, that this is speaking of 483 years, after the Persian king, Artaxerxes, decreed to allow the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem in 445 BC. The first advent of Messiah would then be fulfilled at his triumphal entry that occurred on Nissan nine AD 30, precisely as it was predicted. As a prophetic footnote, 69 weeks of those years have been fulfilled. There is one more seven-year period yet to be fulfilled. It's known as Daniel's 70th week that corresponds with the pre kingdom tribulation judgments, just prior to our Lord's Second Coming.

And Psalm 118, beginning in verse 21, even tells us of the meaning of the king's presentation, There we read, "I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered me, and You have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad." Furthermore, both Mark and Luke state that he will, quote, "Be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again." That's Mark 8:31, and Luke 9:22. In fact, in Mark 8:32, Mark expresses how Jesus is now quote, "stating the matter plainly." Now there's no more ambiguity. And you will recall when he states the matter, plainly, what does Peter do? Peter said, no, no, no, no, you can't do that. Jesus says, "Get behind Me, Satan." Now, the question that stands before us is simply this. Why would Jesus avoid stating these matters clearly, in the early stages of his ministry? After all, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, are absolutely central to the gospel, and the history of the church. Moreover, if the church and the kingdom of heaven are essentially indistinguishable, one in the same, as some will argue, and if the kingdom and quote "the gospel of the kingdom," Mark 1:14, is merely a spiritual entity, as many claim, then why didn't Jesus and his disciples emphasize the cross from the outside of their ministry? Why would Jesus begin his public preaching, recorded in Matthew 4:17, by saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand?" Why didn't he say, "Repent, For the kingdom of heaven, is at hand and it is a spiritual kingdom, that I am going to offer you through my death and my burial and my resurrection." Why did he not do that? And the answer is this, dear friends, is because Jesus first offered himself as the promised king of the messianic kingdom in exact fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. You will remember, originally, the good news of the kingdom was announced only to Israel. John one in verse 11, "He came to His own," referring to the people of Israel, "and those who were His own did not receive Him." In fact, prior to Israel's rejection, Jesus would not even allow His disciples to go into the region of the Gentiles and the Samaritans. But he said, Go only quote "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand,'" Matthew 10, verses five and six.

But the promised kingdom to Israel, God's chosen covenant people, demanded a decision and we see this when we read the imperatives that Jesus uses in calling them to repentance. We read verbs like repent, believe, receive, confess, follow, yet at every turn, despite all of his miraculous signs, they rejected him. Now, to be sure, Jesus atoning work on the cross, as predicted in the Old Testament, was necessary for both cosmic and human reconciliation to occur. We know that Jesus according to Acts 2:23, was "delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God." We know according to Revelation 13, in verse eight that the Lamb was slain prior to the foundation of the world, all of this was set into motion in eternity past. So, Jesus's death was going to happen, it was not a plan B, as some would claim. But to emphasize his betrayal, and his arrest and his phony trials, and his crucifixion and death and resurrection, at the outset of his messianic presentation, would have been horribly confusing to them. They could not imagine a suffering and dying Messiah. Emil Schurer, a 19th century German Protestant theologian, wrote an elaborate four volume history of the Jews around the time of Jesus ministry. And I might add that all of you who are serious Bible students, and want to be teachers, you absolutely must have this in your library, and you must become familiar with it. It's absolutely fascinating and it will enlighten you as to how the people thought in those days. But in these volumes, especially in one volume, he provides a systematic statement of Messianic doctrinal theology regarding the eschatological expectations of the Jewish people in the days of Jesus. In other words, this is how they thought, and I've summarized this very briefly, first of all, they believe the Messiah's appearance of redemption must be preceded by a special period of trouble and affliction, what he called the last tribulation and perplexity. Secondly, they believe that Elijah will return as the forerunner to prepare the way of the Messiah. Thirdly, they believed that Messiah will appear and overthrow the...(inaudible in transcription)... correct the disciples misunderstanding that the kingdom would come immediately. Because remember, I mean, even in the upper room, right around that time, what are they fighting over? Who's going to be first in the kingdom. You know, they're thinking even with all that Jesus is saying, the kingdom is coming now. That parable refutes that. But it also makes it clear that there is going to be an interregnum, there is going to be an interval of delay, followed by a future arrival. So, there you have a very hurried historical and theological context of Jesus prophecy that we have here in Mark 10.

Let's look finally at the specifics and fulfillments of Jesus prophecy. Notice verse 32. "They were on the road going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed. And those who followed were fearful." Can't you see the scene? They know that Jesus is walking into a death trap. They're terrified. They don't know what's going to happen. The disciples are terrified. And Jesus is on up ahead of them, in that steep 3500 foot climb over 20 miles. He was resolute was he not? In his determination to accomplish the will of his Father. He was unflinchingly committed to finishing his atoning work on the cross. To bear my sins, your sins in his body, as our substitute.

We read this in the Messiah soliloquy about being perfected through his obedience and his suffering recorded by Isaiah the prophet. Some years before in Isaiah 50 beginning in verse five we read this "The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back. I gave My back to those who strike Me and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord God helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. He who vindicates Me is near; Who will contend with Me?" And what's amazing is that these specifics recorded 800 years prior are the same specific that Jesus gives here in Mark 10.

Now notice them, verse 32, "And again He took the 12 aside and He began to tell them what was going to happen to Him." And what we're going to see is that Jesus makes eight very specific predictions concerning his suffering, his death and his resurrection in verses 33 and 34. A real quick, important digression, just so you know, this is all setting up the Passion Week of Christ. On Sunday, Jesus is going to enter the city of Jerusalem on a colt and be welcomed as king on Monday and Tuesday. He is going to enter the temple, he is going to cleanse it and for two days he is going to rule its precincts as the Messiah King, and he is going to answer the charges leveled against him, denounce the scribes and the Pharisees in a series of woes, and pronounce judgment on all who reject Him. And then he will leave the temple, he will go up to the Mount of Olives where he will answer the disciple's questions concerning his appearance, his coming, known as the Olivet Discourse. We read about it in Matthew 24 and 25, Mark 13, Luke 12:21. And there he predicts, as well, the destruction of Jerusalem and his own second coming. And then on Wednesday, there's really nothing recorded, but we believe that he's probably in Bethany with the 12, worshipping and fellowshipping with Lazarus, preparing for the feast on the following day. And then on Thursday afternoon and evening, he will wash the disciples feet, he will enjoy his last supper Passover meal with his disciples. Judas will leave and go to betray him and then on Friday morning, well before dawn, he will be betrayed, he will be arrested, and He will even be forsaken by the 11. He will suffer three mock trials by the Jews and the Sanhedrin. And sometime after dawn, he will be formally condemned, and then he will endure three more Roman interrogations, Pilate will then surrender to the demands of the Sanhedrin, Jesus will be scourged and executed by crucifixion. And then on Sunday, early in the day he will rise from the dead.

Now, the eight predictions, number one, verse 33, "'Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes.'" This was fulfilled beginning with Judas betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, John 18 three, when the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. And likewise, Mark records this in chapter 14, verse 53, they lead Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together.

The second prediction, "and they will condemn Him to death." This was fulfilled for example, in Mark 14:64, we read, "You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you? And they all condemned him to be deserving of death." John 19, verse 14, "Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover, it was about the sixth hour. And he," referring to Pilate, "said to the Jews, 'Behold your King! So they cried out, "Away with Him, Away with Him, crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, 'Shall I crucify your King?' The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.' So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified."

A third prediction, and they "will hand him over to the Gentiles." Mark 15 verse one, "Early in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole Council, immediately held a consultation; and binding Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate." The reason they had to do this is, they did not have the authority to kill anyone. So they had to let the Romans decide that. And "Pilate questioned Him, 'Are You the King of the Jews?' And He answered him, 'It is as you say.'"

And then the fourth and fifth prediction, "'They will mock Him,'" in verse 34, "'and spit on Him.'" We see this fulfilled later in Mark 15, beginning in verse 17. "They dressed him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him and they began to acclaim Him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' They kept beating His head with a reed and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him. After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him."

Number six, Jesus predicted that they will scourge me. Mark 15, verse 15, "Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged he handed Him over to be crucified." Let me back up. Remember the soldiers have put a purple robe on him mocking his kingship. They put a crown of thorns on his head, they gave him a scepter to mock him as a king and then they took the reed and they beat the thorns into his head, driving them deep into a skull. This beating, combined with the previous beating that he received from the high priests, rendered him at this point, completely unrecognizable as a human being, as predicted in Isaiah 52, verse 14, that we read earlier, that "His appearance was marred more than any man." And in this condition, Pilate brings Jesus out to the Jewish mob hoping that they would see this bloody form and be appeased, but they would not. According to Matthew's account, it would appear then that Jesus was scourged the second time with with a severe "verberatio" flogging it's called, the worst kind. Because Matthew indicates that Jesus was scourged after Barabbas was released, this kind of flogging was the most severe kind. Most men would not recover. In fact, it was once reserved for those that were about to be crucified. It was one that would literally rip the hide off of one's back right down to the ribcage most would bleed to death. It was designed to be so brutal that it would hasten the criminal’s death. May I remind you, dear friends, that he endured the suffering that we deserved.

The sixth prediction was that they would kill him. We know this happened, there was a cry of victory in John 19:30, when he said "'It is finished.'" There was a cry of commitment in Luke 23:46, "'Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit," Mark 15, verse 37, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last."

Then an eighth prediction, "'And three days later, He will rise again.'" Mark 16, verse six, we read that an angel said to the women that had come to the tomb, "'Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.'" The resurrection of Jesus Christ is substantiated by the biblical record of five appearances just on the day of His resurrection, and then five more appearances during his subsequent 40 day ministry. And yet, dear friends, our Lord, our Savior and our King, marched forward to do all of this for us. A resolute determination to accomplish the will of the Father to suffer and die on our behalf. My what a model for us, Amen? Would that we be so resolute in our commitment to do the Father's will?

I challenge you. If you're here today, and you have never really understood the good news of the gospel, that God has provided a way for your sins to be forgiven, for you to be reconciled to a holy God through faith in a suffering Savior who is also our King, today, you have been told. I plead with you to repent, to place your faith in Him, the only hope of your salvation. And for those of us who know and love Christ, o, how we need to rejoice with joy inexpressible as we think of all that God has done and is doing and will do. To know that God is saving and preparing, in the ecclesia, the members of the royal family, destined to rule with the king, when He returns in all of his glory to establish His kingdom, an earthly kingdom, that will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state. And to think that we are part of that nucleus of a future kingdom. May we all be diligent. May we be obedient to pray as Jesus has asked us to pray, "'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.'" Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the magnificent truths of your word that give us a biblical worldview. Truly, your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path, especially in the dark days in which we live. We give you praise for all that you have decreed in eternity past. And we relax in your promises knowing that you will never leave us nor forsake us and that you will accomplish your purposes to bring glory to yourself. What amazing truths and for them we give you thanks. In Jesus name, Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel? We are now in Mark chapter 10 in our verse-by-verse examination of this wonderful gospel that the Spirit of God has given to us through his servant Mark. We will be looking at verses 17 through 31, under the heading "Exposing the Idolatry of Self Worship." Let me read the text to you, Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse 17. "And as He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him and asked Him, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone. You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.' And he said to Him, 'Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.' Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him. And said to him, 'One thing you lack, go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow Me.' But at these words, he was saddened, and he went away, grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus looking around, said to His disciples, 'How hard it will be, for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again, and said to them, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.' They were even more astonished and said to Him, 'Then who can be saved?' Looking at them, Jesus said, 'With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.' Peter began to say to Him, 'Behold, we have left everything and followed You.'' Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake, and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive 100 times as much now in the present age, houses, and brothers and sisters, and mothers, and children's and farms, along with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.'"

Here Jesus exposes the idolatry of self-worship. This is a clever and clandestine idol that is often propped up by material wealth, and the power and the pleasure and the prestige it affords. And I might say, in comparison to the rest of the world, we all fall into the category of the wealthy. Before God called me into pastoral ministry, I spent almost 10 years counseling very affluent people, a lot of them were artists, especially in the Christian music industry. Many well-known Christian leaders. Most were very religious, most claim to be Christian, but by their lifestyles, and their secret reputations, you can see that they really had no basis to claim genuine saving faith. When you seemingly have all that the world has to offer, denying yourself and taking up a cross and following Christ is simply not all that appealing. The rich young ruler, as he's often called, in this text, was probably a leader of the synagogue. He would have been a fastidious keeper of the law and we see here that he was wealthy. And of course, in that culture, wealth was an indication of divine blessing. You were a very special person if you were wealthy. And if you were poor, that's an indication that you got some problems going on, and God's just not as impressed with you. All his externals were in place. But what's fascinating is he obviously knew something was missing. So he comes to Jesus, as we're going to see and says, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And as we look at this text, we can see Jesus' answer to him, and they really fall under four categories that I hope will be helpful for you. He is going to essentially say, number one, you need to know that Jesus is God. Number two, you need to acknowledge violating the law of God. Number three, you need to cast yourself on the mercy of God and finally, joyfully follow Christ in humble obedience. No one can inherit eternal life any other way. And I might add that, we're going to see some very key principles here for evangelism. And sadly, like so many proud people today, this proud young man could not part with his wealth, because it offered him the fleeting pleasures of power, and prestige, the gratification of his lusts; he loved himself more than God.

Now, may I remind you of the context here, having completed His Galilean ministry, Jesus and his disciples are traveling on the eastern side of the Jordan River, the region of Perea and he's making his way to Jerusalem, and ultimately to the cross. And his priority in this particular season of his ministry is to instruct his disciples. And what we're going to see in this particular scenario is one of great instruction for his disciples. And by extension for all of us. You will recall in Mark eight in verse 34, we read, "And he summoned to the crowd with His disciples and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?'" And dear friends, this particular historical narrative, with this rich young synagogue ruler, is a living illustration of these truths. And I would humbly ask you to examine your heart, as we go through this very carefully. You want to ask yourself, what are those things in my life that prevent me from truly loving Christ? Truly following him? What are those things that I love more than Christ? What are those things that I absolutely will not give up because they exalt me more than Christ? What are those things that promote me rather than Christ that gratify me more than Christ, so that I find my greatest joy and my greatest delight in these things of the world rather than in Christ? Those things that you cannot live without, that prevents you from honoring Christ, will cause you to forfeit his blessing in your life.

Now this man ultimately worshipped himself, not God, which was manifested before him in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But as we will see, he didn't really recognize that. And the issue here is not so much, in my humble opinion, his love for money, but rather his love for self. Because his wealth was the primary means by which he could exalt himself, promote himself, gratify his flesh. And what we're going to see here is Jesus is about to expose his self-worship, his idol, verse 17, "As He," referring to Jesus, "was setting out on a journey a man ran up to Him and knelt down before Him." Now, obviously, this man is passionate, right? I mean, he's sincere. And one of the things we must bear in mind is prominent Middle Eastern men do not run up to anybody, and they do not kneel to anybody. To run would require binding up your robes and girding them with some type of a belt. And what you see, even to this day is Middle Eastern men do not run they calmly glide. They kind of float with an air of unruffled dignity, and demeanor of nobility. But this guy runs and he's running through a crowd. Moreover, he kneels before Jesus, this guy that a lot of his buddies hate. "And he asked Him, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'" Obviously, he had no assurance of his salvation. Although he was a careful keeper of the law, he was afraid that he might not be good enough to make the kingdom cut. And I might add that this is true for all unbelievers. They have a nagging guilt, that just maybe what they believe, maybe what they've done, just isn't good enough. And of course, they're right. Now, according to the standards of evangelical pragmatism today, this guy is the quintessential seeker, right? I mean, this is what everybody dreams of. This is what you want in a church service. You want some guy to run up into kneel down, and what must I do to inherit the kingdom, to inherit eternal life? Wow. He's desperate. And so what we read in verse 18, And Jesus said to him, Well, you must make a decision for Christ. That's what you must do. You must repeat the sinner’s prayer. No, no, you must be baptized. No, you must also keep more rules and regulations, and do more rituals. That's what you must do. Or you must do more acts of penance, then you will make the cut. But Jesus saw the man's arrogance, he saw his ignorance. And he knew that first, this man needed to be humbled. He needed to be humbled to the point of planting his face in the dust. He needed to come to the same place where Thomas finally came, as you will recall, when he was able to plant his fingers in the Lord's side and see the nail prints of the hand, and ultimately, say, of Jesus, "My Lord, and my God." This guy was nowhere near that. "'Why do you call Me good?'" Jesus said, Here's his answer. "'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus says, 'Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone.'"

And so this brings us to our first point. Jesus makes this real clear. If you want to inherit eternal life, you must number one, know that Jesus is God. You must understand the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus is going to make it infinitely clear to him that I'm more than a good teacher. I am God very God. You know, this reminds me of Isaiah. When in Isaiah six, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple. And what did he say? He said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips form. My eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." This is where this guy needed to come. He was nowhere near that. He had no idea that he was in the presence of the King, the LORD of hosts. And this young man, like every sinner, needed a soul terrifying and a sin destroying vision of the Most High, thrice Holy God. If you're going to come to saving faith in Christ, you must come to a place where the reality of who Jesus is, is so overwhelming. And His Holiness is so transcendent and so terrible, in comparison to your sinfulness, that the only rational and reasonable response would be to prostrate yourself in abject terror and plead for undeserved mercy. This is what this guy needed to hear. Dear friend, you must understand that our ability to see our sin and therefore see our need for saving grace will always be proportionate to our ability to see the holiness and the majesty and the sovereignty and the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's who Isaiah saw sitting on the throne, the pre-Incarnate Christ, John 12:41, helps us understand that. This man was clueless, "Good Teacher", are you kidding me? This is the Creator, the Sustainer, the Redeemer, the consummator of all things. This is the ineffable tetragrammaton, the too wondrous to utter from the lips, four letters of YHWH. This is the Lord our God, the Lord of Glory, and he will tolerate no rivals. And this explains Jesus response. ''Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone.'" I mean, after all, this guy thought he was good, right? Hey, you and I are good, right? Give me a little bit of advice, good teacher. All of the Pharisees thought they were good. This man needed to know who he was speaking to. And only then will a sinner bow, in humble obedience, and in brokenness, and cry out for the mercy that the Lord will give so freely. And again, this whole scenario, is a vivid illustration of every man's need to personally surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is reminiscent of Jesus conversation, remember what the Samaritan woman that he encountered at the well? In John four verse nine, she said, "'Why would You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I'm a Samaritan woman?' Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is, who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.'" And later on in verse 19, John four, she says, "'Sir, I perceive that you were a prophet.'" I mean, she's closer, right? She's not there yet, but "I perceive that you're a prophet." And she went on to say, "'I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called the Christ)." And then later Jesus said to her, "'I who speak to you, am He.'" This is what this rich young ruler needed to understand, that he was seeking advice about gaining eternal life from the very source of life, the only one that can grant eternal life.

"'Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone.'" Now, what's fascinating is what Jesus goes on to do from here. Jesus begins to expose his self-righteous assessment of himself by applying the law to his life, to his conscience. He wants him to feel the full weight of the law that he is violated, bearing down upon his conscience, to expose his guilt and the condemnation he deserves. You will recall in Galatians 3:24 that "The Law," the Apostle Paul says is "our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith." So one cannot receive eternal life unless first of all, they know that Jesus is God.

And secondly, they must acknowledge violating the law of God. Now, let me remind you of something here. The Law of God, sometimes referred to as the mosaic code was the codification of God's holiness, the divine standard of righteousness. And we can see it divided, first of all, and in a two-fold summary of the Law, which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and secondly, to love your neighbor as yourself. And then there is a 10-fold summarization of the Law. It's called the Decalogue or the 10 commandments, also called the tablets of stone. It was the Mosaic law given to Moses on Mount Sinai, you read it, about it in Exodus 19, and 20, also called the Old Covenant. And there we see that if you keep the covenant, you're blessed, if you violate it, you're cursed. And the Decalogue can be divided into two very broad categories. You have a vertical and a horizontal category. The first half is the vertical, how to love the Lord your God perfectly. The second half is the horizontal, and that is to how to love your neighbor. And then I might also add, there's what's called the manifold part of the law. It's called the words of the covenant. You read about that in Exodus 24:7. And the entire book of Leviticus, for example, is an expansion of the law. And all of it was written down and placed in a receptacle on the side of the Ark of the Covenant, which inside held the tablets of stone that we have violated. And according to Deuteronomy 31, in verse 26, God said, "Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. And here's why, that it may remain there as a witness against you." You see, dear friends, the purpose of the law is to expose our sin, to see God's standard of righteousness and compare it to ours. And we know that any breach, any violation means that you've broken the whole law and the consequence, of course, is death. So it's an extremely oppressive thing. In fact, the apostle Paul said this in Romans seven, in verse seven, "I would not have come to know sin except through the Law." Again, it is a witness against you. He went on to say in verse nine, "I was once alive, apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died." Dear friends, whenever we are brutally, brutally honest, and we measure our innermost person against God's standard of righteousness. We all see that we fail miserably. In fact, Paul likened his righteousness, and all of his law keeping as a Pharisee, all of his religiosity, he called it rubbish in Philippians, three. In fact, Philippians three, beginning in verse six, he said, "As to the righteousness which is in the Law, was found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith." And we know as well in Galatians two and verse 16, that "a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Christ Jesus." And of course, this is central to evangelism. We must preach the law before we preach the gospel. Yes, people must understand the deity of Christ, but they must also understand the severity of their rebellion against the Most High God. They must see their high treason against God and then they can understand the condemnation that is upon them. In fact, the old divines used to speak of quote, "the law work before the gospel work." People must see that they stand guilty before God's bar of justice, that they are condemned, unable to save themselves certainly unable to save themselves by keeping the law. The only way you can be saved is by trusting in Christ who has come, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. And then when we come to saving faith when we are born again, he then produces in us his very character, through the work of the indwelling Spirit. Therefore, regeneration and justification and sanctification are all inseparable doctrines. Samuel Bolton, who was a 17th century English clergymen and scholar, a master of the master of Christ's College in Cambridge, said this, "The law sends us to the gospel, that we may be justified and the gospel sends us to the law again, to inquire what is our duty as those who are justified." In other words, the law sends us to the Gospel for salvation. And then the gospel sends us back to the law for sanctification.

Now, this young man believed he had a perfect score when it came to keeping the second half of the commandments, the horizontal division, and externally, he looked really good. But not so in his heart. There he failed miserably. We see, for example, in Matthew five, where Jesus said that even if you have anger in your heart, you've committed murder. Even if you have lusted after a woman, you have committed adultery in your heart. But Jesus is not only going to expose these things, he's going to expose his miserable failure in the vertical category of the law, the first half of the law, which prohibited having any other gods before the one true God. And Jesus is going to demonstrate to this young man that he actually worship not so much money, but himself, using his wealth again to promote his status, his power, his prestige, to gratify his flesh.

So first focusing on the second half of the 10 commandments, Jesus gave him a little sampling. He said in verse 19, "'You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" And the young man said to him in verse 20, "'Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.'" You know, his response proved Jesus point, and that was that he was absolutely clueless of his own sinfulness. He measured himself based upon his externals, not his internals. So he thought, you know, I'm good to go. I'm good to go. In his heart, however, he was a habitual violator of the law. Paul described the power of indwelling sin, even in a believer. In the end of his confessional lament, there recorded in Romans seven, he said, "Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from the body of this death?" And then he says, "Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then on the one hand, I myself with my mind, I'm serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh, the law of sin." And obviously, this is more pronounced, infinitely more pronounced, in an unbeliever because they do not have the indwelling Spirit to restrain the flesh. Paul went on to rejoice. However, in Romans eight and verse one, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death, For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Know that Jesus is God. Acknowledge violating the law of God, and then number three, cast yourself on the mercy of God.

Notice verse 21. "Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him." Such a precious statement. Jesus felt the love for him. Certainly there were some very good things about this young man. But we must all see, in this situation, the importance of having a burden for and a love for the lost. They're slaves to Satan, they're slaves to indwelling sin, they're blind, they're at enmity of God. Their heart is darkened. And notice, Jesus loved this man, who was blinded by his own sin, loved him so much that he would tell him exactly what he needed to hear, but certainly not what he wanted to hear. Beloved, just because we love sinners, does not mean we somehow conceal the truth from them. So that they will appreciate us and like us. So in love, what we see here is Jesus goes right for the juggler, the idolatry of self-worship, he didn't come right out and say it. Instead, he asked him to give up, what this man used to exalt himself, namely, his wealth. So Jesus said to him, "'One thing you lack'", and again, notice, he doesn't say you're not keeping this commandment, or you're not praying this prayer, you're not being baptized, you're not any of those types of things. By the way, isn't that typically what people do in churches? Oh, my goodness, look at this. I mean, this guy is down here on his knees, he wants to be saved, man, let's sign him up. Instead, Jesus says, "'Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.'" I can only imagine the look on that young man's face. And I'm sure in his heart, he's saying, You don't know what you're asking. My very identity depends upon my wealth. I am defined by my wealth. Who would I be without my vast earthly possessions? I would be a nobody. Now you might ask, and appropriately so, didn't he also worship his wealth and his possessions? I mean, after all, Matthew 6:24 Didn't Jesus say "'No one can serve two masters,'" Jesus said, "'for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.'" Well, certainly this would apply here to this young man. But I believe wealth worship was secondary to self-worship. And here's why I would say that. Ever since Jesus revealed to his disciples that he was going to go to the cross, that he was going to be a sacrifice of sin, something they could not grasp; ever since that time, he has been emphasizing the implications of the cross on discipleship, what it means to follow him. Again, back to Mark eight in verse 34, "'If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.'" In other words, be willing to give up everything, even your life if that's what it takes to follow me. So if anyone wishes to come after me; he's been stressing to them that you've got to step down from the throne of your life. You've got to submit to me as the one and only sovereign. You've got to renounce your former self, you got to break away from the old habits, and the old ways of thinking that dishonor God. You've got to refuse to recognize or acknowledge those things in your life that are contrary to the Word and the will of Christ. You must surrender your personal plans and your ambitions and your will and submit wholly and solely and fully to the plan and purposes of Christ.

James Brooks, a 19th century Presbyterian pastor, author and leader, by the way he was born down in Pulaski, he said this, "To deny oneself is not to do without something or even many things, it is not asceticism, not self-rejection or self-hatred, nor is it even the disowning of particular sins. But it is to renounce the self as the dominant element in life. It is to replace the self with God in Christ as the object of affections. It is to place the Divine Will, before self-will," End quote. See, again, this man's wealth was merely secondary, it was an external idol that propped up the most important idol. And that was the love of self. We must all ask ourselves, again, what do we love more than Christ? What must we never be without? What is more important to us than life itself, even eternal life? My career, my body, my looks, my wealth, my titles, my reputation, my family, and on and on it goes. All you have to do is look no further than Facebook, where many who are desperate for attention and affirmation will go to try to gain those things. Because they're not finding it in Christ. Their identity and greatest treasures are all of those things that are a part of the world, things used to exalt themselves rather than Christ. So again, remember the context of which all of this is happening, and how Jesus is trying to instruct his disciples.

Dave Harrell

Mark eight again, verse 35, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?'" So here in this account with the rich young ruler, Mark is not warning his disciples about the worship of money, they had none, they really didn't want any. They've given up everything to follow Christ, but rather, he's warning them about the worship of self. The refusal to renounce yourself. He speaking to them about the cost of discipleship and the self-surrender it involves. A willingness to sacrifice that which is most important to your pride, to your prominence, to your pleasure.

So here Jesus is challenging this proud young man regarding those things. And all of those things, of course, were enabled by, defined by, his wealth, and his phony self-righteousness. So Jesus is saying, if you want to know what you must do to inherit eternal life, you need to love me, the Lord your God. More than you love yourself. If anyone wishes to come after Me, in other words, if you want to be my disciple, you got to deny yourself take up your cross and follow Me. So Jesus is challenging here on the cost of discipleship. Something we must all hear. It’s as if he's saying to them, Hey, look, by examining all of your externals you think you look pretty good, but when it comes to obeying the horizontal, division of the law, how you treat other people, really, you fail miserably. Worse yet, when it comes to the vertical division of the law, how you love me, the Lord your God, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, you fail even worse. In fact, I have told you, you are to have no other gods before me and yet you worship yourself. You really want to know what you must do to inherit eternal life? Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. In other words, jettison all of those things that fuel your pride, renounce those things that you secretly desire and use so others will exalt you and praise you. Come and follow me. Now to be sure God will not share his throne with anyone. God delights in His glory and he will not share it with another, he alone is the one that must reign supreme in a worshiping heart. I'm reminded of Exodus 34, verse 14, "for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous is a jealous God." Deuteronomy 4:24, "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." Indeed, God is jealous for his bridal church, as I am jealous for my wife, and my children, and my family, and my church family. And his jealousy is therefore the glorious expression of his zeal for our joy in him, our greatest treasure. He alone must be trusted, he alone must be worshipped, he alone must be obeyed, and we receive the kingdom on his terms, not ours. We inherit eternal life on his terms, not ours. To deny yourself and follow Christ is to make God's glory the center of gravity around which your life orbits. Everything else is secondary or tertiary. It exchanges self-reliance for a total dependence upon Christ. It spells the end of self-exultation and a commitment to the exaltation of Christ alone. And this is what Jesus is asking him to do. By being willing to give up, sell all you possess, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

But notice his response in verse 22. "But at these words, he was saddened, and he went away grieving for he was one who owned much property." He could not part with his worldly possessions. Not so much that Jesus would make that a requirement before you can be saved, I hope you understand that, but a willingness to put Christ over these things. He could not part with these things because they defined him, they elevated him and they dignified him. His wealth made him somebody in the eyes of the world; being prominent, being powerful, able to satisfy the desires of your heart. Those were the priorities of his life. You see, his wealth was his security. The secret to fulfilling the longings of his heart, longings to be affirmed, to be applauded and to be deliriously happy. And he believed that his wealth was a sign of God's blessings. So indeed, he wanted to be worshipped. And Jesus knew this. And he's basically saying, Will you deny yourself and take up a cross if necessary to follow me? Oh, dear friends, the damning and deceptive power of pride. The many ways it can erect idols in our heart, I think of how God exposed the insincere leaders of Israel, who came to Ezekiel to seek counsel when in fact, they had no desire to obey the Lord, Ezekiel chapter 14, verses three and six, he says, "Son of man, these, these men have setup their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity," then in verse six, "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God, 'Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations.'" We read something similar in Colossians, chapter three and verse five. The apostle Paul says, "Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry." And John says in First John 5:21, "Little children, guard yourself from idols." Which includes anything that prevents us from worshiping and serving and loving the Lord our God. Anything that we cherish more than him. You say, Well, Pastor, how will I know? Let me give you a few things that will help you know. First of all, your idol will be something that you will obsess about all the time. It's always on your mind. It takes priority over everything else in your life. Also you will go to any length to attain it, any length to keep it and you will resent anyone who dares confront you about it. Moreover, you will consider it your greatest treasure, your greatest source of joy. And you will use it to exalt yourself and promote yourself and pleasure yourself. This, of course, is the very opposite of Romans 12 in verse one, where the apostle Paul says, "Therefore," in other words, based upon the mercies of God and His grace in you, "I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." This man would rather forfeit eternal life, than give up his idol of self-worship. I've seen this many times in evangelism. People that will cling to anything they believe will make them happy, especially the rich and the famous. I can tell you many stories, I've worked with a lot of fabulously wealthy people, and only a few have come to faith in Christ. So you see, the rich think that Jesus wants to take everything from them, rather than give everything to them. And so we see in verse 23, "Jesus looking around said to His disciples, 'How hard it will be, for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'" In other words, he's using hyperbole to basically say that it is absolutely impossible to inherit eternal life by your own means; this is something that God must do. "They were astonished and said to Him, 'Then who can be saved?' Looking at them, Jesus said, 'With people it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. For all things are possible with God.'"

Beloved evangelism is a work of God, not a work of man. We give them the gospel, but only God can change the heart. And all sinners, including the most wealthy, must humbly bow to the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ and plead for mercy, as did the tax collector, in Luke 18, who pounded on his chest and said, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner." I had a friend who was literally one of the most wealthy men in America, but he was a vulgar man, a godless man. He used horrible language, intimidated people terribly. But somehow, for some reason, this guy would never curse around me. And he really liked me. And he would bring me into his home. Long story, but eventually, he had a terminal disease and I spent several hours, probably five or six hours over a course of time in hospice. And he was used to kind of buying his way into heaven as a Roman Catholic. And I remember very clearly telling him, my friend, you are going to die and go to Hell, unless you trust in Christ as your only hope of salvation. You cannot buy your way into the kingdom. And I remember in his broken state, this big guy that had shriveled up to nothing, I remember him telling me with tears, how he understood, and I believe he gave his heart to Christ. I believe God saved him. I believe we'll see him in the kingdom someday. But that is very rare. Most of the wealthy people I've worked with will not acknowledge Jesus as Lord, see how they violated his law, cast themselves on his mercy. And as we see finally in closing, joyfully follow Christ in humble obedience.

Notice verse 28. "Peter began to say to Him," and I'm sure he was speaking on behalf of the rest of the guys, "Behold, we've left everything and followed You." In fact, Matthew adds something else that Peter said, in Matthew 19:27 "Behold, we have left everything and followed You. What then will there be for us?" Verse 29, "Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel sake, but that he will receive 100 times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters, and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life.'" The cost of self-surrender is necessary for discipleship and this cost can be costly, very costly. But the reward is beyond anything that we can imagine. It is eternal life. And Jesus finally says, "'But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.'" This young man idolized himself, he worshipped himself, he insisted on being first, no place for self-denial, no place for taking up a cross and following Christ, the price was too high. And his wealth, like Samson's hair, was the secret to his success and joy. And he could not part with it, not even in exchange for his soul. Oh, dear friend, ask yourself what is more precious to me than Christ? What do I refuse to give up so that I can gain Christ? Because unless you come to that place, you will never inherit eternal life? God cannot save you. If you love yourself and the things of this world more than him, for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the clarity of your word and its penetrating power in each of our hearts. I pray that you will cause us to pensively reflect upon these magnificent truths and certainly apply them according to every need, that people might be saved. And that saints might be sanctified all the more. For we ask it in Jesus name, and for his sake. Amen.

This morning, we return once again to our study of Mark's gospel. So if you will take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 10, we will be looking specifically at verses 13 through 16. Before I read the text, may I say that as a pastor, there are a number of things that are very painful to deal with. And as I come to this text, some of those things emerge. One of the most difficult things is having to deal with a family that has lost an infant or a young child. We all know how heartbreaking that is. And many times, families will ask, did my child go to heaven? Or did my child go to hell? What happens to a child when he or she dies? Something else that brings great grief to my heart is the pain of seeing parents that really have no desire to bring their children to Christ. They have no desire to really seek the Lord's blessing in their child's life, they just kind of let them grow up on their own. And then a third thing that is very difficult, is to see sinners who need to come to Jesus on his terms, but they prefer to come on their own terms, and therefore they will never enter into the kingdom of heaven. Each of these difficult issues are addressed in the passage that we have before us, as well as the parallel passages in Matthew 19, and Luke 18. So let me read this passage to you. Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse 13. "And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them. But the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, 'Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child will not enter it at all.' And He took them in His arms, and began blessing them, laying His hands on them."

I would like to examine this passage under four categories that I hope will be helpful to you. First of all, we will see the priority of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. Secondly, we will look at the obstacles of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. And thirdly, we're going to examine the nature of the Lord's blessing on our children. And finally, the Kingdom promise for all who come in childlike faith alone. I trust you will all humble yourselves before the teaching of the Word of God.

Now, let me give you the context here. It's very important. Jesus is on the eastern side of the Jordan River Valley, in the region of Perea. He's with his disciples, he is gradually making his way towards Jerusalem. And he has just finished another round of conflict with the self-righteous Pharisees that have tried to embarrass him, tried to humiliate him and turn people against him. And they have tried to do this over the issue of marriage and divorce and remarriage and so forth. And of course, he constantly exposes their hypocrisy, and they are furious with him; they want to see him dead. And now in this next scenario that occurs, with parents bringing infants and little children to Jesus, Mark is really striking a very stark contrast with the Pharisees that believe they can earn their way into the Kingdom versus these children that have nothing to offer, and such as these can enter the kingdom. In fact, the next recorded scenario is one where the Lord encounters a rich young synagogue ruler, convinced he would inherit eternal life because of his religious law keeping and so forth. And so that will be yet another contrast. So that's what's going on here. Also, according to verse 10 of this chapter, we see that Jesus is still probably in a house with his disciples, meeting together with them. And this brings us to what happens here in verse 13. And this is under our first heading, the priority of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. Verse 13, says, "And they were bringing children to Him, so that He might touch them." The grammar of the passage indicates that this was kind of an ongoing thing. They must have been lining up to bring their children to him. Now, the text doesn't tell us if these people were believing in Jesus, perhaps some did, they certainly knew his reputation. But it was customary among, especially the Jews, in the first century, to bring their children to a prominent rabbi to seek his blessing upon them. And throughout the gospel, we also see accounts of Jesus, laying his hands on those who are sick, those who are needy and so forth. His personal touch was not just an act of blessing, but it was it was a tangible expression of his unconditional love for people without any distinction, because he did this to the clean and the unclean, something the Pharisees would never do. Now, mind you, Jesus is really focusing on teaching his disciples. And so they're watching all this. And they still have much to learn, as we all do. They're watching, they're listening, and they're learning. So verse 13, says, "And they," referring to these parents, "we're bringing children to Him." The term "children," "paidion", in the original language is just a general term for a young child. It can include an infant all the way up to a preteen child, and they are bringing them to him so that he might touch them. And Luke's account adds a little bit more information. He uses the word "brephos", which means infant, they were also bringing infants, little babies, and that term includes an unborn child, even an unborn child in the womb. One that has not yet weaned; in Luke 18:15, we read, "And they were bringing even the babies to Him, so that He would touch them." So we have a steady stream of parents here, probably coming up to this house. Imagine the scene, they're seeking a blessing from this famous rabbi.

And I might pause here for a moment. What a great lesson for each of us as parents, especially those of us who obviously know who Jesus is, to do everything we can to bring our children to Jesus. That should be the supreme calling of every parent, the highest calling, a priority, that will yield the greatest joy in life, not only for the parents, but certainly for the child. And I want to ask you, parents, do you long for Jesus to bless your child? And if so, what are you doing about that? I hope you do. I hope you long for his touch, his loving embrace, his tender stroke, a stroke from the omnipotent hands that healed the sick, that gave sight to the blind. That even raised the dead. And we read later in verse 16, "And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them." Dear friends, I hope you yearn for the Lord's blessing on your children.

I remember my grandparents, on both my mom and my dad's side, they love the Lord. And whenever I spent time with him with them, which was quite a bit, they made sure that I was in Sunday school. They made sure that I was in church. We had devotions, and certainly, we had that with my family, with my mom and my dad. And I praise God for that. I remember when a man came to our house and he was selling this, it looked like a set of encyclopedias, it was called the Book of Life. And dad bought that because it was all these Bible stories. And they got increasingly more theological, shall we say, you know, with every volume so that you could start with someone that didn't know much at all, a little child, and then it would go on from there. And I remember many, many, many times, my parents sitting down with me, and we would look at those pictures and they would read that story. I remember parents that made sure we never missed a church service. Not that it was legalistic, but they wanted to expose me and my sister to every opportunity to know who Christ is. Whatever a man or a woman sews, that's what they're going to reap. And I know way too many parents who have sown the wind and now they have they are reaping the whirlwind. I can tell you hundreds of stories. Over the past several months, I've had the opportunity to speak with several public-school teachers, and those that are substituting and they tell stories, especially of the middle school children who are so depressed, well, they're angry. So naturally, they are very vulnerable to the satanic deceptions of the whole woke ideology, the LGBTQ insanity, the transgender nonsense, how sad? How different would it have been for these kids and how different would it be if their parents would have exhausted themselves to make sure they brought their children to Jesus?

So we first see the priority of seeking the Lord's blessing. Secondly, I want you to look at the obstacles of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. In verse 13, we read "but the disciples rebuked them." And again, the grammar of the text indicates that this was an ongoing thing. It's like as you can almost see it, it's like go on, no, Jesus doesn't have time for this. Go, go. No, no, no, no, he doesn't have time for this. Now, we don't know that's what they said, but it had to be something like that. Now why did they do that? It doesn't say, perhaps they thought, well, Jesus has more important things to do than mess with little kids, you know, parents of little kids. Or maybe they were thinking to themselves, you know, we just kind of want Jesus to ourselves here. You know, "us four no more, bar the door," even though there were 12 all right? We don't know. But beloved may I say very clearly, we want to be careful to never prevent anyone from coming to Christ. We want to have a burden for the lost, we don't want to tell people to get lost. And so, especially with parents in the church, or people that need help with their children, we want to do all that we can to help in that. So, this is what we going on here.

And what's also interesting in verse 14, is what Jesus does. He says, here in verse 14, "But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant." The term carries the idea of being aroused to righteous indignation, to righteous anger. He is indignant and said to them, "'Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them.'" Again, a present tense verb, it's the idea of, "stop preventing them, let them come, I want these parents, I want these children to have full access to me." And by the way, that needs to be the priority of every single person in ministry, you need to be accessible to your people. That must be a priority. Every Shepherd needs to smell like sheep. Let them come. Full Access. He says, "'For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.'" Luke adds another dimension here, he says in Luke 18, in verse 16, "Jesus called for them." So, can't you see it? He said, Hey, you guys knock it off, let them come. Hey, you, come on, come on in. That's what we see happening here. So, the Lord encourages parents to bring their children to him, that he might bless them. And if that is his priority, beloved, should it not also be yours? Sadly, many professing Christian parents see no real need to invest themselves in such a way; invest themselves through prayer and through example, through discipline, through instruction. And then a lot of parents give up with the obstacles. And boy, don't we all know what the obstacles are today. We might not have the disciples out there saying don't come in, but we've got our own obstacles, many times the ones that we create ourselves, I'm too busy, I'm too tired. Too tired to go to Sunday school. I've got too many responsibilities. There's too many distractions in my life. I don't have time to sit down with my children and read them Bible stories and help them understand who Jesus is. After all, that's what the Sunday school teachers are for right? So many obstacles. I think of so many parents that I've seen over the years, that will exhaust themselves physically and financially, so their child can do something with a ball. But they have absolutely no time, or energy or finance, to help them understand who Jesus is. Talk about misplaced priorities, talk about obstacles. Well, whatever the obstacle, Jesus knows this, and Jesus wants you to press forward. He's inviting you to come. So, we need to take advantage of every opportunity that we have to expose ourselves to Christ.

By the way, this requires spiritual discipline. We live in a very undisciplined society today, we tend to just do whatever feels good. And there's no real priority to do the right things at the right time. But this requires spiritual discipline, I think of Psalm 16, verse eight, where the psalmist says, "I have set the Lord always before me." "I have set the Lord always before me," which would translate into therefore as a father or as a mother, I'm gonna set my children in front of me and the Lord and I'm gonna set the Lord before them. And he went on to say in that passage, "Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken."

So we see the priority and the obstacles of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. And then this moves into some deeply theological issues that I want to address briefly, but hopefully, it'll be enough to help you understand what I believe the Scriptures teach. And this is under the heading of the nature of the Lord's blessing on our children. What was he really doing there? Spiritually speaking? I mean, why would he bless them knowing they had a sin nature? What is the nature of that blessing? Now, obviously, Jesus knew these infants and the small children, perhaps even some that are still in the womb. He knew that they were sinners by nature. Every child has inherited the imputed sinfulness of Adam. In Romans 5:12, other passages, in fact, and I know this is hard for us to hear, that precious little baby that smiles at us is capable of the most heinous sins, because that little child has a sinful nature.

God said in Genesis eight, verse 21, "The intent of man's heart is evil from his youth." David wrote in Psalm 51 Five, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me." In Psalm 58, three we read, "The wicked are estranged from the womb, those who speak lies go astray from birth." And any of us who have raised children know exactly what that looks like. You don't have to teach your child to lie and to be naughty, it comes natural. Romans three, verse 10, and following, "There is none righteous, not even one, there is none who understands There is none who seeks for God, all of turned aside, together, they have become useless. There is none who does good, there is not even one." So Jesus understood their depravity, obviously. But beloved, he also understood that they had no moral awareness. They were unable to understand the gospel, to understand sin and the cross and who Jesus is, what he would do for them, et cetera. They also had no ability to exercise saving faith, or to even reject Christ. Now, the text makes it clear that there was no dispensing of saving grace here in his blessing or in his laying on of hands. So why did he want them to have access to him? Well, I believe primarily it is because they were innocent in his sight, as we will see, and simply because he loved them. In verse 14, we read "The kingdom of God belongs to such as these." The kingdom of God here, in this context, refers to the sphere of the redeemed where Christ reigns in the hearts of those who have trusted in him. But it says that this kingdom "belongs to such as these", it doesn't say merely "to these." He did not say the kingdom of God belongs to children, but to "such as these", which is a very precise way of indicating that he was referring to everyone just like them. And I believe there's two categories that we can see here, as we look at these children, the first category, they are those who are utterly helpless, to save themselves. They come to him with unassuming humility. They have no credit. They have no clout. They're utterly dependent upon his mercy and wholly trust in his grace alone. But I think the second category is that innocent children have no moral awareness. That's what we have here with these children. They have not yet reached an age of personal accountability. Let me address that issue first.

Prior to the age of accountability, infants and children are temporarily protected by God's grace until such a time as they are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. As we look at Scripture, nowhere in Scripture does God bless unbelievers. He would never bless those incarcerated in the domain of darkness, Colossians 1:13. In fact, he speaks of them in John 8:44 is those who "are of their father the devil and want to do the desires of their father." So practically speaking, as it relates to the death of an unborn infant, or a child or a mentally disabled person that has no moral awareness, because of God's gracious protection, if that person dies in that condition, despite their sin nature that deserves the wages of sin, which is eternal death, because they are unable to savingly believe, I believe the Scripture teaches they go straight to heaven. Once they reach an age of accountability, then they lose that innocence. But they don't lose their salvation. And I'll address that more in a moment. At that point they become culpable for their sin and God holds them responsible if they fail to repent and trust in Christ. But nowhere in Scripture do we read of anyone going into eternal judgment, because of their sin nature. We see that no place. Judgment is always pronounced upon those who rebelled against God who violate his law, which would include the sin of unbelief. God never condemned sinners for sins that they had not committed. Phil Johnson says this quote, "Whenever Scripture describes the inhabitants of hell, it always does so with lists of sins, and abominations they have deliberately committed." End quote. Obviously, that can't be the case with these children. Infants and little children have no moral consciousness and therefore they have no culpability of deliberate willful sin. Yes, they have a sin nature, but they have not committed sinful deeds. Nowhere in Scripture do we read of an infant child being damned for anything. Imagine the utter enigma, the unfathomable mystery in the mind of an innocent child, suffering in the torments of hell, when they had absolutely no knowledge of what they had done, or of the holiness of God. Incomprehensible. In his book, "The Theology of Infant Salvation," which was written in 1907, a great Presbyterian pastor and theologian Dr. R.A Webb, addressed this issue, he said this, quote, "If a dead infant were sent to hell, on no other account than that of original sin, there would be good reason to the divine mind for the judgment, because sin is a reality. But the child's mind would be a perfect blank as to the reason of its suffering. Under such circumstances, it would know suffering, but it would have no understanding of the reason for its suffering. It could not tell itself why it was so awfully smitten and consequently, the whole meaning and significance of its sufferings, being to it a conscious enigma, the very essence of the penalty would be absent and justice would be disappointed, cheated of its validation." End quote. Again, these little ones were unable to savingly believe because they had no moral consciousness, no moral awareness, and therefore no culpability for acts of rebellion. And again, this would include those that are mentally disabled. Yet the kingdom of God belongs to such as these, the helpless, the meritless, the humble, the dependent, the trusting. So one might ask, so okay, do they lose their salvation? Once they reach the age of accountability? And I believe the answer is not at all. And here I stand on the shoulders of other eminent theologians like John Calvin and BB Warfield, Charles Hodge, R.A Webb, John MacArthur, etc. The innocent child does not lose his or her salvation after reaching the age of, of accountability, but rather, it would appear that God temporarily protects them in his protective custody of his grace until they reach that age. Practically speaking, they remain innocent until they develop into a stage of moral consciousness. Let me give you an example or two of this in Scripture.

We see this for example, in Deuteronomy, chapter one and verse 39. In that context, God exempted the infants and little children in Israel from his sentence upon the entire generation of Israelites, because of the rebellion against them or against him in the wilderness, they wouldn't, they would not be allowed to enter the land, but their children would be able to enter and why the exemption? We're going to see in this text it was because they had no knowledge of good and evil. They were not in a conscious, willful state of rebellion against God and they had committed no acts of disbelief. Let me read the text to you Deuteronomy 139. We read "your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil shall enter there," referring to the promised land, "and I will give it to them and they shall possess it." Again, to be sure little children and infants are incapable of making conscious, willful, rational, intentional choices.

Jeremiah chapter 19, verses four through five God speaks of the, quote, "innocent" children that were sacrificed to Baal. Ezekiel chapter 16, beginning in verse 20, "you took your sons and daughters whom you had born to Me and sacrifice them to idols to be devoured... You slaughtered," and then he says, "My children", they were his possession, "You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire." Jonah chapter four and verse 11, "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand", I believe in reference to the children that were there. And again, I believe God's gracious, protective custody would apply to miscarried children as we're going to see. Stillborn children, I believe they go to heaven when they die. Job contrasted the blessing of eternal life, for the stillborn in heaven with the sorrows, the miseries, the wickedness, the weariness of life. In fact, he wished he had been miscarried or stillborn, rather than alive in the misery that he was dealing with; Job chapter three beginning in verse 11, "Why did I not die at birth? Come forth from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me? And why the breasts that I should suck? For now I would have lain down and been quiet, I would have slept then I would have been at rest." He goes on to say in verse 16, and following. "or like a miscarriage, which is discarded," In other words, why couldn't I have been like that? "I would not be as infants that never saw light." There, referring to heaven, "the wicked cease from raging and there the weary are at rest," and so forth. King Solomon, another example, made the same assertions pertaining to the preferred blessings in heaven for the stillborn child or the miscarriage child in Ecclesiastes six beginning in verse three, "If a man fathers 100, children and lives many years, however many they may be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial. Then I say, better the miscarriage then he, for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity and its name is covered in obscurity. It never sees the sun, and it never knows anything, it is better off than he." We see this as well in the story of David and Bathsheba. In Second Samuel 12. Remember as part of God's judgment upon David and Bathsheba because of their sin, because of the sin of adultery, and the murder of Uriah, God said that his son with Bathsheba would die. And you will recall the story; the child was born, it was very ill, David fasted and prayed. Even the text says that he even was laying on the ground all night long. He did this for seven days, and then the child died. And we read this in Second Samuel 12, beginning in verse 20, "So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he came into the house of the Lord and worship. Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate. Then his servant said to him, 'What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but when the child died, you arose and ate food?' He said, 'While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, 'who knows. the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live', but now he has died, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?" Then he says this, "I will go to him, but he will not return to me." The text indicates that God had forgiven David. He was heaven bound. And he also knew that that's where his son was, and that's where he would one day be reunited with him. I know there's a number of you that I've dealt with over the years that have lost a child through miscarriage, through stillbirth, and some even after the child was born. And I know what a heartbreak it is, but I hope this brings comfort to you. Because I believe that if you know and love Christ, you will be reunited with that child. One day, though we sorrow greatly, what a blessing it is even to know that they escaped the miseries of this world, amen? Regarding this scenario, in Mark 10, John Calvin also offers some insights, helping us see that this has been the teaching of Orthodox Christianity, all the way back. He said this, "Those little children have not yet any understanding to desire His blessing," referring to the texts we're talking about, "but then they are presented to him, he gently and kindly receives them and dedicates them to the Father by a solemn act of blessing." He went on to say, "To exclude from the grace of redemption, those who are of that age, would be too cruel. It is presumption and sacrilege to drive far from the fold of Christ, those whom he cherishes in his bosom, and to shut the door and exclude as strangers, those whom he does not wish to be forbidden, to come to him."

So, again, when Jesus says, "For the kingdom of God, belongs to such as these", can we not also even assume and I don't think this is too far of a stretch, that he also intends to indicate that the majority of the inhabitants of heaven are those that were aborted and miscarried and stillborn. Little children, like those that he held, even in his arms and blessed and justified by his grace. What an amazing picture of God's love. Again, notice verse 16, "He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them." The phrase in the original language, "took them in His arms", means to take something into the crux of one's arms as to hold it, or to enfold one's arms tenderly around a child. And we all know what that looks like, we take a child and we, we hold them like that. That's what Jesus was doing with them, with little ones. And while doing so, he blessed them. He laid his hands on them. Oh dear Christian, can we not see the tender loving compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ as he caresses these little children? What an amazing picture and oh to have the Savior's embrace and blessing. Dear friends, this is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. No wonder the Lord Jesus so strongly rebuked his disciples for preventing these parents from bringing their children and their little toddlers to him. May we never be such an obstacle. And again, I would plead with you parents ask yourself, does this apply to me? Am I a help, or am I a hindrance to my child, coming to a place of understanding the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I lead the way or do I get in the way by my example? The eminent 19th century, Princeton theologian BB Warfield, also affirmed from Scripture, the salvation of infants, especially as it relates to God's sovereign purposes in election, which I might also add for you theologians that, as you look at it from the perspective that he gives in that I'm addressing here, you will see that this is just one more reason to thoroughly refute the Armenians system of soteriology. In fact, I might also add that the Palladian, semi-Palladian, Armenian claim that individuals are born morally neutral, rather than having a sin nature is disproved by the simple fact that babies die. The wages of sin is death. Here's what Warfield said concerning the salvation of infants, quote, "Their destiny is determined irrespective of their choice by an unconditional decree of God, suspended for its execution on no act of their own. And their salvation is wrought by an unconditional application of the grace of Christ to their souls through the immediate and irresistible operation of the Holy Spirit, prior to and apart from, any action of their own proper wills." He went on to add, "And if death in infancy does depend on God's providence, Providence," which I might add, it certainly does, "It is assuredly God in His providence, who selects this vast multitude, to be made participants of His unconditional salvation. This is but to say that they are unconditionally predestined to salvation from the foundation of the world. If only a single infant dying in infancy be saved, the whole Arminian principle is traversed. If all infants dying, such are saved, not only the majority of the saved, but that was the majority of the human race, hitherto entered into life by a non-Arminian pathway." End quote. And of course, he's referring there, to the grace of God in unconditional, sovereign election.

So this was the nature of the Lord's blessing upon these innocent babes, he loved them as one of his own. For the kingdom of God belongs to the helpless, to the humble. And that's what we have here now. I pondered the thought of what the Lord must have prayed in this blessing. And certainly the text does not tell us. What is the nature of this dedication? What were the words we don't know? But I will say that given the providence of God, in his elective purposes, for every image bearer, each individual image bearer that he blessed, he prayed for them in ways that we could never comprehend. These are things beyond us. But the Lord knew. No doubt some of those children grew up to come to faith in Christ, and others did not. But what an unforgettable experience for each parent, right? Again, many of them were probably, in fact, probably most of them weren't believers. Even though they knew something about Jesus, they knew he was this incredible miracle working rabbi. But to think one by one, Jesus calls you in and he takes your child, and he speaks to that child, and he holds that child and he blesses that child and those parents, one by one, he holds them in the omnipotent hands, that would soon be pierced. Later, I'm sure many of those parents would remind their children as the children grew up, remind them of that momentous occasion. Son, Daughter, let me tell you about the day when...and they would describe what happened. And undoubtedly, some of those children grew up to come to faith in Christ. And they would be able to tell their children, let me tell you what my mom and dad did when I was a little baby. They took me to see Jesus in this house. I don't remember it, but he called them and he took me in his arms and my mother and my father pressed their way through the crowds through all of the obstacles, so that I might receive a blessing from the lover of my soul that I now serve. No doubt, dear friends, we will see some of those people one day, won't that be an amazing thing?

So we've seen the priority and the obstacles of seeking the Lord's blessing on our children. We've seen a little bit of the nature of the Lord's blessing on our children. And finally, we want to look at the kingdom promise for all who come in childlike faith alone. He says in verse 15, "'Truly'", which could be translated, I tell you the truth, "'Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.'" Beloved, can there be any greater proof that salvation is solely by grace alone than in this statement? In this scenario? I think not. May I remind you again of verse 14, he says, "'Permit the children to come to me, do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,'" not to these, but to "such as these", again, a very precise way of indicating that you come like these children. Not only was he referring to, obviously the innocent children with no moral awareness that had not yet reached the age of accountability, but also to anyone that has the same characteristics as these children. And may I remind you, once again, what these characteristics are, because this is how you come to the kingdom. If you come any other way, you will not enter the kingdom. These children were utterly helpless to save themselves. When we truly come to faith in Christ, we have nothing to offer but our sin. They come to him with unassuming humility, with no credits or no or clout, utterly dependent solely upon His mercy. And you know how trusting a child is. I mean, they will basically believe anything, right? And when you come to Christ, we have to trust in what he has said. I think of what Jesus said in Matthew five and verse three, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The poor in spirit refers to those who are so burdened by their impoverished spiritual state, that all they can do is cry out for what they know they do not deserve, what they know they cannot accomplish on their own. Broken and contrite in spirit, like a cowering beggar; Lord, I am desperate, please be merciful to me, a sinner. Again, verse 15, "'Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child will not enter it at all.'" Won't you notice the word receive; we receive the kingdom as a gift. We don't earn it through some meritorious acts, we don't earn it through some spiritual act. Now, let me get more specific. We do not come into the kingdom through infant baptism. You do not come into the kingdom through the sacrament of christening a baby. You do not enter the kingdom through water baptism, through some ritual, through confirmation, through church membership, through denomination affiliation. Nor do you come into the kingdom, on the coattails of your parents. We receive the kingdom like a child, otherwise, we will not enter it at all. You can only receive it as a gift of God's grace, when you humbly trust in him as a dependent and helpless child.

I remember when the Lord saved me by His grace when I was nine years old. I remember a lot of the specifics of that time very, very clearly. One of the things that I remember is that I knew very, very, very little theology. But I did know this, that I was a great sinner, and Christ was a greater Savior. I feared hell. I understood the basics, so that I could cry out to Him and in repented faith trust in Him to save me. I didn't need someone to explain to me the creation of the universe. I didn't need someone to explain to me that the Bible was truly the infallible word of God. I didn't need a lot of apologetics. I didn't need a lot of theology to understand how there is relationship between and a harmony between man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. I didn't need all that stuff. I was a child and I came to him as a child. And every adult that comes to Christ must come the same way. And then you know what? When you come to saving faith in Christ, there is a miracle called regeneration that takes place. There is that supernatural, instantaneous impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. The spirit comes into your heart and you begin to understand scripture in ways that you never did before. Oh you still have to study, you still have to learn, but the Spirit of God illumines your mind, and all of the magnificent truths of his Word begin to build upon one another. And you begin to put the pieces together by God's grace. But you don't have to have them all put together to receive the kingdom. That's the point.

I want to close with a quote from Charles Spurgeon that I think is a great summary here. He said this, "A little child believes with an unquestioning faith, which makes everything vivid and real. Believe just so, “he says, "the child believes in all humility, looking up to its teacher and receiving its teacher's word as decisive. Believe in Jesus, just so. Say Lord, I am a know nothing. I come to you to be taught, I am nothing be you, my all in all. A child when it comes to Christ comes very sincerely and with all its heart. It knows nothing of sinister motives or of formality. It's repentance and faith are genuine. I wish you would come to Christ this morning," he says. "You pour guilty ones in real earnest just as you are. Do not play at religion anymore. Do not look for fine words with which to trim yourselves and make your prayers look neat and pretty. Become as a child does in all simplicity, not ashamed to talk, because your heart feels when a child believes in Jesus, it cares nothing for critical points. That is the way you must come to Christ. You that have always been inventing religious conundrums, you that for many years have been readers of the last new novels and modern theology. For they are mere novels, and nothing better. You that have added your brains with the vain thoughts of vain men, come to Jesus as you are. And believe what Jesus says, Because Jesus says it. Take Christ at His word and trust Him. That is the way to be saved."

Dear friends, I hope you've all come to a place of saving faith in Christ. And you have heard today the characteristics of that kind of a person, and how you receive the kingdom. May it never be said in this life or the next, that you were never warned, that you were never explained the gospel of Christ. For today, you have been told, today you have been warned. And I plead with you as a minister of the gospel to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And for you parents, may I one more time, plead with you. Do everything you possibly can to bring your children to Jesus. Pray for his blessing, pray for his touch, that your children might be saved. And we will all rejoice together in this life and in the life to come. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the truth of your word that brings such clarity to the various issues of life that we all struggle with. I pray that your spirit will find accessible hearts and that we would apply the things that we have heard that we might not just know them intellectually, but live them out practically, that you might be exalted in our life. That we might enjoy the fullness of all that is ours in Christ and that he might be glorified, both now and forevermore. Amen.

This morning we find ourselves in Mark's gospel once again in Mark chapter 10. We will be looking at the first 12 verses under the heading "God's Original Design for Humanity." This is a very instructive, very practical, very encouraging passage. And I might also add, as you will see, it's a very timely passage given the culture in which we live. Let me read the passage to you, Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse one. "Getting up He went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them. Some Pharisees came up to Jesus testing Him and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. And He answered and said to them, 'What did Moses command you?' They said, 'Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.' But Jesus said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made the male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore, God has joined together, let no man separate.' In the house, the disciples began questioning Him about this again. And He said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she herself divorces her husband, and marries another man, she is committing adultery.'"

Let me begin by framing this text, in the context of where we all live. Surely we all understand what the Scriptures teach regarding our sinful nature, that we all have one. In fact, Scripture makes it clear that all that we do and all the we are is fundamentally offensive to Holy God, therefore, we are in desperate need of forgiveness and reconciliation, and a new nature. We are rebels by nature, we rebel against God's character that's reflected in his law. Even as believers we struggle with this. And our rebellion is especially manifested in the realm of God's magnificent design for male and female relationships. We were created in His image, to put his glory on display. But because of our sin, we tend to have other ideas as to how we need to function as men and women. For example, God's design for marriage is that it be an institution that illustrates and reflects the relationship God has with his people. But the world in which we live says that marriage is really an unnecessary societal institution, resulting in a deplorable infringement upon freedom and an unlawful burden of inequality. So we need to get rid of marriage. God says that sexual intercourse has to be restricted within the bounds of the marriage covenant, but our culture says no, sexual intercourse is fine anytime, anywhere, with anyone. In fact, unlimited sexual activity is now considered an entitlement. This, by the way, is what fuels the abortion debate. God says that marriage should be permanent for life, but our culture says no, no, no, no, you can divorce for any reason. God says marriage should be between one man And one woman. But our culture says no, no, it can include many partners, even same sex partners. God says that marriage is God's design for procreation. But our culture says, no. Marriage is no longer the only socially acceptable outlet for sexual activity, or for the rearing of children. In fact, women and men are entitled to have as many children as they want, and in any context. Worse yet, our culture would say that there is more than one gender, that there are multiple genders that have nothing to do with biology but have everything to do with one's subjective identification. And their social, background and environment. And of course, as a result of all of this, we see the systematic destruction of the family, the bedrock of society. And this is resulting in social and economic chaos, untold human misery, violence and even suicide. In fact, the testimonies of young adults who have undergone puberty blockers and hormone replacement and, and chemical and surgical castration, are absolutely heart wrenching. Thinking that somehow they can transition to the opposite side. These people are filled with physical and emotional pain, many of them now or are furious at those that allowed this to happen. You're seeing more and more lawsuits. And I might say, as a pastor, I'm very concerned for each of you, within the sphere of my influence, some of you may be struggling with these issues. Some of you young people, in fact, I know that some of you are, because I've heard about it. Some of you are confused, you're deceived. Some of you are burdened. And I trust that the passage that we look at here this morning, and the application of it will bring clarity as well as conviction and encouragement. Because, dear friends, when we do things, God's way there is enormous blessing. Repeatedly in Scripture, we read the phrase, "do not be deceived." And the amazing thing about self-deception is that we don't see that we're being deceived, right? But Satan deceives people by distorting His Word, especially concerning God's plan and purpose, for humanity. So the passage before us, will give us great insight into God's plan. His design, his purpose for marriage, as well as for human sexuality. And my goal is to help you understand this because I want you to enjoy the fullness of God's goodness and grace in your life.

Now, the context here in Mark chapter 10, verses one through 12 and the parallel passage that we will see in Matthew 19, the Pharisees are laying a trap for Jesus as they did quite often. They're trying to discredit him in the eyes of the public, because they hated him with an utmost hatred. And it's fascinating as we read Jesus’ response to them, that there is a response that absolutely transcends issues, merely pertaining to divorce and remarriage, which frankly, requires a much broader study of Scripture that speak to those issues, but he goes beyond just a narrow focus of whether divorce and remarriage are lawful. Instead, he focuses on God's will for humanity in his creation. That's why we read for example, in verse six, "But from the beginning of creation", I mean he goes all the way back to the very beginning. "From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female." And as we will see, what God is doing is pointing them to the one flesh covenantal pre-fall union between Adam and Eve, a God ordained union between one man and one woman. A marital union that was utterly bereft of sin, and functioned perfectly as God had designed it, until the fall.

The implications of Jesus' answer reaches far beyond just a narrow focus of marriage but reaches into the very heart of God's will for every image bearer that he has created. It even helps us understand the male and female gender is binary. It is not non-binary and fluid as our culture would have us believe, as the transgender activists argue. There is a God designed biological basis for sex and for gender. One's maleness and once femaleness is not a socially constructed, self-determined reality. It's not at all what we see in Scripture. God never made a female man or a male woman. From the beginning of God of creation, God made them male and female. Indeed, the male, female binary is something God affirms as being very good, as he did with all of his creation. So Jesus' answer has enormous implications, even beyond the issues of marriage and divorce, but also pertaining to God's designed for human sexuality and gender. And when his will is violated, when it is ignored, when it is distorted, when it is mocked, the result is chaos, and misery and judgment will be inevitable.

I've given you a very complicated outline, it's just two points. We're going to see the baited question number one and the beautiful answer, number two. Very, very simple. So let's look at the text. Now let me remind you that Jesus’ ministry in Galilee is now over. He along with his disciples, are headed for Judea and so we read in verse one, Getting up He went from there to the region of Judea, and beyond the Jordan; crowds gathered around Him again and according to His custom, He once more began to teach them." Now it was in the context of this crowd, that the Pharisees come along, trying to trick him. And so we come first to the baited question. Notice verse two, "Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife." Now, the Pharisees knew full well God's position on divorce. For example, in Malachi chapter two in the Old Testament, verse 16, we read "'For I hate divorce,' says the Lord, the God of Israel." And by the way, we should hate it as well. Moreover, the Pharisees were aware of Jesus' previous rebuke concerning this whole idea of divorce for any reason, which they held to a position that the Pharisees were ultimately pushing. Because they knew what was recorded in Matthew five, verse 31, "'It was said whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you, that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.'"

Now more on the cultural context of that statement in a moment. So their line of questioning was to ensnare and embarrass Jesus. They knew that he would have to answer in one of two ways, which would be at odds with the two prominent rabbis of that day and their disciples. They also knew that perhaps his views would even compete with what Moses had to say. And so they bait him now to contradict the Old Testament. Also, you want to bear in mind that Jesus is now in the region of Perea. That's the land of Herod Antipas. Remember, he was the one that had John the Baptist beheaded because he confronted Herod about his unlawful marriage with his brother Phillip's wife, Herodias. So they knew that they had a question here, they could get Jesus in a lot of hot water. Now, the text in question that the Pharisees were thinking of found in Deuteronomy 24, let me just read verse one, "When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some indecency in her and he writes her certificate of divorce of divorce, and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house." Now, the key phrase here is "some indecency". What does that mean in the Hebrew? Well, it can mean something polluted, it can mean something shameful, or indecent. In fact, if you study the Hebrew lexicons, you will see a wide range of definitions, the exact meaning is a bit elusive. We see the phrase used, for example, in the purity ordinances, where it refers to some kind of inappropriate sexual behavior. The term "ervah", is commonly depicted as nakedness or genitals, particularly of a woman, for example, in Lamentations one in verse eight. Jerusalem is personified as an unclean woman who has exposed her nakedness. And there we see the Hebrew phrase. Now, here's what was going on, one school of thought was presented by Rabbi Shammai and his followers and they believe that you translate the phrase "some indecency", as "unchastity, or adultery", very narrow. But Rabbi Hillel and his disciples had a much broader understanding. And that was anchored in the statement that "she finds no favor in his eyes". And so they believe that the phrase refer to something the husband found offensive, or distasteful in his wife, even beyond adultery. So as a result, they had a philosophy that basically said, you can divorce for any reason at all, if you no longer found her attractive; she burned your food, if she exposed her ankles to some man even accidentally, criticized his mother, you name it. You can write her a certificate of divorce. Now here's what's going on. If Jesus took the narrow interpretation, that it means only for unchastity and adultery, the Pharisees knew that that would offend all of the followers of Hillel, making them all out to be adulterers and adulteresses. Moreover, they would say that he was inconsistent because after all, he consorted with tax collectors and prostitutes. Remember, the ones that were interested in the Gospel? The ones that were convicted of their sin. But if he took the more liberal view, then the disciples of Shammai would accuse him of moral laxity. And certainly all of the women would hate him.

So you have the baited question, and now you have Secondly, the beautiful answer. By the way, as we look at this, it's almost laughable to think that these clowns are actually trying to trick the creator of the universe. That is never a wise thing to do. So verse three, Jesus "answered and said to them, 'What did Moses command you?'" I find it interesting that Jesus completely ignores the rabbinic positions, he doesn't even touch any of that. And frankly, he stuns them with his unanticipated and I might even add, sarcastic response by pointing them to the ultimate authority, which would be the Old Testament scriptures in this context.

Matthew gives us a little further insight into what happened. Matthew chapter 19, beginning of verse three, "Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking Him, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?' And He answered and said, 'Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female.'" By the way, in the Hebrew, it's in the emphatic position, emphasizing one man and one female. Verse five, "and He said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife." "Joined" could even be translated, "glued", or "cemented" or "bonded" to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. "'So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.'" And of course, in our text, Mark records the same thing a little bit differently. Mark 10, verse six, "'But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.'" So in other words, what Jesus is saying to them is, how could any rational, unbiased person believe that it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife, for any reason, any cause at all, considering God's design for marriage that is demonstrated in the relationship of the first union, between Adam and Eve? The two became one flesh. This is what happens when we marry, the two become one flesh. There is an indissoluble union that occurs before Almighty God and indissoluble oneness. Where a man and a woman are joined together in a permanent union by God himself, with children being the perfect expression of the supernatural symbiosis. "'What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.'" And if you think about it, Jesus is reasoning now out of the Pentateuch, and that was really hard for these guys to swallow because they were supposed to be the experts on all of this. His position was not rooted in their rabbinical teachings, not rooted in tradition, not even in the Law of Moses, but rather, he goes right back to the creative order that was ordained by God Himself. And folks, the implication of this is absolutely staggering.

Now back to Mark, chapter 10, verse three, he answered and said to them, "'What did Moses command you?' They said, 'Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.'" Which, by the way, is only a little smidgen of what's really in that whole passage, a very selective biased answer. He just said, Hey, write her a certificate of divorce, and send her away. That's Moses said. Really? If you examine what Moses said, In Deuteronomy, one through verse four, we see that it is a passage that emphasizes how an illegitimate divorce, where a husband puts his wife out, for whatever reason, and she marries another, that breeds adultery. But it does not command or commend or condone divorce. That's not what the text is about. As in all Old Testament passages, there's no specific permission for divorce given. It only states that if a man legally divorces his wife for something other than adultery, and then she marries another man, if that man dies or divorces her, she would not be allowed to return to her first husband. Why? Because she was defiled in the remarriage because there was no legitimate grounds for divorce, That's what the text is talking about. But the Pharisees response, as I say, was very selective, it was very biased in their favor.

So verse three, "'What did Moses command you?'... 'Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.'" So in other words, all they're focusing on is the legal paperwork for sending her away, not on the adulterous implications of divorcing her for something other than adultery. So again, the Mosaic law had nothing to do with his idea of permitting a divorce, for any reason whatsoever, as long as the legal documents were filled out. I might add, however, that a certificate of divorce was very important. Especially in ancient Israel. Eugene Merrill says this, quote, "Divorce proceedings consisted of his writing with respect to his wife, a certificate of divorce. In Hebrew, literally a writing of cutting off, placing it in her hand as a public symbolic witness to the disillusion of the relationship and sending her," quote, "from his house." That is from the family circle and all that that entails. She had thus been cut off and driven away from home and family. A punishment laden with indescribable shame and incalculable economic and social loss in the ancient Israelite world."

So, a certificate of divorce was legal proof that this woman no longer belong to this man, the man no longer had a claim on her, otherwise, a woman in a patriarchal society such as that, would have no hope of survival, being unattached to a husband for protection and provision and so forth. And think about it what man would want a woman who, whose husband still had a claim on her, and therefore she still had a duty to Him. So again, the Pharisees emphasized this issue of a certificate of divorce for any reason they wanted, based upon the phrase, "some indecency", rather than acknowledging that the text merely regulated the reality of divorce that God hates, without condoning or condemning it.

So we come to verse four. "They said, 'Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.' But Jesus said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.'" In other words, what we see is that divorce was a concession that God made because of man's hard-hearted pursuit of sexual immorality. It was not something that that God ordained. In fact, in Matthew 19, verse eight, Jesus "said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning, it has not been this way.'" The point is this while there was no specific permission for divorce, in the Mosaic law, because of his grace, God permitted that which he hated. And I might also add because of His grace, we see that he allowed those that committed adultery to avoid the death penalty many times. Israel history is filled with those that God spared for that; David and Bathsheba is one example, Hosea and Gomer. Interestingly enough, we read in Ezra chapter 10, that God even commanded the Jewish exiles, returning to their land under Ezra's leadership, to divorce their pagan wives on the grounds of spiritual adultery. Probably physical adultery was a part of that; part of their pagan practices involved gross immorality. And certainly God hates divorce, but he hates idolatry even more. In fact, John MacArthur says this quote, "Though God hates divorce, there are times when it is the lesser of the evils and would prevent and would prevent a future and even greater spiritual catastrophe." So indeed, God hates divorce, but he graciously permits it under certain circumstances.

We will also see that this can happen when the marital bond is broken by an unbelieving spouse who no longer wants to be in a covenantal relationship with her. First Corinthians 7:15. More on that later. So again, Jesus says in Matthew 19, in verse eight, "'Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it was it has not been this way.'" And then Jesus goes on in Matthew to suggest a condition where divorce would be permitted. He gives an example here in verse nine, "'And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.'" In other words, an illegitimate divorce followed by remarriage constitutes adultery. The term immorality "porneia" in the original language, we get pornography from that, here translated, "adultery," is a very broad term, encompassing just any form of illicit sexual activity, adultery being one of them. So if a person is living in persistent, unrepentant adultery; homosexuality, lesbianism, transvestism, voyeurism, which would include habitual obsession with pornography, or any other form of sexual immorality, then there is biblical grounds for divorce. Later in our text in Mark 10, Mark records the same statement, notice verse 10. "In the house, the disciples began questioning Him about this again. And He said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and remarries, another woman commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.'" Again, an illegitimate divorce followed by remarriage just constitutes adultery, they're still married in God's eyes. And I might also add that this was a not-so-subtle indictment against the Pharisees where many of them had divorced many wives for virtually any reason. This was part of the culture. As I stated earlier in First Corinthians 7:15, if I can digress for a moment, I believe Paul offers another exception that's illustrative of the kind of behavior that violates the covenant of marriage in verse 15. First Corinthians seven we read, "Yet if the unbelieving one leaves," the term in the original language of "leave" means to separate, it's in the present tense, indicating a continuing process; in the process of separating, of dissolving the marriage. Then there's a command that says, "let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace." And here we have a gracious provision, I believe for spouses that are languishing in a prison, not a marriage, where an unbelieving spouse wants nothing to do with a loving covenantal marriage relationship with his spouse, there is no covenantal faithfulness, there is no love. There is no peace, just bondage, and war and abuse and hatred. It results in desertion, disillusion of the marriage, and God grants a concession or a provision releasing the believing spouse from that bondage. They are not forced to stay, rather the command is to let him go or let her go. God has called us to peace. By the way, this is this is much more than just an unbeliever filing divorce papers, which was utterly foreign in the Greco Roman world. This speaks of an unbelieving spouse that has so violated the covenantal relationship that a desertion has taken place and abandonment of separation.

Now, I want to remind you that Christ's teaching, if we look throughout Scripture, Christ's teaching on adultery, and divorce, as well as Paul's instructions, on the desertion, and divorce, always reflect God's covenantal design for marriage. Biblically, the marriage covenant has essentially six purposes, I just want to give them to you without a lot of comment. The six purposes are these, first of all for procreation, secondly, for pleasure, thirdly, for provision or you might even add protection. Fourthly, partnership, which is both physical and spiritual, that should result in the mutual edification of a husband and wife, pursuing the will of the Lord. And then number five, purity, in that it protects against fornication and adultery. And finally, it's a picture of Christ's sacrificial covenant of love for his bridal church. The covenant of marriage is designed to accomplish these purposes. And I would humbly ask you, to those of you that are married, maybe even those of you that are thinking about getting married, are these prominent in your thinking, are these dominant in your heart? But when a spouse violates those covenantal purposes, through unrepentant adultery, or desertion, which is essentially the irreparable violations of covenantal faithfulness and love, God graciously offers the provision of divorce but that's not what the Pharisees wanted to hear. For these reasons God is merciful.

I might also add as a footnote whenever there are biblical grounds for divorce. In other words, whenever a legitimate divorce is permitted, I believe remarriage is assumed. Not everyone agrees with that. Just a couple of points, to that end. Romans seven verse three permission is given for a widow or a widower to remarry because they are no longer quote, "joined" or bound to their deceased partner, and by implication, the same is true in First Corinthians 7:15, the innocent spouse is no longer bound, no longer under the bondage of that marital union. First Timothy five, we see Paul addressing widows, those that have suffered loss or quote "left alone." And that term includes younger women who have lost their husbands, which would include losing their husbands through death, through desertion, through divorce, through imprisonment. And he encourages them to remarry. And basically, because of two reasons, number one, because of their, quote, "sensual desires", and number two, due to their immaturity to avoid being idle and going around from house to house gossiping and acting like busy bodies, talking about things not proper to mention. And so I would humbly argue that the Bible permits divorce, but not remarriage in such cases, or to say that Bible permits divorce but not remarriage, in such cases poses enormous problems. I mean, think about it, what are these women supposed to do? If they are forbidden to pursue their God ordained roles as wives and mothers? Are they to assume that they all have the gift of celibacy? Obviously, not. Paul tells these young women to remarry rather than become eligible for church benevolence, I mean, how could the church possibly care for all of these people? So again, whenever there are biblical grounds for divorce, whenever there is a legitimate divorce, when that's permitted, remarriage is assumed.

Now, let's go back to Mark 10. Some further insights, beginning of verse six, "'From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.'" Now, what I want you to notice here is that in this passage, Mark connects Genesis 1:17, with Genesis 2:24. I'll try not to get too technical, but what I want you to see is that this linkage is profound. And it reveals six very important characteristics of marriage, and also has implications into this whole LGBTQ w x, y, z, H, I, J, K, whatever stuff, that we read out there today. First of all, by connecting these passages, we see that marriage number one, has to be between one man and one woman again, Genesis 1:27, "God created man, in his own men image and the image of God, He created him, male and female, He created them." And so here God reveals his glorious purpose in creating the man and the woman. From the beginning of creation, he has a specific design, and that design is marriage. And then in Genesis 2:24, we have the paradigm. "For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." So marriage very clearly is between one man and one woman. That was God's original design, and he has not changed it.

Secondly, marriage has to be complementary. Males and females were created different. I think we all can see that. We all understand that. But we were also created in ways that are complimentary. Sexual differentiation is a part of God's design for marriage. To put it in the cultural context of our day, gender binary is rooted in the order of creation. That makes sense. It is not fluid. God's created order where he makes man in his image and woman in His image, helps us understand human sexuality. One writer said this quote "Men have external genitalia women, internal. Women can bear children if reproductively healthy. Men cannot. Men can sire children, women cannot. Men give give either an X or Y gene in procreation. Women can only give an X. The way we are designed, which is by God's design should inform our purpose and function. Without the complimentary design and function of male and female, the human race would cease to exist, as we would no longer procreate." End quote, Oh, that makes perfect sense to me. And we see this in the creation mandate. Going back to Genesis one, if we look at the next verse, verse 28, we read that God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." So again, sexual differentiation is part of God's designed for marriage. And this rules out same sex marriage that God calls an abomination. So, as we look at this linkage between Genesis 1:17, and Genesis 2:24, we see that marriage has to be between one man and one woman, it has to be complimentary.

Thirdly, it has to be restricted. In other words, it's to be exclusive, it has to be limited. It has to be between a man and a woman who become one flesh. There's a sexual union between a husband and a wife. In other words, what happens in marriage is an intimate, sacred bond is formed. And this bond requires a determined devotion for both the husband and the wife, to safeguard that union between them. We must guard our hearts to that end. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, "I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." So, marriage is to be restricted between the two that have become one flesh.

Number four, it has to be permanent. And we see this again in this linkage. It's a lifelong union between one man and one woman. This is why Jesus states in Mark 10, verse nine, "What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." And this brings us to point number five, it has to be sacred. By combining these passage, Jesus also proves the sacred nature of the marriage covenant, a permanent agreement that is made by both the husband and the wife, along with God Himself, affirmed in the very presence of God, for it is God, who joins them together. So it's a sacred union. Beloved, please understand marriage is not as our culture would have us believe, an unnecessary societal institution, resulting in a deplorable infringement upon freedom and an unlawful burden of inequality. I mean, that's what Satan would have you believe, that is not what God has revealed to us. And we must be faithful to His word. Marriage is the measure. It is the standard, it is the North Star, if you will, for sexual morality. Marriage is to be a heterosexual union, monogamous, lifelong union. It is the foundation of the family. And the family is the pillar of upon which society is built and maintained. And when all of that crumbles, you have what you see today in our culture, and it's going to get worse.

And finally, number six, marriage is illustrative. Meaning marriage pictures Christ's sacrificial love for His church. This is such a beautiful thing. In Ephesians, five verse 25, we read "Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved that church and gave Himself up for her." In verse 28, we read "So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and she'll be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great. But I am speaking with reference to Christ, and the church." Those of you that are married, may I humbly ask you, does your marriage illustrate to a watching world, Christ's covenantal love for his bridal church? Can people see that and the way you relate to one another? When we become one flesh, by God's grace, we begin to grow together. In Christ, we experience the emotional joys of oneness, the physical joys of oneness. Better yet, our relationship reflects the oneness and the mutual submission and love of the triune Godhead, which is an astounding reality. And, therefore, when we combine all of these characteristics of Christian marriage that we see inherit in this passage, we are left with no other choice than to reject the LGBTQ agenda, which is a mockery of God's glory revealed in his created order. It is a distortion of his image that is to be manifested in his image bearers. It is a violation of his design and His purpose for human sexuality and marriage and it undermines his proclamation of the gospel. And that's what Satan is all about. As Christians, we must never contradict God's design.

I'm reminded of what Paul said to Timothy in First Timothy one and verse eight, "But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious for the ungodly, and centers for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, and immoral men and homosexuals, and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted." So again, friends, this is why we must totally reject homosexuality, same sex, marriage. All of those things are a distortion of God's original design and purpose in creation. In fact, as we look at it, marriage provides the perfect context for godly masculinity and femininity to be manifested. Any other kind of union, God calls an abomination because it is a base inversion of his created order and a violation of his moral order. Furthermore, God's created order, along with his creation mandate, is why we would reject transgenderism, people who perceive their gender identity to be contrary to their biological sex. This is a hot button issue in our culture today. Again, Genesis 1:26, God said, Let Us make." "Us" by the way, the Triune God, "Let Us make man in Our own image according to Our likeness." And then we read, "God created man in His own image and the image of God He created him male and female, He created them." This refutes the idea that there are more than two genders. Here we see that gender is determined by God. And by the way, we call that biology. It's not determined by one's self identification, by one's feelings. Genomic chromosomes come in two forms "x x" or "x y". At least that's what I was taught in biology many years ago, I do remember that. God is therefore the one who determines a person's sex or gender in God's created order. It inextricably connects biological sex with gender identity, which are necessary for men and women to fulfill their God given roles and when you disregard these realities, the result is insanity; non-binary or gender fluid fantasies. I noticed on one LGBTQ website it's called sexualdiversity.org. They have 107 gender identities. And they will tell you that gender identity, it has nothing to do with your biological sex, your genitalia, it has everything to do with your feelings, and how you describe yourself and present yourself. And of course, if you read the names of these things, it's just, it's just bizarre. Beloved, I would say, as lovingly but as on the authority of the Word of God, transgenderism is pure fiction. It is fiction. It is a satanic deception that appeals to self-deceived people. Often young people, who sadly have been marginalized, many of them are hurting, they're disturbed, and they're in desperate need of our love and the Gospel. There's a big controversy today on misgendering people. The LGBT Q advocates insist that we refer to those who identify as transgender by their chosen name and pronouns, instead of their given name and pronouns that match their biological sex. And I was reading in one article, the Christian Post that some 44% of millennials believe that quote "referring to someone by the wrong gender pronoun, 'he/him, she/he'r should be a criminal offense" per poll by Redfield and Wilton strategies on behalf of Newsweek. So, in other words, unless you embrace their delusion, you're committing a crime. But dear friends, I would submit to you based on the authority of the Word of God, we cannot do this. God did not create them this way. First Timothy four beginning of verse four, "For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer." Dear friends, please do not use the ridiculous pronouns and thereby endorse and embrace their delusions. In fact, Paul says in Ephesians, five and verse 11, and following "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful to even speak of these things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything becomes visible is light." Ephesians 4:15 tells us we're to "speak the truth in love".

So may I close by challenging any of you who struggle with homosexual desires or gender dysphoria, which is really mental distress, because you perceive your gender as somehow out of sync with your biological sex, please, please don't embrace the fictional identity that the culture offers you and go contrary to God's revealed design and his purpose in creation. Don't exchange the truth of God for a lie. Please come and see me come and see others that we have in the church. We will help you, we will bring you to Christ. And there you will find true identity, true joy and true blessing. And if you're struggling with marital issues, with marriage, divorce, family issues, please come talk with us. I would plead with you. If you're struggling with these things, get on your knees with your spouse before God, hold hands and pour out your heart to him and prayer and beg him for help and he will answer. Moreover, search the Scriptures and see how God addresses your unique situation. And then humble yourself to what God has said. And watch what he will do. And if you're confused on that, come see me, come see the other elders, come see other people we have in the church. The answers are in Christ and in His word, not in the lies of the devil. And may we all celebrate the fact that God has made us in his image, male and female, to fulfill His glorious purposes.

And I just want to close with a profound word of encouragement that comes out of Revelation 19 verses six through nine is speaks of a future day when Christ's marriage to his bridal church which we were a part of, will be consummated, at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and we will enjoy him forever. And here's what the Spirit of God has revealed. "Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him. For the marriage of the lamb is common. His bride has made herself ready.' It was given to her to clothe herself and find linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he said to me, 'These are true words of God.'" Let's pray together. Father, we are so thankful for every expression of your grace, for the clarity of your word on these issues that are so relevant to each of us. Thank you for your faithfulness, your love, your compassion. And I pray that you will bless us all to the praise of your glory, that we might enjoy the fullness of all that is ours in Christ Jesus. And for those that are struggling, those that are confused, I pray that you will bring clarity, that you will bring conviction as well as comfort. So we commit all of this to you. In Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.

It is my great joy to be able to minister the word of God to you again this morning. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel as we continue to examine it verse by verse gleaning as much as we possibly can, from what the Spirit of God has revealed to us through His servant. And this morning, we come to the second part of "The Danger of Causing Another to Stumble." And certainly it is a solemn responsibility for each one of us as believers to cultivate godliness in our soul. In fact, I believe its First Timothy four seven says that we are to "exercise ourselves for the purpose of godliness."" And when we do that, we will not be a stumbling block to others. And we will also be able to promote that godliness in our own heart. Let me remind you of the context here before we look at the passage. Remember, the disciples had been arguing about who's going to be greatest in the kingdom. And Jesus has just finished confronting them and teaching them on matters pertaining to pride, and to humility. In chapter nine, verse 35, we read that he called the 12 and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all." Well obviously the self-promoting arrogance of the disciples fueled jealousy and strife amongst them, causing them to forfeit divine blessing and power, which will happen to each one of us. And so to illustrate the kind of humility the Lord is describing, and that which he wants, we read in verse 36, of chapter nine, that he takes a child "He set him before them and taking him in His arms, He said to them, 'Whoever receives one child like this, in My name, receives Me, and whoever receives Me does not receive me, but Him who sent Me'." And of course, the imagery is very clear there, you have a child that has no honor, no status, and desperate need of love and attention and training and even discipline and certainly protection. Matthew even gets more specific in Matthew chapter 18 and verse three, Jesus says, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." And certainly, as believers, when we come to Christ, we do so like children do we not? Ignorant, naive, needy, naughty, and on it goes; in need of love and rescue and forgiveness and protection, training. And in fact, Jesus even speaks more specifically about believing children in verse six of Matthew 18, he calls them "little ones who believe in Me". In other words, he's addressing even the most vulnerable among us. And what follows is a very intense warning pertaining to the dangers of causing a little one, to stumble into sin and unbelief. And even young believers, even immature believers, and frankly, any believer for that matter. So with that in mind, we come once again, to Mark nine and verse 42. I want to read down through verse 50, because we will be looking at this as a unit this morning. So Jesus says in verse 42, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast

into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands to go to into hell into the unquenchable fire, (where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched). If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than having your two feet to be cast into hell (where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched). If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. And it's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die in the fire is not quenched. For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalted with what will you make it salty again? Hve salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another." I've divided this section into three categories that I hope will be helpful to you. Last week, we examined the first one and that is a call to realistic self-examination. And then secondly, we will be looking at a call to radical repentance and finally, a call to resolute discipleship. Let me give you a brief review because we need to see this as a unit. Last week we examined number one, a call to realistic self-examination and notice what he says in verse 42, to the disciples, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble", which means to to entrap, to ensnare, to cause someone to sin, to be deceived and to dishonouring God, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea." In other words, it would be better for that person to experience that horrifying form of execution than to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. No wonder Jesus would say in Matthew 18, verse seven, "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks. For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes." See, Jesus is serious about protecting His redeemed, and we should be likewise, because they have been purchased by his very blood. Now this would have been very sobering to the disciples would it not? Because they had been treating each other with contempt, arguing about which one is more important, which one should be first in the kingdom, inciting each other to envy and jealousy and strife. So this would have been a call to realistic self- examination, concerning their own pride, their lack of humility. But it also gave them discernment because you see the same types of warnings in the context of the scribes and the Pharisees, who were causing everyone to stumble, including little children. And last week, I gave several illustration of what that looks like In our culture today. Especially the vile woke LGBTQ community that boldly brags about how they're coming after our children. I'm sure you all are aware of that; has been all over the news. The recent pride parade in New York City, there were hundreds of these perverted people in desperate need of the gospel, chanting quote, "we're here we're queer, we're coming for your children." What they refuse to admit is that God is coming for them unless they repent. Revelation 21 and verse eight we read that for the "cowardly and unbelieving and abominable, and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Dear friends, nothing can even begin to compare with the judgment of God on those who cause others, especially little children, to stumble into sin and temptation, and deception, and unbelief. But then beginning in verse 40, Three, there is a shift. Jesus shifts his focus from those who cause others to stumble to those who stumbled themselves. Instead of ensnaring others, we may also ensnare ourselves by acting upon the sinful impulses of our unredeemed flesh. What Paul called you will remember in Romans 7:23, "the law of sin". We're all aware of that. He said that though he rejoiced in God's law, he saw an opposing force at work in the members of His Body, an opposing force that demands obedience. And he called it quote, "the law of a different kind". This is the power of indwelling sin that must be resisted, it must be starved, it must be exterminated, which is an ongoing battle in our life. When you stop and think about it, if we're honest with ourselves, we did not have to learn how to fly off the handle in an absolute rage when things don't go our way. We come by that very naturally, we don't have to teach our children to be self absorbed, and self willed, and demanding. We don't have to work at being immoral and proud and demanding and envious and jealous and factious and so forth. I mean, don't we just naturally overeat, over medicate, overspend, overstate, overindulge, overstep and on and on it goes, right? Just who we are, in many ways. That's the law of sin. And then

we cause others to stumble as well. Even when we try to do good, there is an opposition going on within us. How many times do you come before the Lord early in the morning for private worship and prayer and as soon as you get your cup of coffee and you get hunkered down, your mind starts wandering. And there's all these distractions; there's the law of sin at work. Or you don't even get there because after all, you're too busy. Or you're too tired, or you're too hungry. Sunday worship comes family worship, home fellowship groups, opportunity to serve one another. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, I've got so much going on. I can't be distracted with those things today. Or to honor the Lord in our giving, to be good stewards of that which He has given us because it all belongs to him. Now, you know, I've got that boat payment, or my credit card payments, and on and on it goes, I don't need to give examples. There's always a danger of doing that because if I don't hit yours, you think you got off scot free, right? Paul speaks about this in Romans chapter seven. I want to underscore this in your mind. So you understand where Jesus is coming from and going and what he's saying. In Romans seven, beginning of verse 18, the apostle Paul laments over this very thing. He said, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wan, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I'm doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me, I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man. But I see a different law and the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind, I'm serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh, the law of sin." We all feel the tension, right? We all understand this. I think of some of the saints in the Galatian church who were abusing their liberty in Christ, thinking they could sin without consequence. And so forth, they were failing to love one another and serve one another, resulting in bitter conflict in the church. And in Galatians five verse 15, we read the Apostle Paul saying, "But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. But I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." Again, there's the law of sin. He goes on to say, for the law, or "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." Then he goes on in verse 19, and following is that "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are;" and then he gives this list, "immorality, impurity", which could be translated uncleanness, it's a wider range of moral evil, and it's corrupting influence in our life and in the world, especially the defilement of sexual sin. He goes on and mentiones "sensuality", which is shameless debauchery. It refers to just a complete loss of restraint and decency. We see this, for example, in these pride parades that are frankly too vulgar to even describe. He mentions "idolatry", which is anything that distracts us from worshiping and serving the one true God. Anything that occupies our thoughts, anything that motivates our will to dishonor God, anything that fuels our emotions, to cause us to lust after other things. Cell phones are probably at the top of the list these days. Entertainment, even exercise, think of all the people that worship body image. Materialism on and on it goes. He mentioned "sorcery". Sorcery, which is could also be translated, witchcraft comes from a Greek term "pharmakeia" we get idea of, of pharmacies and so forth or drugs. And this certainly was used to describe the drugs that were used in association with the occult. By the way, these drugs were even used back then for abortions. So these are things that are part of the deeds of the flesh. He goes on, he mentions "enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Those things, those wicked things that we do, if we continue to practice them, we are a slave to them, and sin eventually becomes characterological, right? A person that drinks too much is eventually called a drunkard. A person that steals is eventually called a thief, and on and on it goes. Now, those enslaved by their flesh, are basically those who have never been born again. But even we, being born again, have to deal with this law of sin that remains in our unredeemed humaneness until that day when we are

taken home. Now back to our text. Jesus now adds another dimension to his warning against causing others to stumble, which will be the lifestyle of the unregenerate. And now, he warns against stumbling ourselves or succumbing, shall we say, to the law of sin that works within us. And that's going to bring us now to our second point in a little outline, and that is a call to radical repentance, a call to radical repentance. And here he warns about the dangers of allowing ourselves to just let our sin run rampant and not deal with it. And he's going to do this through very figurative, even hyperbolic language, talking about removing a hand and a foot and an eye, each being a valued part of our body. And each a member of a pair, which I believe is most significant, as I hope to demonstrate. So I believe not only is Jesus emphasizing the spiritual need for the aggressive removal of anything that would cause us to stumble. But I think he's also pointing to an even greater reality and that is the need for a supernatural heart transplant. Because you think about it, you cut off one hand, what happens? You still got the other. You cut off one foot, what happens? There's still one that remains. You'd cut out one eye, you've still got the other. Moreover, the hand and the foot and the eye or any other bodily part, for that matter, do not act independently on their own right? It's not like boy, I'd be great if I could just get rid of this hand. They all respond to the lustful passions of the heart. James chapter one, verse 14, "each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his..." hand, his eye is foot? No. "His lust." Goes on to say "Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." In fact, Jesus makes this clear. Back in Mark seven beginning of verse 20, he said, "'That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man, For from within, out of the heart of men, precede the evil thoughts, fornication, thefts, murderers, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these things proceed from within and defile the man." Jesus even used the example of sexual immorality, in Matthew chapter five, beginning in verse 27. He says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, then for your whole body to go into hell.'" So yes, absolutely, we must deal aggressively with indwelling sin, but unless there is a radical transplant of the heart, you will never be able to do that. And you will never have a desire to do that. You will remain enslaved. You can cut off all of your body parts until you're dead and you will still lust for various things. By the way, herein is the folly of asceticism. We don't hear that very much it's the practice of strict self-denial to eliminate sin. I was thinking even of Martin Luther before he rightfully understood that the just shall live by faith, not by works. He dedicated himself to the Augustinian order, devoting himself to long hours of prayer and fasting, to the point where he was frequently emaciated long periods of time, or he would confess his sin and he would even strike himself with a whip. And many people did that, not understanding God's grace, and how that grace works through the power of the Spirit and His word to sanctify God's people. In fact, there was a guy named Simon Stylites, he comes from the Greek term "stulos", which means pillar, and he was called the "pillar saint". He was a Syrian Christian ascetic, who lived 37 years on a small platform on top of a pillar. Would you like to do that? And now people venerate him as if he was some, you know, great saint, and many others did that type of thing. And there's some that do it today, desert monks, nuns and so forth. So to be sure, physical amputations of or any other form of asceticism is not only barbaric and absurd it is, it is futile. A total contradiction of the work of saving and sanctifying grace as Jesus repeatedly describes. Once again, folks, the remedy for dealing with indwelling sin is the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God through His Word. Now let's look more closely at what Jesus says. Verse 43, "'If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands, to go into hell and to the unquenchable fire, (where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched).'" Again this is figurative language used to describe the everlasting continuation of judgment upon the wicked whose resurrected bodies have been supernaturally outfitted for the eternal torments of hell. In Matthew chapter 13, verse 42, Jesus

says, "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This again describes the conduct of those who caused others to stumble, those who rejected God. The weeping signifies the unimaginable horror and helplessness of eternal judgment, and the gnashing of teeth or the grinding of teeth, is an expression of intense hostility and unimaginable rage toward God that would do this to them. And again, Jesus in verse 45, goes on says the same thing about the foot, "If it causes you to stumble, cut it off," and so forth. Verse 47, "If your eye causes us to stumble, throw it out," and so forth. So what is Jesus saying to his self-promoting disciples? What is he saying to us? So easy to get ensnared by our own sin is it not, to develop those habits to cause others to stumble? Is he saying to them, "Listen, guys, you either deal aggressively with your sin, or you're gonna go to hell?" Is that what he's saying? Well, of course not. But rather he's saying, deal aggressively with your sin. But no, this is going to require more than you will ever be able to do on your own. Because the ultimate source of your evil is in your heart. The reference to hell is to force the reader to take sin seriously. Not "do this or you're gonna go there;" Certainly for the unredeemed that will be their eternal destiny if they refused to ask Christ to pay for their sin, they will pay for them eternally themselves. But he's saying, as well here, to go to any extreme, any measure possible, to avoid divine punishment. And when you've done all, when you've cut off all of your body parts, you will still fall short. You will still need undeserved mercy and forgiveness and grace and cleansing. Now, please understand the unregenerate will see no need to deal aggressively with their sin, as I said earlier, just doesn't doesn't faze them. They don't even see it as sin. They're slaves to sin. We, as believers, by God's grace, have died to sin and we are alive in Christ. I like to put it this way, sin still remains but it no longer reigns. Romans six beginning of verse five, Paul says, "For if we have become united with Him, in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin." Only true believers will have a desire to put to death the deeds of the flesh. Let me take you to Romans eight for just a few minutes. Romans chapter eight beginning in verse 10. The apostle Paul says "If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness." And indeed, because of sin, physically, we die, we understand that. But notice the certainty based upon our justification, he says, "yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.N not our righteousness, but the imputed righteousness of Christ. Verse 11, gives kind of a summary statement. "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then," verse 12, "brethren," in other words, in light of the glorious privileges that are ours, "we are under obligation." In Greek, it can be translated, we're a debtor, we are under obligation "not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." In other words, although the flesh, that old sinful nature, is ever present, influencing our lives, and it will not be eradicated until we enter into glory, nevertheless, we owe it nothing. That's the idea. We are not indebted to the flesh, we're no longer required, quote, "to live according to the flesh." In other words, to live under the domination of the old nature. We've been freed from that. All of the selfish motives, arrogant purposes, idolatrous affections, the deeds of the flesh, Galatians, five, and so forth, all of the corruption that flows from the heart, and manifests itself in our body, we're no longer indebted to that, we're no longer required to live by that. The flesh no longer has any claim on us. In fact, as we read, "once we were sold under sin," Romans 7:14, but now we've been delivered from the realm of that tyranny. So now we become servants of righteousness, we no longer have to obey the commands of the flesh. We might say the flesh is now a toothless tiger. It has been declawed, it has been crippled, unless we succumb to a fantasy of its former fierceness, and once again, allow sin to control us. But now the spirit ultimately is in control, he has regenerated us, and one will one day resurrect us physically. So we are under obligation to obey Him. Notice Romans eight verse 13. "For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die." See here, the apostle is describing the unregenerate man that remains and the dominion of his own fallen flesh and slayed by his, his fallen

nature, dead spiritually. And unless he repents, his life will continue to move inexorably towards the second death of an eternal hell. Very clear throughout Scripture, if you live according to your flesh, you yield your allegiance to its power, and it will eventually drag you down into its doom. But not so for those who are now under no condemnation, notice verse 13. Again, he says, "But if by the Spirit" if you are living by the Spirit, in other words, if you're living according to the influence of the indwelling Spirit, "you are putting to death," the great old English term "mortify", your mortifying. I remember the first time I heard that word, I didn't know what it meant. But I thought that's a cool word, and then eventually looked it up. Now I understand what it means. And I also know how hard it is to do what it means, right? You're putting to death. You're making it die. What are the deeds of the body, the doings of the flesh that uses your body as its organ of wickedness. And he says, if you're doing that "you will live." Because eternal life is only available through Christ in whom we are united. So dear Christian, we are not debtors to the flesh, but to the spirit. And our joyful obligation is to submit to the Spirit of God who empowers us to put to death, the deeds of the flesh, resulting in eternal life. And now, with that privilege comes responsibility. Isn't it interesting when you first, when you think about it, first God gives us the blessing. He establishes the position that we have being able to stand in His grace because of the great doctrine of justification. He makes His promises to us and then He gives us his provisions and then he has made everything ready for us to succeed. And therefore he exhorts us to obedience. In other words, think of it this way, we are now in Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells within us and as Peter said, in Second Peter one three "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness." Beloved, please understand, God never asks us to do that which He has not empowered us to accomplish by the power of his Spirit through His Word. Now, notice again, verse 13, "by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body," present tense in the original language grammar, denoting that this action is going on right now and it's going to continue to go on, it will be habitual, it is repeatable. This habitual killing of sin, frankly, will be the defining work of a believer. If it's not there, that person has never been born again. Paul wants us to grasp this. He wants us to realize these great truths;let them grip our soul. This is why Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth, Thy word is truth." So we want to realize that we are no longer debtors to the flesh. And to know that the Spirit of God is helping us put to death, the deeds of the body. Second Corinthians five, verse 14, speaks of what the Lord has done here. He says, "For the love of Christ controls us." What an amazing statement. It's the love of Christ, that motivates us. He goes on to say, "having concluded this, that one died for all therefore all died. And He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore," in light of all of this, he says, "From now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way, no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come." Take of what Paul told Titus, in Titus two, beginning in verse 11, he said that, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in this present age", and so forth. Colossians three and verse five, "Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as," what? "dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry." So in other words, when those lusts come, whatever it might be, whenever I need to deal with indwelling sin, I've got the power to do that. I have got the power to do that. I am not under its tyranny anymore. Paul went on to say, "For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience and in them you also once walked when you were living in them." Thankfully, because of God's infinite grace and provision and power, we are no longer slaves to those things. So again, whatever form it takes in your life, whatever form sin takes, you need to kill it. And you know what it is in your life. But know this, unless your heart has been radically changed through the miracle of regeneration, where there has been an instantaneous, supernatural impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead, unless that has happened, you will be unable to deal effectively with your sin. Moreover, you will have no desire to do so. And as a result, as Jesus says, you will be quote, "cast into hell." Verse 46, of Mark nine, "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." And our pagan culture knows

nothing of holiness of God, right? There is no fear of God. And by the way, if you know nothing of the holiness of God, you have no desire to be holy. You have no desire to be saved from your sin that would make you guilty before God's bar of justice. So people mock Christ, mock his word, hate his people. They challenge all that is sacred. I was made aware of a billboard recently. It said huge letters, "virginity is a social construct." I mean, that's just satanic stuff. And this is what is being fed to our children, our young people. And sadly, much of the American church knows no different. So many ostensibly evangelical churches have embraced all of this woke, LGBTQ wickedness. And therefore, ichabod is written across their doorway, which means the glory has departed. They are thoroughly apostate; any church that embraces any of this wickedness is thoroughly apostate. And if you're a part of anything like that, you don't need to walk, you need to run to get away from it. Much of the church today is largely unregenerate. It's Christian in name only. So folks, we must not stumble into the same trap. as God's people, we must take seriously our Lord's command. As we've seen in this little outline, we've got a call here to realistic self-examination. Secondly, radical repentance. And finally, the Lord gives a call to resolute discipleship. Now remember, Jesus has been warning his disciples against becoming a snare to others, as well as becoming ensnared themselves by their own sin and to underscore the demanding requirements of genuine discipleship that sometimes we'll include radical spiritual surgery to deal with remaining sin, Jesus now closes this section with a trilogy of salt passages. The first one is in verse 49, he tells his disciples, "'For everyone,'" I believe this is referring to everyone who's following him, that's the context, "For everyone will be salted with fire." Now, granted, this is a very enigmatic, a very cryptic statement. But I think given the context, it refers to the cost of discipleship, the idea of taking up one's cross following Christ in resolute discipleship. Now, let me give you some background here. As I tried to explain this, it's really a fascinating passage. First of all, salt when you see it biblically, for example, in Exodus 30, and verse 35, we know that it was included in the sacred incense that would burn perpetually on a special altar just outside the Holy of Holies. And it represented the perpetual prayers of God's people, and the pure offerings of the heart that which is a pleasing aroma to God. And it's also interesting, salt does not burn. For example, in numbers 18, verse 19, we see that it was a sign of God's covenant dealings with Israel. In fact, in the Old Testament, it was included in the offerings because it was emblematic of permanence or loyalty to the covenant. You see this, for example, in Leviticus two and verse 13. And these offerings included the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and the drink offering, all of which pointed to Christ's provision, and his character. And so salt, being a durable preservative, was applied to the sacrifices as a symbol of God's abiding faithfulness, that he will do all that He has promised to do. I might add that the burnt offering along with the other offerings that I just mentioned, will be part of our millennial worship one day, an amazing thought; a tangible memorial that's pointing back to the infinite value of Christ's sacrifice and our devotion to Him. We read about this, for example, in Ezekiel 43, verse 19, and also verse 24. It says, "You shall present them before the Lord and the priests will throw salt on them, and they shall offer them as a burnt offering to the Lord." So in summary, salt symbolizes God's faithfulness and the concomitant or associated consecration of his people to him. Well, what about fire? Well, in the Old Testament, we see that fire was associated with God's revelation of himself, in his Shekinah, in the burning bush with Moses for example. It also revealed God's judgment, like we see the fire upon the Sodomites in Sodom and Gomorrah on that judgment. It also was associated with the purification of God's own people. Remember the burning coal that that came from the altar that cleansed Isaiah, or the divine fire that healed and refines God's people. Malachi three, verse two, "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiners fire, and like fullers soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness." And so what we see in both the Old Testament as well as the new New Testament is that fire is also associated with purification, with sanctification of believers, which at times can be very painful. I've been there, if you haven't, and you know the Lord, you will be there too. In fact, it's an ongoing thing in my life, as I'm sure it is you, if you will admit that. First Peter one, verse six, "In

this, you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." So with some of this background, we come back to Mark nine in verse 49, "For everyone will be salted with fire." I believe he's saying that all who follow Him, will be purified. As Jesus has mentioned earlier, the fires of eternal judgment will engulf those who persist in unbelief, those who reject Christ and His sacrifice. But the fires of divine testing will purify those who trust in the sacrifice of Christ. Moreover, First Corinthians three, verse 13, "each man's work will become the evident; for the day we'll show it because it has to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work." Beloved, in summary, all who follow Christ must be totally dedicated to him. That's what Jesus is calling them to, must be totally consecrated to him. But that's going to cost us. There's going to be fiery trials and persecution that will come into our lives for our good and for His glory. Romans chapter 12, verse one, Paul says, "Therefore I urge, you," he's pleading with believers here, "brethren, by the mercies of God, I'm urging you to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." So salting a sacrifice, symbolically expressed the purity and acceptability to God, but that sacrifice also had to be roasted with fire, which I believe helps us explain the clause, "for everyone will be salted with fire." If I could paraphrase it. I would say it this way, every disciple of mine must experience, of salting, like the Levitical sacrifices to make their life and acceptable sweet smelling sacrifice, pleasing to God. But this will require the purifying fires of adversity. And then there's a second mention of salt. He says in verse 50, "Salt is good." And certainly we know that it is is a crucial mineral. It was used back then as it is today, sodium chloride; it was used as a cleansing agent, as a food preservative. I mean, we're all familiar with salting and brining and, and pickling and all those types of things. But it was also an important seasoning that enhances the taste of foods that would sometimes be almost unpalatable because they don't taste very good. I mean, who wants to eat an unsalted cracker? Or a hard boiled egg with no salt? Right? I mean, you get the idea. So he says salt is good, but if the salt becomes unsalted with what will you make it salty again. And indeed, in that region in the Dead Sea, they had to be very careful to process salt properly, to avoid contamination with gypsum. Otherwise it would lose its taste and it would become worthless. In fact, Jesus said in Luke 14:33, "None of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions. Therefore salt is good; but even if salt has become tasteless with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." So Jesus is here calling his disciples and, calling all of us, to an unwavering resolute commitment to following him to discipleship. And how sad it is to see so many believers today who are virtually worthless as a godly cleansing and preservative agent in a decaying society. As tasteless is tofu, right? I'm sorry, if you like tofu, I can't stand this stuff. No evidence of any resolute bold discipleship. Folks, we need warriors not cowards. You want to ask yourself, Am I a salty Christian? Right? Matthew five, verse 13. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." And then finally, in closing, he says, and this is the third in that little trilogy of salt. He says, "Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another." When you've been assaulted with fire, you will be a salty disciple. You will be that cleansing, preserving, unifying force among God's people; you will be that kind of an agent in your marriage, and your family and your church and your workplace and your community. And when you are, you will be at peace with one another. A lesson the disciples needed to learn as we all do. So may I challenge you, dear friends, to examine yourself here this morning. Someone has said that your life may be the only Bible people ever read. You want to ask yourself where am I causing others to stumble? Especially children? You all you want to ask yourself, Where am I allowing sin to ensnare me? Because I need to go after it and I need to kill it. And am I a faithful, dedicated, resolute disciple of Christ? Am I a salty Christian? Is my character defined by those qualities that promote truth and righteousness and the fruit of the Spirit? Or am I as tasteless as tofu? I hope that's not the case. Because if that's the case, you're as worthless as salt that's been tainted with gypsum. The good

news is if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So let's celebrate God's grace, even in the midst of all of these depressing things that we have to examine in our hearts. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for the Magnificent Truths of your word. apply them to our hearts that we might bear much fruit to the praise of your glory. For it's in Christ's name that I pray and for his sake. Amen.

Well, would you take your Bible and turn to chapter three. I understand that we're not going to have the verses on the screens today. So you will need to get out your Bibles or your little devices, whatever you use to open up the Word of God. We are actually in the sixth part of our study of Jesus appointing the 12. We will look at three more of these today and finish. Starting in verse 13, "And Jesus went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted and they came to Him. And He appointed 12 so that they would be with Him. And that he could send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter) and James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, (to them, he gave the name Boanerges, which means ," Sons of Thunder"); and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas and James, and Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot. and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him." As we have studied these men, they have been a encouragement to our hearts because in them we see ourselves and this is as we see ours, their besetting sin. But what I find really fascinating is that scripture really doesn't highlight anything about their lives, their accomplishments, rather, it focuses primarily on their weaknesses and power, his humility, his compassion, His mercy. Jesus said that He would send the Holy Spirit and John says righteousness and judgment, He is the one who will guide us into all truth. He is the one that puts the glory of Christ on display. Here's the one that transforms believers. So Scripture makes much of Christ, not of them. It's interesting, isn't it? Their lives. Their accomplishments, for the most part are never documented. They're always in the background, and rightfully so; Christ is in the forefront. They are supporting actors to God's grand and glorious stage here of redemption. And he is center stage, not them. So it's much about their weaknesses, their stubbornness, sometimes their stupidity. And then then we can all see ourselves. But what is also interesting, if you think about it, they all lived and they died in obscurity, yet they were the divinely chosen emissaries of God, the apostles of Christ, the men that laid the foundation stones of the church, of which Christ is the cornerstone. And this is contrary to the world's mindset, isn't it? I mean, considering their prestige, his position as apostles, the world would have written scripture very differently. The world would have pointed to their incredible successes in establishing churches, their noble accomplishments. And you would think that somewhere we would read about these massive numbers of especially after penance, sure, of their heroic sacrifices, necessarily, just bits and pieces here and there. Oh, and I might add, there's no place in scripture where we read about some kind of Dove Awards for the musicians. No, God alone deserves the glory. These men were servants of the Most High, the King of glory. I'm reminded of First Peter five, Peter understood this. And there we read what he said, "Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud but he gives grace to the humble." He went on to say, "humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time." And make no mistake, He is exalted these men in glory as he has so many others, down through redemptive history as they are clothed in the robes of righteousness. Well, today, I want to elaborate upon the need for humility in Christian service. And we see this as we look at the lives of the men that we're going to examine today. And this humility manifests itself primarily in three ways in their service to the Lord. They are people that serve in obscurity, in love and in faith. And we're going to see this as we look at the men that are before us in the text. First, we're going to look at James, the son of Alphaeus. A very obscure character, right? Most of you are probably thinking, Yeah, I think I heard that name, but I don't really know who that is. He was one of the apostles. Well, let's, let's see what Scripture tells us. And from there, we can extrapolate some things that at least would be a tentative hypothesis about who he really was. He is listed, interestingly enough with Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James also called Thaddeus, and we will look at all three of these men today, but we know nothing really, of his father Alpheus, it could be the Alpheus as was Matthew's Father, that we would read about in Mark two 14, making him the brother of Matthew, but we really don't know that for sure. We can't say that. We do know that his mother's name was Mary. We read about that in Matthew 27 verse 56. She was a follower of Christ and eyewitness of the crucifixion, She assisted in preparing Jesus's body for burial. And we know according to Mark 15:40 that he is called "James the Less," "Lakobos ho mikros" in Greek. "Mikros" we get micro, and it literally means little one. "Mikros," little James is what he was, reminds me of Little Joe Cartwright on Bonanza, right? So little in this context could mean small in stature, we're not real sure, meaning that he was a little man. Or it could denote someone who is young and age perhaps distinguishing him from James the son of Zebedee. Or it could be a reference to his position, even though that's stretching it a little bit. Certainly he was a man of little influence, a man of small prominence among the other apostles. And he was not a prominent member of, shall we say, the inner circle of the Lord. And that's no indictment against the Lord. The Lord can only disciple closely, so many. And he did that primarily with Peter, James and John. But positionally, they were all equally even though functionally, there was a hierarchy among the apostles, Peter was the leader, Peter, James and John were, as I say, part of the Lord's inner circle, and the other seem to be of lesser rank. So here we hear he is James the son of Alphaeus, or little James, a man, lesser in size, perhaps in influence, but there's no hint of him trying to be superior or demand respect. This, I think about it, this is another one of those unsung heroes of the faith, right? Someone that served the Lord faithfully and obscurity, in many ways. He's just a footnote to human history on the page of human history, and yet he was a valiant warrior of Christ, that was used mightily for the sake of the kingdom and he will be remembered in heaven throughout eternity. You know, this is hard for many people in the body of Christ today, because the emphasis so much in our culture is on bigger and better right? Focusing on some grandiose, you know, church ministry or church empire. I mean, can you imagine Jesus hosting the Dove Awards? For example? I'm very familiar with that because years ago, I counseled with lots of celebrities and artists and lots of the people that were in part of the music industry, and so I know that intimately. Praising musicians who have achieved star status so that they can boost the profits of the record labels; heaping praise upon people who for the most part, want to praise of men. But contrast that to the unsung heroes of the faith. Like James the Less, or like the apostle Paul, who we read about, for example, in Second Corinthians four when he spoke of this glorious treasure of the gospel contained in earthen vessels, clay pots. And why was that, so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God and not not of ourselves. We're mere clay pots, which is a reference to those parts that were used for garbage even for human waste; lowly, common, unattractive, expendable. You see, it is the content of the message that is to be exalted, not the container. So there will never be in a pastor awards, nor should there be righ?. Imagine how all of this now has been distorted in our culture. Sermon of the Year goes to... female preacher of the Year goes to, or I don't know, entertaining pastor of the Year goes to... you see how silly it is. And yet this is kind of where we've come. And certainly there is no clay pot awards. Ridiculous right? By the way, only the proud crave rewards for men. Paul tells us in second Corinthians 10, beginning of verse 17, "But he who boasts, let him boast," in what? "In the Lord. For not he who commendss himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends." I want to camp on this just for a minute before we look more into these characters, because this idea of seeking the praise of men is really disastrous in the church today. And it manifests itself in a variety of ways, but certainly one of the most powerful ways. And one that is so subtle that many people tend to ignore is in the preaching of a man centered gospel, to receive the praise of men. I can imagine Satan instructing his demonic commanders to carry out his deceptive schemes. And he would probably say something like this to them. And here I'm quoting from something that I have written. "He would tell them mislead pastors into believing man's only problem is His will. Therefore, a sinner can be induced into making a decision for Christ by argumentation, delude him into believing that regeneration can be proven by physical effects, like approaching an imaginary altar and repeating a sinners prayer. Make him believe that the Spirits work and regeneration is to merely persuade the sinner to resolve to become a Christian. Make him skilled in manipulative techniques to get unbelievers to make a decision to accept Jesus into their heart. But to do this, you must make him reject the biblical doctrine of total depravity. That man's nature is so corrupt that God must first renew a sinner's mind in nature before he can even respond to the gospel in repentant faith. Convince him that fallen man is not spiritually dead, but only sick, and he is therefore able on his own to cooperate with God and salvation. Fool him into thinking regeneration is not the sole work of the Spirit that raises a sinner from spiritual death to life, but a combined effort of the sinner and the Spirit, he must be convinced that God's will to save is ultimately subject to man's will to believe. Therefore, man, not God, is sovereign over salvation. This will prevent God from being accurately depicted as the omnipotent sovereign, actively drawing unto himself sinners, he is elected by His grace to worship Him forever. Instead, God will be portrayed as a frustrated and helpless deity, pacing the throne room of heaven, biting his nails hoping sinners will hear him knocking on the door of their heart and let him in. Through decisionism, he will trivialize heartfelt repentance and replace the Spirits work of regeneration. This will then widen the narrow gate and broaden the narrow road with an easy believeism gospel that bears no resemblance to genuine repentance and saving faith. Moreover, by confusing emotionalism and mere professions of faith as works of God, false professions will be the norm. And without genuine saving faith, churches will be populated with people who are Christian in name only incapable of truly understanding the Word of God or living for His glory. Better yet, they will perish in their sin. For this reason, Paul said this in Galatians, one beginning in verse nine, "If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men, if I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ." Dear friends, may I remind you that the Gospel must begin with an accurate view of God, that he is infinitely holy, beyond anything that we could imagine. And in contrast, all that we are and all that we do is fundamentally offensive to God. Because of our sinful nature, we have an innate inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God. And unless God does something, we will never be reconciled to Him in saving faith. And so what we have to present is the good news, in the context of the bad news. We have to help people understand how God can justify the ungodly. What a dilemma that is, all sin must be punished. He can't just say, well, you're forgiven, and let's forget about it. He had to do something. And what is that something? Well, he had to provide a sacrifice, to pay for the penalty of sin. And that sacrifice, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ, who was our substitute, the propitiation, the one that satisfied the righteous demands of God. This is the gospel, no gimmicks, no manipulation, just unleash the truth of the gospel. For it is the Spirit that gives life right? John 6:63. Dear professing Christian, examine yourself, test yourself, to see if you be in the faith. Second Peter one, beginning of verse 10. Peter addresses this issue, he says, "Be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you. For as long as you practice these things you will never stumble for in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ will be abundantly applied to you." So what does that mean "for as long as you practice these things?" In other words, what are these some of these tasks of genuine saving faith? Well he addressed that in the verses just before that, in verses four through eight he talks about how, "We become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now, for this reason, also," he says, "applying all diligence, in your faith supply, moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge and in your knowledge, self control, and in your self control, perseverance and in your perseverance godliness, and in your godliness brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours, and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ." Beloved, this is the stuff of genuine saving faith. You say you're a Christian, and these things aren't manifested in your life, you deceive yourself. And I warn you as a minister of the gospel, unless you get serious about your heart attitude before the living God, you will someday stand before Him and He will be your judge, not your Savior. So people can preach a distorted gospel to seek the praise of men. Certainly the apostles didn't do this. There's of course, the sins of spiritual elitism. It's so rampant in the body of Christ today, elevating personal preferences to the status of divine fiat, pretending to have miraculous sign gifts like speaking in tongues or healing or some special word from God that you're supposed to share with other people. Ways of elevating yourself is something more spiritual than you are, seeking some spiritual spotlight, like the Pharisees, whom Jesus said in John 12, verse 43, "love the praise of men more than the praise of God." So, beloved, ask yourself, Am I willing to serve the Lord in obscurity? As James the Less? Are you satisfied with your station and Christian service? Even though it may be insignificant in the eyes of the world, it's not in the eyes of God. I fear too often we long for bigger and better, right. And when we become consumed with the breadth of our ministry, we will inevitably neglect its depth. Jesus went deep with a few, not shallow with the many. Think of the unnamed heroes who have gone on before us. Think of those Sunday school teachers that you had when you were a child that ministered to you and presented to you the great truths of scripture. You may not remember what they said but you will remember their character, their love for Christ and it impacted you. Remember godly parents, godly pastors, choir directors, musicians, nursery workers, even, right? Janitors, whatever it was, I can think of a whole host of these people that God put in my life. Think of all the unsung heroes that have gone on before us, I think of what we read in Hebrews 11, beginning in verse 35, where the writer describes, quote, "Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection and others experience markings and scourging. Yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn and two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. They went about and sheep skins in goat skins being destitute, afflicted ill treated men of whom the world is not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised. Because God provided something better for us. So that apart from us, they would not be made perfect." And certainly they're experiencing the reward now, as we all will, but such was James the less, little James. It's believed that he took the gospel to Syria, and to Persia and accounts vary about how he died. Some say he was stoned. Others say he was beaten to death. Others say he was crucified. But we can be assured that he was empowered by the Spirit of God to accomplish all that he was called to do. Even though he served in obscurity, and now he's receiving his reward, and one day we will talk with him. Beloved, remember, all servants of Christ will be rewarded. Paul reminds us of this in Colossians three, verse 24, "Knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ." Well, Jesus also called another man, a very different man. His name was Simon the Zealot, also called Simon the Canaanite. It's from the Hebrew word "qinah", which means to be zealous. And apparently, he was a member of a Jewish sect known as the zealots. And this was a political group, basically, Jewish terrorists that absolutely hated the Romans, and hated all Jews that sided with them. So Jesus calls a terrorist to be one of his apostles. Very interesting. This man, of course, was like so many, he was waiting for the appearance of the Messiah, for the Messiah to come and to somehow do away with Rome and return the kingdom to Solomonic glory; soften up the enemy a little bit, was his role. He thought, you know, I need to kind of help the Lord out here. The zealots were also called "sicarii", which means dagger men. They were secret assassins. They carried concealed daggers and they would, they were very skilled at slipping up behind a Roman soldier and sticking the knife up in the ribcage and cutting out the heart and then moving away very quickly. And it is said that they had a reputation for being willing to suffer any torture, suffer any amount of pain they were impervious to at all, even when their families were tortured in front of them. They would attack and then they would go hide in the Galilee in the northern part of Israel. Simon probably followed Christ for the wrong reasons at first, until the Lord softened his heart. I find it fascinating that God chooses a terrorist here to be his servant, a man who was filled with hate and rage and violence. And here we see another great, great virtue in Christian ministry. And that's the virtue of love, that we have to serve and love. Not only to serve in obscurity, but in love, especially love for those we once hated and those who hate us. And again, I think it's interesting that Simon the Zealot is mentioned and he's kind of thrown in with Matthew, the tax collector. Isn't that interesting? A public con, a Jewish Roman tax collector, that to the Jews, remember, Matthew was considered a traitor, a liar, a thief, a murderer. They were barred from the synagogue, he, they were unclean. You weren't able to even touch them as like touching swine. They were forbidden to give testimony in the court. But this is just the kind of man Simon the Zealot would love to meet in a dark alley, right. And the Lord puts them together. I'm reminded of a dog I once had, his name was Otis, he was a boxer weighed about 100 pounds, His neck was 24 inches around, he was a massive beast. But Otis absolutely hated cats. That may be why I love that dog so much, I'm not sure. But if he saw a cat, he would lose his mind. I could tell you stories of taking him to the vet nad they had some cats that they would let run around until the first time Otis came there. And they never let the cats out again when we came to the vet. But imagine taking Otis and a cat and putting them in a room and locking the door. So think about it, it would be catastrophic, right? Well, my point is simply this. Simon the Zealot was Otis and Matthew was the cat. And God had to do a mighty work of grace to get those two, to love each other and serve Him. And isn't that exactly what he has done with us? One, an amazing picture of the love of God and His people and by great by god's grace they serve side by side. Another lesson we would do well to learn here is that it's tragic when there are brothers and sisters in Christ even in a church that can't live in harmony with one another. I mean, we should all love one another. We know that but we've got to remember that we're committed to the same common goal and of course pride is always the culprit in that and it can lead to slander, malicious gossip and jealousy and strife. The Lord hates according to Proverbs 6:19, "a false witness who utters lies and one who spreads strife among brethren." And I want to remind you of one such person who would have been the opposite, you might say, of what happened with Simon the Zealot. This man's name was Diotrephes. If you want to turn to Third John, you read about him. This was a guy that refused to live in obscurity he refused to serve in love and humility, he refused to serve the brethren. And third John nine we read that Diotrephes is the one who "loves to be first among the brethren does not accept what we say" and so on. The New King James says, "he loves to have the preeminence among them." In Greek, the preeminence means to be fond of the first position to be the first person, the most prominent person, the leader of everyone else, and it's a term that really underscored selfish ambition, pride, to be first place and everything. And you know, the apostle struggled with this, right? Remember, they were always fighting about who's going to be first in the kingdom. And so they struggled with these things, and the grammar and the text there inthird, John indicates that Diotrephes did this habitually. He hated obscurity, demand and preeminence. And in verses 10 and 11, we read for this reason, John says, "If I come I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church." So this guy was the keeper of the gate, right? By the way, wouldn't you have loved to been there when the church read this letter and Diotrephes is sitting there, that would have been interesting. He goes on to say, "Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good, the one who does good is of God, the one who does evil has not seen God." So again, this was some pathological antagonist, he found fault with everybody. And this type of thing is so destructive in the body of Christ and yet it happens routinely. Contrast that to what Paul tells us in Ephesians. And certainly this would have been the heart of the apostles, even Simon the Zealot. There, Paul says in Ephesians, four beginning in verse one, that we, "are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace." Well, obviously, Simon the Zealot learned to love, he learned to set aside his foolish pursuit of politics and all of the things that he was doing and to serve Christ instead. And we want to make sure that we model that in our lives. Remember, Paul was even concerned about the saints at Galatia remember, he said that they were bickering with one another, and so forth in Galatians, five, and he reminded them to control their, their flesh in verse 13. He said, "But but through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another." So we want to guard ourselves against becoming a Diotrephes. And certainly, if we see them in the church, we confront them and deal with them, because it is so contrary to the way we should conduct ourselves. Instead, we have to become like Simon the Zealot. Well, I probably owe him a great debt of gratitude, because he went to the British Isles took the gospel up there, that would have been the place of my ancestry. And the gospel went forth in the British Isles and through his ministry, we don't know what happened, there's no real reliable record, but if you look at the different records, it's obvious that he was killed for his testimony for Christ. One more man that we'll look at here this morning, as we learn to serve in obscurity and love, and that is Judas, the son of James and here we see how we need to learn to serve also in faith. Here we look at John 14. It's the only source in the New Testament that gives us any inkling about him. This was Judas, not Iscariot, and he really had three names. In Matthew 10 three he is called Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddeus Lebbaeus is from a Hebrew root word meaning heart. So Lebbaeus literally means heart child. Lebbaeus, is one name. But he had another one, Thaddeus, which interestingly enough means breast child, which evokes the imagery of of a nursing baby, and perhaps communicates even a ridicule, derisive idea of being a mama's boy, but we can't say that for sure. Perhaps he was the cherished baby of the family, as some are, we don't know. But all of this gives us the idea that this was probably a very innocent, quiet, soft, spoken, warm hearted sort of a fellow, which is the opposite of the sons of thunder, right? But Judas was the name given to him at birth. Judas means "Jehovah leads." And again, I'm intrigued at how the Lord puts people together, of all things, he puts him in with, with these thunderous fishermen, a former tax collector and a terrorist. Well, it's a great group to go on a missionary trip with right. But isn't that a microcosm of the Body of Christ. I mean, when we look at the body of Christ, I mean, it's a kaleidoscope of personalities, a mixed bag of preferences and backgrounds. And we've got people in this worship center from all over the world with all different kinds of backgrounds. And yet we have a common calling. And we must love to each other and serve Christ, but in John 14, we learn a little bit more about Judas, Lebbaeus and Thaddaeus. The context there is Jesus just is describing the events in the upper room. And in verse 21, and following, he says, "He who has My commandments and keeps them as the one who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." Then it says, "Judas, (not Iscariot), said to Him, 'Lord, what then has happened, that you are going to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. And my Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.'" So here we see something about this dear man. Here, Judas reveals real tenderness and real humility of heart. Isn't it interesting, he's struck with the reality that Jesus and God His Father would love them and disclose himself to them. I mean, Judas knew his own heart. He knew what the rest of the guys were like. He was aware of all the bickering to be first. He was aware of all of the pride and the prejudices, all the jealousies, the brashness, the cowardness. The weak faith. The idea is, Lord, with all of that, with who we really are, you still love us, and you're willing to reveal yourself to usT? his is inconceivable. We are so undeserving. And isn't this the stuff of genuine saving faith? To be very aware of our own sin, our own depravity, to be aware of our own wretchedness and the undeserved love that is ours because of Christ. And with that in mind, he struggles with this issue of fairness, you know, it seems unfair to disclose or to manifest or to reveal yourself to us given who we are, and not the rest of the world. But Jesus doesn't rebuke him. There is no hostility here, Jesus knows thiw, it's just a humble question from a humble heart. And we know that all of the apostles were struggling with their eschatology. You know, they, they thought that he was here to establish the kingdom, to reveal himself to the whole world to be the Promised Messiah, the deliverer of Israel. Remember Matthew 24, when he's leaving, Jesus is leaving the temple with the disciples, and he said in verse two, Jesus said, "Do you not see all these things? Truly, I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down." And of course, that happened in AD 70, when the Romans came in, but all of this was so confusing to them. You know, Jesus, what's going on here? Verse three of Matthew 24. We read, "As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately saying, 'Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?'" Coming is the "Parousia" the revealing of your presence as Messiah and King? When is this going to happen? We're waiting. That was the mentality. They didn't realize that the parousia will be at the Second Coming. So back to Judas, he is humbled, he's confused. And he tenderly asks Jesus and John 14:22, "Lord, what then has happened, that you are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered in verses 23 and 24 is basically we were to paraphrase it, it basically goes like this. He says, Trust me, Judas. I will disclose Myself to all those that I have drawn unto myself and saving faith. All of those who habitually love Me and keep My word. You see, that's always the hallmark of real Christianity. Loving obedience is what validates genuine saving faith, not some mere profession of faith. Jesus is saying to him, Look, I know you don't fully understand all of this But you will, in the Holy Spirit enters you at Pentecost, he will reveal these things. So trust me, there is nothing unfair in my redemptive purposes or plans. Trust me, all who love me will be saved, those who don't, won't. But for those who do love me, demonstrated by their faithful obedience, we, the triune godhead, will make our abode with them in them. Literally, it's the idea of the parousia first taking place in the hearts of men and women who love me. And then the physical parousia, the appearance of the Messiah will come when he comes back, to establish His kingdom at the second coming, trust me, serve me in faith. Peter understood this, First Peter four 19, we read, "Those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator, in doing what is right." Beloved, the real key to effective and joyful ministry is to place your faith solely in the Word of God, to believe what he has said, even though there are things you cannot understand that none of us can understand, but to trust him, The just shall live by what? By faith, and someday faith will become sight. We will rejoice when that happens. We look forward to it now. Well, it's well documented Judas, the son of James, spread the gospel into the northern regions of, of what is now Turkey, even into Edessa, which was a royal city of Mesopotamia, there's numerous accounts that he even led Agbar of Edessa, the king, that he healed him. Later, we learned that he was clubbed to death, because of his boldness in proclaiming the gospel, the truth of the gospel. In fact, the traditional apostolic symbol, Judas Lebbaeus Thaddeus in that part of the world, to this very day, is a club, reminding us of all of the potential sacrifice that we might pay for the cause of Christ. So I close this morning by encouraging all of you to examine your heart, to not only make sure that you truly know and love the Lord, and therefore he's at work in you, but that you are serving Him, even if it's in obscurity, doing it in love and in faith. And to know that God is always at work in us, right? He's always at work in us, even though we can always see it. I think of a mighty oak tree, you look at the oak tree, and you can't tell what's happening, but it's still growing right? Even in the storms. Paul said, "For I'm confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." And one other challenge here. Be willing to find ways to serve Christ, even in the context of your family, don't necessarily look for something in the church. I mean, that's great, and there's places where you can do that. But there are a myriad of opportunities to serve Christ all around you. And if you're having a hard time finding them, make it a matter of prayer. And I will assure you, that the Lord will make it very clear where you can serve Him in your sphere of influence. We serve a wonderful, good and glorious God, don't we? Let's pray together. Father, thank you, for these men and for what we can learn from what little we know about their lives. But certainly, we know from your word, what you would have us to do as your People Living out our lives, even in obscurity, loving one another, loving those that would even hate us, loving them for the sake of the gospel. And trusting you come what may so we thank you, we give you praise in Jesus name. Amen.

It is absolutely astounding to realize that the King of heaven, of whom we have just sung has revealed Himself to us, not only in the person in the work of Christ but also in His Word. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter nine, as we continue to examine this gospel verse by verse, And this morning, we will be in verses 42 primarily, but I want to read verses 42 through 50 because as I began to reflect upon the magnitude of this passage, I realized that I needed to divide this up into right now, three parts, we'll see how all of that goes, but we're doing so under the heading "The Danger of Causing Another to Stumble." Before I read the text, let me introduce the concept. This is a very solemn, frankly, a very terrifying passage of scripture. You want to ask yourself, what kind of impact do I have on other believers? Especially children? Does my life promote or hinder their faith in Christ? Am I serious about jettisoning every rebellious attitude and action in my life that might somehow negatively influence another person's faith in Christ. These are the issues that Jesus is addressing in this passage. And what we will see is that the punishment for impeding or harming or destroying another person's faith, especially a child, or a new Christian, is not only sobering, but it is terrifying. And sadly, this is typically ignored. We all know that the evangelical landscape is littered with corpses of those who have rejected Christ largely because of someone in their family or in their church, who have negatively impacted them. And have hurt them and harmed them, deceived them; we can all tell our stories right. Before I read the passage, let me remind you of the context. The disciples had been arguing with one another about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom, Jesus is talking about dying and, and rising again, and they just don't understand fully what's going on there. So they're wondering, maybe, if they're going to be part of the kingdom that he's going to establish. So Jesus has just finished confronting, and teaching, them about the difference between the sin of pride and the virtue of humility, you will recall in chapter nine, verse 35, he called the 12. And he said to them, If anyone wants to be first, that is to be first in godliness, and garner God's esteem and blessing, "If you want to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all." And sadly, their self promoting arrogance fueled jealousy and strife amongst the brethren, causing them to forfeit God's blessing, to bring chastening upon their life. And so to illustrate the kind of humility that Jesus is talking about, in verse 36, we read that he takes a child, "He sets him before him and taking him in his arms, He said to them, 'Whoever receives one child like this, in My name receives,'" or literally welcomes me, and, "Whoever receives me does not receive Me but Him who sent Me." And certainly, children are ignorant, they're helpless, they're powerless, they're dependent. They have not achieved any status in life. They're largely ignored, and they're in desperate need of love and attention and training and protection. They're too young to even be really corrupted by the world. In fact, Matthew gets even more specific in Matthew chapter 18 and verse three, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." In other words, we enter the kingdom of heaven with no status, no power, we need to be loved. We need to be rescued. We need to be forgiven. We need to be protected. We need to be disciplined. In fact, Jesus calls them in verse six, "little ones who believe in me," and certainly this would include believing children. So this is a very serious matter. And for this reason, Jesus reprimanded the disciples who are trying to prevent children, even from approaching him. Remember, in Matthew 19, verse 14, he said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder hinder them from coming to Me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." You know, innocent, often fearful, children are leery of coming towards an adult. But isn't it amazing how they came to Jesus? The same will be true with anyone filled with a love of Christ, children will be drawn to them. Other believers will be drawn to them, not repulsed by them, they will feel safe in their care and as God's children aren't we all like children. When you really stop and think about it, we're in desperate need of love and care and protection and provision. And leadership. As I was thinking about this, I was reminded of the hymn that we had sung at our wedding, some 50 years ago, "Savior, like a shepherd lead us much we need a tender care." So Jesus chose a helpless, and dependent child to perfectly illustrate God's adopted children, especially children. And all true believers who have humbled themselves like a child, and come to faith in Christ as their only hope of salvation. And what follows is just one of the most frightening passages in all of Scripture, where Jesus describes his utter disdain for anyone who would dare to cause one of his little ones to stumble literally, to fall into sin and apostasy and unbelief. In fact, as we look at this, we can see his nostrils flare in righteous indignation. And the full terrifying judgment of His wrath is put on full display here, in this passage, we would all do well, to hear and to heed. Now, bear in mind when he was about to say is the very opposite of what was going on with the disciples, right? I mean, they were causing each other to stumble into sin they were arguing about who's going to be first in the kingdom. And of course, with all that type of nonsense, all you do is stir up jealousy and strife. And they even ostracize another believer, remember, in verse 38, and following of chapter nine, another believer serving Christ because that person wasn't in their little group. And so, this really demonstrated how their pride fueled unwarranted intolerance and exclusivity. So that's what's going on here

So let me read the passage to you beginning of verse 42. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believed to stumble it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. And it's better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands to go into hell, and the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than having your two feet to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good but if the salt becomes unsalty with what will you make it salty again. Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another."

So here Jesus uses very vivid, dramatic, even hyperbolic language to underscore the danger of causing another believer to fall into sin and unbelief. I've divided the passage into three sections. This morning, we're going to look at the first one, which is a call to realistic self-examination. And then we will later look at a call to radical repentance and a call to resolute discipleship. But notice first, under the heading a call to realistic self-examination, Jesus is telling his disciples here, "whoever", verse 42, "Whoever causes one of these little ones, who believe to stumble." Now let's stop here for a second. The term stumble is from a Greek term "skandalon" and it means to cause to sin, or to cause a downfall. It carries the idea of an enticement or a temptation to sin. It was also used to describe a device for catching something alive like a snare or a trap or a bait stick. I remember when I was a little boy, I used to try to catch rabbits, I would do the little box thing and then have a little stick in there and a carrot. And if the rabbit would come in and get the carrot, it would trip the stick and catch the rabbit. I did catch one time. But that's the idea that we have here in this text. You might think of it this way. It's like putting peanut butter on the trip of a mousetrap, right? And we all know what happens. It was used by Jesus in Matthew 16:23. Remember, Peter tried to prevent Jesus from going to the cross, fulfilling His atoning work on our behalf and Jesus turned his head to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan, you are a stumbling block," a skandalon, "you are a stumbling block to me for you are not setting your mind on God's interest but mans." And dear friends, this will always be the driving force of one that causes others to stumble. They are ruled by their own lust. They're promoting their own selfish agenda, or some ungodly, immoral ideology. And what they will then do is try to influence and try to recruit and even force others to agree with them. In fact, Matthew's account adds even further clarity to Jesus warning. In Matthew chapter 18, beginning of verse three, Jesus says, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in my name receives Me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Then he says, "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks. For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come," in other words, God has sovereignly ordained to allow this to occur. Nevertheless, he goes on to say, "But woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes." So as we come to verse 42, of Mark's gospel, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble," in other words, those who need to be cared for, those who need to be protected, those who need to be respected and loved and disciplined, "it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea." Heavy millstone "onikos mylos" in Greek it means literally, donkey millstone and that is very appropriate in this was the type of millstone that was used in community mills. Now they had small millstones, where they'd have a rock and a little, kind of a doughnut looking other rock that they would use in their homes. And they would grind the flour with that, but this is referring to the large millstone which was a heavy stone shaped like a wheel and it would roll around on another heavy stone on a basin and it would have a shaft through it. And it would be attached to the millstone and attached to a donkey or to an ox that would go around in a circle, you've probably seen pictures of that, and the grain would be placed in the basin where it would be ground into flour. So this was a very familiar analogy to them. Because in that day, in Jesus time, the Romans would employ this type of gruesome execution by drowning criminals with a millstone around their neck, Josephus Flavius, attested to this in his writings. And what they would do is they would tie a rope onto a millstone, and tie it around the person's neck, and then they pitch the millstone off the boat, and it would immediately grab the neck and take you instantly to the bottom of the sea, or sometimes a river. And between the excruciating pain of that on your neck and the water pressure, not to mention the drowning, it would be a horrible way to die. This was also a great indignity to people, because in the Middle East, you need to have a burial, you need to have a grave and this prevented any of that. So Jesus is literally saying, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for that person to suffer this kind of horrific punishment than the one that awaits for them in an eternal hell. 

Let me give you some examples of what this looks like people that cause little ones to stumble. We all know of children and baby Christians who have been so negatively influenced by wicked people, that their walk with Christ was profoundly wounded, if not completely destroyed. We know of children who grew up in physically and emotionally, spiritually abusive homes. Eventually they want nothing to do with Christ. They lived with parents who are Christian in name only, hypocrites, pretend Christians. Eventually kids get wise and they see the sham and they want nothing to do with it. We've all seen that before. I think of Ephesians six and verse four where Spirit of God speaks through the Apostle Paul and says "Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." You can cause your child to stumble with harsh criticism and legalism, double standards, unfair rules, unfair and unrealistic expectations, disciplining out of anger, not loving your wife, marital conflict, breaking promises, failing to teach them the word and on and on it goes. Think of the brazenly immoral young woman who dresses seductively for the very purpose of somehow eliciting a lustful response from other men. Frankly, this is the norm now on social media and Hollywood. Or the adulterous woman who, as we read in Proverbs seven beginning of verse 21, "With her many persuasions, she entices a young man, with her flattering lips she seduces him. Suddenly, he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool until an arrow pierces through his liver, as a bird hastens to the snare, so he does not know that it will cost him his life." Think of the horrible influence of superficial churches that are led by people that God has not called, God has not gifted. God has not equipped their self-appointed worldly, many times immoral pastor. Sunday school teachers, youth leaders who lead little ones into sin and to error. By the way, it's not always because of what they teach, but most of the time, because what they leave out. Young people are never trained properly. They're never discipled, they're spiritually malnourished. They grew up to be weak and undiscerning, vulnerable to false doctrine, and the temptations of the world and eventually the kids grow up. They spot the hypocrisy. They don't really know what to do with all of the superficiality, and suddenly they get indoctrinated by some ungodly teacher or professor, or friend, and the rest is history. 

Think of the charlatans that are out there today that deceive young undiscerning Christians. Consider the atheist professor in our colleges and universities that do everything they possibly can to ridicule the beliefs of our children, causing them to deny, for example, God as creator. And of course, the most glaring example today of those who are causing especially our children to stumble is the woke LGBTQ agenda, where people indoctrinate young people to celebrate immoral practices that God abhors. Gay and Lesbian pastors, painted up pedophile perverts, drag queens, presenting Children's Bible stories in worship services. Dear friends, it would be better for them to have a millstone tied around their neck and thrown into the sea than what awaits them, lest they repent. By the way, this is a huge danger for our children today. You must understand that the clear priority of the woke LGBTQ agenda now being embraced and celebrated by many churches that that hold of these things, the goal of all of that is to indoctrinate and recruit and seduce our children. You must understand that homosexuals aren't born, they're recruited. 

You know kids love social media and I was reading some research. They estimate now that there's 500,000 sexual predators online every day. They comb through social media, especially with our kids to try to connect with them. And they estimate that one out of nine kids are approached every day, on the internet through social media, they connect with them, and then eventually they meet with them. And then they are abused. We see this especially in what's called CSAM, Child Sexual Abuse Merial, child pornography. They say that it has increased by 15,000% over the last 15 years. These people cause our children to stumble. I looked on the website of the National Education Association. I comb through it and I clicked on one section that called NEA LGBTQplus resources. Here's what it said. By the way, these are the ones in our public schools that are teaching our children right. "This resource page is designed to provide educators with LGBTQ plus information, tools and resources they need to support transgender and non-binary students to be more inclusive of LGBTQplus history in their classrooms, and to stop LGBTQplus bias and intolerance in our public schools." I looked at the Planned Parenthood website. And besides things that you could click on regarding abortion services, HIV services, birth control services, etc. I noticed it said "Planned Parenthood is proud to provide a safe and welcoming place to get transgender nonbinary hormone therapy. We offer services to transgender women, transgender men and non-binary people services include estrogen and anti-androgen hormone therapy testosterone hormone therapy, puberty blockers." You've heard me speak of California's Bill AB 957. That would require a quote "a parent's affirmation of the child's gender identity as part of the health safety and welfare of the child" end quote. This means that any organization, if this has passed, and it's moving in that direction, it means that any organizations that interact with children, including churches and schools would be required to affirm quote, "gender transitions even in minors or risk charges." California courts would be given complete authority under Section 3011 of California's family code to literally remove a child from his or her parents home, if that parent disapproves of the LGBTQ ideology. There's a new hate crime bill in Michigan, in the Michigan House they're trying to pass, its House Bill 4474 is supposedly designed to protect individuals from harassment and intimidation which encompasses any act that quote, "would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened or threatened." And this would include, quote, "gender identity or expression." And they define that as quote" having or being perceived as having a gender related self-identity or expression, whether or not associated within an individual's assigned sex at birth." And so as you read through this, what you see is this is a smokescreen to attack anyone who, for example, would misgender a transgendered person, or do as I'm doing today, warn other people about the dangers of this, especially with respect to God's judgment. It would make preaching against homosexuality considered to be quote, "harassment and intimidation." And therefore you are quote "guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years or by a fine of not more than $10,000." This is where we're going folks. You know, it's fascinating, those who cause our little ones to stumble, seem to have their own name these days in our culture, they're called influencers. I kept hearing this about different people. And I looked it up an influencer. They say, "influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people in organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field." And I looked up some of the top influencers today. And I can assure you that absolutely none of them are influencing the millions of followers, mostly young people; they're not influencing them to come to faith in Christ and serve him. They're doing just the opposite. And of course, you've heard of the transgender influence influencer named Dylan Mulvaney, I believe the whole Bud Light controversy, a guy that pretends to be a woman all dressed up like a woman, you've seen that. But you know, what's really startling is you have an increasing number of ostensibly evangelical people that embrace this filth. All of it designed to groom and seduce our children. And I come back to what Jesus said in verse 42. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe, to stumble, it would be better for him if with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he would be cast into the sea." By the way, if you see these kinds of people in the church, the apostle Paul tells us clearly what to do. Romans 16 Verse 17, "Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances there's the same word "skandola," Those that cause others to stumble, "keep your eye on them, who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching, which you learned and turn away from them." 

So folks, Jesus is serious about protecting His redeemed, those that he has purchased with His very blood, those that are united to him. Let me elaborate a little bit more on this millstone drowning, execution, and why it would be better for that than a punishment in hell. Let's look for a moment at Matthew 13. You remember in that text Jesus gives the parable of the wheat and the tares and agriculture. A tare was a type of wheat, they believe it was probably what was called a darnel, that was virtually indistinguishable from wheat until the head matures at harvest time. And often what wicked people would do to attack their enemies, they would sew these tares in their wheat fields, and that would ruin the crop. And here in Matthew 13, Jesus uses this wicked procedure to picture Satan's strategy of deliberately planting his followers in churches to grow up undetected, with other true followers of Christ. And it's extremely difficult, and often impossible to distinguish between the true and the false. But the tares will inevitably be the satanic plants that will cause genuine believers, especially our children and our young people, to stumble, to depart from the faith, to believe lies. So in Matthew 13, verse 39, Jesus said, "The enemy who sowed them as the devil," by the way them refers to back in verse 38, the tares are "the sons of the wicked one." So the enemy who sows the tears of the sons of the wicked one "is the devil. And the harvest, he goes on to say is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age, the Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom, all stumbling blocks," literally in Greek, "all causes of sin," which would include all of those that have led others into sin and unbelief. "And those who commit lawlessness." Fascinating phrase, Jesus spoke of this in Matthew seven, verse 23, "those who practice lawlessness." In other words, those who have no fear of God, and who will do everything they possibly can to live in rebellion against Him. Jesus spoke of this, especially with respect to the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew 23, verse 28, he described them "as those who outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly are full of hypocrisy, and lawlessness." So again, in Matthew 13, verse 41, we read, that a day is coming when "the Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and will throw them into the furnace of fire." The term "throw" carries the idea of grabbing something and flinging it, casting it. It denotes the use of supernatural, irresistible power and righteous indignation. It carries with it the idea of abhorrence of utter disdain. They will be thrown into the "furnace of fire", and then we read "in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth," which is a reference to hell. In fact, Mark will go on to state in verse 43 of our text "if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, it is better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands to go into hell into the unquenchable fire." The term hell is "geenna" that occurs 12 times in the New Testament, and it refers to the Valley of Hinnom on the East West Valley, at the south end of Jerusalem, you can read about this, for example, in the Old Testament in Jeremiah seven and verse 31. He speaks of the "high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom." The term Topheth comes from a Hebrew word "toph", for drum. And this was significant because in the Valley of Hinnom, was where the ancient people of Judah sacrifice their children to the god Molech by throwing them alive into a burning fire. And they would do this to the sound of beating drums to drown out the screams. Later, it became a place where dead bodies of criminals and animals would be buried. And so because of this, what we see in the New Testament is that New Testament writers and Jesus as well used this, this smoldering dump that reeks of future faction to symbolize hell. A place of eternal punishment, a place of eternal banishment, the eternal abode of the damned, who rebelled against God, who mocked Him and who caused his little children to be trapped in sin, to be enslaved by deceptions, many of them to apostatize. 

Back to Mark nine verse 44. Mark adds on several occasions here, he speaks of it "where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Devouring worms would normally feed upon a rotting body upon that rotten flesh until it's all decomposed but not so in eternal hell. You really shouldn't take this literally, but figuratively to give you the idea of everlasting continuation. By the way, this comes from Isaiah 66, verse 24, "Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind." You say, you know, I don't believe in hell, I don't believe in all that stuff. You know, you're in good company, most people don't. But you will. And all I can do, is in love, warn you what God has said. The horror of hell is described in other passages. We read it about it, for example, in the the pre kingdom judgments that will happen to the wicked during the time of the tribulation, Revelation 14, verse nine, "another angel, a third one followed them saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast, and his image," referring to the coming Antichrist, "and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the couple of His anger, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone and the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." Revelation chapter 20, beginning in verse 12, "And I saw the dead," John said, "the great and the small standing before the throne and books were open, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Dear sinner, please hear me. If this applies to you, and you will know it in your heart, you must understand that if you cause others to rebel against the Most High God, the fate that awaits you transcends anything that you could possibly imagine. Because a holy God will not be mocked. And your eternal destiny will be horrific beyond words. Again, Matthew 13:42 The Son of Man will send forth His angels and will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and will throw them into the furnace of fire in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." There we understand that those that will go to Hell will have a resurrected body that is suited for eternal torment. In fact, we can see that some of their physical faculties will be operational, they will be able to weep, gnash their teeth. You see, this describes the eternal conduct of those who have caused God's little ones to stumble. Weeping signifies the unimaginable horror and helplessness of their eternal judgment and gnashing, or it could be translated grinding of teeth, is an expression of intense hostility, of utter hatred and rage directed towards God. We can see a glimpse of this, for example, in the fourth bowl judgment, described in Revelation 16. In verse nine we read that during that time, "Men were scorched with fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. Can you imagine that? To know that this is God pouring out his judgement upon you and upon a wicked world and instead of bowing in repentance you blaspheme him. Dear friends the damned will blaspheme God for eternity as they weep and grind their teeth in unending fury and torment. Nevertheless, at that time, all the mocking, all the ridicule, all of the lies and empty threats against the Most High will be forever stopped. All that will be heard will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. We also know this will be a place as Jesus said of outer darkness, Matthew 22:13. Can you imagine being in a place where there is absolutely no light? And aren't we beginning to see the light of righteousness and truth being extinguished in our culture. Matthew 8 in verse 12, "The Sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness and in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." In other words, this will be a place of solitary confinement forever removed from the Light of the glory of Christ and the glory of the eternal state. Dear friends the horror of hell transcends all human experience, and it exceeds the limits of our imagination and this is why it would be better for a man or woman who causes a child or an immature believer, or any believer, to stumble in to sin and unbelief, to have a heavy millstone tied around their neck and cast into the sea. No wonder Jesus would say in Matthew 18:7, "Woe," in other words cursed, damned, "to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! Dear Christian, may I speak to you very clearly here, you must understand that how we treat other believers reflects on our attitude towards Christ. How we treat others is how we are treating Christ. Because every believer has been purchased by his blood and is forever hidden and united to him. Remember Mark 9:37, "Whover receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me." And this is what Jesus is wanting us to understand. You remember on the road to Damascus when the Lord Jesus Christ confronted the zealous Christian killer, Saul of Tarsus, who later became the Apostle Paul. We read in Acts 9:4, he demanded of him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" Jesus parable in Matthew 25 beginning in verse 34 says this great reality, let me read it to you. "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' The King will answer and say to them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' Then He will say to those on His left, 'Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels, For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger, you did not invite Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, you did not visit Me. Then they themselves will also answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?' Then He will answer them. 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'" 

Dear friends, how we treat other believers is how we treat Christ. It's a reflection on our love for Him, and all who are belong to him. You know, John makes this very clear that any professing Christian that does not love fellow believers is a phony, we read it earlier. Let me read some of it again, first, John three, verse 14, "We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides and death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." So with all of this, don't you know that the disciples are examining themselves with brutal honesty? As we all should, right? Whenever the penetrating power of the light of divine omniscience that comes through the word of God falls upon us, it exposes us. This is why Paul said in Second Corinthians 13, beginning of verse five, "Test yourself, to see if you were in the faith, Examine yourselves, or do you not recognize this about yourself, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed, you failed the test." So sobering. The power of self-deception, beloved, I come back to it over and over again, because I've lived long enough to see what happens in people's lives when they pretend to be Christians, and they're not. Like Judas Iscariot, who profess Christ, called him Lord, left everything to follow him. But he did not love Christ. And he did not love others, he loved himself. And when we truly love Christ, we will love those who belong to him, including baby Christians. And when we love in that way, the last thing in the world we would ever do is cause one of them, through our example, through our words, to stumble into sin, or error, or unbelief. Instead, as Paul said, In Colossians, one, verse 28, "We will proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that," here's why, "we may present every man complete in Christ." He went on to say, "For this purpose I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me." So may I challenge you, as we close this morning, examine your heart dear friend, father's, mothers, husbands, wives, think of all the ways that we are perhaps causing little ones to stumble, to be led away from Christ. Charles Spurgeon said, quote, "Inconsistent professors are the greatest stumbling blocks for the spread of the cause of Christ.” Folks, may we not be among that group, so let's examine ourselves. And I might also add that if you are in that camp and you feel convicted, over the influence you have had on others, may I give you the good news of the gospel, that there is forgiveness for all who come to Christ in humble childlike faith and cry out for his undeserved mercy and grace and he will forgive you and he will change you and He will use you for His glory and you will enjoy the fullness of what it means to be forever united to the lover of your soul. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word and that speaks so clearly to each one of us. May we all examine our hearts because we find ourselves failing in certain areas of our life. But Lord, certainly there are those that do not know you that literally live to do nothing more than cause others to stumble. Protect our children from them, and use us as fathers and mothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, use us, to warn them to protect them. We thank you for the hope and the salvation that is ours in Christ. Fortune, his name that I pray. Amen. .

This morning, we come to a very powerful text that contrasts humility with pride. It's also a very practical text. And as I'm sure you will agree, the sting of the lash will fall on all of our backs this morning. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter nine, we will be examining verses 30 through 41.

Let me read the text to you, Mark nine, beginning with verse 30. "From there, they went out and began to go through Galilee. And He did not want anyone to know about it. For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, 'The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.' But they did not understand this statement and they were afraid to ask Him. They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, 'What were you discussing on the way?' But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. Sitting down, He called the 12 and said to them, 'If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.' Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, 'Whoever receives one child like this, in My name, receives Me; and whoever receives me does not receive me, but Him who sent Me.' John said to Him, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.' But Jesus said, 'Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us, is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward."

I'm sure you will all agree that we live in a very self-centered, egotistical world, a me first society. If you disagree with that you have never driven on the interstates right? And people are absolutely obsessed with personal rights, legal rights, and many are obsessed with not being offended. I've learned a new term over the last I guess, couple years "micro aggressions." I'd never heard of anything like that. To make sure I have it right, I looked it up. Merriam Webster Dictionary says that microaggressions are "a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously, or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group." And it has been my studied observation that the marginalized groups are always leftist, immoral, and anti-Christian groups.

So today, we walk around on eggshells, so to speak, trying to be very careful to say or do the right thing, and now we've got another term, "misgender," misgender is using a word or pronoun that does not reflect a person's gender identity. And so if you don't use the right pronoun, then you are in trouble. We must join their delusion and celebrate their insanity and so forth. And of course, with all of this, we have another term that I had never heard of until a few years ago and that is the term snowflake. We have a culture filled of snowflakes. It is a derogatory slang term for a person, implying that they have an inflated sense of weakness and unwarranted sense of entitlement. They are overly emotional, easily offended and unable to deal with opposing opinions. And then we've got another new concept in our culture, and that is safe places. My goodness, when I was growing up, there were no safe places, you learn to survive, right? But a safe place is typically something on a college campus where people can communicate and commiserate and figure out how to retaliate against those who have somehow offended them. And of course, the only ones offended typically are liberal progressives. In fact, offending Christians is an applauded virtue today in our culture. So what drives all of this? Well, the answer is real simple, Pride, the basis of all sin. In fact, pride is one of the seven abominations that God hates that we read about. In Proverbs six for six and following. To be proud, biblically or arrogant means to possess and to manifest attitudes of unwarranted importance. To have an exaggerated sense of one's own importance and abilities. You often hear the term narcissist, again, that's a proud person, one that is desperate to be admired. And when you look at the proud person, and by the way, now I'm going to describe every one of us at some level. A proud person tends to be unteachable, feeling as though they are better than others impatient, opinionated, hot headed, unwilling to listen to have a disdain for opposing opinions. Many times they defy authority, they lack empathy. In Proverbs 16 Verse five, we read, "Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Assuredly, he will not be unpunished."

The 19th century British theologian and preacher JC Phillpotts said this, quote, "Of all sins, pride seems most deeply embedded in the very heart of man. Unbelief, sensuality, covetousness, rebellion, presumption, contempt of God's Holy Will and word, hatred and enmity against the saints of the Most High deceit and falsehood, cruelty and wrath, violence and murder. These and a forest of other sins have indeed struck deep roots into the black and noxious soil of our fallen nature. And interlacing, their lofty stems and gigantic arms have wholly shut out the light of heaven for man's benighted soul, but," He says, "these and they're associated evils do not seem so thoroughly interwoven into the very constitution of the human heart. Nor so to be it's very lifeblood, as pride were last may have no power covetousness no dominion and anger, no sway. There down down in the inmost depths, heaving and boiling like the lava and the crater of a volcano, works that master sin, that sin of sins, pride."

Peter and the disciples had to learn this. And they were, as we're going to see, having to learn this the hard way. And they did eventually. For example, Peter would say in first Peter five, five, "Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble." And James says in chapter four, verse 10, "Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you." But of course, this kind of humility aspersion, especially in the presence of the Lord, is seldom found in our culture. In fact, today, we even have pride parades. In fact, June is Pride Month, where the most morally bankrupt people in our culture celebrate their perversions, so that they can fight their shame and the social stigma of their particular movement. And sadly, an increasing number of professing Christians embrace and promote these things. In fact, Paul describes them in Philippians three, beginning at verse 18. "They are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things." Not to be sure, Satan has ingeniously designed his world system in opposition to God, to cater to this wickedness within us. In fact, we read in first John two and verse 16, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world."

Dear friends pride is at the very heart of road rage. It is at the heart of bigotry and hatred. It is what fuels slander and gossip. It is the poison well of, of sexual and physical abuse. It's what ruins marriages, what destroys families. It's what fuels political rancor and causes church splits. Pride is the secret motive of criticism. In fact, demeaning others makes us feel superior or so we think. Pride makes us controlling and contentious, combative. Pride will make us the hero of all of our stories, right? Pride will cause us to dominate conversations so that we end up talking about ourselves. Pride is what will cause us to dominate a Sunday school class with all of our incredible wisdom. Pride is what makes us the hero of our every story. It causes us to seek the spotlight, to be the center of attention. And it will even hide in the shadows of our perceived humility so that others will somehow notice us and applaud us for our humility. Like the guy that wrote the book, "Humility, and How I Achieved it Overnight." Pride has an insatiable appetite for praise. And it will take advantage of every opportunity for self-promotion. It is a wickedness that we must all fight. In fact, self-promotion is that jet fuel that drives social media. Pride will cause us to exaggerate our strengths and minimize our weaknesses and failures. It will cause us to flaunt our wealth, our prowess, our wisdom, and parade our possessions.

As we look at Scripture we see that pride originates in self-righteousness, like the Pharisee, who stood and prayed in Luke 18 "God I thank You that I am not like other men." Pride originates, as well, in unsanctified knowledge in First Corinthians eight knowledge that will even puff up a mature believer who has an accurate but egotistical understanding of his liberty in Christ causing him to feel superior and look down at his weaker brother.

Pride also originates in inexperience. This is why we are told to never put a new or immature believer in a position of leadership, First Timothy three six, "Lest he become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil." And of course, that condemnation was due to his pride. Pride originates in the possession of wealth, the possession of power, just look at Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar and Hezekiah and Herod, and so many other leaders that we've seen down through history. And of course, we witnessed this all the time, in our politicians and our celebrities. Pride leads to a contempt, the Bible says, a contempt for God's word, and even for its ministers. Biblically, we see that pride leads to a persecuting spirit, wrath, contention, jealousy, strife, self-deception, factions, disunity. And what's fascinating is it will always be followed by shame debasement and destruction and deed as we read in Proverbs 16, verse 18, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."

You may recall that this was Paul's great concern for his brothers and sisters in Corinth. And by extension, his concern for all believers. You will remember that they were, they were polarized in their congregation because of their philosophical ideas, which was typical of their culture, where they promoted various opinions and philosophers, and they formed cliques. And ultimately, they would promote themselves and discredit other people. And they brought all this stuff into the church, you will recall, "I am of Paul, I'm of Apollo's, I'm of Peter, I am of the Lord." And there you have it. And confronting that arrogance in First Corinthians four and verse seven, Paul says, "For who regards you as superior?" In other words, who made you keeper of the gate, who puts you in charge of determining who is better? It reminds me of Diotrophes, you will recall in Third, John nine, the phony church leader who likes to put himself first and does not acknowledge our authority, who refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. Well that is always a sure symptom of pride, to criticize others to make you look more important.

Psalm 101 verse five, "Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy. No one who has a haughty look at an arrogant heart will I endure." And of course, the Corinthians arrogance burst into full flame in regards to spiritual gifts, you will recall that they want, they wanted the ostentatious showy gifts in order to show off and garner the most attention and receive the most praise.

And as we come to our text this morning, you must understand that pride was considered a virtue in the first century. In fact, it was very much a product of Aristotle in what is called the Nicomachean Ethics written in about 350 BC. Aristotle said this, and I'm going to quote him. I don't often quote Aristotle when I'm preaching, but I will today so that you get an understanding of where the people were thinking, including the disciples. He said, "Now the man is thought to be proud, who thinks himself worthy of great things being worthy of them." He goes on to say, "the proud man, since he deserves most, must be good in the highest degree, for the better man always deserves more and the best man most. Therefore, the truly proud man must be good, and greatness and every virtue would seem to be characteristic of a proud man." And on it goes.

And of course, the Jewish scribes and Pharisees were the proudest of the proud. They were the striding peacocks with the most colorful plumage. We read about this, for example, in Matthew 23, Jesus said in verse five, "But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and being called Rabbi by men." In fact, Jesus illustrated the kind of wicked contempt that the self-righteous had towards others that they deemed beneath them. In Luke chapter 18, beginning in verse nine, a little parable here, "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying that this to himself, 'God, I thank you that I'm not like other people swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week I pay tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collectors standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, 'God be merciful to me, the sinner!'" Jesus went on to say, "I tell you, this man, went to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Well, this was the proud culture in which the disciples existed. These were many of their role models, until they met Jesus, who described himself in Matthew 11, verse 29, as quote, "gentle and humble in heart." And to think as we read in John 13, for example, the creator of the universe, humbled Himself and washed their feet.

Now, remember the context here, as we come to our passage this morning, Jesus has just instructed His disciples concerning faith and now he's going to address the issue of pride through both precept as well as example. And he's doing all of this in preparation for his departure, back into glory, preparing them for the battles that lay ahead. Battles, not only from without, but also from within. He wanted them to grasp, for example, the magnificent truth that we read about in Isaiah 66 verses one and two. There we read, "Thus says the Lord, 'Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool, where there is a house you could build for Me, and where is a place that I may rest for My hand made all these things, this all these things came into being declares the Lord.'" The most exalted sovereign of all right? But he says, "To this one, I will look to Him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my word."

To be humble and contrite of spirit is to be fully aware of the damage that has been wrought by your sin, and your personal inability to stand before the presence of a holy God. And a person who trembled at God's word is a person that has a passionate longing to please God to honor God in his life, to honor him in his heart, the spiritual temple where God dwells with His redeemed. And what we read in this passage, is that God's loving gaze is fixed upon those who bow, the lowest, in worship of Him. And those who are most fully aware of their sin, and their undeserved mercy. Those are the ones that will have a scrupulous sensitivity to the Word and the will of God and they will tremble before it. That's what gets God's attention.

So back to our texts in verse 30. We read, "From there," in other words from the Gentile region of Caesarea Philippi, where Christ had been transfigured. "From there, they went out and began to go through Galilee and He did not want anyone to know about it." Remember, now, Jesus priority is now on instructing his disciples. And so he's not going to do as much with the public as he has been doing. There's going to be less contact with the public. Verse 31, "For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, 'the Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.' But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him."

Now remember, this shocking statement is coming on the heels of Jesus astounding exorcism of the little demon possessed boy, absolutely overwhelming. So for him to now say this seems like a non sequitur. It's like, logically it doesn't flow from the majesty that we just witnessed. I mean, how could the Messiah who has power over demons allow men to kill him? So they're, they're wrestling with all of these things, and Jesus knows it. To give us further clarification, Luke tells us in Luke nine beginning of verse 43, "But while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples, "Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.' But they did not understand this statement. And it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about the statement." You see, what Jesus is doing is, is planting the seeds of redeeming grace in their mind, Some magnificent truths that would be fully revealed later on after His death and His resurrection. But he did not want to communicate to them the horrifying details of his torture, and of his execution, it would be too much for them to bear.

Moreover, as I say, he would conceal the full implications of his atonement, until they could better understand it after his resurrection. In fact, later on in Luke 24, you will recall how Jesus suddenly comes in appears before his forlorn and his amazed disciples in his resurrected body. Remember, he shows them his hands and his feet and ate some broiled fish and some honeycomb. And we read this in Luke 24, beginning in verse 44. "Now, He said to them, 'These are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and the Psalms, must be fulfilled.' Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and He said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all of the nations beginning from Jerusalem.'" So later on, they're going to understand all of these things and later on he's going to open up their mind. And they will get it, but right now he has bigger fish to fry, so to speak, concerning an issue, namely, their pride. Verse 33, Mark nine, "they came to the Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, 'What were you discussing on the way?'"

Now, he was well aware of what they were discussing. But he wanted to highlight their immature, childish bickering. He wanted to expose all of that talking about their status, who's going to be the greatest? And certainly for the disciples, they're thinking, okay, Jesus is talking about dying. Okay, who's gonna take the lead when he's gone? Don't you know that had to come up? We don't necessarily read that in scripture, but it would appear that that would be a logical topic of conversation. And some of them were probably also saying why, why is it that that Peter, James, and John got to go with Jesus up on the mountain? We didn't get to go. And maybe Peter, James, and John, were thinking, boy, we got to go up on the mountain. Y'all didn't get to. I'm sure all of those types of things. And that's just part of the flesh. Right? How we operate.

Later in Mark 10. Mark is going to record how James and John put in a bid to Jesus to be the most prominent in his kingdom. There we read. And Mark 10:37, "They said to Him, 'Grant that we may sit one on Your right and one on your left in Your glory.'" My, talk about throwing Peter under the bus, you know, you got a left and a right. Where's Peter gonna be? Right? Obviously, they had not yet understood the humility of Jesus dying on the cross. You know, it's really sad when you think about it. You've got calloused, self serving disciples that were more concerned about their own status than Jesus suffering and death, rather than mourning over Christ's humiliation, they're scheming about their exultation. Now I'm sure I would not have done that our you would have done that. But sadly, they did. Can't you just see our own flesh and all of this type of stuff.

So here Jesus is painting a jarring contrast between selfless humility, and their self-exalting pride, their lust for status, their lust for power, and, you know, really, if you think about it, they're still clueless about the real cost of following Jesus. The lessons that Jesus is now going to teach them can be summarized in four sentences. Let me give them to you just as they come.

Number one, we're going to see that pride fuels jealousy and strife, resulting in disgrace and judgment. "What were you discussing on the way?" Verse 34, "But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another, which of them was the greatest." I smiled when I read this. Their response was the same of the Pharisees, who kept silence because of their guilt and their shame when Jesus asked them in chapter three, verse five, "'Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?' But they kept silent."

Sadly, when you think about it, the difference between Christ's greatest enemy and his chosen disciples was somewhat negligible even at this point." They kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another, which of them was the greatest." Why don't you know that was an uplifting conversation, right? Sounds like a bunch of toddlers trying to one up each other, or politicians slinging mud at their opponents right? Beloved, again, pride fuels jealousy and strife resulting in disgrace and judgment. It'll happen in a church, it'll happen in a family. It'll happen in the workplace. James three, verse 16, "Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing." Proverbs 11, verse two "When pride comes, then comes dishonor," or it could be translated shame.

It's interesting in Proverbs 16, verses 18 and 19. Pride is likened to robbery. There we read, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling." In other words, the pleasures of, of of pride and the prosperity of the and all of the things that you're proud about are really short lived and they lead to misery. Then it goes on to say "It is better to be humble and spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud." In other words, what he's saying is the arrogant are like criminals, who thinks they are too clever to get caught, and who are so self centered, they care nothing about the welfare of other people. Make no mistake, dear friends, if you want to place yourself in the pathway of divine chastening as a believer, just live for yourself in arrogant indifference to God and to others.

Luke 14 Verse 11, Jesus warned "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." I've learned over the years that Facebook is the playground for the proud. I've learned that broken marriages and families are the legacy of the proud. Prisons are filled with the proud and hell will be the eternal abode of the proud.

What a contrast to Paul's admonition for believers in Ephesians, four, remember, beginning in verse one "I, the prisoner of the Lord," he says, "implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace."

So again, Jesus asked him, "What were you talking about?" They kept silent, they knew that they were talking about who's going to be the greatest. And then we read in verse 35, "Sitting down," it says, that was the posture of a Jewish teacher; i's like an event is about to occur here, you can just see it. Now he finds a spot and he sits down and he knows, or the disciples know that they're about to get an earful here, the teacher is going to speak and, "He called the 12 and said to them, 'If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.'"

So first, we see number one that pride fuels jealousy and strife resulting in disgrace and judgment and number two, humility prevents jealousy and strife, and results in honor and blessing. "If anyone wants to be first," to be first means to be first with respect to godliness. If anyone wants to garner God's esteem, and God's blessing, "he shall be last of all, and servant of all." Well, this is just the opposite of what they were used to, the opposite of the scribes and the Pharisees who craved attention, craved affirmation, craved applause, again, who "did the all their deeds to be noticed by men," Matthew 23 and verse five.

We read more of this in Jesus words in Matthew six beginning in verse one, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full." And of course, seeking the spotlight and constantly tooting your own horn may garner some short term praise from undiscerning people. But dear friends, please understand, it does not impress God. Man looks at the outward appearance right? But the Lord looks at what? At the heart.

You know, the world considers those who follow Christ to be last right? To be the foolish inferior people, the last ones who deserve any honor. Unlike the rich and the famous, we are considered to be the naive the ignorant, the inferior, the dregs of society, but God sees and God rewards the faithful, not the successful. As a steward, we're to be found faithful, not successful. When we stand before the Lord, he's not going to say, well tell me how successful you were. He's going to ask you how faithful you were. How faithful were you with the gifts that I gave you, with the opportunities that I gave you with the responsibilities that I gave you?

Later on in Mark chapter 10. These types of things were going on in the minds of the disciples. And Peter says beginning in verse 28, he said to Jesus, "Behold, we have left everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother or father or children or farms, for my sake, and for the gospel sake, but that he will receive 100 times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters, and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions and then the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first." So again, here, Jesus says, in our text, if anyone wants to be first he shall be last of all, and servant of all. In other words, if you want my praise in the kingdom, you must reverse the common self-assertive, self-aggrandizing human values that dominate Satan's world system in your culture. Choose the loneliest position, prefer the most humble space and out of love for me and others seek to serve rather than to be served.

Paul will summarize this in Philippians two, you will recall beginning in verse three, he says, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another is more important than yourselves. You're not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also the interests of others." Again, humility prevents jealousy and strife and results in honor and blessing. And Paul will go on to give the most magnificent of all examples of this kind of humility. He goes on to say, "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard the equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason, also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Christ, Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Now with this in mind, to illustrate this kind of humility, notice what Jesus does, in verse 36, it says,"Taking a child, He set him before them." He probably took a child and had the child stand before Him. And as we would often do kind of leaned down and put your hands on the child's shoulder or around their chest and kind of loved them. And then it says, "And taking him in His arms," and now he picks the child up. And he says to them, verse 37, "Whoever receives one child like this, in My name, receives Me; and whoever receives me does not receive me but Him who sent Me." You see, to receive literally means to welcome, to willingly allow a person into your company for meaningful, loving relationship. This was utterly foreign to the Jewish culture. Children were a bit of a nuisance, they were to be seen and not heard. The lowest rung on the social ladder. In fact, rabbis believe that teaching any child under 12 the Torah was just an exercise in futility. But here Jesus takes a child into his harms. I find it interesting, the child was not afraid of Jesus. A helpless, ignorant, powerless, dependent child, human being that has no honor, no status largely ignored, but one that is in desperate need of love and attention, and training and protection. Why would Jesus choose a child? Because this was the perfect illustration of God's adopted children in Christ. This pictures us as believers.

This brings us to our third little sentence, we see that humility is validated by love for fellow believers and glorifies Christ. In fact, we must become like children. According to Matthew 18 three, Jesus said, "In order to enter the kingdom," let me read that text for you. Matthew 18, beginning of verse three, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted, and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest of the kingdom and heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me and whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, which literally means to cause to sin, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." In fact, Mark will say the same thing later in verse 42, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believed to stumble, it would be better for him, if with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea." In other words, any person that would deceive or entice or trap or influence an unsuspecting believer and cause that believer to believe lies, or to be mistreated, or to live a life of sin, If a person does that, even unwittingly, what Jesus is saying is they have committed a crime that is so heinous, that it would be better for them to experience the horrifying and inescapable punishment, that sometimes the Romans would do, of putting a large millstone, the type that the donkey's would turn on an axis to put that around your neck and throw you into the sea. Now, Mark isn't calling people to become like a child to enter the kingdom as Matthew does, although he will do that later on in chapter 10 in verse five, he'll do the same thing. But instead, Mark's emphasis here is on reversing the the conventional status criteria based upon perceived value, and to humble yourself as a child. Disciples, please hear this. And his point is, this is how we are to treat fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Dear friends, you must ask yourself this question. Does this describe the attitude of my heart? Or do I have a tendency to ignore other believers, to maybe use them, maybe even deceive them? Or to give a bad example before them.

Fathers on Father's Day, we really need to ask this question of ourselves. Because our children, and our wives, and our grandchildren, all of our family, and our friends and neighbors are watching. Like, again, verse 37, "Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me and whoever receives Me does not receive Me but Him who sent Me." Oh Child of God, we must learn to abandon our perceived importance. We must learn to deliberately subordinate ourselves to meeting the needs of others. That's what honors, God that's what brings blessing into our life. You know, this must have had an immense influence on the disciples. Because they had to have been thinking, Boy, we've we've been exposed, you know, in their mind, they're thinking we just got through raking each other over the coals about who's going to be the greatest and now he's showing us how bad that is. And of course, when you act that way, all you do is produce envy, envy and jealousy, and strife.

You want to ask yourself as believers, do you welcome, do you receive other believers into your life? Are you glad to welcome them into your home and into your relationships to care for them? What kind of influence do you have with other Christians? Do people see Christ in you? Or do they just see you? Beloved submission to God as manifested by our submission to others, our love for God is manifested in how we love others. Humility is validated by love for fellow believers and it glorifies Christ. That's why he says, "Whoever receives one child like this, in My name, receives Me and Him who sent Me." You see, this was of enormous importance to Jesus. And the idea of any other believer, luring a little child, even another believer, and certainly that is the analogy here, to do that, to get somebody to believe a lie or to practice evil, to somehow abuse them.

Zechariah tells us that that is like poking your finger in God's eye. Zechariah two eight, "For he who touches you touches the apple of His eye." You know, I've lived long enough to see arrogant, self-centered, self-aggrandizing selfish Christians, even in this church, professing believers, treat others with absolute contempt. Many times, it's subtle, and you don't see it until later on, and then you begin to witness it and you just think, Oh my, I can't believe this is happening. I've seen them demean and deceive and abuse and manipulate and control and even seduce them. And I've also seen God punished them in ways that would stagger your imagination. God is serious about this issue. And this is one that the disciples had to learn.

Fathers, if I can digress for a moment, what kind of godly impact are you having on your children? Your family, your wife? Ephesians sixth verse four, "Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord." Is that what you are doing? Is that the passion of your heart? Is that the priority of your heart? What would your wife say? What would your children say? May I remind you that the progressive left, which is basically the Democratic Party is waging war, against fatherhood, against marriage and against the family. I recall one of their own Barack Obama when he was running for president made a speech where he claimed that children who grow up without a dad are more likely to live in poverty, commit crime, drop out of school and go to prison. But what was fascinating is by elevating fathers had absolutely infuriated his progressive supporters and as a result, Democrats removed all references of fatherhood, from their 2016, and their 2020 party platforms.

You see, progressives never talk about marriage. They never talk about fatherhood, because they believe that social outcomes are primarily determined by public policy and systemic forces, not individual decisions. Moreover, they believe that it is the state that must control families. Not a father, not a mother, not a family. Or as this is the satanic world system that we're fighting against, and dads, you need to hear this. There is a war going on. We have an enormous responsibility to humble ourselves as fathers, and to love our family love our children, enough to teach them to protect them, to warn them.

So again, we've seen the pride fuels jealousy and strife resulting in disgrace and judgment. Humility prevents jealous jealousy and strife results in honor and blessing. Then we've seen that humility is validated by love for fellow believers and glorifies Christ. And finally, we're going to see that pride fuels unwarranted intolerance and exclusivity.

Now, before we will look at verse 38, and begin to wrap this up, I believe that all that Jesus was saying, was really getting to them. And John is thinking about how he and the others treated a fellow believer that was outside of their group outside of their circle. That's why he says in verse 38, "John said to Jesus, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.'" Now, it doesn't say this, but I believe what he was thinking to himself was, you know, I guess we shouldn't have done that.

Verse 39, "But Jesus said, 'Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.'" Obviously, this person was a believer. And then he adds, "For he who is not against us, is for us."

So here we see Jesus warning about unwarranted intolerance and exclusivity. You know what it is, "us for no more, bar the door." We've got the corner on the truth. Now, to be sure, we break fellowship when professing Christians distort the gospel and deny the authority of Scripture. Things like women preachers and churches that do the hokey pokey with all this crazy stuff that's going on these days. We're going to break fellowship with that, that is so dishonouring to God. And by the way, that's the vast majority of evangelicalism today, as we see in Matthew seven. We're told in Second Corinthians six, verse 14, "Do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what is a believer in common with an unbeliever." But folks, this is a very different dynamic than what we have here, what Jesus is talking about. Although even now, in our culture, we may differ with some churches, some denominations on non essentials. But we must never be so proud is to think that we can have no fellowship with them, and that we are somehow better than them, that we are the only ones honoring Christ, we must guard against that.

Let the Lord sort all of those things out. You know, we would do well, to have the same broad minded attitude as Paul expressed in Philippians one, verse 15, interesting passage. There we read, "Some to be sure, are preaching Christ, even from envy of strife, but some also from good will." In other words, some preachers are out there, they don't like Paul, and some of the things he's saying or whatever. They're preaching out of envy and strife. And then he goes on to say, "the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel. The former," in other words, the one preaching out of envy and strife, "proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then?" In other words, okay, so what are we going to do here? He says, "Only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice." In other words, even when there are men who are insincere and they're preaching, and their underlying motives are not what they need to be, If Christ is being preached, then let's rejoice. Let's rejoice. His word is going to be unleashed even by ungodly people at times, but His Word will either harden or soften hearts. Remember, it's the message not the messenger of God that he uses to save and to sanctify sinners.

Well, finally, Jesus completes his reasoning with a with a final clause that really underscores just the veracity and the solemnity of what he has been saying, verse 41, "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, He will not lose his reward." Beloved, here in the eternal rewards of humility, divine recompense that exceeds the limits of our imagination that will be revealed to us, given to us and experienced by us in heaven someday. rewards for even the smallest gesture of humble, selfless love, like giving someone who is thirsty, a cool drink of water.

So I challenge you this morning, to contemplate these divine lessons on pride and humility. Examine your life under the light of divine scrutiny and let's humble ourselves and serve Christ by serving others, remembering that if anyone wants to be first he shall be last of all and servant of all, amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank You for these Magnificent Truths. My how they speak to each one of us because we all battle with that unredeemed humaneness that is still within us. May the Spirit of God help us to see these things more clearly and to repent of them, to put them off and put on Christ in a new in a fresh way. We thank You for Your humble, selfless love for us. May we live that out in the lives of our families and our friends, that Christ may be exalted, for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

This morning we come to Mark's gospel, once again, we're in chapter nine, verses 14 through 29. And I've entitled my discourse to you "Imperfect Faith," something that we can all identify with.

Once again, we have the privilege of beholding the majesty of Christ through the longing eyes of faith. And I might say that if you have no longing for Christ, no real love for him. If he is not your greatest treasure, if he is not the joy and the delight of your soul, then you do not know Him in a way of saving faith. And therefore what you are about to hear, is going to be just another boring sermon. But for those of us who know and love Christ, because of his grace, we will be able to once again see him a fresh and anew. I might add that Second Thessalonians two and verse 10, we see that deceived sinners perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, so as to be saved. And what we see throughout Scripture is a genuine love for Christ, is what distinguishes true Christians from false Christians, from those that just merely say they believe in Him. And that love is what causes us to hunger for his word to long for his return. I trust that each of you will be able to say with Peter, First Peter one, beginning in verse eight, "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul."

So let me read the text to you. Mark chapter nine, beginning in verse 14, "When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. Immediately when the entire crowd saw him, they were amazed and began running up to greet him. And he asked them, 'What are you discussing with them?' And one of the crowd answer Him, 'Teacher, I brought You my son possessed with a spirit, which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground. And he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it. And He answered them and said, 'Oh, unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me!' They brought the boy to him. When He saw him, immediately, the spirit threw him into a convulsion and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And he asked his father, 'How long has this been happening to him?' And he said, 'From childhood, it has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us.' And Jesus said to him, 'If You can? All things are possible to him who believes.' Immediately, the boy's father cried out and said, 'I do believe help my unbelief.' When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirits saying to it, 'You deaf and mute spirit, I command you come out of him and do not enter him again.' After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out and the boy became so much like a corpse, that most of them said, 'He is dead!' But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up; and he got up. When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, 'Why could we not drive it out?' And He said to them, 'This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.'"

In order to help you grasp the amazing truths inherent in this text, I have a little outline that I would like to use. We're going to see five headings and five truths that flow from them, we're going to see first of all, a gloating confrontation. Secondly, a gut-wrenching situation. Thirdly, a grievous lamentation. Fourthly a glorious restoration and finally, a god empowering revelation. Now here we will examine issues pertaining to the tactics of the evil one, and his demonic horde that serves him. We're gonna see things relating to how faith and prayer unleash the power of God. And in all of this, we're going to once again see the sovereign majesty and omnipotence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, remember the context, Peter, James and John have been on the Mount of Transfiguration. They have seen the effulgence of divine glory emanating from Christ, a preview of the coming Kingdom. And they are still euphoric over all of this, but also in need of harmonizing what they had just witnessed, which included not just Jesus but seeing Moses and Elijah harmonizing that with Jesus talk of death and resurrection. Again, they're thinking to themselves, okay, if he's going to die and be resurrected, and we're not allowed to talk about it until after that is done, then how soon after that, is he going to restore the kingdom.

So they come down off the mountain, with all of this going on, in their mind. They’re going to reconnect now with the nine other disciples that stayed behind. And what we see here is frankly, reminiscent to what Moses discovered. Remember, after he had been in the presence of God on Mount Sinai, he came down off of the mountain and what did he see? Faithless and fickle people being deceived by religious leaders.

So verse 14, "When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them." Here we come to our first point, and that is a gloating confrontation. The scribes were probably reveling in the fact that the disciples were unable to exercise the demon afflicting the little boy. However, we also know according to Luke, chapter 11, beginning in verse 53, that the scribes and Pharisees were very hostile, and questioned Jesus on many subjects, plotting against him to catch him in something that he might say. So this is their mindset. They're looking for some reason to discredit Jesus and ultimately destroy him and those with him.

Now, naturally, without Jesus to defend them, the nine disciples were easy prey for these hostile scribes. In fact, in Mark three, verse 22, we read that, "The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, 'Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul', and, 'He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.'" And we know that they were already plotting to kill him. They hated him, and they hate everybody that believed in him, that followed him. And the same is true today. May I remind you, dear friends, that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, first John 5:19. The term world and the original language is "kosmos" and it carries the idea of an orderly system ruled by Satan. And with Satan using human and demonic forces to do everything they can to thwart the purposes of God. And in orderly systems, he promotes depraved values and ideologies and philosophies and false religions and morals. I mean, this is literally the kingdom of darkness, an evil system that's organized and ruled by Satan and his minions. For example, if you want to see where Satan works, look at the education system. Look at seminaries, Bible colleges, churches, look at the media, certainly look at government. In fact, I was reading this week that a recently amended California bill which is a B 957, would add quote, "affirming the sexual transition of a child to the state standard for parental responsibility and child welfare, making any parent who doesn't affirm transgenderism for their child guilty of abuse under California state law.

California courts would be given complete authority under Section 3011 of California's family code to remove a child from his or her parents home if parents disapprove of LGBTQ plus ideology." And by the way, AB957, is scheduled for a hearing in the State Senate on June 13. The whole world lies in the power of the evil one in orderly systems. And this is why we are exhorted and First John two beginning in verse 15, "Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh," referring to the evil cravings of sinful men, "and the lust of the eyes," that is the desire to actually see that which the flesh craves, "and the boastful pride of life." In other words, to be puffed up with pride because of who one is or what one owns. If you have that it's, "not from the Father, but it's from the world."

Now, to be sure, the scribes and the Pharisees were part of Satan's world system. In fact, these vices that I just read really defined their character, and therefore attacked anyone that disagreed with them, or spoke out against them. And of course, we see the same thing happening down through redemptive history. In fact, Jesus warned to John 15, beginning of verse 18, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Because of this, the world hates you." I might add, parenthetically, don't be intimidated by this evil world system and those people that try to shout you down. Especially these nice pusillanimous painted up, drag queen, girly men. I mean, they're really hard to take serious. Don't be intimidated by these fire breathing ANTIFA feminazis that have a four word vocabulary that try to shout you down. Just walk away from them don't dignify their existence. Don't try to engage them. Don't cast pearls before swine. But don't be afraid to stand up for the glory of God in your life, in your social media, even though you're probably going to get canceled as soon as Facebook reads it right?

I think of what Jesus said in Matthew 10, beginning in verse 32, "Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess Him before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." So don't cower in the face of the enemy. First John four beginning in verse four, "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." And proverbs 29 Verse 25 says that,"The fear of man is a snare," it's a trap, "but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted." And often I am reminded of God's word to Joshua, in Joshua one nine, "And have I not commanded you," he says, "Be strong and courageous, do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." That has to be our mindset.

Now back to our text. As we can see the disciples now are going to have much to learn. They're still confused over a lot of these things. And what we also see is that in chapters nine and 10, the Lord really devotes himself to teaching them and to preparing them for the battles ahead. So as Jesus, Peter, James and John, come down off of the Mount of Transfiguration they encounter this gloating confrontation. Verse 15, "Immediately when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him." Now naturally, it's like, oh, there he is the miracle worker. Here they come. But then notice for 16. Jesus asked them, "What are you discussing with them?" Probably a reference to the scribes. He's confronting them.

Now, of course, Jesus knew exactly what was going on. He knew what the whole debate was about. But he wanted them to give an account. There's no record in the gospels that they answered, they were probably too intimidated to deal with Jesus. But Jesus knew exactly what was about to happen, and how what was about to happen, would silence them. Furthermore, this whole scenario, you must understand, was a profound object lesson regarding the importance of faith, and prayer in discipleship; this is what he wanted the disciples to learn.

So we moved from a gloating confrontation to Secondly, a gut wrenching situation, verse 17, "And one of the crowd answered Him, 'Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told your disciples to cast it out and they could not do it."

What we have here is a description of a whole body seizure, with a paralyzing effect that corresponds to the grand mal seizures of epilepsy. And Matthew identifies it as such in the Greek in Matthew 17, verse 15, we read, "Lord have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water." Now, the term lunatic is rooted in a Greek word for moon. And so it carries the idea of being "moonstruck" and they believed in those days that the seizures were caused by the moon, that somehow it was affected by the moon and thus, they were called lunatics. Now today, we use the term in a different way that describes irrational crazy nut jobs, you know, and we've got them running around everywhere today. But because the symptoms are consistent with epilepsy, and because in antiquity people really saw those symptoms as being rooted in being "moonstruck," the term is sometimes translated or believed to refer to epilepsy. But I would submit to you that that's not really what the issue was. This is not a physical ideology here. Clearly the condition is caused by an indwelling demon, not by something physical. The child is not merely diseased, he is assaulted. The boy didn't merely fall to the ground, I mean, he is seized and he is thrown to the ground. His condition was brought on by an unclean spirit. In fact, Luke helps us see this in Luke nine beginning of verse 38, "And a man from the crowd shouted, saying,' Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only boy, and a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams and it throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth, and only with difficulty does it leave him modeling him as it leaves, I beg your disciples to cast it out and they could not." Folks, can you imagine being that father? Can you imagine having that happen to your child? Can you imagine having a child possessed by a demon?

As a footnote, demons are angelic beings, beings that possess great power, but nowhere near the power of their Creator. As we look through Scripture, we can see that they indwell humans and animals, they can physically afflict people, terrorize human, imitate false worship, promote false doctrines and ideologies, perform false signs and wonders, deceive prophets encourage idolatry and even engineer death. As we read in Judges nine, however, they unwittingly serve the purposes of God. Judges nine, verse 23 gives you a little bit of understanding in that regard. And what we see in Scripture is whenever demons encounter Christ, they are absolutely terrified of Christ, then they're terrified of the gospel. They obey Christ. They even obeyed the 12 and the 72 that were sent out. And better yet, this is really good news. They cannot separate believers in Christ from the love of God, Romans 8:38, so don't be afraid of him. And they can be restrained by the Holy Spirit. Second, Thessalonians two and verse six speaks of that, first John four and verse four, as well.

Now I know many times people will ask me, Well, can a Christian be demon possessed? The answer is an emphatic no. While they can indwell nonbelievers, meaning they can literally invade their body and exercise living and dominant control over them, that they cannot resist, we see in Scripture that they cannot inhabit true believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. There is no cohabitation between the spirit and some demon. I mean, we know that we belong to God, not to Satan, right? We have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and placed into the kingdom of his dear Son, we have been sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit of promise. Ephesians one and verse three, First, John two and verse 13 and following says that we have overcome the evil one. First, John, "For greater is He who is in you that He that is in the world." First John 5:18. We know that no one who is born of God's sins, but He who is born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him.

Indeed, dear friends, as believers, we can be tormented. We can be troubled, we can be oppressed. Externally, I've experienced that on numerous occasions, and I'm sure you have. This happened to King Saul in the Old Testament. It happened to Paul in the New Testament, who according to second Corinthians 12 seven was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment him. But we cannot be demonized. We cannot be spatially indwelt by a demon, nor is there any warning anywhere in Scripture that speaks of that, or how to deal with that. And for this reason, I might add that any so called ministry that claims to deliver indwelling demons from Christians is a fraud. Run, don't walk from that stupidity. It’s as ridiculous as offering hysterectomy is for men. You cannot remove that which is not there, unless you live in the parallel universe of transgender lunacy.

By the way in Scripture, for example, James four seven, "Resist the devil and he will," what? "He will flee from you. “Resist the devil. First Peter five nine says the same thing. We're never told to rebuke the devil or demons, or to exercise them or to bind Satan. We are told to wear the full armor of God, and therefore to stand firm against the schemes of the devil and so forth. Now, I might also add that if you encounter a person that truly does manifest signs of demon possession, as I have on several occasions, there's really two things that you need to do. Number one, cry out to God and persistent prayer and ask the Lord to rebuke the demon. We see this for example with Michael the archangel in Jude nine, There we read, "But Michael the Archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!'" And I can assure you, none of us are even remotely as powerful as Michael the archangel and if Michael the Archangel prayed for the Lord to do something that he couldn't, we ought to do the same.

And secondly, what we need to do is proclaim the gospel. Dear friends, don't ever underestimate that. Unleash the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why Paul said in Romans one and verse 16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Well, enough of demonology this morning, but I wanted to cover a little of that for you to make sure you're not confused about these things.

So we've seen a gloating confrontation, and a gut wrenching situation. And thirdly, now we have a grievous lamentation. "And Jesus answered them and said, 'Oh, unbelieving generation,'" The little word Oh is just an expression of profound frustration. You "unbelieving generation" is people. People of that day, "how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me!" This is reminiscent of the diatribe that we see in the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 Verse five. There we read, "They have acted corruptly toward Him, They are not his children, because of their defect; but are a perverse and crooked generation." Jesus expressed a similar frustration in Mark chapter eight and verse 12, "Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, 'Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.'" We also see it when he rebuked those who doubted his provisions for life. In Matthew six and verse 30. He said, "You have little faith." And also, when he rebuked his terrified disciples in the boat, in the midst of the storm, in Matthew eight, verse 26, he said, "You men have little faith." Now, here in Mark nine, Jesus is frustrated. Certainly with the inadequate faith, resulting in prayerlessness, as we will see, in his disciples, I mean, after all, we know that they had been given authority to rebuke demons. We see that, for example, in Mark three and Mark six; he is also frustrated, even with the feeble faith of the father. And certainly he's frustrated with the absence of faith with the Jewish leaders and the crowd, this unbelieving generation. I mean, these guys were so fixated on discrediting and destroying Jesus, that they had zero sympathy for this poor father and this little boy. Its as if Jesus is saying, What must I do, more than what I have done, to manifest my deity and my power, so that you will trust me? Dear friends, I would ask you that. Do you believe who Jesus is? Do you believe what He says? Do you believe that he can do all of his promises? Do you take him at his word? Or do you doubt him? Or do you come to his word, and because of something you believe or some agenda that you have, twist and distort his word to make it fit your thinking, conform to your beliefs, Do you obey Him?

Well, in verse nine, he says, or verse 19. He goes on to say, "How long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?" And then he says this, "Bring him to me!" "Bring him to me!" Don't you know that the father was ecstatic when he heard that? Oh the love of Jesus. Jesus takes the initiative. "Bring him to me!" That's the idea. The father is ecstatic. The crowd is electric. The scribes are afraid that they are about to be humiliated once again, because that always happened whenever they encountered Jesus. And I'm sure the disciples are overwhelmed with emotion, it's like what is going to happen now?

This leads us to our fourth point and that is a glorious restoration verse 20. "They brought the boy to Him when He saw him immediately the Spirit threw him into a convulsion. And falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth." Is this amazing? I mean that this is the demon. He's having a terrifying reaction to seeing his creator. What a horrifying and violent scene. Whenever I read these things, I try to in my imagination, look around and see what's on the faces of the people. I've been in somewhat similar situations, where clearly, demonic powers are at work. And it is terrifying. I'm not afraid of very many things. But I'll have to admit when you encounter that type of a scenario, you are afraid because it is something beyond anything that we can imagine.

Verse 21, "And Jesus asked his father, 'How long has this been happening to him?' And the father said, 'From childhood.'" Now, obviously, Jesus already knew because he knows all things, but he wanted others to see the severity of the supernatural torment, and thus magnify the supernatural the nature of the deliverance. Now it's fair to ask, Why would God allow this? And certainly we are not told in scripture. But we do know from scripture that God ordains to allow even evil to exist in his world, to put his glory on display. Like the man born blind from birth that Jesus healed, and John nine, beginning in verse one, "And his disciples asked Him, 'Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents that he would be born blind? And Jesus answered, It was neither that this man's sin nor his parents, but here's the answer now. It was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

We see this most vividly in the crucifixion of Christ, do we not? In Acts chapter two and verse 22, we read that Jesus was, quote, "Delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God." And why would that happen? To put the glory of God on display through his wrath, his judgment against sin, but also to put his love on display in Christ, who bore our sins in his body, so that we could see His grace and His mercy, and so forth. So, the distressed father goes on now to tell Jesus more about the terrifying effects of the unclean spirit upon the boy, verse 22, "It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him." So you know that the little child was scarred. And then he says this, "But if You can do anything, take pity on us, and help us!" I'm struck with the word help. "Boetheo", in the original language, it's really a compound word that consists of two smaller words, which is a cry and run, and it means to run, to a call for help.It means to hasten to help someone who is oppressed.

The term was used, for example, in Matthew 15, in verse 25, remember the Canaanite woman whose daughter was cruelly demon possessed, she cried out to Jesus and said, "Lord, help me." And here, this father is begging the Lord, to take pity and run to the aid of his little family. But then he adds this, "If you can?"

Jesus picks up on that in verse 23. Jesus said to him, "'If you can? All things are possible to him who believes." See, Jesus is saying the question is not so much if I am able, but whether or not you believe I am able. And all of this remember is going on to teach his disciples. It's as if he's saying, disciples, are you listening? Are you learning? Because they need to learn the importance of accessing divine power through confident prayer.

As we will see, verse 24. Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief." Don't you appreciate the brutal honesty here; I've prayed the same prayer haven't you? Imperfect faith, we all struggle with it. Help my unbelief. Grammatically, it's a present continuous, active imperative, which means he's saying, Never stop helping me with my weak faith. I need it all the time, every moment.

Later, Jesus will explain the reasons the disciples could not exercise the demon in Matthew 17:20. He said it's because of the littleness of your faith. By the way, as we will see, it wasn't so much that they needed more faith, that wasn't the issue. What they needed to do was to exercise the faith that they had, however imperfect is was by crying out to God to do what only He could do. Again, as Jesus said, "All things are possible to him who believes." By the way, be careful here, all things comprehended in the promise being made, not all things indiscriminately. Jesus also said in John 14, verse 14, "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." Anything in his name for His glory, etc.

I appreciate what Sinclair Ferguson said in regard to these things, especially with respect to prayer and faith, he says, and I quote, "The struggles we sometimes experience in prayer, are often part of the process by which God gradually brings us to ask for only what he has promised to give. The struggle is not our wrestling, to bring him to give us what we desire, but are wrestling with his word until we are illuminated and subdued by it saying, Not my will, but Your will be done." He went on to say, "This is why true prayer can never be divorced from real holiness. The prayer of faith can be made only by the righteous man whose life is being more and more aligned with the covenant grace and purposes of God, and the realm of prayer to since it is a microcosm of the whole of the Christian life, faith, prayer to the covenant Lord, without works, obedience to the covenant Lord, is dead."

Let me digress for a moment, this is very important, I want you to understand this issue of faith. Many times people are confused. This is just a brief reminder of what Scripture says, in Ephesians, two, eight, we are told that "By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is a," what? It's a gift of God. It is important for you to understand that it's not the act of faith that saves a man even when that faith is focused on the correct object. But rather, it is the object of faith that does the saving. God the Father who has sent His Son, who has ministered the gospel through the Spirit. And when this happens, in a mystery we can't understand, God works with a human will so that it freely and voluntarily chooses to come to Christ and saving faith, this miracle of regeneration, and then God responds to that act of faith and justifies the believer. An amazing thing, moreover, genuine saving faith involves the whole man, the intellect, the emotions, the will. The intellectual component includes knowledge. In other words, there must be objective truth, which is the conscious object of faith. I mean, faith doesn't operate in a vacuum. Romans chapter 10. in verse 14 says, "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?" Verse 17 goes on to say "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." But not only is there an intellectual component, there is an emotional component. There is an emotional assent, there is a heartfelt agreement and love for the truth and for who God is and who Christ is. You see, dear friends, and this is very important, faith is more than just mere knowledge. I mean, demons believe and they shudder, right, James 2:19. Judas left everything to follow Christ. He served Christ. He believed in who he was. And today he is in hell. Why is that? It's because he did not love Christ. It's one thing to believe in Him. It's another thing to love him. First, John five, verse one, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him." In other words, there will be a love of God, there will be a love of Christ, as well as a love for all those who belong to him.

What did Jesus ask Peter? Do you believe in me? No. He said, "Do you love me?" That's the issue. Dear friends, I ask you, you claim you know Christ, you've placed your faith in Him. If it's genuine, saving faith, that means you love him, and you will give yourself for him. Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God." Not just those who believe in God, "to those who are the called according to His purpose." James one in verse 12, speaks of those who will, quote, "Receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised, or those who love Him."

In Matthew seven, we know that many will cry out to the Lord on the Day of Judgment, saying, "Lord, Lord!" Jesus says, "They will not enter the kingdom, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you." Well, what's the deal there? I mean, they believed in Jesus. So why aren't they going to get into the kingdom? Because they didn't love Christ. And when we love Christ, we will obey Him. All of that is a magnificent work of the Spirit. Remember, again, second, Thessalonians, two, nine, or 2:10.

The deceived will be those who perish quote, "Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved." Well what is the truth? Well it's the gospel, but it's also Christ. "I am the Way the Truth and the Life."

So there is an intellectual component to faith. There is an emotional component and then there is a volitional component. There is a decision to trust there is an act of the will. When a man believes and loves Christ, therefore loves the truth, he will make the conscious decision to reject all of the lies that he's trusted in and depend therefore solely upon the truth of the gospel, the glory of Christ. You see, again, saving faith is a knowledge of, and an assent to, a love for and an unreserved reliance upon the finished work of Christ in redemption, as it is revealed in scriptures.

You know, we often hear the phrase "people of faith", Faith in what? Faith in whom? And typically just refers to anybody that's religious. Hell is going to be filled with people of faith. But there will not be one single person in hell, who truly loved Christ. Because inherit in genuine saving faith. there's a love for Christ. Hebrews 11 and verse six, we read that "Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." And scripture is filled with all of the blessings that belong to the redeemed who love Christ. Those things that flow to a believer who lives by faith, the hope, the joy, the peace, the confidence, the boldness in preaching, the soul exhilarating joy of Christ, within one soul. Christ dwells in our heart through faith, we read. And Peter tells us in first Peter two seven, "To you who believe, He is precious.”

So faith is a gift from God whereby a believer will wholeheartedly trust in all that he is, all that he's done, all that he is doing, all that he will do, all that he can do. And at the very core, there is a genuine love for Christ, a reflex of the soul that that delights in him what John Calvin called "pious affections. “That person will hunger and thirst for Christ, will hunger and thirst for righteousness because it gives glory to the one that he loves. That person will surrender all that they are and all that they have to him, they will prefer Him above all else, they will have a joyful commitment to obey Him, they will enjoy him, and therefore they will be dependent upon him, which will be the fuel for prayer. Dear friends, if you have a weak prayer life is because you love Christ very little.

I love my wife dearly. I fell in love with her when I was 16 years old, married her when I was 21. We're about to celebrate 50 years of wedding bliss. And you know what? I love to be with her. I love to hear her voice. I love to serve her. Right? That's the way it is with Christ, when we truly love Him. And when we truly love someone, we want to speak to them, we want to commune with them. If you didn't want to commune with Christ, it'd be like being married to someone, you don't really want to talk with them. You don't want to be around them and what's going on there. That's not genuine love. So our love for Christ will be the fuel for prayer. We love him, we want to honor Him, we trust Him, we depend upon him. Therefore we say, Lord, these issues in my life, all I know to do is cry out to you for help. And that's what this father is doing. You see it was persistent, passionate, dependent, confident prayer that was missing in the lives of the disciples. Again, Hebrews 11 Six, "Without faith, it is impossible to please him." For he who comes to God must believe that He is in other words, you must believe that He is all that he claims to be and can do all that he promises and that he is a rewarder of those who seek Him. And of course the reward is eternal life. It is salvation, it is eternal fellowship. And dear friends, it is answered prayer for the glory of God.

Now back to the historical account. Verse 25, when Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and mute spirit." In other words, you, the one who has possessed this little child and caused the state, "I command you come out of him, and do not enter him again."

And then we read, "After crying out," the term could be translating, translated shrieking loud shrieking loudly. After shrieking loudly "and throwing him," referring to the little boy "into terrible convulsions. It came out and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, 'He is dead!'" I mean, that's what we would all conclude, right? I mean, we would see the stiff, lifeless child with this ashen, paler. He's dead. "But Jesus, took him by the hand." Isn't that precious? I mean, the Lord could have just raised him up, but he reaches down. And he takes him by the hand, you know how precious it is with a child to take them by the hand. When you talk with your child, you want to look them in the eye, and you want to take them by the hand you want to touch them. You want to engage them that demonstrates your love for them.

He takes him by the hand and raised him up; and he got up. Reminds me of a song we used to sing when I was a little boy. I don't know if we've sung it here. Maybe we have, "Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help. Love lifted me." Oh, what a glorious restoration.

And then in verse 28, "When He came into the house," obviously they went now to some place privately together with the disciples. His disciples began questioning him privately, "Why could we not drive it out? “And He said to them, 'This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.'"

And here we come to the fifth and final point, in our little outline, we now see a god empowering revelation. And I might add, it is one that we should all take very, very seriously. It is precious indeed. Now, no doubt, their question was prompted by their public humiliation, right? They couldn't do what they had been doing. And the scribes are just giving down the road. There's the....scribes are gloating over it, but they're also confused. I mean, they've been able to exercise other demons. Why weren't they successful this time? What is going on? Now, we must remember that the New Testament record reveals that there is a hierarchy to demons varying ranks or levels, Ephesians 6:12. And other passages speak of that. And obviously, some are more are more powerful than others. First Corinthians 15:24, speaks of how Christ will eventually abolish all rule and all authority and power. But the demon that indwelt this little boy must have been more powerful than some of the others that they had encountered. However, Jesus frustration here had nothing to do with the power of the demon but rather the deficient faith in His disciples, which was the primary factor in their failure.

Matthew helps us understand this in Matthew 17, beginning of verse 19. "Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not drive it out?' "And he said to them, 'Because of the littleness of your faith, for truly I say to you, if you have faith, the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.'" You see, what Jesus is saying is even miniscule mustard seed faith, can be effective. The issue is not the amount of the faith or the adequacy of the faith, but the infinite power of God that it employs, what is needed is not more faith. But the exercising of existing faith through persistent, passionate, believing prayer. James four and verse two, "You do not have because you do not ask."

I'm reminded of Luke 11. Remember, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. And he gave them a model for prayer, sometimes called the Lord's Prayer. But then he followed that with a parable. And this is appropriate for where we're at here in this text. In Luke 11, beginning in verse five, "Then Jesus said to them, 'Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.' And from inside, he, the one who was sound asleep, but has now been awakened with his whole family.

Doesn't say that, but that's what's going on here. He answers it says, "'Do not bother me. The door has already been shut my children and I are in bed, I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything, because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks a will be opened."

Then he adds this, "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, will he not give him a scorpion? Or he will not give him a scorpion will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

Beloved ours faith is imperfect. We are not glorified yet. But what God wants is for us to exercise the faith that we have by pounding on the gates of heaven. Asking him to help us, to do so with a sense of urgency, with a sense of earnestness with boldness with confidence, Oh father helped me, I'm asking you to do this, to help me so that I can ultimately give You praise and give you glory. We are to cry out to the only one who, according to Hebrews four verse 15, can "sympathize with our weaknesses. One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw nearer with timidity." Doesn't it say that does it?

"Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need." Jesus made the same point in the parable of the persistent widow remember Luke 18, in verse one. Now, he was telling them a parable to show them at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart. You see, dear friends, what we see in scripture is God not only responds to passionate, persistent, persevering prayer, but he desires it. It shows our love and dependence upon him.

Isaiah 62, verses six and seven speaks of never being silent, give God no rest. In other words, plead with him, show him your absolute dependency on him, your love for him, your confidence in him. And your willingness to accept his answer, whatever it might be, whenever it might come, knowing that he is right, and that he is just, and he ultimately acts for our good and for His glory. Paul prayed with passionate persistence, quote, "night and day." And he did so with heartfelt intensity and earnestness. He pleaded with God for the sanctification of others, because he really believed that God hears and God acts for His glory.

Well, this was the lesson the disciples needed to learn, and they did over time. And I trust we will learn it as well may I challenge you first of all? Do you possess genuine saving faith? If so, you will have a genuine love for Christ that will motivate all that you do. And therefore you will have a longing, you will have a desire, you will see him as your greatest treasure. Again, it will be a reflex of your soul, to commune with Him, to honor Him, to obey Him and to cry out to Him to do what only He can do in your life. That's the stuff of real saving faith. And sadly, most of evangelicalism today knows nothing of any of that. They believe, but they do not love. And those of us who do, by God's grace, love Christ. Do you exercise your imperfect faith with passionate, persistent, confident prayer? I hope you do. I hope you will.

Charles Spurgeon said "He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has Heaven and Earth at his disposal." May this be the passion and the practice of our daily walk with Christ, amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, as always, we are humbled when we immerse ourselves in your word, because through it Your Spirit speaks to us in such profound ways. And I pray that you will change us to the praise of your glory. And I asked it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel chapter nine, we will be examining verses nine through 13, along with some other passages. And we're even going to launch off into Revelation Chapter 11. A little bit different kind of exposition this morning. Before I read the passage, may I say that this is what you might call a flyover passage, you know, what flyover states are where nobody pays any attention to them, right. This is kind of one of those passages where you read and you don't pay much attention, and you just kind of move on. But there's some fascinating truths here in this text that the Holy Spirit has given to us with respect to Elijah like, forerunners of the Messiah. And my goal this morning is to not only help you understand this text and apply it to your life, but to really ignite your heart with anticipation for the Savior's return. I mean, we constantly face all of the wickedness in the darkness of our culture and, and we have to deal with our own sin plus everybody else's sin splattering on us, right. And it's just so wonderful to be able to do as we're told, and to set our minds on things above, not on the things of this earth. And so we want to do that this morning. Now, as we come to this text before I read it, let me remind you of the context. Jesus knew that his disciples were absolutely shocked, even repulsed to hear him predict his coming murder. And they were clueless about his talk of resurrection and how all of that fit into their theology, especially their eschatology of suffering dying and a dying Messiah just simply did not fit their idea of the Messiah of the kingdom. They wanted a conquering Messiah. And they were fixated on the glory of the kingdom, not the glory of the cross, or the resurrection. And he also warned them that they too, must be prepared to sacrifice everything, if they were going to follow him. So in an effort to encourage them and strengthen them, he took Peter, James and John, and allowed them to witness the manifestation of His glory, the effulgence of his Shekinah, coming from him, known as the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, a preview of the of the kingdom glory that we will one day share.

So with that background, now we come to verse nine, of Mark nine. "As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of man rose from the dead. They seized upon that statement discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant. They asked him saying, 'Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first?' And He said to them, 'Elijah does first come and restore all things. And yet, how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things, and be treated with contempt. But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.'"

I'd like to examine this under three headings that I hope will be helpful to you. First, we will look at these questions regarding Christ's resurrection and Elijah. Secondly, we want to look at Jesus' rather cryptic reply to them. And then thirdly, we want to look at some other texts concerning Elijah's past and future role. Now, let's notice the historical account here more closely. Verse nine, "As they were coming down from the mountain, he gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen until the Son of man rose from the dead." Now remember, what these men had just seen was absolutely terrifying. It was overwhelming. So much so that they fell on their faces in fear. And Jesus according to Matthew 17, in verse seven, had to touch them and say "Get up, and do not be afraid." But now Jesus orders them. Don't tell anybody what you have seen until after I've risen from the dead. And we know according to Luke's account and Luke nine, verse 36, "And they kept silent and reported to no one in those days any of the things which they had seen." Now why? Why couldn't they tell anyone? Don't you know they were wanting to? Well, because news of such a magnificent display of Christ's deity would just throw gas on the fire of messianic expectations that were already burning rather brilliantly. They would force him perhaps to be king, they were already thinking of that we read that in other passages. So that would produce more chaos and confusion. And that would become an unnecessary obstacle in his road to Jerusalem and to the cross. Plus, we must remember that miraculous displays of Messianic glory, whether we see them in healing of diseases or casting out demons, raising the dead, all of those things were merely a means to an end, not the end in and of themselves. The proclamation of the gospel, and the salvation of sinners is the goal. It's all about God and His glory, not man in his needs, something that's grossly twisted in evangelicalism today. And of course, that ultimate goal cannot be accomplished apart from His death and His resurrection, the two central elements of the gospel. First Corinthians 15, beginning of verse 13, Paul says, "if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain. Your faith also is vain. Moreover, we're even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ whom he did not raise, if in fact, the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins." You may also remember when Paul stood before Agrippa, he testified, in Acts 26, beginning in verse 23, saying, "the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead, He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles." And we also know that without Christ's atoning work on the cross, and without his resurrection from the dead, there would simply be no salvation. Romans 10 verse nine, "if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." If you don't, you won't. Very clear. So Jesus is saying, don't tell anyone that's just going to distract them confused them. In essence, he's saying I must first conquer Satan, sin and death, not the Romans. All right, so wait until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. Before you tell them what you have seen.

Verse 10, says, "They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant." And this brings us to the first point in our little outline: questions concerning Christ's resurrection and Elijah. So here's what they're thinking, okay? If he's going to die and be resurrected from the dead, and we're allowed to speak about that, after that happens, then how long after that before the kingdom is going to be inaugurated? That's what they're excited about. And you will recall that this issue, along with Jesus prophecy that the temple would be destroyed, is what prompted the disciples questions recorded in Matthew 24 and verse three, when, "The disciples came to Jesus privately saying, 'Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of Your coming in the end of the age?'" In other words, surely you're coming in triumph very soon. But you see, they could not envision Christ's ascension into heaven. They could not envision a long intervening church age, they could not envision a second coming of Christ. And this was common. Even in that day, the disciples you will recall on the road to Emmaus were also heartsick, that Jesus had not delivered Israel and established the kingdom and immediately, Luke 24:21. They told Jesus by the way, they didn't know who he was at this point. "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened." Still no kingdom. Verse 25, we read, Jesus said to them, "'Oh foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory?' Then beginning with Moses, and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the scriptures." Don't you wish you could have been there to hear that? Well, naturally, between Christ's resurrection, and His ascension back into glory, this was the topic of conversation. And this is what Jesus spent 40 days explaining to them remember, in Acts one, verse three, we read, "To these He also presented himself alive after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God." Then we read it beginning in verse seven, "When they had come together, they were asking him saying, 'Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?' And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or epochs, which the Father has fixed by his own authority.'" So we can understand why the disciples were asking Jesus about the resurrection. And we can also understand why they were asking him about Elijah, especially after seeing him with Jesus and with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration, verse 11, "They asked him saying, 'Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first?'" Well, this makes sense. I mean, after all, we just saw him. So here's the kingdom. Furthermore, they understood the current scribal teaching, and the rabbinic texts that by the way, you can still read many of them to this day, they understood what was being taught in these apocalyptic text that describe Elijah as the one that's preparing the way for the coming King in the establishment of the Kingdom. And this is why you will recall in John 1:21, the Pharisees asked John the Baptist, "What then? Are you Elijah?" You can see why they would say that. "And he said, 'I am not.' 'Are you the Prophet?' And he answered, 'No.' Moreover, the disciples understood Malachi's prophecy, remember in Malachi in chapter four, verse five, Elijah's appearance was to come. "before the great and terrible day of the Lord was ready to be unleashed. There we read, "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." Now, as a footnote, this phrase, The Day of the Lord, or a close variant is used 19 times in the Old Testament and four times of the New Testament. And sometimes it's called the day of vengeance, Isaiah 34 Eight, or the day of wrath in Romans two and verse five, a day of visitation, in First Peter to 12, the great day of God Almighty, and Revelation 16, in verse 14, and at times as we look, for example, in the Old Testament, the day of the Lord had a near fulfillment, something that would happen very quickly in history, as we read in Joel chapter one, but that would also prefigure something that was going to have a far fulfillment, as we would read, for example, in Joel chapter three. And we know biblically that this judgment will find its ultimate climax in the Lord's return at the end of the tribulation, according to Second Thessalonians two, and Revelation Chapter 16, through 18.

And I might also add that there will be another final consummating judgment of this earth after the millennium that will usher in the new Earth that we read about in Second Peter 3:10, through 13 and Revelation chapters 20 and 21. So this is a period of judgment now. But I might also add something that I find intriguing, this period of judgment parallels the ordinary solar day in a Jewish calendar, which began at sunset, and would extend through the next sunset, a period of darkness, followed by light. For example, Isaiah tells us in Isaiah chapter 60, beginning of verse two, "For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples, but the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising," speaking of the kingdom age. And it's important to remember, however, that the prophets also spoke of a preparatory work that would happen before even the great day of the Lord. And of course, we read of one of those in Malachi, four five that he's going to send Elijah. But Joel, for example, reveals "The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered." So again, if we go back to Malachi, chapter four, and verse five, we read, "Behold, I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." That hasn't happened yet. That is a future event, which will immediately precede the inauguration of the millennial kingdom. And then in verse six, we read, "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." In other words, in the kingdom age, there will be mutual love and submission, the word of God will rule the homes because the fathers are doing what they're supposed to do, and teaching their children the Word of God and requiring them to live consistently with it.

I might also had and you don't have this text on the screen, but I am reminded of how this will be the opposite of the horrors of cannibalism that was prophesied against Jerusalem because of their sin. We read about it in in Ezekiel, chapter five, verse 10, where in that time of the Babylonian siege which took place in about 598 BCE, there was actual cannibalism that took place in Jerusalem and throughout the land. There we read that, "Fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers, for I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind." Now also, Isaiah reveals more about a future messianic messenger that will warn about what we might call the leveling judgments of God, Isaiah 40, verse four, we read, "Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain, a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." So there is a messenger that is coming again, that will communicate these things and this messenger will go on to announce the glorious news of the kingdom being inaugurated in verse nine of Isaiah 40, "Get yourself up on a high mountain Oh Zion bearer of good news, lift up your voice mightily, oh, Jerusalem bearer of good news; lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, here is your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with his arm ruling for him, Behold, His reward is with Him and his recompense before Him. Like a shepherd, He will tend to his flock in His arm, He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom, He will gently lead the nursing ewes."And on it goes. My how I long for those days, how I long for those days to come.

So given the rabbinic teaching of that day, combined with the prophecies of Elijah, being a forerunner of the Messiah, we can understand why the disciples would ask in verse 11, of Mark nine, "Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first?' Well, now we moved, secondly, to Jesus cryptic reply, beginning of verse 12, we read, "And he said to them, 'Elijah does come and restore all things.'" In other words, indeed, he does come and announce my arrival. And that is supported for example, in Malachi three and verse one, "Behold, I'm going to send my messenger and He will clear the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, Behold, He is coming, says the Lord of hosts."

So again, back to verse 12. He says to them, "'Elijah does first come and restore all things.'" But then he adds this, "'And yet, how is it written for the Son of Man that he will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?"' In other words, you write about Elijah, but you're missing some other very important prophetic passages. In fact, as we will see, they were doing what we tend to do. We love to read those passages that make us feel good and make us feel excited. But we kind of skip over those others that may not necessarily fit our agenda. And that was somewhat the issue here. So he's basically saying, hey, what about those passages that speak of the Messiah suffering? What about those passages speak of the Messiah dying. Now, we're not told everything that he went on to say, but I'm sure he's talking about Psalm 22. He's talking about Isaiah 53. He's talking about Zechariah 12. For example, in verse 10, which speaks of Israel, repentance, at the Second Coming when they finally understand who Jesus is, the one that they rejected and crucified, There we read, "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son. And they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn." So in essence, Jesus is saying, I'm curious guys, why aren't these passages part of your theology? And then Jesus really shocks them in verse 13. "But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come. And they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him." And of course, we know that this is a reference to John the Baptist, who was then a Elijah like person who came according to Luke one in verse 17, "in the spirit and power of Elijah." In fact, we read in Matthew's account in chapter 17, beginning in verse 11, Jesus said, "Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished, so also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them about John the Baptist." I find it fascinating by the way that like Elijah, John the Baptist was a fearless preacher. He feared God, not man. And what's also interesting is we know that he even looked like Elijah. Second Kings one eight, "Elijah was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins," Mark one six, "John the Baptist was clothed with camels hair and wore a leather belt around his waist." You can see a bit of a resemblance there, can you not?

So again, in verse 13, "Elijah has indeed come and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him." And this probably is an allusion to Jezebel's threats against Elijah. Remember, in First Kings 19 in verse two, we read that Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, "So May the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." That was after he called down the fire on the prophets of Baal and so forth. And again, I find it interesting that Elijah, in the Old Testament was tormented by an evil woman. And ultimately, her husband, Ahab. And John the Baptist was also beheaded by a king who was manipulated by another evil woman. And we know that Jesus was crucified by the Jews and the Roman authorities and the final Elijah will be executed by the Antichrist as we read in Revelation 11 and verse seven.

Now, I want to help you understand some other texts concerning Elijah's past and future role, and this is the third section in our little outline. Once again, bear in mind the disciples didn't understand that the establishment of the Kingdom on earth was contingent upon Israel, accepting their Messiah for indeed the divine promises and covenants belong to that nation. We read about that, for example, in Romans chapter nine, verse four. And through them all of the blessings of the mediatorial kingdom would extend to all of the nations and this would include the literal fulfillment of national and physical blessings for a regenerate ethnic Israel and blessings for Gentiles. And even with creations restoration, as we read in Isaiah 11 in verse 65, and so forth. Now an important key. In his first coming, the Messiah offered the kingdom to Israel. We know that. Mark one, verse 15, John the Baptist says, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel." And in Matthew four, verse 17, "Jesus began to preach and say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" In other words, Israel must now make a moral and spiritual decision to follow Christ. But they rejected Him, we will not have this man to reign over us. And as a result, the divine promises concerning the physical material aspects of the kingdom were postponed, temporarily interrupted. For example, in Matthew 21, verse 43, we read "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you," referring to the chief priests and the elders that are described in verse 23, "and given to a people producing the fruit of it," referring to a future repentant, regenerate Israel.

Now currently, Israel is undergoing a temporary hardening Romans 11, verse 11, makes that clear. And the church has now become the temporary custodians of divine truth, the custodians of the gospel witness until Jesus returns to rule the nations and then Daniel's 70th week prophecy against Israel will begin. And so since Israel rejected John the Baptist, the Elijah like foreigner, and since the great and terrible day of the Lord and the Messiah's return, that is future since those things have not happened yet, we can conclude that both Elijah the prophet of the Old Testament, and John the Baptist, of the New Testament, the Elijah like person, both of them prefigured yet another forerunner of the coming Messiah, who may well be one of the Two Witnesses described in Revelation 11, verses three through 12.

So will you take your Bibles and turn there? Bear in mind, just a brief overview of what I believe is a biblical eschatology we are currently waiting for the rapture of the church, the snatching away of the church. And at that point, the Lord will once again turn his attention to ethnic Israel. And again, that will be part of the Daniel's 70th week judgment upon them and even upon the earth. And we read about these things in many passages. But the pre kingdom judgments during that time of tribulation are recorded in Revelation six through 19, and other passages. And so that's a little bit of a background, but during the pre kingdom judgments in the time of the tribulation, we know that the Antichrist, and the world right now, is being prepared for his rule, the Antichrist will be infuriated by the prophetic ministry of two witnesses. And because of this, he will violate his covenant with Israel, and demand that the world worship him. Second, Thessalonians two, four, he will erect probably some kind of a robot like idol of his likeness, he will place it in the Holy of Holies. Jesus described this, for example, in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 15, he called it the "abomination of desolation, which was spoken up through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place." Now we know that the Jews will refuse to worship Him, and that is going to infuriate him all the more, and he is going to seek to destroy them, and anybody that believes in Christ, and this will lead him ultimately to the battle of Armageddon where demonic spirits will draw, quote, "The kings of the whole world to gather them for battle on the great day of God Almighty." Revelation 16 And verse 14.

So what is revealed now and in Revelation 11, and I will go very quickly here because there's much to cover, and I want you to get the big picture, and not get lost in all of the details and all of the weeds. But we know in Revelation, chapter 11, the first two verses, we see that the Jews are measured, they're marked off as belonging to God. In other words, and speaking of those whom He will preserve and protect, during the final 42 months, well, the Gentiles, whom he does not claim, as his own, quote, tread underfoot the Holy City. And they will do that, of course, under the rule and the leadership of the Antichrist. And now what we see in this text is God raising up two preachers with supernatural powers, who will be able to counter the prophetic quote, "signs of the False Prophet." And you read about those signs, for example, in Revelation 13:11, and following, and his mission, of course, is to deify the antichrist that he serves. And since the Antichrist is the final ruler, of what, for example, Daniel calls the times of the Gentiles, he will be ruling over we believe a revived Roman Empire of European nations, probably the United States will be a part of that. And this whole scene recapitulates just the the vile, symbiotic relationship between Satan and ancient Gentile rulers, how he influenced and manipulated them, and their puppet priests and prophets, that they use to accomplish their nefarious purposes, to thwart the purposes of God. And even as the ancient rulers of Rome, once controlled the masses, both politically and religiously, Satan will continue this strategy and the rule of the Antichrist and his false prophets. So the Lord raises up these two witnesses, to witness of his saving grace, as well as his escalating wrath. And these two powerful preachers then become a real thorn in the flesh to the Antichrist and the False Prophet. We pick it up at verse three of Revelation 11. "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth." And again, now God is going to offset the false signs of the antichrist and the false prophet. And so he grants two men to be His witnesses. It's interesting, biblically, we know that every testimony must be validated by two witnesses, and the plural here of "martus", we get our English word martyr. That's what is used, and indeed, they will be martyred as we will see for their testimony. The text goes on to say "and they will prophesy," it means they will preach, they will proclaim, they will speak forth, is what the term means. You must understand that New Testament prophesying was primarily foretelling. I mean, forth telling, not foretelling, I am prophesying right now, I'm not predicting the future, I'm just telling you the truth. These two witnesses will proclaim the gospel of grace, they will warn about the coming judgment on the earth, and in an eternal hell they're going to do that it says, for 1260 days, and that, of course, is the final three and a half years of Daniel's 70th week, and notice that they're clothed and in sackcloth. Of course, that is coarse cloth made of camel or goat hair. And it was often accompanied with ashes. It was worn in those days by men, and even by women in times of great distress. And it was worn by the prophets; worn for the purpose of calling to attention the wickedness of the society, and calling men and women to repentance. And also it was used to warn of the imminent judgment that was about to come upon the people. And so that's why we see Elijah wearing this and John the Baptist as well. And this was, this was a proper response Jewish response for intense grief, especially as they mourn the temples desecration in the future, as they mourn the tyranny of the Antichrist. You think the tyranny is escalating now, wait till the Antichrist rules.

Now we know prophetically as we look at all these other passages that many Jews are being massacred at this time, while others have fled into the wilderness for divine protection. And once the Antichrist enters the Holy of Holies and establishes himself as god, small g, the entire temple complex, along with the entire land of Israel, is thrust into a state of ritual defilement. Restoration and ritual purification can only occur by the Messiah, only he can accomplish that and he will physically appear, he will eventually defeat the desecrated and cleanse the land and finally, rebuild and even consecrate the temple. Verse four, "These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth." Now, John would have understood precisely what Jesus was referring to here. When this was revealed to him. He knew the background statement. It was one that Zechariah had prophesied almost 600 years earlier. We read about it in Zechariah four, and there Zachariah predicted the rebuilding of the Jewish temple after a long period of exile. And this was led by two men, the high priest, Joshua who was the spiritual leader, and Zerubbabel, who was the Civil leader. And there we read of the same symbols as here in Revelation 11. They were called two olive trees and two lampstands. And this, of course, is symbolic of the oil of the Holy Spirit's power that would perpetually fuel the lamps of divine truth pertaining to saving grace. In fact, in verse six of that passage in Zechariah we read, "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts." We also know that in Zechariah, four, verse 14, Joshua and Zerubbabel are described as, quote, "the two anointed ones, who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth." But bear in mind, like most prophecies, there existed both a near and a far fulfillment. As we see here in Revelation 11 and verse four, These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth." By the way, that's almost an exact quote of Zechariah four and verse 14.

Now, we know that there was a near fulfillment of that prophecy in about 538 BC, two witnesses were raised up to bring spiritual revival to Israel and rebuild the post exilic temple. But there is also a far future fulfillment; two witnesses again, being raised up as lamp stands for God shining for the light of saving truth. Men empowered by the Holy Spirit, not by demonic influence, and they're going to bring spiritual revival to Israel and national conversion, whereupon the Lord himself will come and establish himself as the long awaited King, and the kingdom will be established and he was will build his millennial temple.

Now, Who are these men? Well, there's much speculation regarding their identity. And I must say very clearly, that what I'm telling you, I cannot be dogmatic. But I think that for the most part, what I'm presenting to you has sufficient biblical merit, that we can believe that these points in a very compelling way to an actual Moses and an actual Elijah, we know in Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, Moses prophesied that, quote, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him." And then in verse 18, the Lord said," I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him." And I might also add that to this very day, the Jews are convinced that this prophet will be Moses himself. And again, Malachi chapter four, verse five, 'Behold, I'm going to send to you, Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." And we know according to the angelic messenger, who spoke to the terrified priest, Zacharias, that his son, John the Baptist, would come, quote, and this is Luke one, verse 17, "in the Spirit and the power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready of people prepared for the Lord." But this does not automatically preclude Elijah from appearing again. Both Moses and Elijah, you will recall were fearless prophets that boldly confronted the tyrants of their day, and preached the Word of God without compromise. It was both Moses and Elijah that appeared with the Lord, when he manifested His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, again, a preview of second coming glory. And it's also fascinating to note that the miracles performed by the two witnesses during this final three and a half years are very similar to those performed by God through Moses and Elijah. Remember, they could destroy their enemies with fire, or that's what they're going to be able to do. The two witnesses in Revelation 11, and Elijah, we know call down fire from heaven. I've been right at the place and some of you have been with me where that actually happened. And in Revelation 11, verse six, we read that "These have the power to shut up the sky in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying." Well, we know that, that Elijah pronounced a three and a half year drought in the land, First King 17, the same period of time, as the two witnesses in Revelation 11. We also know that in Revelation six, the latter part of, of the verse, "and they have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague as often as they desire." Well, who else turned water into blood, it was Moses with the Nile. And he performed numerous other plagues against Egypt. And finally, we know that these two witnesses will be supernaturally translated into heaven, as we're going to see in a moment. And in similar fashion, Eliza Elijah never physically died, but he was taken into heaven in a fiery chariot. And we also know that God Himself buried Moses secretly disposing of his body. So God Himself will intervene in a supernatural way with the departure of these two witnesses, even as he did with Moses and Elijah. But again, the text does not specifically identify them. So we can only speculate who these men might be.

But we learned more about their ministry in Revelation 11, verse five, "And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth, and devours their enemies. And if anyone would desire to harm them in this manner, he must be killed." Well, by implication, many are going to desire to harm them. I mean, imagine this kind of bold preaching, even today, in Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or in in China or North Korea, or, frankly, most cities now in the United States. I mean, you can't even put bible verses on Facebook anymore, without going into Facebook jail or being canceled completely. That's how bad it has gotten. Well, it's going to be even worse during the Tribulation, because you must understand that by this time, the Earth has been absolutely devastated by plagues. They have cried out for the mountains and the rocks to fall on them, according to Revelation six, verse 16, to hide them "from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of the wrath has come." So they know exactly who is causing all of this. But if you go on to read, they still will not repent, and they will continue to blaspheme the Lord our God. So by now the people of the world have rallied behind their new messiah, Satan's Counterfeit, the Antichrist, and they're mindlessly believing him and worshipping Him and their disdain for anyone that would dare call them sinners in need of saving grace, would be eclipsed only by their utter contempt for the God who offers it. So these preachers will need to be protected. Enemies will attack them, and the amazing fire from their mouth will devour or consume them. And of course, this is only going to fuel their rage. Sometimes I wish I had that power, don't you? By the way, so much for being seeker sensitive, and trying to accommodate the culture. So again, verse six, "These have the power to shut up the sky in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague as often as they desire." This is amazing. By the way, you will recall, perhaps the third trumpet judgment has poisoned 1/3 of the world's freshwater supply Bear in mind that in Revelation six through 19, you have sealed judgments then trumpet judgments, and then bowl judgments. And so by this time, a three and a half year drought has basically been devastating, catastrophic to the planet.

Verse seven, and "When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them." This is the first time we're introduced, to quote "the beast," "Therion" in Greek. First time we see it in the Apocalypse, a term describing various carnivores, a beast of prey like a lion or a tiger. And so this is an animal like person with a ravenous appetite that functions solely on the basis of, of just an instinctively cruel and violent nature. And this is reference to the Antichrist, who I might add is called the beast 36 times. And notice he comes up out of the abyss. And this is mentioned seven times in Revelation to describe some mysterious subterranean cavern on earth that extends down into the bowels of the earth through some kind of a shaft that has been sealed shut, for the purpose of incarcerating and tormenting the most vile demons. We read about this, it's discussed in Chapter nine as part of the fifth trumpet. But this is not Satan, who is represented by a dragon but rather a man that is empowered by demonic forces that's released from the abyss. And here we learn that after the divinely decreed duration of the ministry of the Two Witnesses, God allows the Antichrist to finally overcome them and kill them to the utter jubilation of the world. Verse eight, "And their dead bodies will lie on the street of the great city, which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified." Well, this is obviously a reference to Jerusalem, which I might add will be the primary staging area of their ministry, as well as the headquarters of the Antichrist, as you read about in Second Thessalonians Two. By now, this is a city that is so infected with every imaginable form of wickedness, that it is likened to ancient Sodom, and the original enemies of Israel, the nation of Egypt. The figurative likeness of these two places just underscores the loathsome depths to which the city has fallen.

And then what we have is a very macabre, just ghoulish scene, and their dead bodies will lie on the streets of the great city. The greatest form of indignity that can be perpetrated upon an enemy is to leave the body unburied and watch it gradually decompose. Verse nine, and "Those from the people and tribes and tongues and nations," which by the way, is a technical term in Revelation for the Gentile world, "will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and they will send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth." I mean, can there be any greater demonstration of rebellion against God than this? Obviously, the whole world is going to be watching. Television will be filled with this scene. And you can see it right now on the screen there will be a little section right there where the bodies are, just focused constantly on the bodies. The whole Gentile world will celebrate the death of those who came to give them eternal life. And apparently great throngs of people will assemble to see this, this barbaric display, and within two to three days, a decomposing corpse will begin to bloat and emit the putrid odors of putrefaction. And this will happen while a wicked world laughs while they scoff and while they celebrate the prowess of the Antichrist and the defeat of Christ. But what they do not know is what's coming in just a few days, verse 11, "And after three and a half days, the breath of life from God came in to them and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who were beholding them." "Great fear fell upon" that has to be one of the greatest understatements in all of Scripture. "And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them 'Come up here.' Then they went up into heaven in the cloud and their enemies watched them." Finally, the news anchors are going to be speechless, right? People will be panic stricken. Suddenly, these bloated decomposing corpses will miraculously return to their original state, they will stand up. By the way, there's no record that they say or they do anything. They simply respond to the divine summons, "Come up." They are caught up in the clouds. Even as we will be caught up in the clouds, First Thessalonians, 4:17, to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Notice what else happens in verse 13. "And then in that hour, there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell and 7000 people were killed in the earthquake." This is a curious statement. The word "people" or "persons" in the original language, it literally means names of men "onomata antrhropon", names of men, a very unusual expression. And many of us believe this refers to to 7000 prominent men or leaders who served the Antichrist in his headquarters there. The text says "and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven." A reference primarily to Jewish people who were inhabiting the eastern part of Jerusalem and the region of the temple. They will be saved at that moment.

And in closing, I must say that here we discover the fulfillment of God's promise to his covenant people, recorded in Romans 11 and verse one "God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!" Verse four, "But what is the divine response to him? I have kept for myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. In the same way, then there has also come to be at this at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice." In verse 26, we read a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until," what? a fabulous word, "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and thus all Israel will be saved." So as we look at the "Apokalupsis JesouChristou," the revealing of Jesus Christ, the book of Revelation, in this section, we see the desecration of the temple. The deification of the self, deification of the Antichrist, the murder and resurrection of the two witnesses, followed by the terror of the Gentile world, a devastating earthquake. And all of this point to the coming of Christ, to end the Gentile domination, to save his covenant people, and to pour out the final stage of his vengeance on the nations of the world, and finally, establish his kingdom as he has promised. And as the disciples were worrying themselves sick, to find out when it's going to happen. Folks, may I challenge you to do as Jesus said, and pray, Thy kingdom, come, Thy will, be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for the magnificent truths of your word that, it brings such clarity to the glory of Your goodness and grace, that indeed you are the sovereign ruler over all of your creation. And history is literally his story, the story of Christ in all of his glory and how we long to see him. So we thank you for the hope, the blessed hope of the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus who gave Himself for us. And I pray that each of us will live in light of that glory that others will see Christ in us and be saved. We thank you, we give you praise in Jesus name. Amen.

As we continue to make our way verse by verse through Mark's gospel we find ourselves now this morning in chapter nine. So if you will take your Bibles and turn their Mark chapter nine, and we will be looking at verses one through eight to this morning, under the heading "The Promised Preview of Kingdom Glory." Before I read the text I must say that these are very dark days in which we live. I think you all realize that, my heart is heavy because of this. There is an ominous cloud of evil that has enveloped our country, frankly the world. As I thought about that, even this week and prayed for our country, I, I was reminded of Jeremiah's warnings to Judah. That because of their persistent disobedience and immorality, God was going to judge them unless they repented and came back to him. In Jeremiah 13, verse 16. He says, "Give glory to the Lord your God, before He brings darkness and before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. And while you are hoping for light, he makes it into deep darkness and turns it into gloom." In the Hebrew deep darkness is the same term used in Psalm 23 in verse four, for the "shadow of death." My heart is heavy for our country, our culture. I was at a graduation commencement. I guess you call it ceremony celebration for one of my grandsons. And some of your people were there as well. And when I looked around at the people, especially the young ladies and I saw the way they were dressed, and I saw the way their mothers were dressed, it just brings you to a place where you realize that there is absolutely no moral compass whatsoever in our country, in our culture. God has truly given us over to the consequences of our iniquity, what the Bible calls the wrath of divine abandonment. Death is indeed casting its shadow over our country. People can't see it. When retailers sell swim wear designed for men to look like women and women to look like men, the darkness has encompassed the culture. When retailers sell a t shirt that says quote, "Satan, respects pronouns." And another one that has a skeleton draped with a Rainbow, rainbow colors that says, "trans witches for abortion." When you have a culture that has sunk to that level of depravity, the shadow of death is over that kind of culture. I think of Ecclesiastes nine and verse three, "the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards, they go to the dead." And in Psalm 74, verse 20, the Psalmist says the dark places of the land are full of inhabitants of violence. So this is nothing new. This has been rather commonplace down through the centuries. And a day of judgment is coming. Biblically, darkness is always a symbol for ignorance, for satanic deception, and for divine judgment. In fact, we're told in Ephesians six and verse 12, that" our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against the powers against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." We could go to Second Peter two, we could go to Jude, chapter one and verse 13. And in both of those texts, we see that there's a special place in hell reserved for those who teach these things and preach these things in pulpits, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. But I might say, dear friends, on a positive side, against the contrast of this darkness, the light of the gospel of Christ shines ever more brilliantly. What a joy it is to occasionally go into a restaurant and see a family actually sitting there talking with one another, rather than doing this the whole time. No, I'm not saying they're Christian families. But I mean, just that gives you some sense of wow, isn't it great to see that, but then to see truly godly families, my what a rarity, and what a joy. We have to immerse ourselves in the light of the truth this morning. We must remember, as First Peter two verse nine says, "We've been called out of darkness into His marvelous light," right? Colossians 1:13 says "For, he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." First Thessalonians five and verse five, the apostle Paul says that we are "sons of light and sons of day and we are not of night, nor of darkness." And in Ephesians, five, beginning in verse eight, the apostle Paul says, "You were formerly darkness." I mean, that's, that's that was what your nature, your character was, it was just dark. But he says, "now you are Light in the Lord, so walk as children of Light, for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness, and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them." Dear friends if you're here this morning, and you are craving the glory and the greatness of God, and you have a desire to immerse yourselves in the magnificent truth of His Word, so that you can more know of who Christ is and become more like Him, than that is a profound manifestation of regenerating grace that God has performed in your life, a clear testimony of God's grace, so that you would actually have an appetite for his word. And for those of you who might be new to Calvary Bible Church, we hold to a biblical position, which is sometimes called in the Latin "sola scriptura." You see the five Solas around the sanctuary here, that means "scripture alone," which therefore means to every true believer that the Bible is our sole source of faith and practice; our sole authority. And therefore we refuse to accommodate the depraved whims of our culture that now dominates quasi and apostate evangelicalism, people that have sacrificed biblical truth on the altar of cultural relevance. We reject all of that. In fact, by embracing secularism and syncretism, and moral relativism, much of evangelicalism has now embraced what we might call the woke cult of just unrestrained depravity, a call to the demands, unquestioned allegiance, which I might add is the poison fruit of both theological and political liberalism. And as a result, the true church that will not bow the knee to Baal is going to experience more and more hostility. And unless the Lord intervenes, our plight will eventually mirror what happened, especially in the first and second centuries, with respect to Christians and during Roman persecution. And this brings us to our text this morning, this historical narrative. In Mark nine, Jesus knew that his disciples were absolutely shocked to hear him predict his coming murder that did not fit into their theology concerning a conquering Messiah. That's who they thought he was. In fact, in Luke 18, beginning in verse 31, we read this, "Then he took the 12 aside and said to them, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished, for He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon. And after they have scourged Him, they will kill him, and the third day He will rise again.' But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of the statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said." Now we know later on, they understood. In fact, later on, according to First Corinthians one beginning in first, verse 23, the apostle Paul said, and "we preach Christ crucified, to Jews, a stumbling block, and to Gentiles, foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." Jesus told them that self denial and cross bearing and joyful submission was what was required if they were going to truly follow him. And that was a hard pill for them to swallow. Imagine learning that Jesus is indeed your long awaited Messiah, and you're thrilled, you're euphoric with that knowledge and then to hear that he is going to be murdered. Or worse yet, that you too, if you follow Him, run that risk. Well, the lover of their souls and of our souls understood their consternation understood their frustration, their bewilderment, and their sadness. And his grace is always sufficient, right? And it's always right on time. The Lord knew how desperately they needed to be comforted, how desperately they need to be encouraged and strengthened for their journey and the battle ahead. And so what does he do? He allows them to witness with their own eyes, a manifestation of His divine glory, known as the Transfiguration of Christ. And therefore what we have in our text this morning, is a preview of the kingdom glory that they belong to that we belong to that we all share. And I trust that what we study here this morning will whet your appetite for the glory that is to come and encourage your heart, even as we live in these days of increasing darkness.

With that, let me read the text, Mark nine beginning in verse one. "And Jesus was saying to them, 'Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death, until they see the kingdom of God, after it has come with power.' Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them. And His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on Earth can whiten them. Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.' For he did not know what to answer for they became terrified. Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them. And a voice came out of the cloud, 'This is my beloved Son, listen to him.' All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone." I hope it will be helpful to you to look at this passage under three headings number one, we will see as I said earlier, the promise preview of kingdom glory, secondly, the ineffable majesty of Christ's transfiguration, and finally, the divine rebuke from the Shekinah cloud.

Now, once again, Jesus previous description of those who are truly willing to follow him means that they must be willing to take up a cross; a terrifying concept, intentionally so depicting a march to a public execution on a Roman cross. That's what it might cost you. Certainly, crucifixion was often the fate of those who followed their masters. Often, they would crucify the master and some of their key disciples along with him. And Jesus added in verse 35, of chapter eight, "for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake in the gospels will save it." So in other words, count the cost, live in light of eternity, when the Lord brings His rewards with him, and gives to those who follow him. And I must say, if you live for yourself, and for this life, only, you will lose your life eternally. But if you live for Christ, and His heavenly rewards, you will gain your life eternally. So we must ask, ask ourselves, Am I willing to lose my life for the cause of Christ? And if the Lord has truly transformed your heart, the answer will be a full throated, Yes, because that is the power of the Spirit. Jesus said in verse 38, of chapter eight "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father, and His holy angels. " So in other words, live your life with an eternal, not a temporal perspective. Think often about the day when the Son of Man returns, in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. That's the idea. And now again, in an effort to encourage his bewildered and frightened disciples, The Lord gives them a glimpse of future glory, a mental miraculous revelation, that should thrill every believer. Now let's pick up the narrative. Verse one, and Jesus was saying to them, "Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death, until they see the kingdom of God." The kingdom of God speaks to the super terrestrial realm ruled by Yahweh, also speaks of the royal power and triumph of Christ, the royal splendor of the Redeemer King. So he speaks here of the Kingdom of God and, and he says, You're not going to taste death, until you see the kingdom of God, after it has come with power. And this brings us to our first little point in the outline here, we're going to see the promise preview of Kingdom glory. And this now is going to include a visible manifestation of Christ's glory in His Transfiguration, but it will also include his resurrection from the dead later on. As a footnote, the transfiguration is what is called a "prolepsis," of the resurrection. In other words, it's a it's a representation or an anticipation of the resurrection presently existing even before it actually occurred. That's what it's speaking of here, it assumes that it's going to happen, as if it already has, and what a magnificent reality that we now can look back and see how all of these things played out. So Jesus is telling them that some of you will not die, until you see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. So I'm promising you now a preview of Kingdom glory. I know you're depressed, I know you're confused, but hang in there. My, talk about encouragement. I'm sure they're ecstatic with expectation, wondering what's going to happen. And think about it, we not only know what they witnessed with their own eyes, but we also know about the transforming power of regeneration in our own heart. Plus, we know the details concerning His glorious return and his glorification So dear Christian, don't miss this. What we are about to examine in the Transfiguration of Christ is an affirmation of His deity but also a preview of Kingdom glory for all who follow Him. Now, as we will see, Peter didn't know what to make of all this, even when he sees it. Now, he's not going to know what's going on for sure, until later on in his life. In fact, we read his inspired testimony in Second Peter one and verse 16. By the way, this is kind of like when you start reading this, the this this novel, and you're wondering what in the world is going to happen and you have to go back to the back because you just kind of want to see how it turns out. This is how it turns out. He says, it's second Peter one, verse 16. "For we did not follow cleverly devised tales, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, 'This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased' and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain."

So first of all, we see Jesus making this promise, this preview of Kingdom glory. Secondly, we see now the ineffable majesty of Christ's transfiguration. Ineffable, it's indescribable, it's inexpressible. It's unspeakably beautiful and glorious. Verse two, "Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter, and James and John, and brought them up on a mountain by themselves, and He was transfigured before them." Now, first of all, according to Mark, and Matthew, the transfiguration took place, six days after Jesus made the promise, whereas Luke nine and verse 28, says that it happened, quote, "some eight days later." Now, there's really no contradiction here. Luke is merely including the day of the promise and the day of the Transfiguration, rather than the six days between the two events that Matthew and Mark, use. Now notice what happens. And we learn more about this in Matthew's account in Matthew 17, beginning in verse one, "Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter, and James and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves." Now we know from the context of the history that they were in the region of Caesarea Philippi, where that's where Peter made his confession. And that's right at the foot of Mount Hermon, that's about 9200 feet in elevation. So that's probably where they went. And Matthew goes on to say, "And He was transfigured before them and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light." The word transfigured translates the Greek verb "metamorphoo," we get metamorphosis from that. And it means to change into another form, to be transformed. Luke's Gospel says, in Luke nine beginning in verse 28, "Some eight days later, after these things He took along Peter and James and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different. And his clothing became white, and gleaming."

So this is what happens, Jesus is praying, and all of a sudden, all of this glory begins to appear upon him, in fact, in Luke's gospel in verse 32 of chapter nine, we learned that they were asleep while the disciples were asleep during this time, and then all of a sudden, they awake, and they see His glory. And he's talking with two men. Imagine waking up and seeing that. So that's what's happening here, it's astounding. Dear friends, here we have the effulgence of the divine glory, that is revealed to humanity suddenly shining forth. His earthly form was transformed into this supra terrestrial heavenly form. And his closest disciples witnessed this with their own eyes. I mean, can there be any better way to bolster their faith and encourage them with anticipation than sharing in this glorious scenario? Could there be any greater way of sustaining Jesus as he faces the agonies of the cross? I think not. Later the disciples were able to better understand that only through Christ's suffering and through His sacrifice, and through His death, could his glory be permanently displayed to his kingdom citizens. Moreover, this pictures the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, in the life of a believer, whereby, because of His indwelling presence in power, he progressively conforms us into the likeness of Christ. Paul spoke of this in Second Corinthians three beginning in verse 18, "But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

I might add that the context of that analogy is most glorious. It's, it's speaking of the time when Moses looked upon God with an unveiled face, upon the mountain, and he was only allowed to see a fraction of His glory. But now because of the new covenant, believers are able to behold the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face. That's the analogy that Paul is using. So what was once concealed and, the mysteries of types and symbols and, and ceremonies, all of it becomes perfectly clear, because of the new covenant. The new covenant explains what was once only a shadow of what was to come and now we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ. The apostle Paul says in Romans 12 And verse two, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed." Well, how does that happen? By the renewing of your mind, it's in the present tense, it means that there must be a continual process of biblical understanding that results in spiritual discernment. That's how transformation works. And he goes on to say, "so that you may prove what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable and perfect. And Jesus said, Father, Sanctify them in the truth, Thy word is truth." That's what he uses to conform us into the image of Christ. That, frankly, is what's happening right here. As believers hear the word they understand it better, they begin to apply it more in their life. And the Spirit uses that to make us more like Christ.

I might add that your spiritual maturity is directly proportional to your understanding and application of the Word of God. Folks, the more we see Christ for who he is, in all of his glory, the lower we will bow and humble adoration and live to the praise of his glory. Let me put it in a way that is consistent with what's going on in our culture. This means that the Lord Jesus Christ is not some smiley face God that winks at sin. He is not some woke, social justice warrior, whose word can be altered to somehow accommodate the culture. He is the thrice Holy God, the sovereign of the universe. In fact, in John chapter 12 and verse 41, we learned that it is Jesus that Isaiah spoke of, in Isaiah six, beginning in verse one, Jesus is the one "sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted with a train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him." Later on, it says that they say, "Holy, Holy. Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him, who called out while the temple was filling with smoke." When you truly understand who God is, and all of his glory, that he is the one that is high and lifted up the only one and true God, then you will respond even as Isaiah did when he beheld his glory. The text goes on to say, "Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips. And I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts."

So with this background, think about this, think how amazing this is. Peter, James and John, are allowed to have a glimpse of Christ's unveiled majesty.Verse three tells us "and His garments became radiant and exceedingly White is no launderer on Earth can whiten them." There's not enough bleach in the world to get your garments that white, right? That's the point. Matthew 17 Verse two, "and he was transfigured before them and His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light." Luke says in nine, verse 29, "and while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and his clothing became white and gleaming." Folks, this is so exciting. All through Scripture, we know that God describes the glory of His presence by using the concept and the reality of resplendent, brilliant, dazzling, unapproachable light. In fact, it was called the Shekinah in Daniel chapter two, verse 22, we read that he emanates light without shadow, saying light dwells with him. Psalm 104, verse two, he covers himself with light as with a garment. And Paul described Jesus our Messiah to Timothy, as dwelling in "unapproachable light," First Timothy 6:16, whom no man has seen, or can see to whom be honored and everlasting power. No one has ever seen the fullness of His glory and lives only a glimpse of it. First, John one of verse five, we read that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. You will remember that in Matthew, one in verse 23, we read, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us." Emmanuel is not a proper name, but a title or a description, first given to the covenant people in Judah through Isaiah the prophet, and it reiterated to them and reminded them that indeed, he will be the one that makes good on all of his covenant promises to his people, and even dwell amongst them. And often then, he is manifested in the Shekinah, the presence of God's glory. And when we see this biblically, we see that God who is immaterial will materially materialize himself, in this resplendent dazzling light. You will recall, that the presence of God was housed within the tabernacle and the temple. In fact, the Hebrew term for tabernacle is "mishkan" , and is derived from a root word "shakan" which means to dwell, or to rest or to abide in from "shakan" came the term Shekinah, denoting the glorious presence of God. Light is therefore a fitting metaphor to describe the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, all of this is steeped in Old Testament allusions. We see this light, for example, in the burning bush with Moses, we see the light of His presence as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, that led his covenant people out of Egypt and through the wilderness. Again, at the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, in Exodus 33, we read Moses saying, "show me your glory." And remember, the Lord says, You can't you can't see my glory. You can't see my face. For no man can see me and live but I'll tell you, you hide over there in the cleft of the rock, and I'll cover you with my hand, you can see a little of my backside. His shekinah hovered at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Remember when Moses would enter the tent, the glory would be there, in front of it, Exodus 33. And it was the Shekinah glory, the presence of the living Christ, that hovered between the chair of them over the mercy seat, the golden lid of separation that sat above the Ark of the Covenant. Within the ark was the tablets of stone, representing the law that we have broken. And between the cherubin was the Shekinah that glowed that the people could see glowing even up through the tent of meeting later on and in the temple. And the symbolism there is very clear that no one could ever enter into the presence of God apart from the shedding of blood that would happen on the "hilasterion" the, the place of propitiation. That's what the high priests would do at Yom Kippur. He would sprinkle the blood and that would symbolically propitiate the sins of the people temporarily, all of it pointing to Christ. We can see the luminous cloud of the glory of God demonstrated in his approval of Solomon's temple. Remember in First Kings eight, beginning of verse 10. "It happened that when the priest came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand a minister because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord fill the house of the Lord." And I love that passage in Ezekiel one, where Ezekiel is trying his best to somehow describe the glory of the Lord seated upon his throne. Ezekial one, verse 26. He says that "on that throne, high up was a figure with the appearance of a man. Then I noticed from the appearance of his loins and upward, something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it. And from the appearance of his loins and downward, I saw something like fire and there was a radiance about him." That clears it up, doesn't it? Moreover, we know that the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ was prophesied as the one who would one day come in light, and both his first and second comings. In his first coming, we see it was predicted in numbers 24, verse 17, that "a star," a kokab, a blazing forth, would come forth "from Jacob." And in Second Samuel 23, verse four, and "He shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises a morning without clouds." We also know that because of idolatry and apostasy that the glory of Christ presence, departed from the temple. And after 400 years, without any of the Jewish people seeing the light of the Shekinah, it suddenly appeared to some humble shepherds in Bethlehem. We read about that, in Luke two "and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them." And here it is "the glory of the Lord shown around them. And they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy. Christ the Savior is born.'" It appeared again to the Persian kingmakers, the Magi, they saw a star and the east in Greek an "aster", a blazing forth something that not everyone could see, something that would appear and then disappear and appear again, and even eventually hover right over where Jesus was. And all of that pointed to the person of the Promised Messiah King. And in John one, John the Baptist, was the one who was sent. It says in verse seven, "to bear witness" of the what? "of the light of the glory of Christ," saying Jesus was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. And in His incarnation the shekinah was revealed in a child, veiled in human flesh, Emmanuel, God with us, the Lord Jesus Christ. Later in John one, verse 14, we read "And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." And you will recall how Paul recounted his conversion in Acts 26 Verse 13, he says," At midday along the road, I saw a light from Heaven brighter than the sun shining around me and those who journeyed with me." And dear friends, today we see a glimpse of the glory of God and the person and the work of Christ. It's just a glimpse, but we see it. In fact, we read in Hebrews one beginning in verse two, that God "in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world and He is the radiance of His glory, and the exact representation of his nature." Radiance, "apaugasma" in the original language, it means a effulgence. It means the that which flashes glorious light. This is who Christ is. Is it any wonder that Jesus said in John eight and verse 12, "I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." And in John 12 and verse 46. He said, "I have come as light into the world that everyone who believes in me may not remain and darkness." Peter, James and John saw a glimpse of that light. I might also add that a day is coming when all those who are alive upon the earth, will see his return in power and great glory. Matthew 24, beginning in verse 29, the Lord Jesus says, "But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man," there it is, the Shekinah presence of Christ Himself will appear in the sky, "and then all of the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory." Because of sin, they cannot see it now. Plus, Satan has blinded the minds of the unbeliever so that they might not see the light, the glory of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, but one day, no one will miss it. He came the first time in obscurity, the next time he's coming in glory. And even the description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21, beginning in verse 22, we read what John sees, he says," I saw no temple in it for the Lord God, the Almighty and the lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated and its lamp is the Lamb." And here on the mountain, Peter, James and John, see the ineffable majesty of Christ's Transfiguration, a preview of coming glory. I can only pray that each of you see it as well.

But notice what else in verse four of Mark's gospel, chapter nine, "Elijah appeared to them, along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus." This is a fascinating statement. And we know biblically that Old Testament saints do not receive their glorified bodies until the end of the tribulation, according to Daniel 12, and verse two. So somehow God must have supplied them with that body, or somehow made them appear in such a way that they knew who they were, now how to Peter, James and John know who they were, they didn't have any pictures of them. I can't answer that. I guess Jesus introduced them. I don't know. Maybe they introduced themselves. Hey, hey, guys. I'm Moses. Hey, I'm Elijah. By the way, doesn't this give us a little glimpse of the heavenly fellowship that we're going to be able to enjoy? And the heavenly fellowship that those who have gone on before us are currently enjoying with Jesus and with others? Now, why Moses and Elijah? I mean, I mean, why not? Abraham, Daniel, or Isaiah, maybe Jeremiah? Well, the text doesn't say, but perhaps it's because Moses and Elijah represented respectively, the Law and the Prophets, that Jesus came to perfectly fulfill. According to Matthew five and verse 17, perhaps that's part of it. So I think about it, both men also experienced mysterious deaths, didn't they? Remember, God buried Moses body in a way that it could never be found? And Elijah, which is taken up alive into heaven, not sure how all of that fits in there. But God knows. Certainly both were supernatural means to provoke repentance during their ministries on Earth. In fact, the death of Jesus we know is going to bring salvation, even repeating the exodus that Moses led. And both of them are associated with the second coming of Christ in the inauguration of His earthly kingdom. Remember Malachi four beginning of verse four. And maybe Peter was thinking of this, I'm not sure what was going on in his mind. But there in that text we read, "Remember the law of Moses, my servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." In fact, there is strong evidence to indicate that it is Moses and Elijah, that are the two witnesses described in Revelation 11. It's interesting, both were given supernatural power to strike down their enemies while they were on Earth with the plagues, and so forth, the same kind of plagues that they will pronounce upon the wicked during the time of the tribulation. And even according to Revelation 11 six, "having power to shut heaven so that no rain falls." That's exactly what Elijah did. So maybe all of those things were a part of this.

And notice what they were talking about, according to Luke nine and verse 30. "And behold, two men were talking with him. And they were Moses and Elijah, who appearing in glory, we're speaking of his departure." In other words, his bitter suffering and his death. That's what they were talking about, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. And he goes on to describe a rather comical scenario, if you think about it, in Luke nine, beginning in verse 32. "Now Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep but when they were fully awake, they saw His glory, and the two men standing with Him." And then a very interesting statement. "And as these were leaving Him," as Moses and Elijah are starting to walk away after this conversation, "Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here, let us make three tabernacles, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah." And then we have this profound statement, "Not realizing what he was saying." Mark's gospel in verse five says, "Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah," verse six, "for he did not know what to answer, for they became terrified." Now, Peter, who reminds me of me a lot of times, was a ready fire aim kind of guy. I mean, think about it. He has seen the glory of Christ, He knows who he is. Now he sees Moses and Elijah. And he was thinking, oh phew there for a minute, I thought the kingdom wasn't going to be coming. But now it's here. It's here now. So naturally, that's what he's hoping, isn't this great, he must not be going to suffer and die in Jerusalem. Maybe that's what he was thinking, I think so.

Plus, I find it interesting, this astounding event took place during the month of Tishri, which is six months before Passover. And this was the time when Israel celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Booths, "Sukkot" It's called, and that commemorated the great exodus from Egypt. And they would take leafy branches, and they would build temporary shelters, and so forth. In fact, many Jewish people still do this. I've seen lots of pictures of them in Israel. And this, of course, celebrated the time when God tabernacled with Israel, in the wilderness. And it pointed to the time when the Messiah's presence would once again dwell amongst the people in the joyful restoration of Israel and the end gathering of all of the nations during the Millennium. So he's probably thinking, my, maybe now we're going to be delivered from Rome. And after all, the Feast of Tabernacles, along with the Feast of the new year, and Passover are going to be celebrated during the kingdom age. We read about this, for example, in Zechariah, 14, maybe Peter's thinking of this a bit, beginning of verse 16, "Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went up against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem, to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, they're the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, the no rain will fall on them and it will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths." So maybe all of this is going through Peters mind; I think that is a tenable hypothesis. He doesn't want Jesus to suffer and die plus he wants the kingdom now. So he's basically seeing them walk away off, stop, stop. Let's build some tabernacles right here. That's what he's thinking.

And then notice what happens in the midst of all that. Verse seven, "Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them and a voice came out of the cloud. 'This is my beloved Son, listen to him!'' All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore except Jesus alone." This brings us to the final point in our little outline, and that is the divine rebuke from the Shekinah cloud. Luke tells us in Luke nine, beginning in verse 34, "While he was saying this," talking about Peter, while he's trying to do the whole tabernacle thing, while he's trying to frankly establish the Kingdom, all right. "While he was saying this, a cloud formed began to overshadow them." In fact, Matthew tells us that it was a bright cloud. Once again, we see the glory of the presence of God. Matthew goes on to say, "and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. Then a voice came out of the cloud saying, 'This is my son, my Chosen One, listen to Him." Matthew says, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him." If I can paraphrase what I believe is going on here. God is basically saying to Peter, please, don't start this again. Stop demanding your own way. It's not time for the kingdom. This is almost like what happened in Mark 8:33. When Jesus or when Peter rebuked Jesus, Jesus said, "Get behind me satan you're not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's." That's what's going on here. It's a divine rebuke. And then in verse eight, we read "All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore except Jesus alone." Matthew 17, verse six, "When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, and were terrified." But don't you know, I would be too. You know, I'm in the midst of trying to get my own way here and make things work my way. And all of a sudden, I'm rudely interrupted by glory cloud. And then I hear this voice from heaven. I mean, I'm facedown you would be too. "When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, and were terrified." And then I love this next statement, isn't this just like Jesus? "And Jesus came to them, and touched them, and said, 'Get up, do not be afraid.' And lifting up their eyes," in other words, getting their face out of the dirt and terror, "they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone."

Dear Christian, what an exhilarating hope of glory that we have in Christ. And I wish to leave you with these thoughts this morning. Yes, we live in days in which the dark blackness of Satan's kingdom is just getting darker and darker, but our hope is in Christ, the one who conquered the darkness on the cross, and today we merely await his triumphant return. And we've seen a glimpse of this in the past. In fact, in Isaiah, verse nine or chapter nine, verse two, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. But sadly, we know that most people and I have them in my family, and you have them as yours as well. They don't want anything to do with the light. In fact, Jesus spoke of this in John three, verse 19. "This is the judgment that the Light has come into the world. And men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil." And certainly the light has come into the world. That light has come through the incarnation of Christ and through the word to the person in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the revelation of God in the very image of His divine holiness, but people don't want anything to do with that. Then Jesus said, "For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

So, beloved, please hear me. Don't let all of this darkness depress you. Yes, it is depressing in so many ways. It's frustrating, it's infuriating, but oh to see the glory of Christ, and to know what he has done for us, because were not for His grace, we would be wearing those T shirts, right? We are people of light, not people of darkness, we need to celebrate that every day. And I want to close with the Apostle Paul's words in First Thessalonians five. Because it speaks to this, beginning of verse four, "But you brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light, and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith that love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God is not destined us for wrath, but for attaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with him." Therefore, this is my challenge to each of you. "Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing." Let's pray together. Father, we are deeply humbled by the glory of Your grace and the power of your word that reminds us of these magnificent events that have occurred in the past and what they speak about concerning the future. And to think that somehow we are all part of that even though we as believers are only incidental to your glorious plan of redemption. Because we know that ultimately, it's all about you and your glory. But we thank you for your word. I pray that it's magnificent trues will lodge deeply in each heart and will will bear much fruit to the praise of your glory. And we will be careful that in all things Christ will have the preeminence for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

This morning we are in Mark's gospel. So if you will take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter eight, we will be looking at verses 34 through 38, under the heading "What it is to Follow Christ." Let me read the text to you beginning in verse 34, of Mark eight. "And He summoned the crowd with His disciples and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospels, will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels."

Over the years, I've had opportunity to counsel many hundreds of people on a variety of issues. Everything from marital strife, to relational conflict in families, immorality, anger, drug and alcohol addictions. People that lack discernment, lack an understanding of Scripture that can cause all kinds of problems. And whenever I deal with them, very often, I will set their presenting problem aside. And first what I want to know is, what about your walk for Christ, your walk with Christ? And I will often ask them that, let's set all of this aside for a moment. Help me understand, tell me, tell me about your walk with Christ. And more often than not, the answers will be very external. In other words, it will be something like, well, I go to church at whatever. So it's about church attendance. Or maybe they will leave and add something about how they give some money to the church or whatever. And when I go a little bit deeper, and ask them, Are there any areas in your life where you think you might be living in rebellion to God's Word and His will? Once again, I typically get very external answers. Well, yeah, I guess I need to go to church more. I guess I need to give more money to the missionaries. I guess I need to read my Bible more. But what you won't hear most of the time is, you know, I'm living for myself rather than for the Lord. I'm not about making disciples. I'm not really committed to raising my children in the discipline and in the instruction of the Lord. I really don't have a prayer life. I'm not very thankful, I tend to be angry and manipulative. I really know nothing of what it means to present my body and living in a holy sacrifice to God, which is acceptable to him. I really don't have an appetite for the Word of God. I don't read it very often, I certainly don't meditate upon it. And frankly, it has very little impact on my life. But the priorities that the Lord gives us, with respect to what true conversion looks like, are very different. Typically, what is missing is a real passion for God. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, right? To love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. We should have a longing to know and to serve Him, a genuine love for Christ, a desire to honor him, but most who claim to follow Christ, don't really have an understanding of these things. I will very often take them to Galatians five beginning of verse 16 that says, "Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." And sadly, those great truths are foreign to many Christians whose lives are a train wreck. It will go on to say in verse 19, "that the deeds of the flesh are evident." And by the way, these are the types of things that are typically the presenting problem, "which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarn you that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." But the Apostle Paul went on to say, in contrast to the deeds of the flesh, He gives us the fruits of the Spirit beginning in verse 22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control against such things, there is no law." In other words, a true believer doesn't need some external law, to force him or her to have these ruling attitudes in their heart. That's a work of the Spirit, it's a fruit of the Spirit. So why are these things missing in your life? He goes on to say, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. When if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." So the point is one of the things that I will have to do in working with people, and what you need to do in your own life, and when you work with even your own family members, is help them understand what it means to follow Christ. Very simple. And this is what Jesus wanted his disciples to understand. And even the crowds that were following him, typically for the wrong reasons, this is what He wants us to understand. So I wish to explain this particular passage of Scripture, under two headings, number one, the priorities of conversion, and secondly, the penalties of rejection.

Now, it's always important that you understand the context in which all of this is occurring, you will recall that Jesus along with his disciples, have been in the northern villages of Caesarea Philippi, a very pagan Gentile region. And Jesus has asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" and they've given him a list of things that people wrongly say that he is. And then he asked his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" And speaking on behalf of them all, Peter says, "You are the Christ." And in Matthew 16, verse 17, "Jesus said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." And then he warned them to tell no one about him at that time. They wanted to force him, remember, to become their military deliverer and King and to announce this publicly, at this stage in Jesus ministry would have caused all manner of chaos. And then we read that He began to teach them, His disciples that He, the Son of Man, must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. This was a total shock to his apostles, who had just had it confirmed that he is indeed the Messiah. And then you will recall that Peter was so upset that he yielded to Satan's temptation, he takes Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him to try to prevent him from going to the cross and suffering and dying. After all, that would upset Peter's plans right to be in the kingdom. Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on God's interest, but man," that's the context.

And now we come here to verse 34. "And Jesus summoned the crowd, with His disciples." The term "summoned" is important. It carries the idea of making an important announcement. It's like his disciples are here and the crowd is there. Hey, everyone, please come here. I have something to tell you. That's what's going on. And here's what he said to them. "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Dear friends, here we see, number one, the priorities of conversion. Remember, now the disciples had just learned that a cross must precede a crown for Jesus. They've just learned that suffering paves the way for glory. They have just learned that humble submission and self-sacrifice, come before the splendors of heaven. And it's mind boggling to them. But now what they are hearing is that these same principles apply to everyone who follows Jesus. If anyone wishes to come after me, he must join a church. That what it says? No. He must attend church regularly and tithe 10% of gross or net? I mean, all that stuff is made up, none of that's biblical. That's not what it says, Is it? No. "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself take up his cross and follow me." Folks, this language is intentionally shocking, because it evokes the horrifying image of a death march to a public execution on a Roman cross, the willingness to die for their faith in Christ. In other words, following Jesus might cost you everything. Oh, that's not what I'm, that's not what I signed up for here. I mean, I'm here for the free stuff. All right. I'm here for the handouts. I'm following you, Jesus for the prosperity you know, the health and the wealth, and the success. I think that's why I'm here. I'm here for self-fulfillment. I'm here to boost my self-esteem. I'm not here for self-denial, whatever that is. I mean, I'm all about taking up a church but not a cross. To put it in our modern context. I'm here for reparations, not repudiation. I'll follow you as long as you meet my felt needs. Anything beyond that? I'm out. I mean, after all, you exist for me, I don't exist for you. That's the mindset. Dear friends, please understand, if you have a distorted understanding of Jesus, you will have a distorted understanding of discipleship, and you will forfeit blessing in your life, assuming you even know Christ.

Now, this type of thinking is at the very heart of apostate evangelicalism today, which is a perversion of true Christianity that has given rise to errors like prosperity theology, the prosperity gospel, and even the social justice gospels, and the satanic woke and LGBTQ culture that now demands strict adherence in our culture, and seeks to indoctrinate and seduce and abuse our children. John MacArthur put it this way, quote, "In contrast to the man centered, feel good platitudes that pervade contemporary Christendom, the Gospel preached by Jesus was a sobering call to self-denial, suffering and absolute surrender. False gospels entice their hearers with promises of material prosperity, physical healing, earthly success, self-esteem, and an easy life. The true gospel deals a deathblow to such counterfeits. The Lord Jesus calls his followers to humble brokenness, a life of self-sacrifice, and a willingness to endure hardship for his sake."

So again, Jesus says," If anyone wishes to come after Me." The original language carries the idea of literally if anyone wants to follow behind me. And here in this context, it means to place their faith in me. And by the way, that's what people would do, they would follow behind their favorite teacher, their master, so to speak. If you're going to do that, if you're going to be my disciple, and enter in the Messianic Kingdom, you've got to deny yourself take up the cross and follow Me. So in other words, this is a matter of eternal life versus eternal death. That's how serious this is. And I might add, dear friends, that this is the stuff of genuine conversion, genuine saving faith. It will be characterized by these non-negotiable, joyful, willful priorities. Let's look at them more closely. Self-Denial. In the original language carries the idea of refusing to recognize or acknowledge something or to utterly disown or disavow. In fact, it is used in Mark 14 Verse 30, Jesus said to Peter, "I truly say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will hear it is deny Me three times." Likewise, in Luke 12, and verse nine, Jesus says, "He who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God." So Jesus is literally saying here, If anyone wishes to come after me, he needs to step down off of the throne of his or her life, and submit to me, as their only Lord and Master, their only sovereign. You must be willing to renounce yourself, repent of your sins, break away from your former way of life that was dishonoring to God. You've got to be willing to refuse to recognize or acknowledge everything in your life that is contrary to the Word and the will of the living God. You must surrender your personal plans and your ambitions and your will and submit yourself wholly to the purposes and the plans of the Lord Jesus Christ. James Brooks said this quote, "To deny oneself is not to do without something or even many things, it is not asceticism, not self-rejection or self-hatred, nor is it even the disowning of particular sins. It is to renounce the self as the dominant element in life. It is to replace the self with God in Christ as the object of affections, it is to place the divine will before self will."

Now, you must understand that what Jesus is saying is absolutely devastating to the Jews, because it meant that all of their self-righteous efforts to impress God and gain salvation were of no avail. You will recall in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter five and verse three, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Blessed are those who have an overwhelming sense of their impoverished state, the impoverished state of their spiritual condition. Those who cower like a beggar in spiritual bankruptcy, who know that they have nothing to offer, but their sin. But I might also add that for the Jews, as well as the Gentiles, to follow Jesus meant you basically had to give up everything in life. For the Jews, it would cost them their job, their careers, typically their family, their friends, they would be disenfranchised from the Jewish community, even for the Gentiles. They were part of trade unions, and they all had their own little gods, little deities that they had to worship. And that often included all manner of sexual deviance as part of their worship, they'd have to give up all of that.

Dear friend please hear this, to deny yourself and follow Christ means that you are to make God and his glory, the very center of gravity in your life around which everything else must orbit. That's what it means to follow Jesus. It exchanges, self-reliance for total dependence on Christ. It's actually the end of self-exaltation, and a commitment to worshipping Christ in Word and deed. Paul said in Ephesians four verse 22. And following, "in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit and that you be renewed in spirit of your mind and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." My, how fundamental this is to Christianity, yet sadly, it is so foreign. How sad to see so many professing believers live as if God doesn't even exist. They live for themselves. Christ is not even a priority. They don't even understand who Christ really is. I was reading some Barna statistics recently, I learned that more than half of born-again Christians don't believe Jesus lived a sinless life. That means they're not born again. By the way, fewer than half believe they have a unique God given calling and purpose in life. Quote, "A downward trend was also observed among those who say the Bible is unambiguous in its teaching about abortion falling from 58 to 44%. Those who say life is sacred fell from 60 to 48%. And the number of born-again Christians who say God is the basis of all truth fell from 69 to 63%. Over basically a two-year period, the share of born again believers who say they are deeply committed to practicing their religious faith fell from 85 to 50%. While the share of those who say they read or study the Bible, at least once a week fell from 60 to 55%." And folks, that trajectory is going down rapidly. Of course, this is music to the ears of the Neo Marxist progressive Democrats in our country who hate Christians more than cancer. This is what happens when the Bible is no longer seen as the inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, all sufficient Word of the living God. Churches end up not teaching it, compromising it, trying to appease the culture. They feel like they have a better strategy for evangelism rather than preaching the gospel. That's so offensive. What we must do is somehow appeal to the culture. If they like us, then maybe they will like Jesus too. This is why so many mainline denominations have descended into an abyss of apostasy and utter irrelevance. Like the Southern Baptist Convention that now embraces every aspect of the Neo Marxist social justice movement, radical feminism, the transgender insanity, and every other aspect of the perverted LGBTQ cults that God calls an abomination in his eyes. These people are not followers of the true JESUS. They are followers of Satan doubly blinded by their own depravity, as well as the father of lies and they will therefore, never enter the kingdom of God unless they repent and believe in Christ and be saved. The concept of self-denying, surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ, as he has revealed himself in the Word of God is utterly foreign to the unregenerate. And sadly, many churches are led by ungodly men and women that are ill suited to shepherd the flock of God. And we even see it in our government where leaders are equally ill-suited incompetent, immoral, for the most part corrupt buffoons that are leading millions of equally greedy fools over a cliff of perceived utopia. I mean, we as someone has said, we have the chimpanzees running the zoo. Our culture has turned into a drag queen burlesque show put on by the government.

This reminds me of the shameless leaders of Jerusalem and Judah that led the people in overt rebellion against the Lord, the blind leaders of the blind Jesus called them. Isaiah spoke of this and Isaiah three beginning in verse 11. He said, "Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him for what he deserves will be done to him." "Oh my people," he says, "Their oppressors, are children, and women rule over them. "Oh my people! Those who guide you lead you astray and confuse the direction of your paths." So the first priority of genuine conversion is self-denial, a call to surrender to the Lordship of Christ.

Secondly, it is cross bearing. That's what he says "take up his cross." Again, this was a horrifying statement, utterly repulsive, in every way. Because the cross was a symbol of excruciating, dehumanizing cruelty, and death. So this was a call to potential martyrdom. And many professing Christians today are like the shallow heart of temporary belief that Jesus described earlier in Mark four beginning in verse 16, where he said, "these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they heard, hear the word immediately received it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; and when affliction or persecution arises, because of the word, immediately they fall away." These are the people who hear the gospel and quickly and favorably respond. I mean, they're absolutely enthusiastic. They're giddy with joy. There's all kinds of drama and emotion. But the gospel seed merely fell on the shallow topsoil of emotion that concealed the impenetrable layer of selfish unbelief. So the plant seed quickly sprouts up, but it's unable to establish any root below the surface. How many times have we seen some superficial profession of faith that simply cannot withstand the storms of persecution? So people cower. As soon as they are required to make a decision to honor Christ, they cave. They're like wilting lilies. They're exposed, therefore, to be nothing more than some superficial Christian in name only. They love themselves more than Christ. There's a dead faith that cannot save. You know, potential martyrdom is somewhat foreign to us because we still live under the safety of the Constitution. And they're still some measure of law, even though all of that is changing rapidly. But I've been in parts of the world where that is not the case. I remember my times, especially training pastors in Siberia, the churches that I went to, such dear people, people just like us. And what I would hear is that virtually every single person in that church had a loved one that had been killed by the communists. And there were places where we would drive by and they would say, Oh, by the way, let me stop and show you. You see that that large wall out there in the woods, that's where some of my family members were shot. You see that big ditch over there? That's where many of our church members a number of years ago, were shot and killed.

You see, Christianity cannot coexist with socialism and communism, you must understand that. Mark my words, this is, this is coming, more and more to America. The left is obsessed with pitting a perceived victim group against a perceived oppressor group. So they can be considered the society's redeemer group. This is classic Marxism. And now it's morphed into what many call cultural Marxism. Folks standing for Jesus and following Jesus in the years to come, it's going to cost us far more than what it does now. Remember, Satan is the consummate counterfeiter, and it should be no surprise to any of us that Karl Marx, who was satanic to the core, wanted to fundamentally change human nature. And naturally, Satan, the master counterfeiter wants his version of regeneration. Biblical regeneration is where we become a new creature in Christ. We have a new nature that Christ gives us. Satan wants to do the same thing, only change people into his image that American citizens, especially evangelical Christians, cannot see. The evils of Marxism invading our country is a testament to the satanic evil behind it. The left's never-ending obsession with social justice, and redeeming marginalized people groups, no matter how statistically rare they might be, like transgenders that make up less than 1% of the population. All of this should be a clue that something nefarious is at play.

Folks, are you willing to suffer for the glory of Christ? The answer will be yes, if you've truly been born again, because that willingness is a work of the indwelling Spirit of God. Remember, even as God has his standard of righteousness, Satan has his standard of unrighteousness. And like God, he will punish those who violate his godless law. And the plan is simple. We see it playing out in our culture, legalize unrighteousness and criminalize righteousness, then prosecute those who refuse to obey. This has been and still is the priority of cultural Marxism. As I have written before, this can be summarized by eight sequential terms that naturally build on each other first begins with criticize, find fault with the oppressor group and criticize its members relentlessly. Then scandalize; falsely accuse the oppressor group to build a case against his members, through the manufactured outrage of cancel culture. Then dehumanize, demean the oppressor group members in terms so horrific, they should no longer be considered human and thus deserving of inhumane treatment. Then propagandize. Silence the dissent of reasonable voices by indoctrinating the public with lies that appeal to their emotion. And then organize. Remember Barack Obama, he was a community organizer. This is the mindset behind all of that; organize, which means mobilize disenfranchised individuals into a collective group think that are rabidly committed to fundamentally transforming the current social structure and eliminating natural moral principles held by the oppressor group. Then legislate. Enact laws the oppressor group will refuse to obey, then use coercive control to force its members to comply. And when they don't, incarcerate, imprison those who violate the laws that were structured to entrap the oppressor group, and free the oppressed group. And then eradicate. Kill them. Communist countries killed approximately 140 million people in the 20th century. As I've talked with my friends in other parts of the world that have suffered under Marxism and communism, this is exactly the path that it takes.

Dear friends, let me ask you, are you going to continue to stand for Christ when they come to take your children away because you refuse to bow to the LGBTQ ideology? Do you realize that they are already saying that they want laws that would require us to put our children on puberty blockers until they have a chance to really determine what gender they want to be? Are you going to stand for Christ when they threaten to fire you at your job because of your faith? Are you going to still follow Jesus when you go to the bank and you didn't have enough social credit points to maintain an account and you can't borrow money? Will you still deny yourself and follow Christ? Are you willing to pay any price for His glory, and for the blessings that are yours, that are mine, because we're united to him forever? Will you say with the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians four, verse 17, "Momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison, While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Dear friends, when, not if, but when persecution comes, and it really gets severe, will you still patiently endure? And without any equivocation, say with the apostle Paul, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain?" Because that's the stuff of genuine conversion. If you truly belong to Christ, again, the answer will be absolutely, "I will do that." I will struggle but by God's grace and His power, I will stand firm because once again, we can't do that on our own. That's the work of the Spirit of God within us.

This leads us to the third mark of genuine conversion and that's joyful submission. "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." Remember what Jesus said in John 10, in verse 27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow Me." You see, this is referring to what I would call joyful submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is an indication of true knowing. This is what validates genuine saving faith. This is the great miracle of regeneration, where the Spirit of God supernaturally infuses to the spiritually dead, the life of his spirit, and causes us to be born again. There's a spiritual resurrection that takes place. You must understand dear friends that the renewed heart is a radically new heart. It is a heart that finds the majesty of Christ saving grace and transcendent glory, irresistibly compelling. It is overwhelmed by the magnitude and the glory and the greatness of our God. And there is absolutely nothing that will prevent that person from bowing the knee to some other idol. It is a heart that "counts all things to be loss, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord" as the Apostle Paul said. You see faithful following of Jesus, and joyful obedience is not some kind of onerous duty. But rather, it's a passionate desire. That's the joy of our heart.

I appreciate the definition of regeneration, offered by a 17th century Scottish pastor, young man by the name of David Dixon, and I understand that he preached 27 sermons on this subject in a town called Irvine resulting in a mighty work of the Spirit of God in that realm. Here's how he defined regeneration. "Regeneration is the work of God's invincible power, and mere grace, wherein by His Spirit accompanying his word, he quickeneth, a redeemed person lying dead in his sins, and renewith him in his mind, his will and all the powers of his soul, convincing him savingly of sin, and righteousness and judgment, and making him heartily to embrace Christ and salvation and to consecrate himself to the service of God in Christ all the days of his life." You're not going to hear that message preached very often in our culture today. Dear friends, if you have no desire to joyfully submit to the Lordship of Christ, to be obedient to His will, as He has revealed Himself in His Word. If that's just not in your agenda, you have no basis to claim genuine saving faith. You do not know Him and He does not savingly know you. And as a result you love the world and the love of the Father is not in you, right? First John 2:15. Jesus said in John 8"31, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine." In other words, persistent disobedience proves that you have never come to saving faith in Christ. And unless you do, you will perish in your sins. In Matthew seven in verse 21, Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of My Father, who is in heaven, will enter." First John two beginning in verse three, "By this, we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word in him, the love of God has been truly perfected. By this, we know that we are in Him, the one who says he abides in Him, ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." Folks, this is what it means to follow Jesus, the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the redeemed.

So there we have the priorities of conversion, self denial, cross bearing, joyful submission. And then Jesus contrasts that, with secondly, the penalties of rejection. Notice what he says in verse 35. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life, for My sake and the gospel's will save it." The term "life" here is the Greek word "psuche", which can refer to physical life, but it can also refer to the soul, the being the personhood, of an individual, personhood that exists beyond the boundaries of time and space. So what Jesus is envisioning here is personal martyrdom, for those who follow him. And again, this has happened countless times. But for those who really love Christ, and have been born again, who have been radically changed, that very real possibility, is something that we would willingly accept, even though we don't want it. But a person who clings to this life on their own terms for their own agenda, the glorious reward of eternal life, the glories of heaven, will not be theirs. Please understand, discipleship here is more than just kind of merely acting like Jesus. It rather includes a determined willingness to surrender oneself completely to the Lordship of Christ and endure persecution and even death for his glory, the glory that will be shared by those who have been redeemed.

So I'm going to ask you, are you trying to save your life on Earth by living for yourself? If so, you will lose your life eternally. That's what Jesus is saying. And dear friends, only a fool would exchange an eternity in heaven for a few fleeting years of self-pleasure and an eternity in hell. Like many of the Jews and all other false religious systems, the Apostle Paul once tried to save his life, through religious rule keeping and good works until he was radically converted. And in Philippians three, verse eight, he declares, "I counted all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." So again, with this in mind, Jesus is saying, "For whoever wishes to save his life," to save his soul is going to "lose it." "But whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world." In other words, all that you could possibly hope for in life, and then forfeit your soul.

He goes on to say, "For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" But friend, I want you to answer that question. What will you give in exchange for your eternal soul? What is the value of your soul? A soul made in the image of God and given immortality, a soul that was purchased not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Charles Spurgeon said, quote, "Do you think that which hell craves for and that which God seeks for is not precious?" The answer is, of course, it's precious.

Dear friends, if it is precious to God, should it not be precious to you? What will you exchange for your soul? Earthly fame, fortune, pleasure. That's about all there is. How long are you going to pursue that? 60 years, 70 years, maybe 80 years depends upon how old you are now. But know this, according to Hebrews 9:27, "it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment." Like the old Baptist preacher RG Lee once preached, "There's payday someday."

Dear friends, what more can I say to warn you of the penalties of rejecting Christ and His gospel invitation. Jesus then closes this section and he says, "For whoever is ashamed," the term ashamed, by the way, in the original language means to feel embarrassment or to reject or despise, "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. This adulterous and sinful generation adulterous carries the idea here of spiritual harlotry. And certainly this was indicative of the Jewish people with their mechanical ceremonies and rituals in the lifeless, hypocritical, external traditions of apostate Judaism. You know, as I was thinking about this, I am so eternally grateful that God is not ashamed of me, although he has every reason to be. He's not ashamed of me because of any merit of my own. But because Christ has purchased my redemption with his blood, and I am forever hidden in him, along with all of you who know and love Christ. For this reason, in Hebrews two the writer says in verse 11, "For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, 'I will proclaim your name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing Your praise.'"

But oh dear friends, to see what Christ has said here, what a horrifying thought that the Son of man, when he comes, is going to be ashamed of all those who are ashamed of him. And by using the title Son of Man here in this text, and linking it with the glory of his Father, and with the angels, Jesus is clearly harkening back to Daniel's prophecy of when Christ returns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We read of that prophecy in Daniel seven beginning in verse nine. This is what Jesus is thinking of here. The Prophet says, "I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His vesture was like white snow, in the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him. Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriad upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat down and the books were opened. Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words, which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away. But an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." Dear friend, I ask you, do you want him to be ashamed of you when he comes? If you're here today, and the priorities of conversion are foreign to you, if you can honestly examine your life, and you have to say, my goodness, none of this even shows up on my radar. Then I would humbly suggest to you that you are ashamed of Jesus, and he is ashamed of you. But there is hope. And that hope is in the Gospel. And he extends to every one of you, every man, woman, boy and girl, not only in this sanctuary, but wherever, he extends to you the offer of his forgiveness and grace, if you will, but repent of your sins and cry out to Him, to save you, to forgive you, to change you. And when that happens, everything about you will change. Little by little, you will become more conformed into the image of Christ. And these priorities of conversion will not be onerous. Oh, we we will struggle with it. But we have the power source within us to do all that He has commanded. Aren't you thankful for that? Let's pray together. Father, we are so so grateful for your all-sufficient grace. And although each of us fail miserably as believers, we thank you that by the power of your spirit, little by little, you continue to conform us into the image into the likeness of Christ. Give us strength, give us wisdom, give us discernment. Father give us boldness that we might be salt and light in this decaying and dark culture in which we live. Lord, help us to love our enemies enough to boldly proclaim the gospel, that they too might be saved. And finally, Lord Jesus, come quickly. We long to see you face to face. For it's in your name that we pray. Amen.

In the providence of God, he has now brought us to Mark's gospel yet again on a Sunday morning. And we will be looking at Mark eight, verses 27 through 33. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there, Mark chapter eight, beginning with verse 27. And here, we will see the heart of the gospel. And that is what I've been titled my discourse to you this morning. And of course, the heart of the gospel is none other than the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read the text to you. Mark eight beginning in verse 27. "Jesus went out along with His disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and all the way He questioned His disciples saying to them, 'Who do people say that I am?' They told him saying, 'John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.' And He continued by questioning them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter answered and said to him, 'You are the Christ'. And He warned them to tell no one about Him. And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he was stating the matter, plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter, and said, 'Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests but man's.'"

The heart of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God; the one who paid the penalty for sin on behalf of all who believe in Him. He is the one that has conquered sin, Satan and death and all who trust in Him will have eternal life. You will remember when the Apostle Paul came to Corinth, which was an exceedingly wicked city. We read in First Corinthians chapter two and verse two what he said. He told them "For I determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." But we must understand that Satan's primary objective is to thwart the purposes of God and redemption. And one of the primary ways that he does this, as this supernatural brilliant deceiver, is to distort and to demean the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the apostle Paul addressed this in numerous passages, especially in Second Corinthians chapter four, beginning in verse three, he said, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." So who is Jesus Christ? How would you answer that question? I might add to that, the eternal destiny of your soul depends upon how you answer that question. And what you do with the reality of who he is. If you could have asked the people in the first century, and the days of Jesus, you would get many different answers. The religious elite of Judaism, the Pharisees and the Sadducees said that he was a fraud. He was a satanically empowered, blasphemer worthy of death. King Herod thought he was John the Baptist, who was resurrected from the dead and he was terrified because he knew he had him beheaded. The Jews thought that he was maybe Elijah or one of the prophets, like Jeremiah in particular, which was consistent with some of their traditional beliefs. And the Gentiles thought, well, he's he just a great teacher and this miracle worker, but some believe the truth of who he was, that he was, indeed the Messiah of Israel. He was the Son of the living God. Today in our culture, you will hear many errant responses to that question. For example, the prosperity gospel, which is a perversion of the true gospel, would say that, well, yeah, Jesus is the Son of God, but his primary purpose was to bring blessings of health and wealth and power, all of which were provided in the atonement. And when we give money to God, God rewards us with wealth, faith, they would tell us, faith in him, is a self-generated spiritual force that leads to prosperity. And prayer is the tool that you use to force God to hand out the goodies. Beloved, that is not the Jesus of the Bible. The social justice or woke gospel, also a perversion of the true gospel would tell us that he was basically a liberal Democrat and a socialist, according to one spokesman for this cause, James Chasey. He offers a good perspective of the leftist understanding of who Jesus is. Here's what he said, quote, "Jesus was a liberal Democrat, and a socialist. The defining message of the four Christian gospels and of Jesus himself was this, helping the poor, helping the sick, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, uplift the underdog, care for children, distribute wealth, be mindful of immigrants and strangers in your land, etc. By all the defining definitions of liberal and socialists, Jesus was most definitely both of them. He was also a rebel, and a fighter for the poor, for the bullied and the displaced of his time." End quote. One article that I read in the liberal British Daily newspaper called The Guardian caught my eye, the title of the article was "One Jesus for Liberals, Another for Conservatives," written by John Joe McFadden, here's what he said, quote, "A study led by Lee Ross of Stanford University in California, has found that the Jesus of liberal Christians is very different from the one envisaged by conservatives. The researchers asked respondents to imagine what Jesus would have thought about contemporary issues such as taxation, immigration, same sex, marriage and abortion. Perhaps not surprisingly, Christian Republicans imagined a Jesus who tended to be against wealth redistribution, illegal immigrants, abortion and same sex marriage, whereas the Jesus of Democrat voting Christians would have had far more liberal opinions. The Bible may claim that God created man in His own image, but the study suggests man creates God in His own image." End quote. I would have to agree with that last statement. What about the Jesus of black liberation theology, that drives Black Lives Matter and critical race theory. They believe that Jesus was a revolutionary savior, to liberate black people from the bondage of white people. It's a theology that centers around victimhood and, and oppression, salvation is all about equality, and social justice, and therefore, the mission of the church is all about political change. It's really a religious version of Marxism. James Cohn, who was a leading voice in this movement, and the leading voice in the Black Lives Matter Movement said this, "It is my thesis, that black power, even in its most radical expression, is not the antithesis of Christianity, nor is it a heretical idea to be tolerated with painful forbearance. It is, he says, rather, Christ's central message." He defines black power as, quote, "the complete emancipation of black people from white oppression by whatever means black people deem necessary." End quote.

Well, it gives you an idea of the different philosophies of our day with respect to who Jesus is, and what he is all about. So the question is, are these popular cultural definitions of the person in the work of the Lord Jesus accurate, biblically? Is this the true Jesus? Of course, the answer is, no, they are inaccurate. In fact, they are a blasphemous and damning distortion of who he is. My friends, please hear me if you do not know who Jesus is, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will do, you will one day perish in your sins, and pay the penalty for your sins in an eternal hell. And that's the bad news that makes the good news of the Gospel so incredibly good. My friend, please hear me. Jesus is indeed the Son of God. John three and verse 16. And following familiar passage, we read, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment that the Light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil." And down in verse 36, we read "He who believes in the Son has eternal life. But he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Now the text that we have before us answers this question of who Jesus is, and in our passage here in Mark 8:27 through 33, we will examine this whole issue under two categories that I trust will be helpful to you. First, we will see a divine disclosure. And secondly, we will see a satanic temptation. Now, let me remind you of the context, Jesus and his apostles have been in the Jewish region of Bethsaida, where the people and the religious leaders have showed nothing but contempt for Jesus despite all of the miracles that He has performed. They refuse to believe that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, and because of their persistent, unyielding unbelief, Jesus had sentenced them to permanent spiritual blindness. He had also already commanded His disciples to be aware of the leaven. That is the damning and deadly influence of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and Herod and his sycophants, beware of them, and he then healed a blind man to illustrate the difference between permanent spiritual blindness of the religious phonies, and the temporary spiritual blindness of the disciples. And now they have all hiked about 25 miles north, to the region of Caesarea Philippi. And here Jesus is turning his attention primarily to his apostles. And here he focuses on the most important of all questions, and that is, who am I? And their answer, and ours, is the key that unlocks the door to eternal life in heaven if you get it right, and if you don't, without that key, you will remain incarcerated in a dungeon of darkness that will consign you to an eternal hell, where you will pay the penalty that Jesus would have paid had you trusted in him. The place of what Jesus described as Outer Darkness, of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Now, with that little background, let's pick it up at verse 27. "Jesus went out along with His disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi." A number of us were just there not too long ago. Let me take you there for a moment. This was essentially a Hellenistic and pagan city, was about 45 miles southwest of Damascus, Syria, and about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. It's located at the base of Mount Hermon. It's near the ancient Israelite town of Dan. And in fact, this is about as far north as Jesus went when He was on earth. It has an enormous spring, beautiful spring that feeds the Jordan river that runs through it. In fact, the foothills there of Mount Hermon are lush, they're beautiful. There's, there's lots of water, lots of foliage. Originally, it was known as Baal ,Hermon and Baal God in the Old Testament period. And then later on about the third century BC, during the Hellenistic period, the city was resettled. It became Paneas, or Pantheon, named after the Greek deity Pan, maybe you remember seeing pan is the half man, half goat, half goat God, alright, you've seen that as half goat half man. It's amazing what the depraved mind can come up with to worship, right? And he's typically seen playing a flute, that's another story in and of itself. But he was the god of fright. In fact, we get our word panic from that. And these are magnificent ruins that are still there. To this day, you can see an open air sanctuary, there's a sacred cave where they offered sacrifices. All of that is still there. There's a series of hand hewn niches where statutes of their deities were placed, and there still exists remains of shrines to Pan and inscriptions even from the second century bearing his name.

Now in Jesus day, the city was ruled by Herod the Great's son Philip, and Philip had renamed the city Caesarea in honor of Caesar Augustus, and to distinguish it from Caesarea Maritimi which was located west of Jerusalem on the coast of the Mediterranean, it became known as Caesarea Paneas or Caesarea Philippi, in honor of Philip the Tetrarch. I might also add that it was in this area, that Jesus transfigured himself on the mountain so you get a little feel of where it is, and it was a magnificent city in Jesus day, but a pagan, wicked city.

Verse 27, goes on to say, "and on the way Jesus questioned His disciples saying to them, 'Who do people say that I am?'" Now the parallel passage in Matthew, verse 16, or chapter 16, verse 13, says that "when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?'" And in Luke 9:18, we read, "And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and he questioned them saying, 'Who do the people say that I am?'" So that's what's going on here. Now, bear in mind that Jesus knew exactly the opinions of all of the people. He wasn't in need of information here, there was no lack of knowledge. In fact, in John two verse 25, we read that Jesus "did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man." So why was he asking this? Well, I believe it's because he wanted them to rehearse what people were saying, to contrast the folly of their beliefs with the truth of who he really was, and who he truly is.

So we have the answer here in verse 28, "They told him saying," well, some say you're "John the Baptist," and again, that was Herod's idea, "Others say, Elijah," I might add that this was consistent with what the Jews understood from God's prophet in Malachi four, verse five, we read, "Behold, I am going to send to you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." So some of them thought, well, maybe this is Elijah. And then finally, it says, "but others one of the prophets." Now, one might ask, and appropriately so, why on earth with all of these miraculous signs, why was it so hard for them to believe that He was who He said He was, namely the Messiah? Well, the answer is it's because he did not fit their pre-conceived idea of the type of Messiah that they wanted. You see, by the first century, messianic expectations were at a fever pitch. The people were so tired of being under Roman bondage. You will remember in Matthew 11, beginning of verse two, "Now when John," referring to John the Baptist, "while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples who said to Him, 'Are you the Expected One? Or shall we look for someone else?'" I mean, even John was thinking, I mean, I'm in prison here. I mean, when are we going to get the show on the road here and get rid of Rome? So are you the one or should we expect someone else. We also know according to John 1:29, that John knew that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So there was confusion. And I might add that the average Jewish person did not want a lamb, they wanted a lion. They wanted someone to deliver them from the bondage of the pagan Gentiles, not deliver them from their sin. You remember what happened after his miraculous feeding of the many 1000s. In John six, we read in verse 14, "Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, 'This is truly the Prophet who is come into the world.' So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make Him king withdrew again to the mountain, by Himself alone." So they wanted a military Messiah. And it should be no surprise given the conditions in which they lived in that day.

But we also need to remember that there is great power in man's depravity, we can come up with all kinds of crazy things and believe things that are utterly preposterous. You add that to Satan's temptation and you can see that man can believe all kinds of silly things. It is in man's very nature, they had he invent gods of his own, making after his own image. After all, most people want a God that they can appease. They want a God that they can impress. They want a God that they can manipulate. They want a God that will kind of wink at their sin and be their buddy. And this is central to all forms of idolatry, all false religious systems, because fundamentally, in the depravity of our hearts, we want to believe that God exists for us, rather than the truth, which is, we exist for him, to live to the praise of his glory. And often self is the God that people worship. In fact, self idolatry is at the core of, of apostate Christianity. Whether it's the social justice Jesus or the prosperity Jesus, or the Jesus of all the religious systems that preach salvation by works, if you just do these things, then you can impress him enough for him to save you. I recently read about a female contemporary Christian singer songwriter. The lyrics of one of her songs underscores the idolatry of self that is so popular, especially in apostate evangelicalism, and how men and women invent a God that will exalt them rather than the other way around. The one of the lines of her song says this, I am who I am because the I am tells me who I am. And people sing that over and over and over again. Well, yes, that's clever. That's cool. It's catchy, isn't it? The difference it is also self-exalting hogwash. It demeans God. And it redefines his purpose in redemption, to be nothing more than a God that exists to make his creatures feel good about themselves. Dear friends, that is not the Jesus of the Bible.

I might add that he does indeed tell us who we are. He tells us that we are spiritually dead that we live in open rebellion, that our hearts are at enmity with him, were darkened in our understanding. We are alienated from God because of the ignorance that is in us and because of the hardness of our heart. So he does tell us who we are. And when we understand who we really are and who he really is, then the only thing left to do is to cry out for undeserved mercy. And when we do, He will save us by His grace. But that is not a message that sells records. That is not a message that will pack churches. So the point here is that Satan is ingenious in his distorted deceptions, the ways that he can somehow deny the infinite perfections of the living God. He is cunning with his abilities to misrepresent the person and the work of Christ and his deceptions are always appealing to our depraved hearts. You see, until we come to faith in Christ and understand who we really are, who he really is, until he has saved us by His grace, we have to admit that prior to that we really wanted a Jesus that's a genie in a bottle, right? One that will serve us. We want a genie in a bottle that winks at sin, not a thrice holy sovereign, right? We want a Santa Claus not a savior, we want a butler, not a king. That's how people think of who Jesus is.

So again, Jesus asked his apostles to list the diverse beliefs of the people. And verse 29, "And he continued by questioning them. 'But who do you say that I am?'" You've listed all of the popular opinions. But who do you say that I am? And now we see Peter answers on behalf of all of them and says to him, "You are the Christ." "Christos" in the Greek, the Greek word for Messiah, from the Hebrew "Mashiach", which means the anointed one. What I find really interesting is although most all of the people were confused, the demons knew exactly who he was right? In fact, we read about that, for example, in Luke. A demon recognized him as a Jesus Son of the Most High God. So the apostles were finally resolute in their conviction of who Jesus was. Ah, but you must understand how they came to this conclusion.

And here's where the story gets even more fascinating. Yes, the apostle saw all of the miracles, they were with Jesus, but 1000s of other people saw the same miracle. So the question is, how did they come to believe the truth? How do any of us come to believe the truth? And the answer, my friend is because God reveals it to us. God revealed it to them. So here we see the first point in my little outline, a divine disclosure. Matthew helps us understand this in Matthew 16, verse 17, a parallel account, "And Jesus said to him, 'blessed are you Simon Barjona,'" which means son of Jonah, which is just a variant spelling or a shortened form of John, "blessed are you Simon, Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven;" flesh and blood referring to mortal man. In other words, no human being, no mortal person, no human effort or cleverness, no human cogitation, reveal this to you? Dear Christian, if you believe, as I hope you do, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, it's because God has revealed it to you. It is because God the Father decreed for His glory to save you by His grace. And he called you unto himself and adopted you as His child, and drew him drew you unto Himself gave you the gift of faith. It's because God the Son revealed Himself to you in His incarnation, It is because he accomplished your redemption through the shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary. It's because God the Spirit, breathed spiritual life into your spiritual cadaver, so that you could see the horror of your sin and the glory of the cross. It's because he gave you spiritual eyes to see the glory of who Christ really is. is. The apostle Paul testified to this very thing in Galatians one, verse 15. We read what he says, "God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace was pleased to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach him among the Gentiles." As I was meditating upon this passage, and the reality of all of this, even in my own life, knowing that God has revealed this to me, solely because of His grace, my mind went as it often does to a hymn. To Charles Wesley's great hymn, "Love divine all loves excelling, joy of heaven, to Earth come down. Fix in us, they humbled dwelling all the faithful mercies crown. Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art. Visit us with thy salvation, enter every trembling heart." Oh, isn't it wonderful that God has loved us enough to reveal Himself to us by the power of His Spirit and His word.

I want you to notice what happens next. Next, we have a very stern admonition. Seems a bit strange, right on the heels of this divinely revealed, revealed confession, we read in verse 30. And he warned them to tell no one about him. Why? Don't you know if you were one of one of the apostles, you would have just you would have been euphoric. In this is who he is. And what do you do when you hear really, really, really incredibly good news? You want to tell everybody, right? You know, that was what was going on with them. They were ecstatic. But Jesus says, I don't want you to tell anybody. You see, he had other plans. And he's about to reveal to them more information. And what he was about to say was utterly incomprehensible to them.

Verse 31, "And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things;" he must suffer many things. The implication here is very clear, this is part of the Father's plan. This was a part that could not be altered, it could not be ignored. This was integral to Jesus mission on earth; he must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes then be killed. And after three days rise again, Verse 32, "And He was stating the matter plainly." This is why he didn't want it publicized. Because any public proclamation concerning his ultimate mission would only throw fuel on the fires of confusion and create chaos as he tried to make his way to Jerusalem and to the cross. This, of course, was all inconceivable to them. Mark later on in chapter 10, verse 45, tells us what Jesus said, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many." And as we will see, Peter and the others just could not accept this, because it did not fit into their preconceived ideas. It conflicted with their theology. But as God declared through the prophet Isaiah concerning his incomprehensible grace, especially as it related to rebellious Israel, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor or are your ways my ways," Isaiah 55, eight, and nine. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways declares the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." And in that context, literally what he's saying is that the grace of my pardoning mercies do not even remotely compare to the way that you would treat people that have offended you. You can't even begin to comprehend the limits of my grace and Jesus' death on the cross was the key for God's provision for this Mercy and accomplishing our redemption. Remember, according to First John two and verse two, Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation means he is the satisfaction. He is the one that placates the just wrath of God that should fall upon us. This is why the Son of Man must, as we read, "suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and after three days rise again." As I was thinking about this, isn't it sad that the apostles had never apparently heard about this, even though they were raised in Judaism, and although there are several Old Testament passages that would have given them a sense of what the Messiah would do, and endure. For example, in Isaiah 50, and verse six, and granted, some of these are a bit veiled. But There we read, "I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not cover my face for my humiliation and spitting." When you think that the rabbi would have said, you know, this is a reference to the Messiah someday. Isaiah 52:13, all the way through Isaiah 53 And verse 12 make it real clear. Let me give you a few examples of this. Isaiah 53, beginning in verse four, "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves have esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." Later on, in verse 11, "As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied. By His knowledge, the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong, because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. He had He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors." Even the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 16, verse 10, "For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay." Psalm 22 and verse one, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning." Verse seven and eight, "All who see me sneer at me, they separate with the lip, they wag the head saying, commit yourself to the Lord, let Him deliver him, let Him rescue him, because He delights in him." Verse 16 and following,"For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced My hands in my feet, I count all my bones, they look, they stare at me, They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots." What about Zechariah chapter 11, beginning in verse 12, "They weighed out 30 shekels of silver as my wages, then the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them. So I took the 30 shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord." And then one of the great texts in Zechariah, chapter 12 and verse 10, "I will pour out on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son. And they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn."

Here's my point with all of this. The apostles did not connect these dots, theologically, so they couldn't grasp the idea of Jesus suffering and dying. And again, he warned them to tell no one about him. Later, however, Jesus would himself make that proclamation concerning himself. Mark records this in Mark 14, verse 61 and following, "Again, the high priest was questioning him and saying to him, 'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?' And Jesus said, 'I am. And you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.'" Well, all this was more than Peter could stand. And Satan loved it so.

So we've seen a divine disclosure now we're going to see a satanic deception in verse 32, "And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him." I cannot imagine a more brash display of arrogance. Here, you've got an uneducated fisherman, rebuking the omniscient Creator of the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them. Can there be any greater disparity of, of wisdom and authority? I think not. But also we shouldn't laugh. We can all be guilty of this. Are we not all guilty of reading some passage in scripture, coming across some doctrine that we don't really understand? And frankly, we don't like very much. So what do we do? Oh, we get creative. And we come up with a novel way of explaining what God has said. Yeah, so six days, six day creation, but they weren't six literal days. Or well, yeah, sovereign election, but it's not like he really chose some and not all. Think of all the ways people try to deny the doctrine of hell, or reinterpret the role relationships between men and women, that God has ordained for males and females, the covenant purposes of marriage between one man and one woman. How people remove the offense of the cross, to make it more acceptable, to make it more politically and religiously correct so that more people will like Jesus. Because after all, being a friend with the world is a better strategy of evangelism than preaching the gospel.

Well, in various ways, we've all struggled with who God is, if we're honest, and how he rules His universe. I think of what the Apostle Paul said at the end of his discourse, there in Romans, on the glorious doctrine of justification, he finally said, "Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways." Dear friends, when we reject His Word, and we reinterpret His Word, and we ignore His will, that is called sin. And basically, what we were saying is, thank you God, but I have a better idea. And that's what was going on with Peter and the others. They could not fathom the Lord Jesus, their Messiah, the one that they love, they could not imagine, in their wildest dreams that he is going to be rejected, that he is going to suffer, that he's going to be murdered, don't you know, in their hearts are saying, You've got to be kidding me. I mean, I've got all these plans for where I'm gonna live in the kingdom and in what I'm gonna do with my family, and in all of these magnificent things. I mean, really, are we supposed to live under the bondage of the Gentiles? Are we supposed to remain in this wicked world and endure all of this? No! I won't have it! Jesus, we need to talk. Have we all been there? In some ways? Dear friends that is the satanic temptation. God, I know what you said, but you certainly can't mean that I've got a better idea. I've got a better plan. I've got one that kind of fits into the culture, and certainly jives with my preconceived ideas of how you need to be and we need to be. Matthew tells us in Matthew 16, verse 22, "Peter took Him aside." I can't even imagine this. And yet I'm sure if I was there, I would have probably been just as dumb. Just as selfish, just as rebellious Peter took Him aside. You can almost see Jesus taking him by the arms. Hey, come here. We need to talk. We need, we need to talk. "And he began to rebuke Him saying, God forbid it, Lord, this shall never happen to you." And then we read that Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's." Mark says in verse 33, "But turning around and seeing His disciples," that's a very important phrase. I mean, he knew the disciples were thinking the same thing. So, you know, Peter has taken him aside, and he's going to answer him. And so what did Jesus do? He turns around so that they can all hear all right? "He turned around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, 'Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's'". You see, Jesus knew that sinful people could never enter into the holy presence of God in the eternal kingdom. He knew that the only way they could possibly do that is for an infinitely Holy God, to pay the penalty for their sin. And that required suffering sacrifice, it required a cross. Jesus knew he had to pay the penalty for their sins so that they could be reconciled to God by grace through faith and enter the kingdom. They didn't understand all of that. And sadly, many people today, do not understand that.

By the way, Satan tempted Jesus to avoid the cross during his week and stayed in the wilderness. Remember that in Matthew four and Luke four, he knew Christ's sacrifice would not only defeat him, but also gain victory, your victory over sin and death. So you will recall how he tempted Jesus to doubt the father's perfect plan and to presume upon his grace, but Jesus refused to transfer his allegiance to Satan. And it's interesting in Luke four, verse 13, we read, "When the devil had finished every temptation, He left him until an opportune time." Peter was now an opportune time to tempt him once again. You know, it's hard to imagine Peter being speechless, but I think at this point, he probably was. I mean, think about it, he went from confessing Jesus as the Christ and being blessed for it to being likened to Satan. He went from being a spokesman for God to being a spokesman for Satan. And, and he did this in one short encounter. There's a great lesson here for me and one for you. And that is to remember how quickly the righteous can stumble. Dear friends, always be suspect, of your own spirituality.

Fortunately, God is long suffering, he's gracious to save and to sanctify. And later, Peter and the and the others understood. I mean, it all came together they understood that Jesus had to die. They understood that that was God's perfect plan all along, that apart from that, they could never be redeemed. You will recall at Pentecost, Peter said in Acts two beginning of verse 22, "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power."

Dear friends, I pray that you all know that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God, that this is the very heart of the gospel. This is what we see all through the gospel record. In fact, the apostle John summarize this in John 20 and verse 31. "These had been written to you so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." So who do you say that Jesus is? I hope Your answer is as it should be, and I pray that you have surrendered your life to Him and that you serve him. Because the eternal destiny of your soul depends upon not only your answer, but also your response to His Lordship. Let's pray together. Father, we are so thankful for the magnificent truths of your word that brings such clarity to all of the confusion and chaos that is inevitably part of this fallen world. We know that Satan is ingenious at coming up with ways of distorting the person and work of Christ. And you add to that our own depraved hearts that that long for things that will ultimately destroy us. And it's easy for us to be deceived. So we thank you that you have revealed the truth of who Christ is to us. And we know that it is all because of your grace, not because of our ingenuity. Not because of our cleverness. And, Lord, if there be one here today that knows nothing of what it means to be reconciled to you through faith in Christ. I pray that you will overwhelm them with such conviction that they will humble themselves before you this day and place their faith in the living Savior. We thank you We give you praise for the glory of Christ. Amen.

This morning, I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn once again to Mark's gospel. We are in Mark chapter eight, continuing to make our way, verse by verse, through what the Spirit has revealed to us. In these texts this morning, we will be looking at verses 11 through 26, under the heading, "Permanent Versus Temporary, Spiritual Blindness." And this will be demonstrated to us in a very profound way in this text. Mark eight beginning with verse 11. Follow along as I read the text. "The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven to test Him. Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, 'Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." Leaving them He again embarked and went away to the other side. And they had forgotten to take bread and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And He was giving orders to them saying, 'Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.' They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread and cheeses. Aware of this said to them, 'Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes Do you not see? And having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5000? How many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?' They said to Him, '12.' 'When I broke the seven for the 4000, How many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?' And they said to Him, 'seven.' And He was saying to them, 'Do you not yet understand?' And they came to came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch Him. Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village. And after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, 'Do you see anything?' And he looked up and said, 'I see men for I see them like trees walking around.' Then again, He laid His hands on his eyes and he looked intently and was restored, began to see everything clearly. And He sent him to his home, saying, 'Do not even enter the village.'"

This morning, I wish to address a terrifying reality. A horrifying certainty that is so universally hated, that it will instantly evoke rage in those that it describes. It's a chilling inevitability that most people will spend their entire life trying to suppress through mockery, and through violence towards Christ and those who belong to Him. It is a shocking truth that is so indicting that it not only resulted in the murder of the Lord Jesus Christ and millions of his followers, but it is now the primary object of societal scorn in our country, and frankly, around the world. And what is this terrifying reality? It is simply this that God permanently blinds the spiritual eyes of those who persist in rejecting the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they do, God will eventually seal their fate in the everlasting torments of hell. This is the bad news that makes the good news of the gospel so glorious, right? The good news of the Gospel is that there is a way to prevent this. And that is through faith in Christ, whereby we can be reconciled to God have our sins forgiven. Because of man's sinful nature, we know that all men are born blind to the truth of their need to be reconciled to God, through repented faith in Christ. And for many people, this is only temporary, but for most, it is permanent. And the reason for that is because God knows their hearts. And eventually God will abandon them, and the darkness of their cherished rebellion. He removes all restraint and allows their moral degradation and idolatry that they love to eventually destroy them. We read about this in a number of passages of Scripture, for example, in Romans one, verse 21, we read that "Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened." When people reject God, God eventually rejects them. Their thinking becomes futile. The term literally means useless, worthless. And it's characterized throughout Scripture as darkness, their beliefs and their desires will destroy them. We're all aware of the mass shooting that happened in Texas, just what was it yesterday. And I was reading that we've now had 198 mass shootings, so far and 2023 in America. This is unrestrained depravity. Criminals are now promoted and protected by liberal leftist, they will even make martyrs out of criminals and on and on it goes. Verse 24 of Romans one goes on to say,"Therefore, God gave them over to th lusts of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them." He continues, and he says in verse 26, for this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way, also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman, and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts, and receiving in their own persons to do penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things, which are not proper." Their minds are literally unable to make rational, much less righteous, moral judgments. We see this in the transgender insanity, that promotes irreversible physical mutilation and chemical castration, so a child can pretend to be what he or she could never be and that is the opposite sex. By the way, folks, this is not mental illness. Sometimes there may be a component of that. But this is human depravity and divine judgment. The wrath of divine abandonment upon those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, those who knew God, but refused to honor Him as God or give thanks. This is an example of the futile speculations that the apostle Paul talks, about a foolish heart that God has darkened. So amazing, isn't it that our society is so dark and that it actually believes that personhood can be defined by the individual rather than the Creator that made them in his image, male and female, absolutely incomprehensible. And the state believes it must preserve a person's civil rights to be or do what they want. So in their mind, we must eliminate gender distinctions. And frankly, along with it, we need to eliminate marriage and we need to eliminate family. Now society is expected to celebrate painted up pedophile perverts known as drag queens. Pedophiles are now even seeking protection, legal protection status based on their sexual orientation. I mean folks, these things are purely satanic. Satan's lies are always in opposition to God's designs, always in opposition to God's purposes, to bring glory to himself. And they are certainly appealing even to the farthest extremes of human depravity. And when man exchanges lies for the truth, in defiance of God's revealed will, God will permanently hardened their heart and abandon them to the damning eternal consequences of their rebellion. Should be no surprise that apostate evangelicals who embrace the woke lies of the left are a part of all of this. Embrace the ludicrous virtue signaling trends of our satanic culture, ranging from the use of preferred pronouns for self loathing, drag queens, and transgenders. And even having drag queens in libraries, reading stories to children and even in so called worship services. I cannot imagine a greater blasphemy to the Lord our God, than what we're seeing in our culture today. I'm reminded of what Paul said in Titus one, verse 15. These are" those who are defiled and unbelieving, to those who says who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds, they deny him being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed."

I might add, however, that God's hardening and apostate Christianity is not only manifested in its embrace of the sexual perversions of our culture, and the Neo Marxist woke propaganda, propaganda that's sweeping the country, but also in its acceptance of virtually every form of heresy that a person can think of. From the social justice to the prosperity gospel. I was reading were in a recent chapel service at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, the seminarians sing a Buddhist worship song about becoming one with the world. And examples like this just go on and on and on. I'm reminded of what Jude said about these kinds of people, these sexual perverts and predatory preachers, that ascend pulpits, and so called churches, Jude four, he says, "For certain persons have crept in unnoticed," referring to coming into the church. "Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ." Dear friends, my point is simply this, if you reject the truth long enough, God will reject you, and He will abandon you. And these people today have not only rejected the truth, they mock it. And as a result, they have crossed a line of Divine Mercy and God has judicially hardened their heart. These are the ones according to Second Timothy four, beginning of verse three that Paul described. Those who "will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled or they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." The Greek grammar is fascinating here, the first part, "to turn away their ears," is in the active voice. That indicates that this is a determined deliberate rejection of what they know to be true. But the second phrase is in the passive voice when it says" they will turn aside to myths," And what happens there is the myths will overpower them and overtake them without them even realizing it's happening. They deliberately reject the truth because it conflicts with their desires, and as a result, they allow themselves to wander into religious errors and are overtaken by them. They are beyond repentance. Their eternal fate is sealed. Dear friends this is the permanent spiritual blindness that we see even illustrated in our texted Today, this is the consequences of God's wrath upon those who willfully and persistently and militantly reject the gospel. This is what caused Jesus to openly sob over the inhabitants of Jerusalem. People that embrace the religious lies of their leaders, and rejected Christ. In Luke 19, beginning in verse 41, we read of this, "When he approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now," catch this, "Now, but now, they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you and your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side and they will level you to the ground and your children within you. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.'"

In our text here this morning, in Mark eight, we see a dramatic illustration of God's permanent, blinding judgment on those who reject him with full knowledge. But we also see God's mercy upon those who by His grace embrace the truth. And dear friends, I pray that each of you are among the latter and not the former. I want to divide the text into two very simple categories that contrast one another. First, we will see the divine sentence of permanent spiritual blindness. And secondly, we will see the divine remedy for temporary spiritual blindness. May I remind you of the context, for the last two or three months, Jesus and his disciples have been in the northern regions of Tyre and Sidon, pagan, Gentile territory; the Lord has been preaching, he has been performing many miracles. And then he traveled south with His disciples on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee down to the region of Decapolis on the south eastern shores, and now they have returned by boat to the Jewish region near Capernaum. In the Galilee, and as they arrive, we pick it up in verse 11. "The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test Hm." Matthew's gospel gives us a little more insight as to what happened. In Matthew 16 Verse one we read, "The Pharisees and Sadducees came up and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven." Now, this is most remarkable, dear friends, because the Pharisees and Sadducees were hostile adversaries. They might be likened to the Conservatives and the Liberals that we see in our culture. Now remember, the Pharisees, the term literally means separated ones, the Pharisees were fastidious keepers of the law, legalists of the first order. They obeyed all of the manufactured rabbinic traditions and rules and regulations. And they were determined to avoid any association with a Greco Roman culture. The Sadducees however, were a bit different. They were the wealthy upper class. They were the aristocrats. They were the ruling class priests, and they rejected oral law. The only thing they accepted was the written law alone. So they denied for example, the supernatural, they denied the resurrection from the dead the existence of spirits and angels, retribution in a future life and so forth. Their lives literally orbited around the temple. They gave oversight to the temple services. In fact, that was the source of their income. And it was a very lucrative business. They ran the whole money changer scam, as well as the sale of sacrificial animals. They might be likened to a temple mafia. And you will recall when Jesus occupied the precincts of the temple, he took a whip and he ran them out. He called called what they were doing a den of thieves. So that's the Sadducees. But isn't it interesting when it came to Jesus, oh, They were united in their hatred. Like the old adage, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And we see a similar dynamic in the ecumenical movement in our culture today where diverse religious groups that hold to beliefs that are even hostile to one another, will come together in their hatred of Biblical Christianity. Remember, anything other than Biblical Christianity is satanic. And Satan doesn't care what you believe as long as it is a lie. And he has a smorgasbord from which you can choose in every culture so you can pick your poison.

So the Pharisees and Sadducees came up to meet Jesus and the disciples as they get off the boat, and testing Jesus, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. Now, why a sign from heaven? Why not just a sign? Well, it's because they believe that demons could work miracles. After all, they saw this in Pharaoh's court. We read about that in Exodus seven. And by the way, that's why they attributed Jesus miracles to Satan. But they believed that only God could perform miracles in the sky and they were convinced that Jesus couldn't do that. And so they set a trap for him. I might add, that Jesus had already provided miracles in the sky. Remember when he rebuked the wind and calm the sea, and Mark 4:39. And when even when Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan, we read in Mark one, verse 10, "Immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opening." And by the way, there would have been others there that would have seen that as well. Word would have gotten around that that's what happened. "They saw the heavens opening in the Spirit like a dove descending upon him, and a voice came out of the heavens, 'you are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.'" But you see, Jesus knew that any further miracles weren't really going to have any effect upon them. And he had done 1000s of them already. Nothing would change their mind. They had already settled in their unbelief. It's interesting that Nicodemus understood this. We read in John three verse two Nicodemus, by the way, being kind of the leading rabbi, "he came to Jesus by night," the text says, "and said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do the signs that you do, unless God is with him.'" So again, there was more than enough proof to validate Jesus claims that he was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God. And consequently, Jesus knew that the persistent rejection of those unbelievers had already sealed their fate. They were willfully blind. They had seen the light, but they chose instead, the darkness. So what we see happening here, dear friends is a terrifying reality. God is going to shut the vault door on the tomb of darkness that they love, and seal them in it forever. In Matthew 8:12, Jesus called Hell quote, "outer darkness; n that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And again, we see this all around us, unfortunately. And we're not for God's grace, we would be among the scoffers. What a tragedy. Jesus declared in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." But he also said in John three beginning in verse 19, "This is the judgment that the Light has come into the world. And men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." Therefore, Jesus said in John three and verse 36, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him."

So again, in verse 11, "The Pharisees come out and they began to argue with him," the text says. Now we're not told the exact nature of the argument, but it must have related to his claims to deity, because he goes on to say they were, "seeking from Him a sign from heaven to test Him." And then notice verse 12, "Sighing deeply in His spirit He said, 'Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.'" Beloved, here we see the first of the points that I have given you this morning, here we see the divine sentence of permanent spiritual blindness. "Sighing deeply" is the phrase that is used here, "sighing deeply in his spirit." The term in the original refers to groaning with intense pain or displeasure, or dissatisfaction. And in this case, Jesus deep distress was over the determined unbelief of the religious leaders, but also those who followed after them. Moreover, Jesus knew that any further light would only result in more extreme denunciation on their part, and therefore greater punishment in hell. If I can dwell on that for a moment. Yes, there are degrees of punishment in hell. So fascinating reality. Jesus warned, for example, those regions that rejected him and Matthew 10 and verse 15, saying, "Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah and the day of judgment than for that city that rejects the gospel." Even those who never hear of Christ we know will go to hell because of their sin, yet their punishment will not be as severe as those who hear the gospel and understand the gospel, and yet willfully and persistently and arrogantly rejected. Romans two and verse five. Paul says, "Because of your stubbornness, and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself and the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." The writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 26, "For if we go on sinning WILLFULLY, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment." And then in verse 29, it goes on to say "How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" So Jesus groans in sorrow, he groans in anger and rebukes the Jewish leaders and says, "Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." Matthew's Gospel adds further clarity in Matthew 16, beginning in verse one. There we read, "The Pharisees and Sadducees came up and testing Jesus they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven, but He replied to them, 'When it is evening, you say it will be fair weather for the sky red. And in the morning, there will be a storm today for the sky is red and threatening. Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. And the sign will not be given it except the sign of Jonah.' And He left him and went away." In other words, even with their primitive forecasting skills, by just looking at the color of the sky, they were able to have some kind of confidence in their ability to predict the weather. Yet, despite the countless miracles that Jesus had performed, they could not because they would not recognize their Messiah. The only sign they would later receive would be the sign of Jonah, a reference to his death and resurrection.

As I think about it, I find it interesting that a sign from the heavens is coming one of these days. Jesus speaks about it and his Olivet discourse in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 29, There we read, "But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky." The sign here speaks of the ineffably glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, "the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming out of the clouds of the sky with power and great glory." Dear friends, you want to sign from heaven? That sign is coming. One that no one will miss. But until then Jesus said, "'An evil and adulterous generation seeks after sign and a sign will not be given it except the sign of Jonah.' And He left them and went away." The last phrase in Matthew 16 four is most telling, "And He left them and went away." Indeed, he left them in the spiritual darkness they loved and abandon them to it forever. And I fear for those today who are just like them. And I agree, you have to think that the perhaps there are some even in this church, you've sat under the teaching of the Word of God and you've heard the gospel countless times and yet in your arrogance, and in your stubbornness you refuse to believe. Dear friend if that is you, please examine your heart before it is too late and God seals you in your blindness. I've seen this over the years, arrogant fools, deceived by a depraved heart, double blinded by Satan. Those who blindly frolic in a fool's paradise as they party their way to hell. Today, we are watching our society descend further and further into an abyss of moral and spiritual darkness. All the while, believing they are creating some egalitarian, classless utopia of freedom and civil rights. When in fact, they fail to realize that God is merely allowing them to pursue their depraved minds, to pursue their lusts and embrace Satan's lies that will ultimately destroy them. This is tantamount to allowing a drug addict to pursue his desires or her desires to have all the drugs they want. Until they destroy themselves. Well, such was the fate of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, whom Jesus called in Matthew 23, "blind leaders of the blind."

So we've seen the divine sentence of permanent spiritual blindness. Secondly, I want you to notice the divine remedy for temporary spiritual blindness. Verse 13, "Leaving them He again embarked and went away to the other side." Now, here again, he abandons the apostate religious elite, and those that were following them and brings with him a small remnant of believers, one of whom was a devil. Think of the disciples now. They were often confused, hard hearted, they lacked clarity. But this was only temporary, because God was at work. And so Jesus and his disciples leave the Pharisees and the Sadducees behind and the darkness they loved and they cross over now to the north eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Verse 14, "And they had forgotten to take bread and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And He was giving orders to them." By the way, the grammar here in the original language indicates that these were ongoing commands. "And he was giving orders to them saying, 'Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.'" Leaven, of course, is also yeast, you're familiar with that. Matthew 16 Six adds that he includes the leaven of the Sadducees. So beware. We all know that a small amount of leaven causes fermentation that will expand in dough or batter causing it to rise and, and in Scripture, it is used to symbolize influence both good and bad. And in this case, in the context, we see that it's bad influence. And Jesus is commanding them to beware of the wicked influence of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and Herod, and, of course, all of his sycophants known as the Herodians. And I believe each group is really representative of the unique forms of wickedness that has impacted the church down through redemptive history. I mean, think about this, the Pharisees again, these legalist, hypocrites show offs. They love to promote themselves, through their works righteousness, all of the rules and regulations that gave them an illusion of spirituality, religious phonies, of the highest order, and have we not seen that infect the church down through the centuries. And then you have the Sadducees and ancient version of modern day materialistic liberals. Rationalists, who deny the person and work of Christ, deny the supernatural, the doctrines of the resurrection and immorality, immortality of the soul and so forth. And they use their religious influence to amass wealth and power by fleecing the naive and the ignorant. Beware of their influence. And then, of course, the influence of Herod and Herodians. These were just purely ungodly, immoral, corrupt, secularist politicians that used religion to advance their political and personal ambitions. And we see that today, do we not? This whole social justice gospel is, is used by the Democratic Party, and even now by a lot of the Republicans to advance the Neo Marxist globalist agenda that they are trying to pursue. So Jesus now is talking about influence. But the disciples are a bit on the dense side here, they failed to make the connection, because they're hungry. I think the moral of the story here is don't teach spiritual truths to people that are hungry, because all they've got on their mind is eating. Verse 16, "They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus aware of their said to them, 'Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?'" You see, the disciples were concerned about a lack of food, and Jesus was concerned about a lack of discernment. That's what's important here. Yes, 11 of them were born again. But they lacked spiritual understanding. But this was only temporary. You will recall on the night before Jesus death, in John 14, verse 26, Jesus promised them, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." And later, when the Spirit of God came upon them permanently at Pentecost, they began to grow exponentially, and their spiritual maturity. And the Spirit of God even inspired them to write the inspired word in the scriptures. But what Jesus is talking about here is frankly, consistent with the great doctrine of illumination whereby the indwelling Spirit will give understanding when the scriptures are read, and when they are heard.

You will recall in Ephesians one, verse 17, the Apostle Paul prayed "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom, and of revelation in the knowledge of God, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Beloved, this is why God has given to us the Holy Spirit to take up residence within us. This is why he has given scripture I might even add, this is why he has called and gifted pastors, teachers, for the church Ephesians 4:11 and following. This is for "the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith referring to doctrinal unity, and the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." But again, prior to the arrival of the Spirit, the disciples struggled in their understanding. We read for example, what Jesus said in John 16 beginning in verse 12. He said, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will disclose to you what is to come, and He will glorify me for he will take of Mine and will disclose it to you all things that the Father has are mine, therefore, I said, that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you."

Now, friends, there is a lesson to be learned here. Please hear it accurately. Faith alone is insufficient to produce Christian maturity, apart from theological understanding. You must grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without an understanding of the truth, you'll never be able to apply it. It's just like physically, if you expect to grow strong, and be able to do all that your body is capable of doi, you don't live on Pepsi's and cotton candy. You have to nourish your body with the proper food. A lack of spiritual discernment will lead to a hardened heart. That's what Jesus was concerned when he said, "Is your heart hardened?" Jesus warned them of that. You see, a heart that is merely focused on the cares of this world is a hard heart, a heart that is theologically ignorant. And when you're theologically ignorant, you will be vulnerable to Satan's deceptions. And they are absolutely ingenious. This is why the Apostle Paul warns us in Ephesians six and verse 11, "to put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." I might remind you that that phrase "put on the full armor of God" is linked to an earlier instruction about putting on the new self, which was created to be like God and, and true righteousness and holiness we read about in chapter four, verse 24. And this cannot be done apart from the illuminating work of the Spirit of God to help us understand and apply scripture.

So Jesus instructs them "'Having eyes do you not see? Having ears do you not hear? Do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5000 how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?' They said to him? 'Twelve.'" In other words, why are you guys worried about food? Good grief? Don't you remember what I did? Are you that dense? Verse 20, "'When I broke the seven for the 4000 how many large baskets full of broken pages did you pick up?' And they said to Him, 'Seven.' And He was saying to them, 'Do you not yet understand?'" By the way, can I give you some good news? Thankfully, Matthew records this in Matthew 16, verse 12. "Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Boy, I'm glad you know, I was beginning to question the IQ here, you know. But folks don't miss the profound contrast here that we see in the text. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were permanently blinded because of their deliberate and persistent unbelief. But the disciples were just temporarily blinded to the light of Christ, they were granted spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear. But it was only through the word of Christ and later the indwelling Spirit and the Word that they began to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ.

Now, what happens next in this narrative is truly remarkable. Here we see Jesus providing a vivid illustration of how lingering spiritual blindness can be cured by the master, even as he gives sight to this blind man and Bethsaida. Despite the fact, may I remind you of this, despite the fact that Jesus had already sentenced the residents of Bethsaida to permanent spiritual blindness, because of their persistent, unyielding unbelief, even in the face of all of the miracles, they would not believe. Remember what he said in Luke 10 beginning of verse 13. "Woe to you Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed to Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you." So here's what's going on now. After dealing with the permanent spiritual blinding of the religious phonies, and the temporary, spiritual blindness of his disciples, Jesus now is going to physically heal a blind man. And in so doing, he will further clarify all that he has been trying to teach them. And he's going to do it in a way that they will never forget.

Verse 22, "And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him. Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village." Isn't that interesting? What tender, compassionate care. Take him away from all of the peering eyes, take him to a private place with his disciples to care for him intimately and personally. "And after spitting on his eyes," which probably what he did was spit on his fingers and touch the eyes so the man could feel; "And laying his hands on him, He asked him, 'Do you see anything?' And he looked and said, 'I see men for I see them like trees walking around.' And then again, He laid his hands on his eyes. And he looked intently, and was restored, and began to see everything clearly. And He sent him to his home saying, 'Do not even enter the village.'" Can you imagine the look of the disciples face, not to mention the look on the blind man's face, as they witnessed this miracle. And again, what Jesus is providing for his disciples is a preview of the coming Messianic kingdom. When all disease and death will be greatly diminished, I think of Isaiah 65:20. 'No longer will there be in it," referring to the kingdom, "an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days, for the youth will die at the age of 100. And the one who does not reach the age of 100, will be thought accursed." So they get a glimpse of the future kingdom on earth, and all that the Messiah can do. And I believe also, they must have thought to themselves, oh my, like this blind man, spiritually speaking, we were blind, but now, the Lord has given us eyes to see. This was truly an astounding miracle. But also, it's followed by a strong prohibition, that we don't want to neglect, to not even enter, this blind man, I don't want you to even enter the village of Bethsaida and allow them to witness another miracle.

And with his prohibition, what he is doing is underscoring the permanence of their spiritual blindness. This is the wrath of divine abandonment upon them. Where there are so many today who fall into this category. Because of the hardness of their heart go, God no longer even allows them to hear the gospel, much less respond to it. We don't know who they are, so we keep presenting the gospel. But they are sealed, you might say, in the darkness that they love. They have been permanently blinded and abandoned by God. Oh dear friend, I trust the veil of spiritual darkness has been removed from your eyes, so that you see the glory of Christ and his saving grace. And I pray that you have trusted in him as your only hope of salvation. For indeed, He is the true light according to First John one nine, coming into the world, that enlightened everyman. You know, I've known many men and women over the years who know and understand the offer of God's saving grace, but they want absolutely nothing to do with it. They don't even want to talk about it. They live for themselves, they indulge the lusts of their flesh, as if God doesn't even exist. And we're told in Scripture that there is pleasure in sin for a season but because of their persistent stubborn unbelief, what I've seen happen in their life is they drift further and further and further away into the darkness of rebellion. And God finally just abandons them there. I've lived long enough to witness this gradual degradation and misery. I've seen it in people with broken marriages, broken families, broken people. We see it today with people that are desperately trying to find something to anesthetize the pain of a purposeless life. To suppress the truth of who God is in their unrighteousness. Why do you think stadiums are filled with people to watch a bunch of guys or a bunch of gals kick a ball around? Why do you think there's such drug abuse in our country they depend upon these things to somehow anesthetize the pain. They live out their lives, and eventually, they get sick, and they die. And they enter into the eternal torments of hell. But not all are spiritually blind and on a permanent basis, like the 18th century Atlantic Slave trailer, John Newton, man who lived a life of want and debauchery in rebellion against God. Then God used a violent storm off of the coast of Ireland to open his eyes to the truth of the gospel, caused him to cry out to God for undeserved mercy. And to make a long story short, God saved him by his grace. His spiritual blindness was only temporary, not permanent. And because of this, he wrote those words that we've sung so many times. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see." Oh, thank you, Lord. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for the eternal truths of your word, that have such penetrating clarity. To those that you have redeemed, and those that you will lumen by the power of your Spirit, we give you praise. Because this is all of your grace. May we

What a joy it is to be able to open up the Word of God and to look into it, and to have the Spirit of God speak to us through it. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel? We are now in Mark chapter eight. We're going to look at the first 10 verses of Mark eight. And I've entitled my discourse to you lessons from Jesus miraculous feeding. This is a detailed account by an eyewitness, probably Peter, who discipled and informed Mark. And what a wonderful privilege it is to be able to take ourselves into these scenarios, and see what Christ has done. And what he's continuing to do today, follow along as I read, Mark, chapter eight, beginning in verse one. "In those days, when there was again, a large crowd, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, 'I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with me now three days, and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from a great distance.' And His disciples answered Him, 'Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place, to satisfy these people?' And He was asking them, 'How many loaves do you have?' And they said, 'Seven.' And He directed the people to sit down on the ground. And taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks, and broke them, and started giving them to his disciples to serve to them. And they serve them to the people. They also had a few small fish. And after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well. And they ate, and were satisfied. And they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over, of the broken pieces. About 4000 were there and He sent them away. And immediately He entered the boat with His disciples, and came to the district of Dalmanutha." There are many lessons that we can learn when we look into these historical narratives. And certainly here, as we look at this particular one, we see that Jesus has compassion for people regardless of who they are, as should we. We can also see that Jesus is able to meet all of our needs from His infinite resources. And he is aware of what those needs are, indeed, he is both omniscient, as well as omnipotent. We also see through these miracles that Jesus is indeed who he says he is, that He is God very God, that we might worship Him. Moreover, through these miracles, we can anticipate the glories of the Messianic Kingdom to come, and the eternal state that will follow in the new creation. And I trust you are learning and applying these kind of realities in your life. And if not, frankly, you're forfeiting God's blessing in your life. Especially in these dark days of unrestrained wickedness that we see all around us, the satanic blinding, the militant unbelief. May I remind you that we live in a world where the light of Christ is being extinguished by Satan and those who belong to him, although it will never ultimately be extinguished. Jesus said in John three beginning in verse 19, "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." And certainly we can all rejoice in our salvation, that God gave us eyes to see the light of the glory of Christ. The apostle Paul reminds us of what we have in our salvation in Ephesians five beginning in verse eight. There we read that, "you," speaking of believers, "were formerly darkness. But now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light." And certainly, the mockery of this god hating, immoral world is both sickening to behold, indeed, it is tiring to endure. But remember, the darker the night, the more brilliant the light. And this is what we see as we behold the infinite perfections of Christ in this particular narrative. I've given you a little outline, we're going to see three basic categories here that I think will be helpful. We're going to see a model of unconditional compassion. We're going to see a confirmation of infinite resources and a preview of coming glory. What I'd like for you to do is put yourself in the position of one of the disciples. In that day, you've been traveling with the Lord for two or three months, you've witnessed many miracles in the northern regions of Tyre and Sidon, pagan, Gentile, dark regions, and then you've traveled south on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, into the region of Decapolis on the south eastern shores, and you've seen massive crowds coming to Jesus, you've been a part of all of that. In fact, Matthew tells us in Matthew 15:29, "And large crowds came to him, bringing with them those who are lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others. And they laid them down at his feet and he healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel." But during this extended journey, you have enjoyed the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has instructed you on many things. He continues to encourage you, challenge you, exhort you, prepare you for what lies ahead. And one of the things that you've noticed is that he's been breaking down all of the racial barriers between Jew and Gentile and he has given sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, a living illustration of your need to be able to see and hear what the Lord would have for you, that you might fully embrace the reality that Jesus is who He says He is. God, very God, deserving of our breathless adoration and worship. And now Jesus is about to perform another astounding miracle, to underscore these wondrous truths. The feeding of 4000 men, plus women and children, probably a group of people, as we shall see that are about 15,000, maybe 20,000 people. Let's look closely at this climax to Jesus Gentile ministry. Verse one, "In those days when there was again a large crowd, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, 'I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat.'" Now, imagine this dear friends, you're in a desolate desert wilderness. It's hot, it's dry. There's no food. The only water that you would have is the water that you carried with you or perhaps some springs here and there. No other sources of food, and you really haven't eaten in three days. When I fast for a day, I get hangry. Right? Are you that way? You've been sleeping on the ground and Jesus, frankly, has just had a magnetic draw. You can't take your eyes off of him, you can't stop listening to him. You are overwhelmed with all that you're seeing. Spellbound. Is this, indeed, the Son of God, the Jewish Messiah? Now bear in mind, the environment in this second feeding is quite different from the first feeding that you see in Mark six, about verse 35 and following. The first feeding was on the north eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the springtime. It would have been around Passover, so the hillsides would have been thick with green grass. In fact, Matthew tells us in Matthew 14:19, Jesus ordered them to sit down on the grass, okay? And John says, and John 6:10, Jesus said, Have the people sit down now there was much grass in the place. But now in the second feeding, several months have passed by. The summer sun has done what it typically does in an arid region, and any grass that is there is going to be weathered. The first feeding of the 5000 was in a less arid region and it was surrounded with with farms and villages. So there were some places that you could go to get food, but the second feeding of the four or five 4000, is on the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee, a desolate wilderness, no food sources, it would be much like Southern California, I remember when I lived there, they said there were two seasons in Southern California, green and brown, right? Green and brown. And it would have been brown here in the second feeding. Verse six, "and he directed the people to sit down on the ground," not on the green grass. Matthew 15:35, says the same thing. Now Jesus is fully aware of the spiritual needs as well as the physical needs of the people. In fact, he was more aware of their needs than they were. They were mesmerized by what they saw. And of course, that would have been rather dangerous, because you're going to have to eat, and some of them are going to have to travel a great distance to get to their homes and to a source of food. So Jesus calls his disciples to come over to him, and he expresses his compassionate concern. And this takes us to the first point in our little outline, a model of unconditional compassion. Verse two, "I feel compassion." The word in the original language means to have deep feelings within one's bowels. You know, as we would say it, it just gets me right in the gut. That's the type of concept that we have here to have a profound sympathy in one's innermost being. "I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with me now, three days and have nothing to eat." And he says, "If I send them away to their homes, they will fade on the way and some of them have come from a great distance." Now, as we think about this, beloved, I want you to remember that God is a God of compassion. We read about that a little bit ago in our scripture reading. In Exodus 33, beginning in verse 18. Moses says, to the Lord, "'I pray you show me your glory!' And He said, 'I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord,'" referring to YAWEH, "'I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.'" Isn't it interesting that the first attribute of Yahweh self proclamation is that he is a compassionate God? Meaning that he genuinely cares about men and women and boys and girls that he has made in His image, and he has enormous tenderness for them, for their needs physical as well as spiritual. And later when Moses ascended Mount Sinai after Israel's sin, of erecting and worshiping a golden calf, we read in Exodus 34. "Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, the Lord God, compassionate, and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps His loving kindness for 1000s, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet, will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." So indeed, our God is a compassionate God. And we're reminded of this in this particular narrative, even during the wicked reign of Jehoahaz in ancient Israel. The LORD spared Israel of ultimate military defeat that would lead them into exile. Why did he do this? Well, all because of his compassion, along with his promise to the patriarchs, to give their descendants the land. Because of his great mercy and compassion towards Israel, He spared them. We read of this in Second Kings 13, verse 23, "But the Lord was gracious to them, and had compassion on them and turned to them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and would not destroy them or cast them from his presence until now." I find it interesting even with Israel God knew all along that his people would rebel. In fact, he ordained to allow that to happen, to manifest the glory of His attributes. He knew as well that we would rebel, and yet he has saved us by His grace, right? And even though God knew Israel would, quote, "act corruptly," Deuteronomy 4:25, and, quote, "do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, causing him to scatter the people among the nations," Deuteronomy 4:27 "and serve their gods," verse 28. Nevertheless, let me read the prophecy that he made to Moses, Deuteronomy four and verse 30. "When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them." Indeed, God will not permanently reject Israel, but will honor His covenant promises to Abraham. His compassion and faithfulness will lead ultimately to the restoration. Now, as we come back to Mark's gospel, we know that later, Jesus compassion was revealed in a most dramatic way, when he approached Jerusalem, for the what is often called the triumphal entry. Actually, it was a time of great sorrow for him. A time of Lamentations, he, his soul was in an agony over the superficiality and the self deception of the people. And he judged them for this. Remember what Luke tells us in Luke 19:41, "When he approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it." There is his compassion. And here's what he said, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes." To be sure Jesus wanted to model compassion for his disciples. He wanted them to see it and experience it firsthand. Especially his compassion toward those that had been canceled in his culture, namely those unclean Gentiles. We must ask ourselves would the Lord describe me as compassionate, truly sympathetic to those who are in need. By the way, this means a whole lot more than just writing a check to help somebody out. True compassion is going to roll up your sleeves, you're going to get your hands dirty. You're going to get in the presence of people, you may even touch them, look them in the eye and minister to them. I remember the times I've been in Siberia, we would go to small churches at times, and there would be people there that had never seen an American, and never seen a pastor. And I remember on a number of occasions, the old men would come up and take me by the hand, and begin talking to me in Russian. And fortunately, I had a translator, tears running down their eyes, and they're translating, and we're trying to interact. But they were so thankful that I would come and spend some time with them. And they would want to ask questions, they would want to say things, they would bring glory to Christ. And I remembered as well, when we would go to some of these small churches and desolate areas. They don't have rest homes. When you get old, you basically die. But the churches would care for the widows. And I remember one of the pastors telling me, "now when you go in to see the widows know this, they're all going to want you to hold their hand." And I remember going into these little shanties of places that they had, on the little church grounds, some of them just rooms off of the small little churches. And these dear ladies all wrapped up in all of their coats. And they would want me to sit down with them and take them by the hand and they would weep. And we would talk and I'm not saying that to put a feather in my hat, but I was just really convicted that that's what compassion looks like. It's a lot easier to write a check than it is to get in the presence of people that are in desperate need. And that's what we see here in this text. You know, God has shown us what this looks like. And a number of passages of Scripture may remind you of what James one verse 27 says, "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." Hebrews 13, verse three, "Remember the prisoners, as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also." Do you identify with the suffering of others, who suffer physically even as you suffer in your own body? Proverbs 19:17, "one who was gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord and he will repay him for his good deed." Do you realize that compassion for the spiritually ignorant and rebellious was one of the primary qualifications of a High Priest? Because it revealed an awareness of his own sin, his own frailties, his own shortcomings, Hebrews five beginning of verse two says that "he can deal gently," the word could be translated,he can have compassion, "with the ignorant and misguided since he himself also is beset with weakness. And because of it, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins as for the people, so also for himself." In other words, when we have an honest evaluation of our own sinfulness, our own weaknesses, that will animate our hearts to have compassion for others who are in similar conditions. We're all exhorted in Romans 12, "to rejoice with those who rejoice" and what? "Weep with those who weep." By the way, one of the greatest acts of compassion is that of evangelism, to proclaim the gospel to those who walk in spiritual darkness, who are dead in their sins. I mean the world has no answer. They're always trying to legislate something else, you know, well, if we legislate gun control, then everything will be okay. Well, no, we've got to legislate woke ideology, and then we'll have the utopia that everybody wants, and on and on it goes. It's all just a fool's paradise. I mean, God must change the heart right? Normally the gospel will do that. You show me a professing Christian that has no burden for the lost and I will show you a phony Christian. I will show you a person who has no understanding of what God has truly done for them by his saving grace. True compassion will never be ashamed of the Gospel. In fact, I'll give you a practical illustration of what you can do to show compassion. Boldly tell people the truth of who Christ is, for example, write onyour, whatever pages you use Facebook, I guess, perhaps, First Corinthians 6:19 "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revelers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." And then add what he says, "such were some of you." But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God, beloved, share your testimony, unleashed the scripture on people. That is compassion. This is the kind of compassion that Jesus modeled, and many were saved. And many were persecuted, including the Lord. So Jesus felt compassion for the people vecause they had remained there with him now three days, they had nothing to eat and if he sends them away, they go a long distance to go, they might faint. Verse four, "And His disciples answered Him, 'Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?'" Now, obviously, the disciples knew that he was able to feed all of the people, he had just done that a few months before in a very similar situation. But what they question was whether or not the Lord Jesus was going to miraculously feed these unclean Gentiles? That was the issue. I mean, they weren't even allowed to eat with Gentiles, much less, have their Messiah create food, and give it to them, and then eat with them. But what Jesus was about to prove, is that ethnicity was not a qualification for divine blessing. Ethnicity has nothing to do with admittance into the kingdom of God. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, in Christ alone. Now notice verse five, it says, "And he was asking them, 'How many loaves do you have?' And they said, 'Seven.'" The idea here is he's asking them, it's almost like how many loaves do we have? How many loaves? I want all...how many loaves do we have? He wants to make sure they all know just seven. All right. That's what he's doing. Now, of course, Jesus knew. It wasn't like he ever lacked information, alright? He's omniscient, he knew the amount. But he asked them in order to underscore the miniscule amount of food that they had, which was greatly disproportionate to the vast need of the crowd. Moreover, this would magnify the miraculous nature of the creation that was about to take place, and more importantly, put his deity on display one more time for them, and for everybody else, in case you disciples have any doubts, remember, there's just seven loaves. So we've seen a model for unconditional compassion. Secondly, now, another lesson that's about to be learned here is, is just a confirmation of infinite resources, verse six. "And he directed the people to sit down on the ground." Then it says, "and taking the seven loaves." Now, let me stop here. The term loaves here in our culture, we think of a loaf, you know, somebody's got one of those big loaves of bread that you all will give us from time to time, by the way, I love sourdough. But you know, and it's kind of hard to break those things off. That's not what this is. These are basically flat cakes, that's the idea. That's what they have, and they could easily be broken into smaller pieces for distribution. So, "and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them and started giving them to his disciples to serve to them, and they serve them to the people." Now, folks, this is staggering. Here we have instantaneous, ongoing, spontaneous creation of bread from the hand of the Creator Himself. You know, when I read these things, I'm always reminded that this is my Creator, this is my Savior. This is my Lord. This is my king, and yours as well, if you know and love Christ. I'm reminded of John one and verse three, "All things came into being through Him and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being." And here's a great example of that. Colossians, 1:16. And following, "For by Him, all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him. And for Him, He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." This is my Jesus, I hope he's yours. Now, imagine being one of the disciples, you're watching all of this. Along with others that I'm sure, were asked to come and help with the distribution, I was thinking about this, the Lord probably had them be seated in groups of 50 and 100, as in the feeding of the 5000, that's recorded in Mark six and verse 40. And, of course, this was necessary for orderly distribution. And so we've got 15, maybe 20,000 people, you start doing the math, you know, maybe a couple 100, 250 groups of people, it's hard to say exactly. So you're gonna need lots of help. Imagine if you go to a group of 50, maybe 75 people, maybe 100, imagine carrying that many of these flat cakes, and you've got it, no, you're gonna have help. And you're watching all of this. By the way, imagine if it was just 12 of them. And they're going back and forth to a couple of 100 groups of people. I mean, they would have all starved by the time they got their bread, right? So all of this is going on. Now, think about this, Jesus could have just as well, miraculously, just put the food right in their lap. Whoa, there it is. Wow, you see that? You get...I mean, he could have done that. But why didn't he do that? Well, the text doesn't say, but I think it is a tenable hypothesis to assume that Jesus wanted his disciples to be involved in the miracle, that they might experience the compassion, these filthy, unclean Gentiles that you are now serving. Moreover, he wanted them to experience the sheer joy of that compassionate service, along with the power of Jesus. Don't you know they were watching his hands? It just, it just kept coming. I'm sure if I was there, I would be speechless. He's just creating that. Think of the lessons that the disciples learned with all of this. Again, one of the big lessons was to show compassion to all people regardless of who they are. But also, the lesson that they would need to depend upon in the days ahead, in times of great persecution. A lesson that would go something like this, I know that my god can supply all of my needs according to His riches and glory. I know that I can trust in him. I can trust in Him for my daily provisions. Isn't that what Jesus said in Matthew six verse 31, "Do not worry then saying, 'What will we eat? or What will we drink? Or what will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you." Now back to the text, verse seven, "They also had a few small fish," and by the way, they would dry fish, this is very typical in that culture. "And after he had blessed them he ordered those are these to be served as well." So here comes the second course. I have to share with you whenever I think about these things and think man don't you know that bread and that fish was absolutely delicious. I'm sure they were saying "I have never had such good bread or such good fish." I mean, you talk about fresh right I mean, it was just created. Verse eight, "And they ate and we're satisfied. And they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces." Interesting term there that Mark uses terms "spyris" in the original language for basket. This speaks of a very large basket, you might call it a hamper. It was made out of wicker or rope and it was used for carrying provisions. In fact, this is the same term used for the basket that Paul got into when he went over the wall in Damascus in Acts 9:25. And Mark's use of this term, I might also add, is in stark contrast with the term for basket that was used in the feeding of the 5000. There the term "kophinos" was used in Mark 6:43. And this was a stiff, smaller basket, it would hold about a gallon to two and a half gallons, kind of a little wicker basket. The Roman accounts indicate that it was essentially a Jewish traveling bag, an ancient version of what we might call a daypack. Later, Jesus also made the distinction between these two baskets. When he asked his disciples in Mark eight, beginning of verse 18, "Do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5000? How many baskets?" And there uses the term coffin us the small basket, "How many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up and they said to him 12. Then he says, "When I broke the seven for the 4000, how many large baskets," there's the term from, from from a spy Iris, "how many large baskets full of broken pieces that you picked up and they said to him seven." So you see a distinction there, which, by the way, refutes along with other other issues that we could see in the text, it refutes this idea that there was just one miraculous feeding. There were really two. Now back to verse eight, "And they ate and we're satisfied." They were satisfied, you know, think about this, only Jesus can satisfy our physical and spiritual needs as his image bearers. And that's what happens here. "And they picked up seven large baskets full of what was leftover of the broken pieces." Now, obviously, the people had all they wanted to eat and the text doesn't say this, but I'm sure anything they had to stuff some extra bread and fish in, they did that for their trip home, because there's just so much of it. There's plenty of leftovers. You know, Jesus is never stingy in his blessings, right? Unlike, I don't know, we got some frozen meals the other day, sometimes I'm in a hurry. I need the microwave I needed, you know, well, the thing said something like chicken cheese, broccoli noodle, something. All right? So you heat it up. And guess what it basically is? It's noodles and you have to go on a search and destroy mission to find a little piece of chicken. And when you do its some little hard piece of something that tastes like Purina dog Chow, you know? That's not how the Lord blesses. All right. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, right. Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to think we are children of God. Paul says, "And if children, heirs also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ." And then Mark concludes the narrative. He says, verse nine, "About 4000, were there." Matthew 15, verse 38, adds further clarification, those who ate were 4000 men besides women and children, so there was probably closer to 15,000, maybe 20,000 people. Then at the end of verse nine, it says, "And he sent them away." I don't want to make too much about this. But I noticed that in the original language, the term for sent them away, can be used in two different ways. It can mean to dismiss or get rid of, or it can also mean to liberate, to set free or to pardon. And knowing Mark's use of irony here perhaps what he is alluding to is the Jewish leaders would dismiss the people get rid of them and they would leave unsatisfied. When Jesus sends them away, they've been set free. Maybe some of them were pardoned because they came to faith in Christ. But certainly physically, they went away satisfied. And so that's what we have here. And then verse 10, "And immediately he entered the boat with His disciples and came into the district of Dalmanutha." By the way, this is about a year away from the cross. Now, he's going to return according to Matthew 15:39, to the region of Magadan. This would be up near Capernaum. So he was going to get on the boat and gonna go back up to the north end of the Sea of Galilee, to Capernaum, and the town of Magdala, there in Galilee. Magdala, by the way, was the hometown of Mary Magdalene. It was also where Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood. I might even add that it's a town that's been recently uncovered by archaeologist, last time our group was in, in Israel, we were able to see that, it's an amazing place. It's very close to Tiberius and Israel. So we've seen a model of unconditional compassion and a confirmation of Christ's infinite resources. And I want to close this morning with something else that we see. And that is a preview of coming glory. It's so easy to read these passages and just kind of leave them in that context and fail to see what they can point to. Throughout Jesus ministry, we know that he performed many astounding miracles, most of which aren't even recorded miracles, that left both Jews as well as Gentiles just speechless. But his two miraculous feedings, one to predominantly Jews, the first one and the second one to predominantly Gentiles, when he points to something even greater than his deity, I believe that it points to a preview of coming glory, especially with respect to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Here I go to Revelation 19 verse nine, we read, "Blessed it are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." I want to take you for just a few minutes into Revelation to expand upon this point. In Revelation 19, we see the fullness of Christ reign coming to fruition, that time when Heaven is going to explode in heavenly praise. The end of verse six "Hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns." This is now the fullness of the messianic kingdom that has come in. The kingdom of God, remember being the central and unifying theme of Scripture, the ultimate goal of biblical history, that consummating bridge between the end of human history and the eternal kingdom and the splendors of heaven. And in verse seven of that chapter, we read how the multitude of the redeemed are exclaiming, and verse seven, "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready." The metaphor of marriage and bride is used in the Old Testament to depict the covenant relationship between God and His people Israel, both past and future. It pictures the deep personal union between God and His people manifested by his elective love for them, and their responsive obligation to be faithful and pure. And likewise, the apostle Paul uses this metaphorical imagery to describe the relationship between Christ and His Church. And we see this as well here in the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19 and verse seven, and even in the description, later on of the New Jerusalem, in chapter 21, verse two which the apostle John sees, quote, "coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." So as we look at Scripture, we see that, that with ethnic Israel, with the church and even with this new Jerusalem, the marriage and bride and metaphor symbolizes the covenantal love of God for His people. The perfect union with God that characterizes the redeemed, the inestimable beauty that God bestows upon his bride and her spotless purity. Now to fully grasp the transcendent glory of this text regarding the marriage of the lamb with the bride that he has made ready, a little background is necessary. The ancient Hebrew marriage consisted essentially of three parts. The first part was the betrothal or the engagement period, called the "kiddushin." And this included a contract whereby the couple were considered legally married. The trial usually lasted about 12 months, and it was a time for them to prove their sexual purity, to prove their faithfulness, and a time for a young man to go away and prepare a place for his bride. And then the second stage was that of presentation. And what would happen is that at the close of the betrothal period, the groom would go to his bride often unannounced, and take her to his father's house and present her to family and friends. Over a period typically of one week, lots of festivities during that time. And at the end of the presentation, the bride would return home briefly. She would gather her things as well as her bridesmaids, and then the groom and his groomsmen would go to the bride's house and escort her and the bridesmaids to the ceremony. I was able to witness this particular aspect in Old Jerusalem a number of years ago when I was there, an amazing sight. And then you have the third aspect the third stage, and that is the "huppah", the ceremony itself where actual vows are exchanged. And after the ceremony, a final meal would take place followed by the physical consummation of the sacred union in the couple's private chamber. Now, this imagery, beloved, dominates our Lord's relationship with his bridal church. And I might also add that it is crucial for our understanding of the prophetic literature as his bride. We were betrothed to Christ in eternity past, by his uninfluenced, sovereign will. Paul described this in Second Corinthians 11 in verse two, "For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy for I betroth you to one husband, so that to Christ, I might present you as a pure virgin." Currently, the groom to whom we are betrothed is preparing a place for his bride. Jesus said in John 14 "In my Father's house are many dwelling places if it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also." And the period of betrothal is also a period of sanctification as we are being prepared by the Spirit of God for that day of presentation, that process of sanctification whereby the Spirit of God, through the power of His word, primarily is conforming us more and more into the likeness of Christ. The apostle Paul speaks of this in Ephesians five, verse 25, "Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water and the word that He might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless." Now I believe that the presentation will occur at the time of the rapture of the church, when he comes for His bride unannounced and he takes us onto himself as his pure virgin, the sanctified church. And then during the seven years of Tribulation upon the earth, the raptured church will be presented to the heavenly hosts, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and blameless. And at the end of the seven year celebration, it will be a time of the final ceremony, and the marriage supper of the Lamb. That marriage supper of the Lamb will begin with and coincide with the earthly kingdom. And ultimately, the ceremony will extend throughout the entirety of the millennial reign of Christ with the final consummation occurring in the new heavens and the new Earths, the New Earth along with the descent of the New Jerusalem. Again, Revelation 21:2, "coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." And there in the new heavens and new earth, a glorified bride which will include all of the redeemed throughout all of redemptive history, will live in perfect union with her bridegroom in the bridal city, the New Jerusalem. And as we look at the text, in Revelation, this is the final theme of that great heavenly song. It evokes praise for the love of God for his bride, verse seven, "let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." And by God's grace, and by His power through the Spirit, He is making us ready, Verse eight says, "and it was given to her to clothe herself and find linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." And here we see that the stunning attire of purity that was worn by the angels, referred to back in Revelation 15 and verse six. Now that adorns the bride and what an amazing transformation has taken place. We know that at salvation we are clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ. But now the righteousness is no longer imparted. But it is intrinsic to our glorified state, as his bride forever and ever. And finally, the promise of Romans 8:19 will be realized that is the "revealing of the sons of God" in verse 21, when we will be "set free from the slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." As I think about this, imagine when all of this was revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos. How exhilarating it would have been for this weary apostle to now be able to see all that is being declared and to be reminded of what he wrote in first John three and verse two, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be, but we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." Then in closing back to Revelation 19. Finally, we see how an angelic messenger speaks to John most likely the one that was one of the angels of the seven last plagues, who initiated his role as John's guide back in Revelation 17, verse one. Verse nine says, "And he said to me, 'Write, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" This is so precious. These invited guests, dear friends represent the Old Testament saints, whose bodies will be resurrected at the end of the tribulation in connection with Israel's restoration, we see this for example, in Daniel 12, verses one and two. In fact, John the Baptist was a prime example of this. Remember, Jesus described him as the greatest of Old Testament believers, Matthew 11:11, yet John described himself as a quote, "friend of the bridegroom," John 3:29. The invited guests will also include the tribulation saints, who have died and have been glorified as well as those who are still alive when Christ returns. And then at the end of verse nine, Revelation 19, the angel said, "These are true words of God." And then I'm sure this is more than John can handle. He's so excited verse 10, he's caught up in the triumph and he says, "I fell at his feet to worship. And he," referring to the angel said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus." By the way, isn't it fascinating, even the angels are the Lord's servants, and they to give witness to Jesus? The angel says "worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Said differently, he who has the spirit of prophecy, will convey Jesus testimony. Dear friend, I hope you know and you love and you serve the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and King. I hope you know that only in him will you find pardon and forgiveness of sins and eternal life. It is only found through the blood of Christ that can wash away your sins. If you've never trusted him, I pray that you will today. And I challenge all of you who do know and love Christ, to learn well the lessons that we see in this magnificent historical narrative. So that we will all share his compassion with those with whom we come in contact with regardless of who they are. And that we will trust in His infinite resources, regardless of how difficult the days might come, and that we would also anticipate his coming glory. Knowing all that he has in store for those that he has made to be His own possession, his bridal church. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for the magnificent truths of your word. May they take root in our heart and bear a magnificent harvest to the praise of your glory. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.

As I mentioned, earlier, this morning, we are going to be looking at Jesus's miraculous power. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel? We're in Mark seven and this morning, we will be looking at verses 31 through 37. And while you're turning there, may I remind you that we have a wonderful privilege that we never want to underestimate, the privilege of coming together and worshiping the Lord, and freedom. We must never take that for granted. Moreover, we have the marvelous blessing of being able to look into the Word of the living God. The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 119, beginning in verse one, "How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord, How blessed are those who observed His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart." I know that these are dark days, I've talked with a number of you as I do every week. And it is on everybody's mind. Just the great difficulties that we are facing in our country in our culture, America's military and economic and moral superiority in the world is vanishing under the current administration. Our allies no longer trust us, our enemies no longer fear us. And I hear from many of you every week, about your frustration concerning the left's woke and LGBTQ war against specially our children and our youth. The whole transgender insanity can only be explained by satanic blinding, no rational person could possibly believe these things. Certainly, transgender ideology is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity. And they know that and that's another whole topic. But certainly, many of you are afraid, especially of those of you that have kids in public schools. I've talked with you, you feel helpless. At times, you will ask me, Pastor, what can we do? And I've had those conversations with you. Certainly a number of things that you can do, but one of them that you can do, one of the things that all of us can do, is what we're doing this morning. And that's coming together and worshiping the Lord, submitting our lives to His Word, applying it to our life. In fact, and Psalm 119, verse 23, the Psalmist says this, "even though princes," referring to rulers and officials, "even though princes sit and talk against me, Thy servant meditates on the statutes." Wonderful text. This is a great commentary on how we should respond to our politicians that scheme to do us damage to silence our voices, and so forth. Beloved, if I could put it to you this way, don't march, meditate. All right, don't march, meditate. They don't matter God does. Too often we wring our hands and pace the floor with all of this insanity, all of this wickedness. But our authorities are only doing what spiritually dead people do. You must understand that and God will keep them within the boundaries of his sovereign will and we can relax in that. So let's focus on what the Lord would have us do not what they would have us do. Again, Psalm 119, verse 78, "May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie, but I shall meditate on your precepts." And so let's do that this morning as we look at this amazing historical narrative concerning the power of Jesus. Let me read it to you beginning in verse 31. "Again, He went out from the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. They brought to Him one who was deaf, and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him. Jesus took him aside from the crowd by himself and put His fingers into his ears. And after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva. And looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, 'Ephphatha!,' that is 'Be opened!' and his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed. And he began speaking plainly. And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. They were utterly astonished, saying, 'He has done all things well, He makes even the deaf to hear, and the mute to speak.'" I never tire of contemplating the tender mercies of Our Lord, His infinite power, as well as his future return and reign. And that's what we have here before us. Let me remind you of the context. Jesus, as you know, posed a serious threat to the Jewish authorities. They were absolutely livid. He confounded them at every turn, every time they tried to confront him or questioned him, he made fools out of them. Moreover, he exposed their hypocrisy, including their ridiculous manmade rules and regulations that they had concocted, especially as they related to what was clean and unclean. And remember, Mark has just recorded the incident where the Jewish leaders confronted Jesus and the disciples for eating their bread with impure or unwashed hands, for not observing the tradition of the elders. And so Jesus excoriated them, exposing their self righteous, moral superiority, calling them quote, "hypocrites." In verse, verses six and following, "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men," verse eight, then he went on to remind them that that which proceeds out of the man that is what defiles the man in chapter seven in verse 20. So in an act of judgment, what we see now is Jesus abandons them, and he goes Northwest, to the region of Tyre, Gentile territory, it's actually in southern Lebanon as we would see it today. And he once again takes the message of the Kingdom, beyond the ethnic and territorial borders of Israel, and brings the gospel to the unclean, to the Gentiles. And remember, Jews were not allowed to even enter into Gentile areas, they were forbidden from purchasing things in their markets, they would never eat food from Gentiles, they would never go into their home. And yet what we see in the Gospel accounts, as many of them as Jesus comes and brings the gospel to them, many of them come to saving faith in Christ, and that has gone on through the years. And that's would apply to most all of us who are Gentiles that have been saved by His grace. And it's really interesting how some of the Gentiles come to faith in Christ. And this becomes, frankly, a rebuke to the Jewish leaders. And Mark does a lot of ironic recording in his Gospel, and this is an irony, is it not? That the people that are unclean are the ones that Jesus saves. So we must remember that many of the people in this region where Jesus is going have heard the gospel message, but yet, they're still unsure who Jesus really is, including some of his own family. And you will recall that those in his hometown wanted to kill him. The scribes and the Pharisees were already scheming to to kill him. They said that he was demon possessed. He was a blasphemer, a false teacher, and even some of his own disciples had lingering questions about who Jesus is. And in the height of irony, what we see is that whenever Jesus confronts the demons, the demons know exactly who he is, that he is the Son of God. And yet the religious leaders refuse to acknowledge that. And I might also add that this journey now up into this region is a priority. Jesus is trying to find some peace and safety and solitude away from Jewish hostility, and he's going to be spending more and more time in discipling his apostles. So this is kind of a necessary calm before the storm that will ensue with his betrayal, his arrest and crucifixion. So Jesus and his disciples now travel about 40 miles northwest of this idolatrous region of Tyre and Sidon on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. And you will also remember that there, Mark records how he encounters this Gentile woman who was willing to risk everything, all of her pagan idolatry, abandon all of that to come and ask this Jewish Messiah, in fact, beg this Jewish Messiah, to deliver her little daughter from an unclean spirit. And clearly she understood Jesus was more than just a miracle worker, She evidently understood the gospel. And as you will recall, Jesus both tested as well as rewarded her faith, delivered the little girl from the demon that possessed her. So once again, proving that the kingdom now is being offered to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews. And now Jesus and his disciples travel about 20 miles north of Tyre, passing through the region of Sidon, and while there Mark records this miracle. And this is a miracle that the other gospel writers do not record. That is the healing of this deaf man, who was therefore unable to speak. As a footnote, a very important one, he performed many, many other miracles. Don't think that just the ones that we have here are the only ones that he performed. In fact, between this time and throughout the remainder of his time, when he travels then over towards the Sea of Galilee and into the region of Decapolis and then moved south, the crowds continue to grow very large. In fact, Matthew records this, in Matthew 15, beginning in in verse 30, he says, "And large crowds came to him bringing with him, those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others and they laid them down at his feet, and he healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel." Now, as we come to this text this morning, I would like to draw your attention to three things pertaining to our Lord that I think are most encouraging, as well as instructive. To every believer we're going to see number one, Jesus' tender compassion, secondly, his infinite power. And finally, Jesus' messianic preview. Beloved, I must say that there is no greater act of worship, than contemplating the infinite perfections of the person in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His unmerited love for his bridal church and the promises that He has given to all of us, and the glory of heaven that awaits us. So let's look at this, verse 31. "Again, he went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon, to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis." Now this was the same vicinity of Gerasa, you will recall where he had delivered a man that was living in the tombs and he was possessed by many demons. Remember, Legion was his name, and he sent them into the swine, you read about that in Mark five. Decapolis, now it means it means 10 cities, deca in Greek is 10 and polis is cities; 10 cities, predominantly Gentile cities, but there were also a significant number of Jews that lived in that region. And this was the center for Hellenistic and Roman culture. It was, those of you that have been with me in Israel, this was the region of Caesarea Philippi, for example. And it was a it was a region governed by Philip rather than Herod. And it was a an extremely pagan area. Archaeological finds have produced many idols, deities of Zeus and Aphrodite and Artemis and Dionysus and all of these creepy idols that they worshipped in those days. Now, this was a considerable detour to the east and then south, in a largely desert region, and eventually he's going to reach the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and from there he's going to continue south. Now, the inhabitants of Decapolis were well acquainted with Jesus' claims to deity. I mean, frankly, everybody in the whole region had heard about Jesus, and his healing, his supernatural healing powers. And undoubtedly many of them had come to saving faith in Christ and what's about to happen here is going to astonish them all the more. That doesn't mean that the people that were astonished by His miracles came to faith in Christ, but many of them certainly did. But I want you to notice number one, Jesus tender compassion. Verse 32, "They brought to Him one who was deaf, and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him." Now there's several things that we want to see here. First of all, I want to underscore the word spoke. It is a Greek term that refers to a speech impediment. Someone who cannot utter comprehensible words, they utter incomprehensible sounds. And it is a very rare Greek word. It's used only here in the New Testament. And it appears only once in the Septuagint. The Greek translation of the Old Testament where it is used, with respect to what is going to happen in the Messianic age there is used to describe the Messiah and what he will do in Isaiah 35, beginning in verse five, "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the death will be unstopped, than the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute, will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the Arabah," that is the desert. So he says "and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy." "Mogilalon" in the original language that is the same word that Mark uses here in verse 32. And the rabbinic understanding of this text is explained in the Hebrew Midrash, which means exposition or instruction, an ancient commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures. And the rabbi's believed, and I believe, they are absolutely right, that this will be fulfilled by the Messiah in the Messianic age to come. And we're going to look at that a little bit more closely in a moment. But I want you to notice then that they brought to him this man, the one who is deaf. Obviously, this man is an outcast in society. You must understand that the person with this kind of a problem would be ignored, he would be rejected. And now he's got some family or friends, we're not told really who they are, but they care about him so deeply that they are going to bring him to Jesus. And here we witness both faith and love on the part of these unnamed companions. Perhaps these caretakers had heard the good news of the gospel, they certainly had faith in Israel's Messiah. And what I find here is they they have no desire for reward or applause. They're simply acting here, out of faith and love. And notice, they "implored him to lay his hand on him." Implored in the original language means they begged him. They pleaded with him earnestly, and laying hands on someone was a visible and tangible way of demonstrating his healing power to those that are in need, and to be sure, every one of us as Christians need to do likewise. We need to bring people to the master and we need to plead with Him, to deliver them both physically and spiritually, to offer them the certain promise of eternal life. I will remember as at least one of you will, that was with me, when I was in Uganda with one of our missionary Shannon Hurley. One of the things that we would do is we'd leave the compound and we would be in this, this very remote jungle area, and I remember going with him to one of these little huts and there was a woman there out by a fire. And he began to talk with her and she had a 16 year old daughter, and both of them were dying of AIDS. And he asked them to come and he sat down in front of them and had them sit down and the daughter was lying in the hut and she came out and he looked in their mouth. That's a way of determining AIDS, there is always a fungal infection there called thrush. You see other infections as well. And he examined their mouth and then he showed them the love of Christ by telling them that, and he immediately got on his phone, and amazing, we've got technology in the middle of nowhere. He got on the phone and called for the medical people that work with the mission to come and to give them attention, while at the same time giving them the gospel. You know what a picture of love and that's what we have going on here with these people that bring this dear man to Jesus. And I want you to think about this how accessible Jesus was, throngs of people around him. John MacArthur makes an interesting observation to this. And he said, "Unlike the Pharisees, and scribes, who considered themselves to be above the common people, Jesus gladly mingled with the crowds and willingly extended his touch toward those in need. Doing so displayed his and heaven's tender compassion, and personal care. It also demonstrated that he was not afraid of ceremonial defilement. Jesus was never defiled by those whom he touched. Whether it was a leper, a woman with a hemorrhage of blood, a dead body, or a Gentile man who suffered from deafness. Rather than being corrupted by them, they were cleansed and restored by him." Now, I want you to again to notice further the Lord's tender compassion here. It says in verse 33, "Jesus took him aside from the crowd by himself." Now imagine the scene, imagine if you were this man and you were an object of ridicule and mockery in your culture. Now you're in front of this big crowd, your friends have brought you here. How humiliating that would be. Feelings of helplessness, you're unable to hear, you're unable to communicate. But Jesus is fully aware of the desperate nature of his condition and the humiliation that he endured. And remember, a severe speech impediment was considered a symptom of mental handicap among the Gentiles and it was a sign of God's judgment, for exceptional sin amongst the Jews. And so everywhere he turned in that culture, this is how people perceived him. So it would be hard for us to imagine the ridicule and the rejection that this man endured. But Jesus now, in his tender compassion takes him aside. That act alone demonstrates our Lord's tender mercy, and his desire to to personally commune with this man. And this, by the way, would have been something totally foreign to this man. Nobody else would come and do this with him. He probably took him aside into a nearby dwelling, we don't know for sure, but a private place. And it's interesting later on in chapter eight, verses 22 through 26, Jesus will do the same thing when he heals the blind man in Bethsaida. And what a picture of Christ's great saving work, right? I mean, this man had no merit of his own. And yet, Jesus lovingly takes him aside and freely lavishes his love upon him and delivers him from the bondage of his physical limitations and perhaps from his sin. And perhaps Mark's recording of, of this particular act, the man that could not hear, as well as later on, the man who could not see, was symbolic of the disciples who still needed ears to hear and eyes to see who the Messiah really was. So we see, first of all, Jesus tender compassion, but secondly, His infinite power. Verse 33, "Jesus took him aside from the crowd by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva." Now Jesus is touching the specific organs that are in need of healing. And by so doing, he's communicating to this man that cannot hear and cannot speak, that this is what I am about to do. This is where I am going to bring healing. And people in that day believe that saliva had healing properties and so this would be a good way for Jesus to communicate that this is what I am about to do. So when Jesus spat upon his fingers and touched the man's tongue, that man would have understood what Jesus was trying to communicate. And then it we read in verse 34, "and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, he said to him, 'Ephphatha!' that is 'Be opened!'" Jesus looks up to heaven thereby demonstrating to this man and perhaps his friends that were gathered with him or family, demonstrating to them that your help is coming from above. And it says, He "looked up and with a deep sig." The term "sigh" is an interesting term in the original language, it refers to an inarticulate groan. We would understand it as *sigh sound* that type of sigh. And here it is a moan of profound sorrow and sympathy and concern. "And he says to him, 'Ephphatha! that is 'Be opened!' And his ears were open and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly." Impediment, the original language "desmos", comes from that term, it means to be loosed from bonds or from chains. And both his ability to receive and respond were now suddenly freed from the bonds of his disability. And it is noteworthy here that, that there was no need for him to learn the language, no need, and there was no need for speech therapy. In fact, the text says that he began speaking plainly. "Plainly," "orthos" in the original language, meaning straight or right. He began speaking properly in the correct manner, we get our English medical terms, orthopedics and orthodontics from this Greek term, the correction of deformities of bones and muscles or teeth, and jaws and so forth. Now, as I read this, when I contemplate upon it is absolutely astounding to think of what really happened at that moment. Trillions of cells had to be rerouted. What you have here is a physical regeneration that came from the mouth of the Creator that can speak things into existence. In order to understand this a little bit better as a layman, in medical terms, I looked up, how do we hear how does hearing work? From Johns Hopkins and they said this, "First of all, you've got an outer ear, a middle ear and an inner ear. The outer ear," they said, "the Oracle "fin pinnae" is the visible portion of the outer ear. It collects sound waves and channels them into the ear canal, the external auditory meatus where the sound is amplified." We all know that we do this you know, so that we can hear a little better. "The sound waves then travel toward a flexible, oval membrane at the end of the ear canal called the eardrum, or tympanic membrane. Sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate. Then you have the middle ear. The vibrations from the eardrum, set the ossicles into motion. The ossicles are actually tiny bones, the smallest in the human body. The three bones are named after their shapes, the malleus, which is the hammer, the incus, the anvil, and stapes, which is the stirrup. The ossicles further amplify the sound. The tiny stapes bone attaches to the oval window that connects the middle ear to the inner ear. The eustachian tube, which opens into the middle ear is responsible for equalizing the pressure between the air outside the ear and that within the middle ear. Then we have the inner ear. The sound waves enter the inner ear and then into the cochlea, a snail shaped organ. The cochlea is filled with fluid that moves in response to the vibrations from the oval window. As the fluid moves 25,000 nerve endings are set into motion. These nerve endings transform the vibrations into electrical impulses that then travel along the eighth cranial nerve which is the auditory nerve to the brain. Signals from the right ear travel to the auditory cortex located in the temporal lobe on the left side of the brain. Signals from the left ear traveled to the right auditory cortex. The auditory cortices sort, process, interpret and file information about the sound." They also said the "inner ear also contains the vestibular organ that is responsible for balance." And in an instant all of those things are working perfectly. And that's not to mention all of the aspects of language skills and everything else that would work in the brain. My mind went to Psalm 139:14, "I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works in my soul knows it forever, knows it very well." I marvel at God's omnipotence. And this is what we see here, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Creator, to see his ability in his power to do whatever he pleases. That's who the Lord is. In fact, one of the Old Testament terms for God is El Shaddai. El means God and Shaddai means Almighty. The apostle John exclaimed in Revelation 19 Verse six, "Hallelujah for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns." Dear friends, we can find great comfort in these days of uncertainty and fear, and even death. Stephen Charnock, one of the great Puritans of the 17th century said this about the omnipotence of God. "The omnipotence of God is his ability and strength to bring to pass whatsoever he pleases. Our desires may be, and are, more extensive than our power, but with God," quote, 'His counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure.' Isaiah 46:10. You must, in your conception of divine power, enlarge it further than to think God can do only what he resolves to do. In truth, he has an infinite capacity of power to act, as he has an infinite capacity of will to resolve. His power is such that he can do whatever he pleases, without difficulty or resistance. He cannot be checked, restrained or frustrated. How worthless His eternal councils would be, if his power could not execute them. His mercy would be a feeble pity if he were destitute of power to relieve. His justice, a slided scarecrow without power to punish, and his promises an empty sound without the strength to accomplish them." Oh, dear Christian, the tender compassion and the infinite power of Jesus, and aren't you thankful that we have a Savior that can identify with our weaknesses and actually feel what we feel? So often, when we try to comfort someone, we will say, I know what you feel. Well, you know, we really don't, we may have some idea but none of us can really feel exactly what another person feels, but Jesus can. In fact, in Hebrews four, verse 15, the Spirit of God speaks through his writer and says, "For we do not have a high priest, who cannot sympathize." By the way, the word means to suffer together with someone. "We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses." I like the King James rendering it says "For we have not a high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. But one who has been tempted at all things as we are yet without sin." It's absolutely astounding. Jesus experienced the full range of temptation and sorrow that we could ever imagine. Mental exhaustion, physical fatigue, hunger, thirst, excruciating pain, tears, heartache, slander, mocking persecution and suffering beyond anything that we can comprehend, the worst of which was being forsaken by the Father. All of the pressures of hell were released upon the Lord Jesus, sorrow and suffering, beyond anything that we could ever think of. Therefore, think about this, no matter what we experience. No matter the pain, the pressure, the sorrow, the weakness, Jesus has experienced it, yet without sin He understands it. And like no one else, he is actually able to enter into it with us. And that's what happened here with this dear man. Jesus cared deeply for him, as he does for all men and women in the world, evidenced by his common grace, even those that hate him. So again, in verse 35, we read "And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly." Then it says, "And he gave them orders not to tell anyone." Now bear in mind by this time, in Jesus ministry, the crowds were enormous, it had reached a fever pitch here. And as we will see, in the next chapter, in chapter eight, massive crowds are coming to him. But unfortunately, they saw him primarily as a miracle worker, not as the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, who came to save, both Jews and Gentiles from their sins, that we might be reconciled to God through faith in Him, and His sacrifice on our behalf. So they didn't understand the full scope of his earthly mission. The disciples struggled with all of this as well. In fact, Paul would later on write to the Corinthians in First Corinthians 15, three, "For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received," here it is, "that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures." So back to our text, it says that Jesus gave this man and his friends or family orders not to tell anyone. And the reason he did this is he didn't want the people to basically take him by force and make him king and ultimately hinder his mission. And Mark helps us understand this reasoning better. In Mark eight beginning in verse 30. "And Jesus warned them to tell no one about Him. And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again." So that's Jesus mindset here. Of course, they don't understand this. Verse 36, again, it says, "but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continue to proclaim it." More irony, by the way, God gave him ears to hear but he doesn't listen. Right? You know, I'm sure I would have been the same way. I mean, all you can do is think man, I'm hearing and I can speak. He truly found his voice, right? I mean talk about being elated. In verse 37, it says "They were utterly astonished." Astonished carries the idea of being absolutely overcome with awe. And here's what they said, "He has done all things well, he makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." So we've seen his tender compassion and his infinite power. And I'm going to close with Jesus messianic preview, because we see this in this text that I just read. This last phrase speaks to this, as did verse 32, that I mentioned earlier. The last phrase, notice again, "they were utterly astonished." And here's what they're saying, "He has done all things well, and he makes even the deaf to hear, and the mute to speak." The term mute in the Hebrew "illem", which is translated from the Greek word that I mentioned earlier, "mogilalos" that we read in the Septuagint. And again, you will recall "They brought to him the one who was death and spoke," and there's that term, "spoke with difficulty and they implored him to lay on His lay his hand on him." And that term was the one that I mentioned earlier was used in the Septuagint with respect to the Messianic age and Isaiah 35, verses five and six, let me read that to you again. "Then the eyes of the blind will be open and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute there it is "mogilalon", the same term, "the mute will shout for joy." So here, I believe Mark is giving us a preview of the conditions of the Messianic Kingdom and then please understand, Christ's stunning miracles during his incarnation, especially those in the physical realm, were performed to do much more than just alleviate physical suffering. They were proof of Jesus regal Messiahship in the imminency of the kingdom that he had announced that had come upon them. Let me give you a little example. Remember Matthew 11, John the Baptist is languishing in prison. Here he was the herald of the king and he expected Jesus to judge the wicked and establish His earthly kingdom as the prophets had said, as the prophets had promised. And yet here he is in a prison, about to have his head severed from his body. And Matthew 11, verse two we read, "Now when John while in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the expected one? Or shall we look for someone else?' Jesus answered and said to them, 'Go and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, 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.'" So the point is no, John's not mistaken. Jesus is saying, I am the promised mediatorial king of Old Testament prophecy. And he was right about the nature of the kingdom, it is going to be established on Earth. And it would be a literal kingdom, manifesting all the physical aspects of the Old Testament prophets. And obviously, it was not merely some spiritual kingdom, otherwise, Jesus would have explained that to John. Instead, Jesus wanted John to consider his physical miracles in the context of Old Testament prophecy. And some of what Jesus has quoted here is out of Isaiah 29, verses 18 and 19, is certainly Isaiah 35, five and six that I just read Isaiah 61, in verse one. But what John did not understand is that the Jewish opposition to Jesus as their Messiah would result in total rejection of him as their king, they would not have this man reign over them right? And therefore, the complete establishment of the earthly messianic millennial kingdom was going to be delayed until his second coming. He didn't understand that and we must understand, and we can look back and see this now that the rejection of the king and the removal of his bodily presence meant the removal of the kingdom, albeit temporarily, his physical return will usher in the arrival of the kingdom. Peter spoke of this in his sermon in Acts three, beginning in verse 19. He says, "Therefore, repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time." Now, to be sure, the prophetic Scriptures describe conditions of the Messianic age. And these conditions are utterly irreconcilable with the conditions in which we live today. Which therefore, is another refutation of the idea that we're living in the kingdom now that the kingdom is on earth now. And I might also add, if, as some will argue, the kingdom is narrowly spiritual. Why did Jesus performed so many physical miracles in both kind and in number? Moreover, if physical miracles properly belong to a spiritual kingdom on earth, as we witnessed in Jesus's ministry in his own incarnation, why do we not witness them still today? Well, the answer is that these miracles now await the inauguration of the Messianic millennial kingdom on earth, which will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state. May I whet your appetite a bit more With respect to even the physical blessings to come, of which we get a little taste of here, and this gospel narrative, Albert J. McClain said this quote, "As to the conditions in the coming Kingdom, it should be noted first that the prophets envision human life as continuing through the natural processes of procreation, birth and growth. The rejoicing of the bride and the bridegroom is heard, Jeremiah 33:11. The children play in the streets of the cities, Zechariah eight, five, the little one shall become quote, 1000, Isaiah 60 and verse 22. But the accidents and deviations of nature, often so appalling in character, will be dealt with by divine power. All physical infirmity and deformity will be rectified." And then he quotes Isaiah 35 Five and six that I just read "and the eyes of the blind shall be open and the ears of the death shall be unstopped, then shall the lame leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing." MacLean goes on to say, "Disease which is distinguished from deformity (Malachi one eight) will likewise be controlled by divine power, perhaps through both prevention and cure. At any rate, quote, 'the inhabitant shall not say I am sick,' Isaiah 33:24. The manner in which these happy results will be accomplished is not precisely stated. But as we have suggested above, there are intimations that in some cases tangible means may be used." And then he gives Ezekiel 47:12, as a reference where it says, quote, "The fruit thereof shall be for food, and the leaf thereof for healing." "For any who may regard such prophecies is wholly implausible, a sufficient answer may be found in the amazing progress in the chemistry of food and medicine. Investigators of high imminence are even seriously suggesting today." By the way, this would have been written back, I think back in the 50s, or 60s. "They're suggesting today that the final answer to the scourge of cancer may be found in the field of internal medicine, rather than in surgery. With physical ills under divine control, it follows that long life will again become the rule." And then he quotes Isaiah 65:22. "For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands." "For longevity, no more appropriate comparison can be suggested than a tree. Infancy will be measured by years instead of days. And there will be no more quote 'an old man that hath not filled his days.' In fact, Isaiah suggest that the crisis of physical death will be experienced only by those incorrigible individualists who rebel against the laws of the kingdom. And even in such cases, the gracious probation will be a century in length, Isaiah 65:20." And on and on it goes. Dear friends, this is the glorious hope of the redeemed. And I long for that day, when the Lord returns in all of his glory, judges the nations, establishes His kingdom, and we will be there to reign with him. That day when the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. May I challenge you to contemplate these glorious truths with respect to Jesus tender compassion, his infinite power and his messianic preview. And may we all live in light of his return? I believe it could be very soon. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the truths of your word. My where would we be without them? Thank you for saving us by your grace. Thank you for changing our hearts in such a way that not only can we understand the scriptures, but we can do so savingly and be transformed by them. Or if there be one here today that knows nothing of what it means to truly be reconciled to you through faith in our beloved Savior and King, may you speak to that person, overwhelm them with the reality of their sin and help them to see that their only hope is in Christ. That today would be the day of their salvation that today would be the day when they experienced the miracle of the new birth. We thank you We give you praise and ask that you will come quickly. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

This morning we come to the Gospel of Mark, once again. Would you take your Bibles and turn to chapter seven, we're going to be examining verses 24 through 30. It's been a wonderful journey through Mark and we still have a ways to go. But this is magnificent display of authentic faith in the text that we have here before us. And that's why I've entitled, my discourse to you this morning, sincere faith rewarded, and I hope to make this passage come alive to you. I hope to help you understand it and most importantly, apply it to your life. Let me read it to you Mark seven, beginning of verse 24. "Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it. Yet He could not escape notice. But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was a Gentile of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And He was saying to her, 'Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.' But she answered and said to Him, 'Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs.' And He said to her, 'Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.' Going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left."

Fascinating passage of Scripture with much instruction, much encouragement as you will see. Let me remind you of the context here. This is now the beginning of a new time of ministry for Jesus, his Galilean ministry is now over. And he is now seeking safety and solitude in the Northwest region of Tyre, which as you look at it today would be southern Lebanon. Matthew 15:21, says that "he went to the district of Tyre and Sidon." Now this was a predominantly pagan, Gentile territory. It was part of the land of the ancient Canaanites. The city of Tyre, in fact, existed some 2000 years before Christ. And for those of you that are familiar with the land, it's about 35 miles north of Mount Carmel. It's about 28 miles west of Mount Hermon, but it was a island stronghold, an ancient Phoenician sea port on the Mediterranean Sea. But now in Jesus time, it was under Roman rule. You might recall that this was the region, in fact, Tyre and Sidon are the regions where Solomon appealed for the lumber to build the temple, even used their sailors to fill up his navy. It was later defeated by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, which by the way, I might add was prophesied in Isaiah 23, as well as Ezekiel 26 through 28. But I want you to know that this region was the one that introduced Baal worship to ancient Israel. It was notorious for its evil paganism, and even its opposition to the Jews. You might recall that Tyre and Sidon were known for the fertility goddess, Astarte, as Ashtaroth, which is really the plural of Astarte, that we see in the Old Testament. Astarte was a consort of Bale, the great Canaanite storm and a and fertility god, and their worship practices were utterly reprehensible. It included things like human sacrifice both adult and children, temple prostitution, mutilation of the human body, sorcery, divination, and among some of the surrounding nations there was the official religious sanction of bestiality, incomprehensible wickedness. In fact, the wicked Queen Jezebel, who incited Ahab to worship Baal and persecuted the prophet Elijah, was the daughter of the Sidonian king, you read about that in I King 16. Now, obviously, the Jews absolutely loathed these people. Fascinating footnote in Psalm 87, verse four, God predicted that they would one day share in the Messianic blessings of the Messianic Kingdom, along with other Gentile nations. And what we see in this text is kind of a preview of coming attractions, the first stage of this prophecy being fulfilled in Jesus earthly ministry. Now may I remind you in Mark three, eight, we read how the people from quote, "the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon" end quote, came to Galilee, to hear Jesus to be healed, and so forth. But now Jesus is coming to them. Something else that's important to understand in this context, the certainty of the cross is now looming. And the emphasis of Jesus ministry is shifting from dealing with the crowds to dealing more specifically with teaching his disciples, preparing them for what is to come in His death, and the persecution that they would inevitably endure. And so what we see here dear friends, is really an object lesson of the essence of sincere saving faith in this Gentile woman. And the Lord's gracious response to it. But we also see how the message of salvation is now being extended beyond the Jewish people and into the entire world. I think that we can best understand this passage of Scripture under three very simple headings, we're going to see, first of all, a desperate plea for mercy. Secondly, a deliberately delayed response and finally, a display of sincere faith rewarded.

So let's examine this historical narrative more closely. And I think this will help us understand even the immediate context, verse 24, "Jesus got up and went away from there." This is probably Capernaum. That's probably where he's leaving. And he leaves there to the region of Tyre. Now, this would have been about a 40 mile hike. And normally, especially in the terrain that is there, it would take about four days to get there, alright, traveling about 10 miles per day. Now, you might ask the question, and appropriately so, why would he travelled so far from Galilee? Well, there's several reasons. First of all, remember Herod thought that Jesus was John the Baptist, that he come back to life. So he was terrified. But he also saw Jesus as a rival to His throne, a political rival, so he wanted to kill him. You read about that, in Luke 13, verse 31. And then also, most all of the people that had been following Jesus, even those that had participated in the feeding of all of the 1000s, most all of those people had left him when he started preaching the doctrines of sovereign grace, read about that in John six. We see people continuing to leave Christ because they simply have a rabid commitment to self-determination. And they don't like to hear that God is the one who is sovereignly in charge of salvation. And so you will recall in John 6:66 that most all of them left him but also the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him. Remember Mark three, we read about that. So indeed he needed to travel north west to escape, you might say, an untimely arrest. Plus, he needed more time alone with his disciples to prepare them for what was to come. And what a great opportunity to be able to hike with them for some four days, and go someplace where he wouldn't be as well known. But as we will see, he was still known. So Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre, verse 24, "And when he had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it. Yet he could not escape notice." Obviously, some people recognized him. Some of them had undoubtedly gone to Galilee and heard him preach and teach, and maybe were even recipients of his miraculous powers. But indeed, they saw that. And so they had a version of Facebook there in the first century and word spread like wildfire, that he's here. Verse 25, "But after hearing of him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at his feet." I have to smile here so much for privacy, right, so much for getting away from it all. So you can kind of spend some time but the Lord knew all of that. And he's compassionate, as we will see. And I'm sure there were many other things that he did that aren't recorded here. Okay? Verse 26, "Now the woman was a Gentile of the Syrophoenician race." Now, you will recall that Mark is speaking primarily to a Gentile audience. So it's important for them to know this. And they would have understood that Rome had annexed Syria and Phoenicia, Matthew described this woman in Matthew 15:22 as a Canaanite woman. So she's clearly a non Jew. And then we read, "And she kept asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter."

So here we come to our first little point, and that is a desperate plea for mercy. Now, you must understand that this would have been absolutely shocking to the disciples, I can imagine their eyes are wide open, their mouth is hanging open, they cannot believe what is happening. For one thing, Jews and Gentiles would have nothing to do with one another. Jews wouldn't even go near a place like this. And here they are right in the middle of Tyre. Moreover, women would never approach a man, never, much less a Jewish rabbi, especially, and idol worshipping woman. I mean, this Gentile woman would have been like, toxic nuclear radiation to a Jewish rabbi. But Jesus knew that the disciples were still struggling with the Messianic blessing of salvation being extended to the Gentiles. So none of this caught him by surprise. In his sweet providence, he was orchestrating it all. He was going to teach them something. And you also have to understand that for this woman to do this, and mind you, there would have been a crowd all around. For her to keep asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter meant that she was abandoning her pagan idol worship and putting her faith in the Jewish Messiah, which would translate into becoming an outcast in her own family and society. Imagine if you did that, in Iran today. That's the idea. So she risked everything. Now we're going to see several other things here. We're going to see that she was well acquainted with who Jesus was. We're also going to see that God had already been at work in her heart, drawing her unto himself in repented faith and salvation. Because we know according to what Jesus said in John 6:44, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them." There is an irresistible, compelling force that's at work, when God draws us unto himself. Often that's what's going on here. So none of this caught Jesus by surprise. I find it interesting as well as a little side note, to compare this scenario with Elijah's provision of food for a Syrophoenician woman, and her son at Zarephath, which was between Tyre and Sidon. And the resurrection of that son, you read about that in 1 King 17. Again, now back to verse 25. "But after hearing of him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at his feet."

So her little daughter, we don't know how old she was, was possessed by a demon. And certainly, this is not surprising, given the demonic culture in which they lived. And friends, we cannot imagine the level of wickedness, the cesspool of evil that they lived in. And there are pockets of this, even in many of our cities in the United States. But imagine the horror of such a thing. Imagine having a little girl that you love, that would sometimes speak with a hideous voice, and sometimes do violence to herself, to threaten perhaps her mother and other people. All of the bizarre behaviors, it would be heartbreaking, would it not? Of course, it would. Obviously, the mother knew that her idols were powerless to do anything. But she also knew that they were the cause of her problems. And she also knew that Jesus was the answer. Now remember, Jesus arrival on Earth at his incarnation ignited a firestorm of demonic activity, it's like going in and poking a hornet's nest. So there's a lot of demonic activity going on. And every encounter that Jesus had with these demons, we see that they were absolutely terrified of him. And he had complete power over them because he was their Creator. In fact, he ordained to allow Satan and his demons to wreak havoc upon the earth. While God is never the cause of sin, as we understand the Scripture, we see that he does bring it about indirectly through the willing and the voluntary actions of moral creatures. In fact, this is evident from God's own testimony of himself. When he said in Isaiah 45, verse seven, "I form the light and create darkness I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord, do all these things." Beloved, nothing happens to the Lord that he has not sovereignly ordained to allow. In God's permissive providence, we see that he operates through second causes, which includes not only the the evil propensity in Satan and the angelic beings, but also the actual decree that they would eventually rebel. And although all the angelic beings were created, originally, as very good, remember in Genesis one, even though that is true, the New Testament makes it clear that Satan was a murderer from the beginning. He was the father of lies. Jesus spoke about this in John eight, verse 44. And all through Scripture we see that he ordained to allow evil, to enter into his perfect universe, through the voluntary choices of moral creatures in order to dramatically display his glory, the glory that we see and his holiness and His wrath and His mercy in His grace, His love and His power, and we see all of these things working here, even in this passage of Scripture. So God allowed this woman's little daughter to be possessed by an unclean spirit. In verse 25, we read "and immediately she came and fell at his feet." Again, an amazing scene, something that was virtually unheard of, for a Gentile woman to do. In the original language, the word for falling at one's feet, is a term that means to prostrate oneself, to fall on your face, an act of humble submission, and reverent homage. In fact, we read the same word, remember the Samaritan leper that Jesus healed in Luke 17 Verse 15? We read he was the One who turned back glorifying God with a loud voice. And he fell on his face. "Pipto" in the original language, same term, he fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to him. But people you must understand that nobody does this unless the Spirit of God is at work in their heart. And that's what we see in this text. The Spirit of God is drawing this woman into Christ in genuine saving face.

So she falls at Jesus feet, verse 26. "Now, the woman was a Gentile of the Syrophoenician race." I've already talked about that. But remember, again, in His providence, the Lord is orchestrating all of this, drawing her unto himself, that he might save her, but also to show his disciples that the gospel of salvation was intended for all people, not just for the Jews. Remember, the Jews thought non Jews were eternally separated from God's Kingdom purposes. After all, according to Exodus 19, six, God says, "You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." But he also made this promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 in verse three, "And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed." And indeed, Israel was to be the custodians of God's truth. They were to be a witness nation to the world. Psalm 67 seven says, "God blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear Him." But we also know that they failed miserably in giving God glory. We see that all through the Old Testament and in the New Testament, we see how they rejected their rightful king and the kingdom that he offered. Just read about that in Acts two, for example, if I can digress for a moment, because I find this so fascinating, because we see elements of this in this text,

Jesus, you will recall in Matthew 21, verse 43, said to the Jewish leaders of his day, "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it." Now, there there are some that believe this is a reference to the church permanently replacing Israel. I do not believe that is a viable biblical explanation, because in Matthew 19:28, and Matthew 23 and verse 29, Jesus affirmed a future for national Israel. Moreover, this would contradict the teaching of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Look at Deuteronomy 31 through eight, look at Zechariah 12 through 14, look at Luke 132 and 33. Look at Romans 11:26, and many other passages. So this promise that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it will be fulfilled literally when the Jewish people eventually embrace their King in saving faith. Romans 11, verse 25, and 26. That will be when, according to Matthew 23 and verse 39, just a few verses later, they will cry out, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." But until then, God's Kingdom purposes are being temporarily fulfilled in the church. And this will continue until a future nation of Israel cries out to him for salvation. So Mark makes it clear here that this was a Gentile woman of the Syrophoenician race, again, to demonstrate how salvation is now being offered to non Jews. And we cannot under emphasize how much the Jews hated the Gentiles, and how much the Gentiles hated them. By the way, we see a little of this today and the whole Iran/Israel thing, don't we? They want to wipe them off the face of the earth, and so forth. Paul addressed this in Ephesians two that we read earlier in our scripture reading, beginning of verse 11. He's says, Therefore remember that formerly you the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision, by the so called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, You who formerly were or far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." And beloved, we're seeing an example of this here in this historical narrative, verse 26. Again, we read, "And she kept asking," the original is very clear, is the idea of she just kept asking over and over again and again, she would not shut up. She was absolutely persistent, "Asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter." Matthew explains it this way. In chapter 15, verse 22, there we read that, "she began to cry out saying, 'Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David, my daughter is cruelly demon possessed.'" What a remarkable statement. I mean, think about this, her theology was far superior to all of the Jewish leaders. And frankly, many evangelicals today. She addressed him as Lord, in other words, her master, the one in whom she was willing to submit. And she used his messianic title, the son of David. So she understood these things. Moreover, she's crying out for undeserved mercy. And we're going to see more of that as we look at the text. So clearly, she understood Jesus to be something more than some impersonal Miracle Worker, she understood the gospel. And the reason she understood the gospel is because God was doing a work in her heart, because that's what God does.

So we've seen a desperate plea for mercy. Now we're going to see a deliberately delayed response. This is really interesting. Verse 27, "And Jesus was saying to her, let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." Matthew puts it this way, Matthew 15, beginning of verse 23, "But he did not answer her a word," like can you imagine that? She's hounding him here, publicly. He's not answering her. "And his disciples came and implored him saying, Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us. But he answered and said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Why, can't you just see how there is an object lesson that's growing here with all of this? Now, mind you, if you just look at the text here, in both Mark and Matthew, this sounds really rude, maybe condescending, especially in light of her persistent pleading, ah, the dear friends, Scripture always interpret Scripture, right? And we know what Jesus said in John six and verse 37, "All that the Father gives Me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not what I'm going to cast her out." So what's going on? Well, one thing for sure is he is testing her faith to prove its authenticity to his disciples. And she is going to pass that test with flying colors, because of the Spirit of grace in her heart. But also you must remember, once again, the context, you must remember what Jesus has been dealing with. And that is Israel's fickle, superficial faith, combined with utter rejection. And now we're going to see just the opposite of all of this. He obviously knew she was part of the bridal church that God hadn't given him in eternity past. And notice what he says in verse 27. "Let the children," and what you must understand the children is a reference to the Jews. "Let the children be satisfied first." In other words, let Israel be the first to partake of this food of spiritual blessing that I offer. Now remember, the first stage of the gospel witness was to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16. Remember? In fact, in Acts 13, verse 46, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life behold, we are turning to the Gentiles." And he said that in the context of the Jews being furious, that somehow they were presenting the kingdom purposes of God and salvation to Gentiles.

So back to verse 27, "let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." Now dogs here in the original language is the diminutive form of dog, and it means little dog, it's referring to a tame, domesticated house dog. And although the Jews refer to Gentiles as dogs, what Jesus is saying here is not meant to be some kind of a racial slur. What Jesus point is, is very clear. He is simply saying, You don't feed the little dogs that are begging under the table before you feed the children. But this lady would not relent. Because true, saving faith is not going to give up because it's Spirit empowered. She is undaunted, and undaunted in her pleadings. Now, I would imagine even though the text doesn't say this, I think, I mean, we know that she's fallen on her face. She's probably now raising up maybe to her knees, with tears streaming down her face. She's been crying out to the Lord, to help her and her little daughter oblivious to the watching crowd, can you imagine the scene? It would be heart wrenching. And again, I imagine the disciples are standing back. I mean, they're speechless. They're utterly flabbergasted at what's going on. Verse 28, "But she answered and said to him, 'Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs.'" Matthew puts it this way, Matthew 15, verse 25, "But she came and began to bow down before Him saying, Lord help me!" Not just her daughter, but help me. "And he answered and said, 'It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.' But she said, 'Yes, Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs, which fall from their masters table.'"

Dear friends, don't miss this powerful truth. The Lord has arranged all of this. He's orchestrated all of this, so that she would declare these things with such passion. Now, yes, indeed, it's true that all the biblical covenants were given to Israel, were given to the Prophets, the scriptures were given to them, the Messiah, were all given to Israel. Paul speaks of this in Romans nine, beginning of verse three, he says, "my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to Whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises who are the fathers." Yes, all of that's true. But that didn't mean that the Gentiles received nothing. And that's what Jesus is showing. In fact, we know that God literally, and continually, uses the salvation of Gentiles, to make Jews jealous so that they will be saved. It's an amazing thought. Paul reminded the Gentiles that Moses prophesied of this very thing in Romans 10, beginning of verse 19. He says, "I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, by a nation without understanding will I anger you." And in Romans 11, beginning of verse 11, "I say, then" they referring to Jews, "did not stumble, stumble so as to fall," which means to be destroyed beyond salvage. "They did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous." There it is, in one sentence, God is using Israel's failure to bring salvation to the Gentiles. He uses the Gentiles to cause elect Jews to become envious, to arouse Israel to yearn for salvation to yearn for their Messiah, that they might be reconciled to God. The very God that is blessing the Gentiles. Romans 11:12. Paul continues, he says, "Now, if their transgression," referring to the Jews, "if their transgression be riches for the world, and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be1" In other words, if those wild olive branches, those Gentiles, that have Been engrafted into the Abrahamic covenantal blessing, the root of that blessing, with all of its millennial consequences, how much more will their fulfillment be referring to Israel's restoration. And he goes on in verses 25 and 26, to describe it when all Israel will be saved and so forth. Oh, dear Christian, we see these promises being fulfilled to the Gentiles right here in this text before us. And what an amazing thing it is for all of us. Again, verse 28, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs." In other words, what she's saying is, I will gladly, I will gladly be compared to those unworthy little house dogs for that I am. But I plead with you that I might at least eat of the children scraps. My how Jesus tested her faith. And whenever God tests true saving faith, it always proves it. Think of Job. Moreover, the testing of our faith strengthens our faith. That's what's going on here.

So we see a desperate plea for mercy, a deliberately delayed response. And then finally, a display of sincere faith rewarded, verse 29, "And he said to her, 'Because of this answer,'" in other words, because of the great faith that I see in your heart, that I have implanted in your heart, because of your great hope, in me and love for me, "'go, the demon has gone out of your daughter.'" Matthew 15, verse 23, Matthew says, "Then Jesus said to her old woman, 'Your faith is great.'" Don't you love that? Don't you want to have great faith? Not some weak, mealy mouth, phony faith. You want to have great faith, oh, woman, Your faith is great. It shall be done for you as you wish. Then we read "and her daughter was healed at once." Oh, the omnipotent power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I was reading this I was thinking how this was the exact opposite of "Little Faith." Remember in Pilgrims Progress, who took a nap in Dead Man's Lane, a place that was frequented by murderers and so forth? This lady had great faith. Where does she get that great faith? Does she just come up with it on her own? No faith is a free gift from God. And then I love this next verse, "And going back to her home."

Now let's think about that. She trusted him enough to say, Okay, I'm gonna go back home. Little Faith would say, Oh, you need to come with me here. You know, in case it didn't work? No, all she needed was for him to say what he did. "And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left." What faith and what compassion? What compassion Jesus showed time and time again, to women, right? That's another amazing thought. This scenario reminds me of First Thessalonians one. Paul addressed the idol worshipers there in Thessalonica, who had come to Christ, beginning of verse nine, he said, "For they themselves, report about us what kind of reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God and wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come." Oh dear friends, I pray that each of you have placed your faith in Christ. And I would ask you to ask yourself, How would you compare your faith with this dear woman? And I must say that it is the great burden of my heart to see such shallow faith among so many people that profess faith in the Lord Jesus. Those who profess faith in Christ but live on the outer boundaries of the church, on the periphery. Those who just kind of come occasionally, who aren't really involved. For people who really don't see Christ as central to their life, he only exists in the periphery of their thoughts and their affections. He exists only in the margins of their priorities, not at the sanctifying center, worshipping Christ corporately with other believing believers and fellowshipping with them. This is kind of an option. Frankly, it's kind of the duty it's not really a desire. And of course, private worship is non existence. No real desire to know Christ, no real love for Christ.

Think of the contrast of what Jesus describes in Matthew 13, verse 44, and following, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field." And beloved, what we see throughout Scripture is this treasure is Christ himself. "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field which a man found and hid again, and from joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." Beloved, is this how you see Christ? As your greatest treasure? This priceless Pearl, that which is deserving of you, forsaking everything you have for him alone. Paul says, "For God, who said, light shall shine out of darkness," Second Corinthians four six, 'Light shall shine out of darkness is the One who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels." This is utterly astounding, dear friends. We have the treasure of Christ in all of his glory, and grandeur living within us. He's the crown jewel of our soul. Nothing compares to him. If we've truly been granted, saving faith Ephesians 3:17, "He dwells in our hearts through faith." Ephesians two verse 20, "Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God." Romans eight verses nine and following," Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Colossians 1:27 "Christ in you the hope of glory." Colossians two beginning in verse six, "Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him, and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude." When I see a Christian that's not overflowing with gratitude, I'm sorry, I have to question the genuineness of your faith. Sadly, these types of things are often foreign to many people that profess faith in Christ. Ask yourself, is he the center of gravity around which my life orbits or do I expect him to orbit around me? And my needs? Is Christ, my greatest treasure? Is he the soul satisfying, Soul transforming, soul exhilarating savior and Lord of my life? Can you truly say that? Or have I placed my faith in Him to merely forgive my sins and make my life go smoothly? I fear for many professing Christians. It is the latter not the former. I asked you when you came to faith in Christ, did you come like this idol worshiper in desperation, but convinced that Jesus was your only hope. And there was nothing that could stop you from coming to him. That he was your omnipotent creator. That he was God very God, the Promised Messiah? Did you bow down before Him and would like her say, Lord, help me. Like the Publican that wouldn't lift up his head and beat on his chest and said, Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner? Is that how you came to Christ? Willing to forsake all of your idols, all of your family and social ties? And willing to abandon your pride and cast yourself solely upon him? Because nothing else is worth what he is. Or did you come to him like you would, an airplane pilot, you know, how it is you get on a plane a lot of times and the pilot is right there at the door, especially on smaller flight. We get on the plane and we put our trust in that pilot, right? We trust him to get us to point A to point B, but we don't really know him. We certainly don't love him. We don't treasure him, we just kind of use him. Of course, the analogy breaks down as all analogies do, but I think you get the point. We can become so selfish and manipulative in our faith.

Dear friends, Christ is not merely an airline pilot. Christ is not merely a means to something more prized, and more satisfying than Christ Himself. Christ is not merely a means to a more glorious end. You must understand that Christ is the all sufficient, all glorious end in himself. He is the great treasure. He is the Pearl of Great Price. Folks, this is the stuff of genuine saving faith. John seven, verse 38, "He who believes in me as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water." Psalm 63, beginning in verse one, "Oh God, you are my God, I shall seek you earnestly. My soul thirst for you by flesh yearns for you in a dry and a weary land where there is no water." Then in verse three, "Your loving kindness is better than life. My lips will praise you so I will bless you as long as I live, I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips." Psalm 107 in verse nine, "He satisfies the longing of my soul." Dear friends, is he the longing of your soul? If he is you will find your greatest satisfaction in him. Nothing else will do. Therefore, we love Christ, we desire Him above all else. And in Him, we find our greatest joy and satisfaction. And beloved, you must understand that it is this sincere love and treasuring of Christ that we receive when we receive the gift of saving faith. When God gives us that miraculous gift, Ephesians two, eight.

I remember when I was nine years old, God saved me on the first row of Edgewood Baptist church, but I had been under conviction for some time before that. Now, all I knew is that I was a sinner, that I was guilty before a holy God, I knew that Jesus was God, that he gave his life for my sins, and that I needed to trust in him. I knew that he was crucified and raised the third day. And I knew that I'd go to hell if I didn't do that. I knew the basics of the gospel. And with that God saved me. Did I see him as my greatest treasure? My greatest joy? Did I cherish him and adore him more than all else that I find in him? The satisfaction of my deepest desires? No. My greatest treasure were probably my horses, my 22 rifle, my shotgun and my bird dogs. Right? But you must understand that when he saved me even as when he saves you, he gives you the gift of faith and in the embryo of that faith, we have all have the spiritual DNA to be able to grow in such a way as to become a mighty oak that treasures Christ more than all else. Because what happened to me and what happened to all of you who truly know Christ, just like this woman is in God's sovereign election. He took this person, this little boy, that he set his love upon and he brought conviction to his heart. And he called me unto himself. And he caused me to be born again, the great miracle of regeneration, the impartation, that supernatural, instantaneous impartation, of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. And he granted me repentance, which is more than just changing behaviors, it means a changing of the mind. In repentance, there is a renovation of the hearts desires. Moreover, he gave me the gift of faith. And in that faith, it's not just a mental assent to an airline pilot, no, no, no, no. Within the DNA, of that embryo, existed, everything that I needed for life and godliness, and over time, through the various means of grace that God gave me, like he gave you, the indwelling Spirit, the Word of God, fellowship, preaching all of those things. Over time, he caused me to see more and more of who Christ really was, who he really is.

Now, I say all of this because if none of this resonates with you, I would plead with you to examine your heart. And I think I could put it this way, because of my love for Christ, that He has granted me and because I see him as my greatest treasure and delight, because I adore him, as so many of you do, wild horses couldn't keep me away from coming to church on Sunday morning. Why? Because I love him, I want to worship Him. I want to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ. There is nothing that can keep me from worshiping Him privately, from studying his Word, from interacting with Him in prayer. And the point is, so many people that name the name of Christ will hear these things and think, oh, that's just foreign to me. Well, with Christ, He becomes our greatest treasure. And therefore we can say with Paul, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be rubbish. That I may gain Christ. The apostle Paul explained how unbelievers are perishing in second, Thessalonians two. He said, in verse 10, "Because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved." Not that they did not believe the truth, they did not receive the love of the truth. Speaking of the love for Christ, they had no real love for Christ. So they did not have the gift of faith. Matthew 10 Verse 37, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of man, he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of me." First Corinthians 6:22. If anyone does not love the Lord, he has to be accursed. Now, please understand our love for Christ is not a prerequisite for saving faith. No, no, no, no, that's Roman Catholic doctrine. That's faith plus works, Faith plus our virtue. No, that's not at all what we see in Scripture. Christ's righteousness alone is the grounds for our justification, but our love for Christ, our joy in Christ, our delight and satisfaction in his infinite perfections, our treasuring and adoring and thankfulness for who Christ is, are all affections that make up the essential elements of saving faith. They are part of the nature of genuine saving faith. First, John five beginning in verse one, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And whoever loves the Father loves the child born of him. By this, we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and His commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God," now catch this, "whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Beloved, what this text is saying is that if you have no real love for Christ, if you have no desire for his commandments, in fact, if you find them burdensome, if you are unable to overcome all of the things that the world has to offer you, that are in opposition to God, and in fact, you enjoy those things. What he's saying here is you've never been born of God, you've never received the gift of faith. You have never been miraculously united to Christ.

I close with these thoughts. This is at the heart of Paul's doxology. Remember, in Ephesians, one three, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." And I would submit to you that on the basis of what we witnessed here, in this pagan, Gentile woman, as she cast herself on the mercy of Christ, and as we see his response to her, the Lord Jesus blessed her with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Oh, what sincere, authentic faith. One day we will meet Him in glory, right? And we will meet her in glory. May I challenge you to examine your heart? Don't look at your heart and say, well, once upon a time, I made a decision to follow Christ. Judas did the same thing, but he's in hell. The question is, do you really know him? Do you really love him? Do you cherish him above all else? For all of us, who can hardily say amen to that, you can express with me the words of an old hymn that I sang as a child. Although once again, it did not mean as much to me then, as it does now. I'll just read the first verse in the chorus, "Who can cheer the heart like Jesus? By His presence all divine, true and tender, pure and precious, oh how blessed to call him mine. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me. And the fairest of 10,000, in my blessed Lord, I see. Let's pray together. Father, Your Word, by the power of Your Spirit causes our hearts to soar into the heavens as we contemplate the glories of Christ, all that that means to us. We thank you for the gift of saving faith. We thank you for the example of this that we've read about here today. And, Lord, may You help us all to grow in the faith and if there be one that's really not in the faith, I pray that you will bring conviction that they will truly repent and be born again. But Lord, use us mightily as we endeavor to live out our faith, as other people see in us, what Christ truly means to us. We ask you to bless us to these ends, in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.

God has given us a wonderful gift in music has he not? What a profound way to express the doxologies of our heart. And we certainly thank you musicians for leading us with such excellence and faithfulness, and humility.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark seven? We will be looking at verses 14 through 23. Mark seven, verses 14 through 23. I've entitled my discourse to you this morning the source of moral corruption. Follow along as I read the gospel record beginning in verse 14. "After Jesus called with a crowd to him again, he began saying to them, 'Listen to me, all of you and understand, there is nothing outside the man which can defile him, if it goes into him. But the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.' When he had left the crowd, and entered the house, his disciples questioned him about the parable. And he said to them, 'Are you so lacking in understanding also, do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach and is eliminated.' Thus he declared all foods clean. And he was saying, 'That which proceeds out of the man that is what defiles the man for from within, out of the heart of men, precede the evil thoughts for fornications, thefts, murder, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.'"

There is a long standing debate, those of you that have been in philosophy classes in college will remember this, and that is his man inherently good or evil. Of course, the secularists believe that man is inherently good, but can do bad things. And that of course, is because of the effects of his or her environment. For the secularist man is deprived, not depraved. And if you give him the proper love, the proper modeling, the proper socialization, the proper education, giving the right environment and his true goodness is going to show. Of course, that has never happened, but at least that's what they are pursuing. Of course, the question is, how do you define good? I did a little bit of research this week. And to summarize it, the secularists basically define good as being intuitively kind, by nature. We are cooperative, selfless towards our fellow man. But when man acts these ways towards his fellow man, is that really an accurate measure of his nature? What happens when the other guy doesn't reciprocate? What are the real motives behind being kind and cooperative? And selfless? Could those actions be selfish, perhaps? And then another question comes up. Do those good things honor God? Oh, we can't talk about that because we don't know if there is a God. I mean, now you're moving into another whole realm of understanding human nature, we can't talk about that. Now you're introducing theology and anthropologie based upon some understanding of God, whoever he or she might be if he or she even exists. We don't know if there is a God. So we don't know how to honor God. There is no such thing is an absolute standard of right or wrong. So it's intuitive. It's fluid according to societal norms. So if that's true, man is the one that decides what is good and what is evil. That's how people view it today. Of course, the question is which man? Right? Which man decides which group of people? Moreover, I would submit to those people, that if there is no God, if there is absolutely no moral standard, no authority, no standard of righteousness, and if we are nothing more than sophisticated germs, that have evolved out of some primordial gas and crawled out of some swamp, and we've randomly come together to be what we are to today, what difference does it even make? What is good or what is not good? Why should we even care? After all, we're just a mass of randomly selected meaningless cells. Some societies sacrifice human infants in a fire to appease their deity, is that good? There are other societies that enslave other people, other human beings, they torture them. They even eat them, is that good? Some people would say it is. Our society kills unborn, inconvenient babies. Our society claims that gender has nothing to do with biology. Is that good? Who says there are many people that wouldn't agree with that? So how do you define what is good? And then you have to ask the question. Are we as human beings made in the image of God, and all of a sudden, the secularists will begin to snicker and shake their head? Can't believe you would even ask such a stupid question. Well, let me go a bit further. Let's just say that we are. If so, are we not therefore responsible to our Creator? To honor him? Well, now the laughter begins to turn to mocking, right? Has he not revealed himself in creation, and even in our conscience, and even in His Word, the Bible and in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, now the laughter turns to absolute scorn. There is a crescendo of rage, as you begin to logically trace this whole debate. Yet man is basically good. What standard do we use to define good and evil man standard, or God's standard? Who is our moral authority? Is it man? Or is it God? If it's man, it's fluid, it's ever changing. Kind of like whoever wins the next election that becomes the next standard?

Well, of course, as believers because of God's grace, we understand that God exists, that we are responsible to him, and that He has revealed Himself in His Word, and he is the standard of righteousness. Jesus said in Matthew 19, verse 17, "There is only One who is good." referring to God. Now, Isaiah 64, verse six, "For all of us, have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment."Romans 3:23 "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." And we're told in Romans chapter five and verse 12, that through one man, "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." Jesus described the ultimate standard of goodness. Here it is in Matthew 22, beginning in verse 37, Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, this is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets," referring to the Old Testament scriptures.

God has revealed his standard of righteousness and His law. And he has written that in his word, the law of God is sometimes referred to as the mosaic code. And that was the codification of God's holiness, the divine standard of righteousness. And if we look at God's law, we see that the features of his law includes a two fold summarization of his law that I've just read, that we are to love God with all of our being and love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. And then there's a 10 fold summarization of that law. It's called the Decalogue of the 10 commandments, also referred to as the tablets of stone, the Mosaic law given to Moses at Mount Sinai read about it in Exodus 19, through 20. It's also called the Old Covenant. And there we read that if you keep the covenant, you're blessed, if you violate it, you're cursed. The first three, speak of how we are to love God perfectly, it speaks of polytheism, graven images and swearing. And then you have the Sabbath. And then you have the last six tell us how to love our neighbor, it speaks of obedience to parents. It talks about how we should not commit murder, adultery, theft, bear, false witness, coveting, and so forth. And so you have a two fold summarization of the law, a 10 fold summarization of the law. And then there is also a manifold summarization of the law. It's called the words of the covenant. You read about that, and Exodus 24, verse seven, and that, frankly, the entire Book of Leviticus is an expansion, a detailed expansion of the law. Now, all of that was written down for a purpose, and we know that it was to be placed in a receptacle beside the Ark of the Covenant with the tablets of stone inside. And according to Deuteronomy 31, verse 26. Here was God's intention. "Take this book of the law and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, that it may remain there, catch this now, as a witness against you."

You see, folks, the purpose of God's holy, perfect, righteous standard is to expose our sin. To be a witness against us in any breach, any violation means that you broke the whole law. The consequence was death. So the law was extremely oppressive. It shows God's standard of what is good, which is radically different from man standard. Now, it is true that God prescribed certain rituals and regulations and the Mosaic Law prescribed them for Israel, there were regulations with respect to certain foods you could and couldn't eat and certain conditions that could be considered defiling, like there would be certain medical issues that would be defiling like leprosy. Menstruation would render a woman ceremonially unclean during that period, touching a dead body, etc. And God's covenant people were expected to obey the law as best they could. But they were required to do so out of a heart that sincerely loved the Lord. And that's where they failed miserably. They became preoccupied with external symbols that ignored internal purity of the heart. Take, for example, circumcision. God gave that as a law to the men of Israel. And it was the seal of God's covenant with Abraham. It was a reminder of God's covenant promises that was placed on his body and the bodies of all of the male descendants. You read about that in Genesis 17, for example. And while the cutting away of the flesh that could hold disease in its folds and be passed on to wives was important. In those days where they didn't have the hygiene that we do. Now, circumcision also indicated that God's people were in desperate need of cleansing grace, cleansing grace. You can read about this in Leviticus 12. For example, the first three verses, it was a symbol of the need for the heart to be cleansed from a deadly disease, one that would be passed on through reproduction from generation to generation. For example, in Deuteronomy 10. The context there was when the Israelites were encamped on the banks of Jordan, ready to enter into the promised land, the Lord spoke to Moses and spoke through him and gave the people five basic requirements that he expected of his people, beginning in verse 12, of Deuteronomy 10. "Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you." By the way, here's the definition of goodness, right? Here's what He requires "to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and his statutes which I am commanding you today for your good." And later on, he goes on to say so circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. Jeremiah four and verse four, "Circumcise yourself to the Lord, and remove the foreskin of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds." The apostle Paul spoke of this as well in Romans chapter two beginning in verse 28, "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. And his praise is not from men, but from God." Now, the point with these examples is simply this. All of the stipulations, all of the regulations, prohibitions in the Mosaic Law, were merely symbols that illustrated man's sinful condition, and his need for spiritual cleansing, ultimately, to point people to Christ. And if someone was ceremonially defiled, they couldn't even participate in public worship until they underwent an external cleansing. And that would be a graphic picture of man's sinful need, their sinful heart and his need for forgiveness for internal cleansing, before he could ever come into the presence of a holy God. So all of this was symbolic.

Now, this brings us to our text. The scribes and the Pharisees refused to see any of this. Because you see, they believe that spiritual corruption could be removed through physical, external and ceremonial practices. If you do certain external things, then you're good to go. And of course, nothing could be further from the truth. May I remind you, the writer of Hebrews comments on the symbolic nature of the Old Testament rituals in Hebrews eight and verse five. There we read, "they served as a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things." Hebrews 10 And verse one "For the law, since it was only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things can never, by the same sacrifices, which they offer continually, year by year, make perfect those who draw near." You see, dear friends obedience to the law was never meant to save anyone, because it was absolutely impossible to obey the law. That's why again, it was called a witness against you. Deuteronomy 31:26, but rather it pointed people to the need, their need, for a Savior. And that's because "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," Romans three and verse 23. Remember man has an innate inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God, he is a sinner by nature. And Jeremiah chapter 17, verse six says that the "heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick, who can understand it?" We must understand that the material and immaterial parts of man have been corrupted by sin. And the consequence of that is physical death and eternal death, unless we trust in Christ to save us, since corruption, in the spiritual part of Man, has defiled, has corrupted, has polluted his thinking, his reason, his desires, his affections, his motives. And Titus one in verse 15, Paul said, "to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled." Ephesians four and verse 18, "they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the their hardness of heart." And in Romans chapter one and verse 21, we see that that sinful mankind is, quote, "futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." So his man inherently good, or depraved. Of course, man is hopelessly biased in his own favor. And he would say, Oh, we're basically good. Just give us all the good things that we need, and we'll show you how good we are. And God says something very, very different. Unless you understand this, you will never see your need for a Savior, and you will perish in your sins. Romans three beginning of verse 10. We read the apostle Paul, indicting man's character, his conversation, his conduct, and he quotes several Old Testament passages There we read, "There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside together, they have become useless. There is no one who does good there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave with their tongues, they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes." That's God's answer, dear friends. You see man is an active hater of God. Romans eight seven will tell you that, and on his own apart from regenerating grace, he has no capacity to understand and embrace spiritual truth. First Corinthians 2:14.

Now, while the secularists have always mocked all of this, mocked God's standard of goodness, you must understand that many in apostate Judaism have done the same thing. And this is what Jesus had to deal with. They believed that spiritual defilement or evil worked its way inside of a person from the outside. Now this is why going back to our text, in Mark seven, the scribes and Pharisees confront Jesus and in verse five, they say, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?" Don't you realize you can't do that you're gonna get defiled. And as a result, Jesus confronts their stupidity, their hypocrisy. And he exposes their elaborate system of external rituals and ceremonies that they believed would impress God and make them righteous in his eyes. And now here in verses 14 through 23, he explains to his disciples and to the crowd, the true source of moral corruption. This moral corruption does not originate from outside of us, it originates from within us, which is a chilling reality that should give us all pause. Man's very nature is corrupt, and he is utterly helpless to change it. Only the regenerating work of the Spirit of God can raise us from spiritual death to spiritual life. Because you must understand, beloved, that man's will is in bondage to his depraved nature. He has absolutely no desire to choose saving faith apart from Divine initiative. That's why Jesus told the great teacher of Israel, Nicodemus, a fastidious keeper of the law, in John three told him that you must be born again. Something has to happen to you that you can't do to yourself. You must be raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, by the power of the Spirit of God, that will give you the gift of repentant faith in the Lord Jesus. So salvation is, is not a matter of avoiding contamination from external sources. It's not a matter of keeping manmade rules and regulations, not even keeping the law. Because again, obedience to the law was never a means of salvation. Assuming anybody could keep it safe, the God man, Christ Jesus, Romans three in verse 20, the apostle Paul says, "by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin." It's an incredible statement. I mean, think about this, Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, right? I mean, he was top dog in his day, the most elite of the elite, another fastidious keeper of the law, and a killer of Christians. But when he examined his life against the law, by the power of the Spirit that had transformed him, he died, he says, Romans seven, verse nine, "sin became alive and I died," he went on to say it proved to result in death for me. Why, what's he saying? Well, what the law did was expose the depths of his sinfulness. And it underscored the heights of God's standard of righteousness. And in light of that disparity, he knew instantly, that he was guilty. And he was helpless. dependent solely upon God's grace, as we all are, all his righteous accomplishments, and pride were reduced to ashes. And I might add that the same will be true of everyone that sees their sin for what it is, and sees Christ for who he is. Because our only hope is faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross.

Of course, all of these gospel truths were horribly offensive to the Pharisees and scribes. They're trying to kill him. And so as we look at the text, I want to do so under two headings that will help us grasp these very simple truths. First of all, we're going to look at the source of moral corruption. And then secondly, examples of moral corruption. Now, let me give you the more immediate context here, Jesus has just had a confrontive conversation with the scribes and Pharisees, I call them the hit squad that was sent by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. And apparently, the delegation now has departed after Jesus rebuts their ridiculous accusations. And so they leave and now Jesus is going to call the crowds that had probably moved back a little bit, because whenever these guys would come around, with all of their, their robes and everything, everybody else would back away because these are the holy men. So, scribes and Pharisees have gone, crowds around, they've kind of overheard some of this and they're wondering what's going to happen next. And Jesus called them in closer to him. So first, we're going to see what Jesus has to say with respect respect to number one, the source of moral corruption.

Notice verse 14. "After he called the crowd to him again, he began saying to them, 'Listen to me, all of you and understand.'" Now I want you to notice the authority that he exerts in his statement, and this is a clear contrast between him and the authority of the scribes and Pharisees. Their used to listening to them. And he is now saying, I want you to listen to me, not them. In fact, the verb listen is used nine times in Mark and it's always in the context of a solemn pronouncement. A solemn pronouncement, he goes on in verse 15, "there is nothing outside the man which can defile him, if it goes into him with the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man." Now folks you must understand, this is absolutely shocking to these people. What Jesus is saying is turning their world upside down. They've never heard anything like this. I mean, they've been doing all of these things, are trying to, and the law and then all the manmade stuff, the ridiculous stuff that the scribes and Pharisees have added down through the years. And he's basically saying that none of this is really defiling. But there's something inside that is defiling. Verse 16, says, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." I might add that this is a phrase not found in the earliest and some of the most reliable manuscripts. And so even if we were not sure that it needs to be here, however, Jesus did, say this in other settings. So what happens here is Jesus is using kind of a short parable, basically, a riddle. And we see that in verse 17, In other words, his statement is a rather enigmatic, kind of a mysterious saying, that has wide application, and it will cause people to pensively reflect upon its meaning. An easy statement, but one that you got to think about a bit, especially when you've never heard anything like that. So you're not only going to think about it, but apply it to your life. And so Jesus is literally reversing the guiding principle of their religious system. He's saying that nothing outside of a man can enter into him and make him unclean. Rather, the defilement already exists within. And it is therefore what is in him that is going to come out of him that makes him unclean.

Let me give you another example of this in Matthew 23. Jesus made it a habit of humiliating and excoriating the scribes and the Pharisees on this very issue. Matthew 23, beginning in verse 24, he says, "You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self indulgence, you blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup, and of the dish so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside, appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Jesus never understood what we now understand today how important it is to be seeker sensitive. Obviously, that is ridiculous. He just unleashed the truth. This is why the Jews hated him, because he kept exposing them. Not to mention he claimed to be God. I might add that in many parts of the world, nothing has changed. I got a email this week from our friend Wes Tabor, remember Wes Tabor, with life and Messiah. We support them, the evangelistic mission organization that is primarily made up of Jewish people that have come to faith in Christ and they ministered to Jews all over the world. But he emailed me from Hong Kong to remind me of, of a Jewish friend, a former IDF soldier that that I know. In fact, he was here at my father's funeral if when some of you were here, but he was telling me how he was reading my father's book, the one that I wrote, out of the depths some of you have most of you probably have read that if you haven't, I would encourage you to do so. It's an amazing testimony of God's faithfulness and Providence but this soldier former soldier was reading My dad's book in Israel in the home of a rabbi, friend of his, and the rabbi asked him, What are you reading? And he told him and the rabbi looked at it and just went medieval on him. He took a black marker and he started blacking out Jesus everywhere he could. And he finally got in such a rage, he just threw the book away. Folks, that's the kind of hostility that Jesus dealt with, and still does. So nothing has really changed since the first century. Even though by God's grace, there are many Jewish people, including many rabbis coming to faith in Christ. So Jesus didn't seek any common ground, he just unleashed the truth on them. And of course, that was very offensive. It was countercultural. So he's saying again, that the external things like food and unwashed hands are not the source of defilement that offends God. The source is your fallen nature. It's the moral impurities in your heart. It's your your, your desires, your thoughts, your attitudes. That is what defiles the man verse 15. Now let's notice what happened next in verse 17, when he had left the crowd and entered the house, what happened? Now he probably went to Peter's house, he's probably in Capernaum. His disciples questioned him about the parable. So the disciples are saying, you know, we need to talk. I'm not sure I get all of this. Because again, they they've not understood these types of things. Before I tell you, what are we look at what Mark says, Let me see, see, or let's see what Matthew has to say about it. And Matthew 15, beginning in verse 12, here's what happens next. "Then the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard the statement?" You know, I would imagine Jesus is shaking his head saying, really? Yeah, I kind of knew that that would offend them. Because you see to the Jewish people, you never talk back to these guys. These guys have all the answers. But he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly father did not plant shall be uprooted, let them alone. In other words, because of their willful rejection of their Messiah, in light of full knowledge of who he is, God has abandoned them to the eternal consequences of their iniquities. And by the way, the same can be said of other false teachers that we have today. Just let them alone. God has given them over. He goes on to say they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. "Peter said to Him, explain the parable to us. Jesus said, Are you still lacking an understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth, passes into the stomach and is eliminated?" In other words, guys, let me give you biology and physiology 101 here. All right, things go in the mouth. They go into the stomach and they are eliminated. They don't somehow get into the heart and cause you to do bad things. Don't you understand that? He says, but the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, slanders, these are the things which defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. Now, Mark records essentially the same thing. Look at verse 18. "And he said to them, are you so lacking an understanding also, do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart but into his stomach and is eliminated?" And then Mark offers kind of an explanatory comment. Here."He said "Thus He declared all foods clean." This was perhaps influenced by by Peter who understood this very well from his experience, you will recall and an Acts 10. He was in Joppa and a sheet filled with all kinds of animals were presented to him in a vision and he was commanded get up Peter kill and eat and then later on, we read what God has cleanse no longer consider unholy. And so there again here's Mark saying "Thus he declared all foods clean." And so a paraphrase of that verse 19. It could be something like this by saying these things, Jesus was ending all distinction between ceremonially clean and unclean foods. By the way, I also find great comfort that God was not a vegan, right? I'm sure the the disciples wore those shirts that says PETA, people enjoying tasty animals, right? So then we have a summary statement there in verse 20, "Jesus was saying that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man."

And so now what he does is he shifts from an analogy from the physical to the spiritual. We've seen the source of moral corruption. Now we're going to see number two, examples of moral corruption, these things that occur within the realm of the spiritual the inner man. And here the Lord will provide a representative list of evil actions, there are six of them. And then evil attitudes, six of those as well. So six examples of wicked behaviors followed by six attitudes or drives or states of the heart. And he begins in verse 21, and says, "For from within, out of the heart of men, precede the evil thoughts," Dialogismos, in the original language, you get our word dialogue from that, it's really fascinating. It means deliberations in this case, within the mind, machinations in the mind, reflections, it refers to one's perceptions, one's ideas, one's motives, the content of what a person thinks. That's what he's referring to here with these evil thoughts. "For from within, out of the heart of man, precede the evil thoughts." It could be translated evil schemes or designs, or devising things. Literally, if you translate it from the Greek, those bad dialogue, musings, it's a really ridiculous way of saying it, but that's the idea. And think about I mean, we're constantly carrying out a dialogue in our mind conversation, discussions, and often it's sinful, it's self serving, selfish, no thought of doing even what is good for the glory of God. And what we say in our heart is far more revealing than what we say in public, right? I mean, there are lots of times when I don't want you to know what I'm thinking in my heart, and I'm even ashamed of it. I may be the only one in here that has that problem. But that's reality. Proverbs 23, verse seven, "for As a man thinks within himself, so is he." So think of this, the evil thoughts or the dialogues in the heart of the unregenerate is exceedingly more evil than those of us who have been born again. And then it flows out of the heart and to speech and actions. In fact, the Psalmist says in Psalm 14, verses one through three, "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God they are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds, there is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand who seek after God, they have all turned aside together, they have become corrupt, there is no one who does good, not even one." And of course, this is some of what Paul quoted in Romans three. So again, in verse 21, Jesus begins "For from within out of the heart of man, precede the evil thoughts, these evil machinations and the phrase here evil, evil thoughts." Appears to be kind of an overarching caption, kind of an umbrella phrase that introduces the more specific vices to follow. Let's look at the six examples of evil actions. And I might also add that the first four are included in the second half of the 10 commandments, in Exodus 20, verses 13 through 17. And Jesus's disciples would have immediately recognized this, so within their heart, within our heart exists, first of all fornications. Porneia in the original language. You get our word pornography from that. It speaks of sexual sins, immoral sins, illicit sexual behavior of any description, whether it's inside or outside of, of marriage. To make it more practical, this is Spring Break debauchery. This is stuff that's just in people's hearts. This is premarital sexual intercourse. This is viewing pornography. This is telling and listening to off color jokes. This is women who dress seductively in order to entice men to lust this is the the type of thing that progresses to homosexuality and to the whole transgender insanity, you know the whole alphabet people thing you know the the all of the stuff that we just shake our heads at. This is what we see with stand up comics all the time, right? They're always twisting everything to give it some sexual innuendo and everybody snickers This is commercials on television now that promote homosexuality in the transgender perversions, lyrics in most music, political slogans, late night television, you can't even watch it. Filthy game show hosts that like to twist things. Even many political pundits are masters of twisting every word, every phrase, every joke, everything has some double meaning. This is fornications in the heart. This didn't come from eating something.

Than thefts. It's a form of a Greek term klope, we get the verb klepto. We get our word kleptomaniac from that. And it's description is descriptive of anybody that takes things from other people. I mean, this is, I was thinking about our politicians, it's the act of taking from other people of stealing things, cheating on your income tax, shoplifting, loafing on the job, withholding from God and so forth. He goes on and gives another one, murderers. Of course, this is the illicit killing of another human being. We have this all over the place and in our world today I think of abortion, which is the brutal dismemberment of of an unwanted inconvenient infant. Jesus said, By the way, in Matthew five and verse 21, and 22, that just to hate other people, is murder in the heart. Also, he adds adulteries. This would refer to sexual sins that violate the covenant of marriage. And Jesus again taught that a married man even even if he looks at another woman, lustfully has committed adultery in his heart. Matthew 5:28 deeds of coveting verse 22, this speaks of greed. This speaks of avarice, desires, and behaviors. You want what other people have. This fuels all kinds of things in our culture today, this is fueling the whole reparations debate, the insanity of the woke culture. Then he adds wickedness. This is just a kind of a catch all term that describes any malicious acts that violate the word and the will of God, a summary of all that has been mentioned, and many other forms of wickedness. By the way, there are many other lists of these types of sins and other places, especially in the New Testament. I might add that Matthew includes in this list, bearing false witness and slanders.

And then Jesus lists six attitudes or drives or states that exist within the heart. In verse 22, as well as deceit, this speaks of fraud, this speaks of being cunning and treacherous, trying to take advantage of other people. We could we could talk for an hour about all of the ways that we see this being manifested in our culture, people taking advantage of other people. Sensuality, that speaks of lewdness, or use a an old English word licentiousness, debauchery, wantonness, indecency, and has the kind of connotation of open and flagrant excess. Shameless, unrestricted unbridled immorality.This is the type of stunning immodesty that you see at the beach. And sadly, at Walmart. This is gay pride parade. This is drag shows, people that have no self control. They love to flaunt their perverse impulses. That's why Paul said in Romans 124, "therefore, God gave them over in the loss of their hearts." Literally the illicit cravings of their hearts," He gave them over to impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them."

And then he adds envy. a foul most Canaris, we get our word ophthalmologist and so forth. It literally means an evil eye, or a sinister eye. Envy. I love what I read from one commentator by the name of Hendrickson. Quote, "jealousy and envy can be distinguished. Jealousy is the fear of losing what one has envy is the displeasure of seeing someone else have something." And he goes on to say "our English word envy comes from the Latin "invidia", meaning, quote, to look against, that is to look with ill will at another person because of what he has, or is. It was envy, he goes on to say, "that caused the murder of Abel, that through Joseph into a pit that caused Korah, Dathan and Abiram to rebel against Moses and Aaron, that made Saul pursue David, they gave rise to the bitter words which the" quote, "elder brother addressed to his father, in the parable of the prodigal son, and which crucified Christ," and then he closed by saying, "Love, never envies."

Admit it folks, this exists in our hearts right. And even though God has renewed our hearts, given us a new heart, there are still remnants of the flesh that are there. Then he adds, slander, of which is abusive speech, which would include just even the especially the untrue, exaggerated defamation of another person's character, pride, arrogance, haughtiness, insolence, an exaggerated sense of self importance, superiority that leads to habitual self promotion. By the way, this is much of what fuels social media, people are desperate for attention. They're desperate to flaunt themselves. These are the people that dominate conversations. These are the people that are the hero of their of every story and so forth. And the scribes and the Pharisees were the poster children for this. I mean, they were proud peacocks. And they made some of our pro athletes look humble. The disciples struggled with this as well, right? Did they not argue about who's going to be first in the kingdom? We all struggle with this, we have to admit it. He adds "and foolishness," which is just moral folly. In fact, the Old Testament fool is always associated with one who is wicked, who has a wrong attitude toward God. Remember, Jesus told the rich man in his parable in Luke 12, beginning in verse 20, he says, "you fool this very night, your soul is required of you and now who will own what you have prepared. So as the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." Paul said in Ephesians, five beginning of verse 17, "So then do not be foolish." In other words, do not be devoid of wisdom and good sense and sound judgment. "Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, do not get drunk with wine for that is dissapation but be filled with the Spirit." And as we look at this list, foolishness is basically a summarizing vice that encompasses the preceding five drives or words that Jesus used.

Then in verse 23, closes, "all these things proceed from within, and defile the man." These things don't happen because we ate something with dirty hands or we ate the wrong food. We're defiled because of what's in our heart. Charles Spurgeon said this, "The heart is the spring of action. The heart suggests, resolves, designs, and sets the whole train of life in motion. The heart gives the impulse and the force and yet out of the heart, thus initiating and working, proceeds all this mischief of sin. By the heart is meant mainly the affections, but it all often includes the understanding and the will. It is in fact, the man's vital self. Sin is not an extra that comes to us and afflicts us like robbers breaking into our house at night. But it is a tenet of the soul, dwelling within us, as in its own house. This evil worm has penetrated into the kernel of our being and there it abides. Sin has intertwisted itself with the warp and woof of our nature, and none can remove it but the Lord God himself. As long as the heart remains unchanged, out of it will precede that which is sinful, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually." And finally, he adds, "If it is so that the nest in which sin is born and nurtured is the heart itself, we always carry about with us by nature, that which will surely be the cause of sin. Unless we look well to it, and cry daily for grace to conquer it. This evil nature of ours is an always present danger. It is a powder magazine, which at any moment may explode oh for grace, to keep our hearts with all diligence."

Beloved, as we close this morning, we can rejoice in the miracle of regeneration. Because of the Spirit's work that he has wrought within us. He has given us a new heart right? He's cleaned our heart no longer are we slaves to our sin. No longer does sin, still reign, but it still remains. And therefore we need to watch over our heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs tells us how do we do that Let me close with this thought. Out of Psalm 119. Beginning in verse nine. "How can a young man keep his way pure?" That's the question. Here's the answer. "By keeping it according to your word, with all my heart I have sought you do not let me wander from your commandments. Your word have I treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You. Blessed, are you oh Lord, teach me Your statutes. With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies. As much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways I shall delight in your statutes I shall not forget your word." Oh dear friends for grace let's pray that our hearts would certainly be guarded by the word. Because that is the source of moral corruption. Yet it is that same heart that Christ has cleansed. What can wash wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow no other found I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Father, we thank you for the blood of Jesus that is cleansed us. We rejoice in your saving grace. Take what we have learned today. Plant them deep within our hearts that they might grow and produce a great harvest to the praise of your glory. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.

Our text this morning is in Mark's gospel. If you will take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter seven, we will be looking at verses one through 13. Under the heading, confronting religious hypocrisy, let me read the texts to you. Mark seven beginning in verse one. "The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves. And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, 'Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but ether bred with impure hands.' And He said to them, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites. As it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines, the precepts of men.' 'Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.' He was also saying to them, 'you are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother, and he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death. But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have, that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God), you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother, thus invalidating the Word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. And you do many things, such as that.'"

Religious hypocrisy is spiritual, make believe. And it's prevalent in evangelicalism today. It is costume Christianity. It is being a Christian in name only. Hypocrisy is basically external acts that thrive on errant doctrines. And together they provide the illusion of spirituality for the hypocrite that is deceived by his or her own actions. And the scribes and the Pharisees were actually the poster children for phony, self righteous, religious externalism. But I must say we must all guard our own heart in light of these things. In fact, Charles Spurgeon said, quote, "Beware of no man, more than yourself, we carry our worst enemies within us." Indeed, dear friends, we must all be suspect of our spirituality. The heart is deceitful, it is desperately wicked, and we are hopelessly biased in our own favor. But Jesus warned of the danger of hypocrisy, especially within the church, within professing Christendom, especially in Matthew seven, "Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it." Then he adds this, "for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it." In verse 15, and following he went on to say, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles are they? So every good tree bears good fruit but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire so that you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and then your name, cast out demons and in your name, perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."

Dear friends, self deception, and errant doctrine, work together to lead to hypocrisy. To pretend Christianity, to that Christianity, that's all sizzle, but no steak. I think of the tragic legacy of the flamboyant revivalist preacher, Charles Finney, he lived from 1792 to 1875, and he created the manipulative methods designed to get people to make a decision for Christ. Finney believed that human depravity is a voluntary condition, not that we're born with it, that is to say, "its continuance depends upon the choice of the human will," he said, "Let a man once decide for Christ and he will become a new man. So the evangelists is not simply to preach Christ and tell men of their duty to believe he has to help make that believing a reality by appointing some outward action to assist a change of will," end quote. He was the one that came up with the anxious bench and the altar calls, the practice of calling people up to a pretend altar and getting them to make a public decision for Christ and therefore having a visible display of regeneration. In fact, he said, quote, "God has found it necessary to take advantage of the excitability there is in mankind to produce powerful excitements among them before he can lead them to obey." Well, obviously, this method of evangelism is, is foreign to the gospel, the gospel that has no dependency upon man's will as much as it does God's sovereignty. And so often, that type of thing produces false converts. And that's much of what we have in evangelicalism today, sadly. In fact, in 1838, a man by the name of James Ivesfoot, a Presbyterian minister, who lived in that era and witnessefd the results of Finney's revival ministry, he wrote this quote, "during 10 years, hundreds and perhaps 1000s, were annually reported to be converted on all hands. But now it is admitted that Finney's real converts are comparatively few." It is declared even by himself that, quote, "the great body of them are a disgrace to religion." Now, there have been times in history where there has been a great outward outworking of the Holy Spirit of genuine revival, you think of what happened in Acts two. And that was the result of gospel preaching, and even the adherence to the great doctrines of grace that are part of the gospel message. There was another great outworking of the Holy Spirit in 1517 that ignited the Protestant Reformation. And then at about 1734 through 49, you have the Great Awakening and New England about 100 years later, you have a second Great Awakening. But there have been many, many counterfeit revivals, many of them and they continue on to this day ignited by false teachers. Think of the Pentecostal Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906 through 1915, and then the Pentecostal Brownsville revival in 1995 through 2000. Maybe some of you remember that at the Brownsville Assembly of God and Pensacola, Florida, all of these things are shooting stars. They appear bright and glorious for a moment and then they disappear in the darkness from whence they came.

And now we are familiar with the presumed revival at Asbury University in Wilmore Kentucky. They of course, they've chronicled a number of revivals on their campus ever since 1970. And there's other colleges that are claiming the same thing. Others trying to replicate that. And I was thinking about this and I know some of you wanted me to address this. And I thought I would briefly in the context of what we're studying here this morning. But at Asbury, you have a school that hosts speakers like Preston Sprinkle, who's on the advisory board of, Revoice, an organization that teaches gay Christianity and promotes gay celibate marriage and same sex relationships. And when you look at what happened at Asbury, I mean, you want to be honest, but you have to say my some strange things with all of that. There are reports of students posting messages on Twitter, about queer students leading in the revival services. One of them said, "day eight and my seminary friends are still leading worship." He went on to add in another tweet. "Did you know that POC, People of Color, women and queer students have been leading worship all eight days, both student bodies have lended themselves into being us towards the throne of God." Dr. Josh Buice, the founder and president of G three ministries, and the pastor of Praise Mill Baptist church made this observation, quote, "another individual published a video of supposed exorcism taking place in the middle of the auditorium. I couldn't help but notice how calm people strolled by when demons were supposedly screaming from inside the body of a person in the auditorium." And to those reports, the fact that false teachers like Todd Bentley, spent a few days there and was raving about his experience on social media media stating, quote, "the holy spirit lingers and you feel tangible waves of his presence," end quote. The Asbury movement appears to bear corrupt fruit on several levels. And then there is the group called the new evangelicals, which is an openly liberal organization that is really the epitome of the woke church. That organization posted a tweet that stated quote, "just met with an openly queer student who said ultimately, they have seen progress at the school over the past four years and believe this revival is planting seeds that will do more good than harm," end quote. Beloved, emotional emotionalism, bereft of truth is counterfeit worship. And false doctrine thrives on the emotions of the naive and the ignorant. Like cancer thrives on sugar. And unrestrained emotion built on deception is highly contagious. Look at the whole Black Lives Matter movement, for example. And many other movements like this that we see happening around the globe periodically. There are hundreds of these so called revivals, special outpourings of the Holy Spirit, so to speak, that happen all the time, especially in third world countries, where you have faith healers and prosperity preachers, bringing 1000s and 1000s of people into these these massive arenas and everybody gets saved, you know, 1000s of people getting saved. And then a few weeks later, the next guy comes and they get saved again. And then a little bit later, they get saved again, they're all hoping that God will somehow make them prosperous, and heal their diseases and so forth. And people crying, falling down, carrying on speaking gibberish. It's kind of a religious version of World Wrestling, you know, it's, everybody knows it's fake, but it's entertaining. And this stuff happens all the time.

If I can, if I can digress for a bit more more on this, I think of what the Apostle Paul said in Titus two, beginning in verse 11, and we don't have this on the screen. He said, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men." Then he adds what's going to happen when true salvation comes, he says, "instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and the glory of the peering of the appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who redeemed us from every lawless deed, and is purifying for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." Beloved, when you see an outworking of the Holy Spirit, that's what you're going to see. Let me put it real clearly, if this is truly an outworking of the Holy Spirit, you're not going to hear people bragging about how homosexuals are leading worship, you're going to hear homosexuals repenting publicly for leading false worship. And you're going to see schools, you're going to see organizations take a stand for Christ, against all of this wickedness that is so pervasive, the whole LGBTQ w x, y, z, insanity that's out there, the woke insanity, you're going to see people standing up against that. And you're going to see homosexuals, and lesbians and transgender people and everything in between, say, my look what God has done in my heart, He has delivered me from the bondage of my sins, and you're going to see churches filling up with people who take a stand for Christ. Moreover, and you must hear this, if a real work of the Spirit happens, you're going to see the rest of the world become apoplectic with rage. Because what they're going to hear is a complete refutation of all of the things that they hold dear, because you must remember that the Spirit of God came to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. He did not come to put on some big show. And he came to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when people truly come to saving faith in Christ, and if it's truly a work of the Spirit, what you're going to see are men and women, and boys and girls, broken over their sin, you're going to see people longing to know more of Christ, you're going to see a hunger for his word. You're going to see gospel preaching, you're going to see genuine repentance, you're going to see people hungry and thirsting for righteousness, you're going to see people mourning over their sin. And you're going to see people exalting Christ, while the rest of the world hurls insults at them. Because Jesus said, in Matthew 10 and verse 34, "I did not come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Now folks, when I see those types of things, then I will say, Praise God, there's a great work of the Spirit. But until I see that, don't waste my time. And I pray that there are some genuine things going on with this and others like it. But folks, we must be discerning because Satan is a master counterfeiter and hypocrisy continues to be prevalent all around the globe, and it has been down through redemptive history. I might also add that, you know, when Peter came before the people, in Acts two, he didn't say, you know, why don't we get some of our gay young men to come and bring their lutes, liars and psalteries and lead us in some worship songs and share testimonies. That's not what happened. Instead, he unleashed the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, and 1000s were saved. And that's what we long for and we look for. So we need to test the spirits. By the way, I want to also add, that the church is never called to speak to seek some special work of the Spirit, it's never called to, to somehow conjure up some kind of revival. Instead, what we see is God always uses the normal means of grace in his church to accomplish his purposes. And so like the farmer, what we do is we continue to plow the field and plant the seeds and trust God for the increased.

Well, the point with all of that is to say that religious externalism wears many, many disguises, and it's subjected to many deceptions. And the apostate leaders of Israel. And their followers were notorious hypocrites. They did not worship God with a sincere heart, with a love and a passion for him to live for His glory. They did not live to be obedient to him from the heart. In fact, knowing this from personal experience as well was divine revelation. King David said this to his son Solomon, when he passed the kingdom on to him. First Chronicles 28:9, he said, "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find him. But if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever." And my friend, I must ask you, are you here today to worship the Lord with all of your heart? Or is this just kind of what you do on Sundays in the South? Because of Israel's heartless, religious externalism that led them to apostasy and eventually to judgment, God spoke through his prophet Joel, saying this in Joel two beginning in verse 12, "Yet even now declares the Lord returned to me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil." You see, God was not impressed with their external acts of sorrow, like rending their garments. He was interested in the attitude of the heart, and he sees each of our hearts. Even from ancient times, God's covenant people were fastidious at keeping the law at offering the right kind of sacrifices and keeping religious festivals and offering continual prayers that were nothing more than, than hollow words.

And it's for this reason that God spoke through his prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 29:13. "This people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me. And the reverence for me consists of tradition, learned by rote." And that's what Jesus quotes in verses six and seven of our text, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me, but in vain do they worship Me, teaching us doctrines the precepts of men." And think of all the garbage that is out there today, this whole movement for gay Christianity, for evangelicalism affirming abortion and women pastors and, and how soft they are on the prosperity cult, charlatans and sharing platforms with rank heretics. Sadly, most evangelicals today have had the discernment of an orangutan. And most pastors have the boldness of a fainting goat. It's absolutely pitiful. And that's what was going on in Jesus day. With the scribes and the Pharisees. People honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Well, sadly, to give you a little historical historical background here, sadly, Israel's hypocritical, empty, kind of lifeless worship provided the context for the self righteous externalism of the scribes and the Pharisees. And a lot of that began back with the extra biblical regulations, the oral traditions, during the time of the Babylonian captivity and 605 BC through 535 BC. And that's what Jesus called in verse three, "the traditions of the elders." That's where a lot of that began. And, and this is what Jesus was contending with. And our text this morning, this, this legalistic, self righteous, rule keeping. To give you a summary, those oral traditions were recorded in the Mishnah. And that happened around the second century AD with the Jewish people, along with other other rabbinical teachings that they had like the Gamara. And when you put them all together, you have what's called the Talmud. And according to the Talmud, we see that God gave the law to Moses, and then Moses passed it on to other men and Israel. But in order to protect the people from violating the law, they began to build walls around the law with other extra biblical ideas and rules. And sadly, that wall of protection with all those extra biblical regulations that were supposedly going to protect the people, began to ensnare them and their religious hypocrisy. And those rabbinic rules actually undermined and obscured the law that they were trying to protect. And so over time, they weren't able to make a distinction between what God has said, and what the rabbinic traditions were saying. And so they really didn't understand how to interpret the Scriptures. And so this is the background now that we have here, and our texts before us, and I've divided it into three very simple categories. We're gonna see the Pharisaical ambush, the divine rebuke and the accusing illustration.

So notice this fascinating, fascinating story. First of all, the Pharisaical ambush. Here you see religious snobbery at its height. Verse one, "The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Jesus when they had come from Jerusalem." Now they had probably been sent by the Sanhedrin, which was in Jerusalem being the Center for Jewish orthodoxy. And remember, now, the the Jewish leaders absolutely hated Jesus, because of his claims to deity, and how he exercised the divine prerogatives. Moreover, he did not respect their traditions. And if there's anything that will infuriate a legalist is don't respect something that they believe, especially regarding the Sabbath and the ceremonial cleansings and fasts, and all of those types of things. Legalists hate it when others don't abide by the rules. But hypocrites also hate anyone that intentionally or even unintentionally exposes their religious hypocrisy. And Jesus did this at every turn, not only with what he said, but with his character. I mean, stop and think about it. He was humble, they were arrogant. He was long suffering, they were rude, he was sincere, they saw his sincerity. And the people could also see the hypocrisy of the leaders. And his sympathy was a stark contrast to their cruelty. Jesus acted in the best interest of others, he acted to do the will of the Father. The Pharisees and the scribes acted for themselves. But they also hated Jesus because his approval ratings were much higher than theirs, right? Everybody was wanting to see Jesus and was ignoring them. So what happens is the Sanhedrin sends a hit squad, you might say, from headquarters to find reason to indict Jesus, and everyone in ministry knows that this type of thing is going to happen. I mean, I've had men digging their spurs into my life, as long as I've been a pastor. That's just kind of how it works. And you all know that as you try to serve Christ. But they wanted to kill Jesus from the very outset.

So verse two, "the scribes and Pharisees had seen that some of the disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is unwashed." And then you've got verses three and four a long parentheses, which was basically an explanation for Gentile readers. Remember, Mark's gospel is predominantly for Gentile readers. So we read "(For the Pharisees and all the Jews did not eat unless they carefully wash their hands thus observing the tradition of the elders and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves." By the way, the reason for that is if they accidentally brushed up against a Gentile they were defiled. So they had to cleanse themselves just in case they touched a Gentile. And it says, "and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe such as the washing of cups and pictures, and copper pots,)" and so forth. Then verse five, "the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, 'Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?'" In other words, don't you realize that spiritual people always act in compliance to the rules that have been handed down to them from generation to generation, including the ritualistic cleansing of the hands before a meal, along with many other things as we read, which they received in order to observe washing cups, pitchers, copper pots, etc.?

Let me give you a little bit of background here from one of my favorite authors. Alfred Edersheim, In his book," The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" was written back in 1883. If you don't have it in your library, you need to have it. Here's what he said about some of these dynamics. By the way, he was a Jewish convert to Christianity, brilliant scholar. He said this, "Now the Mosaic law requires certain ceremonial washings for priests, Leviticus 22, six through seven and so forth, but not for others even before eating." Then he went on to add this, "the purifications were so frequent, and care had to be taken that the water had not been used for other purposes or something falling into it that might discolor or defile it. Large vessels or jars were generally kept for that purpose. These might be of any material, although stone is especially mentioned. It was the practice to draw water out of these with what was called a natla, very often of glass, which must hold at least a quarter of a log, which is a measure equal to one and a half eggshells. For no less quantity than this might be used for the affusion, meaning the cleansing, he went on to add the water was poured on both hands, which must be free of anything covering them, such as gravel, mortar, etc. And the hands were lifted up so as to make the water run to the wrist in order to ensure that the whole hand was washed, and that the water polluted by the hand did not run down the fingers." By the way, if you've ever seen a surgeon scrubbing, you know that that's what they do, as well. Similarly, he went on to add, "each hand was rubbed with the other fist, provided the hand that rubbed had been affused, otherwise the rubbing might be done against the head, or even against a wall. But there was one point on which special stress was laid in the first affusion, which was all that originally was required when the hands were not Levitically defiled, the water had to run down to the wrist. If the water remained short of the wrist, the hands were not clean." By the way, aren't you thankful that we live under grace, rather than the law? Oh my word. John MacArthur adds this, "the Pharisees and scribes took their traditions very seriously, including handwashing. Some rabbis suggested that a demon named "shibta" sat on people's hands while they were sleeping. If the demon were not removed by ceremonial washing before eating, he would be transferred to the mouth and could enter the body. Other rabbis turned handwashing into a salvation issue. Add the Jerusalem Talmud, and the Jerusalem Talmud asserts, quote, 'whoever is firmly implanted in the land of Israel, who speaks the holy language, who eats his food and food and purity as required by handwashing rituals and recites the Shema morning and evening is assured of life in the world to come.'"

All right, so there you have it. So with this background, now, the Pharisees come to Jesus, why do you let your disciples do this? Why do your disciples not walk according to their Jewish tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands? So there we have the Pharisee vehicle ambush. All right, they were gunning for him. And now they found him and this moves us to our second little point. And that is the divine rebuke. And I want you to notice Jesus response. He did not try to find common ground to dialogue with them. He did not seek reproach. He did not in any way try to find a way to agree to disagree, but let's still continue to hold hands and sing kumbaya. Instead, he just let the light of divine truth shine directly on their wickedness. And it's interesting, too, that Jesus uses two Old Testament passages to do this. One is the one in Isaiah 29:13 and the other is an exodus 20 Verse 12, and similar texts, "Honor your father and your mother." So in other words, what Jesus is doing here is he's making a very compelling case based on reliable authorities, namely the law and the prophets. You see that the law and the prophets and he said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of You hypocrites." The Greek term for hypocrite is hypokrites and it means a fraud, a deceiver, an actor, a pretender, a wolf in sheep's clothing that's pretending to be something that they are not. And he goes on to say "as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me, but in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines, the precepts of men." Then he adds this "neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." In other words, you ignore divine revelation, and you prefer instead to embrace the traditions of men. Inconceivable. And if you've ever been around legalists, you will see they've got a rule for everything. And it will drive you crazy. And it will drive them crazy if you don't obey their rules. And of course, the Judaizers in the early church were notorious for this type of thing. Verse nine, he was also saying to them, and here by the way, he uses irony, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition." In other words, you guys are real pros at nullifying God's commands, so that you can somehow uphold your own man made rules. Can't you imagine the look on the faces of the Pharisees and scribes as they're dealing with the Son of God.

And this moves us now to our third point, and that is the accusing illustration. And this is a scathing example of their wickedness. Verse 10, Jesus says, "For Moses said," By the way, let me stop there. In verse 13, we see that, that what Moses said, is considered to be the word of God. All right. So in other words, this is what God said through Moses, for Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother, and he who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death." So in other words, he's reminding them that the inner heart attitude of a child is to honor their father and their mother, to love them, to respect them, to obey them joyfully, to regard them highly with a spirit of appreciation and consideration. And by the way, if a child did not do that, it was the death penalty. All right, so God was serious about this, Exodus 21:17, "he who curses his father and his mother shall surely be put to death." Now he's not speaking here of some momentary outburst of rage or anger that can happen, nor is this referring to the, you might say, the appropriate rebellion of a child because of unfair treatment where, where a parent is provoking a child to anger or that type of thing. But what this is referring to is, is the settled defiance and disrespect of parental authority that God has placed over them, and a desire to do harm to the parents. And such a level of, of rebellion, God knew, betrayed a heart so wicked, that such a son or daughter could not be tolerated, to exist within the covenant community, an evil that not only mocks God's authority, but one that can spread quickly, like a virus among other children, and produce an entire culture of defiance against God and parents. I mean think about our culture today, right? Think about the vast number of defiant children in our culture that just live in constant rebellion, especially in child centered homes where the children are allowed to do whatever they want. A complete violation of Proverbs 22:15, where God says "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will remove it far from him." I mean, think of our culture today, the idea of physically spanking a child is completely anathema. No wonder kids grew up to not respect authority. By the way, physical discipline is appropriate, under the right guidelines, and if there is one area where I would willingly defy the government, it's when it comes to you telling me how to raise my children, rather than me obeying what God says. And a child has to learn early, when they first start arching their back on the changing table. Unacceptable, you don't do that. And they learn that very quickly. But we live in a country in a culture where there's absolutely no fear of God, no discipline, Proverbs 29:15, "the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way bring shame to his mother." Not only is this a grievous embarrassment to a mother and to a father, but that child will produce more and more moral decay within the family and within the community. Verse 16, goes on to say "when the wicked increase, transgression increases." Welcome to America right? "But the righteous will see their fall. Correct your son and he will give you comfort he will also delight your soul." In Proverbs 13 Verse 17 describes the fate of a parent hater. It says, "the eye that mocks a father and scorns a mother, the Ravens of the valley will pick it out and the Young Eagles will eat it." This is a picture of an unburied corpse. The point is, when you have a child that rejects parental authority, and discipline, that life will lead to the rejection of God's authority and discipline. And as a result, that child will be prone to physical violence and probably die a violent death, which will lead to the second death in an eternal hell.

Now, I digress for a moment just to make sure you understand the dynamics here of the these commands, but Jesus is using this now to expose their hypocrisy. The text says verse 10, "you were to honor your father and your mother. And he who speaks evil to father a mother has to be put to death." But you say, here we go. Here's the exposure. "If a man says to his father, his mother, whatever I have, that would help you as Corban, that is to say, given to God, you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother, thus invalidating the Word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down and you do many things such as that." You see, the scribes and the Pharisees had concocted a very clever way of getting around the requirement that God has for honoring your parents, especially in their old age. And that clever way, was to just declare things to be Corban, which basically meant, oh, no, no, no, no. What I have is, is going to be offered to God, it's, it's a sacred gift for him, you I can't use this to help you. No, I can't do that. This is an offering set aside to him for religious use. And that way, you don't have to care for your parents, because you've dedicated it all to God. And this in their mind would presumably release the son or the daughter from the obligation of honoring their parents. I mean, this is Pharisaic sophistry at its highest. This is absolute wickedness. And yet this was customary. You see, not only was this a deliberate and detestable form of chicanery, but worse yet, the people that would do this would never give their money to God, they would keep it for themselves. So Jesus is exposing them, he is unmasking them. And I can only imagine what the look was on their faces. They probably just kind of had hung their heads down and gradually turned and walked away. Well, folks we must all examine our heart, right? We've got to be brutally honest with ourselves because the malignant cells of hypocrisy often remain concealed in the shadows of our own self deception. We have all kinds of ways of making the Scripture mean, and say things, that help us accomplish our agenda. And the most penetrating light of Scripture tends to be blocked by our own self deception. We've got to guard against that.

And by the way, the place where you would look for this most this is where you would begin is what about your love for Christ? Do you have a sincere love for Christ? Is that manifested in your heart, in the privacy of your own closet? Can others say my, when I'm around this person I can see in here, the love of Christ. And you will know you have that if indeed he is the preoccupation of your mind. Because it is the apprehension of the glory and the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that brings to us that soul satisfying joy of abiding in him. And folks, if that isn't there, all of your hymn singing and church going and all that other stuff is just externalism. I love what Thomas Brooks the great Puritan writer said in this regard. "The hypocrite," he said, "can never take up his full and everlasting rest, satisfaction and content in the person of Christ, in the merits of Christ, in the enjoyment of Christ alone. No hypocrite did ever long and mourn after the enjoyment of Christ as the best in all the world. No hypocrite did ever prize Christ for a sanctifier as well as the Savior. No hypocrite did ever look upon Christ, or long for Christ to deliver him from the power of his sins as much or as well as to deliver him from the wrath to come. No hypocrite can really love the person of Christ, or take the satisfaction in the person of Christ. The rays and beams of Christ's glory have never warmed his heart. He never knew what bosom communion with Christ meant. The hypocrite may love to be healed by Christ and to be pardoned by Christ, and to be saved by Christ and so forth. But he can never take any complacency in the person of Christ. His heart never seriously works after union with Christ. The love of a sincere Christian runs much out to the person of Christ. Heaven itself without Christ would be to such a soul but a poor thing, a low thing, a little thing and uncomfortable thing, an empty thing. It is the person of Christ, that is the sparkling diamond in the ring of glory."

Beloved, that's the stuff of genuine saving faith. At the dedication of the temple, Solomon, exhorted the nation of Israel to guard against externalism, to guard against hypocrisy, that will inevitably lead to apostasy. And he said this, "let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord". Holy means, what it means completely, not partially, but fully, not occasionally, not sporadically, but wholly "devoted to the Lord our God to walk in His statutes and to keep his commandments," as it says in First Kings 8:61. I trust that is the motto of your heart. The apostle Paul learned this well did he not on the road to Damascus? I mean, here was a fastidious lawkeeper, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, his confidence was in his own perceived self righteousness, Philippians three, verse four, we read, "If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh," Paul said, "I far more." And then he gives his bio, "Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. But whatever things were gained to me those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered, the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ."

And again, as I read earlier, Matthew seven, one of the most chilling statements in the Bible is that "not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom." What a, what a dire warning to the masses of people who named the name of Christ. And what a horrifying climax to a life of self defense, self deception, where you pretended to be that which you are not. Therefore, one day you will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ as your judge, and your executioner not as your Savior and not as your Lord. The day when, according to Acts 10:42, "the one who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead." Namely, Christ will strip away all of those external robes of hypocrisy andd expose you for who you really are.

Well, Jesus frightening prediction should cause us all to examine our hearts as the Apostle Paul warned in Second Corinthians 13 Five and I close with this. "Test yourself to see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you--Unless, indeed, you failed the test?" Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the sobering words that causes us all to look do deep into our own heart. And I pray that if there be one here today that is just playing some Christian game, that by Your grace you will overwhelm them with such conviction that they will indeed repent and be saved this day. And help us all to guard our hearts against those things that would cause us to pretend to be that which we are not. Because we know in so doing we forfeit divine blessing and power in our life. So, Lord, we thank you for your saving grace. And we thank you for the power of Your word. May it do its glorious work and each of us today, I pray in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.

We return once again to Mark's gospel chapter six. If you will take your Bibles and turn there, we are going to be examining verses 45 through 56 as we continue to make our way through this inspired portion of Scripture. And I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, “Jesus Walking Upon the Sanctifying Storm.” And what we are going to see is that Jesus often uses trials to reveal his true character, to reveal his true nature, to reveal His purposes, so that we can understand more of who he is and how we should respond to him. And so we have a wonderful opportunity to once again immerse ourselves in the Word of God this morning. Let me read the text to you Mark six beginning with verse 45. "Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida while he himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them walking on the sea; and he intended to pass by them. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, 'Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.' Then He got into the boat with them and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. When they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, and ran about that whole country and began to carry here in their on their pallets those who were sick, to the place they heard He was. Wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces, and imploring Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it, were being cured."

Our passage this morning is filled with captivating history, practical insights, but most importantly, it provides for us an accurate portrait of the infinite perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's so important that we as believers understand who he truly is, because there are so many distortions out there. Today, we're going to examine this passage under three categories, we're going to see first of all, a supplication of divine surrender. Secondly, a manifestation of divine glory. And then finally, a demonstration of divine compassion. And I trust that your hearts are tender to these truths and your mind is accessible to the spirit's eliminating grace this morning.

Now, let me remind you of the context. Jesus has just multiplied five loaves and two fishes to feed approximately 20,000 people. And of course, this was an astonishing display of his creative power, and undeniable proof of his deity that he is indeed the Son of God, the Messiah, deserving of worship. But you must understand that most of the people did not fully grasp this, at least savingly so. Even Jesus', His own disciples, had a deficient grasp of His deity. That's why, later on verse 52, again immediately after this miraculous feeding, we read that the disciples had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves but their heart was heartened. You see what was going on for them, as well as the crowd, was just an overwhelming sense of political fervor, false preconceptions, pride, magical thinking, unrestrained emotionalism, like we see today, in many parts of the world, including our own country. Religious giddiness and frivolity, groupthink all of these things are symptoms of a hard heart that does not fully grasp the reality of who Jesus is, and what he's trying to accomplish in redemption. Reality is so utterly astounding that it should drive us all to a place of absolute speechless adoration, ceaseless praise, and joyful submission to His Word and His will. But again, a few people, even today, even in many churches, grasp the true identity and redemptive purposes of Christ.

Now, notice the text, Mark six, beginning in verse four and 45. We read "Immediately Jesus made His disciples, get into the boat and go ahead of him." It's interesting, the verb "made" in the original language is a very forceful verb, it means to "compel by force." It suggests the disciples were averse to leaving. It's like what are you doing now? I want you I want you in the boat, come on, in the boat. That's the idea there. So there's an obvious sense of urgency in Jesus' actions, "I want you to leave at once, get in the boat." See, Jesus was up to something very important here. He was separating the disciples from the crowd and even from himself. Now the question is why? Well, the answer is to avoid losing control of the crowd that wanted to crown him king and start an insurrection. That was his concern. And sadly, the disciples were also caught up. And the political fervor, the euphoria, the excitement, that here he is, the King is here, the kingdom is here. How exciting. Let's crown him king, now get rid of Herod, get rid of Rome. And all of a sudden, all of the people could get swept up into a mob rule. John helps us understand this in John six beginning of verse 14. "Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed," in other words, the feeding, "they said, 'This is truly the Prophet who has come into the world.' So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone." So like the fickle, self centered crowd, the disciples were exuberant because of what Jesus can do, rather than being filled with reverential awe because of who Jesus is. And there's a big difference. The former produces unrestrained emotion. The latter produces sincere worship. The former stimulates superficial euphoria. The ladder animates fear and trembling. Mindless emotionalism is always at the root of counterfeit religion. We see something similar with the make believers in counterfeit Christianity, where often emotive music is used to whip people up into an alternate state of consciousness. And you get people doing all of these things and then you know how it goes. You've seen it before. Maybe you've experienced it.

So like the unbridled emotionalism that dominates many pseudo Christian movements today, these people were filled with emotion. But they were not understanding truly who Jesus was and did not have an informed mind, their mind was responding to the rule of their emotions rather than the other way around. So they did not submit to the authority of His Word. Dear friends it's one thing to have the mind of man, it's another thing to have the mind of Christ.

So in our text here, in Mark 6, Jesus knew what was going on in the crowd, he knew that they were getting into an out of control, emotional frenzy. Again, as John says, "They were intending to come and take him by force to make Him king." And sadly, he also knew that the disciples were loving it. They're probably thinking, "Oh, I hope I get to sit in his right hand, or at least his left. Oh, how exciting. Look what's going on here. It's beginning." It's now kind of like the political theater that you see in election cycles. This is why Mark would later on say in verse 52 that "they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened." Beloved, I might put it this way here in is the difference between man centered worship and God centered worship. Man centered worship is all about manipulating God to satisfy your felt needs. God centered worship is all about submitting to God and living for His glory. The former is counterfeit, the latter is authentic. So again, verse 45, "Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He himself was sending the crowd away." Then we read, "After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray."

And this brings us to the first category of our little outline. Here we see a supplication of divine surrender. Here's why would say that. No doubt the Messianic contagion of the crowd was also an unwanted temptation to Jesus, and the groundswell of support for him to overthrow Rome and get rid of Herod and established his earthly kingdom was really reminiscent of Satan's temptation of Jesus, you will recall in the wilderness. Remember when he offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world as if they were his to give, "Only if you will worship me." And certainly to yield to that temptation would allow Jesus to avoid the horrors of the cross. But that was not the will of his Father. I find it interesting that Mark records Jesus praying on three occasions during His earthly ministry, each prayer was done at night in a secluded place, each on an occasion where he was removed from his disciples. Because they misunderstood his mission, they misunderstood all that he was up to on Earth and who He really was. And on each occasion, Jesus was in a crisis that required a very, very important decision. The first occasion we read about in Mark 1, you remember the crowds were gathering, from everywhere to be healed and to witnesses miraculous powers. And in verse 35, we read, "In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there." And you will recall the narrative, the disciples are looking all over for him when, when the sunrise came, you know, where everyone's looking for you. They said to Him, they finally found him, and he said to them, in verse 38, "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for." As we read in Luke 19;10, Jesus said, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." He did not come to attract the crowds work them up into an emotional frenzy and get them to wow over him.

The second occasion is in Mark 6, that we're at here this morning. And the third and final occasion is in Mark 14 verses 35 through 39. And there you will recall, he prayed alone in the Garden of Gethsemane as he faced the horrors of the cross. Verse 36 of Mark 14, "He was saying Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what you will." So considering all of this, I believe that it is safe to assume that on the heels of the crowd preparing to forcibly make him king, the content of his prayer would be one of divine surrender. Father, the temptation is great to not go to the cross to establish the kingdom now, but not my will, but Thine be done. And no doubt he also prayed for the hearts of the the disciples that they might be softened, they might embrace Him fully, as the Son of God. The one that came to seek and to save and not embrace him merely as some miracle worker that is going to satisfy the desires of their hearts. So Jesus sends them away, disperses the crowd, and retreats them to a secluded mountain to pray. And I think my what a beautiful picture of our Savior's love, right? What a beautiful picture and an example of obedience to the will of the Father. Which by the way, is always the mark of genuine saving faith. You say you're a Christian, okay, great, do you will obey the will of the Father as it is revealed in his word? Matthew 7, verse 21, Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven." But, now catch this, "he who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven, will enter." And that will of the Father is that you confess Jesus as Lord and obey His Word and His will as revealed in Scripture.

So what we first see here is a supplication of divine surrender. But secondly, we're going to see a manifestation of divine glory. Notice what happened with the disciples after Jesus sent them away, verse 47, "When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land." And then it says, "Seeing them straining at the oars." Now let's stop here for a moment. We know from the narrative that Jesus is up on one of the mountains. And if you go there, you will see that there's mountains that jumped up from the shoreline all around. And I guess it might be possible that he could see the boat out in the middle of there, it might be possible, but it's, he knew precisely what they were doing. He knew exactly what they were thinking and what they were feeling. And by the way, that should be comforting to all of us. It should also be frightening to all of us. But isn't it great that He knows our thoughts from afar. You know, He not only sees all things, but beloved, he inhabits us, absolutely incomprehensible. What a magnificent mystery. In fact, Paul spoke of this in Colossians 1, verse 26and following, "the mystery, which has been hidden from the past ages, and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles," Here it is, "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." And regarding His omniscience, oh my, this should cause us all to rejoice. Psalm 33, beginning of verse 13, "The Lord looks from heaven, he sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works." Don't think for a second you can hide from God. His knowledge is infinitely perfect, and requires no further information. There is never a time nor has there ever been a time when he lacked information. Romans 11 beginning of verse 34, "For who has known the mind of the Lord or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever, amen." Beloved, you must understand that his knowledge precedes all things outside of himself and its never obtained from anything that exists outside of himself. I know that's kind of a heavy statement.

Let me put this in a way that maybe would be relevant and more practical in your thinking. There was never a time, if you think about salvation and the doctrine of election, for example, there has never been a time when he lacked knowledge, when he was without knowledge and therefore had to look down the tunnel of time to see who would and who would not believe, and on that basis, decide who we was going to elect. Beloved, that is not only exegetically indefensible, that is something that impugns the character of God. Because it says that there was a time when he lacked knowledge, and he had to somehow gain knowledge. Let me ask you, is there anything right now that God does not know? Now, let me ask you another question Is God immutable? Meaning he never changes. Beloved, if there is nothing in the universe that he does not know right now, there has never been a time in the universe when he did not know all things. There has never been a time when he needed to gain knowledge outside of himself. Psalm 139, beginning of verse one, David described how God knows even the most minut details of his life, "Oh, Lord," He says," You have searched me and known me. You know, when I sit down and when I rise up, you understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there's a word of my tongue, behold, oh, Lord, you know it all. You've enclosed me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high, I cannot attain it." Psalm 147. The Lord is praised as the one who heals the brokenhearted. And in verse four, we read that He is the one who "counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is the Lord and abundant in strength." And catch this, his understanding is infinite. Beloved, this is the great doctrine of divine omniscience. And it was in his omniscience that he could see not only what those disciples were doing, but he could see what they were thinking. He understood the hardness of their heart, and their distorted understanding of who he is. Beloved, there is nothing man can do or think that escapes his notice, including the tragedies and the atrocities that come into our life. You realize that? Job 31, verse four. He asked the question, "Does He," referring to the Lord, "not see my ways and number all my steps?" It's a rhetorical question, yes he does. Proverbs 5:21, "For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths." Proverbs 15, verse three,"The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good." Isaiah 40, verse 28, "His understanding is inscrutable." Hebrews four, verse 13, "there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." 1 John 3:19,"he knows everything." So verse 48, "Seeing them straining at the oars," even when he's on the mountain, "for the wind was against him that about the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea; and He intended to pass them by." Now, this was the fourth watch of the night, this would would have been between three and six o'clock in the morning. So in other words, they had been rowing now for about nine hours. Think of that, if you've ever been out in open water with a hard headwind, especially when you're trying to row, that's what was going on. Remember, John six tells us beginning of verse 16, "Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea. All right, and it says, "and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark and Jesus had not yet come to them." So that's when they got in the boat. And he goes on to say, "The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Then when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat." Matthew records in Matthew 14:24. "The boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves for the wind was contrary." I want you to notice something else that's fascinating in this text. In verse 48, Mark says at about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them. That means there was an instant transport. It's not like he had to take time and make his way down the mountain and finally get out there several miles walking across the sea. No, it was...Beloved, this is the Jesus I worship and love. And then it says, "walking on the sea, He intended to pass by them." Another possible translation, "he intended to come alongside them." That may be accurate. And I'm not going to start a new denomination about what I'm about to say, Okay, I'm not going to press it too hard. But I think there may be more going on here. Given the symbolism that is often used in Mark's gospel, this phrase, "passed by", is really reminiscent of God's gracious and compassionate self disclosure. On Mount Sinai recorded in Exodus 33:18, following when the Lord, quote, "passed by Moses", let me read that passage. "Moses says, 'I pray You, show me Your glory!' And He said, 'I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.' But He said, 'You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!' And the Lord said, 'Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock. And it will come about while My glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand, until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen." We know that God did the same thing, in terms of revealing his presence to Elijah, at Mount Horeb, 1 Kings 19:11, "So God said, 'Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.'" And then we read, "And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces, the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire." And then we read, "And after the fire, a sound of gentle blowing." And then you will recall the story the Lord spoke to Elijah from whispering voice, the symbolizing how God was always at work even in Israel, though his ways might be imperceptible.

But perhaps the most important parallel to the Lord passing by his helpless and undiscerning disciples, by walking on the water, can be seen in Job nine, beginning in verse eight. There we read, "Who alone stretches out the heavens and tramples down the waves of the sea." And then verses 10 and 11, "Who does great things, unfathomable and wondrous works without number. Were he to pass by me, I would not see Him; were He to move past me, I would not perceive Him." Now, it's interesting in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew scripture, in the Old Testament, Job's inspired phrase, "tramples down the waves of the sea," has undeniable linguistic, as well as thematic similarities with Mark's phrase in chapter six, verse 48, "walking on the sea". If you look at the original language, you'll see that it's used in both places, the same similarities exist with Job's use of the phrase "passed by" in chapter nine in verse 10. And we see the same thing in Moses usage and Exodus 33:19 that I just read, and an Exodus 34:6, "then the Lord passed by in front of him". Furthermore, I want you to notice how Jesus responded to the terrified disciples in verse 50. He said, "Take courage, it is I do not be afraid."

"It is I" can be translated "ego emi". In Greek, this is "I am." In other words, he uses his covenant name, the covenant name of God, the identical name of self disclosure he gave to Moses. In Exodus three and verse 14, God said to Moses," I am who I am." And he said "Thus, you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you". And you will recall in John eight in verse 58, Jesus declared to the hostile Jews, "Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." He referred to himself in the present continuous tense. Technically, that means that there is a stated action that remains in continuous progress. Why would he do that? It seems odd, because he wants to communicate that he has always and will always exist, he is indicating his self- existence, that there has never been a time where he did not exist. Beloved, He is indicating that he is the pre- existent, self-existent, uncreated Creator, sustainer, Redeemer and consummate author of all that he has created. That's who Jesus really is. To be sure, this is precisely what Jesus is trying to get the disciples and all of us to understand. I am the self-existent Eternal One, who always is and will be, worship Me, obey me. Jesus repeatedly used this title of himself in John's gospel, he says, "I am the bread of life", "I am the light of the world," "I am the door of the sheep," "I am the good shepherd," "I am the resurrection and the life," "I am the true and living way", "I am the true vine." The point, beloved, is simply this. In His infinite grace and compassion, the great I AM, chose to reveal His glory to His helpless and his hard hearted disciples, by coming to them in the storm. Why? So they could see and embrace his deity, and thereby strengthen their faith.

One scholar that I read by the name of James Edward says this, "The glory of the transcendent God, who reveals Himself in Jesus literally, quote, passed by the overconfident rationalistic theologians of a former generation, and those of our day who follow their lead, God, quote, performs wonders that cannot be found miracles that cannot be numbered in quote, job nine, verse 10. But when Jesus passes by the disciples on the lake, he does something differently from the revelation of God in the Old Testament. He intends to make the mysterious and enigmatic god of Job visible and palpable, as it had not been and could not have been to former generations." He goes on to say, "The God of Israel, majestic and awesome, but unknowable face to face, is now passing by believers in Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus walking on the water to His disciples, is a revelation of the glory that he shares with the Father and the compassion that he extends to his followers. It is a divine epiphany in answer to their earlier bafflement, when he calmed the storm. And they said, Who is this? Mark 4:41. In this respect," Edwards goes on to say, "Mark's Christology is no less sublime than is John's, although John has Jesus declaring that he is the Son of God, like John 10:36. Mark has him showing that he is the Son of God. In Mark, one must, like the disciples, be in the boat with Jesus and enter into the drama in order to behold who Jesus is. The one who calmed the storm is the one who now appears in the storm. The 'I Am' of God." Beloved, to have a distorted understanding of Jesus is both deadly and damning. He is not just some personal miracle worker, as the crowd and the disciples got caught up in. He is not some social justice warrior trying to bring about some egalitarian utopia. And he is not as this new, "he gets us" movement would portray him. He is not some gay affirming, trans affirming, abortion affirming woke Jesus of the "he gets us" movement. So many people today see him like that. Some pusillanimous, effeminate, Jesus, that winks at sin. If you look at that he gets us movement, you will see the tag that we need to be like Jesus who is quote, "radical, in his forgiveness, compassion and love." And you know, that's true. He was radical in his compassion, and his forgiveness and His love. But that will only be extended to those who repent of their sins and trust in Him as their only hope of salvation.You're not going to see that in this movement. He's not just somebody that loves everybody so much that they have no need to enter in to, and through, the narrow gate of genuine repentance. No, no, this is a broad gate Jesus. For so many people, this is the Jesus that just kind of somebody that you can buddy up to. You don't have to change anything, no need to place your faith in Him alone. Don't see him as the only one who can justify the wicked, and deliver them from the just wrath of God. They don't see him as their only hope of salvation, they don't see that they have offended a holy God and they cannot be reconciled to him apart from saving faith in Jesus. Beloved, what Jesus wants them to understand is that he is indeed the infinitely holy, second member of the Triune Godhead. He is the one that is also promised to judge all those who do not believe in Him. He is the one who will cast them into an eternal hell. Scriptures tell us that He is the judge of the living and the dead. You're not going to see this in some of these movements today. People don't want to hear that. But indeed, he is the Son of God that bore in his body, the sins of all who would believe upon him. He is the One True God that the world has hated and will continue to hate. And to somehow come along and portray him as a Jesus that everybody can enjoy, a Jesus that will wink at their sin. That is a blasphemous thing. Jesus said, ""Do not think that I came into the world to bring peace on the earth, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I believe Matthew 10 Verse 34. And Jesus said this, in John 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life. But he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

So indeed, he is the pre-existent, I am. The self existent I am. The uncreated Creator, sustainer Redeemer, and consummator of his universe. And he is the one that has accomplished the redemption for all who will place their faith in Him by shedding His blood on a cross. A sacrificial death, that was voluntary, that was vicarious, that was substitutionary, that was propitiatory and was redemptive. And the efficacy of his death for the believing sinner is that he is the only one that can deliver us from the penalty and the power and one day, the very presence of sin. This is the Jesus that will one day return and snatch his church away. This is the Jesus who will then return with his church, the Jesus that will judge the nations. The Jesus that will establish his millennial kingdom, the Jesus that will judge unbelievers and cast them into an eternal hell and the Jesus that will reign as King of kings. Beloved, that is the true Jesus. And as such, he is to be worshipped and obeyed. He is not to be manipulated or ignored. He is to be trusted and glorified, in all that we do, you must understand that we exist for him. He does not exist for us. By the way, do you embrace these truths wholeheartedly? I hope you do. Because if you don't, you will perish in your sins. If not, you're living in rebellion to God. And how sad to see so many professing Christians get sucked up into all of this nonsense. They're absolutely indifferent to God's purposes in redemption through Christ. They're apathetic about his rule and their life, and they are consumed with just living for themselves, not for His glory. I hope you see that today.

So back to our text here, we see a manifestation of His glory. Verse 49, I put myself in their place here, I'm exhausted, I'm rowing, I'm confused, I'm out of gas. You know that feeling? You're just completely done. Then it says, "But when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost." "Fantasma" in the original language. We get our word phantom from that. I guess that's what I would think to, "and cried out." Like my Cowboys would say, "cried out like a second grade girl." And I'm sure that's exactly what they did. By the way, in the original language, it means to "shriek in horror." It would have been absolutely terrifying. It says verse 50, "They all saw Him and were terrified." And certainly physical and spiritual fatigue combined, will always produce irrational fears. But to see a man walking on the water, would startle even the most intrepid sailor, right? Verse 50, the end, "But immediately He spoke to them and said to them, 'Take courage; it is I.'" There's the ""I Am,' "do not be afraid." My how often does he communicate to us in the same way, right? When we're spent, when we're exhausted, when we're out of resources, when we're confused. Imagine the comfort that this would have brought to the disciples. And if that wasn't enough to hear His voice, notice first 51, Then He got into the boat with them and the wind stopped. And they were utterly astonished." Well, that's an understatement. Can you imagine that? In verse 52, "they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened". But you see now, talk about a manifestation of divine glory. That's what we have here. And whenever we see Jesus for who he really is, our sins are exposed, right? As we read earlier in Isaiah six. And then our fears melt away and joy floods our soul. Now, Mark does not include the account of Peter walking on the water at this point. And this omission may be attributed to the fact that that Mark was a close companion of the apostle Peter and Peter greatly influenced his writing of this gospel. Perhaps Peter didn't want the spotlight to be on himself, but to keep focused on Christ. We don't know. We don't know why it's omitted. But Matthew did record what happened. Let me read that to you. Matthew 14, verse 28. "Peter said to Him, 'Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.'" I'm not sure that's what I would have said, but that's what Peter said. Jesus said, "Come! And Peter got out of the boat walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But seeing the wind He became frightened and began to sink. He cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand took a hold of him and said to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?'" By the way, that would have been a rebuke that was extended to all of the disciples, not just Peter. Then, "When they got into the boat, the wind stopped." Matthew says, "And those who were in the boat worshipped Him saying, 'You are certainly God's Son!'" That was the point of the sanctifying storm, right? We must understand, beloved, that ignorance of Christ will lead to doubt. Doubt is the great enemy of faith. Doubt assaults faith, especially when we focus on our problems, rather than the God who ordained them. It's so easy to do that. Too often we try to use God to solve our problems rather than using our problems, to glorify Him. And the disciples were learning this the hard way. I mean, the proper response would have been, Oh, dear God indeed, I pray that you will deliver us from the storm, but more importantly, importantly, I pray that you will give us faith to persevere in it, and to enjoy your presence in it, and to fulfill your purposes in it. Knowing that one day you will bring us to glory. Every time Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him, I can see myself when I take my eyes off of Christ. You can too and then what do we do? We cry out like Peter did "Lord save me!" Spurgeon said this, "Peter was soon made to doubt. But with what ease did he begin to pray. I like to think of the spontaneous character of Peters prayer, he begins to sink and he prays in a minute, he no sooner finds himself going down. Then he says, Lord save me. That shows what a living thing his faith was. It might not walk the water always, but it could always pray. And that is, the better thing of the two. Your faith may not always make you rejoice. But if your faith can always make you trust, the Precious Blood, that is all you need." Spurgeon went on to say, "Your faith may not always take you to the top of the mountain and bathe your forehead in the sunlight of God's countenance. But if your faith enables you to keep in the straight road that leads to eternal life, you may bless God for that. To walk the water is not an essential characteristic of faith, but to pray when you begin to sink is."

So the Lord revealed himself in these astonishing events, transports himself to the water, he walks on the water, he helps Peter do the same. He calms the sea when he enters the boat. But one more thing, John six tells us, verse 21, "So they were willing to receive Him into the boat," and catch this now, "immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going." As I read earlier, Matthew 14:33, as well, and those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, "You are certainly God's Son." They're seeing all of these things, and they're overwhelmed. And that was his purpose, to overwhelm them with the reality of His deity so that they might worship Him and trust Him come what may. Again, because of verse 52, "they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves". They saw all of that. And rather than worshiping and serving Christ and being overwhelmed with his deity, they're all excited about the goodies he's gonna bring into their life. I mean, it's kind of like, the Democrats arrived, right? We're gonna bring you all of this free stuff. No longer were they merely fascinated with Jesus as a miracle worker that could satisfy their needs. And now they were consumed with the reality that he was indeed, the Messiah, the Son of God. We've seen a supplication of divine surrender, a manifestation of divine glory, and then I want to close with a demonstration of divine compassion. That's what we see next. Verse 53, "When they had crossed over, they came to a land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore." You see the storm had blown them off course a bit from Capernaum where they originally wanted to go to this plain, it's a plain there of Gennesaret. It's just southwest of Capernaum. Just a short distance away. Verse 54, "When they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him." So what are the people going to do? They're going to spread the news. I mean, it's all over Facebook, first century version. They go tell everybody. Of course, Jesus and the disciples then would walk just a short ways to Capernaum. And I might add, it would be in the synagogue at Capernaum, where Jesus would preach a sermon on the bread of life, and John six that would offend everybody. Verse 55 "and ran about the whole country," that people recognize him and "ran about that whole country began to carry here and there on their pallets those who were sick, to the place they heard he was. Wherever he entered villages or cities or countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring Him, that He might just touch the friends that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak. And as many as touched it were cured."

Why would he do that dear friends? To prove his deity, that they might hear his gospel message and be saved. He did these things to validate the message of repentance and faith in Him alone. May I ask you this morning, dear friends? Is this the Jesus that you believe? I hope it is. This is the true Jesus. Or do you believe some distortion of what you've heard this day. Because if you do that is a God of your own making, that cannot save. That is an idol. If you believe something different than what you've heard today, I would plead with you as a minister of the gospel that you repent, and believe in the true Jesus of the Bible. And rejoice in whatever sanctifying storm that he brings into your life because very often, it's in the midst of those storms, that He reveals Himself in ways that you have never seen before. And for those of us who know and love Christ, my, let's worship Him, let's obey him. What he wants us to do is to go into all the world. He wants us to preach the gospel. He wants us to make disciples. He wants us to teach them to observe all that He has commanded. I hope that is the priority of your life, that you live a gospel centered life. And as you do, he will be glorified and you will be blessed. What a joy it will be to see more people like us, debtors of His grace, come to faith in the living Christ. Let's pray together. Father, we're so thankful for the clarity of your word and how it speaks to the very core of our being. And if there be one within the sound of my voice that knows nothing of the true Jesus, I pray that you will break their heart this day that they will run to the foot of the cross and cry out for the mercy and the grace and the forgiveness. That can be there's so rich and so free. And for those of us who know and love you, Lord, use us mightily for the sake of the kingdom. Bless us, encourage us strengthen us and we will be careful to give you the praise. In Jesus name. Amen.

Once again, we come to the pinnacle of our worship service where we have the opportunity to look into the Word of the living God as He has revealed Himself to us. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter six? We are making our way verse by verse through this gospel record. And this morning we will be in verses 30 through 44. And I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, “Common Grace Provided and Rejected.”

Before I read the text, and we look into it closely, may I remind you of this magnificent concept of common grace. Common Grace is God's kindness that's extended to all persons through his general providence. Its his universal goodness and benevolence that all people can experience, including those who will never receive salvation. In fact, the Lord Jesus said in Matthew five, verse 45, "He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Donald Gray Barnhouse, a number of years ago, said this regarding common grace, quote, "you are not a believer in Christ, and yet you are still out of hell. That is the grace of God. You are not in hell, but you are on earth in good health and prosperity. That is the common grace of God. The vast majority of those who read these words are living in comfortable homes or apartments. That is common grace. You are not fleeing as refugees along the highways of a country desolated by war. That is common grace. You come home from your job and your child runs to meet you in good health and spirits. That is common grace, you're able to put your hand in your pocket and give the child a quarter or a half dollar for an allowance. It is common grace that you have such abundance. You go into your house and sit down to a good meal. That is common grace. On the day that you read these words, there are more than a billion and a half members of the human race who will go to sleep without enough to satisfy their hunger. The fact that you have enough is common grace. You do not deserve it. And if you think that you do deserve anything at all from God, beyond the wrath, which you have so richly earned, you merely show your ignorance of spiritual principles."

Now bear in mind common grace is not saving grace. There is no forgiveness of sins imparted in common grace, nor does it in any way regenerate unbelieving hearts. However it does reveal truths about the Creator, truths that the Spirit of God can use to bring conviction of wrongdoing. Moreover, it affords a sinner time to hear the gospel and be saved. Now many sinners will suppress the gospel, the truth of it all. They will suppress it in unrighteousness but common grace makes their rejection inexcusable. In fact, we read about this in Romans chapter one beginning in verse 19, "because that which is known about God is evident within within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." And this morning in our text, we have a stunning example of common grace in Jesus feeding of the 5000 as we read in verse 44 of our text. Actually, Matthew 14:21 indicates that there were also many women and children with them. And so that number could have easily been 15 to 20,000 or more. Now as we look at the text I want you to not only see God's common grace, but there are some magnificent symbols in the text that are worthy of our consideration; much symbolism in this historical narrative pertaining to the person in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here we're going to see at least three symbols of Christ. Number one, we're going to see that Jesus is the only source of spiritual rest. Secondly, he is the only source of spiritual truth. And finally, he is the only source of spiritual life. Now, I might add that this miracle is the climactic apex of Jesus' Galilean ministry. From here he is going to travel with his disciples into the Gentile regions of Tyre and Sidon, and then he's going to go on to the Decapolis. The Decapolis refers to a group of 10 Hellenistic cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire. This would have been east and southeast of the Dead Sea and of Galilee, north of Perea. There were places where some of us have been like Beit Shean in modern Israel, and most of them are going to be in the region of Jordan today. But anyway, he will then go to Decapolis, and then from there with His disciples, He will begin to make his way to Judea, down to Jerusalem. Now bear in mind, he has deliberately avoided that area, because that would be the headquarters of those that would want to kill him. Moreover, he is demonstrating to them that he wants nothing to do with their apostasy, that he is bringing the Gospel message to those apart from that region, apart from the scribes and the Pharisees. So he will eventually then make his way south, to Judea into Jerusalem, and finally, make his way to the cross. So that's the context here.

Let me read the text to you Mark six, beginning in verse 30 , "The apostles gathered together with Jesus and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.' (For there are many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves. The people saw them going, and many recognize them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. When Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd, and he felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. When it was already quite late, his disciples came to him and said, 'This place is desolate and it is already quite late, send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages, and by themselves something to eat.' But he answered them, 'You give them something to eat! 'And they said to him, 'Shall we go and spend 200 denarii on bread and give them something to eat?' And He said to them, 'How many loaves do you have? Go, look!' And when they found out they said, 'Five and two fish.' and He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and 50s. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves, and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate, and were satisfied. And they picked up 12 baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. There were 5000 men who ate the loaves."

Now bear in mind that like most people today who claim to be following Jesus, the first century Galileans that we're following him, were really doing so in order to gain temporal earthly blessings, not heavenly blessings, and Jesus knew this. They basically wanted free stuff, not forgiveness of sins. They wanted earthly pleasures, not heavenly pleasures, not heavenly reward. Many of them wanted physical healing. And that's understandable. A lot of them just wanted to be entertained. They wanted to see the next miracle. They were fascinated with his miraculous abilities. But most of them wanted temporal, physical blessings. They wanted a deliverer that would free them from the tyranny of Rome and bring the blessings of the Abrahamic and the Davidic covenants to bear upon them. But they weren't really wanting a Messiah, the Messiah, who he really was. These miracle seekers saw him as their meal ticket, not as the most high God that they should worship and obey. So instead of prostrating themselves, before him in humble adoration, and the fear of the Lord, they, they just wanted him to do something that would impress them, something that would benefit their needs, because they saw no need for a Savior of sin. They wanted a miracle working King that would bring in an earthly utopia. By the way, as I think about it, nothing has changed, right? It's exactly the same message that the enemy brings to us today through our politicians. So, instead of falling down and worshipping Him, they wanted to use him so that he would serve them. Because after all, God exists for us, right? No, we exist for him. In fact, most all of the crowds we know are going to reject Him. In short order, despite all of the miracles that he performed, that validated the fact that he was indeed, the Son of God, that validated His deity and therefore his message. And it's for this reason, that Jesus said in Matthew 12:39, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign." In fact, in John six, we have a very clear picture of the kind of thinking that was going on in the minds of the people that were following Jesus in this context, in fact, in verses 36 through 40 of John 6, we see how Jesus preached the magnificent truths of sovereign grace and salvation truths that are at the very heart of the gospel that so many people hate. Truths that summarize and clarify the truth of the gospel, the great truths, frankly, of the Reformation. Often it's headed under the category of Calvinism. John 6:65, we read and he was saying, "For this reason," referring to their unbelief," I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father." Of course, Jesus is there reinforcing the tension between God's sovereignty and salvation, and man's responsibility to believe. Men are commanded to believe and yet they are held accountable for how they respond. Yet, they will never believe unless God causes something to happen; unless God takes the initiative and overpowers their sin nature.

And so there you have that inscrutable mystery that seems incompatible in our finite minds, but perfectly compatible to the mind of God. So Jesus is preaching this along with other things. And as a result, John 6:66, "As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and we're not walking with Him anymore." It's been said that this was the greatest church split in history. Imagine taking 20,000 people down to just a handful. And that's what happened. And I might add that the same thing would happen in most churches today if the truth of the Gospel were really preached. We can either be faithful, or we can be popular, dear friends, but we can't be both. And in verse 67, of John six, we read, "So Jesus said to the twelve, 'You not want to go away also, do you?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life? We have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.'" And of course, that is what we believe by God's grace.

Now let's look at the text closely, especially as it unveils the marvelous symbolism here, pertaining to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And certainly that is why we study these things, not so that we can gain intellectual understanding, but so that we can gain a deeper and more intimate relationship with the lover of our soul. Amen? Amen. So first we're going to see pictured here, that Jesus is the only source of spiritual rest. Notice Mark six, verse 30, "The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught." Now remember, Jesus had sent them out, had sent the 12 out in pairs into the regions of Galilee, to preach repentance of sin, and faith in the Lord Jesus. And they had been empowered by God with miraculous abilities, and now, they've come back. They are exhausted, they've experienced enormous rejection, and persecution. But they also witnessed some that had come to faith in Christ. And the Lord now wanted to give them their first taste of ministry combat, because when you're serving Christ, that's what it will be, it will be combat. In fact, we know a little bit of what the Lord told them in Matthew 10:6, he said, "go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Do not acquire gold or silver or copper, for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals or a staff for the worker is worthy of his support.'" In other words, I want you to go out and I want you to learn to trust me, all right. He went on to say in, "whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city. As you enter the house, give it your greeting. If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. Whoever does not receive you nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves." We learn in Matthew seven, verse 15, that this imagery of sheep and wolves, is used to describe the false prophets being the wolves that prey upon those who are vulnerable. And I might add that the greatest threat, as those disciples experienced, the greatest threat to genuine Christianity, the greatest threat to the gospel, will come from the corridors of religious people, many of them who claim to be Christians, and we see this today with false teachers. And there are unsaved sycophants that follow them. Satan prefers to join a church rather than attack it.

And the false prophets and teachers of Israel were Satan's servants. And this is what they experienced. And Jesus is calling them back now, for a time of rest. In fact, Jesus said of those false prophets and teachers of Israel, and John 8:44, "You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lives. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me." And we all have experienced that, you speak the truth, people do not want to hear it. Satan hates the truth. His followers hate the truth. Just look at the demonstrably false ideologies of both political and theological liberalism that continues to devastate our country, our churches, our schools, our families. These are purveyors of deceptions that destroy lives and damn men souls. In fact, most of the scribes and Pharisees of Israel were equally corrupt. They were self righteous, they were greedy. They were hypocrites. They were, as Jesus said, the blind, leading the blind. Matthew 15:14, "Let them alone;" Jesus said, "they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." So he says, Let them alone. That's another illustration of God's wrath of divine abandonment. Just let them go. That's what the term means. Let them be, make no effort to even confront them. Don't debate them, don't cast pearls before swine. In fact, when you have such a person in a church, as we will encounter, as we have in this church from time to time, we are told in Titus 3:10, to "Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted, and is sinning, and is self condemned." So this is what they have been experiencing now. And they're coming back and Jesus gathers them around himself. And according to John 6:4, all of this took place shortly before the Passover, which would have been sometime around March or April, and that would have been in about AD 29. So he brings them together. Now, the text doesn't say this, but I would imagine he brings them together around a cozy fire, right? It's going to be cool. It's wonderful to be able to come to a fire, isn't it interesting how a bonfire is so inviting to people, or even a fire out on your patio or in your home, is always inviting, it warms the body and it softens the heart. And so they're gathering together now with Jesus. And one of the things that I want us to see in this is how important fellowship is to a weary warrior of the faith.

Dear friend, if you are serving Christ, as you should be, you're going to be persecuted, you're going to be rejected. And when that happens, you will long to be in the presence of other people that know and love Christ, you're going to long to gather around the fire with them, to share what you've gone through both the good things and the bad, to share how people have rejected Christ, to be able to pray for them, but also to share how others have come to faith in Christ. And frankly, that's a time as I'm sure they experienced; it's a time when you weep together, when you mourn together when you encourage one another when you pray for one another, and so forth. And I might add that those who know nothing of evangelism, know nothing of genuine worship, and know nothing of the soul nourishing power of fellowship with Christ, and with those who belong to Him. So this was a great and blessed opportunity for them to experience this. So the 12 disciples get their first taste of spiritual warfare. And they begin to see very quickly that Jesus is their only source of spiritual rest. You will find no rest anywhere else in life, but in Christ. And that's why he sent them out in the first place, I might add, from this time forward, Jesus is going to be spending much less time in public ministry, and much more time in private ministry, encouraging and instructing his disciples. It will be an increased focus on private instruction. He's preparing them for ministry.

So notice what happens in verse 31. And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while." "Secluded" could be translated, "quiet or solitary." Then he says, "For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat." By the way, seclusion is key. When you've been in battle for the Lord Jesus, you're going to want to come to a place that is quiet, you're not going to want to go to Disneyland. You want a time of relief and instruction. The demands of ministry are great, dear friends, and if you have no desire to come away in quiet solitude to be with the Lord, and to be with other believers, there's something terribly wrong with your heart attitude. You're probably not serving him. You know, most Christians are like most Americans who spend their life you know, sitting in front of a TV drinking a soda eating Cheetos off their chest, you know, as lazy as a as a sloth on Nyquil. I mean, that's what we see with so many people today in our country. And many Christians are that way. They just don't do anything. They don't ever exercise their faith, they come and they hear a sermon, and then they go home and they do their thing. I know today is the Super Bowl. Some of you may get into that type of thing. That's okay. But for a lot of people, they're not even having church today, because of the Super Bowl. It's astounding to me. So dear friends, don't be a spiritual sloth. There is no greater joy in life than serving Christ and enjoying sweet fellowship with Him. So verse 32, "They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves." Now Luke adds something very interesting in Luke 9, beginning of verse 10, we read, "When the apostles returned, they gave an account to him of all that they had done." And we read, "Taking them with Him, he withdrew by himself to a city called Bethsaida." So that means that he sailed east, along the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee. Those of you who were with me this last October, the same direction we went out in the Sea of Galilee, and this distance would have been about an hour and a half or so in the boat. So they had some time of fellowship there, but it's going to be short lived, as you are going to see. And here we have, again, a beautiful picture of how Christ is our refuge in life. Christ is our source of rest and relief, and he is mindful of our needs. He is aware of our limits, I think of Jeremiah 31:25, where God says to His prophet, "For I satisfy the weary ones, and refresh everyone who languishes." Isn't that a precious truth? And Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden." Weary and heavy laden are in the present tense, which means it's a continuous state of being burdened by life, "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." You might recall the apostle Paul, when he was experiencing great strife as a result of the false teachers there in Corinth that was undermining his ministry, maligning him, turning people that he had led to Christ against him, and to believe things that were false. And we read in Second Corinthians 2 how, while he was in Troas, the Lord opened the door of ministry to him, but he was so depressed, he was so anxious, he was so distraught, he couldn't go through it. So in Second Corinthians two beginning in verse 12, we read, "Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit." Then he adds this, "not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia." So he was alone, he was hurting. Later on in chapter 7, verse six, we read how God ministered to him.

There we read, "But God who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more." Dear friends, christian fellowship, is a tonic for the aching soul. It's a refreshing drink of water to the thirsty traveler. It is a glowing fire on a cold in a dark night. And please hear this, each and every one of you need to be cultivating Christian friends that you can spend time with when these difficulties come into your life. When you need someone to be with to pray with you, to weep with you, to comfort your soul and you need to cultivate these kinds of relationships. And you need to be that kind of person that is always ready and willing to invite those people into your home, into your life, that you might care for them and love them as Christ loves us. I think of 2 Corinthians 1:3, where the apostle Paul says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." And this is vividly displayed here in Mark six, as Jesus calls his disciples away, to be with him in a secluded place for a time of rest, for time of fellowship and instruction.

So Jesus has not only the source, the only source of spiritual rest, but secondly, he is the only source of spiritual truth. Notice verse 33, of Mark 6, "Then people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities and got there ahead of them." Now, if you've been in this region, as some of you have, you are able to see the boat leaving the shore. And there are pathways all along the shores, the hills role, and you could travel those roadways as they did. And that day, it was elevated, a lot of those pathways are still there today. So many of these people see which way the vessel is going, and they start running ahead on the shore, to hopefully intersect with them. So many of them would have run. By the way, people were in far better shape back then, than we are today. So don't be shocked at that. They did not have processed foods, and fast foods and all the junk that we eat. Plus, they walked everywhere. And if you go to third world countries where they don't have vehicles, you see that people walk everywhere, for miles. I remember the first time I taught in Kenya, the pastors that came there, many of them had walked for three weeks to get there. And that's not at all uncommon. So these people were motivated, they wanted to see Jesus, and they were going to get there any way they could. And it was quite a crowd. Verse 34, "When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things." Luke adds this in Luke nine beginning in verse 11, "But the crowds were aware of this and followed him and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God, and curing those who had need of healing." Well, so much for the rest and relaxation, right? It was ministry, head on once again.

Now stop and think about it. Jesus could have said, "Oh, no, look, you see all that crowd they're heading for where we're going, let's go south, or let's go back somewhere else. I don't want to deal with these people anymore." And I will confess that there are many times when I feel exactly that right? We all do. But no, he did not do that. It says that he felt compassion "splanchnizomai" in the original language is a interesting term. It means "to be deeply moved in one's bowels, in one's viscera, in one's entrails, in our inner being especially characterized by sympathy and compassion." May I ask you When was the last time you were deeply moved over people that did not know Christ? When was the last time your burden for these people was so great that you wept for them? Sadly, few Christians have deep feelings like this. Most Christians have what I would call a flat effect. They never get too high and they never get too low. They just kind of move along. It's a horrible thing. Having a spouse like this as some of you do. Or a parent like this. Everything is just matter of fact. Mechanical, cold. The kind of person that has never wept over their own sin, has never wept over an unsaved family member, nothing moves them. The lights are on but nobody's home. What a sad thing, no burden, no passion. Therefore no compassion, no real love for Christ. They're just superficial, shallow, heartless, unsympathetic, cold, indifferent. By the way, compassion is made up of love, patience, kindness, gentleness, fruit of the Spirit. And if that is missing in your life, it's because you are not walking by the Spirit. You are not surrendering yourself to the Spirit of God as He has revealed Himself in His Word. Because when you do that, the fruit of the Spirit is going to grow on the vine of your life. And certainly, one of the marks of walking by the Spirit will be to have a heart of compassion. And that's what we see in Jesus. Now, mind you, Jesus was exhausted, like the others, but still He felt compassion for them. And here's why, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Now, clearly, this was a slam against the religious leaders of Israel, they cared nothing about their sheep, the sheep of their pasture. Earlier in Jesus ministry, we see him expressing the same thing. We read about this in Matthew nine, verse 36. "Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd." They were "distressed" a term that means they were grievously troubled. They were deeply affected. And if you read the context there, of course they were, they were being gaslighted by the Pharisees and the scribes. They're seeing with their own eyes, Jesus doing these miraculous things, casting out demons raising the dead, healing the sick, and then the Pharisees are coming along, said, no, no, no, no, no, no, all of that. And you know, that's, that's of the devil. Right? So what are they supposed to believe? Not only were they distressed, it says they were dispirited. So interesting term, it means they were feeling rejection. They were feeling as though they were just cast aside. And they were, they had no shepherd. And that's what Jesus saw. And it broke his heart. It motivated him to serve them and to love them. There in Matthew 9:36 goes on to say, "Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.'"

Let me talk to you for a moment about sheep. I know from my cowboy and cattle days that cowboys and cattlemen hate shepherds and sheep. And so I've learned quite a bit about why that is the case. A lot of it has to do with how sheep, ruin grazing areas and so forth. But I've got some friends that are also shepherds, I've learned a little bit from them. One of the things that is certain is that wandering sheep are a danger to themselves. Sheep have the IQ, about the same IQ as cattle. I might add that they're not as smart as pigs. By the way, pigs are quite smart. They're kind of like bears. In fact, pigs and bears are in the same family. Interestingly enough, sheep do not have any ability to defend themselves. They're unable to find suitable pastures, they're unable to care for themselves to clean themselves. They're easily deceived, easily frightened. If you get around a sheep, and all of a sudden, one sheep gets scared of something the other see him get scared, and it's just a chain reaction, they all get scared and run off the cliff, you know, and they don't know why he's scared, but if he's scared, I'm scared. And that's kind of what they will do. In fact, I learned from shepherds that if you have all your your flock of sheep here, and you want to go from here to there, you don't just kind of march right straight through them, because that will spook them. They don't understand what's going on. So you kind of meander, and you talk with them. And you go back and forth. And finally, little by little you make your way over there. That's the gentleness of a shepherd. Well, the point is sheep need a shepherd. These people didn't have a shepherd. We see this metaphor Numbers chapter 27, beginning in verse 15, regarding Israel, and their wanderings in the wilderness, this happened at the close of Moses life, his leadership was coming to an end. And then we read in numbers 27, verse 15, "Then Moses spoke to the Lord saying,' May the Lord the God of the spirit of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord will not be like sheep, which have no shepherd.'" And you will recall that God solved that problem by the appointment of Joshua.

So indeed, Israel was wandering alone in the wilderness of spiritual apostasy with shepherds that were really nothing more than wolves. They were desperate for a true shepherd. And even today, there is a difference between a sheep herder and a shepherd. A sheep herder uses fear to drive the sheep, especially through the use of dogs, and they get behind the sheep and drive them in fear. But a shepherd gets in front of the sheep. And because they trust him, and because they know him, they will follow him. That's what the people needed. Might add as well, research indicates that sheep can recognize up to 50 other sheep faces and remember them as much as two years. An amazing thing. They can also recognize human faces. I've seen this before, when several men came up to a large group of sheep, many of them turned away, but a lot of them saw his face. And when they heard His voice, they started coming to him. An amazing thing to watch. They will also follow the voice of their shepherd, because they have learned that that is the voice that has consistently protected them, and given them res,t brought them to good pastures, and freshwater. This helps us understand what Jesus said in John 10 and verse 27, "My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they want they follow Me." Those that are not His sheep, do not hear His voice. Nor does he know them and they therefore do not follow Him. By the way, every family, every church needs a godly shepherd. And how sad to see wives was languishing in a leaderless marriage. Children left unto their own devices. I've seen so many families and some even in this church, that languish in absolute misery and dysfunction. Not only because they are not following the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, but they don't have a shepherd in the house. Men, you need to be the shepherd of your wife, and of your children. And certainly, you need to be in a church, where you have shepherds that will care for you. So the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's aware of all of this going on with the crowd that is there. And the primary responsibility of a spiritual Shepherd is to lead and protect and provide for the flock primarily by catch this, teaching them. Teaching them, Mark 6:34. And he began giving them free stuff and promising their best life now is not what he says is it? "And He began to teach them many things."

So Jesus is not only the source of spiritual rest, he's the only source of spiritual truth. In fact, all truth is from God. He is the source of all truth. No truth ever originated from man. Whether it's the law of mathematics, the law of physics, spiritual truths, none of it came from any of us. We might know it, we might understand it, but we are not the source of it. Jesus is the source. In fact, in John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the Father but through me." So he began to teach them many things, because he knows that it is truth that will nourish their soul, that it truth that will protect them. It is truth that will guide them, it is truth that will provide for them eternal life. So he didn't teach them as people are teaching today, these ridiculous things like the social justice gospel. He didn't teach them diversity, equity and inclusion. All of the wokeus pocus nonsense that's out there. Boy, this stuff is going crazy, isn't it? I had a friend that lives out by me, tell me about a family from California that moved in next to them. Now, please. What I'm about to say, has no reflection on the people from California that continue to populate this church at CBC in record numbers, all right? But he said, You're not going to believe what happened to me. He said, I saw this guy pull up into my drive. And he said, I want to introduce myself, I'm your new neighbor moved here from California, blah, blah. They talked for a minute, and then the man said this to him. Sir, I would, I would like to ask you to sell your cows, and to clean up the manure out in your fields, because they give off methane gas.

Now, it would be inappropriate for me to share with you what he told him. But I'm quite confident that man from California will not be receiving a Christmas card this year. And it's interesting, the guy went to the other farmers and ranchers around and did the same thing. It's amazing how, how people are just completely given over to the insanity of our culture. Well, John, I'm sorry, Luke, chapter 9:11, tells us a little bit more about what Jesus did preach to them. It says, "He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God." That's what he taught them. They're all there, they want to see another miracle, they want to see something fascinating. And what does he do? He begin to give them what they need, not what they wanted. He began to teach them about the kingdom of God while he heals some of the people as well. Well, Jesus and his fore runner, John the Baptist, preached the same message right? You remember, Matthew 3:2 and chapter four, verse 17, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And certainly this was the kingdom proclaimed by the Old Testament prophets. He is proclaiming to them that He is the fulfillment of the promised Davidic covenant, He is the Davidic King that they expected. You will recall that the angel Gabriel informed Mary that she would have a son who would be great and sit on the throne of his father David and rule over Israel forever. In Luke chapter one, that he would establish this earthly kingdom and physically rule along with a restored Israel, a rule that would bless all of the nations. Matthew 19:28, A time that would ultimately be that consummating bridge between human history and the eternal kingdom of God for all of the redeemed, but you cannot enter the kingdom, apart from repentance, and saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So repentance was the condition for entering this kingdom. This was and is today, the truth, wandering sheep must hear and must believe. You cannot enter the kingdom of God apart from genuine saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 18:37, you will remember Pilate said to Jesus, "'So you are a king?' Jesus answered, 'You say correctly, that I am a king. For this, I have been born, and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.'" So that's what happens. Jesus gets off the boat. They're all there. This is what he begins to teach them. So we see that Jesus is the only source of spiritual rest and spiritual truth.

But finally, he is the only source of spiritual life. Notice verse 35, "When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, 'This place is desolate, it's already quite late; send them away so that they may go into their surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves, something to eat.' But He answered them, 'You give them something to eat!' They said to Him, 'Shall we go and spend 200 denarii on bread and give them something to eat?'' In other words, are we supposed to spend what little we have in the kitty to buy food for all of these people? Well, obviously, Jesus was aware of the crowds need for food. I mean, in all of this is a providential setup right for what He's about to do. In fact, we read in John six beginning of verse five, "Therefore, Jesus lifting up his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, 'Where are we to buy bread so that these may eat?' This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. Philip answered Him, 'Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.'" So Jesus is aware of the great need, but he's also aware of the disciples great need for stronger faith, to really trust in Him. And you're not going to have a strong body unless you exercise it. Moreover, you will not have a strong faith unless you exercise it. And so that's what Jesus is doing here.

And now, not only is he preparing them for this astonishing miracle that will display his creative power and His divine nature, but he's also going to picture himself as the only source of spiritual life. Indeed, He is the bread of life, that eternally satisfies all who trust in Him. He alone can satisfy those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, a hunger that the Spirit of God places within the redeemed. That passionate longing to be right with God, to have a right standing before God, to be pleasing to Him. So verse 38, "He said to them, 'How many loaves do you have?'" Now loaves here, little flat loaves, they still have them over there. These are like little pitas, they call them lafas, I mean, they are kind of like a pancake or, or I guess in the Mexican restaurants, you have some things like that the little skinny things. Well, I forget what you call those things, but you've rolled them up, put your meat in there. This is a little bit, a little bit thicker than that. And I remember my Jewish friends when I was growing up, they would they would bring matzah to church or to school. Unleavened flatbread, so that's what's going on here. "How many loaves you have? Go, look!" And when they found out they said five and two fish." And John adds this in John six, beginning of verse eight, "One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 'There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish.'" Now this would have been pickled fish. That's how they did that, they used salt and would pickle the fish. And this was basically the little boys lunch. And then the little baskets, little lunch basket for a small boy, that's all they had. But he goes on to say, but what are these for so many people, verse 39, "And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass." Beloved, here is a magnificent picture of a shepherd leading his flock to green pastures, Psalm 23, in verse 2, remember that passage, "He makes me to lie down in green pastures." A place of abundant food, a place of rest, a place of protection. By the way, isn't that what we have in our church? What would we do if we didn't have a church to be able to come to, to be a part of? This is also a foreshadowing of the Messianic banquet in heaven, marriage supper of the Lamb, Revelation 9:9, that symbolic meal that will take place when at the establishment of the millennial kingdom and lasts throughout, that's also pictured in the Lord's Supper, remember, in Mark 14:25, Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." So all of this is pictured here, verse 40, "They sat down in groups of hundreds and 50s." By the way, this would have been a miracle in and of itself, right? To get 15, 20, maybe 25,000 people to sit down in groups of hundreds and 50s. But that's what they did. You do the math. And I mean, even if there's 20,000 people and they did it, and with groups of 100. I mean, that's 200 groups. That's, that's a lot of groups. And it would have been necessary for orderly distribution. Verse 41, "And He took the the loaves and the two fish and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves, and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all." I can just see the disciples, maybe they had some help but you I know you guys are tired, but you're going to have to do a lot of running here to get this food distributed to all these people. And then we read in verse 42, "They all ate and we're satisfied." Reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew five, verse six, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," for they shall be what? "they shall be satisfied."

And then we read in verse 43, "and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish." Twelve full baskets for twelve hungry disciples. The Lord did not forget his own right, he provided for them. And I thought to myself, Well, I wonder why it wasn't 13 I mean, the Lord needs some too. Well, I'm sure his disciples would have shared with him, maybe we'll find out someday in heaven. My what a miraculous display of God's creative power of His divinity. Surely He is our only source of spiritual rest and spiritual truth, and spiritual life. Now, we know that the people were so overwhelmed by what they had just experienced. And according to John six, beginning in verse 14, we read, "Therefore, when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, 'This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.' So Jesus perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him king withdrew again to the mountain, by Himself alone."

And then we know if we were to read on that the next day, he reappears to them, he begins to teach them about the sovereign grace of God and salvation and all those amazing truths of the gospel. And we read that they heard this, wanted nothing to do with it, and they abandoned him. As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and we're not walking with Him anymore. Dear friend, if you're here today, and you need rest for your weary soul, if you're here today, and you're confused about life, with all of the competing voices that are out there, if you're here today, and you're not sure what's going to happen to you when you die, I offer you the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only source of spiritual rest, spiritual truth, and spiritual life, eternal life. And for those of us who know these truths, well, let's know them even better. May I encourage you to meditate upon these truths? May I encourage you to celebrate these truths in your heart, and in your life and around the table with your family? And then may I encourage you to disseminate these truths in the proclamation of the gospel, that Christ might be glorified in your life. Common grace was provided but it was rejected. Don't be among those who reject God's common grace that can lead you to saving grace. Okay. Let's pray together. Father, your eternal truths are always so penetrating to each of our hearts. And I pray especially for the hardened heart, the rebellious heart. The heart that down deep doesn't want to believe any of these things. That heart that has conjured up their own ideas about life Lord only you can break through that type of recalcitrance. Only you can tear down that kind of a wall. Only you can give that person eyes to see and ears to hear. And to that end, I plead with you that you will do just that, even this day. And for those of us who know and love you, may we know and love you all the more as we meditate upon these great truths, and celebrate them in our lives, and proclaimed them with our lips. We pray all of this in the precious name of Jesus, our Savior, and coming King. Amen.

We now come to our time in our worship service when we can submit our lives to the scrutinizing Word of God. So will you take your bibles and turn to Mark's gospel chapter six, where we will examine verses 14 through 29. Under the heading, the beheading of John the Baptist, let me read the passage to you. Mark chapter six, beginning with verse 14, "And King Herod heard of it, for his name and become well known; and people were saying, John the Baptist has risen from the dead and that is why these miracle miraculous powers are at work in Him. But others were saying, 'He is Elijah.' And others were saying, 'He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.' When Herod heard of it, he kept saying, 'John, who am I beheaded, has risen!' For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, 'It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.' Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so; for Herod was afraid of John knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him. A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his lords, and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee; and when the daughter of her Herodias, herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. And the king said to the girl, 'Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you.' And he swore to her, 'whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you up to half of my kingdom.' And she went out and said to her mother, 'what shall I ask for?' And she said, ''The head of John the Baptist. Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, 'I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.' And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oath, because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. Immediately, the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about this, they came and took away his body and laid it in a tomb."

Here we have another example of unrestrained depravity. Here we have another example of militant unbelief. What goes through the mind of a person that could reject the gospel in such an alarming way, and perform these hideous barbaric acts. We are all aware of the escalating wickedness in our in our country and around the world. From the gross immorality of the LGBTQ perversions to the transgender insanity, from the brutal dismemberment of unborn children, to the demonstrably false ideologies of critical race theory, every pillar of society is cracking. Even many non believers see this. So much of what's happening today has now moved into the realm of the bizarre, the insane. Our President and his administration are godless people. They are immoral, they are corrupt. Much of what we see in the Democratic Party and even in many of the Republicans and independents is nothing more than sociopaths and psychopaths, ruling our nation And I don't say that to be mean. I'm saying that because that is the reality and we must face it. These people desperately need Christ. God has allowed these rulers to be put in place as part of his judgment upon America. But as God has promised, the world is moving inexorably towards a day of divine judgment. And right now the world is being prepared for the rule of the Antichrist.

We live in a fascinating period of time, where we see these things beginning to coalesce together, we see the prophetic signs, beginning to point towards a global ruler, a global economy, a global world system. But we also know that Christ is going to someday remedy all of that right. Paul spoke of this in 2 Thessalonians 2:7, "For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one who's coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them a diluting influence, so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged, who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness." The rule of the Antichrist will one day be crushed by Christ Himself. When according to Second Thessalonians, one beginning of verse seven, "the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."

And what we see in our text here this morning, is a vivid picture of the type of person that simply refuses to obey the Lord's command to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But according to Scripture, from Herod to Hitler, from her Herodias to Hillary, God's judgment is coming upon the wicked with unimaginable majesty, and uncontested legal and regal authority. The Messiah, the warrior king, the king of kings and Lord of lords is going to return in power and great glory to exercise his judicial power to destroy the remaining Christ haters on Earth who have survived the pre kingdom judgments of the Tribulation. And that will be a time when man's long rebellion against God will be crushed and the Lord Jesus will establish his millennial kingdom, leading to the eternal and universal judgment of both the living and the dead. My friends, Jesus is coming again, we must remember that, we must rejoice in that. In his first coming, the world saw His love and His mercy and His grace. But in his second coming, they will see his justice, and his wrath, and his vengeance. And my heart breaks to know that some of my family members will experience that, some of my friends, perhaps even some of you. But one day the world will behold our holy God, the one that they mock. Holiness being the all encompassing attribute of God, portraying his utter transcendence His infinite perfections, it's the defining characteristic of his person, that holiness is the summation of all of who he is. Today the world mocks it but one day when they see him, they will not be able to escape his holiness; indeed the wages of sin is death, but there's eternal life to those who trust in Christ and eternal death to those who don't. So here we have a vivid example of rejection. Here we witness what goes on in the mind of the criminally depraved, insane person. Here we witness examples of pure evil.

Here we have a chance to get a glimpse into the mind of the ungodly, the type of people that will do everything they possibly can to silence their accusing conscience, to somehow suppress the truth of their own sin, and the glory and holiness of God. People that violently oppose the Word of God when it's proclaimed by His prophets. John 16, you will recall that Jesus promised that his father would send the helper one day referring to the Holy Spirit. Why would he do that? And well, according to John 16:8, the Helper will come to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment, the very things that the world simply does not want to hear. You must understand, because Satan is the god of this world that blinds the minds of unbelievers so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, people simply cannot rightly judge the truth concerning Jesus Christ and the Messiah. Unless God does something in his regenerating grace, their discernment is always false. It is always self serving, and they will come up with every excuse possible, to deny the truth of the gospel, and their need to respond to it in saving faith. And while the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe it is also the power of God unto damnation to all those who do not. And for this reason, the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1:18, that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." That is a wrath that first results in divine abandonment in a person's lifetime. When God according to verse 28, of Romans 1 gives them over to a "depraved mind, to do those things that are not proper." But also it is the wrath of divine abandonment for eternity. For the Lord Jesus said in John 3:18, "He who does not believe has been judged already." And then in verse 36, he went on to say," He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Now with this background, we look at this text. And here we witness at least three common reactions to the convicting power of the Word of God and the depraved heart reactions that maybe some of you are having even right now. To list them is real simple, we will see first of all ,guilt, then secondly, fear, and finally the reaction of anger. Now, remember, Mark is presenting a contrast. Here in this text from chapter five, you will recall Chapter Five is all about the gift of faith, you will remember Jarius the the prominent synagogue official and his 12 year old daughter that died. And he had faith and Jesus raised her from the dead. And also you have the the illustration of the unnamed woman who was a social outcast because of her persistent menstrual disorder that she had for 12 years. So you see the power of faith and what God does has in response to that, but here in chapter six, is the contrast of the power of unbelief, the shocking reality of it all. Now, we need some context here. Let's understand who this Herod Antipas really was. He was a regional monarch that ruled as a vassal of Rome over the territory that included the realm of Galilee and Perea and to better understand him, I want to tell you a little bit about his father, and then we'll talk more about him. His father, you will recall was Herod the Great that ruled Israel under Rome for 36 years. He was an enemy and he was he was not a Jew. He was a descendant from the rejected twin Esau, and although he was responsible for rebuilding the Jewish Temple, which he basically did to maintain order amongst the Jews, he hated The Jewish people and the Jewish people hated him. Jewish people, of course descended from Jacob not from Esau. He was a grossly immoral man, a brutal man, a paranoid megalomaniac. He was the one that ordered the execution of all of the male babies of Bethlehem to eliminate Jesus who he presumed may be a potential rival King. We know from history that he had 2000 bodyguards, and he killed hundreds of innocent people that he considered to be a threat to his throne, including three of his own sons, two of his brothers in law, one of his mothers in law, and his favorite wife. He had 10 wives by the way, his favorite wife wife was Mariamne had her killed as well. And on his deathbed, because he knew that none of the Jewish people would mourn his death, but rather celebrate his demise, he commanded that all of the Jewish nobles from all over Israel come and meet in Jericho, and when they arrived, he put them in Jericho's Hippodrome, a gigantic racetrack area, and ordered all of them to be killed upon his death. However, Herod's sister, Salome, the First, prevented the massacre by countermanding or that is, reversing the order right after his death. Now, how would you like to have a guy like that for your father? That was the father of Herod Antipas.

And certainly the apple did not fall far from the tree because Herod Antipas was equally barbaric and immoral and paranoid. Now, when Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, his father died in 4 BC his territory was divided, into three areas ruled by three of his surviving sons. The southern territories of Judea and Samaria, went to Archelaus, who was so incompetent that Rome finally deposed him and replaced him with various governors, one of whom, by the way, was Pontius Pilate. The region's of Iturea and Trachonitis, in the far north, went to Philip the Tetrarch, who was eventually succeeded by his nephew, Herod Agrippa. Read about that in Acts 12. But here's where the plot thickens aright? Herod Antipas, the third son, the subject of our text, was married to a gal named Phasaellis who was the daughter of King Erastus, who ruled down in the Nabateen, Arabia area, which is southeast of the Dead Sea, in modern day Jordan, capital city of Petra. We will be doing another tour to Israel this fall, and we're going to take a trip over to Petra this time. However, Herod Antipas decided that he was attracted to his half brother, Philip's wife, his sister in law, her name was Herodias. So he had an affair with her, but what's even more complicated is she also happened to be his niece. She was the daughter of Aristobulus, the half brother of Herod Antipas. Now, I know it's beginning to sound like the Jerry Springer show, and that's what you have here, okay? And Herod, we know pressured Herodias, to divorce her husband, Philip, and marry him. So he was guilty of adultery as well as incest. And of course, the rich and the powerful can get away with these things, they can pretty well do whatever they want. We see that all the time and the corrupt perverts or murderers that we have ruling our country. And by the way, Herod's father in law was so upset that he rejected his daughter, his father in law being King Aritus. He was so offended by all of this that he raised up an army against Herod and actually defeated him, although Herod Antipas was able to escape because the Roman forces came to his rescue. Now Herod Antipas and his wife Herodias, had a palace inTiberias there, on the western side of the Sea of Galilee, a city that he built in honor of the Roman ruler under whom he he served a ruler by the name of Tiberius Caesar. And there he lived in absolute luxury isolated from the rest of the Jewish people.

And they hated him, a lot. Along with all of the Romans, on whose behalf, he ruled, and like most all politicians, especially despotic rulers like Herod, he was completely out of touch with the needs of his people, he really didn't care. He just wanted to be left alone, and enjoy his opulent and immoral lifestyle. And then God decides to send John the Baptist. And my, you talk about throwing the cat in amongst the pigeons. That's what happened when John the Baptist came on the scene. John the Baptist, was the last of the Old Testament prophets, the forerunner of the Messiah, he was calling men and women to repentance, and he proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God who takes the what? Takes away the sins of the world, you will recall in John 1:29. And evidently he used the wickedness of Herod and Herodias as examples of the type of people that need to repent. And obviously, this did not go well, when they heard of it. And also at the same time, John confronted the rest of the religious leaders of Israel for their hypocrisy.

Let me give you an example of that. And this, by the way, would have been an example of the types of things Herod and Herodias would have heard from the lips of John the Baptist. Matthew 3:7, "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees, coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our Father', for I say to you that from these stones, God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I and I am not fit to remove His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor and he will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.'" So, the news of John the Baptist preaching eventually reaches the ears of Herod along with his wife Herodias, they are furious, they're accusing conscience has been inflamed, they've been trying to silence it. They're trying to avoid more public embarrassment. But dear friends, when the Word of God is preached, it will unmask everyone who hears it, whether you like it or not. And so, being absolutely apoplectic over the prophets public renunciation of their character and their conduct, Herod sends soldiers to have John arrested. I might add that this took place shortly after Jesus' baptism and his immediate temptation into the wilderness. I would also add that he was probably thrown into a dungeon, we believe, at Herod's palace and fortress that's a top a stronghold, a vantage point and Machaerus in the Northeastern edge of the Dead Sea. You can see ruins of that today, if you go into Jordan. You can even see the opening to the dungeon and where that would have been. And due to John the Baptist's popularity and his wife's desire to have him killed, he probably had him incarcerated. Pretty good distance from Tiberius in Galilee. Now imagine what it would be like to be lowered into a damp, dark dungeon. It would be a hideous and slow death. But as we're going to see, God would rescue John from that slow death through death, and take him into glory.

With that, we come to verse 17, "For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison, on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." I love this. He's a fearless prophet. He speaking the absolute truth of the Word of God. He fears God more than man. And he's just saying what is true in Leviticus 18:16, "You shall not not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife. It is your brother's nakedness." Likewise, Leviticus 20:21,"If there is a man who takes his brother's wife, it is abhorrent. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness. They will be childless." Back to Mark 6:19, Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so. She was a first century Jezebel, Absolutely wicked to the core. Verse 20, "for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and a holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him." This indicates that Herod was intrigued by John the Baptist's preaching, as offensive as it was to him, personally, obviously, he was a powerful communicator and powered by the Spirit of God. In fact, Jesus said of him in Matthew 11, verse 11, "Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist."

And so Herod would have John taken up out of the dungeon, brought before him and listened to him again. And then would send him back. And I'm sure there were times where he would say, "Listen, if you'll just tone it down, knock off all this stuff, we'll let this go, you can go back into the wilderness and eat your locusts and honey, just no more talk about God's judgment on us. I don't want to hear it." No, he wouldn't do it. And so he would go back into the dungeon.

Now notice the Lord's rescue of John the Baptist is quite an interesting tale. It begins in verse 21. "A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his lords and military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee." Now, we know from history that Roman birthday parties were like a bunch of drunken soldiers or frat boys getting together on spring break, going to a strip joint, getting involved in gluttony and drunkenness, and are watching the erotic dancing and all of the immoral debauchery that goes on in those places. Verse 22, "and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in, and danced," let me pause there for a moment. According to Josephus, this was Salome, the third, she would have been about anywhere from the age of 14 to 16 years old, so a young girl, and she was also the daughter of Herod Phillip the first, which was also known as Herod the second, and he was the son of Herod the Great, and she was the daughter of Herodias, Princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, and step daughter of Herod Antipas. The text goes on to say "she pleased Herod and his dinner guests." The term "pleased" is a euphemism for sexually arousing someone. "And the king said to the girl, 'Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you.'" So she did some kind of lewd, sexually titillating dance that appeal to the lusts of those ungodly men. And he says, "just ask me whatever you want, I'll give it to you." Verse 23, "And he swore to her whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you up to half my kingdom." Well, of course, this is pure bluster. This is just a drunken man showing off in front of, of all of his sycophants, by the way, he had no kingdom to give, right? I mean, he was just a vassal of Rome. So this is just unrestricted bravado and braggadocio. Verse 24, "And she went out and said to her mother, 'what shall I ask for?' She said, 'The head of John the Baptist.' Immediately she came in a hurry to the king." I would imagine she came in hurry because she didn't want him to sober up and say, you know, timeout, we need to talk for a second. So she comes back in very quickly, and says, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

Now, this was fairly common in those days, and frankly, it's not at all uncommon in these days in the Near East. This would demonstrate the total annihilation of an enemy and also prove that execution had been fulfilled. And what's interesting, the fifth century church, Father Jerome suggested that Herodias took the head of John the Baptist and mutilated it in a fit of rage. She may well have done this because this was not without precedents. She may have followed the lead of Marc Anthony's wife Fulvia when she was presented the head of Cicero in 43 BC. According to the ancient Roman historian Cassius deo, we read, quote, "Fulvia took the head into her hands before it was removed, and after abusing it spitefully and spitting upon it, set it on her knees open to the mouth, and pulled out the tongue, which she pierced with the pins that she used for her hair, at the same time, uttering many brutal jests." We don't know for sure if this happened, but perhaps did. There's a famous 17th century painting by Peter Franz de Greber, depicting this macabre scene of Herodias pulling out John's tongue and stabbing it with a hairpin. So we don't know again if this happened, but it was certainly consistent with the barbarism of Roman nobility. Verse 26, "And although the king was very sorry, yet, because of his oaths, and because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her." You see Ancient Near East oaths were absolutely inviolable. They could not be broken. And Herod was between a rock and a hard place. Now, pride comes before a fall, and his wife had outsmarted him. So verse 27, "Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went in and had him beheaded in the prison, and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl and the girl gave it to her mother." And then we read this, this footnote here, "When his disciples heard about this, they came and took away his body, and laid it in a tomb." What a sad thing and yet, what a time of rejoicing knowing that now, their beloved brother in Christ was in glory. Now, with this historical background, I want us to examine just for a few minutes, the three common reactions to the convicting power of the Word of God that we find in depraved hearts, the first one is that of guilt. Again, notice verse 14. "And King Herod heard of it." What is it? Well, he hears of Jesus, he hears of all these miracles, that he claims to be the Messiah of Israel. Plus, he hears of how he has sent out his disciples, and He has empowered them to heal the sick, raise the dead and so forth. They're all preaching the same messages as John the Baptist. A message of repentance, turn from your sin, turn unto God, place your faith in Christ and so forth. So again, the text says, "And King Herod heard of it, for his name, referring to Jesus had become well known."

Now again Satan causes people to be blind to the truth. And because of man's depraved heart, we all hate what the Holy Spirit brings to bear upon our soul. When we hear the Gospel, his role is to convict us of sin, and righteousness and judgment of our sin and what it deserves; of the righteousness that we do not have and we cannot attain on our own, and the judgment that is inevitable, lest we place our faith in Christ. Sinners hate that. So they suppress that truth. I like to think of it as trying to keep a lid on a box that's trying to explode. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to experience these things. I don't want to deal with my conscience. By the way, in Romans 1:18, it speaks of this suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. You know, you cannot suppress the truth, if it is not already within you. Then every man, woman and child that rejects the gospel knows that down deep there is a God and they are responsible to him. And when they hear the truth of the gospel, they know it is true, no matter what they might do, to try to justify their unbelief. God makes it clear that he has placed a witness of himself in every one of us, for indeed, every man bears the very image of his Creator. In Romans 1:19 We read it's "Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them." Now please understand, a man's sin and his condemnation before God is universal. It's made of all men. We see this for example, in Romans 3:9, the apostle Paul says, "What then are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks," catch this, "are all under sin.' Bear in mind, he's not saying that they've all sinned. He's not even saying that they are all sinners, though that is true. He's saying they are all under sin. "Under" in the original language "hupo" was a Greek term used to describe something more than just than just being beneath or lower than something. Rather, it's speaking of being subservient to something, to be under the rule, or under the power or under the jurisdiction of someone or some thing. And what he's saying is that all man, all men are sinners, all are under the jurisdiction of the master of sin. We are slaves to it. We live in sin's dominion, we cannot escape it apart from the power of God. Thus the whole world is under the sentence of divine condemnation. Man is guilty before a holy God. But he resents it. He fights it, he suppresses it and comes up with all kinds of excuses to say that that's just silly. Yet in his heart, his conscience continues to accuse him. Why do you think drug and alcohol addiction is so high? In our world, people are trying to suppress the truth and unrighteousness. They're trying to silence their accusing conscience. The conscience that causes them to experience guilt, and shame. With fear of God's judgment this is what sin produces. You will recall that after Adam and Eve sinned, they were ashamed. And they made themselves garments to somehow cover their shame and eliminate their guilt. "And when they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden," the text says that" they hid themselves." Why? Well Adam answered and said I "was afraid because I was naked. So I hid myself". And that's what sinners have been doing down through redemptive history.

You see, dear friends, the fruit of sin is shame and guilt. This is what Herod and Herodias was feeling. You will recall David after his sin, with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband, we read in Psalm 32:3, "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer."" Then he says this, I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity, I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin." Oh, dear friends, there is the glory of the gospel. There is the power of the gospel.

Over the years, I've had the privilege of working with a number of homosexuals. And I've seen a number of them come to saving faith in Christ. And inevitably, when I talk with them, you hear that they are anything but gay, they are filled with guilt, they are filled with shame. That's why they are more apt to commit suicide than other people. That's why all of the data points to the fact that their behavior is associated with the shortening of their life by as much as two decades. And yet so many tried to silence their accusing conscience by demanding everyone to accept their immoral lifestyle. Not even get accepted, you have to absolutely celebrate it. And whenever you see these gay pride parades, you must understand that this is nothing more than a sinners, feeble attempt to somehow eradicate the terror of sin that is haunting their soul, oh how they need the gospel. Proverbs 13:15 says the way of transgressors is hard. Oh it is. Ask those that are addicted to drugs and pornography. Ask the habitual fornicator, an adulterer, an abusive husband or wife. Just ask the liar and the thief in prison. Ask the deadbeat dad, whose family has been destroyed because of his wickedness, a man trying to drown his sorrows in a bottle of booze. You ask the woman with multiple abortions. I was thinking of a woman that I worked with who came to faith in Christ. One of those great stories, always does not happen. But this was a very immoral, middle aged woman. I remember she had had four abortions, several failed marriages. She had some kids, they were all disasters. The beautiful flower of her youth was fading very quickly. When she was brokenhearted, her beauty had wilted. And that was the only way she found life, through her sexuality. And now that's gone. And she came and she and her broken heartedness was crying out for help. And by God's grace, I was able to point her to Christ and I remember reminding her of Psalm 147:3, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Isn't that a wonderful truth? Haven't we all been there? Maybe our situation looked different than hers. But we were all there. We were all guilty. Isaiah 42:3, "A bruised reed, he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish."

Oh what hope, what power there is in the gospel. But Jesus took our guilt, took our shame upon himself. There is forgiveness, there is cleansing in the gospel of Christ. Whenever I think of this, my mind goes to I Corinthians 6:9, "Do you not know," Paul says, "that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revelers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." And then he has that magnificent statement. "Such were some of you." Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. In other words, by the blood of Christ, your sins were washed away. There was forgiveness, there was cleansing. Moreover, you're not just washed, your sanctified. Meaning you're set apart from sin unto God. Positionally, you are now justified, you are declared righteous, not because you are, but because Christ is. And you are forever hidden in him, clothed in his righteousness. Such were some of you. And I remember as a little boy, singing "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus." Well, this is what Herod is hearing. This is what Herodias was hearing. And their conscience was inflamed by John's preaching, but they are at war with the guilt that they are trying to suppress, the shame they're trying to suppress. They simply would not forsake the fleeting pleasures of sin.

William Grinnell great 17th century English Puritan wrote this, "The pleasures of sin must needs be short, because life cannot be long. And they both end together indeed many times the pleasure of sin dies before the man dies. Sinners live to bury their joy in this world. The worm breeds in their conscience before it breeds in their flesh by death. But be sure the pleasure of sin never survives this world. The word has gone out of God's mouth, every sinner shall lie down in sorrow and wake in sorrow."

So we'll go back to verse 14 of this text King Herod heard of Jesus, "His name had become well known people were saying, 'John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.' But others are saying 'He is Elijah'". Now this is an interesting, why would they say he is Elijah? Because the Jews understood at the end of the Old Testament and Malachi 4:5, there is a prophecy," Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." So they're thinking, Well, this must be, this must be Elijah. But Jesus tells us that John is Elijah, Matthew 11:14, "John himself is Elijah, who was to come." So they were confused with all of that, others, the text goes on to say, we're saying, "he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old". And then verse 16. "But when Herod heard of it, he kept saying, 'John, whom I beheaded has risen!'" It's John, the one that I beheaded, he has risen. Talk about a guilty conscience screaming at you. Well guilt also produces fear. Second, in our little point, Mark 16:16. "But when Herod heard of it, he kept saying", you see, he's haunted by what he has done. He knew that John was a righteous man, a terrifying thought. And what's interesting, you will find that the fear that is produced by guilt has a tendency to make people vulnerable to superstition, to irrational thinking, to feelings of confusion, to a sense of I just don't have resources to cope, what am I going to do? How can I fix this thing? That's when people typically turn to the anesthetizers of life. They fill stadiums every week, to somehow escape the reality of life. They put things in their blood in order to escape the guilt and the fear that sin produces a guilty conscience. And knowing that you've made many enemies will cause people to live in a perpetual state of anxiety and paranoia. That's what was going on. Proverbs 28:1, "The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are as bold as a lion." Right? Again, verse 20, under this heading of fear, "Herod was afraid of John knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was he was very perplexed." The terms means he was at a loss. It's like he didn't know what to say. He was overwhelmed with what he heard. But he used to enjoy listening to him. So it was kind of a form of entertainment for him. But he remained confused and undecided. Matthew gives further light on this in Matthew 14:5, "Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd because they regarded John as a prophet." And of course, Herodias was feeling guilt and fear as well that was ruling her heart. Verse 19, "Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so." You see, people without Christ are haunted by their sin, and the reality that a Day of Judgment is coming, that they stand condemned before a holy God, but they do not want to think about it.

And of course, this is the power of the Word of God that is preached. That's why so few people want to come to a place like this and hear the truth. They're spending their whole life trying to avoid what I am saying today. We are told in Hebrews 4 verse 12, what the Word of God can do. "For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Then he says this, "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him, with whom we have to do." You see there is no hiding from the truth, there is no escaping the truth.

So the convicting power of the Word of God produced in these people, guilt and fear And then that depraved heart moves to the final reaction and that is one of anger. Again, verse 19, "Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so." Luke helps us understand more of this. Luke 9 beginning in verse 7, "Now Herod the Tetrarch, heard of all that was happening; and he was greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead and by some that Elijah had appeared and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen again. Herod said, 'I myself had John beheaded; but who is this man,' referring to Jesus, "about whom I hear such things?'" And then it says, "And he kept trying to see him?" Now why did he want to see him? Because he wanted to kill him. Luke 13:31 tells us that, "Just at that time, some Pharisees approached, saying to Jesus, 'Go away, leave here for Herod wants to kill you.'" Well, eventually, Herod got his audience with Jesus face to face. You remember the story, Jesus had gone to Pilate, Pilate couldn't find any guilt in him. So he sent him to Herod. Luke 23, we read about this beginning in verse eight. "Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus, for he had wanted to see him for a long time, because he had been hearing about him as was hoping to see some sign performed by Him." Again, so many of these people wanted to see him do something, do a miracle, entertain me. "And he questioned him at some length, but Jesus answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there accusing Him vehemently. And Herod with his soldiers, after treating him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him back to Pilate."

Oh dear friend, the contempt of the wicked and the tragedy of unbelief, of rejecting the saving truths of the gospel. The unbelieving, depraved heart is filled with guilt, that just exacerbates fears, which inflames anger and resentment. And unless they repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will take that resentment into hell where there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and they will blaspheme the one true and living God for eternity. May I challenge you? If any of this describes you, once you come to Christ today, he will provide forgiveness and cleansing. He will change everything about you. And for those of us who know and love Christ, may we be like John the Baptist, right? May we never be ashamed of the gospel. May we never capitulate to the culture. Maybe we never try to redefine the gospel, to try to make it more palatable to people that might reject it. Because as soon as you do that, you eviscerate the power of the gospel that the Spirit uses to convict people of sin, righteousness and judgment. Don't do that. Preach the gospel, live the gospel, and watch what God will do in your life, and in the lives of those that he will save by His grace. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for the eternal truths of your word. Thank you for this amazing story. One through which we gain much insight into the heart of the depraved, who reject the gospel. And I pray that if there be one within the sound of my voice that knows nothing of what it means to be in fellowship with you through faith in Christ, that you will bring overwhelming conviction to them. Open their eyes, open their ears, that they might see and that they might believe that they might come to faith in the living Christ. I ask this in the precious name of Jesus, and for his sake. Amen.

Would you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel chapter six. We continue to make our way through this amazing historical narrative, verse by verse. By the way, I might add that we used to transcribe all of the sermons, it became rather onerous financially. So back in 2017, we stopped doing that in about the middle of the year. But thanks to artificial intelligence, I don't like that term, but you know what it means, right? We are going to catch up with all of those sermons and all sermons from here on out will be transcribed with about 99% accuracy. You know how it is, when you text something by voice, you better read what you said, because sometimes it records something very different. Little bit of that may be the same case here, but for the most part, it will be available to you because I understand, especially for those of you that have not sat under expositional preaching, it can be a bit overwhelming. And certainly for those that, that do not have a strong theological background. And so it's nice to be able to read these things. And a lot of our listeners, especially overseas really want the transcriptions because their internet isn't fast enough to stream what is being said, but they can get it and read it. And that's very helpful. And so I just wanted you to be aware of that. So that way you can go back and you can pick up things that was misstated or whatever, right? So we're gonna look at Mark six here in a moment under the heading “The First Generation Gospel Preachers.” This is a fascinating passage of scripture. Before I get to it, let me make a few comments. Some of you are aware of that, perhaps the most narcissistic, godless, super rich leaders in the planet gathered together last week in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum. And they spent five days discussing quote, "improving the state of the world." And it's really sad. What they fail to realize is that they are basically pawns in Satan's system on his chessboard, as Satan prepares the world for the rule of the Antichrist, the ultimate diabolical, globalist despot, that Christ will defeat. And certainly what they fail to realize, as does many other people, that the whole world that they want to improve lies in the power of the evil one. It's a frightening thought. 1 John 5:19. They failed to realize what Paul says in Second Corinthians four and verse four, that "the god of this world blinds the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." They failed to realize that the form of this world is passing away according to First Corinthians 7:29. They fail to realize that Jesus came to deliver us out of this world, that we are not of this world as believers. And one day, according to First Corinthians six two "the saints will judge the world." Of course, when they hear things like this they mock, they laugh, and we would to were it not for God's grace. So we need to love them enough to pray for them, to give them the gospel, but certainly not fall for their deceptions. I'm reminded of what Jesus said in First, or what John said in First, John, four beginning in verse five, "They are from the world therefore they speak us from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

So once again, we come together to hear from God, to understand his magnificent purposes, in this world, and certainly in our lives. And in this text today, we learn more about how God has come to deliver sinners from this evil world system. John 16:33 The Lord says "in this world, you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world." That wonderful, because we're united to Christ, we are also overcomers with him. In fact, in first John five, beginning of verse four, we read "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith, who was the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." And so what we're going to see here in Mark six is what really happened when the first gospel preachers were sent out, to begin to present the magnificent truths of the gospel. So let's pick it up in verse seven, of Mark six, "And He," referring to Jesus, "summoned to the 12, and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. And He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belt, but to wear sandals. And He added, do not put on two tunics. And He said to them, wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet, for a testimony against them. They went out and preached that men should repent. And they were casting out many demons. And were anointing with oil, many sick people and healing them." And then dropping down to verse 30, "The apostles gathered together with Jesus and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.' For there were many people coming and going and they did not even have time to eat. They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves."

Here we have a very fascinating and frankly a very instructive passage of scripture that speaks even to contemporary gospel ministry. Today, these things will apply to all of us, as you will see. And bear in mind that up to now, Jesus did all of the teaching, he did all of the healing, he did all of the bold rebuttals and rebukes etc. and his disciples were basically learning from him. He taught them verbally, but he also manifested before them how to effectively minister, so they had spent countless hours learning from Jesus through his teaching, through his actions. And as you probably are aware, many times, we learn more from what is caught than what is taught, right? And so this is what had been going on. Now it's time for the 12 men that he selected to be as apostles; to embark upon a short missionary journey there in the region of Galilee. So, bootcamp is over. Now it's time to actually go into combat. And I might add that pastors and church leaders will never be effective, until they have suffered for Christ in the context of real conflict. You need to know what it's like to be mocked, to be hated, to be challenged, to be forced in situations where you're completely without human resources. And you have to depend upon the Lord and His Word, to do what only He and His Word can do. I remember, in my doctoral training, it sometimes was brutal, because I had some liberal professors, and the ridicule from them and the peers, some of my peers, we would have reading forums where you would have to do position papers. And then you would have to go before 25 or 30 of your peers and maybe four or five professors in the back. I can still see them back there, and you would have to read your paper and then they would begin to dissect what you said. And oh my it could be brutal at times. I remember one professor from the University of Aberdeen just blistering me, because I kept using the phrase the Word of God. "You don't know that it's the word of God. That's just what you think it is. You can call it the sacred writings, or you can call it the Bible, but you can't call it the word of God, you lose all credibility. How do you know it's the word of God?" So it's this type of thing that you must deal with if you're going to ever be effective in ministry. Well, many young pastors today are ill suited and ill equipped. And frankly, I was. I didn't know how difficult it could be until I actually got into combat as a pastor. I hate to put it that way. But that's what it is like, sometimes, fortunately, it's not like that near as much today. have very little of that, but boy, we had it early on in this church, and every startup church will have that, to a great extent, some of the most wicked and divisive people I've ever known, call themselves Christians, and some of them have been a part of this church. So if you're ever going to be especially you, young men, if you're ever going to go into pastoral ministry, you need to ask yourself, How do I deal with bullies? How can I handle conflict? Am I a wilting lily? Or am I an oak? Will I depend upon the Lord? Will I be bold? Or will I cave to the pressure and capitulate so that everybody will like me, so that I won't lose my job?

Well, these are the types of things that Jesus had to instill in his first group of gospel ministers. So this was a, you might say, a short term evangelistic internship, to prepare them for ministry. And, and it's really interesting, when you think about it. The Holy Spirit hadn't fully and permanently equipped them and empowered them. That didn't happen later, until later on at Pentecost. Even though it was promised to them, you will recall an Acts one eight, we read, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." And we know that eventually he commissioned them, after his resurrection, just before his ascension, to go throughout the world. You're familiar with the Great Commission and Matthew 28, beginning in verse 19, "Lord Jesus said, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Now, as we look at this text, I would like to do so under three categories that provide us some of the ministry principles that flow out of what the Lord would have them do, and what they actually did. These first generation gospel preachers were number one, summoned, sent and validated by God. Secondly, they were required to depend on God's provision and to be content with it. And thirdly, they were commanded to renounce gospel rejecters. The application of these principles in contemporary ministry will become even more obvious as we look closely at this passage and other passages that expand upon it.

So first of all, I want you to notice that they were summoned, sent and validated by God, verse seven, "And He summoned the 12 and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits." What's fascinating is we see in scripture that God specifically summoned or chose each man to accomplish his purposes. Even Judas Iscariot who would betray him, which is a fascinating thought. We know that that was a role that God ordained for this man before the foundation of the world. It's even prophesied in the Old Testament in Psalm 41, nine, Psalm 55, verses 12 through 14, Zachariah 11:12 through 13. And I know some are going to ask so let me just deal with it for a moment. Some will ask and rightfully so how can Judas be held responsible for his treachery? If it was prophesied and predetermined, well, frankly, the contradiction lies only in our mind not in the mind of God. It lies in our understanding of justice, which we don't fully understand. And what's interesting, God never makes any attempt to reconcile this perceived conflict. And we see this in Jesus affirmation of both God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. For example, in Luke 22:22, where Jesus says, "Truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!" And we know that Judas carried out his evil desires in his heart, apart from any divine influence, apart from any coercion, and God ordained all of these events that would ultimately lead Jesus to the cross. So God's perfect plan and Judas' evil plan concurred perfectly to accomplish God's purposes. And by the way, as soon as you try to explain God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, you cease to be biblical. Charles Spurgeon addressed this apparent contradiction between God's sovereignty and human choice by saying this, "If I find in one part of the Bible, that everything is for-ordained, that is true. And if I find in another scripture, that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true. And it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other. I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in eternity. They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them far this will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring."

Now, as we come to this text, we must understand that even as apostate Israel had 12 tribes, the Messiah now summons 12 men to be his spokesman, to give Israel the true way of salvation. And it's always interesting to me, that he joked that he chose common ordinary men, right? Just ordinary people, some fishermen, some common laborers, a tax collector, and a Jewish terrorist that absolutely hated Romans. Anxious to meet that guy, one of these days. And this was obviously intended to be a judgment against apostate Israel, because he didn't choose anyone from the scribes or the Pharisees or the Sadducees. No rabbis. And these men minus Judas Iscariot would later be replaced, who would later be replaced by Matthias would, would symbolize the new leaders, now, of the nation. Leaders that will eventually even be a part and functioning in the millennial kingdom, for which the nation was originally intended in fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant. In fact, in Matthew 19:28, Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you have who have followed me in the regeneration," referring to the millennial kingdom, "When the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you also shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel." And Luke 22, beginning of verse 29, "Just as my father has granted me a kingdom, I grant you, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel." So these men were summoned and then sent out in twos and the grammar indicates that they weren't just all lined up in a line and you know, the gun went off and they all went off at the same time, they probably went off, you know, at different intervals. Now, why to two by two? Well, for one reason in Deuteronomy 19:15, we read that "on the evidence of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed." But also ministry needs to be done in the context of other people. It was never designed to be a lone ranger. It's probably not a good analogy because he had Tonto with him, but I think you get the idea. Ministry requires mutual support. It requires fellowship and protection so it should never be done in isolation. And there's a multiplicity with gifts that we have in the body. And we all need to tap into those things. Plus you have all of the one another passages right? We're to love one another and pray for one another, encourage one another, even admonish one another, care for one another, serve one another, and so forth. So they went out in twos to preach the gospel throughout Galilee. And verse 12, it says, "They went out and preached that men should repent." So what is repentance? And therefore what should be the very heart of the gospel message? Well, true repentance is a god induced hatred of sin. True repentance is a turning from sin. It's a Spirit empowered, turning away from sin, forsaking sin and turning unto God. That's what they preached. While repentance should never be considered a condition for salvation, for there are no conditions to grace, it is a crucial element of the gift of grace as we read, in Ephesians, two eight, you see, belief in Christ and repentance are inseparably linked. And together, they will inevitably result in a life that changes direction. When we truly repent, and God saves us instead of going in this direction, we begin to go in a different direction in our life, as in the case of the Gentiles in Acts 11:21, where we read the Gentiles who believed and turn to the Lord. And we can also rejoice knowing that repentance is produced within us by the author of life who according to Acts 11:18 "gives the repentance that leads to life."

I want you to notice that what we read here is very different than much of what we see in evangelicalism today. They went out and preached repentance, and as we're gonna see, they preach the kingdom of God that we'll get into in a moment. But what they didn't preach was a prosperity gospel. They did not preach a social justice gospel that somehow promotes values borrowed from secular culture regarding race and manhood and womanhood, human sexuality. They did not go out with a big sign that says Jews lives matter. They did not go out with a rainbow flag, right? They went out and they preached repentance. To do otherwise would violate, for example, what Paul said in Colossians, two, eight, "See to it, that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ." No dear friends, they went out and they preached the pure unadulterated gospel of God, the good news that a infinitely Holy God has provided a way for we, as sinful people, to be reconciled to Him through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Paul, when he came to Corinth, that was exceedingly wicked, he said in First Corinthians two beginning of verse 2:4, "I determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching, were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." So he sent them out in pairs, and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Luke nine adds to this in verse two, it says, "And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing." Now, from time to time, people will ask, "Can you help me understand the kingdom of God?" Well, it would probably take months to get into all of it. But let me give you just a few moments, because it is important for you to have the basics.

There are essentially three aspects to the kingdom of God as revealed in Scripture. The kingdom of God consists of a universal kingdom, a mediatorial Kingdom and a spiritual kingdom. God's universal kingdom can be defined as God's eternal, sovereign rule over all that exists. You might recall in David's great song of majesty and love, he said in Psalm 145:13, "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your domain endures throughout all generations." And God's mediatorial kingdom can be defined as God's sovereign rule over the earth, through divinely chosen human representatives, who speak on his behalf and who represent the people before him. Here God exercises absolute rule in his invisible spiritual kingdom on earth through the agency of divinely chosen men, and he gave them special revelation; they recorded that in Scripture. And therefore we can understand his kingdom purposes and how we as sinners can enter into the kingdom.

And then there's God's spiritual kingdom, which can be defined as an invisible kingdom that exists only in the hearts of those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and King. And I might add, that it is my firm belief that the kingdom of God is the all encompassing and unifying theme of Scripture. In fact, if you want a brief summary of the Bible, if somebody were to say, "Can you tell me what's in the Bible?" All right, that's a loaded question. Right? What's in the Bible? Well, you could summarize it in this way by saying, you know, it begins in Genesis, one of a creator King of the universe, that made man in His image to rule and subdue the earth to bring glory to the king. But he failed, he sinned, and God cursed man. Yet God promised that the seed of a woman would one day emerge, and would defeat the serpent that usurped the throne, and reverse the effects of the fall so that man could effectively rule over creation. And God in His mercy sent the Messiah King to bring redemption through His atoning work on the cross. And the cross then becomes the basis for reconciling both people and creation, to God. Acts three, verse 10, speaks of the restoration of all things. And we see in the Bible that God gave covenants, to ultimately carry out his promises, to accomplish his purposes in restoring his kingdom. The out workings of unilateral, unconditional, irreversible, irrevocable covenants, all of those are instruments that God uses to manifest his his kingdom. There's the covenant that he made with Noah, in Genesis 6 and Genesis 9, there's the covenant that he made with Abraham in Genesis 15, and Genesis 17. There's the covenant that he made with the priests, the priestly covenant in Numbers 25. And then you have the Davidic Covenant, the one that he made with David in Second Samuel 7. You have the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. So that's what's in the Bible. But then the very last chapter of the Bible, in Revelation 22 in verse three and verse five, we see the final rule of God, and the rule of the lamb and God's people, the revealed is ruling on a new earth, There we read, "There will no longer be any curse and the throne of God, and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond servants will serve Him...and they will reign forever and ever." So there's a little synopsis of what's in the Bible, right? And the amazing thing to me, beloved, is that all of this was ordained by a sovereign God in eternity past. And somehow we're a part of this. It's absolutely staggering to me. I might even add that David gives us a record of when God set all this into motion in Psalm two. And it was not according to some covenant or agreement rooted in theologically derived covenants as covenant theologians would assert. I'm very uncomfortable with that, but rather it's rooted in biblical covenants. God's Kingdom program was decreed by the Lord and in Psalm two beginning of verse seven we read, "I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. Believe David writing here. And then we read, "He said to me, 'You are my son today I have begotten you.'" And this son language, by the way, parallels the son language that we read in the Davidic Covenant in Second Samuel seven in verse 14 in regards to the coming descendant of David. We go on to read "Ask of me and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like earthenware. Now, therefore, oh kings, show discernment. Take warning, oh judges of the earth, worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling, do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him!" Oh, how I wish I could have been in Davos last week, to read that passage, and preach that text. Beloved, this is the gospel. These are the types of things that the apostles preached.

Now back to the historical narrative, Matthew adds a little bit more as to what went on in Matthew 10, beginning of verse five, "These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, 'Do not go in the way of the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'" We know that the gospel first, it was to the Jew first, then later to the Gentile. In fact, Paul's ministry was primarily to the Gentiles. So this is what they were to preach. This is what we must preach. So back to our text in Mark six, verse seven, "He summoned the twelve and he began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits." Luke adds to this saying, in chapter nine, verse two, "they performed healing." So what we see is that he gave them supernatural authority over the demons, and disease. And he did this in order to authenticate, or you might say, validate both the message and the messenger as being from God. And I might add that once the New Testament canon was complete, these miraculous sign gifts disappeared. And so anyone who speaks divine truth with divine authority must be validated not by miraculous signs that they do, but they must be validated or authenticated by their faithfulness to the text of Scripture. That's how we measure if a person is speaking on God's behalf, on the basis of the inspired, inerrant, authoritative and fallible, all sufficient Word of the living God. Sorry, Professor. That, by the way, it was a lot of my rebuke. I'll never forget that day. And many others like it. But folks, if you don't believe in the inspiration of Scripture, which by the way, several of those professors did not, you don't have anything, and there's going to be conflict galore. So no one today has authority over unclean spirits. Though I might add unclean spirits or demons are very, very active in countless people today, we aren't able to always discern that. And it's not up to us to do that we just unleash the gospel. As I say, we are not to exorcise we are to evangelize and the Spirit of God does the rest. And no one can heal or raise the dead. So every pastor, every teacher, must be tested by comparing what they say, and do by what God has said and what He requires. So we are to preach the word, for example, we're to contend earnestly for the faith, it was once and for all delivered to the saints, we are to shepherd the flock of God, and so forth. First, John four, one, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." So when you hear some of this crazy stuff that's out there, you have to say, "All right, let's look at scripture and and let's just see, what does the word of God say about what you're teaching?"

So they were summoned, sent and validated by God, but secondly, I want you to notice, they were required to depend on God's provision and be content with it. Verse eight in Mark six "and he instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey except a mere staff." Staffs were used somewhat as a walking stick, but also for self protection. There were animals or crazy people like we have today. And he said, no bread, no bag, no money in their belt, but to wear sandals. And he added do not put on two tunics. In other words, he's basically saying, Look, guys, I want you to travel light with only the clothes on your back sandals in your feet. Bring no provisions, I want you to learn to depend upon me, I want you to trust in me. And he said to them wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. That seems a little bit odd unless you understand the context of that day, where false teachers who were in it for the money would go in and, and they would begin to teach and they would begin to get better offers and they're making money off of people. And certainly this is what Jesus knew would happen with them. But they weren't careful. Because you think about it, all of a sudden, you come to town and you're healing people. Well, people are gonna line up to say, hey, come and stay at my place. You know, my place is bigger and better. In fact, I will give you... and here we go. Don't do that. Because you're not in this for the money. It isn't about you and your needs. It's about God and His glory. And what a stark contrast to the false teachers of that day. And frankly, of this day. In fact, Paul addressed this in Second Timothy three, six, they were the type of characters that would "enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins." I remember in 1995, we sold our house, getting ready to go teach at Masters on the Bible faculty. And a guy came with his wife and said, We'll take it, we'll buy the house. Got to talking with him, I found out that he was the primary fundraiser for a couple of the most notorious prosperity preachers. In fact, you would know who they were. They're still in existence today. And I said, How can you possibly raise money for these guys, you've got to know that they're con artists. These are charlatans. And I remember because it really angered me. And I remember he just kind of laughed it off. And he said, and this is almost a direct quote, he said, well, people are going to give it somewhere. It might as well be us. And then he went on to tell me that they primarily targeted middle aged women who read romance novels, watch soap operas and listen to Oprah Winfrey. So that was their target audience. So Jesus forbade these men from using their abilities in their ministry to make money. Remember what he said in Matthew 10, verse eight, "Freely you received, freely give, do not acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts." You see true missionaries, true gospel preachers, pastors, must depend upon God's provision and be content with what he provides. We can all tell countless stories of how he has fulfilled those things in our lives. Jesus wanted to teach them from firsthand experience. In fact Matthew six verse 31, he wanted them to learn what he said, "Do not worry then saying 'What will we eat? or What will we drink? Or what will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles, eagerly seek all these things' for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you." The apostle Paul certainly understood this. That's why he told the church in Philipi in Philippians, four beginning of verse 11, "Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content and whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." And so God's man will be content with what God provides and he'll not desire, material gain. I remember having a discussion with a family they were insiders with a very popular, charismatic ministry and broadcast network. And they were telling me how there are rooms that they have, that are filled with boxes of various expensive items that people have given to them so that they can buy a miracle. Described boxes of very expensive watches, boxes of expensive cameras, boxes of expensive jewelry and so on and so forth. Folks, that's always the mark of a charlatan, I think you realize that. I mean, Jesus had virtually no earthly possessions, right. In fact, he said in Matthew 8:20, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." You never saw Jesus or the apostles, doing big fundraisers so that they could have a jet to fly around for their ministry, right? I know they didn't have jets back in those days, I don't know fancy chariots or whatever. You never saw any of that type of thing. No lavish ministry estates, no entourage carrying their bags. Sadly, many churches today are pastored by entrepreneurs, people trying to make a buck. Paul said this in First Timothy six beginning in verse six, "But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment, For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering with these, we shall be content. But those who want to get rich, fall into temptation, and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness." Now, I might also add that later on, Jesus lifted some of these austere requirements. He wanted them to learn the lesson of dependence from the outset, but he wasn't somehow advocating a vow of poverty as some might teach. In fact, in Luke 22, we learn whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one." It's a very complicated passage, not exactly sure what it means. Some will argue that was a first century version of concealed carry, you know that you need to have a sword to protect yourself. It might be and maybe, I leaned towards this, that it's more of a figurative expression, used to describe the perilous nature of the gospel ministry. We can't say for sure. But he went on to say "For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in me. And he has he was numbered with transgressors for that which refers to me has its fulfillment. Then they said, 'Lord, look, here are two swords,' and he said to them, 'It is enough.'" In other words, enough of that kind of talk. I want you to trust in me even for your protection. So they were required to depend upon him. Let me pause for a moment. Ask yourself, do I depend upon the Lord for my needs, especially as I minister the gospel? Maybe we need to back up? Are you ministering the gospel in your life? Or are you kind of a chameleon Christian that just kind of blends in so that nobody would be offended with your position? Your faith in Christ? Is it your priority to serve Christ? Or to serve self? Do you depend upon God's provision in your life? Are you content with what you have? Are you obsessed with material wealth rather than his glory?

Well, again, they were summoned, sent, validated by God, secondly, required to depend upon God's provision and be content with it. And finally, they were commanded to renounce gospel rejecters. Now, what we are about to examine here is utterly antithetical to evangelical pragmatism today that believes that friendship with the world is a better strategy for evangelism than preaching the gospel. That you've got to be seeker sensitive, make sure everybody likes you, let's don't offend anybody. Verse 11, "'Any place that does not receive you,' Jesus said, "or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them." Now to be sure they were going to run into many Nazareth's remember how they were treated, Jesus was treated in Nazareth, we all experienced this. And when this would happen, Jesus didn't want them to just keep preaching in a vicious audience that's scoffing at them, and at the Lord, those who oppose the gospel. In fact, he said in Matthew seven, six, "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces." But also, Jesus didn't want them to just kind of throw up their hands and just kind of quietly walk away and go to another town. He wanted them to publicly renounce them, to pronounce judgment upon their unholy heads. Now, Jews understood the symbolism of shaking the dust off your feet. It was a visible expression of scorn and contempt for Gentiles and all of their paganism. So whenever they were in a pagan area, and they walked back in to the Jewish territory, they would visibly take the their feet and shake off the dust. And it symbolizes the uncleanliness, the filth, the contamination of Gentile paganism. And likewise, you must understand, when the emissaries of Christ would encounter, shall we say, spiritual dogs and pigs of apostate Jews who mocked Christ and reject the gospel, they were to shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them. Luke expands upon this in Luke 10, beginning in verse 10, "But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say." Let me stop there a second. This was to be a public renunciation, all right. It's not like, Hey, do this when nobody's looking. No, this was probably, go out into the streets and say, "Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet, we will wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near." He went on to say, "I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that for that city. Woe to you, Chorzin! Woe to you Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed, and Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you." In other words, I want you people who have rejected the Gospel and made a mockery of Christ, to know this, that even as there was no hope for Sodom, there is no hope for you, unless you repent and believe in Christ.

On many occasions, I've had to communicate these types of things to smug vicious people, gospel rejecters, where I've had to say, you know, we need to stop right here, I can tell that you are completely dominated by unbelief. And I'm not going to continue to be berated by you, but you must understand that unless you repent, you will perish in your sins. And one day you will bow before the Lord Jesus Christ. But you will bow before him in terror, not in triumph, and God will judge you. And I can only pray that He will have mercy on your soul. Then you leave. So what happened? Verse 12, "They went out and preached that men should repent." And oh the opposition they faced, right? As we do today, we want to ask ourselves, how, how is he using me? Have any of you ever really suffered for Christ because you stood for him in some way? I'm not saying go out and pick a fight. But I mean, you know, just stand up at the watercooler and say, you know, I don't agree with that. That's not what God has said in his word. What about Facebook. Well, there's a great forum. You know, the good news is folks he uses common ordinary people like you and me. I think what Paul said in First Corinthians 1:20 and following "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where's the debater of this age Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed, Jews asked for signs and Greeks search for wisdom. We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block into Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling brother, and that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world, to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

So they went out and they preached repentance, verse 13, "And they were casting out many demons that were anointing with oil, many sick people, and healing them." Now, I might add, that the people of that day would have understood the symbolism of the anointing of oil. It wasn't like they had to have oil, to somehow heal people. You know, it's not like they came and somebody needed healing and they say, Hey, I forgot my oil, anybody got any oil? You know, we can't heal them unless we get some oil. You know, that's not what's going on. Rather, they understood that in the Old Testament, the anointing of olive oil was something that demonstrated how God was investing in an individual's power, it was a symbol of consecration for service, to set people apart for service, and it symbolizes God's presence and His power and His authority upon a person. And the apostles did this to symbolize their power and their authority that God had given to them. That was the point. I remember one of the rodeos I went to when I lived in California, there was this cowboy preacher, pastor, that, sadly, was just a total heretic. I had spent time with him on a number of occasions, but at that, at that rodeo, one of the bull riders was hurt pretty bad and, and people went out and they kind of gathered around and they wheeled him off and in the little cart thing that they use, and I remember, he went running to his truck, and he pulled out his dipstick and got some oil on his fingers. And then he came running back and he started making a big scene that he was going to pray for this man and anoint him with oil. And he started doing the whole tongues things, you know, and, and a couple others joined in. It was quite a show, and then he put oil on the guy's forehead and you know, the rest of the story, folks, that's unbiblical. Anyway, as we think about all that happened with these dear people, these dear men that went out originally, what an amazing thing it is to see how God used them to begin to build his church, and to see how these ministry principles apply to us.

And in closing, what happened? Well, later on in the chapter in verse 30, we read that, "The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught." Let me pause there for a second, folks, this is so important to do. We need to get together on a regular basis with one another, and kind of report to each other. What God has been doing in our lives, in our ministry, to be able to share, Hey, I'm going to tell you I've been praying for this person and I had an opportunity to speak truth into this person's life and we need to pray that this will happen, and please help me because I'm facing this horrible opposition in my family with this person. I mean, we need to do that. How encouraging it is, to hear these things from one another so that we can pray for one another, so that we can see that we're not alone. And it's also some accountability, isn't it? You don't want to be the only one sitting there thinking man, all I did last week was watch TV. You know? Well, that's what they did. They gathered together with Jesus reported to Him all that they had done all that they had taught. And often when I get together with people, and they share what they did and what they taught, sometimes I have to say, "You know what your teaching there isn't quite accurate. Can I humbly suggest to you that this is what the text says?" "Oh, I didn't realize that." That's what we need folks. "And He said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a secluded place, and rest for a while.' (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) Well, anybody that has been in ministry understands that it can be very draining. And the Lord knew that they were exhausted. Plus, they would have learned about John the Baptist's beheading at the hand of Herod. Something that we'll talk about next week, Lord willing. And then we read that, "They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves." Luke tells us in Luke nine, verse 10, that they "sailed across the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee, near the town of Bethsaida." Bethsaida means house of fish. So it was probably a small fishing village. By the way, that's where Peter and Andrew were originally from. So they go there to get some rest and relaxation, and to get their batteries charged once again to go back into ministry. Well, folks, may I challenge you get serious about your witness for Christ, speak up, be bold. The fear of man is the snare, don't get caught in that snare. Worship the Most High God, don't be afraid of these people. Love them enough to give them the gospel. "Oh, but I might lose my job." Oh, boy, I hope that doesn't happen. But you know what, I kind of think that the God of the universe can handle that, you know? Publicly express your faith. "Well, I don't really know what to say." Oh, come on. If you know Christ, you know the basics of the gospel. Just tell them that. Give them your testimony. Beloved, never underestimate the power of your testimony, tell people what Christ has done, is doing and will do in your life. And watch what the Spirit of God can do with that. And then when times are difficult, you will find that God will minister to you in ways that you can't imagine. And then, by the way, you will long to be in the presence of other brothers and sisters in Christ, to share what God is doing. Because you're gonna long to hear from them. You're gonna want to pray with them, pray for them, and just learn from one another and do all of the one another things. I mean, that's just a part of what it is to be in the body of Christ. Right? So there's a little sample of what happened with those first generation preachers. May we continue in that same vein, for our good and for God's glory. Amen. Father, thank you for the amazing truths that emerge from these historical narratives. We learn so much from them and we find ourselves feeling at times embarrassed for our lack of boldness, our lack of witness, for our lack of intentionality. Lord, bring conviction to each of our hearts that we might truly be salt and light, that many will come to faith in Christ through our witness, through our lives, through our mouth. We pray in Christ's name and for His glory. Amen.

As we continue our verse by verse examination of Mark's gospel, we find ourselves this morning in Mark chapter six. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there, let me read the passage that we will look at closely this morning, under the heading, “The Shocking Reality of Unbelief.” Mark 6 beginning in verse one, "Jesus went out from there and came into His home town, and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, 'Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to him, and such miracles as these performed by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joses, and Judas and Simon, are not His sisters here with us. And they took offense at Him. Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, and among his own relatives, and in his own household.' And he could do no miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he wondered at their unbelief, and he was going around the villages teaching."

Last week, we examined Mark chapter five and there we witnessed Jesus power over disease and over death, a power that validated His deity and his power to save and to sanctify sinners. And therefore, if Jesus is God very God, as he says, he is and as he proved to be, then he should be obeyed. And when we behold the perfections, and the power of Jesus, in these historical narratives, we must do far more than just marvel at who he is and what he did and continues to do. We must also bow before him in humble obedience to His word, because Jesus is Lord, but remarkably, most people in the first century and frankly, most people today, refuse to do that. And here in we have the shocking reality of unbelief. It was so shocking that you will notice in verse six, Jesus, quote, "wondered at their unbelief," their refusal to believe and obey Him as their Messiah. The term "wondered" from the verb "thaumazo," in the original language means to Marvel, it means to be amazed. The only other time Jesus wondered at something was when quote, "he marveled at the faith of the centurion." You will recall in Matthew 8:10, "and he said to those who were following 'Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.'" He marveled at the faith of a Gentile, but now he's marveling at the unbelief of his own people. And here in Mark 6, we see the opposite therefore, in their unbelief. Later on, we will see the same thing with Herod. And there's a fascinating contrast as well and Mark does a lot of this in his Gospel in chapter five Mark emphasized the gift of faith to if you will recall Jairus who was the prominent official of the synagogue. He had a 12 year old daughter that was sick and then she died and the Lord raised her from the dead. And also the faith of the unnamed woman, the social outcast, who struggled with a persistent menstrual disorder for 12 years, and her faith was evident. So we see that dominant theme of faith in chapter five.

And now we have the direct opposite of that. We have the shocking reality of unbelief in chapter six. And as we look at this passage before us this morning, I want to emphasize three concepts that need to be understood, so that we can understand biblically this whole issue of the shocking reality of unbelief. We're going to look at the cause, the characteristics and the consequences of unbelief. But I have much to say before we get there, let me give you some context here, historically.

The first century Jewish people, for the most part, worshipped God of their own making, one that they thought they could impress by their fastidious rule keeping. And they were an exceedingly arrogant people. They were self righteous, and they hated Jesus because He exposed their hypocrisy as he does for all of us when we approach the Word of God, right? You will recall, in Acts:7, remember the story of Stephen. The text there says that he was full of faith and the Holy Spirit full of grace and power. He was performing signs and wonders, and many priests were coming to faith in Christ. And yet, the synagogue leaders said that they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Holy Spirit. And so what do you do? Rather than bow down and believe and worship the Lord Jesus, they get mad. And they ended up stoning Steven, but in Acts chapter seven, part of his message to them reads this way, beginning of verse 51, "You men who are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart, and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did, which one of the prophets did. Which one of the prophets did your father's not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One who is betrayers and murderers, you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the quick and they began gnashing their teeth at him." Gnashing literally means to grind to the teeth. It was a sign of rage. And so they took him out and they stoned him, you will recall. And there was also a young man there with him by the name of Saul, that held the clothes of those that were doing the killing. And Saul later became the Apostle Paul . Stephen's ministry and others in that day really infuriated, especially the Jewish leadership. But what Jesus did took it to a whole new level. Jesus ministry fanned the flames of their fury into a raging inferno. And so the the leaders in particular were scheming to kill him and what made it worse for them is his popularity because everybody is flocking to come to Jesus. And again, there are priests that are being saved. Many people were being saved. But most people were in awe of him outside of Nazareth, because the people in Nazareth knew Jesus. They knew that he grew up there. You will recall that his family had moved there; Joseph and Mary after returning from Egypt where they had fled from Herod. And so the people there knew who Jesus was. Nazareth, by the way is about 25 miles southwest of Capernaum. Those of you that were with me in Israel, this last year, we went there. It's nestled up in some fairly steep mountains there on the North Ridge of the Jezrell Valley. It was founded in 2200 BC, and in Jesus day, there was only about 500 people that lived there. Interesting, today, it is still there in the Northern District of Israel and it's known as the Arab capital of Israel, there's about 80,000 people that live there. About 70% of them are Muslim 30% are Christian. And it's really sad like in most of the Arab villages, the streets and the roadways, literally are landfills. It's just, it's just filthy. There's just junk everywhere. But the residents of Nazareth knew Jesus, he lived there for about 30 years. They knew the whole family. We see from scripture that Mary had given birth to at least six children after Jesus was born. They called him a carpenter, which is true, a "tekton", which would be a construction worker, it could be translated "a builder," it was used to describe a stone maker, a sculptor, metal smith, and so forth. And of course, this is one of the main reasons why they rejected his claim as Messiah. From their perspective, this is just Jesus that you know, the builder that lived here with Joseph and Mary, it be the Messiah. Now, this event in Mark 6, you must understand is the second and last time Jesus would visit his hometown. After commencing his public ministry, I want to remind you of what happened the first time, he went to Nazareth. That happened at the end of the temptation that he experienced in the wilderness with the devil, Luke chapter four. And this visit almost cost him his life, as it was customary in those days the rabbis would be asked to teach in the synagogue and certainly in your hometown. And undoubtedly, the hometown folks were fascinated, Jesus is coming. And we're hearing about these miracles and, and his astonishing ability to teach with such clarity and authority. So here's what happened in his first visit, Luke chapter four, beginning of verse 14, "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.' And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down."

Now you must understand, a rabbi would stand up to read the Scripture and then he would sit down to teach. It's not like he came up here and read the Scripture and went back over there to sit down with the rest of everyone, no, he sat down now he's ready to teach. Well, the text goes on to say "and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, 'Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'" In other words, he told them that "I am the fulfillment of that prophecy." I am your Messiah. Verse 22, it says, "And all were speaking well of him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips;" in other words, at first until he said this, everything was rose petals and daffodils, right? Everything was wonderful, oh my... until he claimed to be God. And of course, that went over like a pork chop at a bar mitzvah. Right? Only much greater. And they were saying, is this not Joseph son? Really? You claim to be the Messiah? You're Joseph, son? You gotta be kidding me. It was fascinating. Rather than trying to douse the fire, he pours more fuel on it. He says to them, No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!' Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well." In other words, he knew their mind, he knew they wanted to see him do some ,iracles, they wanted to be entertained. And he said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown". And if that wasn't bad enough, by the way, this was before we understood how important it is to be seeker sensitive, right? He rubs salt into the wound, verse 25, "But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land." By the way, why did that happen? God was judging Israel for their apostasy, for their wickedness, for their paganism, for their idolatry. He goes on to say, "and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, none of them in Israel, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." See, you must understand, what they understood, the woman of Zarephath, and Naaman the Syrian, were Gentiles. God withheld His blessing from Israel and went to the Gentiles.

Jesus point was simply this, even as Elijah and Elijah were rejected by Israel, so too, I am experiencing the same kind of hard hearted unbelief. So God is going to withhold His blessing from you, and extend His grace to the Gentiles. Verse 28, "and all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city has been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went his way." Many of you have been with me at the brow, that cliff is an amazing place. And somehow miraculously, Jesus went through their midst, whatever that means. Folks, this is what happened on his first visit. And now in Mark six, he's going to return uninvited. He's rather brave, right? And that's why we read "Jesus went out from there, referring to Capernaum, and came into his hometown and his disciples followed Him."

By the way, that's an important statement, his disciples are with him. They need to see what it's like to be around people that absolutely hate Christ, hate the gospel. Those of you that want to serve Christ, don't even think of doing that until you get a sample of what it's like to be absolutely hated for your stand for Christ. Because you must learn to endure that. If you ever expect to be faithful in ministry, and that's what was going on here.

So we read that when the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many listeners were astonished, the term means they were utterly amazed. They were flabbergasted, saying, "Where did this man get these things? And what is this wisdom given to him as such miracles as these performed by his hands?" Now, I might add that this this was a common reaction wherever Jesus went. For example, you will recall in Mark 1:22, those hearing him in the synagogue at Capernaum, we read, "they were amazed at His teaching." By the way, I love that they were amazed at His teaching, not his cultural relevance, not his political correctness, not his hairstyle, not his wardrobe, not his band, not his Hollywood savvy. They were amazed at his preaching the Word. And he went on, it's to say, for "he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." You will recall the scribes were the main teachers of Israel. That's what the people were used to. The scribes emerged on the religious scene of Israel in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. They would get up and they would read and explain the law. And that was very important because ordinary people didn't have access to the Scriptures. They were very expensive to have copies of the Scripture, so they depended upon the scribes. And the scribes were also called rabbis or honored ones, because they taught the scriptures. But by the first century, the scribes didn't exposit the scriptures anymore. They primarily quoted the convoluted and obscure musings, and far fetched mystical allegories of other rabbis. So they didn't speak with authority. So when Jesus comes along and explains the Word, therein is the authority and the people are amazed. They're astonished. It's like I didn't know that's what the word said, I didn't even know that was there. He spoke the truth with such supernatural clarity, and authority and power and precision. We even read later on in Luke chapter 19 and Jesus ministry beginning of verse 47, "and He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him, and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to every word H said." You will recall that Jesus teachings and his miracles were so astonishing that the greatest teacher of Israel, by the name of Nicodemus comes to him in secret, and says in John 3:2, "Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him." So this is how people perceived Jesus in the first century, even those who hated him. Now back to Mark 6:3, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James," by the way, James later became the the leader of the church in Jerusalem in Acts 15, he wrote the epistle of James. "and Joses, and Judas," who could also be translated Jude, he wrote, the little epistle of Jude, "and Simon, are not His sisters here with us? And they took offense at Him". Verse four, "Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, and among his own relatives and in his own household.'" You see, at this point, even a lot of his own household didn't believe him. "And he could do no miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them." Now, that's not because he lacked the power but because the people were already sealed in the vault of their hard hearted unbelief and additional miracles would only increase their condemnation. I might add that withholding miracles was also a sign of judgment. Jesus said this and, for example, in Matthew 7:6, "do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." So back to Mark 6:6, "And he wondered," he was amazed, at their unbelief. And he was going around the villages teaching."

Now that we understand the text let's talk for a moment about this whole issue of unbelief. Let me address the issue of its cause. And just real simply the cause of unbelief is because people are blinded by sin and satanic deception. It's interesting in I John 3:4 we read sin is lawlessness. And that's a description of the inner state or disposition of the sinner, not so much the wicked behaviors that he commits Sin is lawlessness and unbelief arises from the sin nature. Man is depraved, from birth. And sin is that innate inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God. When we look at the center, we see that sin is not so much what he does, but who he is. All that man does, all that man is, is fundamentally offensive to a holy God. Now, that's not the God that most people like to think of. But that is the God of the Bible, the one true God. And we know that Satan's world system appeals to man's sinful nature. Remember, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, I John 5:19. And until Christ comes again, we must endure the diabolical schemes of the kingdom of darkness and its ability to appeal to the innate depravity of sinners. For indeed, according to Ecclesiastes 9:3, "the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives." And it's for this reason that the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:3, that "the gospel is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so they saw that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." So we must understand with this whole issue of unbelief. Unbelief is not an intellectual problem. Unbelief is rooted in an evil heart and the depraved nature and the defiant will of man who is in love with Satan's world system that appeals to the lusts of his flesh. Jesus made this clear when he said in Matthew 15:19, "out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultery, fornication, thefts, false witness, slanders," you see, humankind is hopelessly prone to evil and unbelievers live in a state of alienation, and hostility toward God described in Ephesians4 , where they are described as those who quote, "walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart." By the way, this explains the staggering inability of unbelievers to understand and savingly embrace the truths in the Bible. Every conversation is consistent with 1 Corinthians 2:14, "a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness to him; and he cannot cannot understand them, because he is spiritually appraised." In other words, he has no capacity to savingly embrace spiritual truths. He cannot do that. Well, what about the free will of man people say. Well, yeah, everybody's got a free will. That's not an issue. The problem is the desire. We have the free will to choose Christ. But we have no desire to do that, unless God does the work of grace within us. I believe it was Finley that said that unbelievers are like, quote, "deaf men judging music." It's a good way of putting it. You see, because of their sin nature, and the religious deceptions that they embraced, the Jewish people of the first century, most of them that is, especially those in Nazareth, simply could not believe And dear friends, none of us would ever be able to believe apart from regenerating grace, the miracle of being raised from spiritual death to spiritual life.

So the cause of unbelief is the blindness that occurs within us because of our sin nature. And then the double blinding that occurs because of Satan's deceptions. What are the characteristics of unbelief? Well, we've seen it here in this passage, and many others. It's open hostility, as well as what I would call logical fallacies. Now you will remember, Jesus authority, and his supernatural abilities were indisputable, yet people still rejected him. Empowered by Satan, they tried to kill him the first time when he goes to Nazareth. We're not sure it doesn't say why they didn't try to kill him the second time, maybe they did. It just doesn't say, they were probably too afraid of him. So he simply departed. And as we will see, just left them in their unbelief. But like all unbelievers, those people used logical fallacies to justify their unbelief. There's a lot of logical fallacies. I won't get into all of that, but you're familiar with them. You've heard of red herring, you've heard of a straw man argument, you've heard of the slippery slope or begging the question or an ad hoc or post hoc argument. Politicians are masters at this, you know, you give them a question, and they skirt all around it and before you know it, you're off in lala land in order to distract you or communicates their own agenda or whatever. Well what they did here in Nazareth would be what we would call a red herring, a logical fallacy of irrelevance. In other words, using an irrelevant issue, or argument, as a diversionary tactic to distract them from the real issue, and that is of the deity of Christ. And that red herring simply went like this, he can't be the Messiah, because his family is so ordinary. That's like saying for Frederick Chopin, who was one of the greatest pianists and composers that ever lived, couldn't have been one of the greatest composers and pianists that ever lived, because after all, his father was a French immigrant to Poland, who was merely a tutor. Well, yeah, but haven't you heard him? No, it doesn't matter. He can't be because look who his dad was. You know, the specifics relating to his family weren't germane to the question of his Messiahship. Especially in light of the Old Testament, Messianic prophecies, which understandably, because of the scribes, they were unfamiliar with, because they hadn't been taught. They should have known that the Messiah would come from the seed of Abraham, Genesis 12:3; that he would be of the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49; 10, that he would be born of a virgin, Isaiah7, verse 14, so many other passages. He would be full of wisdom and power, Isaiah 11, 1-10, he would be a light to the Gentiles, Isaiah 49:6, he would be hated without reason. Psalm 69, for he would be a rock of offense, Isaiah 8:14, and 15. And on it goes, but their pride and their jealousy and their prejudice against Gentiles, not to mention their self righteousness, prevented them from seeing Jesus for who He really was. And the more Jesus tried to expose them, the more they dug in. You see what the people couldn't stand was Jesus claimed a deity and the gospel that he preached. Let me show this to you from another passage, you will recall in Romans 1:18, we see more about this issue of unbelief, we see that people suppress the truth in ungodliness. Ungodliness just really describes one who does not worship the one true God. It can refer to an idolatry or a false worship or hypocrites, phonies, those who worship false gods, and those who think they are worshiping the one true God, but they do so falsely. Which just describes the majority of evangelicalism today. They suppress the truth in ungodliness. Suppress "katecho" that verb it means to, to restrain or to hinder the course or progress of something. And this is the progress of truth. It could be rendered, people who are constantly attempting to suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. And Paul went on to describe how despite the irrefutable evidence of God, through reason and through conscience, those in rebellion to God continue to suppress the truth of who he is and how they should respond to him. The very nature of the unregenerate is opposed to God, they prefer their sin, over worshipping Him and people will contrive the most ridiculous reasons to justify their unbelief. And again, as we look at Romans one, we see how the reality of the truth of who God is, as the creator, is something that everybody can see. Moreover, we have a conscience and everyone is made in the image of God and that conscience bears witness to the fact that God is and we are responsible to him, that we have an obligation to obey Him. Yet people rejected all. That's why Paul said in Romans 1:19, "that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen." By the way, think how much more clearly we see it today with the advent of microscopes, and these telescopes that now are out In the universe. "It's clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Reminds me of what Jesus said in John 12:35, "Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness may not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes."

And sadly, dear friends that describes some of you. You're walking in the darkness and you're being exposed to the light of the gospel today and I beseech you, as a minister of the gospel, you need to get right with God, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ while there is still light, or you will perish in your sin. And the darkness that you love will become your permanent habitation forever. Men prefer darkness rather than light, right? Why? Because their deeds are evil. Their whole life is what you might call Gothic. You see kids today wearing all this stuff. What a manifestation of a dark heart. You see, darkness replaces light. And this is the darkness of those that are spiritually blind and dead. And they're doubly blinded by Satan. They are spiritual cadavers. They are corpses incarcerated in a tomb of spiritual pitch blackness, utterly bereft of any light, and again, dear friends that is a foretaste of hell, which Jesus called outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matthew 22:13. These are like the ones Jesus described in Matthew 6, verse 23, whose whole nature is so corrupt, that we read darkness actually emanates from within them, and thereby characterizes their whole being that text reads, "If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?" For those of you that might be here without Christ and you don't believe in Christ, you don't believe in the gospel, what type of excuses have you contrived to justify your unbelief? Oh, I've heard them all. Well, the Bible is full of mistakes. Oh, really? You know, I've studied it all my life. I've never seen that. Would you please enlighten me? There are 1817 prophecies in the Bible. 351 Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled precisely in the person in the work of Jesus Christ. So, can you help me understand how that can be true if the Bible is full of mistakes? Well, the church is full of hypocrites. Absolutely. It is. Jesus warned that that would happen. And the world is full of murderers. Are you one? Oh, you're not? Neither is the church full of hypocrites. Well, I can't believe in a god that would send someone to hell. Well, of course. And I say this with all respect, you are spiritually dead and you have no capacity to understand the holiness of God. You have no ability to see your own sin. And until you humble yourself, you will continue to live in darkness. And you will never understand the holiness of God that is so repulsed by sin, that hell is the only holy and righteous remedy. Well, unbelief again at its core is rooted in an evil heart, one that resents God and exalts self. This is why people hate Christ. This is why people hate the gospel. This is why people hate the true church. So what are the consequences of unbelief? Well, if I could put it simply, divine abandonment and eternal wrath. We see a little sample of this even in Mark 6:5, "And he could do no miracle there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he wondered if their unbelief. And he was going around the villages teaching." In other words, he just stopped performing the miracles, stopped pouring out His love and His grace on those stiff neck people and he just walked away and left them in their darness. For instance, unbelief is a sobering reality, and it has devastating results in this life and damning results in eternity. Think of what Jesus said in John 3: 18, "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already." Why? "Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Oh, well, well, I believe, I believe won't do you. If that is true, then those who know you best will say that your life reflects the virtues of Christ. Is that true of you? You come up here and you take communion, if people see you and the rest of the week when you're not here, would they say oh my, there is evidence of a new creature in Christ right there. Jesus said in Matthew 5 that believers will mourn over their sin. You mourn over your sin? He said they will hunger and thirst for righteousness is that you? He says that they will serve me and be persecuted but they will persevere in the midst of persecution. Does that describe you? Peter says that a true believer will long for the sincere life giving milk of the word. They will gladly obey it and they will grow into Christ's likeness because of that. Do you have that kind of appetite for the Word of God? Are you growing in Christ? You say you believe? Can you say that these things are true? Dear friends, if not, you're still in the state of unbelief. I don't care how many aisles you have walked, or how many sinners prayers you have prayed. The proof is going to be in the pudding. Right? John 10:27, Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice. And I know them and they follow Me." Does that describe you? I hope it does. Sadly, there are many professing Christians that live in a world of self deception. They claim Christ but they live as if Christ doesn't exist because ultimately down deep they don't believe Christ is who He says He is and therefore shouldn't be obeyed and worshipped gladly from the heart. Matthew 7:18 Jesus said, "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit." If you're a good tree, we should see good fruit, right? John 12:48 Jesus said, "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what will judge him on the last day."

Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:19, that unbelievers manifest the deeds of the flesh, which includes things like "immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these." It goes on to say those who practice such things shall "not inherit the kingdom of God." Folks, this is the fruit of unbelief. And if that characterizes you, don't kid yourself. And it's this kind of unbelief that destroys marriages and destroys families and destroys communities and destroys countries. 2 Peter 2:10, we read that the unregenerate man is one who seeks to, "indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires." And Paul said in Philippians, 3:19, that they are those "whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things." So, the point is simply this, we experience the horror of unbelief, all the time, and in the world in which we live, some of you even in your own families, man simply refuses to believe who God is, and what he has said, and what he has done, and therefore you call God a liar. And you scoff at his authority, this is what happened in Nazareth. The Light of Christ simply disappeared and left them in the darkness they loved, which was a foretaste of hell. So again, Jesus said in John 3:18, "He who believes in Him is not judged; He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." In other words, you do not believe in who he really is that is encompassed in his name. And then Jesus went on to warn in verse 19, "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil." My you're gonna see this in the story of Herod as it plays out. "For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

You see, because sinful man stands guilty, and therefore condemned before a holy God and a righteous God, it's God's wrath that is poured out upon the one who suppresses the truth of the gospel in unrighteousness. In ungodliness, again, Romans 1:18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven." That's a synonym from for God's throne, "is revealed from God's throne against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppressed in unrighteous." The word "wrath" comes from the Greek word "orge" and it refers to "anger, vengeance, passionate, rage, righteous indignation." Oh, but God loves the sinner but hates the sin. How many times have you heard that? It's a common saying. Folks, be very careful with that, because that is not true. Let me explain this. Biblically, we see that God hates the sinner. His wrath abides upon the sinner, and he hates the sin that the sinner commits. Psalm five beginning of verse four, "For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes, you hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit." Psalm 7 beginning in verse 11, "God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day. If a man does not repent, he will sharpen His sword; He has bent his bow and made it ready. He has also prepared for himself deadly weapons; He makes his arrows, fiery shafts." In other words, he's prepared to judge the sinner. Psalm 11, beginning of verse four, The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord test the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence, his soul hates."

Everybody wants a God that winks at sin, kind of puts his arm around us, hey, ya know, you messed up, no big deal, everything will be okay. Grace covers it all. That's not what Scripture teaches. However, there is a contrast. And here's the glorious truth of the gospel. Yes, God hates the sinner and he hates the sin. "But God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace, you have been saved," Ephesians 2:4-5. Beloved, there's the glorious truth of the gospel. Because of his holiness, He hates those who sin and the sin that we commit, but he chooses to love us enough to provide a way for us to be reconciled unto Him. And God always acts justly even in his anger. Exodus 34 beginning in verse six describes how God's wrath is always in perfect harmony with his compassion, with his mercy, with his eagerness to forgive his grace, his love, his faithfulness, there we read, "the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth; who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." Paul said in Romans 2:3, that people apart from Christ will not escape the judgment of God. Those who according to verse four, who quote, "think lightly of the riches of His kindness, and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads to repentance?" But because of their stubbornness and unrepentant heart they are storing up wrath for themselves in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And Paul warned the Colossians about God's judgment upon sin, according to Colossians, three beginning in verse five that because of quote "immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed which amounts to idolatry." He goes on to say the wrath of God will come Ephesians 5:6, "Let no one deceive you with empty words." Which is a reference in this context to the hollow apologies for sin, that a lot of people say are just mistakes rather than offenses to a holy God. "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things." In other words, those sinful acts of rebellion, "the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." Beloved, apart from God's grace, all believers would still be slaves to sin, and under the wrath of God, but Paul makes this clear, in his words to the Ephesians that prior to salvation, we quote, "all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh." Boy those of us who know love Christ, we can all say that is so true, right? Before we came to Christ, we lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're, catch this, by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest. Beloved, unbelief is the settled position of a fool, one who lives in a fool's paradise, and who will perish and their sin. But this judgment upon the wicked begins even in this life, you will recall, as we've studied before, in Romans 1:24-32, the sobering and terrifying passage in that epistle, where we see that God rejects man, when man rejects him, he removes all restraint, even in a society. When a culture reaches that stage of depravity there is the wrath of divine abandonment. We see a lot of this even in a small way in Nazareth. We certainly see it in our country. Collectively, a culture will be given over to three things progressively, first, to sorted immorality, second to shameless homosexuality, and then finally to shocking depravity. Well we see this today in our culture, don't we? I mean, our jaws absolutely drop when we witness the threats posed by, for example, our progressive public school systems that indoctrinate our children with Neo-Marxist propaganda ideologies such as the brutal murder of the unborn, the demonstrably false hoax of critical race theory, and systemic racism, the lunacy of wokeism, the gross immorality of the LGBTQ, whatever else, revolutionaries, the biological absurdities of transgender ideology. And, of course, I think one of the most most profound, most sickening displays of this depravity today are these painted up pedophile pervert drag queens, that we see even in churches. God's word is clear, dear friends unbelief is the proud stand of the ungodly.

Jude warns of this in verses 14 and 15 where he speaks of, of Enochs prophecy when God will one day quote, "execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Dear friends, do you believe who Jesus is? And what he has said? Reminds me of Isaiah 53:1 where the prophet says, "Who has believed our message? And to whom, as the arm of the Lord been revealed?" And we must remember, dear Christian, that when it comes to unbelief, we are absolutely at the mercy of a sovereign God and His Holy Spirit. There is no human key that can unlock the gates of unbelief. There is no compelling apologetic that can breach its walls. There is no irrefutable logic that can render it powerless. Unbelief is far too powerful. Clever argumentation is like shooting a pea shooter at a battleship. Some of you young people may not know what peashooters are, but some of us older people remember them.

Beloved, God must do a work in the human heart through the preaching of the gospel. And I close with this. What Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10, beginning in verse three, "for though we walk in the flesh," in other words, that we have human limitations, "we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." Indeed, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ so we must yield the sword of the Spirit effectively, and watch him do his work. In closing, if you're here today without Christ, you know, as well as I do, that your life is a train wreck. And you don't want to admit it. But in the darkness of the night, when all is quiet, your conscience is accusing you. And you know you stand guilty before a holy God, even though you're trying to suppress the truth of all of that in your unrighteousness. And I plead with you again as a minister of the gospel, that you will humble yourself and you will cry out to the Lord our God for forgiveness, that you will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Your sins will be forgiven. You will be made a new creature in Christ. You will receive the imputed righteousness of Christ as well as the imparted righteousness of Christ and your life will change radically. That's the power of the gospel. Amen. Father, thank You for the eternal truths of your word. And as always, I pray that your spirit will make our hearts receptive to what we have heard today. That's sinners might be saved. And that saints might be sanctified to the praise of the glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.

Once again, we have a privilege that we never want to want to take for granted to open up the Word of the living God. So will you take your bibles turn to Mark's gospel chapter five. And if you've not been with us in the past, we go verse by verse, through specific passages, primarily books of the Bible. And we come now to Mark chapter five, beginning in verse 21. And we're going to look at verses 21 - 43.

"When Jesus had crossed over again, in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him; and so he stayed by the seashore. One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up and on seeing him fell at his feet and implored Him earnestly saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live. And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following him and pressing in on him. A woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse- after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him, and touched his cloak. For she thought, "if I just touch His garments, I will get well." Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power preceding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" And he looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction." While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?" But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid any longer, only believe." And he allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John and the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, people loudly weeping and wailing. And entering in, He said to them, "Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep." They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child's father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, He said to her "Talitha kum!" (which translated means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!") Immediately, the girl got up and began to walk, for she was 12 years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.”

We all know what it feels like to be afraid, right? Sometimes to be terrified, we know what it feels like even to be helpless. In fact, Job called death, the king of terrors in Job 18:14. We all have our stories to tell. And I know some of you are in the midst of these types of difficulties right now feelings of, of helplessness. You feel overwhelmed. And then when I think about it, all I can say is, oh, the sorrows of a sin cursed world, right? But oh dear friends, the help that is ours in Christ, and the hope that is ours in Christ, and this is what we see here. I'm reminded of Isaiah 12 in verse 2 where the prophet said, "Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation." There's a great text to meditate upon the next time you find yourself drowning in fear. Also, Isaiah 41:10, "Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about for I am your God, I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." And then the psalmist tells us in Psalm 121, beginning in verse 1, "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." Dear friends, only an omnipotent sovereign, can be such a helper. Psalm 18, verse two we read, "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." And in Psalm 62, verse two, "He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken." Dear friends, what we must remember is that the Lord Jesus Christ, has conquered Satan, sin and death. And one day we will experience the full implications of that in glory. Indeed, Jesus said in John 11, verse 25, " I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" And certainly I would ask you that, do you believe this.

And in Mark's historical narrative before us, we have two miracles. And here we see in a very vivid way, Jesus displaying his miraculous power over both disease as well as death, which is absolutely astounding. And you must understand that here the Holy Spirit puts on display the deity of Christ. Furthermore, he puts on display the great compassion of Christ, for both our physical as well as our spiritual welfare. And then, of course, we see His infinite ability to help. And so in this passage, we can find comfort and strength and peace and hope. But you must understand that we not we must not marvel at what Christ has done solely for the purpose of marveling at his infinite power, as infinite as it is, because that is not the purpose of the text. Rather, His miracles point to His deity, and therefore, if He is God, very God, He must be obeyed. And He commands every man and every woman to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to be saved. His authoritative commands in His Word, have a divine origin, and that's what's emphasized here, and therefore, His word should never be questioned. It should never be ignored. It should never be distorted. It should never be adapted to somehow fit our understanding of who we think God is or how He needs to function, or how He needs to operate in our culture.

No, the authority of Scripture is based upon the authority of God. And this is the power of God that we see here in this passage. Therefore, for example, when God says He made everything in a literal six days, that's the end of discussion. That is the truth. That's what we must believe, end of discussion. When He says all scripture is inspired by God end of discussion, when He says that women are not to be pastors end of discussion, when He says homosexuality is an abomination before God end of discussion. When He says marriage has to be between one man and one woman end of discussion, because an infinitely powerful, omnipotent, omniscient, God has declared this to be the truth, and we are to obey it. When He says that abortion is murder, end of discussion , when He says hell is a real place, that's the end of the discussion. When He speaks of the doctrine of salvation, with all that is a part of that, including the severity and the scope of man's depravity, the imputation of sin when He speaks of grace and election and predestination, when He speaks of the significance of, and the efficacy of the Atonement when He speaks of faith and repentance, and union with Christ and justification and sanctification, regeneration, perseverance, glorification, when He speaks of those things in his word, that's the end of the discussion. Because the one that wrote it is the one that has power over disease, and over death. And so when we come to these passages, that's what we must look to, not just the fact of oh, look what Jesus did, look what He can do, no friends, that's just a means to a greater end. These passages should point us to the divine origin of His word that we might be obedient to it. Therefore, when you hear things like a social justice gospel, or a prosperity gospel, that's not the real gospel, that's a false gospel. So we reject it. When we hear about, I don't know the Roman Catholic gospel, that is not the true gospel. Hebrews 10:28 says there is a much severe judgment for those who distort and deny the gospel. To make it real practically, this would apply to the Pope. This would apply to Mother Teresa, who believed and taught a false gospel, a pantheistic gospel that saves even those who have never heard of the gospel, a humanitarian gospel that somehow saves people that do great works of charity, in the name of Jesus. According to Jesus words, in Matthew 10:15, it will be more tolerable for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for her and countless others like her that teach and promote a false gospel.

Now, why can I be so dogmatic? Because this is what God has said in His Word, and the one who said it has the power over disease and death. Hebrews 10:29, "how much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" So dear friends, when we behold the power and the perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ and these historical narratives, and we find ourselves completely overwhelmed at what he did and what he can do, Yes, let's rejoice in that. Let's worship him for that. But let that drive us to the ultimate reality that Jesus is God, and He is to be obeyed. All right. I'm reminded of Isaiah 66:2 when God says, "but to this one will I look, to Him who is humble and contrite of heart and who trembles at my word." So, yes, let's at marvel at his power. But let's remember that we are to worship and obey him, because his word has a divine origin. And his commands and promises are true.

Now that said, we're going to behold the wonder of Christ's unchanging character under three categories, each of which have two characteristics, we're going to see that Christ was number one, available and approachable. Secondly, he was and still is omnipotent and omniscient. And then thirdly, He was compassionate, and calm. Now, it's important that we see the inspired contrasts that are at play. And these two miracles that are linked together in the gospel record. Jesus is attending here to two very different people. You have a wealthy and a prominent man and you also have the opposite, an impoverished and scorned woman. You have a highly esteemed synagogue official, versus a woman who was a social outcast, because she was ceremonially unclean. Considered to be exceedingly sinful, because of her sickness, and therefore excommunicated. From the synagogue, you have a husband and a father that had contact with his family. But yet here you also have a woman that is required to live at a distance from her family. She was socially and religiously isolated, a woman that would have been treated like a leper. You have a man who experienced 12 years of joy and happiness with his daughter versus a woman who had experienced 12 years of sorrow and misery, while living in isolation. Not to mention dealing with the physical weakness that would be the inevitable consequence of perpetual hemorrhaging. But dear friends, what they both had in common was a desperate need for a Savior. They needed a remedy for the debilitating fear and utter helplessness that they were experiencing. They were out of resources, they had nowhere to turn, they were powerless. They were beyond human help. Their only hope and help was in Christ. And this did not catch him by surprise. This was part of his sovereign plan, to bring glory to himself. And in the inscrutable miracle of divine providence, whereby he orchestrates all of the events of history and their lives in particular. We see him doing this to manifest His power in order to prove his deity, that he might be worshipped and obeyed, so that we can all see his mercy, his grace, his love, and his power on display, the perfections of his glorious person, that all of us will, as I said earlier, one day experience in all of their fullness in glory. Yes, weeping may last for the night, right? Psalm 30, verse five, "weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning" and regardless of the trial, God is in it, for our good and his glory, never forget that. And his purposes are always just, His love is everlasting. For this reason, Jesus said in John 16:33, "in the world, you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world." Let me give you the context of what is going on here.

In this narrative, Jesus has been on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, some of you have been there with me. And there, he cast out, remember, a legion of demons out of these guys and, and sent them into the swine, and the people of the area were terrified at what they saw with Jesus and his presence, his power. They begged him to leave. All right, so that's what has happened. And that brings us to verse 21, of Mark 5, "when Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side." In other words, he's going back to the Capernaum, which was about six miles across the water, back to Capernaum, his headquarters. When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, "a large crowd gathered around him, and so he stayed by the seashore." So in other words, they see him coming. They know his headquarters is Capernaum. And people are coming from everywhere with all of their diseases. And they're basically camped out waiting for him to arrive. So they're looking for him and ah, here he comes in the boat, and he has to basically stay on the seashore. Luke 8, verse 40, says, " And as Jesus returned, the people welcomed Him, for they had all been waiting for Him." And then in verse 22, we read of the synagogue official named Jairus, he comes up and on seeing him fell at his feet. Now, you can imagine all of the crowd all around Jesus, but they would have made a way for the prominent man to come and speak to Jesus. So that's what would have happened here. Now, I might add that synagogues typically had three to seven officials. And they were responsible for all of the activities of worship and education and so forth. In Matthew chapter 9, in verse 18, we read that he comes and it says, "he bowed down before him" "Prosekyneo", in the original language, which is a term that means to worship. So perhaps it would appear that he was a believer, probably a Pharisee. We're not sure, but probably, but certainly, he would have co labored with that large contingency of Pharisees that were there in Capernaum. And he would have been fully aware of their hatred for Jesus. And therefore, he would have realized that it would have been a great risk for him to approach Jesus as he did. But he was certainly aware of Jesus miracles, everybody knew about that. Verse 23. So he comes in, "he implored Him earnestly saying, My little daughter is at the point of death, please come and lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live. And he went off with him. And a large crowd was following him and pressing in on him." The original language indicates that that pressing in on him means that they were basically touching him on all sides. Perhaps you've been in large cities, the first time I really experienced that was in Moscow. And you go to the train station, and there are people touching every part of you as you walk along. And you see the whole crowd kind of going like this as you gradually make your way to the train. And once you get on, and my job was to make sure that our group, I was the last one, you My job was to push everybody in before the door slammed. And as you're hanging on to things you see a head here and somebody's there, and you got to make sure you don't have things in your pockets that somebody can steal. That's the idea. There's people everywhere. That's what was going on with Jesus. By the way, Tokyo is the same way. We don't like that type of thing here. And where we live, you know, you just kind of keep your distance, we kind of know how we operate right? But first, I want you to notice that Jesus was available and approachable. I want you to think about this. What we have here is the creator of the universe. This is the Lord of Glory. This is the Lord of hosts. This is the great I AM. This is the Son of God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and he is mingling with the crowd. People are reaching out, they're touching him. What a picture. They're begging him for help because of their diseases, or their daughter's disease or their son's disease or their mother's disease or whatever. By the way, each of us should be equally approachable. Especially pastors, church leaders, pastors and elders or shepherds. As we say, a shepherd needs to smell like sheep. All right. We must always be available and approachable. We're not celebrities, we are lowly shepherds called to love and to lead and to protect the sheep. That means you have to be with them. And yes, there are some VDPs in the world. I understand. VDP stands for very draining people. There are some of those people and sometimes you have to put up boundaries. And sometimes you can see some people coming you think, oh boy. You've heard the beep, beep beep when a dump truck is backing up. You know, that's what's about to happen. They're about to dump their load on on you. And you get kind of used to that, but you love them enough to do what you can. And certainly Jesus is dealing with this in ways that that are unimaginable. So Jesus begins to make his way to Jarius his house. And then suddenly the narrative shifts, something happens. And this is very important. We, we begin to see now this contrast between two helpless sinners as well as is Jesus deity, over all of this. Verse 25, "a woman who had had a hemorrhage for 12 years," it says, By the way, this was, this would have been some kind of menstrual disorder. We don't really know what it was, but according to Leviticus 15:19-33, menstrual discharge would render a woman ceremonially unclean for a period of time. And according to the ancient historian Josephus, "the temple was closed to women during their menstruation." This means that this particular Torah ruling would have been fully observed in Jesus day. Accordingly, whoever touched a menstruating woman was banished from the community until purification occurred. So for this woman, this woman, to have a need that was just physical is not accurate, because it was way beyond that. She basically had no friends and family that she could be around. Not to mention verse 26, "she endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had, and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse."

Let me give you a little flavor of what the doctors would have told her back in those days, because we get a good sense of that, from the Talmud, which means "study" in the Babylonian Talmud. Which is, again the sacred teachings by Jews and here we can read of 11 treatments for excessive menstrual bleeding, so you want to know what the doctors would have told her? I can tell you, and I'm quoting here, some other scholars. "Most of these treatments involve boiling various things in wine, such as Persian onions, cumin, saffron, fenugreek, or a fern. Having the woman hold it and declaring to her, 'cease you discharge.' She may be told to sit at a crossroads holding a cup of wine, while a man comes from behind and frightens her shouting 'cease you discharge.' One cure calls her to rub flour on the lower half of her body. She may be told to burn thistles or an ostrich egg and wrap it in cloth." The strangest is the last that is "to fetch barley grain found in the dung of a white mule and hold it in her hand. If she holds it for one day, her bleeding will cease for one day. If she holds him for three days the bleeding will cease forever." And on it goes. That's why they call it the practice of medicine. Right?

Verse 27, "after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched his cloak." Now obviously she wanted to avoid detection. So she's trying to kind of slither through the crowd. "For she thought, 'if I just touch his garments I will get well.'" Luke says in chapter 8:44, " she came up behind him and touched the fringe of His cloak." Fringe is "kraspedon", in Greek it means it can be translated "the edge or the hem of His garment, the border." It's even used to describe the ceremonial tassels that many of the Jewish people wore. In fact, Israelites were instructed to sew tassels on the bottom of their cloaks. And when you see Orthodox Jews today, you will see those tassels hanging down. And they were to do that as a visible symbol that they belonged to God you can read about that in Numbers 15 And that they according to numbers, 15, verses 37 to 41, "they should remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them." So that's why they would put the tassels on there. But you may recall in Matthew 23 and verse five, Jesus said that the Pharisees would lengthen their tassels in order to be noticed by men, so that became a sign of superior spirituality with how long my tassels are. So the tassels would be up higher on their garment. And whereas Jesus would have worn just a simple robe, maybe with the traditional tassels attached to the bottom hem, we're not sure. By the way, I find it interesting. The ostentatious tassels of the Pharisees had zero power, right. But the hem of Jesus garment had infinite power. The former display the hypocrite full of selfish pride, and deception. The latter displayed the one true God, full of grace and truth. I might add that in that day, people believe that rulers possessed power, and if you touch them somehow, you could, you could be blessed in a special way. When an ancient historian said that Alexander the Great was often mobbed by crowds who ran to him from all sides, some touching his hand, some his knees, some his garment, in hopes of being baptized with his aura and power. So this was not at all something out of the ordinary. But according to verse 27, it appears that this woman manifested all of the elements of saving faith. I mean, think about it, it says that she heard, she came and she touched the Messiah and faith believing. Verse 29, we see that "immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction." My, what a contrast to the worthless, superstitious treatments of the physicians that actually made her worse, which by the way, I think we can all identify with with some of the medicines and treatments that we have experienced.

Mark will later on say in chapter six, verse 56, "Jesus entered villages or cities or countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring Him, that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak, and as many as touched it were being cured." So amazing what happened in those days. In fact, people were even healed by Peter's shadow, you remember in Acts 5:15, and Paul's clothing, in Acts 19, "miraculous power given them to God," for what purpose, "to validate both the message and the messenger of God." This is amazing then to see what happens here in verse 30. "Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power preceding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd, and said, 'Who touched my garments?'" As if he didn't know who touched my garments? Beloved, not only was he available and approachable, but here we see number two, he was omnipotent and omniscient. Verse 31, "and his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing in on you?'" "Synthlibo", pressing in interesting term, it means to squash in and around on all sides. I mean, people are everywhere touching you. And you say, Who touched me? But here we have supernatural insight, do we not? We have an omniscient God. He knew exactly who touched him. Because in his providence, he orchestrated that touch.

Now evidently, she tried to disappear. She wanted to avoid embarrassment, and she probably feared that her uninvited touch would have rendered Jesus ceremonially unclean. So she was probably moving away. What is what's remarkable here is again, many people are pressing in on Jesus, but somehow, many people were touching him but somehow, this touch was different. It was a humble believing faith touch from a person that was longing for not only physical, but spiritual, spiritual healing, the work of regenerating grace and this dear woman, that we will someday meet in glory. You know Jesus knew this. That's why later on in verse 34, he said, "daughter your faith has made you well." But you must understand that something beyond physical contact occurred here. There was a, an inscrutable, mysterious transaction that happened at far deeper level than we could even begin to comprehend. I like what John MacArthur said, quote, "divine power is not an impersonal cosmic force somehow detached from its sovereign source. Rather, God is personally engaged in every act of power, from creation to redemption, to the providential sustaining of the universe." He feels it all. How true. And what's interesting here is that she came to Jesus incognito, and she planned to just kind of secretly slip away. She was thinking of a one way contact. But that was not Jesus' plan. Nor is it ever when we come to Jesus and saving faith. It's not like he's impersonal, and we get saved, and we go on our way. No, no, no, no, we are forever united to the living God through faith in Christ. And in his great love and compassion, Jesus confronts her temerity. He exposes her fear, and unnecessary fear, and he publicly draws her out. He publicly acknowledges something that's very important, and that is her obedient faith. Her total forgiveness. Not to mention, folks, she is healed now. She's pure, she's not defiled. So to be sure, Jesus knew her physical needs. But he also wanted to heal her spiritual needs. Verse 32, "he looked around to see the woman who had done this, but the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth." Whenever you're confronted with the living God, there's nothing you can hide, right? So she just lays it all out. Wouldn't you have loved to have heard that confession and all that was a part of that. Not necessary for us to know, the Spirit of God doesn't tell us that. What he does say, as Jesus said to her in verse 34, "Daughter, your faith has made you well go in peace and be healed of your affliction." You must understand that Jesus use of the term daughter here, extends far beyond the fact that she was somehow a physical daughter of Abraham, an Israelite. No, no, no, it was far more than that. Now she is the spiritual daughter of God Himself. Moreover, notice the phrase "made you well" in verse 33, "your faith has made you well." What's really interesting here is rather than using the common Greek word for physical healing, like "iaomai"..."therapeuo", what we see is that Matthew, Mark and Luke use the Greek term "sozo" and that's used elsewhere in the New Testament to describe being saved from sin. Your faith has made you well. You've been saved from your sin. Now Jesus healed diseases of lots of people. And most of them didn't possess genuine saving faith, but not this woman. And for this reason, Jesus could say to her, "Go in peace." Go in peace. You see, friends, when you're saved from your sins, you are reconciled to a holy God through faith in Christ, and the long war is over. You have been justified, you have been declared righteous. the imputed righteousness of Christ is now yours, you're forever hidden in him. So you can go in peace.

I ask you, Are you at peace with God today? If not, his wrath abides upon you. And unless you do business with God, you'll experience that wrath for eternity. And therein is the good news of the gospel. Romans 5:1, "having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." To be justified, it means to be declared righteous. What a magnificent testimony. Jesus was available. He's approachable. He's omnipotent, omniscient, and he's the savior of sin right? Now, there's a sudden shift here. Jesus delay in dealing with this poor woman appeared to have a devastating result. Notice verse 35, "while he was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official saying, 'Your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher anymore?'" Don't you know the father must have been devastated. He's probably thinking to himself, if, if this woman hadn't have interrupted, maybe she could have been saved? Isn't it easy for helplessness to turn into utter despair. By the way, the implication of the statement, "Why trouble the teacher anymore?" Is that somehow people were thinking, Well, Jesus is powerless over death. I mean, he might could have saved her while she's still alive, but now she's dead. So you know, that's it. But that's not at all true. Jesus was available, approachable, omnipotent, omniscient. And then thirdly, He was compassionate and calm. I want you to notice this.

Verse 36, "But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official." By the way, it doesn't say this, but I can just imagine, he puts his arm around him, draws him into him, gets down into his ear, with all of the commotion and he says, "Do not be afraid any longer only believe." "Do not be afraid any longer only believe." Here Jesus demonstrates his great love for those in need. Here, Jesus calmly administers the soothing balm of hope on the bleeding wounds of despair and doubt. "Do not be afraid any longer only believe," literally can be translated, "stop being afraid and keep believing," in fact, and Luke 8:50. We read, "do not be afraid any longer Only believe and she will be made well." Verse 37, "and he allowed no one to accompany him, except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue official and he saw commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing." You see Jesus delay was long enough, we don't know how long it was, but it was long enough for mourners to assemble and to start doing what mourners would do in that day. And frankly, today, they do a lot of the same thing. And that's that they start weeping and wailing. I mean, they had professional mourners. They would howl and scream and moan sounds like some of the histrionics that you would hear in some of the charismatic services I've been in with women back in the back room screaming and carrying on. I remember the first time I heard that I asked a guy "what is going on in there?" "Oh, they're in intercession.' So that's what was happening here. By the way, in those days, they would hire professional mourners skilled in these histrionics. They will, you might say "professional drama queens", primarily women. I'll say no more on that. And they would also hire musicians, primarily flute players. And the flutist would play very loudly in very dissonant tones, to somehow reflect the great dissonance within the heart of the family that had lost a loved one. And I might add that even the poor were required to have at least two flute players and one wailing woman at a funeral or when someone died, not so much the funeral, but when they died. Moreover, first century Jews would tear their clothes when a loved one died, but you'd have to tear it in a very specific way. For relatives, they had to tear their clothes around the heart. And that's what they would do. They would rip it and they would also mend it very loosely for everybody to see and they would wear it that way for 30 days to show their grief. But Jesus is unflappable. Okay, you got all this chaos going on. Jesus is unflappable, as I say, he's compassionate and he's calm. We read in verse 39, "and entering he said to them, 'Why make a commotion and weep?'' By the way, he knew that this was all show. I mean, this is all sizzle and no steak. That's what's going on here. In Luke 8:52. He says, "Stop weeping." Matthew 9:24, we read that, he says, Leave, leave, get out. He knew the mourning was superficial. Then he says "the child has not died, but is asleep." And of course, this is a metaphor for death that he could easily overpower. You might recall the same type of dynamic when Lazarus died. Remember that Jesus told the disciples in John 11:11, "our friend Lazarus has fallen," what? asleep, "fallen asleep, but I go that I may awaken him out of sleep."You see the concept of the body, being asleep at death is used throughout the New Testament. In fact, it was a metaphor that reminds us that death is just temporary. Yes, the body is asleep. But the soul is with the Lord, to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord, right? 2 Corinthians 5:8, and for this reason, Jesus told the thief on the cross next to him, "Truly, truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise." But the body awaits a Day of Resurrection. There's a resurrection of the just and a resurrection of the unjust.

Jesus spoke of this in John 5 beginning in verse 28, he warned "an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth, those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." So he comes in now and he says, "Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep." And then verse 40, " they began laughing at him." The idea is they began to mock him. Beloved, you never want to mock the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet people do it all the time, don't they using His name in vain? And then we read something interesting, it says, "But putting them all out." Now that sounds like folks, would you mind? No, that's not what he did. The Greek term is "ekballo". And it means "to throw out or to cast out, to drive out forcibly." Yes, he was compassionate and calm, but he was forthright and he was very much in charge. He's basically putting an end to all of this emotional chicanery and chaos and mockery. Then we read, "He took along the child's father and mother and his own companions and enter the room where the child was." And then we have this precious statement "taking the child by the hand." Can't you just see that? This is the creator of the universe. "Taking the child by the hand, he said to her 'Talitha Kum'" which translated means a little girl, "I say to you get up." My what tender compassion. I mean think about it. When Jesus was down the road with all of the crowd and that father came up, he could have just said, "hey no problem, she's healed, go back and see her." No, no. He wants the intimate contact. And this is what he demonstrates here. Later on he's even going to tell the parents to give her some nourishment. She was probably sick for a long time. Oh, dear Christian, this is our Savior. This is my Jesus, I hope it's yours. This is the only Jesus the true JESUS.

I'm reminded of Isaiah's words in Isaiah 42:3 where Isaiah pictured the Messiah as tender compassion when he would come. He says "A bruised reed he will not break in a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish." Indeed Jesus is the one that comes and he brings comfort and healing and encouragement to the weak and to the oppressed. Isaiah 40:11, "like a shepherd, he will tend his flock" and that's what we see here." Like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. In his arm, he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes." And we see the Messiah's testimony, the testimony of the anointed one and its transforming work in Isaiah 61, 700 years before this happened, beginning in verse one. The Lord says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." And certainly, that's why he does these things. So he takes her by the hand, "Little girl, I say to you get up!" Verse 42, "Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was 12 years old. And immediately, they were completely astounded." That's an understatement. Unlike the phony faith healers of our day, dear friends, the effects of Jesus healing were always instant, thorough, and irrefutable. Now, he says in verse 43, something very curious, "and he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this and he said that something should be given her to eat." By the way, that last phrase, just quickly, not only did she need food for her nourishment, but perhaps he wanted to underscore the reality to the family that she is really alive because dead people don't eat right, ghosts don't eat.

Now, why did he give them strict orders not to tell anyone? Well, I'm sure that partially it was to prevent further chaos. Because remember, the people of that day were longing for the Messiah. And many of them are thinking, "well, this is him annd guess what the Messiah is going to do? He's going to free us from Rome. This is the miracle worker, and he's going to bring in the kingdom, we're all going to be healthy, wealthy, and wise." But dear friends, had that happened, they would have forced him to be king and that's not what Jesus was ultimately all about. His primary reason for being there with them in His incarnation was not for people to see him as the great miracle worker, or as the great social justice warrior who had come to defeat Rome. He wanted to be seen as the Son of God who came to save sinners. And he knew that that would not be possible until he fulfilled His work of atonement on the cross and was raised again from the dead. Mark underscores this later in Mark 8:30, "And he warned them to tell no one about Him." And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again." You see dear friends, his messianic mission could not be understood apart from His death and His resurrection. He did not come to temporarily heal the sick or temporarily raised the dead. He did not come to promote social justice. He did not come to make us healthy and wealthy. He came to save us from our sins. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Jesus came to save sinners, Luke 19:10, "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Dear Christian this is the heart of the gospel.

As we wrap this up this morning, this should be the theme of our song. This is the message of the church. And for this reason, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:1, "Now I make known to you brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand by which also ye are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures." Dear friends, I challenge you to examine your own heart, and make sure that you know who Jesus is, and that you have submitted your life to Him and saving faith. And if so, one day you will experience the fullness of all that he has done, can do and will do in glory. That is my prayer for you. "Oh, what a glorious Savior divine what marvelous grace and peace are now mine. Oh, what wonders await the redeemed when the light of the lamb will endlessly beam?" Let's pray together. Father, we give you praise for the glory of our Savior, our coming King. And I pray as your servant, that your Word will bear much fruit in every heart that has heard it because we know that your Word will either harden or soften hearts. And we plead with you for the latter. We thank you. We give you praise. In Jesus name.

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Additional Keywords: Jesus, verse, God, people, tassels, touched, woman, Gospel, saved, power, Christ, weeping, healed, lord, faith, speaks, isaiah, approachable, death, crowd

This morning, we continue our examination of Mark's gospel and I would invite you to turn to Mark chapter four, we will be looking at verses 35 through 41. And I've entitled my discourse to you, "Jesus Calms the Sea." A very familiar story filled with magnificent truths that are applicable to each of our lives. Perhaps the greatest threat to the church today is its pathetically low view of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. In Psalm 145, verses one and two, the Psalmist says, "I will extol you, my God, oh, King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day, I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever." To be sure there is no greater joy in the Christian life than to contemplate the glory and the grace of the person and the work of Christ. And frankly, we would all do well, to learn from the angels who according to First Peter 1:12, "long to look upon the mystery of the incarnation of Christ." Do you long to look at all of that? I hope you do. That's why we're here today. We see this illustrated, for example, in the position of the cherubim in the Holy of Holies in the temple, who, with outstretched wings, stood over the Ark of the Covenant, and beheld the mercy seat. Theirs was a position and a posture of reverential awe as they gazed upon that golden lid that separated the violated law within from the holy presence that was hovering above. That place where the just wrath of God was symbolically propitiated; the Mercy Seat being a type of Christ, in the discharge of his priestly duties. Would that we all be like the cherubim, amen? Looking upon the glory of Christ and all that he has done, especially during this Thanksgiving and Christmas season, that we might Behold, as we're told in John 1:14, his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace, and truth. May we all be like the apostle Paul, who said that he, he "counted all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whom I have suffered, the loss of all things and count them, but rubbish so that I may gain Christ." Again, dear friends, that is why we're here this morning, that we might know Christ and enjoy him. And certainly the constant beholding of the glory of Christ is the habit of the mature believer that loves him, and it is also the greatest tonic to soothe an aching soul in time of need. May we all be disciplined to this end? Beloved, let me be abundantly clear Jesus Christ is the third person of the Triune Godhead. He is the one who possesses all of the Divine excellencies of the Father and the Spirit. He is coequal and consubstantial, and coeternal with the father and the Spirit. And in his incarnation, he represented humanity, as well as deity in an indivisible oneness. In fact, in Colossians, two nine Paul says, "For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form." And we know that 700 years before he was born, the prophet Isaiah declared of the Messiah in Isaiah nine, six, that "His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." That's who Jesus is. In Matthew one, beginning in verse 20, and following when the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, he said this, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." And then, he goes on to say, "Now all of this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means 'God with us.'" Repeatedly throughout Scripture, Jesus declared his deity, often referring to himself, as the Son of man, a messianic title that's derived from Daniel seven verses 13 and 14. He also described himself as the Son of God. He said in Matthew 11:27, "All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Now, when Jesus was on earth, his claims to deity was considered blasphemy by the leaders of Israel, the religious elite, despite the clear teachings that spoke of him in the Old Testament that they would have been aware of, despite all of the undeniable miracles that he performed. And we've been given just a few in Scripture. He turned water into wine, he cast out demons,he healed sickness and disease and withered hands and people crippled with polio, paralysis, blindness, deafness, leprosy. He created food to feed 1000s, he walked on water, he caused a coin you will recall to appear in a fish's mouth. He reattached a severed ear. He even raised the dead and on it goes. However, John tells us in chapter 21, verse 25, "And there are also many other things which did Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written." But dear friends, no one witnessed anything on the scale of what takes place in this passage of Scripture, when Jesus calms a ferocious storm with a word. Certainly Jesus wanted to put an exclamation mark on his claims to deity. He wanted to reveal himself in a way to his disciples that they would never forget something that would be carved in the granite of their mind, which indeed was hard, at many times, like granite. But this would be something that they would never forget with respect to his power, and his authority.

Now, let me give you the context here. Before we look at the text, Jesus has been speaking in parables. He's been on the northwestern tip of the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Capernaum. Huge crowds are following him. They're coming from everywhere just to get a glimpse of him or to be healed. But most of them because of their persistent, willful unbelief, even in the face of irrefutable evidence, most of them refused to believe that he was really the Son of God, the Messiah. Consequently, Jesus judged them by concealing truth from them through the use of parables. We studied this in Mark chapter four, verses nine through 13. Although he did give detailed explanations of what he was saying to His disciples, by the way, all of that was part of God's sovereign plan. It wasn't like he just came up with this, on the spur of the moment. This was all decreed in eternity past. Matthew 13:35 explains that Jesus spoke in parables, quote, "to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet, 'I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.'" That was written by the way by the prophet Asaph, recorded in Second Chronicles 29:30.

So, we come to the text, Mark four beginning of verse 35. Jesus is utterly exhausted by the crowds. And we read, "On that day when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side." Now, the other side would have meant would have meant going over to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, where there would be no major cities. Not a lot of population there, it's that way to this very day. It would be a great place to rest from the massive crowds. Any of you who have been in ministry know how exhausting it is to constantly be answering theological questions, and hearing everybody's problems, and trying to help them and make it a Hallmark movie where it'll all come to a happy ending within just a few minutes. Obviously, that doesn't work that way, but it is exhausting. And here we see Jesus, being exhausted along with the others. They needed rest desperately. So verse 36, "Leaving the crowd, they took him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with him." Now, these were probably one of the fishing vessels that had belonged to Peter and Andrew or maybe James and John, we know that they kept them even after they left their fishing career, even after Christ's resurrection. And when he appeared to the seven disciples, they, they went fishing in their own boat, according to John 21, three. And we also know according to Mark three and verse nine, that Jesus told them to keep their boats handy, kind of on standby in case they needed to use them to have a safe place to go. So that's what happens here. They, they get one of their boats, or maybe a couple of them. And these boats wouldn't be large enough to hold all 12 of the disciples plus Jesus. So there was a little flotilla here, a little armada of boats, and some people had their own boats and they're going to follow along with Jesus and according to Luke's account, in Luke 9:23, we read that they were "sailing along" which denotes calm seas, pleasant journeys, a steady breeze. But suddenly, everything changed. And drastically. So verse 37, "And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boats so much that the boat was already filling up." Now you must understand the geography here of the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake that 690 feet below sea level. It's about 13 miles long, seven miles wide. And it's located about 30 miles east of the Mediterranean Sea. And if you look at it, it's in a basin, there's large cliffs and, and almost like mountains around the whole thing. And so it is vulnerable to cold air masses that can suddenly sweep over those ridges and come down into that basin where there would be warm air. And often that would happen coming off the Golan Heights. And to the north, you have Mount Hermon, which towers above the landscape about 9200 feet, and many times, strong northerly winds can suddenly and frequently descend upon the warm air in the Galilee basin and get trapped there in the cliffs and then come down, causing violent winds to occur very, very quickly. So it can be a dangerous place. The waters of course begin to turn into a ferocious tempest. I want you to put yourself in that boat with Jesus. Imagine the terror of the disciples. Have you ever been in a situation where you're horrified or you're helpless? And that would have been the situation that they were in in this storm. And yet as we are going to see Jesus is going to demonstrate to them in undeniable ways that he is the creator and the sustainer of all things. Jesus, as we see is asleep in his humaneness. But dear friends make no mistake, he is wide awake in his deity. He knew exactly what was occurring. In fact, he had orchestrated the whole thing. The one who never slumbers nor sleeps, deliberately brought them to a place that we all despise. And that is that place of utter helplessness, where we are completely out of resources. We don't know which way to turn, we don't know what to do, we feel like we are going to die in our state of utter desperation and helplessness. God provides for us an opportunity for him, to prove himself powerful on our behalf, and to reveal Himself to us that we might worship Him all the more, and that our faith might be strengthened. Well, we've all been there, haven't we, if we haven't, we will be. I know some of you are there right now. Nowhere to turn, nowhere to hide, out of human resources. But again, this is where God loves to take us many times. Because it is there that He reveals Himself to us. When we are weak, he is what? He is strong. So as that cold air rushed down those canyons and, and valleys adjacent to the upper Jordan Valley, and swooped down into the warm air on the sea, there was great turbulence that occurred to the point where it was about to capsize the vessel. By the way, if you're in a vessel like that, the first thing you would have to do very quickly, is fold your sails in, then you have to seize oars to somehow get the bow of the vessel pointed into the wind rather than sideways. And, and there has been evidence of waves as high as 10 feet on the Sea of Galilee. And so if your boat is sideways, it's just it's just going to be capsized. So they're literally fighting for their life here. Luke says in Luke 8:23, "a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger." Matthew 8:24 "The boat was being covered with the waves." Matthew said and again Luke 8:23, "They began to be swamped and to be in danger."

Now look at our text here in Mark four verse 38. "Jesus Himself was in the stern," that's at the back of the ship, "asleep on the cushion." Now these vessels we know had a raised section at the stern. Jesus was obviously exhausted, but he would have been up out of the water that is beginning to fill the vessel. And the stern in a storm will be kind of the best place so you're not being tossed about hardly as much, that's where Jesus was. And then we read, "and they woke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?' We've been there, haven't we? Lord, where are you? This isn't fair. What I'm experiencing right now is absolutely overwhelming. Where are you? Why don't you do something? Luke 8:24, "They came to Jesus and woke Him up saying 'Master, Master, we are perishing.'" Inevitably, dear friends, fear and frustration can betray a heart that has a superficial understanding of the character of God. And that's why he oftens puts us in these scenarios where all of a sudden in our flesh, we begin to wonder if God is insensitive to our needs, if he is indifferent. Maybe he just doesn't care. Versus being able to say, God right now I'm in desperate need. I think I am going to die. And unless you do something, I probably will but I know that you were in charge. And I will trust you no matter what.

Maybe you would even quote Psalm 139 verse nine, "For if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will lay hold of me." So father right now i cry out to you for help. But if you choose to let me perish, I'm okay with that. Because I know that immediately I will be in your presence, I will trust you, come what may and remain steadfast in your love. Well, many of us have experienced the power of God in our lives. There are those times where there are limits to our faith, I've been there, you probably have to. And God loves us, loves to take us to those limits. And when we're in those situations, what an amazing thing it is to experience not only the power of God, but the presence of God in our life. This is what he wanted to teach his disciples. Let me give you a very real and practical illustration that's close to my heart. My father was a Marine, stationed aboard the USS Indianapolis in World War II, After they had delivered the components to the atomic bombs to the Indian at the BT 29 Base that were later dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they went on to towards the Philippines for the main invasion of Japan. A Japanese sub launched a spread of six torpedoes to have the torpedoes hit the ship. It went down in 12 minutes, and it was the greatest catastrophe at sea in the history of the United States Navy. 1195 men were on board. They estimated that maybe 800 of them got off. The Navy lost them out there in the waters and almost five days later, they accidentally found them. And they rescued 316, my father was one of them. Most of the men died of dehydration, saltwater poisoning, hyperthermia, and the sharks. I had the privilege of recording my father's testimony in the book, "Out of the Depths," many of you have read it. But I want to quote to you a little of what my father said, with respect to all of this and you will see another example of the power and the presence of God in His redeemed. Dad said this quote, "The scene around me on that second day can only be likened to a nightmare. Human remains and corpses floated around our dwindling group." By the way, the groups went off as the ship continued to move forward, guys were abandoning ship. When they finally found them. There were little groups of people scattered about 75 miles apart. Dads group started at about 75 on the first day and it was dwindled in half by the second day. When they picked him up it was just him and one other Navy Lieutenant. He went on to say, "The sharks were never far away lingering in the distance. Basically, stragglers suddenly swim towards us for no apparent reason. Those of us who could still see because they didn't have the oil in their eyes, remember, with horror, those black dorsal fins slicing through the water. When they would swim through our ranks, hysteria and panic would naturally overwhelm us. On numerous occasions, I recall seeing a large fin coming straight at me. In horror, I would take what I thought would be my last breath, bend my knees up to my chest, draw up my feet to my buttocks, and cry out to God. 'Oh God help!' Sometimes I could feel their fin brushed my body. Other times I would merely feel the wake of the massive beast streaking through the water just underneath me." He went on to say, "Excruciating body cramps would often follow these episodes. Every muscle fiber in my body would tense up to make me as small as a target as I could possibly become. When the sharks would become active, my weakened body would finally get to a point where I could no longer draw my knees up to my chest. My abdominal muscles would become completely exhausted, leaving my legs to helplessly dangle in the path of the mighty predator." I remember asking dad, "Dad, what went through your mind when these types of things happen?" I mean obviously there was there was horror. I remember him saying, "Son it's hard to describe, but it was a mixture of terror and peace," a mixture of terror and peace, "because I knew that the worst thing that could possibly happen to me is that I would be killed and go into glory," which would certainly have been a relief, given what he was enduring. He went on to say this in another section, "Bobbing in the middle of the Pacific, I was reassured that even if the Lord chose to let me perish, I knew his sweet Providence was ultimately in charge. In fact, it was a welcome thought to consider that he might decide to take me to my heavenly home and relieve me from my distress. But somehow, I knew that he had plans for me and wanted me to survive. Had it not been for the strength and incomprehensible peace of the Lord, I fear the ordeal would have destroyed me. I had already seen and experienced enough anguish and suffering to last me a lifetime. The inescapable bloody carnage alone was almost unbearable, not to mention my own physical challenges plus the fear of the unknown. Yet through it all, God remained my close companion. His faithful presence gave me great strength and resolve. As the terror surrounded me, my heart ran frequently to the Lord in prayer. The Holy Spirit would help me think of Scripture. When this happened, I would lay hold of his promises and pray them back to Him with an attitude of awe and great joy." He went on to add, "I remember quoting the 23rd Psalm, giving special emphasis to the source of my strength, and hope, the Lord himself and to my Shepherd's, personal care for me. And I would often quote, especially Psalm 23, 'For even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me, Thy rod, and thy staff, they comfort me." What a testimony of God's grace, what a testimony of the power of the indwelling Spirit in the redeemed.

Now, back to our disciples, the Spirit of God did not dwell in them as yet. And they had much to learn about their trust in God, their faith, it was fledgling at this point, a faith that needed to be strengthened. And whenever we find ourselves paralyzed in fear, paralyzed in fear, not afraid, but paralyzed in fear. We betray the weakness of our faith or unwillingness to really acknowledge the resources that are ours in Christ, the perfection and goodness of his plan for us. Now, being afraid is natural, even appropriate, but being paralyzed, to the point of panic, unable to function in a crisis betrays our lack of trust and confidence in the Lord our God. And beloved, now is the time to understand these things and lay hold of them in your heart. Not when you're in a storm. Many people today are gripped with irrational fears, you see it all the time, often resulting in bizarre behaviors. I still see people driving along in their car wearing masks, or people wearing two masks. It's interesting, isn't it? To date, as I understand it, there's not one single peer review white paper that indicates that those masks are effective in preventing the Coronavirus spread. The people are terrified of so many things. And I feel sorry for them because they don't know the Lord. But the more we TRUST and OBEY Him, the more opportunities we have to witness his power, to experience his goodness. And this was the lesson that the disciples were about to learn the hard way. So in their terror, they awakened Jesus verse 39, "And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Hush, be still.' And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm." Beloved, this is absolutely incomprehensible, is it not? And what an understatement. He just said "Hush, be still."

Dear Christian, I want you to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the preexistent, self-existent, uncreated Creator of the universe. That is the God that we worship. That is the one who has given his life for us. And unless you allow those great truths to grip your soul, you're going to find yourself terrified when the storms come your way. And this was the lesson that they were learning. Verse 40, "And he said to them, 'Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?'" Now, I'm sure there were other things that he said but his point is certainly understood. It's as if he's saying, after all of the miracles that you've seen me perform, after all, the demonstrations of my divine love and mercy, my tender compassion, do you really think that I'm going to ignore you? You certainly can't believe that. Even if I let you drown in the sea, and allow you to pass through the veil of this wicked world and enter into paradise, do you not think that I'm still caring for you? Don't you remember the words of the psalmist in Psalm 89, beginning of verse eight, "Oh Lord God of hosts, who is like the Almighty Lord, thy waves rise, Thou dost steal them." Are these words meaningless to you? Have you not quoted them and sung them before? Time and time again? What about the Psalm you've sung in days past? Psalm 46, beginning of verse one, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change, the mountain is slipping to the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride." Don't you believe that? That's the point. Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?

Dave Harrell

Now what is stated next is hard to grasp. And it's hard to even explain. But we read in verse 41, "They became very much afraid, and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?'" As I examined the Greek texts, when it says "they became very much afraid," it can literally be translated, "they feared with great fear." In other words, the fear of the storm is at this level, but now all of a sudden, their fear is at this level, if you can imagine that. And what is it that they're afraid of? It's not the storm, but it's the one that calmed the storm. Can you imagine the look on their faces? As they stood there soaking wet, trembling in terror of the storm, but now they are legitimately overwhelmed as they witnessed the power of the Creator. Oh, dear Christian, we cannot even begin to imagine the power of the Most High, but to experience it? In this kind of a scenario? It's astonishing. Their response, by the way, is the only appropriate response when someone experiences the power of God. For example, when Jesus cast out the demons in the man from the tombs in the country of the Gerasene’s, remember when he sent them into the swine we read in Mark 5:15, "The people came to Jesus and observe the man who had been demon possessed, sitting down." By the way, this is the guy that they had tried to chain and he would break the chains. They're used to hearing this guy scream and do all this and now they see him sitting down closed in his right mind, the very man who had the Legion, referring to all of the demons, and it says, "And they became frightened." The concept of terrified, that's what happens when you witnessed the power of God. There was another storm in which Jesus walked on the water. Remember, in Mark six beginning in verse 48. We read, "Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them walking on the sea, and he intended to pass by them." In other words, he wanted them to see him. "But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they suppose that it was a ghost, and cried out;" "Anekraxen" in the original language, it means to scream in horror. They cried out, "for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them, and said to them, 'Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.' Then He got into the boat with them and the wind stopped, and they were utterly astonished". The term astonished means to be so utterly amazed that you're on the very brink of losing your mental composure. In Mark nine, you will recall when Peter James and John saw the effulgence of the glory of God emanating from Christ, the text says that they "became terrified." In Mark 16, verse eight, when the women went to the tomb and saw that it was empty, then they saw and heard an angel tell them that he is not here "He is risen." The text says, "they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Oh, dear Christian, never underestimate the power of God. And never lose the wonder of the exertion of that power on your behalf. Would that we all have the heart of the words that are expressed by the psalmist in Psalm 65, verse five. "By awesome deeds, You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation. You are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farther sea; Who establishes the mountains by His strength, being girded with might. Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves and the tumult of the peoples." Will that we have the same testimony of the solace in Psalm 107, beginning in verse 23, "Those who go down to the sea and ships, who do business on great waters; They have seen the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths, their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled nd staggered like a drunken man, and were at their wit's end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble. And he brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed, then they were glad because they were quiet. So he guided them to their desired Haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men!" It is so sad that even many Christians only see Jesus in His humiliation. Rather than beholding him as he really is in his glorification. Again, he is the creator, and the sustainer and the Redeemer as well as the concentrator of all things. John, one three, we read that, "through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that was made." Paul tells us or the writer of Hebrews tells us, we're not sure that it was Paul, chapter one and verse three, "that he upholds all things by the Word of His power." That's how all of the atoms stay together by the Word of His power.

Think about it, he maintains the gravitation necessary to keep our solar system in orbit. I was reading how the Earth spins on its axis at 1000 miles an hour at the equator, it travels in a 580 million mile orbit around the sun at about 1000 miles a minute. Who is causing all that to happen? Beloved, it was that Babe in the manger. In fact, while he was still a fetus in Mary's womb, He was holding all things together by the Word of His power. From the macro to the micro, Jesus reigns over all of His creation. I was thinking about this again, many bacteria like Salmonella and streptococci propel themselves with miniature motors, I was reading about this. And I've spoken on this before, I'm just, my mind goes back to it, just to once again get lost in the wonder of who Christ really is. And these little miniature motors are equivalent to a car traveling 150 miles per hour in liquid. These motors rotate up to 100,000 revolutions per minute. And they operate through electrical charges from a flow of protons. Each shaft rotates a bundle of whip-like flagella, that acts as a propeller. And these motors have intricate sensors, and control mechanisms so that they can start and stop and reverse and change directions, and do so instantly. There are 8 million of these motors, or they said 8 million of these motors would fit the circular cross section of a human hair. And evolutionists tell us that bacteria were one of the first forms of life to evolve, because they are so simple. Out of foolishness the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Again, Jesus is our Creator, our Sustainer. He has made every human being with staggering complexity that scientists are just beginning to understand. Again, I was reading, there are 100 trillion cells in the human body. Now how they know that I can't vouch but that's what they say. Let's just say there's a whole bunch of human cells, right 100 trillion cells in the human body 46 segments of DNA exist in most cells. And there are 23 that come from the mother, and 23 that come from the Father, which by the way, underscores the fact and I know this is hard for some to believe, but there are only two genders.

If the DNA in one of your cells were uncoiled, if they were connected and stretched out, it would be about seven feet long. And the info of just one of those cells would fill a library of about 4000 books. And if you do the math, if the DNA of the whole body were stretched out and placed into end, it would go here to the moon more than 500,000 times. Indeed, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, right. And if you put all of it in book form, someone calculated that it would fill the Grand Canyon 75 times. Beloved, this same Jesus that has made us and has and continues to sustain us is the one who has redeemed us that he might inhabit us; this is the one who died for us that we might be reconciled to God through faith in him. And what a glorious thought it is. To know that this is the one that we love and serve. And beloved, no matter how violent the storm. Jesus is always there to answer our cry. And the issue, by the way, is never the size of the storm. That's not the big deal. Nor is it the fact that he somehow doesn't hear or he doesn't care, or that he doesn't have the power to act, the issue is always our humble faith. To be able to say, God, I don't understand what you're up to here. And quite frankly, I'm terrified and it breaks my heart, but I will trust you. Because you are good and you are glorious, and you are gracious. I think of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Remember back in Daniel three, they refused to bow, to worship the golden image. And in his rage Nebuchadnezzar basically cast them into the furnace of blazing fire to see if there is a God that can deliver them out of his hands and so forth. And I love their response. In Daniel three, beginning in verse 17, "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire." Boy, there's confident faith right. "And He will deliver us out of your hand Oh, King, but," and I love this, "even if he does not, let it be known to you, oh king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." Oh Child of God, may I remind you that the Lord calls the storms into existence in our lives that he might reveal Himself to us? Was it not in the context of some great storm in your life, that you first understood the glory of the cross? You remember that? How often he initiates his elective purposes to save some soul, when that soul is utterly consumed in some kind of great trouble. Isaiah 48 Verse 10, says, "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Spurgeon says, "It is when we are down to the very lowest, when we are brought to bankruptcy, and beggary, spiritually. When we lie at Christ's feet as though we were dead, it is then he puts his hand upon us and says, Fear not, I am the First and the Last. It is then he anoints us with the oil of joy, it is then He clothes us with the garments of salvation. It is then when we hear the voice of eternal love, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn thee." Indeed, this is the marvelous love of the Savior. To not only meet us in that hour of desperation but love us enough to bring that hour into our life. Behold, the majesty and the glory of Christ should produce a holy fear in us all and drive us to our faces in humble worship. And when we do this, our hearts will be filled with praise. Such was the inspiration of Charles Wesley when he wrote that great hymn, "Oh, for 1000 tongues to sing, my great Redeemers praise, The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. Jesus, the name that charms our fears that bids our sorrows cease to his music in the sinners ear. Tis life and health and peace." Oh what glorious truths, Amen. All these things should ignite our hearts praise and motivate us to faithful obedience and service to the one who has delivered us. I want to close with a personal reflection that I wrote a number of years ago actually, when I preached on Matthew 14 "Life is filled with gale force winds that cause the waves to roar. And like the men of Galilee, we strain against the oar. With billows high we cry aloud, Oh, Lord, where have you gone? Then he whispers through the squall, I've been here all along. Oh, we of little faith, why doubt? Like give our hearts to fear. For when the tempest trials blow tis then we must Draw near. For in the wind of every storm a Sovereign I doth see, the waning faith and broken hearts of those like you and me. And with his outstretched hand of love, he reaches down to save. All who trust in Him alone, for us his life he gave. So when the tumults or us roll, let's thank him for the gale. For in His love, He caused the storm towards he that set the sail." Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for these comforting truths. Indeed, what peace fills our heart when we consider that you are the mighty sovereign, that set your love upon us and eternity past that nothing can separate us from Your love and that you will bring us safely home. Even though now, in this life, between that time when we are ultimately healed and completely away from the presence of sin, we experienced great difficulties. And we would cry out to you to help us with our weak faith. But we thank you for the power of your word, the power of your indwelling Spirit. And I pray especially this morning as your servant that for each one within the sound of my voice. You might speak in such a way that these truths become the passion and the power of their heart. That each of us will give you praise. No matter what our condition no matter what our lot knowing that you love us with an everlasting love. And because of this, we give you our praise in Jesus name. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel chapter four. We continue to examine every word, every verse, to glean all that the Spirit of God has for us through His inspired record. This morning, I've entitled my discourse to you "Three Fruits of Genuine Christians." Let me read the text to you Mark chapter four, beginning with verse 21, through verse 34. "And Jesus was saying to them, 'A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket is it? Or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lamp stand? For nothing is hidden except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.' And He was saying to them, 'Take care of which you listen to, by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and whoever does not have even what he has shall be taken away from him. And He was saying,' The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day in the seed sprouts and grows--how he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself, first the blade than the head than the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.' And He said, How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade.'" With many such parables, He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it. And he did not speak to them without a parable. But he was explaining everything privately to His own disciples."

Now this comes at the conclusion of his parable of the soils. And you will recall in Mark chapter four and verse nine, once again, he says, "He who has ears, let him hear." And only the redeemed will be able to understand and interpret and apply the great truths that Jesus is speaking. And it's a joy to preach the Word to those who have ears to hear. And certainly that is true of you or you would not be here. I often laugh, I would last about five minutes in many churches. But you continue to tolerate me because I just give you the Word, right? And you have a hunger for the Word, you have a passion to be obedient to it. And that is one of the most powerful indicators of genuine saving faith, a hunger for the Word and a desire to obey it. In John 8:32, Jesus said, "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free." And that's what has happened in your life and in mine, those of us who know Christ, and in First Peter, two two, we were told that we should be, "like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation." I want to add that Calvary Bible Church is one of the most dangerous places on earth for those who sit under the teaching of the Word, and hear it week in, and week out, and yet refuse to obey it. Persistent rejection will permanently harden a person's heart, resulting in permanent blinding. And we've seen this in our study thus far. People tend to love darkness rather than light, right? In fact, in John 3:19, Jesus said, "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil."

Beloved, please understand Scripture is very clear that when a man willfully rejects the Son of God, with full knowledge of the gospel, God will reject Him. You will recall in Mark 4:11, Jesus said, "To you has been given the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing they may see and not perceive, and while hearing they may hear, and not understand otherwise, they might return and be forgiven." So again, there we have an example of what happens when there is willful, persistent and tractable unbelief in the face of full disclosure. It will result in divine judgment, Romans 1:26, we read and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things, which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil and so forth. God will simply leave that kind of a person in a state of permanent blindness, that is the darkness that they love. And somewhere along the line in their life, he will remove any possibility of them understanding or embracing the gospel. And certainly, Jesus parables are a testimony to this very thing, as he has stated, parables left them in the darkness that they love. I might add that parables were also an act of divine mercy. Because the more light they reject, the greater their eternal condemnation. John 12, verse 48, "He who rejects me," Jesus says, "and does not receive My sayings has one who judges him; The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day." In other words, the degree of punishment will be commensurate with the degree to which the rejection was willful. Is that you? I hope not. Examine your heart dear friends. Jesus clarified this even more in Luke chapter 12, beginning in verse 47. He says, "And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did not commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given of him, shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much of him, they will ask the more." I must confess that it is a great burden of my heart to know that some of you sit under the teaching of the word again every Sunday, and yet you choose to continue to live in blatant disobedience proving that you're unsaved. Though you claim to follow Christ, though you claim him to be your Savior, you really want nothing to do with him. You live your life for yourself in a fool's paradise. Ruled by your lusts, wandering further and further and further away from the safety of his saving grace. What a heartbreaking reality that is for some of you. Hebrews chapter six, verse six says for those who have, "fallen away," referring to unbelievers who have fallen away from the full light of divine revelation, and the offer of salvation, those who fall away, "it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame." In other words, the greater the rejection, the greater the judgment, chronic rejection of the truth, which by the way, includes persistent indecisiveness, will gradually produce hardness of heart. The writer of Hebrews warns of this in Hebrews three and verse 12, he says, "Take care that there not be any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called 'Today,' so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." In other words, the deceitfulness of sin that causes unbelief, and unbelief, with full knowledge of the truth, will turn your heart to stone. Yours will be the greater punishment. Matthew 11, verse 24, makes it real clear that the wickedness of Sodom wasn't anything to be compared to the wickedness of Bethsaida. Because Sodom never saw Jesus, and yet, those in Bethsaida saw him, they experienced His miracles, they heard him teach, and in full knowledge and experience of the truth, they rejected him. Remember, all sinners, who have never trusted in Christ as Savior, will pay for their sins in eternal torment. That's the reality of divine judgment, including those who have rejected natural revelation that is in creation, and thus were never given the truth of Christ to be saved. But that person's torment will be less severe than those who hear the Gospel, constantly know the truth, and yet want nothing to do with it. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 29, "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve, who was trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? We know Him who said, 'VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.'' And again, 'The Lord will judge His people.'" And then the Spirit of God moved upon the heart of his inspired writer to say, "It is a terrifying thing, to fall into the hands of the living God." But oh dear friends, the wonderful grace of Jesus in the gospel. God has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness that we loved, he has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, as we read in Colossians one, He has adopted us as His children, He's caused us to delight in His Word, to actually hunger for his word, to joyfully obey His Word. Moreover, he causes us to bear fruit in our life. And part of that fruit is spreading the seed of the gospel that others might come to saving faith.

And that is what Jesus is talking about here in this text. As he addresses his disciples and by extension, all of us with three additional, parables, three further illustrations that identify three fruits of true believers. In other words, those who heard the gospel and now bear the fruit of that seed that he was previously talking about. I have labeled these three fruits as follows. Hopefully, this will give you a little outline to hang these concepts on. First, fruit will be a passion to faithfully proclaim the gospel, secondly, an expectation of eternal reward for evangelistic efforts. And then finally, an unwavering confidence that God will build His kingdom. And I might add that if these characteristics are missing in your life, there is something terribly wrong with your faith, assuming it is genuine, saving faith. Every true believer will bear spiritual fruit. That's what happens. It will be like the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians chapter five, verses 22 through 23. But some will bear more than others. Therefore we are commanded in Colossians 1:10, "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him, in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." And that's what we are endeavoring to do here this morning.

So let's look at the first fruit. Jesus identifies and I'm calling it a passion to faithfully proclaim the gospel. Now bear in mind, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the evangelistic enterprise that they would soon embark upon, after he ascended into glory. And the concept here is that the seed of saving faith has germinated in their hearts. It's producing therefore, the fruit of gospel witness, a desire to share the gospel with others, and all true believers are going to have that desire in varying levels. John 8:31, "if you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine." So it doesn't matter what you profess to believe the proof is in the pudding, if you will, right? John 13:35, "By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have a love for one another." Matthew seven, verse 20, and following, "So then you will know them by their fruits." Jesus adds, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father, who is in heaven will enter." In other words, what's going to happen, because of what has happened in your heart, is that others are going to see Christ in your life. Jesus said, that you will know that you are my disciples if you keep my commandments, and so forth. And one of the primary marks of genuine saving faith is that you will have a passion to faithfully proclaim the gospel; you won't be ashamed of it, you will want to share it with others. And Jesus is here, preparing them for this very thing. In fact, in Mark six and later on, in Luke nine, the Lord is going to send them out. And parties of two, as you will recall, moreover, later, he's going to commission them to do more of the same and in the Great Commission in Matthew 28.

So with this background, let's look at the text more closely in verse 21 of Mark four, "And Jesus was saying to them, a lamp is not brought to be put under a basket is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light." And of course, that's going to be happening through the preaching of the Gospel. "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." Now, excavations have revealed many, many 1000s of the little hard baked lamps that the people used in that day, for light, they had a little handle a little spout, I have some, and in my home that I brought back from Israel, they would pour olive oil in there and have a little, little floating wick, and they would place those on stands in their homes, they didn't have electricity like we do. They would place them on stands, or there would be protruding shelves in the walls where they would place that so that the light would be able to beam throughout their dark little dwellings. And so this would have been a very familiar illustration to them. And light is used in Scripture as a metaphor for truth, the Light of the gospel, the light of Christ, as well as the spiritual, the spiritual life that we have in Christ. The Psalmist tells us that the word is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path. In Ephesians, five, and beginning in verse eight, the apostle Paul says, "You were formerly darkness;" not just in darkness, you were darkness, right? "You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." So he goes on to say, "walk as children of Light, (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord." And in Matthew's Gospel, in chapter five, beginning in verse 14, we have a little sample of Jesus Sermon on the Mount and there he says, "You are the light of the world, a city on a hill, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house." So he goes on to say, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

Now, I might add, dear friends to make this very practical. This includes far more than just giving a little money for Operation Christmas Child, as wonderful as that is. This is more than just going over there and packing some boxes as wonderful as that is. What he's referring to here is a lifestyle that reflects the living Christ. Even the moon reflects the sun, but I might say that our lives don't just reflect Christ. They actually emanate the light of Christ because He dwells in us. This is what he's talking about. And practically speaking, whenever you come into a room, you need to light up that room with the glory of Christ. People need to know very quickly, as they watch your lifestyle as they listen to you talk. As they watch how you behave, as they watch how you love your wife, or you love your husband or your children, they need to say, wow, there's something different. And then when you have opportunity, you let the light shine even more, and you share with them the glory of the gospel. This is very different than those who walk in darkness. Right? When you get around those kinds of people. It's creepy. You know, you just listen to the way they talk and, and the vulgarity that comes out of their mouths because it's in their heart. Their souls are dark, they belong to the kingdom of darkness. They are living out the deeds of the flesh, not the fruits of the Spirit, which Paul describes in Galatians 5:19" Now the deeds of the flesh are evident," which are and by the way, as I read these just think, this is what we see in the ungodly that have never come to faith in Christ, "The deeds of the flesh are evident which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will never inherit the kingdom of God." And this is the type of stuff that is the basis of virtually every movie and every television show that we watch. When I was a little boy, we used to sing a song, "This little light of mine," any of you used to sing that? Or am I just that... Oh, good. I'm not completely in the dark here, "this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, oh, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine all the time, let it shine," and so forth. I sang that with all my heart when I was a little boy having no real idea of what it meant. But I know what it means now. And I trust you do as well. So the first fruit of one upon whom the gospel seed has fallen, will be a passion to faithfully proclaim the gospel. "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."

The second fruit will be an expectation of eternal rewards for their evangelistic efforts. Notice verse 24. "And Jesus was saying to them, 'Take care what you listen to,' it could be translated, pay attention, or consider carefully what you hear. I'm gonna say something very important here. I watch my son, with his little granddaughter, or my little granddaughter and their grandson. And a lot of times, I will see him get right in the face. And he will say, focus, focus. Listen to what I'm telling you. And that's basically what Jesus is saying here. Pay attention, focus. And then he says this, here's what you're supposed to focus on. "By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given you besides." This is the concept of reaping what you sow, and then some. Now, this was a proverbial maxim, the Lord used in other contexts to communicate a great principle of, of divine administration. This is how God functions. For example, in Matthew seven in verse two, we read, "For in the way you judge, you will be judged and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you." But here in Mark four it's used in connection with evangelism. God is going to reward our evangelistic service in proportion to the level of effort that we exert. He is watching, he will reward and that's Jesus point. He is underscoring the promise of eternal rewards for those who are earnestly devoted to sharing the good news of the gospel to the lost. I'm curious, does that describe you? Is that a passion of your heart? Now we know that in agriculture, if a farmer sows very little, he's going to reap very little. If he sows a lot more, he's going to reap a lot more, everybody understands that. In fact, the Lord uses this through His inspired writer Paul in Second Corinthians nine six in the context of financial giving. He says "he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." So in this context in verse 24, Jesus is saying, "By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given you besides." And you want to ask yourself, what is my standard of measure? What is my degree of effort when it comes to evangelism? Is sharing the gospel with those that God is placed in my sphere of influence, is that something that I'm committed to? Am I devoted to that? Is that a passion of my heart? Or do I just leave it to others and feel good because I put a little money in the offering box so that other people, the pastor and missionaries, and folks like that will handle that for me? Are you motivated not only out of your love for Christ, not only out of a desire to be pleasing to Him, not only out of a passion for His glory, and a burden for the loss, but are you also motivated by an expectation of eternal rewards for your efforts? That's what Jesus wants you to hear.

And I might add, that these rewards actually begin in this life. I'm sure you can join me in attesting to the exhilarating joy of seeing loved ones and friends come to faith in Christ. What an incredible thing that is, to see sinners saved, and to see them sanctified to see them grow in the grace of knowledge of Christ. I mean, when this happens, God fills our hearts with with an overwhelming sense of of praise and excitement and joy, and it animates our will to stay in the fight, does it not? We rejoice not only over the extent by which the Lord exerts himself, to seek and to save the lost, but also over the one who has been rescued, sometimes one that we have prayed for, for years, and they finally come to Christ. Oh, what a reward that is. But we all know that the celebratory joy is just a temporal reward, but it is a sample of the ultimate joy and a reward that we will receive in glory. We all know that evangelism requires effort. It's difficult, requires compassion requires boldness. Most people don't want to hear it right. We all know that. And so often we suffer for our witness. But Jesus also promised that those who suffer for his namesake will be rewarded, right? Luke 6:21, "Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven." So again, what is your standard of measure when it comes to evangelism, because it will be measured to you. And more, besides. And it's important to understand that the rewards we're talking about here, as we look at it biblically, is not that we're pursuing some reward so that we can elevate ourselves to some superior perceived, superior status in heaven, but rather, to exalt the lover of our soul and enlarge our enjoyment of him forever. And of course, this will, in effect, increase the enjoyment of all of the redeemed. And dear friends if none of this resonates in your heart, if none of this is characteristic of you, then there there is something terribly wrong with your faith. Don't kid yourself.

This is evidence of one who has genuinely been transformed by the power of God. Jesus went on to add in verse 25, "For whoever has, to him more shall be given." The parallel passage is in Matthew 13, verse 12, "and he will have an abundance." I like what John MacArthur says, quote, "As believers dispense truth to others, God blesses them with more power, joy, satisfaction and reward." Well, isn't that true? Absolutely it's true. But notice, Jesus uses this as a stark contrast to the lack of fruit in the life of an unbeliever. At the end of verse 25, Jesus says, "and whoever does not have," referring to not having God through saving faith in Christ, "even what he has shall be taken away from him." In other words, one day their superficial faith will be exposed and their self deception will be uncovered. Again, we read about this in Matthew seven, beginning of verse 22. I mentioned it earlier, "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name, perform many miracles?'" And yet, despite their supernatural works, that were empowered by demons, Jesus says that "I will declare to them, 'I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" Earlier in verse 18, he said, "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit." Very clear. John 15, verse six, Jesus says, "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." And dear friends, evangelical Christianity is filled with people that do not know Christ. The landscape of Christianity is littered with corpses down through history of people who profess Christ, but they do not possess him. Churches that are utterly bereft of sound doctrine, without even a modicum of personal holiness. And we're all aware of this. And many of these churches now embrace even the most vile forms of perversion, things that are literally unspeakable. Hell is going to be filled with religious people who were Christian in name only. So again, in Mark four, verse 25. At the end, he says, "Whoever does not have,” referring to saving faith, "even what he has shall be taken away from him." Jesus words in Luke 18 clarifies this even further. He says, "Whoever does not have even what he thinks he has, shall be taken away from him." Jesus elaborates on this concept again, in Matthew seven, verse 24. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against the house. And yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock." But then he contrasts that by saying, "Everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house, and it fell, and great was his fall." Oh, dear friends, the inevitable tragedy of divine judgment that will fall upon those who built their life on the shifting sands of some false religion or built their life on the assumption that, hey, I'm a good person and my good outweighs the bad, so certainly, God will save me. That person that has a perceived sense of self righteousness, rather than the person who will say that I am a sinner, saved by grace, and my only hope is in Christ.

So what true believers will have, those that heard the gospel and now bear the fruit of that seed, they will have number one a passion to faithfully proclaim the gospel and an expectation of eternal reward for evangelistic efforts. And then finally, they will have an unwavering confidence that God will build His kingdom. Notice verse 26. "And He was saying the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day and the seed sprouts and grows, how he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself, first the blade than the head than the mature grain in the head. When the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle because the harvest has come."

Now, it was a long time since I went through with my biology courses in college, so I wanted to look up the process of germination, all right? Now I'm gonna sound very erudite, but quite honestly, I don't have a clue. What most of this is saying, but I want you to just understand a little bit of what the scientists have discovered. In the miracle of the seed germination process, there's basically five different steps First, it's called imbibition, when water fills the seed when it's in the soil. Secondly, the water activates enzymes that begin the plant's growth. And then thirdly, the seed grows a route to access water underground, and the seed grows, shoots that grow towards the sun, and then the shoots grow leaves and begin photo morphogenesis. Now, I wanted to understand a little bit more what photo morphogenesis was. And here's what the textbooks say, "In developmental biology photomorphogenesis is light mediated development, where plant growth patterns respond to the light spectrum. This is a completely separate process from photosynthesis, where light is used as a source of energy phytochromes, cryptochromes and photo troponins are photochromic sensory receptors that restrict the photomorphogenic effect of light to the UVA, the UVB, blue and red portions of the electromagnetic spectrum." All of that to say is, folks, this is really amazing, right? It is amazing. And this is what happens when a seed lodges is in good soil. I just can't fathom the evolutionary process that would bring this all about, can you? I mean, this is a process that boggles the mind. This is an example of the hand of the Creator. An example of the creative genius and power of God. You will recall that on the third day of creation, according to Genesis one in verse 11, "God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit in them, and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them after their kind. And God saw that it was good." And later, he speaks to Adam and Eve in verse 29. "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed, that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you." This Psalmist tells us in Psalm 85, verse 12, indeed, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce. And what's fascinating is, the farmer cannot create the seed, right? You can't create the seed God had to do. Nor can he cause it to germinate and grow. That's something that just happens by the power of God, all he can do is sow the seed, maybe put a little fertilizer and water on the ground, and then harvest it. So he who gets the glory, that God gets the glory.

Oh, dear friends. But the contrast here is so stark. Compare that to the miracle of regeneration. When the seed of the gospel lodges in the heart, of one of God's elect, and supernaturally, suddenly, instantaneously, there's the impartation of spiritual life, spiritually dead. Suddenly, a nature is changed. Suddenly, a person is made a new creature in Christ. The old things pass away, the new things come, that person has changed so that now their entire disposition is moving in a radically different direction than what it was. You begin to love what God loves and you hate what God hates. This is the power of regeneration. It's a spiritual resurrection, from spiritual death to spiritual life characterized by both washing and renewal.

Paul used the term and Titus three five, the term regeneration "paliggneseia." By the way, "he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy by the washing of," here it is, "regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us so richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior so that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." I love the way JI Packer defines regeneration he says "It is the spiritual change right in the heart of man by the Holy Spirit in which his or her inherently sinful nature is changed so that he or she can respond to God in faith and live in accordance with His will. It extends to the whole nature of man, altering his governing disposition, illuminating his mind, freeing his will and renewing his nature." And we're told in first Peter 1:23, that you have been born again, that's regeneration, "you have been born again not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory, like the flower of grass, the grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you." And so the point of all of this is simply God in his infinite grace has provided this, this gospel seed, and he has prepared the soil of His elect, that were chosen before the foundations of the world, the good soil upon which that seed would one day fall and germinate. And in that germination process, there would be the miracle of regeneration. And it was as a result of that change nature, a person will begin to manifest the fruits of Christ like this. Paul spoke of this in First Corinthians three, verse six, he said, "I planted," and he said, "Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth," right. "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor." There it is, again.

So back to what Jesus says Mark four 26. "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil, and he goes to bed at night, gets up by day and the seed sprouts and grows, how he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." The point is simply this. Guys, I want you to sow the seed. Ladies, I want you to sow this gospel seed. But I want you to do this with the unwavering confidence that God is going to build His kingdom through those seeds. I've been privileged to witness this over and over again over the 30 plus years of my gospel ministry. I've seen the seed fall by the road on the rocky ground among the thorns and among good soil. And I've seen how it can bear much fruit. I look at many of you. Look at some of you young people, I remember when I went to the hospital, to welcome you in to this wicked old world. And now I'm seeing you bring glory to God through your faithful witness. It's an amazing thing. And to know that someday when the Lord calls me home, there will be others. I believe some young men in this church right now that God is going to raise up, maybe even to fill this pulpit. We don't know. But that's what God does. And he wants us to be encouraged with this.

And notice how Jesus uses another parable here to illustrate this third fruit that will grow on the vine of the redeemed this unwavering confidence that God will build His kingdom. And by the way, this would have been so encouraging to His disciples who were faced with the daunting task of preaching the gospel, knowing all of the rejection that is out there. He says in verse 30, he said, "How shall we picture the kingdom of God or by what parable shall we present it? He said, it's like a mustard seed which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade." Now, listeners would have understood this they knew the tiny mustard seed, they planted it in their gardens. The tree would grow to roughly 15 feet or so, it was probably a reference to the black mustard tree which was grown for its oil, and to be used as a condiment. And though its size originally is very, very small, it grew to an impressive size. And of course, that is the purpose of the simile here. And Jesus point is simply this, though the kingdom right now is very small, speaking back at the first century, though, it's very small. Don't underestimate its humble beginnings. Don't underestimate my power to grow it. Don't be impatient. And think how much it has grown since the first century. Look what God continues to do. And in its branches, it will provide shade and shelter for countless saints from all over the world.

I might add that the imagery of a tree was used to illustrate mighty kingdoms in the Old Testament, we see this, for example, in Ezekiel 31, with reference to the Assyrian kingdom and the Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel speaks of this in Daniel four beginning in verse 10. "Now these were the visions in my mind, as I lay on my bed I was looking at behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great, the tree grew large became strong, and its height reach to the sky, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, its foliage was beautiful, and its fruit abundant. And it was food for all the beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches, and all living creatures fed themselves from it." So now here in Mark four, again, Jesus makes it clear that the kingdom is going to start out small, it may seem insignificant, but it is going to grow. And beloved, this should be an encouragement to all of us. As we spread the gospel seed, I think of the profound influence that Christianity has had on our world, culturally, economically, morally. Contrast this to the devastating influence of theological and political liberalism, and Marxism and communism. I mean, as we look at America, we know that it is the product of the Protestant Reformation that began with Luther back in 1570. And we can see how God used so many of the principles of Scripture to build this great nation. And yet now you look at people, especially those in power today. I mean, the political platform of the Democratic Party is, is just a satanically inspired bunch of beliefs designed to oppose the righteousness and the justice of God. And many Republicans and independents doesn't matter what strike many of these people believe this stuff, because they're lost. They have created a cultural and an economic and a moral freefall from which I don't think our country will ever recover.

But oh, dear friends, don't be deceived. Don't lose heart. God is building his kingdom. I think what the psalmist said in Psalm two, beginning of verse two, "The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, 'Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.'" You know, I can hear this in the White House. I can hear this in Congress, I can hear this in the United Nations, I can hear this in the European Union, I can hear this with the communist rulers of the world and the socialist rulers of the world and the World Economic Forum and on and on it goes. But that text goes on to say "The Lord sits in the heavens and laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury saying, 'But as for me, I have installed My King upon Zion, my holy mountain.'" Christ has promised to build his church right? The gates of Hades will not overpower it. The day is coming, beloved, as the prophets foretold when the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And all genuine believers know this full well. Therefore, when you look at the life of someone that truly loves Christ, you will see a passion to faithfully proclaim the gospel, you will see an expectation of eternal reward for their evangelistic efforts and you will see in them an unwavering confidence that God is going to build His kingdom. Jesus then closed in verse 33. "With many such parables" or the writer closes by saying, "With many such parables, Jesus was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it. And He did not speak to them without a parable, but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples." And that by extension, is what I am doing with you here today, explaining the Word of God to you, that you might know it, might be changed by it, that you might obey it, and enjoy the fullness of all that Christ has for you, because of you being united to him, What a glorious truth right? What an amazing God we serve. Let's pray together. Father, we are so thankful for the many ways you manifest your love for us and I pray that each of us will be challenged to be serious about our evangelistic efforts to ask you for opportunities to ask you for boldness that we might so abundantly and reap abundantly. Because we know that you were able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. To you be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to every generation forever and ever. Amen.

This morning we come again to the exposition of God's Word. And we are in Mark's gospel chapter four, we will be looking at verses one through 20 this morning. And I've been entitled my discourse to you "Why People Reject the Gospel." Bear in mind that despite the overwhelming and irrefutable evidence that Jesus was Israel's long-awaited Messiah, they still rejected him. How can that be? Vast crowds followed Him. At first, they were convinced that he was the Messiah that would now defeat Rome and restore Israel to her former glory, consistent with the covenant promises that God gave to Abraham, and to David as well. And after all, they watched what he did he, he healed the sick, he gave sight to the blind. He restored withered limbs, He cast out demons, even raised the dead. He even had power over nature. But he was a threat to the ruling class of Israel, the Scribes, the Pharisees. In fact, you will recall in Mark 3:22 Despite all that he was doing, they said, "He is possessed by Beelzebul, and He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." You see, they were insulted because he exposed their hypocrisy. He undermined their works righteousness system of apostate Judaism, he claimed to be God, who forgave sins. He preached the gospel, that salvation was by faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone. But of course, self-righteous hypocrites never see their need for saving. And we're it not for the Spirit's work in our life, we would have never seen it either. They wanted personal prosperity. That's what people vote for. Right? I don't care who you are, what you believe, as long as you give me stuff, you got my vote. That's how the world works. That's the way it was back then. In fact, they were convinced Jesus could deliver these things to them. John speaks of this in John 6:14, for example. We read this "Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, 'This is truly the prophet who is come into the world. So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make Him king withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone." Later in verse 26, Jesus exposed their motives, "Jesus answered them and said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.'" You see their self-interest blinded them to the truth of who Jesus was. And instead of falling down and worshipping Him as the Lord of Glory, they wanted to use him, to serve them. In fact, they resented everything about Jesus as time went on. John six goes on to describe that they really hated his theology, his doctrine of salvation. In fact, in John six, all five points of Calvinism that's typically summarized by the acronym TULIP, can be seen in what Jesus told the multitude, who wanted yet another sign before they would believe in Him. In verse 36, of that text, Jesus said, "But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe," there's total depravity, the "T" in tulip. Total inability, man is so ruined by sin, that it is impossible for him to respond to the gospel apart from regenerating grace, the very next verse 37, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." There is Unconditional election and Irresistible grace. In fact, in Ephesians, one four we are reminded that "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world," very clear. God chose his elect according to the kind intention of his uninfluenced will, verse 36, he goes on to say, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." Beloved, there is Limited atonement, or sometimes called particular or specific redemption, what was the will of the Father that sent him? Well, to actually, not potentially, but to actually atone for the sins of those whom the Father had chosen and given to him in eternity past. In fact, this is repeated in John 17, as Jesus prepared to die, you will recall that he prayed for all whom the Father had given him. He said in verse 24, "Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory which thou has given Me, for thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world." Jesus went on to expand upon this theme in verse 39. He says, and "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him upon the last day." There is the P in the TULIP, perseverance of the saints, or better the perseverance of God with his saints, we are eternally secure in Christ. Also in verse 44, he says, "No one can come to me, unless the Father draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." Again, this sinful man is powerless to change his nature, and by nature, he has no desire to follow Christ, he is hostile to God. He is spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, is incapable of embracing spiritual truth, he is powerless to come to Christ, on the basis of his own free will. Scripture is filled with these truths, but people resent it.

So how can a man be saved? Well, the father must draw him to Christ. And here Jesus makes it clear that God must take the initiative in salvation. And notice how he does this in verse 45, "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to Me." So in other words, the father's drawing is a result of his teaching. It includes teaching, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And as a result of the Word of God and the Spirit's power, there is a supernatural thing that happens. Internal illumination causes the sinner to run into the outstretched arms of the Savior. Again, that's the irresistible drawing of sovereign grace. He went on to say in verse 63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing." In other words, the will of man has nothing to do with it. John 1:13 expressly declares that the new birth is, quote, "Not of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God." Jesus went on to say in verse 63, of John six, "the words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and are life," verse 65, "And He was saying,' For this reason," referring to their unbelief. "For this reason, I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father. As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and we're not walking with Him anymore. “Indeed, most people reject the true gospel. There you have the greatest church split in history, right? But 20,000 people suddenly, who wanted to make him king one day, now reject Him.

So most people who experienced Jesus heard the message of the gospel, but they resented it, they rejected it. In fact, John one in verse 11, says, “He came to His own and those who were His own did not receive him." Once again, bear in mind they were looking for political deliverance, consistent with what was promised in the Old Testament, and they ignored the Old Testament prophecies that foretold how the Messiah must first suffer and die, as we would read in in Psalm 202 and Isaiah 52 and 53, and Zechariah, 12:10, and so forth.

Now back to Mark, what's going on here with all of that context, Jesus is going to present a parable to explain the various kinds of soil that exist, speaking of people's hearts so that his disciples could understand Israel's growing rejection. This would help him or help his disciples, and by, by extension, all of us, every believer to understand why people reject the gospel of saving grace. And I might add that I'm sure in an audience this size, there are those of you who are in that category. You reject the gospel. You have never been broken over your sin, you have never cried out to God for saving grace. You're just kind of part of churchianity, it's a very dangerous thing. Your life therefore, bears no real fruit of repentance. If you're honest about your life, you have no sincere love for Christ. You have no hunger for his word. You have no hungry and thirsting for righteousness. You never grieve or mourn over your own sin. There's no transformation of the desires of your life. Your life is not devoted to the glory of God. There is no obedience to the Word and will of God, no aspiration to commune with God and prayer, no burden for the lost. But you call yourself a Christian. This is churchianity. This is priceless Christianity. May God grant you ears to hear today, what the Spirit of God has to say through his servant and His Word.

Now as we come to Mark four, let me give you the context you will remember earlier that same day, the unbelieving Pharisees witnessed Jesus heal a blind and mute demoniac. But they claimed that the power that he had, he received from Satan, Mark 3:22, casting out the demons by the ruler of the demons and so forth. So let's pick up the narrative here. In Mark four, verse one. Jesus, “began to teach again by the sea. And such a large crowd gathered to Him that he got into a boat in the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables." By the way, this will become his primary method of disseminating truth from here on out and his ministry, and I'll explain why from the text in a moment. "He was teaching them many things in parables and was saying to them in His teaching, 'Listen to this! Behold, the Sower went out to sow, as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up, and increased they yielded a crop and produced 30, 60 and 100 fold.' And He was saying, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'"

In other words, this is an invitation to believers, who are able to hear the truth and respond to it. And the clear implication here is that there are some who do not have ears to hear and will refuse to hear. The Pharisees and many of the lay people, at that time rejected Jesus message, despite the Holy Spirit's clear revelation of who Jesus was through His miracles, through His Word, and of course, this was the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, described in chapter three and verse 29. Beloved, please understand that persistent unbelief in the face of full revelation will cause a person to cross a line where God's saving grace is no longer available to them. We don't know where that is, but God does. And eventually, divine judgment is all that awaits them. I think of Second Timothy four beginning in verse three. These are the ones that, "will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickle, they will accumulate for themselves, teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." In other words, they refuse to hear the truth, because it conflicts with their desires, with how they see the world with how they see themselves. So they unwittingly begin to wander into false religious systems that will eventually overtake them because they appeal to the lust of their flesh. They will believe spiritual and theological absurdities with all their heart and they will perish in their sins because of it. How can anyone possibly claim to be a Christian and yet approve of those things that God abhors? Like the LGBTQiA plus agenda, like homosexual, pastors, transgender pastors, drag queen story hours in churches? How can they believe the perversions of the prosperity or social justice gospels? How can they believe that God actually speaks to them, and on and on it goes. Many today are like the Israelites of that day that were so ruled by the sins they loved. And so enslaved by years of false teaching and corruption that they were like the Israelites in the Old Testament. Hosea described it this way. In chapter five and verse four, "Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God, for a spirit of harlotry is within them. And they do not know the Lord." Into verse 12, he goes on to say, "for a spirit of harlotry, has led them astray. And they have played the harlot departing from their God."

Now back to Mark four, and verse 10. "As soon as He was alone, His followers along with the 12, began asking Him about the parables." Matthew sheds more light on this in chapter 13 and verse 10, "The disciples came and said to Him, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?'" Jesus, what you're saying here, these analogies, they're hard to understand they, they are spiritual, ethnic myths that people just don't get. Why are you speaking this way? Well, he answers it in Mark 4:11. "And He was saying to them, 'To you has been given the mystery of the Kingdom of God.'" Now let's stop there for a moment. What is this mystery of the Kingdom of God? Well, this refers to spiritual truths in the New Testament, that would have remained hidden, had God not chosen to reveal them. Think of what Paul said in Colossians one, beginning in verse 25, he said of this church, "I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God, that is," here it is, "the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God will to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory," referring to the surpassing riches of the indwelling Christ by the Holy Spirit. We read about this more in John 14, Romans eight and so forth, I might add, that these mysteries also include the mystery of the gospel Ephesians 6:19, the mystery of Christ, Ephesians three eight through 12, the great mystery concerning Christ in the church, Ephesians 5:22 through 33, the mystery that we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed, First Corinthians 15:51, as well as First Thessalonians 4:13 through 18, the mystery of lawlessness that Paul spoke of in Second Thessalonians two verse seven and nine, the mystery that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, as Paul described in Romans 11:25 through 36. And finally, in Revelation 17 Five, the mystery Pre Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the abominations of the earth. In fact, Paul expands upon his responsibility further, in his letter to the Corinthians in First Corinthians two seven, "but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory." It's interesting here, if we look at the original language, he is using the strong adversative of conjunction, but or "alla" in Greek, which underscores the extreme contrast between man's wisdom and God's wisdom. In fact, in the original language, it is in the emphatic position in the Greek text emphasizing both supernatural possession as well as source. In other words, this wisdom belongs to him, and it comes from Him. This is what we preach. This is what Jesus preached. Paul also calls it the hidden wisdom of God, because it is the secret wisdom that God intentionally conceals to the natural man. First Corinthians 2:14, The natural man, the unsaved man who prefers earthly wisdom to God's wisdom.

And again, beloved, it is this wisdom, God's wisdom, that we preach with confidence, knowing it was ordained before the ages for our glory, verse seven says, so again, back to Mark four verse 10. "As soon as He was alone, His followers along with the 12 began asking Him about the parables and He was saying to them, 'To you has been given the mystery of the Kingdom of God but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing they may see and not perceive, and while hearing they may hear and not understand, otherwise, they might return and be forgiven.'" It's interesting here, fascinating text. Here Jesus is quoting Isaiah six nine through 10, which was a passage that originally described the hard-hearted Israelites whose consciences were so seared by willful self-deception, that their persistent unbelief sealed their fate, and God judged them. As a result, God used the invading hordes of the Babylonians or the rule of Nebuchadnezzar to destroy them. And likewise, in Jesus day, the same and tractable. Unbelief sealed the fate of divine judgment upon Israel. Countless millions today are doomed to that same judgment, because of their persistent, willful unbelief. Paul speaks about this, you will recall in Romans one, beginning in verse 18, he says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who," catch this now, "suppress the truth in unrighteousness." I don't want to hear it, I reject it. He goes on to say, "because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world is His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools." He goes on to say, "Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurities, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them." In other words, he just gives them over to the consequences of their lusts, so that they will commit all manner of immorality. He goes on to say beyond that, "God gave them over to degrading passions." And he goes on to describe the degrading passions of homosexuality. And if that isn't enough, he finally gives, "them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper." He went on to say, "And although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

Beloved, please understand, when man knowingly, persistently, with full knowledge, rejects the truth of who God is, God will reject Him. Historically, Israel's apostasy we know was judged in AD 70 when the Romans invaded. The apostates were killed and enslaved and today they languish in the solitary confinement of an eternal hell. The same fate awaits all who refuse to come to Christ, in repentant faith. But their judgment begins on earth because of their persistent unbelief. God leaves them in their state of spiritual blindness and removes any possibility of them understanding or embracing the gospel. This is why Jesus began to speak in parables, as he stated.

Now, next, Jesus explains the parable of the soils to his disciples. There's four different kinds of soils that we are going to see. And it was crucial for his disciples to understand these things, so that they had some idea of why so many people reject the gospel. And any of us who have walked with Christ, anytime at all know full well, that the vast majority of people who hear the truth of saving grace and the glories of Christ will laugh in your face and reject it. But some, by God's grace, will repent and believe. I did. Hopefully all of you have. "And He said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?'" In other words, he's saying this is, this is the key guys, this is the key to interpreting future parables. But more importantly, this parable is foundational to your understanding of the doctrine of salvation and evangelism, you've got to get this. That's what he's saying here. And I might say, personally, this is one of the most instructive and encouraging passages in all of Scripture regarding the doctrine of salvation. And regarding my role in evangelism, what he's asking me to do, and frankly, what he's asked you to do is real simple. Just sow the seed, right? I'll take care of the rest, you just sow the seed. And by the way, don't spend your time trying to cultivate the soil so that the seed will get in there. And don't tinker with the seed to somehow alter it genetically, so that somehow it will grow in any environment, even through concrete. Don't tinker with the seed. I've given you the seed, you sow my seed, the seed of the Gospel, the same seed that Jesus sowed, and then trust God with the rest. Beloved, never take responsibility for things beyond your control, right? Let God be God. And that's what he's saying here. And he's helping us to understand that most seeds will never take root. Most seeds will never bear spiritual fruit, but a few will.

I was thinking about this, the apostle John was allowed to see what the few would look like in future glory. Revelation seven, verse nine, this is so encouraging. He says, "I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne. and before the Lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands, and they cry out with a loud voice saying 'Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.'" Oh, dear friend, I pray that you and your household will be among the number of the redeemed.

Dave Harrell

So verse 14, Jesus says, "The sower sows the word." We know this is a reference to the Gospel, the message of salvation, through faith and the finished work of Christ on the cross. And again, there's four different kinds of soil upon which the seed is going to fall, depicting four different kinds of heart responses to the gospel. I have named them thusly, the first soil I call the impenetrable heart of hardened unbelief. Secondly, the shallow heart of temporary belief. Thirdly, the worldly heart of double minded belief and finally, the receptive heart of fruit bearing belief. Now, I might add that the first three hearts will hear, but refuse to wholeheartedly embrace the gospel, and sadly, we all know people in this category. In fact I might add that many ostensibly evangelical churches actually cater to the shallow heart of temporary belief. They appeal to the emotions rather than to the mind producing phony kind of drama queen Christians that are all hyped up on emotion. But they're spiritual substances like cotton candy that will instantly melt under the heat of persecution. And then there's the worldly heart of double minded belief that churches will cater to, especially an evangelical pragmatism that believes that friendship with the world is a better strategy of evangelism than preaching the gospel, that somehow we become like the world in order to win it. And as a result, priceless Christians that cannot be distinguished from the world they love, make up these churches. Now, notice the first soil, the impenetrable heart of hardened unbelief, verse 15, these are the ones Jesus said, "who were beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear immediately, Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them." Now, if you go to the paths, the roads in the Middle East, especially in Israel, you will see very quickly that they are as hard as concrete. They're beaten down by 1000s of footsteps, from people and from animals in the scorching sun that bakes it, kind of like the clay that we have here in Tennessee, that can get extremely hard. And this is the perfect analogy of religion of the religious elite of Israel, who even in the face of irrefutable evidence, deny Jesus to be the Son of God, Israel's Messiah, even attributing His miracles to the power of Satan. And we all know people like this, whose animosity toward the gospel is so callous that the truth of saving grace is like what he says here, "when they hear immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them." And I've heard all the excuses. Well, they hold to some other false religious system and so they don't buy what the Bible has to say, after all, it's a bunch of myths. And it's for the feeble minded, so I'm not going to believe that, and the Bible is full of all kinds of, of inconsistencies and so forth. And they'll reject God on the basis of some philosophy that they believe the wisdom of man, so no matter what you say, two plus two is going to be five. And when confronted with the truth, they are going to reject it and sometimes militantly. I'll never forget the first time in a group that I was leading in in Nashville probably had 12, or 15 men in the group. When I went to explain the gospel in man's depravity, I had a guy get up and walk over to me and spit in my face and walk out, last I ever saw him. People don't want to hear that. I think of a pastor in Israel, converted Jewish man, I was able to go in with some others, in a forest, they were in an underground church because the, ultra-orthodox that are Hasidim, the ones with the big fur hats, you've heard me talk about them before; they hated them, wouldn't allow them to own land, wouldn't allow them to build a church and he was telling how one day he was with his little boy walking down the street of this one town and one of those men came up with his little boy and spit at him, and then told his little boy, I want you to spit at him. I want to teach you what we do to Christians. That's the level of hatred that exists even today. Beloved, this is what was going on in the days of Jesus.

By the way, some might ask, what do you do when you encounter this kind of person? Jesus said in Matthew seven six, "Do not give what is holy to dogs. And do not throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces." Remember, most dogs in those days were filthy wild scavengers. They were diseased and they were vicious. They weren't like our little poodle sitting up on the couch right. And swine were considered by the Jews to be the epitome of uncleanness. They were animals that foraged in garbage dumps, they were also vicious. So together Jesus use these animals to depict the ungodly, who reject the gospel, but also viciously attack all that God deems holy, viciously attacks his people blaspheme his name. And when this happens, we must walk away. Paul even speaks of this in Titus three and verse 10. He says that we are to, "Reject a factious man after the first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and as sinning, being self-condemned.' It's time as Jesus said in Matthew 10, verse 14, to shake off the dust of your feet. Perhaps these are ones that God has utterly abandoned and unbelief, by the way, we don't know. We don't know. So we continue to pray for them. But when they mock God's Holy Word, don't give them the precious pearls of his truth. They may be like those in Hebrews six, six who have fallen away from the gospel that they've heard they've, they're rejecting it. And he says, "It is impossible to renew them again to repentance." So we walk away from them, we pray that God will soften their heart. And sometimes he does. He did the apostle Paul didn't he? And he did a lot of the Pharisees that eventually came to saving faith.

So first, Jesus speaks of the impenetrable heart of hardened unbelief. Secondly, the shallow heart of temporary belief. He says, "In a similar way, these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves but are only temporary; then when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately, they fall away." These are the people who will respond very favorably, very quickly to the gospel. They can be enthusiastic; they can be absolutely giddy with joy. Many times lots of drama, lots of emotion. They seem to be on fire for Christ, which you begin to see that it's all sizzle and no steak. It's all show no substance. Because the seed of the gospel is merely fallen upon the shallow topsoil of emotion that conceals right under the surface, a bedrock of selfishness and unbelief. We all understand this. There are places where you can plant a seed, and it will quickly sprout but its roots cannot penetrate the bedrock that might be just under the surface. And here in Tennessee, we really understand that it's hard to find a foot of topsoil in places. I've seen this however, 1000 times in the lives of people. I regret that I've seen this, especially amongst our youth here at Calvary Bible Church. I've seen young people who respond very enthusiastically to, to the gospel, and they seem to be on fire for Christ, they want to be baptized, but as soon as they have to take a stand for their faith, you see a very different person and gradually they disappear. They're not even a part of the church anymore. I've seen adults the same way. They have some superficial desperation to come to Christ, maybe to be able to be a part of the group, who knows what all is going on in their mind, but they have never been broken over their sin, to the point where they would cry out to a holy God, in utter desperation, and say, What must I do to be saved? But rather than make some superficial external profession of faith, and again, as soon as they experienced the high cost of discipleship, you see a very different person, they abandoned Christ. They're like wilting lilies, not mighty oaks. So superficial Christians who love themselves more than Christ, live by sight, not by faith. And there is a dead faith, therefore that cannot save, it will not endure the inevitable persecution that will come upon all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. I think again, of youth that forsake Christ just as soon as they're outside of the house, they get about 17 or 18, and they leave the house and they don't follow Christ anymore. What's going on there? This is what's going on, they leave solid Bible teaching churches to attend some church that will cater to their flesh. Their faith had no firm roots So their faith is only temporary as Jesus says "then when affliction or persecution arises, because of the word immediately they fall away." As soon as their friends think they're cornering for some of the things they believe, okay, I'll not believe that anymore. Think of all the professing Christians today, professing Christians not necessarily possessing Christian, but those who profess Christ and yet they bow their knee to the godless woke cult in our culture. Or they embrace the vile perversions of the LGBTQIA plus agenda. Immoral abominations in the eyes of God, that blaspheme his holy name. I just can't believe this demonic drag queens reading the Bible to children in worship services. And yet these people claimed to be Christians. Dear friends, the atrocities of the wicked knows no bounds. For the wicked to call themselves Christians, is a blasphemy that exceeds the evils of Sodom and Gomorrah. These are the ones that have a shallow heart of temporary belief. Contrast this with true Christians that Jesus described and Luke 9:23 "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it for what does a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself."

In the 19th century, Charles Finney mastered the manipulative techniques he believed that would bring sinners to conversion. He believed man's only problem was no deeper than his will. And like all palladiums, he denied the reality of man's ruined nature of his of his utter inability, because of the depths of his depraved nature. He denied all of that as many do today. He believed that all men need to do is to resolve to become a Christian. And all the preacher needs to do is to persuade him to do so. He believed that any outward act like standing, or kneeling, or walking an aisle to an anxious bench, with some altar call, any of those kinds of things were signs of genuine conversion, and many people, 1000s of people, responded to those types of manipulative techniques, as many do today. But as we look at history, permanent change was virtually nonexistent. In his excellent work, "Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism, 1750 to 1858" Ian Murray, one of my favorite authors, records the words of Joseph Ives Foot, a Presbyterian minister, who wrote this in 1838, in response to what he was seeing with all of Finney's, and others revivals, here's what he said, quote, "During 10 years, hundreds and perhaps 1000s were annually reported to be converted on all hands. But now it is admitted that Finney's real converts are comparatively few. It is declared even by Finney himself that quote, 'The great body of them are a disgrace to religion.'" End quote. I think of the Church at Laodicea remember that, Revelation three, the lukewarm church that made God vomit? The term lukewarm, doesn't mean that they were mediocre Christians, as some people tend to think, that's not what it's speaking of. It means they fit neither category of hot, which would be a true Christian or cold, a person that rejected Christ. They don't fit either one of those categories. Although they were unregenerate, they did not openly reject Christ. And you have lots of churches that are that way. They don't openly reject Christ, but they are hypocrites. They are pretenders that make a mockery of the gospel. Beloved, a lukewarm Christian is no Christian at all. The Laodiceans were financially prosperous, they were smug, self-righteous hypocrites, as lost as the most depraved atheist. And for this reason the Lord warned them in Revelation 3:19 and 20, to, "Be zealous and repent, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him and he with Me."

So again, this type of a Christian, the shallow heart of temporary belief, may profess Christ, but because their nature has never truly been changed, because they've never truly been born again, because they have never truly become a new creature in Christ, when persecution and temptation come their way, they have nothing to restrain the flesh, no indwelling Spirit. And so their flesh will continue to rule them. They will wilt like grass growing on a dusty sidewalk when the hot sun beats down upon it.

Well, thirdly, there is the worldly heart of double minded belief, Jesus said, "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns." "Akantha" in the original language, "akantha," a thorn bush that used in Matthew 27:29, to describe the thorns, even that was placed on Jesus head at his crucifixion. And even in good soil, at least what you would think would be good, that's been cultivated, that maybe everything's been burned off, the seeds and root system of these predatory thorn bushes are still there, and they will emerge. So when seed falls their roots begin to grow, and they deprive the other good seed of water and nutrition and choke them out. That's the analogy, it's a perfect analogy, isn't it? It describes the worldly heart of the double minded; those who claim to love Christ, but down deep, they really love the world and all that the world has to offer. Jesus said, these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. James one, verse eight, we read, "a double minded is unstable in all of his ways." In other words, he is the man that has divided loyalties between God and all the material things that the world has to offer. Jesus said in Matthew 19:24, that, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Why is that? Because they love all of their wealth. For a number of years, I counseled primarily very wealthy celebrities and wealthy people down on the south side of Nashville. And I can attest to those realities. People with a lot of money really don't see their need for Christ. Matthew six, verse 21, Jesus said, "Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also right." He went on to say in verse 24, "No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other." You cannot serve God and wealth. And of course, greedy materialism is the great idol of America today. If you want to see the worship centers of America, go to all of the malls that exist in every city. So when the gospel seed is a sowed sown among the thorns, it simply will not germinate and bear fruit. The pull of the world is too powerful for these people to believe. I've heard people say before that they don't want anything to do with Christianity because if I do, I have to change my lifestyle. What they don't understand is you get to change your lifestyle. You now have the power and the desire to change your lifestyle.

So we've seen the impenetrable heart of hardened unbelief, the shallow heart of temporary belief, the worldly heart of double minded belief, and then finally here we go, the receptive heart of fruit bearing belief. Jesus said, "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil, they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit 30,60, and a hundredfold." Oh, dear friends, is it a blessing to see someone come to saving faith in Christ, to see our children, our grandchildren, or loved ones or friends, when they hear the word they accept it. And you see, that's a demonstration of regenerating grace, where the Spirit of God breathes life into a spiritual cadaver, raises that person from spiritual death to spiritual life. Paul spoke of this in first Thessalonians two verse 13. He said to the church there "For this reason, we also constantly thank God, that when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." Now, I want you to notice something here. There is no indication anywhere in this text, where Jesus says that, you know, if you're going to be a good sower, you need to tinker with the seed so that it will grow in every kind of soil. Alright, I want to re emphasize this, no, you don't read that anywhere. There's no indication that the sower even has to cultivate the ground. What he's simply saying, as I said earlier, is, look, I've supplied the seed, it is my word, it is the gospel. I want you to sow that seed. And trust me for the increase. For indeed, dear friends, genuine repentance and saving faith are a supernatural work of God, not of man. Second, Timothy two verse 24, Paul says, "The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition." Now underscore this, "if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will." I also think of what Paul said in Ephesians, two, magnificent passage beginning in verse one, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." Now, let that sink in for a minute. You were "dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we to all formally lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, but God," oh, here we go, not but you, "But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions," he is the one that, "made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved." And finally, I want you to notice the end of verse 20 in Mark for these are the ones that will hear the word and accept it and bear fruit 30,60 and 100 fold. Folks, you got to realize this is this is inconceivable to the people of that day. I mean, they were thrilled, if they could get a five or six fold increase, eight would be wonderful, 10 would be practically unheard of. But here you have three or six or 10,000%. This is beyond anything that they could imagine. But when it is a work of the Holy Spirit, this is what will happen. It is the Holy Spirit who produces the fruit of Christ's likeness. It is the Holy Spirit that will produce the fruit of the Spirit love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's what you're going to see manifested. In the life of a true believer. These are the fruits in keeping with repentance, Matthew three eight, the fruit of righteousness, Philippians 1:1, and so forth.

And in closing, when this happens, the opposite of what I said earlier, will be manifested in your life, you will have a sincere love for Christ. You will have a hunger for his word. You will have a hungering and thirsting for righteousness, you will have a mourning over your own sin, there will be a radical transformation in your desires, your entire disposition will be different. It will produce a devotion to God's glory, and obedience to His Word and His will give you a yearning and aspiration to spend time with God and commune with Him in prayer, and you will have a burden for the lost. Folks, this is the stuff of genuine saving faith. This is authentic Christianity. So I pray that you will celebrate the power of the gospel here today and scatter the seed wherever you can and then trust God for the increase, knowing that it will fall on fertile soil, and it will germinate and bear much fruit to the praise of his glory. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank You for these eternal truths. Thank you that you make them so clear to us. But I would cry out to you that you would move upon the hearts of those that may be deceived with their own religiosity, Lord, whatever it might be. I pray that you will speak to the heart of those who do not believe that today they will be saved. And for those of us who know and love you, may we rejoice in your saving grace, and be committed to doing all that we can by the power of the Spirit to bear much fruit to the praise of his glory. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.

This morning we come again to the exposition of God's Word. And we are in Mark's gospel chapter four, we will be looking at verses one through 20 this morning. And I've been entitled my discourse to you "Why People Reject the Gospel." Bear in mind that despite the overwhelming and irrefutable evidence that Jesus was Israel's long-awaited Messiah, they still rejected him. How can that be? Vast crowds followed Him. At first, they were convinced that he was the Messiah that would now defeat Rome and restore Israel to her former glory, consistent with the covenant promises that God gave to Abraham, and to David as well. And after all, they watched what he did he, he healed the sick, he gave sight to the blind. He restored withered limbs, He cast out demons, even raised the dead. He even had power over nature. But he was a threat to the ruling class of Israel, the Scribes, the Pharisees. In fact, you will recall in Mark 3:22 Despite all that he was doing, they said, "He is possessed by Beelzebul, and He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." You see, they were insulted because he exposed their hypocrisy. He undermined their works righteousness system of apostate Judaism, he claimed to be God, who forgave sins. He preached the gospel, that salvation was by faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone. But of course, self-righteous hypocrites never see their need for saving. And we're it not for the Spirit's work in our life, we would have never seen it either. They wanted personal prosperity. That's what people vote for. Right? I don't care who you are, what you believe, as long as you give me stuff, you got my vote. That's how the world works. That's the way it was back then. In fact, they were convinced Jesus could deliver these things to them. John speaks of this in John 6:14, for example. We read this "Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, 'This is truly the prophet who is come into the world. So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make Him king withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone." Later in verse 26, Jesus exposed their motives, "Jesus answered them and said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.'" You see their self-interest blinded them to the truth of who Jesus was. And instead of falling down and worshipping Him as the Lord of Glory, they wanted to use him, to serve them. In fact, they resented everything about Jesus as time went on. John six goes on to describe that they really hated his theology, his doctrine of salvation. In fact, in John six, all five points of Calvinism that's typically summarized by the acronym TULIP, can be seen in what Jesus told the multitude, who wanted yet another sign before they would believe in Him. In verse 36, of that text, Jesus said, "But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe," there's total depravity, the "T" in tulip. Total inability, man is so ruined by sin, that it is impossible for him to respond to the gospel apart from regenerating grace, the very next verse 37, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." There is Unconditional election and Irresistible grace. In fact, in Ephesians, one four we are reminded that "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world," very clear. God chose his elect according to the kind intention of his uninfluenced will, verse 36, he goes on to say, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." Beloved, there is Limited atonement, or sometimes called particular or specific redemption, what was the will of the Father that sent him? Well, to actually, not potentially, but to actually atone for the sins of those whom the Father had chosen and given to him in eternity past. In fact, this is repeated in John 17, as Jesus prepared to die, you will recall that he prayed for all whom the Father had given him. He said in verse 24, "Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory which thou has given Me, for thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world." Jesus went on to expand upon this theme in verse 39. He says, and "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him upon the last day." There is the P in the TULIP, perseverance of the saints, or better the perseverance of God with his saints, we are eternally secure in Christ. Also in verse 44, he says, "No one can come to me, unless the Father draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." Again, this sinful man is powerless to change his nature, and by nature, he has no desire to follow Christ, he is hostile to God. He is spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, is incapable of embracing spiritual truth, he is powerless to come to Christ, on the basis of his own free will. Scripture is filled with these truths, but people resent it.

So how can a man be saved? Well, the father must draw him to Christ. And here Jesus makes it clear that God must take the initiative in salvation. And notice how he does this in verse 45, "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to Me." So in other words, the father's drawing is a result of his teaching. It includes teaching, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And as a result of the Word of God and the Spirit's power, there is a supernatural thing that happens. Internal illumination causes the sinner to run into the outstretched arms of the Savior. Again, that's the irresistible drawing of sovereign grace. He went on to say in verse 63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing." In other words, the will of man has nothing to do with it. John 1:13 expressly declares that the new birth is, quote, "Not of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God." Jesus went on to say in verse 63, of John six, "the words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and are life," verse 65, "And He was saying,' For this reason," referring to their unbelief. "For this reason, I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father. As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and we're not walking with Him anymore. “Indeed, most people reject the true gospel. There you have the greatest church split in history, right? But 20,000 people suddenly, who wanted to make him king one day, now reject Him.

So most people who experienced Jesus heard the message of the gospel, but they resented it, they rejected it. In fact, John one in verse 11, says, “He came to His own and those who were His own did not receive him." Once again, bear in mind they were looking for political deliverance, consistent with what was promised in the Old Testament, and they ignored the Old Testament prophecies that foretold how the Messiah must first suffer and die, as we would read in in Psalm 202 and Isaiah 52 and 53, and Zechariah, 12:10, and so forth.

Now back to Mark, what's going on here with all of that context, Jesus is going to present a parable to explain the various kinds of soil that exist, speaking of people's hearts so that his disciples could understand Israel's growing rejection. This would help him or help his disciples, and by, by extension, all of us, every believer to understand why people reject the gospel of saving grace. And I might add that I'm sure in an audience this size, there are those of you who are in that category. You reject the gospel. You have never been broken over your sin, you have never cried out to God for saving grace. You're just kind of part of churchianity, it's a very dangerous thing. Your life therefore, bears no real fruit of repentance. If you're honest about your life, you have no sincere love for Christ. You have no hunger for his word. You have no hungry and thirsting for righteousness. You never grieve or mourn over your own sin. There's no transformation of the desires of your life. Your life is not devoted to the glory of God. There is no obedience to the Word and will of God, no aspiration to commune with God and prayer, no burden for the lost. But you call yourself a Christian. This is churchianity. This is priceless Christianity. May God grant you ears to hear today, what the Spirit of God has to say through his servant and His Word.

Now as we come to Mark four, let me give you the context you will remember earlier that same day, the unbelieving Pharisees witnessed Jesus heal a blind and mute demoniac. But they claimed that the power that he had, he received from Satan, Mark 3:22, casting out the demons by the ruler of the demons and so forth. So let's pick up the narrative here. In Mark four, verse one. Jesus, “began to teach again by the sea. And such a large crowd gathered to Him that he got into a boat in the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables." By the way, this will become his primary method of disseminating truth from here on out and his ministry, and I'll explain why from the text in a moment. "He was teaching them many things in parables and was saying to them in His teaching, 'Listen to this! Behold, the Sower went out to sow, as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up, and increased they yielded a crop and produced 30, 60 and 100 fold.' And He was saying, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'"

In other words, this is an invitation to believers, who are able to hear the truth and respond to it. And the clear implication here is that there are some who do not have ears to hear and will refuse to hear. The Pharisees and many of the lay people, at that time rejected Jesus message, despite the Holy Spirit's clear revelation of who Jesus was through His miracles, through His Word, and of course, this was the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, described in chapter three and verse 29. Beloved, please understand that persistent unbelief in the face of full revelation will cause a person to cross a line where God's saving grace is no longer available to them. We don't know where that is, but God does. And eventually, divine judgment is all that awaits them. I think of Second Timothy four beginning in verse three. These are the ones that, "will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickle, they will accumulate for themselves, teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." In other words, they refuse to hear the truth, because it conflicts with their desires, with how they see the world with how they see themselves. So they unwittingly begin to wander into false religious systems that will eventually overtake them because they appeal to the lust of their flesh. They will believe spiritual and theological absurdities with all their heart and they will perish in their sins because of it. How can anyone possibly claim to be a Christian and yet approve of those things that God abhors? Like the LGBTQiA plus agenda, like homosexual, pastors, transgender pastors, drag queen story hours in churches? How can they believe the perversions of the prosperity or social justice gospels? How can they believe that God actually speaks to them, and on and on it goes. Many today are like the Israelites of that day that were so ruled by the sins they loved. And so enslaved by years of false teaching and corruption that they were like the Israelites in the Old Testament. Hosea described it this way. In chapter five and verse four, "Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God, for a spirit of harlotry is within them. And they do not know the Lord." Into verse 12, he goes on to say, "for a spirit of harlotry, has led them astray. And they have played the harlot departing from their God."

Now back to Mark four, and verse 10. "As soon as He was alone, His followers along with the 12, began asking Him about the parables." Matthew sheds more light on this in chapter 13 and verse 10, "The disciples came and said to Him, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?'" Jesus, what you're saying here, these analogies, they're hard to understand they, they are spiritual, ethnic myths that people just don't get. Why are you speaking this way? Well, he answers it in Mark 4:11. "And He was saying to them, 'To you has been given the mystery of the Kingdom of God.'" Now let's stop there for a moment. What is this mystery of the Kingdom of God? Well, this refers to spiritual truths in the New Testament, that would have remained hidden, had God not chosen to reveal them. Think of what Paul said in Colossians one, beginning in verse 25, he said of this church, "I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God, that is," here it is, "the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God will to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory," referring to the surpassing riches of the indwelling Christ by the Holy Spirit. We read about this more in John 14, Romans eight and so forth, I might add, that these mysteries also include the mystery of the gospel Ephesians 6:19, the mystery of Christ, Ephesians three eight through 12, the great mystery concerning Christ in the church, Ephesians 5:22 through 33, the mystery that we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed, First Corinthians 15:51, as well as First Thessalonians 4:13 through 18, the mystery of lawlessness that Paul spoke of in Second Thessalonians two verse seven and nine, the mystery that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, as Paul described in Romans 11:25 through 36. And finally, in Revelation 17 Five, the mystery Pre Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the abominations of the earth. In fact, Paul expands upon his responsibility further, in his letter to the Corinthians in First Corinthians two seven, "but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory." It's interesting here, if we look at the original language, he is using the strong adversative of conjunction, but or "alla" in Greek, which underscores the extreme contrast between man's wisdom and God's wisdom. In fact, in the original language, it is in the emphatic position in the Greek text emphasizing both supernatural possession as well as source. In other words, this wisdom belongs to him, and it comes from Him. This is what we preach. This is what Jesus preached. Paul also calls it the hidden wisdom of God, because it is the secret wisdom that God intentionally conceals to the natural man. First Corinthians 2:14, The natural man, the unsaved man who prefers earthly wisdom to God's wisdom.

And again, beloved, it is this wisdom, God's wisdom, that we preach with confidence, knowing it was ordained before the ages for our glory, verse seven says, so again, back to Mark four verse 10. "As soon as He was alone, His followers along with the 12 began asking Him about the parables and He was saying to them, 'To you has been given the mystery of the Kingdom of God but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing they may see and not perceive, and while hearing they may hear and not understand, otherwise, they might return and be forgiven.'" It's interesting here, fascinating text. Here Jesus is quoting Isaiah six nine through 10, which was a passage that originally described the hard-hearted Israelites whose consciences were so seared by willful self-deception, that their persistent unbelief sealed their fate, and God judged them. As a result, God used the invading hordes of the Babylonians or the rule of Nebuchadnezzar to destroy them. And likewise, in Jesus day, the same and tractable. Unbelief sealed the fate of divine judgment upon Israel. Countless millions today are doomed to that same judgment, because of their persistent, willful unbelief. Paul speaks about this, you will recall in Romans one, beginning in verse 18, he says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who," catch this now, "suppress the truth in unrighteousness." I don't want to hear it, I reject it. He goes on to say, "because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world is His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools." He goes on to say, "Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurities, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them." In other words, he just gives them over to the consequences of their lusts, so that they will commit all manner of immorality. He goes on to say beyond that, "God gave them over to degrading passions." And he goes on to describe the degrading passions of homosexuality. And if that isn't enough, he finally gives, "them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper." He went on to say, "And although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

Beloved, please understand, when man knowingly, persistently, with full knowledge, rejects the truth of who God is, God will reject Him. Historically, Israel's apostasy we know was judged in AD 70 when the Romans invaded. The apostates were killed and enslaved and today they languish in the solitary confinement of an eternal hell. The same fate awaits all who refuse to come to Christ, in repentant faith. But their judgment begins on earth because of their persistent unbelief. God leaves them in their state of spiritual blindness and removes any possibility of them understanding or embracing the gospel. This is why Jesus began to speak in parables, as he stated.

Now, next, Jesus explains the parable of the soils to his disciples. There's four different kinds of soils that we are going to see. And it was crucial for his disciples to understand these things, so that they had some idea of why so many people reject the gospel. And any of us who have walked with Christ, anytime at all know full well, that the vast majority of people who hear the truth of saving grace and the glories of Christ will laugh in your face and reject it. But some, by God's grace, will repent and believe. I did. Hopefully all of you have. "And He said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?'" In other words, he's saying this is, this is the key guys, this is the key to interpreting future parables. But more importantly, this parable is foundational to your understanding of the doctrine of salvation and evangelism, you've got to get this. That's what he's saying here. And I might say, personally, this is one of the most instructive and encouraging passages in all of Scripture regarding the doctrine of salvation. And regarding my role in evangelism, what he's asking me to do, and frankly, what he's asked you to do is real simple. Just sow the seed, right? I'll take care of the rest, you just sow the seed. And by the way, don't spend your time trying to cultivate the soil so that the seed will get in there. And don't tinker with the seed to somehow alter it genetically, so that somehow it will grow in any environment, even through concrete. Don't tinker with the seed. I've given you the seed, you sow my seed, the seed of the Gospel, the same seed that Jesus sowed, and then trust God with the rest. Beloved, never take responsibility for things beyond your control, right? Let God be God. And that's what he's saying here. And he's helping us to understand that most seeds will never take root. Most seeds will never bear spiritual fruit, but a few will.

I was thinking about this, the apostle John was allowed to see what the few would look like in future glory. Revelation seven, verse nine, this is so encouraging. He says, "I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne. and before the Lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands, and they cry out with a loud voice saying 'Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.'" Oh, dear friend, I pray that you and your household will be among the number of the redeemed.

Dave Harrell

So verse 14, Jesus says, "The sower sows the word." We know this is a reference to the Gospel, the message of salvation, through faith and the finished work of Christ on the cross. And again, there's four different kinds of soil upon which the seed is going to fall, depicting four different kinds of heart responses to the gospel. I have named them thusly, the first soil I call the impenetrable heart of hardened unbelief. Secondly, the shallow heart of temporary belief. Thirdly, the worldly heart of double minded belief and finally, the receptive heart of fruit bearing belief. Now, I might add that the first three hearts will hear, but refuse to wholeheartedly embrace the gospel, and sadly, we all know people in this category. In fact I might add that many ostensibly evangelical churches actually cater to the shallow heart of temporary belief. They appeal to the emotions rather than to the mind producing phony kind of drama queen Christians that are all hyped up on emotion. But they're spiritual substances like cotton candy that will instantly melt under the heat of persecution. And then there's the worldly heart of double minded belief that churches will cater to, especially an evangelical pragmatism that believes that friendship with the world is a better strategy of evangelism than preaching the gospel, that somehow we become like the world in order to win it. And as a result, priceless Christians that cannot be distinguished from the world they love, make up these churches. Now, notice the first soil, the impenetrable heart of hardened unbelief, verse 15, these are the ones Jesus said, "who were beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear immediately, Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them." Now, if you go to the paths, the roads in the Middle East, especially in Israel, you will see very quickly that they are as hard as concrete. They're beaten down by 1000s of footsteps, from people and from animals in the scorching sun that bakes it, kind of like the clay that we have here in Tennessee, that can get extremely hard. And this is the perfect analogy of religion of the religious elite of Israel, who even in the face of irrefutable evidence, deny Jesus to be the Son of God, Israel's Messiah, even attributing His miracles to the power of Satan. And we all know people like this, whose animosity toward the gospel is so callous that the truth of saving grace is like what he says here, "when they hear immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them." And I've heard all the excuses. Well, they hold to some other false religious system and so they don't buy what the Bible has to say, after all, it's a bunch of myths. And it's for the feeble minded, so I'm not going to believe that, and the Bible is full of all kinds of, of inconsistencies and so forth. And they'll reject God on the basis of some philosophy that they believe the wisdom of man, so no matter what you say, two plus two is going to be five. And when confronted with the truth, they are going to reject it and sometimes militantly. I'll never forget the first time in a group that I was leading in in Nashville probably had 12, or 15 men in the group. When I went to explain the gospel in man's depravity, I had a guy get up and walk over to me and spit in my face and walk out, last I ever saw him. People don't want to hear that. I think of a pastor in Israel, converted Jewish man, I was able to go in with some others, in a forest, they were in an underground church because the, ultra-orthodox that are Hasidim, the ones with the big fur hats, you've heard me talk about them before; they hated them, wouldn't allow them to own land, wouldn't allow them to build a church and he was telling how one day he was with his little boy walking down the street of this one town and one of those men came up with his little boy and spit at him, and then told his little boy, I want you to spit at him. I want to teach you what we do to Christians. That's the level of hatred that exists even today. Beloved, this is what was going on in the days of Jesus.

By the way, some might ask, what do you do when you encounter this kind of person? Jesus said in Matthew seven six, "Do not give what is holy to dogs. And do not throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces." Remember, most dogs in those days were filthy wild scavengers. They were diseased and they were vicious. They weren't like our little poodle sitting up on the couch right. And swine were considered by the Jews to be the epitome of uncleanness. They were animals that foraged in garbage dumps, they were also vicious. So together Jesus use these animals to depict the ungodly, who reject the gospel, but also viciously attack all that God deems holy, viciously attacks his people blaspheme his name. And when this happens, we must walk away. Paul even speaks of this in Titus three and verse 10. He says that we are to, "Reject a factious man after the first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and as sinning, being self-condemned.' It's time as Jesus said in Matthew 10, verse 14, to shake off the dust of your feet. Perhaps these are ones that God has utterly abandoned and unbelief, by the way, we don't know. We don't know. So we continue to pray for them. But when they mock God's Holy Word, don't give them the precious pearls of his truth. They may be like those in Hebrews six, six who have fallen away from the gospel that they've heard they've, they're rejecting it. And he says, "It is impossible to renew them again to repentance." So we walk away from them, we pray that God will soften their heart. And sometimes he does. He did the apostle Paul didn't he? And he did a lot of the Pharisees that eventually came to saving faith.

So first, Jesus speaks of the impenetrable heart of hardened unbelief. Secondly, the shallow heart of temporary belief. He says, "In a similar way, these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves but are only temporary; then when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately, they fall away." These are the people who will respond very favorably, very quickly to the gospel. They can be enthusiastic; they can be absolutely giddy with joy. Many times lots of drama, lots of emotion. They seem to be on fire for Christ, which you begin to see that it's all sizzle and no steak. It's all show no substance. Because the seed of the gospel is merely fallen upon the shallow topsoil of emotion that conceals right under the surface, a bedrock of selfishness and unbelief. We all understand this. There are places where you can plant a seed, and it will quickly sprout but its roots cannot penetrate the bedrock that might be just under the surface. And here in Tennessee, we really understand that it's hard to find a foot of topsoil in places. I've seen this however, 1000 times in the lives of people. I regret that I've seen this, especially amongst our youth here at Calvary Bible Church. I've seen young people who respond very enthusiastically to, to the gospel, and they seem to be on fire for Christ, they want to be baptized, but as soon as they have to take a stand for their faith, you see a very different person and gradually they disappear. They're not even a part of the church anymore. I've seen adults the same way. They have some superficial desperation to come to Christ, maybe to be able to be a part of the group, who knows what all is going on in their mind, but they have never been broken over their sin, to the point where they would cry out to a holy God, in utter desperation, and say, What must I do to be saved? But rather than make some superficial external profession of faith, and again, as soon as they experienced the high cost of discipleship, you see a very different person, they abandoned Christ. They're like wilting lilies, not mighty oaks. So superficial Christians who love themselves more than Christ, live by sight, not by faith. And there is a dead faith, therefore that cannot save, it will not endure the inevitable persecution that will come upon all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. I think again, of youth that forsake Christ just as soon as they're outside of the house, they get about 17 or 18, and they leave the house and they don't follow Christ anymore. What's going on there? This is what's going on, they leave solid Bible teaching churches to attend some church that will cater to their flesh. Their faith had no firm roots So their faith is only temporary as Jesus says "then when affliction or persecution arises, because of the word immediately they fall away." As soon as their friends think they're cornering for some of the things they believe, okay, I'll not believe that anymore. Think of all the professing Christians today, professing Christians not necessarily possessing Christian, but those who profess Christ and yet they bow their knee to the godless woke cult in our culture. Or they embrace the vile perversions of the LGBTQIA plus agenda. Immoral abominations in the eyes of God, that blaspheme his holy name. I just can't believe this demonic drag queens reading the Bible to children in worship services. And yet these people claimed to be Christians. Dear friends, the atrocities of the wicked knows no bounds. For the wicked to call themselves Christians, is a blasphemy that exceeds the evils of Sodom and Gomorrah. These are the ones that have a shallow heart of temporary belief. Contrast this with true Christians that Jesus described and Luke 9:23 "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it for what does a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself."

In the 19th century, Charles Finney mastered the manipulative techniques he believed that would bring sinners to conversion. He believed man's only problem was no deeper than his will. And like all palladiums, he denied the reality of man's ruined nature of his of his utter inability, because of the depths of his depraved nature. He denied all of that as many do today. He believed that all men need to do is to resolve to become a Christian. And all the preacher needs to do is to persuade him to do so. He believed that any outward act like standing, or kneeling, or walking an aisle to an anxious bench, with some altar call, any of those kinds of things were signs of genuine conversion, and many people, 1000s of people, responded to those types of manipulative techniques, as many do today. But as we look at history, permanent change was virtually nonexistent. In his excellent work, "Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism, 1750 to 1858" Ian Murray, one of my favorite authors, records the words of Joseph Ives Foot, a Presbyterian minister, who wrote this in 1838, in response to what he was seeing with all of Finney's, and others revivals, here's what he said, quote, "During 10 years, hundreds and perhaps 1000s were annually reported to be converted on all hands. But now it is admitted that Finney's real converts are comparatively few. It is declared even by Finney himself that quote, 'The great body of them are a disgrace to religion.'" End quote. I think of the Church at Laodicea remember that, Revelation three, the lukewarm church that made God vomit? The term lukewarm, doesn't mean that they were mediocre Christians, as some people tend to think, that's not what it's speaking of. It means they fit neither category of hot, which would be a true Christian or cold, a person that rejected Christ. They don't fit either one of those categories. Although they were unregenerate, they did not openly reject Christ. And you have lots of churches that are that way. They don't openly reject Christ, but they are hypocrites. They are pretenders that make a mockery of the gospel. Beloved, a lukewarm Christian is no Christian at all. The Laodiceans were financially prosperous, they were smug, self-righteous hypocrites, as lost as the most depraved atheist. And for this reason the Lord warned them in Revelation 3:19 and 20, to, "Be zealous and repent, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him and he with Me."

So again, this type of a Christian, the shallow heart of temporary belief, may profess Christ, but because their nature has never truly been changed, because they've never truly been born again, because they have never truly become a new creature in Christ, when persecution and temptation come their way, they have nothing to restrain the flesh, no indwelling Spirit. And so their flesh will continue to rule them. They will wilt like grass growing on a dusty sidewalk when the hot sun beats down upon it.

Well, thirdly, there is the worldly heart of double minded belief, Jesus said, "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns." "Akantha" in the original language, "akantha," a thorn bush that used in Matthew 27:29, to describe the thorns, even that was placed on Jesus head at his crucifixion. And even in good soil, at least what you would think would be good, that's been cultivated, that maybe everything's been burned off, the seeds and root system of these predatory thorn bushes are still there, and they will emerge. So when seed falls their roots begin to grow, and they deprive the other good seed of water and nutrition and choke them out. That's the analogy, it's a perfect analogy, isn't it? It describes the worldly heart of the double minded; those who claim to love Christ, but down deep, they really love the world and all that the world has to offer. Jesus said, these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. James one, verse eight, we read, "a double minded is unstable in all of his ways." In other words, he is the man that has divided loyalties between God and all the material things that the world has to offer. Jesus said in Matthew 19:24, that, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Why is that? Because they love all of their wealth. For a number of years, I counseled primarily very wealthy celebrities and wealthy people down on the south side of Nashville. And I can attest to those realities. People with a lot of money really don't see their need for Christ. Matthew six, verse 21, Jesus said, "Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also right." He went on to say in verse 24, "No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other." You cannot serve God and wealth. And of course, greedy materialism is the great idol of America today. If you want to see the worship centers of America, go to all of the malls that exist in every city. So when the gospel seed is a sowed sown among the thorns, it simply will not germinate and bear fruit. The pull of the world is too powerful for these people to believe. I've heard people say before that they don't want anything to do with Christianity because if I do, I have to change my lifestyle. What they don't understand is you get to change your lifestyle. You now have the power and the desire to change your lifestyle.

So we've seen the impenetrable heart of hardened unbelief, the shallow heart of temporary belief, the worldly heart of double minded belief, and then finally here we go, the receptive heart of fruit bearing belief. Jesus said, "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil, they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit 30,60, and a hundredfold." Oh, dear friends, is it a blessing to see someone come to saving faith in Christ, to see our children, our grandchildren, or loved ones or friends, when they hear the word they accept it. And you see, that's a demonstration of regenerating grace, where the Spirit of God breathes life into a spiritual cadaver, raises that person from spiritual death to spiritual life. Paul spoke of this in first Thessalonians two verse 13. He said to the church there "For this reason, we also constantly thank God, that when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." Now, I want you to notice something here. There is no indication anywhere in this text, where Jesus says that, you know, if you're going to be a good sower, you need to tinker with the seed so that it will grow in every kind of soil. Alright, I want to re emphasize this, no, you don't read that anywhere. There's no indication that the sower even has to cultivate the ground. What he's simply saying, as I said earlier, is, look, I've supplied the seed, it is my word, it is the gospel. I want you to sow that seed. And trust me for the increase. For indeed, dear friends, genuine repentance and saving faith are a supernatural work of God, not of man. Second, Timothy two verse 24, Paul says, "The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition." Now underscore this, "if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will." I also think of what Paul said in Ephesians, two, magnificent passage beginning in verse one, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." Now, let that sink in for a minute. You were "dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we to all formally lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, but God," oh, here we go, not but you, "But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions," he is the one that, "made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved." And finally, I want you to notice the end of verse 20 in Mark for these are the ones that will hear the word and accept it and bear fruit 30,60 and 100 fold. Folks, you got to realize this is this is inconceivable to the people of that day. I mean, they were thrilled, if they could get a five or six fold increase, eight would be wonderful, 10 would be practically unheard of. But here you have three or six or 10,000%. This is beyond anything that they could imagine. But when it is a work of the Holy Spirit, this is what will happen. It is the Holy Spirit who produces the fruit of Christ's likeness. It is the Holy Spirit that will produce the fruit of the Spirit love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's what you're going to see manifested. In the life of a true believer. These are the fruits in keeping with repentance, Matthew three eight, the fruit of righteousness, Philippians 1:1, and so forth.

And in closing, when this happens, the opposite of what I said earlier, will be manifested in your life, you will have a sincere love for Christ. You will have a hunger for his word. You will have a hungering and thirsting for righteousness, you will have a mourning over your own sin, there will be a radical transformation in your desires, your entire disposition will be different. It will produce a devotion to God's glory, and obedience to His Word and His will give you a yearning and aspiration to spend time with God and commune with Him in prayer, and you will have a burden for the lost. Folks, this is the stuff of genuine saving faith. This is authentic Christianity. So I pray that you will celebrate the power of the gospel here today and scatter the seed wherever you can and then trust God for the increase, knowing that it will fall on fertile soil, and it will germinate and bear much fruit to the praise of his glory. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank You for these eternal truths. Thank you that you make them so clear to us. But I would cry out to you that you would move upon the hearts of those that may be deceived with their own religiosity, Lord, whatever it might be. I pray that you will speak to the heart of those who do not believe that today they will be saved. And for those of us who know and love you, may we rejoice in your saving grace, and be committed to doing all that we can by the power of the Spirit to bear much fruit to the praise of his glory. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.

This morning we come to the end of our little series on understanding the apostles that Jesus chose; the final part of appointing of the 12, as I have labeled this. This morning, we will look at Judas Iscariot. Before we look at several passages, I want to remind you of something out of Matthew seven. In Matthew seven, Jesus warned about the few, and the many, that there will only be few who truly follow Christ, who truly know Him and love Him. But the majority will be self deceived, even though they will say they follow Christ. They are Christian in name only. More people who claim to be Christians will call Jesus Lord, but they will never enter the kingdom. It's a terrifying thought, one that burdens my heart for each of you. Because perhaps, someone within the sound of my voice is in that category. You claim that you know Christ that you follow Christ. But in reality, you are self deceived. You have never truly been broken over your sin. You have never truly come before him begging for forgiveness. You've never truly been born again and therefore you don't truly love Him. Christianity is just a tradition. In Matthew seven, beginning of verse 21, Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in your name, cast out demons in Your name, perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" Earlier in that passage, Jesus pressed his followers to choose between two options. Both options claim this way to heaven. First, he asked them to choose between two gates, the narrow and the wide, and then he commands them in verse 13, to, "enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide in the way as broad that leads to destruction." Narrow, comes from a Greek word "stenos", which comes from a root word meaning to groan, and is used to describe a compressed or a restrictive gate, that is difficult to enter in, to with ease. Matthew has probably chosen the imagery of narrowness to describe the construction of one's choices when they come to saving faith in Christ. Taking the challenge of Jesus teaching that there is therefore a very sharply defined mode of entry. The narrow gate throws up images of the need to make a choice, which is not obvious. And it is certainly a gate that the crowd is not going through. It carries the idea of being attentive to where the gate is located, perhaps to experience even the discomfort of squeezing through this gate. This is the gate of course of authentic saving faith, which requires to someone to squeeze through shall we say, without the excess baggage of self righteousness. It requires the recognition of, of spiritual bankruptcy, of being overwhelmed with the horror of their sin fully aware of the Judgment they have, they deserve because they have violated God's holy law. And when a person truly comes to saving faith, he or she will truly experience the intense pressure of a conscious choice which will renounce the old self and will put on the Lord Jesus Christ the speaks of a determined, purposeful decision, requiring strenuous effort. This is the opposite of the easy believeism that is so common in evangelicalism today. This decision "ism," idea, altar call evangelism where calculated and emotionally induced outward acts like walking an aisle or repeating some prayer are considered to be evidence of regeneration rather than a changed, a radically changed life. We see the same emphasis in Jesus response to the question in Luke 13:23, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? And He answered, 'Strive to enter the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." Strive comes from a Greek word, "agonizomai" and it means to fight or contend. And it signifies an intense exertion of effort, even conflict indicating that this is not a gate that a person just kind of wanders through with the rest of the crowd. Nor will it be a wide gate that is attractive to the masses. No, no, no, this is a different gate. It's the gate of genuine saving faith. It will be a gate that one must enter deliberately, and with determined effort. And all along this is the gate of genuine conversion. It's entered by the overwhelmed the helpless, the hopeless. The ones that cry out like the Publican all have mercy upon me, the sinner. As we read in Luke 18. This is the gate of self denial, not the gate of self fulfillment. It's a gate that requires a man to count the cost of discipleship to discard self will, to jettison self righteousness, to reject selfish ambitions and to come before Christ and say I am willing to be your slave, for what you have done for me, and because I love you, and you love me, Jesus put it this way in Matthew 16, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it but whoever loses his life, for my sake shall find it." To deny literally carries the idea of renouncing oneself, being absolutely repulsed by your sin, being willing to repent and move in a different direction because you're so overwhelmed by your inequities. Because of all of the ways that it is corrupted your life and made God your enemy. That's what it is to deny yourself and follow Christ; a radical departure from the man centered gospel of self fulfillment, and self indulgence where you come to Jesus to somehow help you make more money or get rid of all of your diseases, or whatever. And it's certainly different than this heretical, social justice gospel that focuses on how to be delivered from the social injustices of man, rather than how to be delivered from the righteous justice of a holy God. Central to entering the narrow gate, therefore is, is a terrifying conviction of sin. And a clear understanding of the message that we read in Acts 4:12, that there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven that is given, has been given among men by which we must be saved. And in addition to this, Jesus says in Matthew 7:14, "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it." And the reason why so few find it, it's not only because they don't understand the gospel, but because that's not the gate they're looking for. And it's certainly not the gate the masses choose to enter.

Jesus went on to contrast the narrow and the wide gate saying in verse 13, "For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it." So the imagery here is very obvious, both the narrow and the wide gate have a sign on top of them that say this way to heaven. But unlike the narrow gate that is restrictive, the wide gate is gaping, it is inclusive, it is attractive. The idea of striving is wholly unnecessary. With the wide gate there's no need for conscious strenuous effort. There's no need to examine your heart and be overwhelmed by your sin. There's no need for any groaning for any crying out for mercy. In the wide way is the way that many modern day pastors who are bent on attracting seekers have learned how to market the wide gate by redefining sin in such a way that virtually no one could be offended and thus eliminate the need for a Savior; eliminate the need for genuine repentance, eliminate the need for regeneration. The essence of their definition of sin these days is that sin basically includes all those things that we think and that we do that rob us from fellowship with God and steal away the happiness that he wants us to enjoy. The good news of the gospel has been reduced to nothing more than God loving us so much, that He sent His Son to save us from our unhappiness. But describing sin apart from the offended righteousness of God, dear friends is not only irresponsible, it is damning. Apart from an understanding of man's condemnation, before a righteous God that evokes the wrath of God, there is no gospel. Because the wrath of God abides on him, Jesus says, in John 3:36. However, many people are going to hear the true gospel like some of you and still not be honest in their heart and still refuse to truly embrace Christ and repentant faith.

And such a man was Judas Iscariot. Like Judas, many people follow Jesus for selfish reasons. They want nothing to do with Jesus as the savior of their sins. They want a Jesus that is the meeter of their needs. Nothing about Jesus being the lord of their life; rather they want, shall we say, a cosmic butler that will do what they need, a smiley face Jesus that will wink at their sin and be there to help them out. And they have problems. Judas Iscariot was such a man he was the quintessential hypocrite, a man with unprecedented opportunity to spend time with Jesus, the incarnate Christ, sit at the feet of Christ himself, to witness all of the miracles. He squandered it all because he refused to humble his heart in genuine contrition. He, dear friends, followed Jesus for all of the wrong reasons. What about you? It is fitting that God would have chosen him knowing full well, the treachery of his heart. Why did he do that? Because God wanted to provide a vivid illustration of the power and the process of hypocrisy that will exist in the church, and thus be a warning to each of us. Beginning with the apostles who'd couldn't see any of this. He wants to warn us of the deceitfulness of the human heart. The church of Christ has been and always will be plagued with hypocrites, with people that profess Christ but don't possess Christ. Much of evangelicalism today is just country club Christianity. It's crisis Christianity, it has no power. Jesus described them as branches that attach themselves to the true vine in some superficial way in John 15. They claim to follow Christ and you see external conformity, but they deceive themselves into really believing that they are Christians when in fact, they are not. The reason you know that is because they bear no fruit. Therefore, Jesus says they are cut off and thrown into the fire. There's no real love for Christ. It's just churchianity.

Well, today we look at the life of such a man, Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed the Son of God, a man who refused to allow Jesus to shape his heart, and consequently, his heart became hardened to the deceitfulness of his own sin. And certainly this is a warning to all of us, we all must examine our our life here. Because hypocrisy is a slippery slope, and here in his life, we're going to see some of the telltale signs of a phony Christian, the marks of a hypocrite. Judas Iscariot, that name reveals the region from which he came in Hebrew "Is" is the word for man and "cariot" means that he was a man of Cariot, a little town in southern Judea. He wasn't from Galilee like the others so the others didn't know him. They had no background on who he was. But yet he was another ordinary man, no, no special credentials whatsoever. And as we examine his life, we see that he followed Jesus for purely earthly selfish reasons, not for any heavenly benefit. Like the others, he was a Jew that anticipated the Messiah coming and establishing his kingdom, getting rid of Rome, and he wanted to cash in on the deal. He wanted a place of prominence. In fact, the other apostles were dealing with the same issue, as you will recall, who's going to be first in the kingdom, right? We know nothing of his family or social background. All we know is that Jesus chose him John 15:16. Not for salvation, but Jesus chose him for betrayal. None of this caught Jesus by surprise; betrayal that was a treachery that was frankly ordained before the foundation of the world. It was one that was clearly prophesied in the Old Testament and Psalm 52, beginning in verse 12. The Spirit of God foretells to us the eventual betrayal of Judas There we read, "For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it, nor is it one who hates me, who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide from him, but it was you a man my equal my companion in my acquaintance, we took sweet council together and walk to the house of God in the throng." Certainly a picture of Judas. Jesus described this further in John 13:18. And here he quotes a messianic prophecy found in Psalm 41 Nine, that speaks of a friend's betrayal, says "Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me." And if we go to Matthew chapter 27, verses nine through 10, we see there that Matthew refers to the prophet Zechariah chapter 11, verses 12 through 13. And this is a prophet see that gives even even greater detail concerning the Lord's betrayal. There in Zechariah, Zechariah symbolically asked the covenant people what their Messiah is worth. A picture of the price they eventually paid Judas, There we read, "They weighed out for my wages, 30 pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me throw it to the potter that princely priced, they sat on me. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, for the potter Potter." So indeed, Judas betrayed the Lord, returned the money, as we know, to the chief priests threw it down. But since it was blood money, money illegitimately paid, and then returned to falsely convict an innocent man that would be sentenced to death and the perverted and calloused hearts of the Pharisees, who were deceived by every imaginable form of hypocrisy. Isn't it interesting, they could not bring themselves to return that money and put it in the treasury, because that would be dishonoring to God. So they purchased, quote," a potter's field." It was a defiled place, where they buried travelers, and the indigent, the ungodly, the very field where as we will read Judas hanged himself, later known as the field of blood.

The predetermined purposes of God never cease to amaze me to think that He decrees what he will and he does it even in regard to Judas, Jesus said in Luke 22:22, "Truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, But woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!" And it's fascinating to think that Jesus knew all about Judas, his wicked heart, and yet he chose him. We read about this in John six beginning in verse 70, "'Did I, myself not choose you, the 12, and yet one of you is a devil?' Now he meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he one of the 12 was going to betray Him." It's beyond our ability to comprehend that even the wicked machinations of a hypocrite are preordained by a sovereign God. Jesus came to earth to live and to die and to be raised from the dead. And Judas, though fully responsible for his choices, merely played into God's sovereign plan of redemption, and to think about it, there was never a time where Jesus spoke an unkind word to him. The Good Shepherd never offered him anything but love and forgiveness and mercy and grace. And yet look what he did. Jesus knew his heart of greed, because he was skimming money out of their literal little treasury. Jesus knew about his selfish ambition to cash in on the kingdom. And he knew precisely the diabolical nature of this apostate. He knew Satan's plans for him. Yet, isn't it interesting, he maintained an attitude of perfect love for his enemy. It's hard to believe, isn't it? Jesus never gave him a reason to hate him. Yet he continues to be the most hated person in all of history.

Well, the text reveals much about Judas. So I want you to think with me again, the master hypocrite, no doubt he had convinced himself of his own self-righteousness. After all, he was a Jew. And only those who are seasoned in their own self-righteousness, make good hypocrites. And as we study the passages that speak of Judas, we see again that No one suspected that he was dipping into the pot that he was skimming money, nobody suspected him of being a traitor. Not even after he left the upper room to strike his deal with the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus in the garden, did anybody suspect anything, mo one knew. As I said earlier, in that day of heightened messianic expectations, Judas saw his chance to cash in. He wanted to be on the inside track, he wanted some kind of a political appointment. And obviously, Jesus was the Messiah. I mean, he knew that he could see all of the miracles. He saw all of these things. But as we examine the text we begin to see how Judas' patience, was wearing thin. Three years with Jesus and all he sees is humility, and love, and compassion, and servitude. When's he going to attack the Romans? When's he going to get on with this thing? I mean, I'm getting tired of all of this. Let's see some heads roll. I want to receive my reward, but all I hear are parables about forgiveness, money and sin, the sin of which the sin of pride, I'm getting tired of it. Hearing all this stuff about eating flesh and drinking his blood. I mean, come on, let's eliminate the Romans and establish the kingdom. So by the time Jesus and the 12, head to Jerusalem for the last time, you might say Judas has lost his sense of humor. He was becoming impatient. His spiritual masquerade is about to be over. He's getting increasingly frustrated. By the way, I've noticed over the years that hypocrites cannot stand it if their agenda is being ignored or thwarted in any way. Eventually, they're going to explode. Remember, life is all about their needs, not God's glory. Now I want you to notice how this plays out and we're gonna land on John 12 for a few minutes. Remember the context, Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead, the 12 are having a meal in the home of Simon the leper, along with Lazarus and Mary and Martha. And in John 12, beginning in verse two we read, "So they made Him a supper there and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, 'Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii, then given to poor people?'" See, Judas is at his wit's end here. A denarii, by the way, was one day's wages. So 300 denarii would have been about a year salary. I mean, that's a lot of money, right? Would have been a lot of money for him to dip into and put in his pocket. And of course, he hides his true motives. And he offers some phony rationale, one that sounds noble, compassionate, keep up his godly image. In fact, Matthew tells us in chapter 26, and verse eight, that all of the rest of the apostles agreed with him. Yeah. That really would have been nice. I mean, why waste all this money? And it was only sometime later that the inspired apostle John then comments on what Judas was really up to. And he does this in verses six through eight, he says, "Now, he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. Therefore, Jesus said, 'Let her alone so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.'" Well, this incident must have been the straw that broke the camel's back for Judas, because immediately after this incident, Matthew's gospel tells us in Matthew 26, beginning in verse 14, "Then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, 'What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you,' and they counted out to him 30 pieces of silver. So from that time, he sought opportunity to betray him." Now, originally, his unrestrained and unsatisfied lusts energized his hypocrisy, causing him to attach himself to Jesus. But now things are a bit different. Those same unrestrained and unsatisfied lusts are inflamed with resentment, which motivates him now to do the unthinkable and what a tragedy it is. His wicked heart could have been pardoned. But now instead, it has been hardened. He must now take the wine cup of divine fury from the hand whom he has betrayed and drink all of it. And he, like all of the wicked, who hate God, according to Jeremiah 25:15, will drink and stagger and go mad. So he has been given over to completely experience all of the consequences of his wickedness. And we see this clearly in the account of what happened in the upper room. And later that night at the arrest of Jesus, and it's amazing again, to think about this, the cloak of hypocrisy can be worn with such ease, right? I mean, Judas has his precious 30 pieces of silver. And yet what does he do? He goes back and he joins his unwitting friends and Jesus in the upper room. No one suspects anything. But Jesus knows precisely what is going on. And if I can say this with all love, some of you are no different. You come here every Sunday, and you sing with the saints, and you hear the sermon, and you are unmoved. And throughout the rest of the week, you live in a fool's paradise. Enjoying your sin thinking all the time, that when you die, you're going to heaven, and yet you have no basis to make that claim. That's the power of self deception and hypocrisy. No one suspected anything. John 13 verse two, "During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon to betray Him," the text says, and yet knowing this, by the way, in verses three through five, what does Jesus do? Jesus washes his feet. Verses 10 and following Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but it's completely clean and you are clean, but not all of you. For He knew the one who was betraying Him for this reason, He said, 'Not all of you are clean.'" By the way, bathing is symbolic of salvation. And that's why he says, "but not all of you," referring to Judas. And again, this is another mark of a hypocrite, just their astounding callousness of heart. To allow the incarnate Son of God to wash your feet, to display just such inconceivable humility, knowing in your heart you're about to betray him. That's the power of hypocrisy and sin. And yet Judas just sits there and allows the Lord to serve Him, as if he expects it. Peter, on the other hand, you will remember was overwhelmed by his unworthiness, but not so the hypocrite. Dear friends, never underestimate the power of the flesh to join forces with the devil. Never underestimate that, for therein lies a force that is so diabolically wicked as to justify the betrayal of God Himself. I've seen this before, the self-deception of hypocrisy, it is so exceedingly powerful. That hypocrite can justify any act any thought, any action, as Paul said, of them, and First Timothy four two, "Their conscience has been seared as with a branding iron," so there's nothing you can do or say to reach them. I find it interesting, psychologists who are ignorant of the scriptures, ignorant of biblical truth, describe many people as having a narcissistic personality disorder. People that see themselves as better than everyone else, they deserve more, the rules don't apply to them. And of course, this is pandemic in the powerful and the wealthy, especially corporate executives, politicians, Hollywood stars, athletes, Christian entertainers, but the Bible just calls this foolish pride. They're just hypocrites seared in their conscience. Proverbs 26:12, "Do you see a man wise in his own eyes, there is more hope for a fool than for him." Isaiah 65, five Hypocrites say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me for I am holier than you! These are smoke in My nostrils. A fire that burns all the day." God is referring to the phony burnt offerings, that the people would sacrifice to him. There's a stench to his nose, one that will result in judgment.

Well, back to John 13. Jesus now gets more specific about the betrayal. Verses 18 and following. He says, "I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen, but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. From now on, I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He." And then we get a glimpse of Jesus heart, the enormous emotional turmoil that was eating at him. Knowing that Satan now has entered this man, Satan, you might say, has now entered the room through Judas. Verse 21, "When Jesus had said this, he became troubled in spirit and testified and said 'Truly, truly I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.'" Boy to be troubled in spirit. That's an understatement for Judas to know that Satan is in the room with him through Judas. So Jesus now, is mentally he is spiritually agitated and I might add that there is nothing more toxic in Christian fellowship than having a known hypocrite in the midst. We go on to read in verses 22 and following, "The disciples began looking at one another at a loss to know of which one He was speaking." There was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. So Simon Peter gestured to Him and said to Him, 'Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.' He, leaning back thus on Jesus bosom said to Him, 'Lord, who is it?' Jesus then answered, 'That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.' So when He had dipped the morsel He took, and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel Satan then entered into him. Therefore, Jesus said to him, 'What you do, do quickly.' Now, no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. For some, were supposing because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, 'Buy the things we have needed for the feast,' or else that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel, he went out immediately, and it was night." So Judas keeps up the act all the way to the end. He had been planning this for days. But by the way, because he was a coward, according to Luke 22, six, he was waiting for the right opportunity to betray Jesus, quote, "in the absence of the multitude, he didn't want the crowds coming down on him." And it's important to note here that Jesus is making sure that his first Lord's supper would not be polluted by hypocrisy, so he excuses Judas, who is now possessed by Satan.

Before they begin, you remember the rest of the story knowing where Jesus was going to pray, along with the others in the Garden of Gethsemane, we read in John 18, three, "Then Judas having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons," a cohort of Roman soldiers would be 600. So probably 600 soldiers and verse 12, we read about that. And according to John 18, four, we see that Jesus now goes out to greet them, Jesus, therefore, "knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, 'Whom do you seek?' They answered him, 'Jesus, the Nazarene.' He said to them, 'I am He.' And Judas also, who was betraying him, was standing with them. When therefore He had said to them, 'I am He', they drew back and fell to the ground."

John's Gospel is filled with irony, and this is certainly one of them. They speak of Jesus the Nazarene. That was a way of demeaning Him. And He answered by saying, "I am He," the absolute opposite, "Ego eimi" in the original language, a term that Jesus used repeatedly to declare His deity. We're looking for Jesus that Nazarene. When he says, "I am He," "I am the great I AM," "I am Jesus," "I am the Messiah," "I am the Son of God," Dear friends, don't miss what Jesus did in this extraordinary, remarkable scenario. Here he revealed himself to his enemies, and to the world, that he is who he claims to be, the Son of God. Here he uses the covenant name of God. The title he used to describe himself you'll recall in John 8:58, where he told the unbelieving Jews before Abraham was born, "I am."

You see, he referred to himself in the present continuous tense. And why I mean, that seems really odd. Why would he do that? Because inherent in his name, is the fact that he always was and he always will be God. The speaks of self-existence, but that it was never a time there has never been a time that he did not exist. You remember, in Exodus three, Moses asked what what should I tell the people? When they ask what is your name, and in verse 14 of Exodus three, "and God said to Moses, 'I am who I am.' And he said, 'Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am, has sent me.'"

Dave Harrell

That the preexistent, self-existent uncreated Creator of the universe, the one who always is, who always has been, and who always will be, is the one that is speaking to you. This is the title he used to respond to Judas and his all of the enemies that came to arrest him in the garden. Again, back to verse six. "And when He said to them, 'I am He', they drew back and fell to the ground." By the way, this is the testimony of an eyewitness account. And John would have written this about 50 years later. I mean, certainly, that would be something you would never forget, Jesus coming out and saying, "I am He," and they all just fall to the ground, talk about power. And you would think at that point, they would get up and they would fall on their faces and worship Him. But that's not what happened. Maybe some of them did later. But there's no account of that. Oh, dear friends, what a glorious manifestation of the both His power and His mercy and what a foretaste of the next appearance that we will see when he comes in glory. Remember, in Isaiah 11, four, "And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked." And yet, with such miraculous display of His omnipotence, they continue to arrest the Son of God. It reminds me of the homosexuals remember, the homosexuals of Sodom and Gomorrah who were judicially blinded, because of the depths of their depravity. And yet they continue to weary themselves to get to the door and so too, Judas and the soldiers weary themselves now to do evil. Judas is it's just the most colossal failure in the history of the world. Now he's fully empowered by Satan. He steps forward to betray Jesus with a kiss Matthew 26, verse 49. "And immediately he went to Jesus and said, 'Hail, Rabbi' and kissed him." Luke 22, verse 48, "Jesus said to him, 'Judas, Are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?'" Indeed, that's what happened. In other words, Jesus is saying, Judas, does your hypocrisy, know no bounds. You're going to betray Me with a kiss? You're going to betray this Passover night with such diabolical treachery? That's what you're going to do? Will you betray your Creator God with an act of love? Will you pay homage to your king with a kiss of death? Obviously, the answer was yes.

Dear friends, please hear me, there is a line that a hypocrite will one day cross when God will judicially seal that person in the insanity of their sin. When a man's self-worship fills the cup of divine forbearance to the brim, it will overflow with the wrath of divine abandonment and God will give them over to the full consequences of their depravity, Romans 1:28, "God will give them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper." In other words, their reasoning faculties have been destroyed, and they will go mad in the pursuit of their sin. That's what's happening here with Judas. After the betrayal, he found himself incarcerated in the torments of the hell that he had created for himself here on Earth, a hell he had foolishly chosen. And in utter agony, now he's experiencing the wrath of divine abandonment. Matthew 27 Verse three He says "Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, 'I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.'" Now, some unfortunately say, Well, this means that he got saved. Where do you get that? Well, the term remorseful is translated repented, in the King James Version, and that's produced some understandable confusion. The King James Version translation of repented, is a really a misleading, rendering causing some to erroneously believe that he repented of his sin and thereby he was born again. But this is most unfortunate. The New King James is a better translation, it translates the term remorseful. Let me explain this briefly to you. The Greek term "rendered remorseful" or "repentant" in Matthew 27 three, is "metamelomai" and this merely connotes regret or remorse or sorrow, not genuine repentance prompted by God in the heart of the redeemed. That's not what that term expresses. Had Matthew intended to convey the idea of genuine repentance prompted by God, which would be a sincere brokenness of heart over sin, he would have used another term, "metanoeo." Metanoeo speaks of a deep spiritual brokenness, a a penitence that one would, would experience when they realize they have offended a holy God, a God that loved them, prompting them therefore to confess their offense to him. In this case, it would have been to Christ Himself and ask for forgiveness, it would include a decisive change of mind a change of direction. The point is simply this, Judas did not experience a genuine contrition, "metanoeo", but rather a mere remorse, "metamelomai" Matthew 27, three. And this was prompted by his own excruciating guilt over what he had done.

These are two very different kinds of repentance as you read about this, for example, In Second Corinthians seven, verses nine through 11. By the way, Judas would have been terrified to truly repent and thereby admit that he had borne false witness against an innocent man, because that crime, according to Deuteronomy 19:16, through 19, was punishable by the penalty imposed upon the one he had falsely convicted, and the punishment was crucifixion. So he didn't want to say that, at the horrors of what he had done, drove him to actually murder himself. Matthew 27 Five "He went out and hanged himself." In Acts one verses 18 and following, it adds even more graphic details. Evidently the limb upon which the rope had been hung broke and we read "and falling headlong he burst open in the middle in his entrails gushed out." What a tragic end. This is the final word we hear of Judas Iscariot in Scripture. And this is so symbolic of the powerful essence of sin in the human heart, because sin will destroy the inner man. He falls headlong. The text tells us that he's literally split in two forcing his wicked entrails to spew forth from his torso onto the earth that he so dearly loves. Judas never sought forgiveness from God, he never cried out for undeserved mercy or grace. Had he done so he would have received it instantly. Jesus had made that clear in John 6:37, "And the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out."

Well, as we close this morning, I want to remind you a bit of some of the things we see here in the heart of hypocrisy. We see how people can superficially attach themselves to the body of Christ, superficially become part of a church begin to say all of the Christian things that they're used to hearing. James 1:15 says "They're drawn away by their desires." That was true for Judas. His selfish ambition is avarice. That is his insatiable greed for riches. Other people are going to attach themselves to the church because they're lonely. They're looking for friendship. Some are looking to network their business. Some are looking for physical healing. Some are looking for some personal miracle or some way to manipulate God so that they can become prosperous. Some like to be in control and so they will join a church to see if they can be a big fish in a little pond, to receive glory, to get in a position of leadership, to be able to get on stage and play their instruments or whatever. Some are sexual predators. Some make their money off of naive Christians, and this is much of what we see happening in contemporary Christian music. Some are unsuccessful in every area of life and so they pump the ball and hope it lands in some place where they can become a missionary or a pastor. How many churches do you see pop up all the time? Some new man is the new pastor. And for a lot of people, it's just a cultural traditional thing to do, right? That's what it is, for the most part in the South. You don't want to be out of sync with the rest of the culture. Of course, some people attach themselves to the church because they're looking for a handout, they are looking for benevolence, they need financial help, so they hop from church to church. And on it goes.

Well, as we close, let me just give you just four things that really define the slippery slope of hypocrisy that it begins with religiosity, religious affiliation that gives people the illusion of spirituality. They attend the services they adopt the lingo, they adopt the customs, they externally act like Christians and perhaps there even some personal reform but like the Pharisees, described in Luke 11, "they clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness." Second Corinthians 5:12, 'they glory and appearance only." Paul spoke of this in Second Timothy three in verse five, "They hold to a form of godliness, though they have denied its power." And Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 15, seven "'Hypocrites, He says, "rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, This people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'" The religiosity then begins to move towards resentment, because gradually that begins to build. They're watching other people grow in Christ but they're still struggling with besetting sins with internal turmoil, with guilt with broken relationships. They even feel some sense of guilt, they begin to despise those who truly love Christ. They begin to run from the light of Scripture. They love the darkness rather than the light so they find a church where they can feel at home with other people that are spiritually dead like them. The religiosity, moves to resentment and then thirdly to rancor. They become angry, they become divisive. They garner support from other people. First Corinthians 11. Paul speaks of this beginning in verse 18, he says, "I hear that divisions exist among you and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you," in other words, here's the reason why. Here's the reason why I'm going to allow the tears to exist with the wheat in the church, the sheep with the goats, in order that "those who were approved may have become evident among you." In other words, the dissensions are going to become the test to separate the wheat from the chaff. And ultimately, these people because they are willfully blind, God will harden their heart, producing the final stage and that is ruin. Starts with religiosity moves to resentment, turns to rancor and then to ruin. Jesus summarized the ruin of Judas his life with these poignant words, in Mark 14, verse 21, "It would have been good for that man, if he had never been born." Oh dear friend, I hope this is not describing you. But I fear that in some cases it is. And may I say to you that you are unable to see the light of truth because of the inner corruption of your very nature that emanates darkness from within. And it causes you to walk in darkness and you love it so. And I can only pray that God in his infinite mercy will bring such conviction to your heart, that you will see this and if you do see it is it is because of his work of grace. And that you will repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, dear friends, examine your heart. You cannot fool God, he sees it all. And if you're a hypocrite, repent before it's too late. And for those of us who know and love Christ, and we know it is so because the Spirit bears witness in our heart that it is so and because we see the fruits of that in our life. For those of us who truly love Him, let's rejoice together in his saving grace. Because without it, we would never be saved. Let's pray together. Father, thank you. For the clarity of your word. There is no way that anyone could miss what you have done and this whole situation. Lord, I pray that Your Word will bring great conviction to those that may fall into that category. And for those of us who have truly been born again, by your infinite grace, I pray that you will cause us to celebrate that grace all the more and live our lives to the praise of your glory. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

We are going to learn more about Matthew and Thomas in a few minutes. But I was thinking, even this morning, as I was spending time alone with the Lord, where would we be without His Word? We would be in complete darkness, wouldn't we? I'm sure you've all experienced complete darkness when you've been in a cave, and they turn out all the lights and you can't see anything. That's basically what we see in our culture today. It's an immoral freefall. People are gleefully frolicking in the sewage of woke ideology. We see the gross immoralities of the LGBTQIA agenda, the racist deceptions of critical race theory. These things that just mock God, mock his word, deceive people. The very foundations of our once great Republic are crumbling before our eyes. Of course, I believe all of this is part of God's wrath of abandonment on this country. As we see in Romans one in particular. Someone sent me some photos from San Francisco and also from Phoenix to show the massive tent cities of homeless people living in squalor. Feces all over the sidewalks, urine, needles, are a picture of human depravity. Of course, all of this is championed by Democrat politicians and their liberal sycophants in the media who gaslight Americans every day, telling us that what we see with our own eyes is not true. Friends, the sins of the United States of America really parallel those of ancient Judah described in Isaiah five. If we had time we would go there and we could see that their sins included greedy materialism, drunken dissipation, defiant debauchery. They called evil good and good evil, they substituted light for darkness and darkness for light. God said He was going to curse them for this. They were cursed because of their haughty humanism, where men were wise in their own eyes because of corrupt leadership. Isaiah Five, Verse 23, says that they "justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right." And in that passage, God describes how he planted Israel like a choice vine in the perfect place, and did all of these wonderful things for them to bless them. And in Isaiah five, seven, he says, "And the men of Judah His delightful plant " Then he said this, "Thus he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness and behold, a cry of distress." In Hebrew, justice and bloodshed and righteousness and distress, sound very much alike. It's a play on words. He basically said I, I looked for "mispat" and I got "mishaps." I looked for "tzedaqah" and I got "tzeaqah." So God pronounces judgment upon them through Isaiah. Judgment that would come at the hands of the Assyrians in 722 BCE, and then again later at the hands of the Babylonians in 586. And he said in verse 29, of that text, concerning the judgment that was going to come upon them, "It's roaring as like a lioness and it roars like young lions, it growls as it seizes the prey and carries it off with no one to deliver it. And it will growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress; Even the light is darkened by its clouds. “The imagery there is like a sailor who is hopelessly tossed about in an angry sea, longing to get to shore. The problem is when they get to shore, it's as bad there as it was in the sea. There's nothing but darkness and distress. You see, dear friends, when man has thoroughly rejected the light of God's grace, all that is left is darkness. And that's what we're seeing in our country. That's what we're seeing being perpetrated upon our children. Darkness and distress is all that is left. And of course, the light has gone out in America, and now we're experiencing just the beginnings of judgment that's going to be far worse. He has eliminated all light and he is allowing sinners to flounder, in the darkness of depravity, so that they will ultimately experience the consequences of their rebellion. But as in the case of Judah, against the dark backdrop of their sin, and that judgment, there still existed light beyond the darkness, there was still hope. And that light was that of Christ. For Judah and all sinners, the rejection of God's grace did not mean nor does it today that grace has been extinguished. You see, it still exists in Christ. In fact, Isaiah went on to point out to them, about the dawning of a great light that would blaze forth in the day's future, in the coming Messiah. Isaiah chapter nine, verse two, he said, "The people who walk in darkness will see a great light, those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them." In chapter 42, in verse 16, he says, "I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do and I will not leave them undone." Chapter 58 In verse 10, he says, "Then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday." And eventually Jesus came. And we read in John 8:12, when he said, "I am the light of the world, he who follows Me, will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Beloved, indeed, it is true today, as the Apostle Paul tells us in second Corinthians chapter four and following verse four, that, "the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who was the image of God." But then he added this, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your bond servants for Jesus sake. For God who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." In other words, the very one that spoke light into existence is the one that has helped us to see the light, the light of the glory of Christ, and the Bible makes it clear that the nations are going to continue to rebel against the Most High, that the nations of the world will continually to march inexorably towards a day of divine judgment, known as the Day of the Lord. And of course, God will pour out His judgment during the pre-kingdom judgments, known also as the tribulation, just prior to his return. And we see this for example, in Isaiah 60, the first three verses where the Lord promises a future day of restoration even for Israel, and for Gentiles who have been grafted into the vine of Abrahamic blessing. There he describes the glory of Jerusalem that will come one day in the millennial kingdom. And I want to give you this hope in Isaiah 60, beginning in verse one, he says, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. So again, a light will eventually cover the earth as the Lord returns, consistent with his promises. And we too as Gentiles, being, as Paul said, that "wild olive branch that was grafted in amongst the Jews to become partakers with them of the rich root of the olive tree", Romans 11:17, and following the rich tree of Abrahamic covenant of blessing, we too will enjoy that ultimate light one day.

Well, all of that to say, Dear Christian, our only hope is in Christ. Without Christ, we would wander in the darkness, like so many of our friends, and loved ones that continue to break my heart and yours, and we must pray for them, that God would be merciful to them, as he has been to us. So once again, we come to the Word of God, it is a lamp unto our feet and what? A light unto our path. Every word of scripture is inspired by God. We're told that it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work and so forth. So we come to the word again after that little introduction to look at some of the characteristics of men that God chose to be his closest companions when Jesus was here on Earth. These emissaries of the kingdom, 12 common, unremarkable, ordinary men, each of them fraught with besetting sins. Let me remind you of the text, it's in Mark three. This is a good launching off place. Let me remind you of what we see in the gospel here, beginning of verse 13, Jesus, "Went up on the mountains and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And H appointed 12, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the 12: Simon, (to whom he gave the name Peter), and James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James (to them, He gave the name Boanerges, which means 'Sons of Thunder'), and Andrew, and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon, the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him." So we've been looking at each of these individually over the past several weeks. And now we come to Matthew and Thomas.

So let's think about Matthew. I've talked about him before, in our exposition through the Gospel of Mark. Matthew was his Greek name, his Hebrew name was Levi. And were first introduced to him, you may recall and Mark chapter two in verse 13, we read, "And H went out again by the seashore;" referring to Jesus, "and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them." So let's get this in our mind. He's at Capernaum, on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, where much of his ministry was conducted when he was in Galilee, that was the main thoroughfare through that whole region. In fact, Josephus, the ancient historian tells us that there were villages all along the shore. So Jesus was doing open air preaching, and people were coming to faith in him. The Sermon on the Mount took place in this region. And we read a little snippet of what he was preaching in Mark one, beginning in verse 14, "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.'" So that's the scene here. That's what's going on. You've got Jesus preaching crowds everywhere. And in verse 14, back to Mark three, we read, or Mark two, we read, "As He passed by, He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, 'Follow Me!' and he got up and followed Him." Now, you may recall when we discussed this before, the context here with respect to tax collecting, in the first century, first of all, you must think of tax collectors in those days as a cross between the IRS and the mafia. I don't think things have changed all that much. Right? It was basically legalized extortion, tax collectors and the criminal elements that protected them, included people like corrupt politicians, businessmen, prostitutes associated with them; it was the underworld. And the tax collectors were the most hated people in the whole society. Herod Antipas was the Roman Tetrarch. Tetrarch means a ruler of a quarter. And he was over Galilee and Perea, he was like the governor at that time, and he collected taxes for Rome. And he had to meet a quota for Rome. But he also had the authority to levy other taxes as he saw fit. We all smile because we know exactly what that's like. And he had the power to do whatever he wanted to do to get that to happen. And so what he did is he sold tax collecting franchises to the highest bidder, and then he would split the profits. And so this was a very lucrative business to buy into a tax franchise. Now, there was a customary poll tax, they also had an income tax that was about 1%, they had property tax, which was 1/10 of all their grain, and then 1/5 of all their wine and fruit and so forth. Fish processors, and distributors, which was the main industry there, we're required to pay taxes on the fish that they caught and sold, and for transporting them. And we know historically that they had taxes on roads, taxes on crossing bridges, they had assortments of duties and tariffs on imports, exports, merchants that would come to buy and to sell there in Israel. And of course, it was easily to inflate the taxes. And if you didn't comply, there was the threat of bodily harm. They were also willing to make loans...haha. They were loan sharks. And that was very common. Now there existed a network of tax collectors in that day, but they were essentially divided into two categories. The Jewish Talmud helps us understand this, there were the "Gabba'i," and the "Mokhes." The Gabba'i were kind of like the IRS agents today. And they collected the basic taxes like the poll and the land and income tax and so forth. And then the Mokhes collected all of the specialized taxes. But there were two kinds of Mokhes tax collectors. There were the Great Mokhes who owned a taxed booth in a specific location. And then the Little Mokhes that worked for them. And they were actually the people, people that manned the toll booths. That's what Levi did. I should say, That's what Matthew did. And everyone in the region would have known him, they would have had constant contact with him. They would have hated them with every corpuscle in their body. I'm not sure what a corpuscle is, but I've heard that term and you all get the idea. His booth was near the shore because he's collecting tolls and tariffs relating to the fishing industry there in Capernaum. One commentator, David Garland, describe the scene this way. Quote, "Levi is no tax baron but one who is stationed at an intersection of trade routes to collect tolls, tariffs, imposts, which is compulsory payment and customs probably for Herod Antipas. Toll collectors were renowned for their dishonesty and extortion. They habitually collected more than were due, did not always post up the regulations and may spread false valuations and accusations (see Luke 3:12 through 13.)" He went on to say, "Tax officials were hardly choice candidates for discipleship since most Jews in Jesus day would dismiss them as those who craved money more than respectability or righteousness." If you look into the Mishnah, and the Talmud that was written later, you'll see all kinds of scathing judgments against these people, lumping them together with thieves and murderers.

Those who collected taxes weren't allowed to be a witness in court, they couldn't judge in a court. They brought disgrace to their family, they couldn't go into the synagogue. They were basically the lowest of the low life. That's what Matthew was. But guess what? God sent his love upon Matthew, and saved him by his grace. In fact, there are three tax collectors that are specifically mentioned in the gospels, and each of them were saved by God's grace, I might add that there were many others that evidently came to Christ as well. But the three that are mentioned, there's first the Publican described in the parable of Luke 18, that was probably a real person, then you have little Zacchaeus in Luke 19. And then, of course, Matthew that we see here. Jesus tells us in Luke seven, he's extolling the character of John the Baptist. And in that context, he says this, beginning in verse 28, "I say to you, among those more, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John, yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." And then there's this phrase, "When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God's justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John." So there must have been a revival amongst the IRS agents of that day. You may recall Jesus attack on the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 21, beginning in verse 31. He says, "'Which of the two did the will of his father?' and they said, 'The first.' and Jesus said to them, 'Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterwards, so as to believe him.'" So there must have been a number of tax collectors and others of that ilk that came to saving faith in Christ.

Now back to the scene of Matthew's conversion. Imagine this now, hundreds of people were swarming around Jesus. And in Mark two, verse 14, we read, "As He passed by He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting in the tax booth, and said to him, 'Follow me!'" That's an imperative. It's a command. You follow me. "And he got up and followed Him." Now, obviously, this would have left the people speechless. Not only because Jesus spoke to him, but he asked him to follow him. And if that isn't bad enough, Matthew actually gets up and follows him. So you can imagine they're just shaking their head in absolute dismay, oh, what a scene, the power of saving grace. Now, obviously, Matthew had already been under conviction. It wasn't like he didn't know who this guy was. He knew who Jesus was. He was a student of Old Testament scripture. In fact, he quotes the Old Testament 99 times in his Gospel, more than Mark, Luke and John combined. And so he was very aware of the promises of a coming Messiah, and the forgiveness that would come through him and the restoration and so forth. In fact, if you go to Matthew nine, and read his description of his conversion, you will see all manner of things that he describes with respect to forgiveness. So the Holy Spirit had already been working in his heart. And in the miracle of regeneration, the Spirit of God convicts him and helps him to see who Jesus really is in light of his own sin. And then supernaturally he imparts to him, the imputed righteousness of Christ makes him a new creature in Christ and so forth, forgives his sin, and he follows Jesus. In fact, Luke 5:28 says that Matthew, quote, "Left everything behind to follow Jesus."

Now back to Mark Two beginning of verse 15. "And it happened, that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many of them and they were following Him." That's pretty exciting to see what's going on here; this is an incredible scene. I mean, Levi, "Matthew" was a wealthy tax collector. He had a big house. lots of friends, Mark says that many tax collectors and sinners were with him. Now stop and think about it. When a person truly comes to saving faith in Christ, and you understand what God has done for you in his infinite mercy, that he has forgiven your sins and imputed unto you a righteousness that is foreign to your own so that now you are declared righteous and treated as such, what do you want to do? You want to go tell other people. And that's what Matthew has done. He's basically sent out the word to all of his outcasts, loser friends, hey, come over to my place. Come over to my place, I need to announce a career change here. I want to introduce you to this Jesus that everyone was aware of. And they're thrilled to be there. They want to see who Jesus is. By this time, if you can think of it in, in our present context, by this time, what Jesus had been doing was all over the internet, right? Okay. I mean, the fact t that Matthew was following Jesus, that's all over Facebook. All right, so everybody is aware of this. And of course, the Pharisees are all over this story because they're trying to find a reason to condemn Jesus. And this is exactly what Jesus wants to see happen. So they learn about the Capernaum mafia meeting at Levi's house with Jesus. And they're thinking, we've got him now and the paparazzi is everywhere. The story has gone viral all over fake news. And so Jesus is in big trouble. Now, let's go inside verse 15 again, "And it happened, that Jesus was reclining at the table in his house." Now in that culture that was a sign of friendship, or being in relationship with someone as it is in our house, or in our culture, and in our houses when people come. This is appalling to the Pharisees. But what they didn't realize is they were witnessing the pursuit of saving grace upon sinners, something they could not understand. Now, imagine if you had been there. And I can't wait to see the Lord face to face someday, but wouldn't it have been amazing to be able to talk with him, to hear him? And that's what's going on here. And in his great love, now he has, he has pursued the lowest of the low, the social outcast, the criminal element, the prostitutes, the unclean reprobates, that were considered the dogs of society, and he offers himself to them. Now, of course, to the Pharisees, this is a scandalous display of impropriety. This is this is high handed defilement, no self-respecting rabbi would commit such wickedness, such blasphemy. In verse 16, we read, "When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors. They said to His disciples, 'Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?'" You see, self righteous legalists always have their own code of conduct, and they expect everybody else to follow along with them. Moralism, legalism, those types of things give, give these people the illusion of spirituality. And if you don't do what they say, then you're not as spiritual as me, but you need to do what I do and so forth. And that's what's going on here. And of course, the Pharisees were world class at rulemaking, and world class when it came to ostentatious displays of religiosity and they expected Jesus and the disciples to obey their rules and their tradition. So again, verse 16, "They said to his disciples," let me pause there.

Jesus is probably still inside, the disciples may be outside, they probably don't want to talk with Jesus face to face a little bit intimidated with this guy that can raise the dead and read your mind and do all these other things. So they talk with the disciples, and they say, "Why is He eating and drinking with the tax collectors and sinners?" Again, they're eating and drinking. They're defiling themselves. You're eating the wrong foods, you're in the wrong place. Verse 17, "And hearing this," Isn't that great? Jesus hears this whole thing, he knows what's going on. "And hearing this, Jesus said to them," and here he has a proverb in the third person, he says, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician but those who are sick;" Sick being a metaphor for sin. He said, "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Luke adds in Luke 5:32, "sinners to repentance." So Jesus defends his involvement here with these people because of their spiritual need. This is something the Pharisees could not see, even in themselves.

So indeed, Matthew left everything to follow Christ, what a magnificent picture of God's saving grace. We know obviously, that he became one of the 12 apostles and in his own list of the 12, when he described himself with the others, he explicitly called himself a tax collector. As we would see, for example, in Matthew 10 three, one a marvelous picture of humility. Well, God inspired Matthew to write the gospel that bears his name and tradition indicates that he, he ministered primarily to the Jews in Israel. There is no reliable record of how he died. But earliest traditions indicate that he was burned at the stake because of his faith in Christ. And someday we will be able to talk with him.

So that's a little bit about Matthew, what about Thomas? He was nicknamed "Doubting Thomas." I don't think that is totally fair as I will demonstrate to you even though I don't want to start a new denomination based on that. We don't know a whole lot about Thomas. He was also called Didymus in John 11:16, Didymus means "double" or "twin." So he had a twin brother or twin sister. And the first time we get a snapshot of his character is in John 11. Let me give you the background there, you probably remember it. It's the context of Lazarus who lived in Bethany, that that is a suburb of Jerusalem. In fact, from that region, even to this day, you're within eyesight of the Temple Mount. And so Jesus is now in this context. He's about 60 miles away, he's enjoying a fruitful time of ministry. But according to John 10:39, we know that the Jewish leaders are furious with him. We read in in that text, John 10:39, "Therefore they were seeking to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp, and He went away again, beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first and there He stayed." So this is where Jesus is, about 60 miles away, and during this time his dear friend Lazarus dies and Mary and Martha summon the Lord's help, wants him to come to Bethany, but obviously, Jesus and his disciples know that that is the lion's lair. So there's enormous hostility in Jerusalem and, and Jesus and the apostles obviously knew this, including Thomas. Now let's pick it up.

Let me just read you a little bit of the, of the narrative here in John 11, beginning in verse one. "Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, 'Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.' But when Jesus heard this, He said, 'This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.' Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was." It seems like it doesn't fit right? Why would he do that? "Then after this, He said to the disciples, 'Let us go to Judea again.' The disciples said to Him, 'Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and you're going there again?' Jesus answered, 'Are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.'" That's just a way of him saying, Look, I'm doing the Father's will, it's like, nothing's going to happen to me until it's time so we're doing things in the day. Eventually, though, we know that his death would be his stumbling into darkness and so forth. So that's, in essence what he's saying there. "This He said, and after that, He said to them, 'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go so that I may awaken him out of sleep.' The disciples said to Him, 'Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.' Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he was speaking of literal sleep. So Jesus then said to them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there. So that you may believe; but let us go to him.'"

Now, this brings us to verse 16, where we can understand a little bit more about Thomas. There we read "Thomas, therefore, who is called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, 'Let us also go that we may die with Him.'" I love the guy. This statement combined with others that we're going to examine, give us a little sense of who Thomas may have been, and we can surmise, I think, four character traits that would perhaps give us an idea about this brother. First, we can surmise that Thomas was a pessimist. You know, the type, they expect the worst, they're bleak, they're cynical. They're often dark and dejected and depressed and their attitude is typically fatalistic, foreboding, gloomy, hopeless. They're not a lot of fun to be around because they tend to be a bit morose and morbid, sullen, troubled, worried. We will see this again in his attitude when he received word of the risen Christ. Now, Thomas knew of the potential danger, okay? Now that's being realistic, not pessimistic. But he jumped to the automatic conclusion that well, we're all going to die. All right? So that's what's going to happen here. And his knee jerk response to life was probably like many people, maybe some of you... that we just need to always assume the worst. My wife tends to tell me I'm a bit that way. I always tell her I'm a realist, not a pessimist. And so, but his favorite Bible verse was Murphy's Law, right? If anything bad might happen, it will happen. Now these kinds of folks are, can be hard to be around. I used to tease my mother about this, I'll never forget, first time I went to Africa, all she started giving me all these articles about all of the diseases that you can get, and Africa and how al Qaeda cells were there in Kenya, where I was going, I get, you know, articles on this and she warned me about the water and then about the snakes. We had missionaries in our house all the time when I was growing up and one of these dear ladies, I forget her name, but I remember she was from Assam, India, and a cobra went into their house, her little cabin and she saw it and they went in they couldn't find it. And so my mom's relaying "remember that story." And it was about three weeks later, she opened up a drawer, and it was there and it spit venom in her face. And fortunately, she had her glasses on. So I'm getting this story, you know, from my pessimistic mother, and armies of man eating ants, you know, and lions and water buffalo and crocodiles. And, of course, for me, I'm thinking, Man, that's exciting. I can't wait to go on an adventure. I love that kind of thing. Well, Thomas may have been a pessimist. But friends he was also secondly, courageous. "Let us go that we may die with Him." I mean he's addressing his fellow apostles here. And he may have been a pessimist but he was no coward. And how pathetic to see people scared to death of everything. Even Christians today, scared to death of cancel culture, really. I mean, these poor people are dead and lost in their sins and you're going to be afraid of them. We worship the Most High God. I mean, I know a lot of pastors that have the courage of a fainting goat. You know, as soon as anybody says something bad about them, they panic. Oh my goodness. That's not how we need to be. But friends courage is bred from the stock of conviction and he knew the stakes were high but he trusted in Jesus. Cowards trust in themselves, not the Almighty. A lot of times people are like, remember the spies that went into Canaan and they feared the Giants more than the omnipotent God who created them" Many Christians are that way. We're not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we read about a Numbers 1. We are like grasshoppers. And they fear the lunatics that are out there like many people fear cancel culture and the woke dung beetles that constantly are attacking everybody. I mean come on, but not Thomas. He, the people in the day of Joshua says, Oh, let us let us return to Egypt, where we can find comfort. You remember, Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes in the presence of the assembly in Numbers 14 eight we read, "If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us--a land that which flows with milk and honey, only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land for they are our prey. Their protection has departed for them. And the Lord is with us do not fear them." It's like an old statement that I learned from my cowboy buddies years ago. I eat people like you for breakfast. That's the attitude.

Beloved, let me pause for a second do you fear man more than you fear God? It's easy to be that way. And we typically fear man so much because we fear God so little. Well, not Thomas, Thomas turns to his brothers. And as I think about it, he echoes the battle cry of the of the great hymn that says "Rise up, Oh men of God have done with lesser things, Give heart and mind and soul and strength to serve the King of kings." So come on, guys, let's go with Jesus, even though we're gonna die. By the way, thinking of Joshua, later, he reminded the men of Israel to be courageous. And the key to that was obeying God. And then that was great reward Joshua one seven, he says, "Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go." That was Thomas.

So he was probably a pessimist, certainly courageous, but also thirdly, he was devoted, he was devoted to the Lord whom he loved. Beloved, we will never offer ourselves for Christ unless we love Him with an undying devotion. And that's what we see with Thomas. He was committed to the Lord, even if it cost him his life, he was loyal to the end. Paul reminds us in Second Timothy 2:21, that we can be useful to the Lord, as His servants, regardless of who we are, as long as we are pursuing holiness, purity of heart. And he says that person, quote, "will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master prepared for every good work." Does that describe you? Are you devoted to the Lord because you love him, and you trust him? And you fear God more than you fear man? I think of Second Chronicles 16 nine, it's not, I didn't give this to the people to put on the board. But it says that, “the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that He might strongly support those whose heart are completely His." That's the people that we need to be and that's who Thomas was. We see another example of Thomas's loving devotion in John 14, beginning in verse one, we read the words of Jesus, "Do not let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me, In my Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going." And this brings us to Thomas once again. "Thomas said to him, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." I mean, you get a sense of his loving devotion as you read this. It's almost like his voice is quivering and his eyes are filling with tears. Don't talk about leaving us. We don't know where you're going. We don't want you to leave. We don't understand what's going on here. And you know, they didn't fully understand as you will recall. Like all of us, people today tend to believe what they want to believe. That's what was going on. Then they were convinced that the Messiah had come, he was getting ready to establish his kingdom on earth, that he was going to whip up on Rome, that all was going to be well, my goodness, they were still fighting over who's going to be first in the kingdom at this point. So this was their mindset. But Thomas has developed such a deep love for Jesus, what's all this talk about you leaving.

So I was thinking about this, I thought, My what a wonderful thing it is to desperately long to be with the Lord, I hope that is your heart. Don't you just long to be with him. That's what was going on. But beloved, our love and devotion to Christ is directly proportional to our perspective of our own sin, and therefore what Christ has done on our behalf. Thomas was aware of this. Most love Christ little because they love their sin so much. We fail to grasp the infinite horrors of our sin, and the consequences that it deserves. Then our gratitude for our Savior sacrifice will be abated. But when you really see what Christ has done for you, then you can sing full, with a full throat "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." He who loves little has no sense of being loved so greatly. Charles Spurgeon said, quote, "When our thoughts of Jesus are expanded and elevated, we obtained right ideas about other matters. In the light of His love and atoning sacrifice, we see the depth of the degradation from which such a redeemer has uplifted us, and we hate with all our hearts, the sins, which pierced such an altogether lovely one, and made it needful for the Lord of life to die. Forming some adequate estimate of what Jesus has done for us. Our gratitude grows, and with our gratitude, our love, while love compels us to consecration and consecration suggests heroic self denying actions." He went on to say, "Then are we bold to speak for him, and ready if need be to suffer for him. While we feel we could give up all we have to increase his glory without so much as dreaming that it would have been a sacrifice. But our thoughts of Christ be high," Spurgeon says, "and your delight in him will be high too, your sense of security will be strong, and with that sense of security will come the sacred joy and peace, which always keeps the heart which confidently reposes in the mediators hands."

So indeed, Thomas loved the Lord and his devotion to him, could not bear the thought of separation. But he was also probably prone to what we would call melancholy, to depression, John 20, gives us a hint of this. Remember the scene, Jesus has been taken from the disciples, he has been tortured, he's been crucified. I might also add at this point, there was no indwelling Holy Spirit, they lacked the comforter, therefore they lacked comfort, they lacked boldness, the source of power was not in them. They lack the clarity that comes from the indwelling work of the Spirit. So they're in a state of mourning, they are grief stricken. John 20 and verse 19. We read, "It was evening on that day, the first day of the week, goes on to say the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews." And let me pause here this was Thomas's worst nightmare. Jesus has gone, he feels alone, he feels abandoned, confused, and he's probably thinking to himself, my life is over. I'm ruined. All is last. So while the disciples were sequestered in this home back to verse 19, we read, "Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" Can you imagine that scene? But notice who was not there with them? Verse 24, we read "But Thomas, one of the 12, called Didymus was not with them when Jesus came." Now, where was he? Scripture doesn't say, but knowing his pessimism, knowing his devotion to Christ. He's probably alone somewhere. Who knows he may have gone to the Garden of Gethsemane to Golgotha, he might be wandering around somewhere. But he's in no mood to be around his friends. Now I understand some of this is personality. We don't want to make too much about this. I know when great difficulties come into my life. I don't want people around me, I want to be left alone. Or I want to be with my wife, maybe my family. Other people are much more multi-relational, and they want to be around a lot of people. But I would imagine that he was overwhelmed with grief. And instead of searching the scriptures and being encouraged by prophetic truth, he's probably mourning someplace. For example, He could have read in Isaiah 26:19 "Your dead shall live together with my dead body they shall arise awake and sing. You who dwell in dust for your dew is like to dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead," and so forth. People can be prone to melancholy and be sad, depressed, dejected. To use a word you don't hear much they can be lugubrious; down in the dumps a lot, despondent, dismal. Sometimes this is because they don't know Christ. Many people are that way. And the suicide rates today are going through the roof, especially among young people. You read all of this stuff about fentanyl? Why do people take that stuff? They're trying to escape from the reality of life? You remember Cain in the Bible due to self styled worship and his resentment of God of God's revealed will? Remember how God rejected him in Genesis four five we read, "Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell." And of course, that led to murder and judgment. Remember Elijah after great victory, what did he do? He ran and hid under a juniper tree and prayed to die. Sometimes melancholy is due to fear. We can become overwhelmed with exaggerated fears. I think of David, his depression was so great that he said that his body was wasting away. Why, due to unconfessed sin. Job was overwhelmed with grief. He lost everything. Why was he down? Well, it was due to testing. Habakkuk was burdened. Remember how he complained against God, manner of judgment against his covenant people by bringing the wicked to judge them. He had to learn to trust in God's goodness and His sovereignty and his ultimate justice. I think of the apostle Paul, we read how he had no rest for his spirit due to great sorrows associated with ministry. But what did he choose to do? He chooses, he chose to focus on the eternal, not to the temporal, to look beyond what was going on here into what God was ultimately up to. And in Second Corinthians 2:13, he said, Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. So he chose to change his perspective, which changed his emotions.

Well, regardless of the cause, the effect of melancholy can be devastating. Notice John 20, verse 25, "So the other disciples were saying to him, 'We have seen the Lord!' but he said to them, 'Unless I see in His hands, the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."" So the disciples tell him the good news. But the truth wasn't able to penetrate his pessimism, his bent for depression. And here's where he gets the nickname "Doubting Thomas." And I don't necessarily agree with that appellation, as I mentioned to you earlier, I don't think it was so much that he didn't believe and that he needed more proof, and he was basically saying to the guys that, Listen, you've been deceived. I believe that it was more because of certainly his pessimism, his melancholy combined with his overwhelming love and devotion to Christ. All of that had exploded to a point where he was now in despair, you know, if somebody were to tell me that, after I have lost my precious wife in death, that she has been risen from the dead. I think my reaction would be driven more by grief than it would doubt. I think that's probably what was going on. But notice the love of Jesus. I mean, Jesus knows. He knows all of the workings of our imagination, our personalities, our sins, all of those types of things. Here's what he says to Thomas in John 20, beginning in verse 26, "After eight days, his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut and stood in their midst and said, 'Peace be with you.'" And I love this, he says, "Then He said to Thomas, 'Reach here with your finger, and see My hands and reach here, your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.'" In other words, Jesus knew what Peter or what Thomas had said. And he's addressing that here, I want you to do exactly what you said, you would do before you would believe. So here's your chance. And, "Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord, and my God!'" "My Lord, and my God!" Which by the way, is a statement that underscores the deity of Christ. And if anyone wants to deny the deity of Christ, I would like for you to explain that text to me, along with hundreds of others, what a tender act of love from the Savior to once again reveal himself to the one who needed such an encounter.

Well, history documents Thomas's ministry in the land of India, in fact, he's buried on a small hill near the airport in Chennai, and Madras, India. And evidently, he did die for the Master. It is said that he was impaled by a spear, As one writer put it, quote, "a fitting form of martyrdom for one whose faith came of age when he saw the spear mark in his master's side, and for one who longed to be reunited with his Lord," end quote. Folks, I hope you long to be reunited with the Lord. And I trust that you will rejoice knowing that he knows everything about you. All of our little quirks, all of our besetting sins, but his grace has covered them all. Despite of who we are he can use us mightily for his sake, as he did Matthew, and as he did, Thomas, isn't that encouraging? Indeed it is. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your great love for us. Thank you for your saving grace, for the transforming work of regeneration that changes everything about us, how we long to see you but until that time, encourage our hearts strengthen our resolve to serve you come what may. And Father there'll be one here within the sound of my voice that does not know you as Savior, how I pray that you will overwhelm them with conviction that they will have no sleep until they humble themselves before you and cry out for the mercy that you will give them so rich and so free. We thank you We give you praise in Jesus name. Amen.

It is always a privilege, a great privilege, that we have to be able to open up the Word of God together. And in a moment, we're going to continue our examination of some of the apostles, we're going to look at Bartholomew, whose name was also called Nathaniel. And so we're going to launch out of Mark chapter three, verses 13, and following. But actually before we get there, I wanted to share just a few thoughts out of Hebrews 13 in verse seven. And this I think, will help frame our minds as we endeavor to look yet again at one of the other men that the Lord chose to be his representatives. In Hebrews 13 Seven, we're exhorted to do something that is most fascinating, something we seldom consider. Yet something that is very, very important in helping us run the race that God has set before us. And in that text, we read, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith." Three, present tense verbs, three actions that must be done in the present, but also must continue, we need to remember to consider, and we need to imitate all three being a part of the biblical concept of remembering. And this would have been a profound, a profoundly important concept for the early Jewish believers, who were tempted to fall back into Judaism because of all of the persecution that they were experience, to fall back into the old covenant, back into legalism. And how easy it is for all of us to fall back into the old ways of the world that were once so appealing to our flesh. So he's asking them, and he's asking us, to remember the unnamed ordinary people who lead you and who spoke the word of God to you. And one of the most amazing miracles of God's providence is how he, over the course of our lives will use ordinary people that the world will never know that the world will never applaud, to speak the Word of God to us, and through that bring us to a place of genuine saving faith. Those who have spoken the Word of God to you in the past, and then also those who lived a life of faith so that we could see the fruit of their conduct. We can examine it. And in the context of Hebrews 13, these are primarily those who had died in the faith, who finished well, some of them had been imprisoned, others had been martyred for their faith; leaders who established the church, who led the church, lay people within the church, moms, dads, grandparents, and so forth, who spoke the truths of divine revelation that they had received from Christ Himself and from the apostles. And through that, the Spirit of God saved them and oh dear friends, the power of godly examples. So often more is caught than taught. And he says, "Consider the result of their character, “or their "conduct." This is so precious to me. I mean, think about this, not only are we to remember those who brought us to a place of saving faith in Christ, by their proclamation of the Word to us, but also we are to carefully consider the outcome of their life, the result of their conduct, to literally meditate upon the effect of their manner of life, the lasting fruit of their faith. Consider how they ran their race without fading without wavering and how they finished well. Once again, we see the tremendous power of enduring faith and the profound influence it has on the next generation.

Think about this, the Old Testament, men and women, the apostles in the New Testament, the church fathers. Think of Martin Luther and John Calvin and John Owen and George Whitfield and John Bunyan, Richard Baxter. Think of John Knox and Charles Spurgeon. Think of Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd and David Livingstone, William Carey, Jim Elliot, Martyn Lloyd Jones. Think of your parents if you had godly parents as I did, and godly grandparents, godly Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, pastors and so forth, men and women whose message and whose life pointed you to Jesus. And they finished well. You know, a lot of believers start out well, but they finish poorly. By the way, I might add, if you know nothing of church history, you live in a state of spiritual kindergarten at best. I attribute much of the superficiality and the doctrinal ignorance that we see in evangelicalism today to a shameful and even willful ignorance of not only sound doctrine, but also of church history, of familiarity with church history. So we're told here in this text to remember to consider an imitate their faith, I think of Paul in First Corinthians four, you will remember he described how he had worked to the point of just utter exhaustion, and how he had been slandered, how he had become the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, he said, even until now. And you just hurt with him as you hear his testimony. And then he talks about how he had become a, a spiritual father to the Corinthians. And then he said this in First Corinthians 4:16, "I exhort you, therefore, be imitators of me." Can you say that? To others? First Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." Can you say this moms and dads, Sunday school teachers, church leaders, whoever you are, grandparents? Can the next generation emulate your deep love for Christ? Can they look at your life and say, "My, I want to be like that person who had such an insatiable appetite for the Word of God. I want to be like that person who loved Christ supremely who had such a profound burden for the lost who loved other people who gave their life sacrificially in every way imaginable to bring glory to God." Can you say that? Can your children emulate your deep burden for the lost? Your personal pursuit of holiness? Your priority of prayer and perseverance come what may? Can they emulate the joy that they see in you even in the midst of sorrow? Can they look at you and see your faith in the midst of great adversity? Can they see your hope that is unwavering even in seasons of tragedy? Can they see that? Can they copy that? Can they imitate that? Can they see your love in the midst of oppressions? Is this what others are seeing in you? Dads if I can address you specifically, your children are watching and they need you desperately. What is your example to your children? I believe that your example is even more important than the mother's example. Are you the spiritual leader of your family or are you merely a follower? What kind of example are you leaving for your children? You know people ask what is wrong with this country? Well, obviously, Satan is at work, he's alive and he's wreaking havoc; havoc upon the country, but my the reason is because we have too few men who fear God. Men who know how to lead and speak the word of God, men whose message and whose life is gospel centered, men whose faith is exemplary, and worthy of imitation. Remember those who lead you he says, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.

Well, that's what we're doing as we remember the lives of the apostles that the Lord chose. Let me remind you of the context here. We're in Mark chapter three, beginning in verse 13, we read that Jesus, "went up on the mountain and summoned those who He Himself wanted, and they came to him. And He appointed 12, so that they would be with Him, and that He could send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the twelve: Simon, (to whom he gave the name Peter), and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means "Sons of Thunder"); and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew," that we will look at today, "and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. Twelve very common, unremarkable ordinary men. They all had their besetting sins as we all do. They were impetuous, they were hard hearted at times. They were proud, they were cowardly. At times, they were unreliable. Some were hot headed spiritually immature, prejudiced, prone to depression, many times just downright stupid. I always love those examples because I can feel much more at home there. Yet, in each case, save Judas Iscariot, Jesus patiently and lovingly shaped them, these unlikely men, into the great pillars of the church. As we read in First Corinthians one "God has chosen the foolish things of the world, to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to shame, things which are strong." So we can find encouragement here, as we look at God's marvelous work in the lives of these men.

So today, we get to know Bartholomew. That was his Hebrew surname, meaning son of Ptolemy. He was also called Nathaniel, in the Gospel of John, Nathaniel means "God has given." And since the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, by the way, synoptic means a similar synopses of the same issues. Since Matthew, Mark and Luke, as well as the book of Acts only list him in the list of 12, we can only learn about Bartholomew in two passages in the Gospel of John, we see this in John one and John 21, where he is called Nathaniel. Now, while this information is sketchy, it's enough to draw a reasonably clear picture of his character. First of all, in the list of the apostles found in John 21 and verse two, we see that he was from Cana in Galilee, this would have been a town very close to where Jesus was from in Nazareth. Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle, as you will recall, where he turned water into wine. But then in John one, and if you'd like to turn there, that's where we're going to look for a few minutes beginning in verse 43. In John one, we discover some helpful insights about this beloved apostle. I've categorized these insights into three simple statements. We see first of all, that he sought after God, secondly, he was prone to prejudice, and finally, he was without deceit. So let's look at this closely. John one beginning in verse 43. "The next day Jesus purpose to go into Galilee and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, 'Follow me.' Now Philip was from Bethsaida of the city of Andrew and Peter, and Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, 'We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.' Nathaniel said to him, 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' Philip said to him, 'Come and see.' Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him and said of him, 'Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit!' Nathaniel said to him, 'How do You know me?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.' Nathaniel answered him, 'Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.' And He said to him, 'Truly, truly I say to you, you will see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'"

So here we discover from the text that Nathaniel was a man that sought after God. Now remember, first of all, Philip the kind of obsessive hyper organized person that he was, He follows Jesus. And then in verse 45, he goes in, he finds Nathaniel, they were, obviously best of friends, and their names are always listed together. In the Gospels, and early church legends depict them as being buddies being companions. And Nathaniel was probably in here, I'm speculating a bit, but he was probably the counterpart to Philip, probably more easygoing, kind and patient, you have to be that way in order to be friends with a person that goes by the book on everything, you know, because perfectionist tend to drive themselves and everyone else crazy. And Philip was bent in that direction. So Nathaniel probably brought a little bit of balance and perspectives to his buddy's life. But notice, in verse 45, it goes on to say, Philip speaking, We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and also the Prophets wrote." "We" here would have been a reference to others that Nathaniel would have also known, other fellow Jews, men, godly men looking for their Messiah would have included, certainly, Andrew and Peter, James and John who found him when, as we read in what John the Baptist said in verse 36, "Behold the Lamb of God." So he says, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and also the Prophets wrote." By the way, can you imagine saying that to someone today? Imagine going to Vanderbilt University, and getting a large group of the people, the students together and saying to them, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and also the Prophets wrote," people think you're crazy. What are you talking about? But obviously, this tells us that Nathaniel was a man that was seeking the Messiah, he was looking for the Savior. He was not guided by human wisdom or the philosophies of the world, he was guided by the revealed word of God. And such the things of God are foolishness to unbelievers. We have every reason to believe that he was searching for divine truth and I believe this would indicate that Nathaniel was a man that had been justified by faith. He would have been like Abraham, whose faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. Remember, in Romans four nine, "reckoned..." "logizomai" a term that that denotes an economic and a legal indication of something being credited to someone else, to another person's account. And like Abraham, his faith would have been imperfect but Nathaniel, I believe, was a recipient of divine grace, he was justified by his faith in God's saving mercy. And remember, faith in itself has no power to save. Faith is never the basis or the reason of salvation. It is a gift from God that provides the channel of redeeming grace to be bestowed. And so God has infused Nathaniel with his own righteousness, because Nathaniel knew that his own righteousness could never save him. Remember what Paul said in Romans four beginning of verse four, "Now to the one who works, his wage not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is," here it is again, "reckoned as righteousness." Now remember the Jews living under the old covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, we're waiting for, as Hebrews 11:40 says, quote "something better." They were waiting for something better, which was the New Covenant of God's grace that was promised. For example, in Jeremiah 31. They were looking for the great Menahem, which means the great consoler, the rest giver, the Comforter, the Messiah to come, the one pictured in the symbols of all of the sacrificial system. So the righteousness of Christ was imputed to them, even before the Lamb was slain. Prior to the cross a believer's sin was paid in anticipation of Christ's atoning work even though they didn't fully understand all of that. You might say they were saved on credit. Well, obviously Nathaniel longed to see his Savior. He longed to see his Messiah and King; he was looking for him through Scripture. He was a seeker Psalm 69:32 recognizes that salvation comes only from the Lord but David acknowledges that, quote, "the hearts of those who seek God shall live." He understood Psalm 40, verse 16, "Let all who seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee. Let those who love Thy salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. Since I'm afflicted and needy, Let the LORD be mindful of me. Thou art my help and my deliverer. Do not delay Oh, my God." Indeed, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us pertaining to the reward of saving grace that Enoch sought in Hebrews 11, verse, "He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."

Dave Harrell

Now, why didn't Nathaniel seek him? What was going on in his heart? What was that spirit wrought grace that caused him to seek after God? What was he thinking about? Let me digress for a moment. You know, one of Satan's greatest lies is to get people to believe that they are not lost in their sins, and therefore they don't really need a savior. Right? The raging fires of apostasy in contemporary evangelical evangelicalism are fueled by these kinds of false teachers that would have you believe that Jesus is much more of a blesser than a banker, than a Savior and Lord, and others, like the incredibly popular and dangerous seeker sensitive movement that is still quite prevalent today. They preach a watered down gospel to attract crowds, utterly oblivious to God's sovereign work in salvation. They wrongly assume that, that the gospel of Jesus Christ needs to be repackaged, so that somehow it can be more relevant and more attractive to sinners. But they failed to realize that these so called seekers are not seeking salvation. They're seeking vindication, something very, very different. They're not seeking salvation from sin. They're not saying "what must I do to be saved? I understand that God is holy, and I am not. And I understand that I must be reconciled to Him by faith. What must I do?" That's not what they're seeking? What they're seeking is, I want to feel good about myself, I want to feel good about my life. I want to go to a church that is sensitive to my felt needs. Don't offend me by exposing my so called sin and telling me that I'm going to hell unless I repent. I don't want to hear that stuff. And so as a result, what you have in these churches is entertainment rather than exposition. The gospel is watered down to be more palatable, and through the use of clever gimmicks, once you see the felt needs of the people are constantly addressed, methodology takes precedence over theology. The entire worship service centers around that. The idea is we've got to become like the world in order to win it. A better strategy for evangelism is being more worldly than just preaching the truth of the gospel. And so worship services are centered around man and his needs rather than God and his glory. We saw this for example, in The Purpose Driven Life. Remember that book that came out? It sold way over a million copies. It was kind of like a shooting star, you know, everybody saw it there for a little while. And now it's disappeared because there was no substance to it. I remember when I first read it I, you've heard me say this before, I thought to myself, my goodness, this is one of the most dangerous deceptions that I have ever read. It is a counterfeit of counterfeits. It is wide gate, broad way theology, many are going to be deceived by this. It's filled with bad theology, verses taken out of context, unbiblical promises offered to people who are never distinguished between believers and non believers. No discussion of the very heart of the gospel. You read nothing in there about the holiness of God, the holiness of his law, how we have violated his law, the wages of sin, you read nothing about the need to be reconciled to God, nothing about our fallen flesh. Nothing about the power of regeneration, the cost of discipleship, the sovereignty of God, living for His glory. The reader is merely asked to quote "Whisper the prayer that will change your eternity" and here it is, "Jesus I believe in you and I receive you." Okay, well what's wrong with that? Well this issue is believe in what? And receive what? He goes on to say quote, "If you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations, welcome to the family of God." Frightening. This is easy believeism at its worst, and this is how you fill churches with tares more than wheat. The emphasis is on the love of God, a good self image, a successful marriage, spiritual success, unity, personal fulfillment, and so forth. Remember, the author Rick Warren's gives the advice and his advice centers around quote, "Refocusing your thoughts and joining a support group." The patterns of sin and our life are, are redefined and reduced to quote, "A repeating cycle of good intention, failure guilt, in which people need to be healed because they are sick." Warren admits that three of the four intended results of this book The Purpose Driven Life are and here they are, "To reduce your stress, simplify your decisions, and increase your satisfaction." Folks, that's not why I came to Christ. I came to Christ because I was a sinner in desperate need of saving grace. And likewise with Nathaniel, he was not a seeker of God to somehow reduce his stress, simplify his decisions and increase satisfaction and therefore find purpose in life. He sought after the Lord because he knew he was lost in his sins. He sought after the Lord because he was hopeless and desperate in his condition. He sought the Lord because he knew he was lost. He knew he had violated God's holy law that he deserved death. And he knew that he could not save himself. He was desperate for a Savior. So he sought after God for undeserved mercy for pardon. You know Philip did not come to Nathaniel and say we have found him who will give us a good self image, happy family, spiritual success, unity and personal fulfillment, etcetera. He didn't say that.

Now, some will say and rightfully so, well, Romans 3:11-12 says "There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside together they have become useless; There is no one who does good, there is not even one." Certainly that is true. Man is utterly unwilling and incapable of seeking after God unless the Father draws him, John 6:44 and many other passages, the human will, possesses no inherent inclination to holiness. Man is utterly depraved. His eyes are blind, his ears are deaf. He is a spiritual cadaver in every sense, you can't throw him a lifeline as he's sinking in the ocean of his sin and he's got to somehow reach up and grab it. Because he's dead. He's just floating there. God's got to do something. God has to initiate that by the Holy Spirit who sovereignly determined in eternity past to save sinners. I might add theologically that regeneration is monotheistic, it's not synergistic. Salvation is all of grace. We don't share in the glory of our salvation. The new birth regeneration must both precede and elicit saving faith in Christ and this is what had happened to Nathaniel. The Spirit of God had breathed life into the rotting corpse of his sin by the power of in grace of the Spirit of God. He had been miraculously born again. Regeneration is that instantaneous, supernatural impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. And simultaneous with his new birth, he saw the sort of divine justice looming over his unholy head. And in desperation, he cried out to God, to have mercy upon him as a sinner. And God saved him and he was delivered from the kingdom of darkness in the wrath to come. He was redeemed by the blood of the lamb that had been symbolized and all that Judaism had done in their sacrificial system, and their feasts and in their convocations, and all of the rituals. And now, his buddy Philip comes to him, and says, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote," then he says, "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Now that would have really shocked him, "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." I mean, this is like the most unlikely candidate here. Jesus, there are more Aramaic form of Yeshua, Joshua, the Old Testament, meaning Yahweh is Salvation. Now this was a name that undoubtedly struck a nerve with Nathaniel, because he knew the Old Testament promises. He had previously responded to the Savior's invitation to repent given through the Prophet Zephaniah, you remember in Zephaniah two, beginning of verse two, we read this "Before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth." Boy, try saying that to a massive crowd of seekers, right? That's not what they want to hear. I'm not signing up for that deal. Well, Nathaniel was looking for his Messiah, he was a seeker of God, because God in His grace had moved upon his heart and transformed him and justified him. And he's now eager to know who his Messiah is.

But secondly, he was prone to prejudice, verse 46. And now Nathaniel said to him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? You know, we've all got our biases, right? I mean, let's face it, we all have them; prejudices that are typically fueled by pride, a sense of superiority, we all we all struggle with that a certain way. And I find it rather interesting, Nathaniel comes out of Cana, which wasn't even as prestigious as Nazareth. But he looks down on Nazareth, you know, if you will, it's like somebody from Adams making fun of people from Joelton. You know, it's come on, remember now most all of the Jews scoffed at people that lived in the Galilee. They thought that was the place where the uneducated rednecks lived. And they were not the political and religious elite of Jerusalem and throughout the New Testament, the apostles as well as Jesus, were constantly ridiculed because they were from Galilee. Remember, the Pharisees tease Nicodemus in John 7:52? Saying, "are you also from Galilee? Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee?" Certainly we have to all guard ourselves against prejudice, whether it's race or culture, education, I mean, there can be all kinds of things. By the way, there's absolutely no place for racial prejudice in the church. You know, there's only one race folks, don't forget that is one race is called the human race. Act 17:26. He made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. Genetics is going to make us look a little bit different in various ways. But well, that's another topic. However, we are told to discriminate against false doctrine to discriminate against false teachers, grievous sin that can demean others in the church; we're to look upon that and discriminate with that. But the poisonous waters of prejudice are always drawn from the well of ignorance and pride. But notice how Philip responded to his friends, knee jerk bias, verse 46, he says, "Come and see." You know, don't laugh here why don't you come see, why don't you come meet him? Don't judge a book by its cover, read it. So he hates his friends advice and he sets aside his prejudice and he thinks, Okay, I'll honestly evaluate the validity of this claim that you have found the Messiah and he is "Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth."

This moves us to the third point that we see about him, he was without deceit. In other words, he was without duplicity, without hypocrisy. Verse 47, "Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him." And let me stop there for a moment. You know that's an incredible thought. He saw him coming to him. Even though he was a great distance away there speaks of something more than Oh, that looks like Nathaniel coming here. Beloved, a sovereign God had decreed in eternity past that Nathaniel would come to him. So he had seen this all along. He loved him with an everlasting love with all of his fault. Just like he's loved us, and continues to love us, the very Messiah that sought him by his irresistible grace, the force of his saving grace, was now looking at his adopted son, coming towards him. He was seeing him through incarnate eyes, the lover of his soul sees his searching child walking towards him. I'm always amazed at the intimate love, and the intimate involvement of our Savior in our lives, to know that he sees everything, and even as Jesus gazed upon Nathaniel coming towards him. He has seen all of us before time began, and all throughout our lives, isn't that amazing thought? He sees us when we come to Him. And He also sees us when we walk away. Psalm 139, beginning in verse one, "Oh Lord, Thou has searched me and known me, Thou does know when I sit down and when I rise up, Thou dost understand my thought from afar, Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways." An amazing thought, I'm reminded of Hagar's response to God's promised to her regarding her unborn son Ishmael. Genesis 16:13, she says, "Thou art a God who sees." Friends realize that a myriad of eyes watch us every moment of our life. Spiritually that are both holy, as well as unholy, are dispatched to observe our character and conduct. Their eyes are riveted upon us. They see what we do what we do in our family, how our church conducts itself. It hears these messages, on and on it goes. And the Holy Angels not only rejoice in every sinner that repents, but those angels, by God's decree, remain forever vigilant to minister to protect, to provide. Indeed, untold hosts of invisible creatures attend to our needs all the time in ways that we can't ever imagine. I often think that when I get to heaven, there's going to be some frustrated guardian angels that say, "Man, you gave us a run for our money." They hear our conversations, our prayers, our songs. They observe our deeds both good and bad. Beloved, we don't walk upon this world undetected. Others are watching. We are seen by devils and angels alike. But let me tell you this. All of that pales into utter insignificance in comparison to the omniscient gaze of our holy God that sees into the very core, the very inner resources of our imagination. He sees it all.

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, a gaze that began an eternity past. What an astounding testimony into the Savior's sight into the souls of His chosen one. So Nathaniel eventually locks eyes with his creator, something that I long to do one day, as you do, to see him face to face. Notice what Jesus says, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." My what a remarkable tribute. And I might add what an anomaly in the Jewish culture that was filled with self righteous, religiosity, external religion, hypocrisy. So he was a genuine worshipper of Yahweh. He was not one of the self righteous hypocrites, he was not a religious phony. He didn't merely have the trappings of spirituality, as we say, or at least as I say, he wasn't like those that are all sizzle, but no steak. This was the real deal and the omniscient Christ peers into his soul and sees that integrity. Still a sinner? Oh, yes, but a man who longed for Christ for the Messiah, to worship God in spirit and in truth. Can people say that of you? Can the Lord Jesus say that of you? Because he sees what we can't see, and often what you can't see.

Nathaniel's character is illustrated well by Paul's commentary on Jewish hypocrisy in Romans two, beginning in verse 28, we read this, "He is not a Jew who was one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not by the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God." So stunned at Jesus statement, and no doubt, skeptical, Nathaniel says, verse 48, "'How do you know me?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree I saw.'" You know, folks here, Jesus displays once again, His deity. He displays His omniscience, and thus validates yet again, his Messiahship. Now, it's really important that you see this, Jesus could have said, well, you know, I saw you in your house earlier today. Or he could have said, I saw you in the marketplace, or I saw you walking alongside the road, or I saw you in some private place of no significance. But he said to him, I saw you under the fig tree. And Nathaniel's response indicates the profound significance of Jesus choice of observations. I believe it was under the cool shade of a fig tree where Nathaniel routinely met with God, as was the custom of many of the Jewish men in that day. It was under the fig tree where he searched the scriptures, where he was able to discern all of the things that were necessary for him to be a true seeker of God and be justified by faith alone. A place where Nathaniel communed with God and prayer this was his secret chamber, if you will, where he did business with the lover of his soul, report out his confessions to the Lord, where he cried out for mercy, where the doxologies of his heart continued to flow from within, as he longed for that time when his Messiah would come, and take him unto himself. This was the place where he rejoiced in undeserved grace. And now suddenly, he realizes he standing in the presence of his glory.

Notice what he says, verse 49, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the king of Israel." By the way, both of those statements indicate his familiarity with the Old Testament Messianic prophecies which spoke of the coming messiah in these very terms. Remember, the primary emphasis of John's gospel is to exalt the deity of Christ, and we see this once again here, over and over again, he demonstrates the fact that Jesus was and is the son of God. And now once again, the inspired author indicates this glorious truth, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the king of Israel." Verse 50, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?'" By the way this is more of a promise than a question. It's as if he's saying "Nathaniel, this sample of my omniscience that has convinced you of who I really am is merely the beginning of what I'm going to show you in the days to come." Verse 50, he goes on to say, "You shall see greater things than these." Nathaniel, I'm gonna show you things beyond your wildest imagination. Miracles that demonstrate my power over sin, and Satan and disease and death and over nature itself. When all of these things are going to strengthen your faith. These things will strengthen your resolve to trust in me come what may. And he goes on to say in verse 51, "Truly, truly I say to you, you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Now here we have a reference to Genesis 28. You remember the story, Jacob was a lonely traveler leaving the land of Canaan, he was in need of divine comfort. He was in need of God, helping him understand that he was going to be with him. The son said he had a stone for a pillow, he has a dream. And he sees a stairway going up from heaven to earth, and angels were ascending and descending. And in that dream, God was trying to encourage Jacob. He was reminding Jacob that he would indeed be faithful to his covenantal promises, to the covenant that he had made with Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant, that indeed, he would give Jacob's descendants the land and the promised seed and the blessing that he had promised. That's the reference. And then, and his angelic servants were tirelessly involved in that glorious process. So knowing Nathaniel's theological and biblical understanding, he uses this Old Testament event in the life of Jacob to simply say, Nathaniel, even as I allow Jacob to see a vision of my supernatural involvement in the affairs of men, so to I am going to accomplish my sovereign will, in you. I am going to reveal myself to you. I want you to notice there is no ladder or stairway in this text, like there is in Genesis 21, only the ascending and descending angels have the Son of Man, why is that? Because, beloved, the bridge between heaven and earth now is the son of man alone. He alone is our access to God, He alone is our stairway to heaven. What a thrilling moment that must have been in the life of Nathaniel, a man who had by divine grace sought after God, still human, struggling with prejudice and who knows what else. You had a man of integrity, not a hypocrite.

Well, apart from this, we know nothing about this dear apostle and early church records indicate that he served the Lord in India and Persia, which is modern day Iran and spread the gospel, possibly as far as Armenia. And there's conflicting traditions about the way he died. Some say that he was tied up in a sack and drowned in the sea. Others say that he was crucified. But there's high probability that he was martyred for his faith in Christ. Like all of the apostles, except John. So there we get to know another brother in Christ that we will get to know much better someday. And I would challenge you to ponder these great truths. I would challenge you to celebrate the omniscience of God who can peer into your very soul and examine you. I would challenge you to celebrate the intimacy of God, the One who knows all about you and continues to love you, continues to conform you into the image of Christ. I would challenge you to celebrate God's grace even as we've seen it, displayed here with Nathaniel. And then I would also challenge you to remember, consider and imitate those who gave the Word of God to you, that you would be like them, that others could one day remember you and consider you and imitate you. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for the eternal truths of your word. Thank you for Nathaniel and for the others that you've set your love upon that you use in such a powerful way to be the foundations of the church. And Lord, we pray that even as you use them, you will use each of us men and women, boys and girls, who love you, who are committed to you, Oh, Father, may we be godly, in our heart. May we be Christ like in our actions, that many will see the magnificent truths of the gospel, and be saved, be radically transformed. And I pray that even this day, that there'll be one within the sound of my voice that knows nothing of what it really means to be in relationship with the living Christ through faith. I pray that today will break their heart to a place to a point where they will cry out for the mercy that you will so readily grant them that today will be the day they will experience the miracle of the new birth. We thank you We give you praise for all that you are and all that you do. In Jesus name. Amen.

It is always a great joy to be able to express the doxologies of our heart and song and what a blessing it is to have music that God has given us music. And thank you musicians for leading us so well. Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark three, we will continue our study of the gospel of Mark. But we're taking several Sundays to look specifically at the apostles that Jesus chose. And so this will be kind of a jumping off point to other passages that we will look at. It's been fascinating to get to know those that Jesus appointed to be his closest companions, his emissaries of the kingdom. And in Mark Three, beginning of verse 13, we read this, "And Jesus went up to on the mountain and summoned to those whom He Himself wanted and they came to Him. And He appointed 12, so that they would be with Him, and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons." And, of course, we are all beneficiaries of these men that God called and gifted. And they are indeed the foundation of the church. But we've also seen that these are men whose only remarkable qualifications is their lack of remarkable qualifications. And as you've heard me say before, that gives me great hope. Isn't it wonderful to know how God can use us. And remember now, his choice of these ordinary men, was basically a rebuke against the elitist that were in charge of the Jews, the elitist of Judaism, the religious leaders, the scholars, the lawyers, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, scribes, and so forth. These were religious phonies, that wanted to be first in the kingdom, fools who really had no fear of God. And of course, as scripture says, fools, reject instruction, they despise wisdom and instruction. And these were the kind of men that God was using, or that Satan was using to thwart the purposes of God. And so God bypasses them, and he chooses ordinary men. And we see this, in our culture is well, and I know some of you have talked with me about some of the horrors that you have had to endure even this week. And I, I agree with you all of the woke things that are being perpetrated upon you in the workplace and at school. And just want to remind you that what they were dealing with in the first century, even though the issues were different, the dynamics were the same. This was the philosophy of the day in rejection of who God was. And we see this of course in the progressive Neo Marxist politicians and their sycophants in Hollywood and, and in the media. We have our own version of the Pharisees today, the Harvard Ivy League East Coast snobs and the West Coast know it alls and the liberal woke people that are in evangelicalism now, just wreaking havoc in the church. In fact, the level of depravity is so profound right now that even some of the secularists are beginning to throw up their hands and wonder, I was listening to one lady describe it this way. In a video that was sent to me, she said, "I never dreamed that I would have to face the prospect of not living in the United States of America. At least not the one I've known all my life. I've never wished to live anywhere else. This is my home and I was privileged to be born here. But today, I woke up and as I had my morning coffee, I realized that everything is about to change. No matter how I vote, no matter what I see something evil has invaded our nation, and our lives are never going to be the same. I've been confused by the hostility of family and friends. I look at people I've known all my life, so hate filled that they agree with opinions they would never express on their own. I think I may have well entered the Twilight Zone. We've become a nation that is lost its collective mind. You can't justify this insanity. If a guy pretends to be a woman, you're required to pretend with him. Somehow it's unAmerican for the census to count how many Americans are in America. Russians influencing our elections are bad but illegals voting in our elections are good. People who've never owned slaves should pay slavery reparations to people who have never been slaves. People who have never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for their degrees. Immigrants with tuberculosis and polio are welcome but you'd better be able to prove your dog is vaccinated. Irish doctors and German engineers who want to immigrate to the EU, United States must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate gangbangers who jumped the southern fence are welcome. $5 billion for border security is too expensive, but 1.5 trillion for free health care is not. If you cheat to get into college, you go to prison. But if you cheat to get into the country, you go to college for free. People who say there is no such thing as gender are demanding a female president. We see other countries going socialist and collapsing, but it seems like a great plan to us. Criminals are caught and released to hurt more people but stopping them is bad because it's a violation of their rights. And pointing out all this hypocrisy somehow makes us racist. Nothing makes sense anymore. No values, no morals, no civility. People are dying of a Chinese virus but it's racist to refer to it as Chinese even though it began in China. We're clearly living in an upside down world where right is wrong and rwong is right. Where moral is immoral and immoral is moral. Where good as evil and evil is good, where killing murderers is wrong, but killing unborn babies is a okay. Wake up America. The great unsinkable ship. Titanic America has hit an iceberg. It is taking on water and it is sinking fast." Pretty observant. And that's from a secular mindset. Indeed, God has given America over to the consequences of her iniquity. And this ship will sink like all other empires have sunk because of their rebellion against the Most High God. This country has sown the wind it is now reaping the whirlwind. And we've not seen anything yet.

I was reminded of what JC Ryle said, he was a 19th century English clergyman said this quote, "Scripture teaches plainly that God rules everything in this world, that he deals with nations as they deal with him, that national prosperity and national decline are ordered by him, and that without his blessing, no nation can prosper. Whether men like to see it or not, I believe it is the first duty of a state to honor and recognize God. The government which ignores religion, and coolly declares that it does not care whether its subjects are Christians or not, is guilty of an act of suicidal folly. Your religion, even in a temporal point of view is the worst enemy of a nation in what manner God would punish England. If English governments cast off all connection with religion, I cannot tell whether he would punish us by some sudden blows, such as the defeated war and the occupation of our territory by a foreign power, whether he would waste us away gradually and slowly by placing a worm at the roots of our commercial prosperity, or whether he would break us in pieces by letting fools rule over us and allowing Parliament's to obey them, and permitting us like the Midianites to destroy one another. Whether he would ruin us by sending a dearth of wise statesmen in the upper ranks and giving the reins of power to communists, socialists and mob leaders. All these are points which I have no prophetical eye to see. And I do not pretend to determine God's sorest judgments. The ancient said, quote, are like millstones. They grind very slowly, but they grind very fine. The thing that I fear most he said, for my country is gradual and sensible dry rot and decay. But one thing I am very sure, the state that begins by sowing the seed of national neglect of God will sooner or later reap a harvest of national disaster and national ruin." End quote.

Folks, aren't you're thankful we're citizens of another kingdom. We serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and we await his arrival. So to be sure, the elite of the first century share the same kind of foolishness that we see in the elite of our day. As government and academia and so forth. So Jesus bypassed those proud fools of Israel and instead chose 12, just ordinary men, utter foolishness to the world; only 12, not the really religious elite, not the celebrities, not the politicians, just some fishermen, tax collector, a Jewish terrorist that hated Rome, and some other nondescript men. And you have to think, God, what were you thinking? Well, Paul tells us what he was thinking in First Corinthians one. You remember the passage in verse 25, and following, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world, to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that he might nullify the things that are, so that no man should boast before God. But by His doing, you are in Christ Jesus." And as we study the lives of these men, we see that it's a great encouragement, because what God wants is our availability, not our abilities. He will give us all we need to accomplish, all that He wants us to accomplish, for His glory. Through the indwelling Spirit, He empowers us. And we rejoice in that. Beloved, never underestimate your capacity to be used by God. Okay? Never underestimate that. Regardless of your lot in life, regardless of your education, your experience, your gender, your socio economic condition, whatever it is, even your spiritual condition. All of these factors are meaningless because what God looks for is a person that is repentant, that is humble, that is teachable, and that is available. Most Christians fail to live up to their potential. And as a result, they forfeit blessing in their life, and they become ineffective with respect to the kingdom, God's Kingdom purposes. There's really three reasons for this. The first one, real simply and very shortly, I just want to briefly hit this. The first reason why they don't live up to their potential is habitual sinfulness. Life dominating sin. They refuse to examine their life and repentance. So therefore, the Spirit of God is grieved and quenched and they cannot be used. The second reason people don't live up to their potential is habitual laziness. There's just no self discipline, no desire to really understand the word. And as Paul told Timothy, to discipline yourself, for the sake of godliness. Instead, people are ignorant, undiscerning and self absorbed. And the third reason, people don't live up to their potential, his habitual powerlessness. And the reason for that is people refuse to serve Christ as a good soldier. And if you're not in the battle, you're not going to experience the difficulties of the conflict. And therefore, you're not going to cry out for the only help available to you in Christ, the divine provisions that will carry you through. Moreover, you won't have a sense of a divine urgency to be engaged in the battle. Well, not so the 11 out of the 12 apostles. And today, we're going to look at Philip, who is the second leader, I should say, the leader of the second set of four apostles. So let's look at Philip here for a minute.

Scripture doesn't tell us his Jewish name. His Greek name was Philip, which means lover of horses. So I've got something in common with this guy growing up with horses and loving horses. We'll have some great conversation, some day I'm sure. Probably, he was a guy from a Hellenistic family. These were Jews that had adopted the Greek culture and the Greek language. And what's interesting is he's always the fifth man listed on every list of the 12 found in the New Testament. What which indicates that he was the leader of the second group of four apostles. Now, by the way, don't don't confuse him with Philip the deacon, the evangelist out of Acts 6 that met with the Ethiopian and so forth, this is a different guy here. John 1:44 says that Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. So he was also a fisherman, along with two others in his little group. And those other two would be Bartholomew, who was also called Nathaniel, as well as Thomas. And he, of course, he was friends with Peter and Andrew, and James and John, all God fearing Jews who would have attended the same synagogue, they would have been out of the same church. Basically, it's interesting that Jesus chose the team, where over half the men were already close friends, they shared the same cultural values, they were not diverse as people want us all to be today. That is, that is a recipe for disaster. When you get people from all different cultures, and so forth. I've served on a number of boards in the year over the years, and I've consulted with Christian organizations, I've mediated great conflicts in churches and denominations and mission boards. And I can tell you firsthand that when you mix cultures, and you mix socio economic backgrounds, doctrinal perspectives, and you get a wide disparity of opinion on all manner of things, it's going to be a disaster. You take a opossum and a coon, and a dog and you put them in a small cage, there's going to be problems. And sometimes that's what happens with people.

Well also, it's interesting that God chose uneducated men whose minds had not previously been shaped by error. Nor had they convinced themselves of their own omniscience, as many times is the case in academia, especially upper Appa academia. I've been there, I know it firsthand. I know the temptations myself. And it's much easier to train a man that is uneducated and teachable than to try to teach an educated man that is not teachable. And I might hasten to add that not all educated people are unteachable, the apostle Paul was a brilliant scholar, and look what God did with him. Moreover, not all uneducated, people are teachable. Sometimes people are too ignorant to know they're ignorant. And that can be a problem as well with those type of people. Logic and exegesis and even common sense, never come into play. Two plus two is going to be five no matter how you put it. And so even though you have mountains of evidence to the contrary, they're going to believe what they want to believe. So those can be problematic.

So before the foundation of the world, what is interesting, is God chose these men. In fact, John 15:16, we read that Jesus told them, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you." So God, in his infinite wisdom, set his love upon these men who were as common as a fencepost. And sometimes equally as dense. But men, who loved him, all except Judas, they were available, though uneducated, they were teachable. And they shared the same basic values and experiences. Now Phillip is a fascinating character. We don't find a whole lot in Scripture. And we don't want to press this too far. But there is enough that we can begin to get some idea of who he was of his interpersonal style of relating his character. And I've known many men who share his personality. And sometimes they can be difficult to be around. Let me kind of paint a general picture here. To give you a sense of who he was. And again, I don't want to press this too far. But this is kind of the general category. He was what we would call a bean counter. He was a type of guy that would track every penny. He was consumed with process and protocol. Sometimes we call these people the administrative control freaks, all right, they can be difficult to be around. They have, they always have 40 reasons why what you want to do won't work. And that's kind of what we see there. The corporate killjoys, I've seen them in business. We used to call them the deal killers. They're proud to wear the badge cynic. And so this is the chronically pessimistic type of person that's it's very, very analytical and, and terrified of adventure. The word risk is a four letter word to these kinds of people because of weak faith, they tend to be consumed with self protection, they simply can't function without guarantees. They have kind of a spirit of control. And they get nervous when things kind of get outside the boundaries of what is written down and what the operating manual says you're supposed to do everything that needs to be by the book. And all of the policies and procedures need to be in place, you might say they were, or they are, rigid, obsessed with organization, not flexible. And many times they are fastidious and proud of it, excessively particular, can be very critical. And in extreme forms, you can see this take on what we call today, or what the secularists call OCD. And that's basically biblically, it's the idolatry of self obsessive compulsive disorder rather than living a gospel informed life, rather than relaxing in God's sovereignty and his love and trusting him rather than taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and letting his word fill you. Rather than that, everything's got to be perfect. That can't be, the mistakes, I've got to make sure everybody likes me, I don't want to do anything that will cause anybody to dislike me, I can't be seen as incompetent, I can't be seen as deficient in any way. I've worked with them before dear people, and it's great to see them come out of this, as they begin to see how they're functioning. But in these extreme forms, they can be obsessed with germs and bacteria. And, and they live in perpetual fear. I always like to tell them, do you realize there are 700 species of bacteria in your mouth. They estimate there 6 billion bacteria in your mouth. So it's kind of hard to run from all that. But so what happens is people begin to have ungodly introspection, they reevaluate everything, every thought, every action, and then those thoughts become obsessive and reoccurring, and they begin to consume them. And all of that causes stress in the body, it causes anxiety. So in order to find relief, they begin to pursue habitual ritual types of behaviors, all designed to somehow alleviate the stress and, and the fear and the obsessions that the obsessions produce. So they're always organizing or avoiding germs or avoiding other things, et cetera, et cetera. It's a hopeless cycle.

Well, I'm not saying Philip was that way. I'm not saying that. But just to give you an example of this, is this is where these types of sinful thoughts and attitudes can take a person. And it can be devastating. But as we will see, Phillip was the typical kind of by the book, facts and figures, pessimistic process kind of person. So for these kinds of people, words, like "improvise" are just not in their vocabulary. All right, entrepreneur, nah, no, no, no, no, can't do that. And they have a hard time seeing the big picture, and so forth. They are the type of people I might say if you're kind of in this category, they're the type of people that will, the first thing they're going to say is, well, we've never done that before. We're not no, no, we can't do that. Rather than saying, boy, wouldn't that be great? You know, what do we need to make that happen? Wouldn't it be great to see what God can do? I mean, it's a radically different perspective. And I remember, and some of you are here today that were with us when this church started down the street and a little storefront, and we had run out of room. Some of you are smiling. You remember those days, don't you? And we had run out of room. It was just it was awful. And we needed to do something and we decided to purchase some property, this piece of property and, and build a church versus rent. And we had some people say, Oh, no, no, no, no, we can't do that. I mean, we, we don't have the money. There's just no way we can do that. And of course, others were saying, wouldn't it be great to see what God could do? We need to trust him to to see what see what he could do. Oh, no, we can't do that. Because that would mean for example, you have to borrow money. When the Bible says you're not supposed to borrow money. And I had to explain to them that the Bible does not say that and I had to explain to them the passages that they misunderstood and misinterpreted. So seven families signed a note and collateralize their homes. We found a banker that loves us, a man that I had known for many years and they gave us the money, and we trusted God. And here we are today. And we rejoice in that. And so there's always a balance, though, you know, we need those people along with the more visionary type of people that to balance this out, but, but whatever our interpersonal style relating, we have to be careful that we don't let the pendulum go too far in one direction or the other. So Philip struggled with some of these kinds of things. He had his own proclivities as we all do. Proclivity is just a negative tendency in his personality. And we're going to see this as we examine a couple of passages here today.

The first one is in John six. You remember, all the crowd is coming to us to see Jesus. And there, we read in John six and verse 10, that there were 5000 men, if you had the kids and the women , probably 15 to 20,000 people, they're gathering outside of Tiberius, kind of in a remote area to see Jesus. In fact, the context is, we can see a little more about this, forgive me for this. I'm jumping around with different passages. But in Matthew 14, we read how Jesus had compassion on this magnificent multitude that was coming towards him, and he's healing, they're sick and casting out demons. And it's late in the evening, and apostles were getting hungry, it's dinnertime, I understand that. And they know that they can't eat in front of all these people. Like, Hey, folks, hang on a minute, we need to have dinner here, while you guys don't have anything, they can't do that. So in Matthew 14, verse 15, we read in "When it was evening, the disciples came to Him saying, 'The place is desolate, and the time has already passed. so send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.' But Jesus said to them, 'They do not need to go away, you give them something to eat!'" Really interesting, by the way, when these types of things come into your life, and you're kind of overwhelmed, and and you think, Oh, my, now what am I going to do? You need to smile and say, Lord, thank you, you're up to something here in my life. I don't know what it is, but I rejoice in it, and I'm going to trust you. And Father, I'm just going to cry out to you to help me understand how you want me to navigate, this is beyond me, this is your deal. And all I want to do is be available, I want to honor you, help me make the right decisions helped me to understand what the Bible says about this, help me to talk to godly people, I want to honor you, and so I'm going to cry out to you. And I know that you have brought this disaster into my life for a purpose. And that's what was going on here. Now back to John. He had some more insight into this momentous occasion, and John six and verse five, "Jesus, therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, 'Where are we to buy bread that these may eat?'" Now, let's stop for a second. Obviously, we're going to need to ask why did he single out Philip? And why did he ask him that? Because Jesus didn't need the information. He was already way ahead of the whole scenario. And so if I can put it this way, this was a loving setup for Phillip. And evidently, Phillip was the chief operating officer of the group. He was kind of the administrator, the logistics specialist that bought and distributed food, he probably was the one that helped secure their lodging, arranged meetings, interviews with Jesus and so forth as we look at the various passages. But it's interesting that Jesus singled out Phillip, well, why did he do that? Well, verse six of John six tells us and this Jesus was saying, "to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do."

I have to smile because my has the Lord done this to me more times than I can count. The word test is a neutral term, there's two options, you either pass it or you fail it, right. It's real simple. And when God tests, he's giving us an opportunity to either respond in faith and obedience, or to respond in skepticism and rebellion. And that's what's going on here with Philip, because he knew who Philip was. He knew the holes in his program, and he's gonna love him enough to put him in a situation where Philip has to have faith and depend upon God and not his own resources. This was a teachable moment. But this was Philips worst nightmare, right? He was overwhelmed with the whole thing. It doesn't say this, but I would imagine, Jesus had a bit of a smile on his face and a little glimmer in his eye as he asked Philip, you know, what are you going to do with this? Now, it's interesting what, what Philip's predictable response was in verse seven, "Philip answered him, '200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them for everyone to receive a little.'" I mean, Philip had already done the math in his head, he, he knew that he was the guy that was going to have to do something with all of this. I mean, that, by the way, is eight months wages of a single day laborer, one denarius was one day's wages. And he knew that this would absolutely exhaust all of the resources, if they spent everything they had to get some food when there's no place to even buy it. And then they wouldn't have anything and it still wouldn't feed a fraction of the people. Now, Jesus knew Phillip's, faith is weak. Philip is like many of us who tend to depend upon our own abilities, our own resources to make life work. And I would imagine, when Jesus said to him, "Where are you to buy bread that these may eat?" I would imagine he pulled out the checkbook said, look, here's all we got, insufficient funds. That's kind of what's going on here. And Jesus knew that this, this would frustrate Philip. Because it wasn't part of the protocol. It wasn't part of the organized way that we do things. And to feed 20,000 unexpected guests, guests around the campfire is going to be impossible. But it was the perfect scenario, to put Phillip in a position of panic, so that he might grow in Christ. Again, faith was something that he was uncomfortable with and the idea of improvise, I doubt if that word was in his vocabulary, that must be avoided at all cost. And often, God puts us in those positions where it's like, I don't know what to do, I'm gonna have to trust you. I can't help but remember the first time I went rappelling if you've ever done that before, and I had a couple of friends from church, they was one guy was a Navy SEAL. And I'd never done it before we had about about a 200 foot cliff. And about the first 100 feet, you could go down in the cliff, you were kind of close to the cliff, and then it opened up into the mouth of a cave, and it was just a freefall. And I remember, okay, you know, I'm not afraid of anything, you know, I've done just about everything. And I'll be fine with this. And when they put that rope on me, and I started to back off, I found myself hesitating. And I remember the Navy SEAL guy saying, Dave, you've got to have faith in the rope. If it was gonna break, it would have already broken. And so as I let it back a little bit more, I looked between my legs, and I couldn't see anything but a blur. And so I finally took off. And what was interesting is I went about 100 feet down, and all of a sudden, I realized the rope was hung in some of the brush up in the trees, and now I'm just dangling in midair, we finally got the rope down. But the Lord taught me a lesson about faith. But my faith was much more on him than it was the rope, believe me. But the point is, we all have those situations in life. And Jesus is saying in effect to Philip, "Philip, how are you going to feed all of these people?" And what he wanted Philip to say, and what I'm sure Philip would say later on would be something like this. "Lord Jesus, the answer is real simple. I have no way of feeding feeding them but you do. I'm going to trust you to do what only you can do. And I'm going to ask you to do this because I have seen the glory and the majesty of your power. I've seen you heal the sick, your power over disease over demons. I've seen you make the lame to walk and the blind to see and the deaf to hear, withered limbs made whole. I've seen your power over nature. Dear Jesus, you are my King. You are my God. You have put me in a situation all I know to do is cry out to you to do what only you can do. And I'm going to plead with you to make yourself powerful on my behalf, on behalf of all these people that you might receive all the glory;" that's what he wanted Philip to say. But no Philip was still pretty consumed with his own needs and making his world work on his own. Does that ring a bell to any of you? Thanks, God, but I'll handle this. I'm not sure that your way and your resource sources are enough. So I'm going to depend upon myself in my own resources to make my world work. And God many times says, okay.

So it's evening, it's dusk, the apostles are hungry. I can only imagine that some of the other apostles come up to him. Hey, Philip, what's going on with supper, man? We're, I mean, we're hungry. Dude, we got to eat right? And he's probably saying, Get out of here. I don't know we don't have, we don't have any food. So this is what's happening. Peter is nervous about the whole thing. And then we read this. Going back to John six. Let's look at verse nine. It says, "One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother," remember now Andrew's kind of the quiet, sensitive guy behind the scenes guy. He says to Jesus, "There's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are these people for so many?" So maybe there's a glimmer of hope here for Andrew, maybe there's a little bit of faith, or we got something here. I don't know what you can do with this. But Well, "Jesus said to him," and to all of them. I love this. He says, "Have the people sit down." And think about that, folks, we want all of you to sit down with the idea that we're going to feed you and you're looking around, you've got just a little bit, you know, have all the people sit down, then we read. "Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, giving thanks." And it says, "He distributed to those who were seated, likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. When they were filled, He said to His disciples, 'Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.' So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, 'This is truly the prophet who has come into the world.'" My what a great lesson, can you imagine Philip helping to pick up all of the excess looking at all the things and all the other, all of the extra baskets full of food? What a lesson for him. And for all of us, God is saying, I want you to learn to trust me and to not trust in your in yourself. Beloved, it's impossible to prepare for every conceivable contingency in life. And you do the best you can. But at some level, you're going to have to trust the Lord with things that are very difficult. You're going to have to go to his word and go to other people and understand how God would have you function. And then to say, Lord, for Your glory, this is what I'm going to do. All of us have at times been put in those positions. And we need to look forward to them with great anticipation. Because beloved, those are scenarios where God has an opportunity, as I say, to prove himself powerful for you to trust in Him in my we were with some friends last night, just reminiscing on the ways God has done just incredible things in our life. That can't be explained any other way than we just had faith. And we prayed and cried out to God and he answered our prayers. What a joy that is. Beloved, faith is like a muscle. If you don't use it, it will atrophy. And God gives us plenty of opportunities to exercise our faith.

I recall the passage and Mark 9, I remember the father that had the demon possessed son, the disciples lack the necessary faith to deliver him and in utter desperation, the father pleads with Jesus to deliver his son. If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us and Jesus responds that, that, that if you if you can believe all things are possible to him who believes. Verse 24 says, "Immediately the boy's father cried out and began saying, 'I do believe, help my unbelief.'" Boy I can identify with that, can't you? This man had for so long considered this whole situation helpless. Certainly, he confessed, Lord, I believe. The text tells us that he does this in great earnestness, and with tears yet at the same time, that lingering unbelief is there. Beloved, we all struggle with it. And so we need to pray the same thing. "Lord, help my unbelief." You know, there's a special weakness inherent, especially in newborn faith. The man I just described in Mark nine had that, certainly Philip at some level, perhaps us well, and that always makes us susceptible to those difficulties that God brings into our life, where all of a sudden, we're out of resources. We don't know what to do. So many times, we come up with things that we think will make life work or we escape, to try to somehow run from the problem, rather than saying, Thank you, God. What a wonderful opportunity for me to learn how to trust you in some new and unique way. And I pray that you will give me an understanding of what you want me to do in the midst of this great trial, because I am at a loss.

I was thinking of Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, you remember, the Prince of Darkness is enraged. We know whenever a soul is delivered from the dungeon of his dominion and then when that happens, he quickly assaults especially new and immature believers as they they flee from the city of destruction than they run towards the celestial city. And what's interesting, as you will recall, is that Bunyan very appropriately placed the slew of despond at the very outset of the spiritual journey, knowing it is then that Satan seizes upon our vulnerability, our untested faith in the wicked fiend, tries to sink us in the quicksand of discouragement and doubt, and cause us to run to other resources that will never work long term. Well, like the man in Mark nine, Philip believed, yet not completely. His faith would never grow to the degree that God wanted it to grow, unless he began to have his faith tested. And beloved, we must learn to spot those things in our own hearts. The enemy is so cunning and we can fail the test, and never really grow in Christ and enjoy the blessings that are associated with walking in faithful obedience. So Jesus tested Philip to expose his radical commitment to self protection and to demonstrate the foolishness of his obsession. And he knew he needed to strengthen him put him into this impossible situation. And he wanted him to enjoy what I call the euphoric adventure of walking with Christ in faith. My what a blessing that is, so that we could experience the one, "who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us." Ephesians 3:20.

Well, it's hard for Philip to learn as it is for us. So let me give you another example here of what he dealt with. It's, this one's in John 14. Let me give you the context here. It was the eve of Jesus crucifixion. He knew the agony that was going to be his as he faced the cross and ready to walk inexorably towards a time where he had to appease the just wrath of God, bear the sins of those that God had given him and the apostle mentoring was about to end. And yet, they're still confused about what was really going on. I always have to laugh at them, but I know if I was with them, I'd been right there with them. They're still trying to understand what's really happening here. Luke 24:25, Jesus called them foolish and slow of heart to believe. I mean, folks, they are still arguing about who's going to be greatest in the kingdom. So that's what's going on with them. Many rough edges still needed to be honed away, filed off of their sinful hearts. So they're in the upper room. Jesus has washed their feet Judas now has has left to betrayed Jesus and Jesus then comforts them in John 14 Verse one we read, "'Do not let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places if it were not, so I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself. And where I am there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.' Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?’ Jesus said to Him, 'I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but through Me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also, from now on, you know Him and have seen Him.'" So Jesus here, once again, emphatically underscores His deity, that he is their God, that to know him is to know the Father. But notice what Philip says, in verse eight. "Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.'" Say what?. After what I just said, after all that you have seen, you want more guarantees. I mean, that's literally what's going on here. This is just inconceivable ignorance and insensitivity. I mean, how incredibly sad. This is, this is just the heartbreaking response of weak faith. It's as if Philip is saying, Yes, Lord Jesus, I have seen all of your miracles. I've stood in at your teaching. I've been humbled by your love. And yes, I've confessed you as my Lord and Savior. But I'm sorry, I've still got some reservations here. There's still a bit of skepticism, lingering in the secret recesses of my imagination. So will you please, I just want you to jump through one more hoop of mine. I mean, I want to make certain, absolutely certain. I hate risk. I need guarantees. Before I relinquish my well chiseled strategies of self protection, and really turn my life over completely to you, if you would just show us the Father. How sad. So many times we can be the same way, right? We've seen all that Jesus has done all that he said in His Word. And yet we miss the big picture. We never fully trust in Him, oh we say we do. But there's that lingering doubt. Yes, I will believe in you and have faith in you as my Savior, but I'm not sure I can trust you to be my Lord, so that I obey all that you have commanded. I'm not sure I can go that far. I mean, that's okay. I've got this. I mean, I can handle my life on my own. I think of my precious little, seven year old granddaughter. How many times there will be something that needs to be done? I know she can't do it. But she will say no pop, I can do it. I can do it. And I know in my mind, you can't, but okay. And then after a few minutes, sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes. Papa, can you help me?

And I think you know, that's exactly what the Lord does; puts us in those situations. Beloved, unless you live consistently with what you believe about Christ, you will never enjoy the fullness of all that is yours in Christ. You will always be weak and deficient and just have minimal usefulness for the sake of the kingdom, and you will never enjoy the riches of his grace that are available to those who trust him completely. You'll never fully enjoy his blessing in your life. Notice what happens back to John 14. Again, verse eight, "Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father and it's enough for us,' and Jesus said to him, 'Have I been so long with you? And yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, how can you say show us the Father'? 'Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me the works that I do, he will do also and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.'" And then he says, "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." By the way, praying in Jesus name doesn't mean that at end of your prayer, you say, "and in Jesus name" or whatever, that's not the point. The point is that your prayer is motivated out of a heartfelt desire to advance the Kingdom purposes of Christ and give Him glory. And when we pray in that way, he's going to answer those prayers, and do mighty things in your life. In other words, help me honor you and trust in you, is what he's wanting Peter or Phillip to say.

Well, let me give you some exciting news as we close this morning, the Lord knew what Philip was like, isn't it great? He knew what he was like, chose him anyway. I'm just glad I don't have to preach about my background, right? You know, I don't want to do that. Too many of you already know. But Jesus knew that his strength would be made perfect in weakness. By the way, my personality is like the extreme opposite of Phillip. And I've got to be careful, or I'll ride the horse right off the cliff. How thankful I am, according to Second Thessalonians 2:14, "God has chosen you from the beginning, for salvation, through sanctification, by the Spirit and faith and truth. And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." Well, God made Philip into a great preacher of the gospel. We know that Philip is going to rule one day in the millennial kingdom, he was, he's now enjoying the glories of heaven. And I look forward to meeting him some day. Tradition says that he served faithfully in Asia Minor. Many came to Christ because of his availability to Christ. And he was probably one of the first apostles to be martyred. It's estimated that he was martyred about eight years after James. And evidence indicates that he was stoned to death in Heliopolis in Phrygia. Oh child of God. Let's learn to trust in Him in new ways today, all right? Don't allow the fears of the world and the fear of man and your own ridiculous self confidence in all of your resources, to rob you of the need to trust in Christ in ways that you never have before. Either he is who he says he is, or you believe a lie. But he is who he says he is. Don't erect those idols of self protection in your heart. As First John five four says, "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world." What is it? Our faith Is God testing you right now? Is he pushing you out of your comfort zone? Oh, Thank you, God. Thank You, God, this is miserable. I hate it. I don't know what to do. But thank you. You're at work in my life. And I'm crying out to you right now, to do what only you can do. And I don't even really know what that is. But I trust you. Whatever the outcome, and I rejoice in your intimate love for me. Thank you, Father, for the power of your word that speaks so directly to our lives, Lord, we can all see ourselves and in these apostles, some of us even in Philip and, Lord, I just pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will bring conviction where appropriate, bring encouragement, bring joy, but Lord through it all. Help us with our unbelief, strengthen our faith, because we long to experience all that is available to us in Christ Jesus. For it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

Once again, we come to this time where we can open up the Word of God. And I would invite you, if you will, to turn to Mark chapter three, we'll use this as a launching pad. Once again, we're looking at the appointing of the 12 apostles. This is the second part of that study. And in a few minutes, we're going to read that text, let me just say, it's important for us to get to know the apostles. That's why I'm taking some time over a few weeks here to remind you of who these men were. There's at least two reasons why I would say that, first of all, according to Ephesians, two, verses 19. And following, we read that the church has been, "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple and the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." And the second reason why it's important is because when we look at the lives of the apostles, we see the miracle of regeneration and sanctification being played out in their lives. And they are frankly, an example to all of us. And as I look at their lives, as I look at the difficulties they dealt with, as I look at the flaws in their lives, or as we say, in the horse training world, as we look at the holes in their program, I have hope that the Lord can continue to work with me, right? And with us. Well, I'm reminded in John 15, remember, Jesus uses that great metaphor of the vine and the branches, the vine being the source and, and sustenance of life are the branches, referring to Jesus giving life to believers, and he speaks of, of fruit bearing vines, which refers to Christians, and those who are truly born again, and then also fruitless ones that are unbelievers non believers. By the way, there's no such thing as a Christian that does not bear fruit. And the vine, of course, is Christ, the vine dresser, is the father in that great illustration that the Lord gives us. And he speaks of, of fruit bearing branches, and there were 11 of them with the apostles 11 that bore fruit. And there was one that did no,t referring to Judas. And of course, all of that was to help them see that not everybody who calls themselves a Christian truly is one. And Jesus said in John 15, to have every every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. And the original language, the term prune carries the idea of, of cleansing. It was a farming term, it was used to speaking of cleansing, the husks of grain or, or even cleaning the soil before crops. But in this metaphor of the vine, it refers to cleaning shoots off of the branches. And the key method that we see in that text that the Lord uses is suffering, and trials. And we know that whom the Lord loves, according to Hebrews 12, six, He chastens, and He scourges every son whom he receives. So we know that the pruning of the vine in our lives can be difficult. And we see this in the lives of the apostles. He went on to say in verse 10, of Hebrews 12, for thy referring to our earthly fathers, indeed, for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. And, of course, the tool of the vinedresser is the word of God by the power of the Spirit. And we see all through Scripture, certainly in the lives of the apostles, and in our lives as well, that the father uses the tool of the Word of God, and adversity and affliction, to really sharpen our sensitivity to the truth of Scripture. Charles Spurgeon said quote,"The word is often the knife with which the great husbandman prunes the vine. And brothers and sisters, if we were more willing to feel the edge of the word, and to let it cut away something that may be very dear to us, we should not need so much pruning by affliction. It is because that first knife does not always produce the desired result that another sharper tool is used by which we are effectually pruned," emd quote. And I think we can all identify with that. As my dad used to say, "Now son, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." I preferred the easy way. And of course, as we look at the lives of the apostles, and we see what the Father did in their life, and how they bore more fruit as time went on, we want to ask ourselves, Am I bearing fruit for the glory of Christ? Is that what people see in my life? Do I find strength and nourishment in Christ? And am I responding to the Father's pruning?

So, we come to this fascinating account. Let me read it to you again. Mark Three, I'm going to begin in verse 13. I'll just read the the section here that Mark gives us. He says, "When Jesus went up on the mountain and summoned to those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him, and Happointed 12, so that they would be with Him, and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the 12, Simon, (to whom He gave the name Peter), and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them, he gave the name Boanerges, which means 'Sons of Thunder'), and Andrew, and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him."

Now, last week we looked at the sanctifying work that occurred in the life of Simon whose name was changed to Peter, which means rock, and how God took his exaggerated self-confidence and turn it in to a man that was humble. How he took his impetuosity and his hot temper and, and turned it into something where he was filled with, with the real spirit led constraint, if you will, and how he transformed that brash, hot tempered mouth of his into a wise, fearless preacher of the gospel. And then we also looked at James, one of the sons of thunder, He was impatient, he was outspoken, he was very much like Peter, as I say, he was another ready fire aim kind of guy and he had to learn to rule his emotions, rather than his emotions ruling him. He had to harness his passions, tone down his fiery rhetoric, and replace his selfish ambition with servanthood. And today, we want to look then at John again, Mark 3:17. He speaks of John, the brother of James. And that's what we're looking at here today. First of all, so John was the younger brother of James, he was the second part of the Dynamic Duo, okay, the other son of thunder, who shared the same traits as his big brother. So they were cut out of the same bolt of cloth. It's interesting that he was the human author of the Gospel of John and the three epistles that bear his name, as well as the book of Revelation. And as we look at Scripture, we see that next to Luke, and the apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit inspired John to write more of the New Testament than anyone else. And of course, this provides us with much information as to how we can accurately assess how Jesus shaped his life. And as we examine his life, as we examine his ministry and the gospel of accounts, were able to see this this transformation begin to occur the spiritual maturation he went from being zealous for truth without love, to having a proper balance for both. He went from being narrow minded, kind of a sectarian bigot, hothead, and tolerant of anyone else outside of his little group, to being a patient, compassionate, loving, apostle of Christ. He went from being just absolutely black and white to being comfortable with some shades of grey. He went from being self-promoting, from being personally ambitious, impetuous, reckless, to being selfless, self-controlled, a real servant of Christ. And he learned the hard way what it meant really to love his enemies and love them enough to speak the truth in love, and what it means to love one another. He commonly referred to himself as, quote, "The disciple whom Jesus loved." Isn't that interesting, giving Christ the glory for loving such a man. It's like, I can't believe it, but I'm a disciple that Jesus loved. That was the idea. And even in his gospel, he never mentioned himself by name. He never exalted himself. Unlike many self-seeking servants, we see that John never drew attention to himself. The first reference he made of himself is in John 13:23. There we read, "Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved." It's interesting in medieval art, you see how they picked up on this tender side of John which is appropriate, often portraying him as kind of a docile, even an effeminate sissy type of guy, as they would typically do, staring at Jesus with some sentimental self-effacing dove-eyed type of a gaze, but nothing could have been further from the truth if you understand who this man was. I mean, like all fishermen of that day, he was a rugged outdoorsman. He was not some scrawny pusillanimous wimp. He was a man's man. Sadly, anytime you see men blurring the distinctions between maleness and femaleness, you're violating God's purposes in manhood and such a caricature of John is most unfortunate. In fact, in First Corinthians six, nine, we read how that the "effeminate and homosexuals shall not inherit the kingdom of God." So indeed, John was a son of thunder, a robust, vigorous man of the sea. And he was a man that, interestingly enough, outlived all of the other apostles. And he was not a passive man, but an aggressive man. He was zealous, he was ambitious, unyielding, self-assertive. But those were all traits that kind of went a little too far at times, the pendulum was a little bit too far out here. And you know how Jesus does in our lives, he kind of has to bring them back to where they need to be. And that's what we see God bringing balance to this man, for his glory. And our sin nature can cause us to get out of balance very, very quickly. And we see how sin can manifest itself in so many ways, sometimes our greatest virtues can become our greatest vice, right? And that's what we see here.

So, as we look at his life, we, we want to remember that the power of sin and the human heart can manifest itself in many, many ways. And also, we never want to underestimate that; how it can manifest, especially it manifests itself, especially in our interpersonal style of relating, and how we come across to other people. So never underestimate the power of sin, dear friends in your heart, but also never underestimate the power of the Word of God and the Spirit of God to change you. And he can either do it the easy way, or the hard way, that by His grace, he's going to do it because He loves us. And he wants to conform us into the image of Christ, that we might enjoy all that is ours in him. So like his brother, the Lord had to shape John. He had to help him learn how to ruler his emotions. Remember, he was, like his brother, he wanted to call down fire on the inhospitable Samaritans. Remember in Luke nine, you know, Lord, let's just smoke 'em, lets just nuke them. I mean, really, we're going to put up, let's be like Elijah, and he also had to replace his selfish ambition with humility. It's one thing to want to honor the Lord and lead, if that's what he would have you do, but it's another thing to demand that. And remember the whole incident with his mother where they were seeking, you know which one's going to be on the right and on the left now, the scriptures provide for us some remarkable insight into this tenderizing process that occurred in John's heart.

So first turn to Mark chapter nine. The context there in Mark nine is Peter, James and John witness the miracle of the Transfiguration of Christ. In verse two, we read, "And He," referring to Jesus, "was transfigured before them, and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on Earth can whiten them." And so somehow Jesus peels back his flesh in a way that we can't even imagine, and the effulgence of his Shekinah Glory blazes forth, and they see this, and they're absolutely terrified. Right before they close their eyes, they see the glory of the Messiah. And to think that somehow he allowed them to witness His Majesty and His power and His glory, a little foretaste of heavenly glory. But of course, they're thinking in their mind, oh, the kingdom, it's about to happen. And we're right here, we're in the inner circle. We know what you would think, you know, you're the only three, Mark nine, four; even "Elijah appeared with them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus." And in verse six, it even tells us that Peter, James and John, were so terrified that they were unable to speak. Now, that was a rare moment, right? They're unable to speak and then a cloud envelops them and God thunders from heaven. "This is My beloved Son, listen to Him." Now, such an experience would certainly be terrifying. But it would also be exhilarating, beyond anything that we could even express. I mean, it would make you want to explode with excitement, wouldn't it? It would make you want to just run and tell everybody. But God had different plans, Mark nine, verse nine, we read and, "As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man should rise from the dead. And they seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead might mean." Obviously, none of that fit into their scheme of what they were planning on happening.

Now, we all know that people tend to believe what they want to believe, right? I mean, we can all fall into that trap, even when it bears no resemblance to the truth. And they thought his earthly kingdom was about to be established. And they were absolutely convinced of it. And like all of us would be, they wanted cheap seats in the kingdom. One to sit on the right one to sit on the left. But there's three of them. So you can imagine what begins to happen in their mind. They began to fuel the debate, who's the greatest amongst us, right? And certainly the fact that Jesus would do this before these three men, and no one else would naturally cause these three men to think more highly of themselves than they should. By the way, just as an aside, I was thinking about this because I've seen this in my life. There's a principle here that you want to bear in mind, every spiritual mountaintop experience has the potential to breed pride, and elitism. Be very, very careful with that. Great blessings tends to incite great arrogance, much easier than great humility. And certainly that was what was going on with these men. Now notice what happens in Mark nine, beginning of verse 33, "They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, 'What were you discussing on the way?'" Now, let me pause for a moment. Jesus knew exactly what they were discussing on the way because he knew all things. And these guys knew they were toast because they knew he knew all things. It's kind of like the parent would say after they already know what you did. They ask you, "So tell me what did you do this afternoon that I saw on video?" You know, so that's what's going on here and Jesus asked him, "What were you discussing on the way?" And then I love this, "But they kept silent." Of course they did. "For on the way they had discussed with one another, which of them was the greatest." So obviously, they're embarrassed, and Jesus in his patience and in his love, and in His grace just kind of throws that out, kind of get them thinking, and boy, it worked. And look what he said. Then it says, "Sitting down," in other words, when Jesus sat down, it was time for everybody else to sit down. It's kind of like when I would call even some of my grandkids on the porch, you know, son, come here, Papa wants to talk to you, let's go sit out on the porch well immediately their eyes are big, they know that something's up here. And it's not like I'm gonna be unkind to them, but it's like, we need to talk about something. Well that's what was going on here. "Sitting down, He called the 12 and said to them, 'If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.'" Then it says, "Taking a child," perhaps they were probably in Peter's home, probably one of Peter's kids. He takes a child, "He set him before them and taking him in His arms, He said to them, 'Whoever receives one child like this,'" not referring to children, but a metaphor of speaking about believers. "Whoever receives one child like this, in My name receives Me. And whoever receives Me and does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me." So in other words, he's saying you need to humble yourself here, like trusting little children. And that's how children are, they humble themselves, and we hold them and they trust us. And obviously, Jesus words had a deep impact on John's heart. Because notice verse 38. And by the way, it's interesting, what I'm about to read here is the only time in the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where John is recorded to speak alone. All right.

So something remarkable is happening here in this context, in John's heart, as he just finished hearing this gentle rebuke, verse 38. "John said to Him, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name. And we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.'" Now, if you're not thinking, you would think, my goodness, why is he changing the subject? You know, this is a non sequitur. I mean, where's this coming from? Well, not at all. You see, he understood the implications of what Jesus was saying. And his heart was under conviction, he was moved. This is like confessing his sin. In other words, John was so convicted over what Jesus said that He, immediately his mind went back to this act of elitism that he and others had committed. And remember, again, he had just witnessed the manifestation of the glory of the king, and thought that for sure, I'm in the inner circle here. But now he recognizes his ungodly proclivity to sectarianism, to elitism, to his own arrogance, to his narrow-minded intolerance. "Us four, no more bar, the door," and boy, folks, it's easy to fall into that trap, as believers. Jesus answered in verse 39 and following, "But Jesus said, do not hinder him." In other words, that man casting out the demons in my name, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able to soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For He who is not against us is for us." So here, John learns, and the others as well, as they're listening, here, John learns that the only legitimate test of a person's ministry and Christianity is basically doctrinal as well as the fruit that they bear. And we should never reject people simply because they're not in our group.

As an aside, we can have fellowship with all believers unless they violate a couple of things. If they have disregard for the authority of Scripture, there is no fellowship, no fellowship, or if they pervert the gospel, you can't have fellowship there. Later John would write interestingly enough in First John four one following, he says, "test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world." You see, there's the doctrinal test, you've got to be careful. I get this all the time, I would say at least two or three times a week, people that listen, people that aren't a part of this church, or some that are a part of the church that want to know, hey, is this a good church? My friend is moving to this area. Is this a good church? Well, you know, the first thing I have to do is look at the doctrinal statement. And that gives you some idea. That's not the whole story, but at least it gives you some idea of where they are biblically. First, John two beginning of verse four, you have the kind of the character test, “The one who says I have come to know Him, and does not keep his commandments, he is a liar. And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word in Him, the love of God has truly been perfected. By this, we know that we are in Him, the one who says he abides in Him, ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." So in other words, just because a person claims to be a Christian doesn't mean that they are, you look at their life. And if their life is one that is filled with sin, the person conducts themselves in a way that is unchristian, then they have no basis to claim genuine saving faith. And as you read the inspired writings, you will quickly see that John was absolutely passionate for the truth. But the pendulum was a little bit too far on the black and white. All right, it needed to come back. And you know, sometimes there are some gray areas. Sometimes we have to be careful that we present the truth also in love. Notice how he writes in first John three beginning in verse eight that we read earlier, "the one who practices sin is of the devil." Well, I mean, that's, that's real forthright, okay? You say you're a Christian, but you're constantly living in sin, you're of the devil. All right, well, that's true. And he goes on later, and he says, "No one who's born of God practices sin, because his seat abides in Him and he cannot sin because He is born of gods." So he's real black and white. He's passionate for the truth. He goes on first John two verse 15. Just as another example, he says, "Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." In other words, you say you're a believer, but you love the culture, and you want to be a part of all of the culture and do and act like all of the people that absolutely hate Christ, then don't call yourself a Christian; very black and white. First John four, another example, beginning in verse seven, through verse, eight, "Beloved, let us love one another." There you see the love, tempered with the truth, "for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, the One who does not love does not know God, for God is love." Verses 19 and 21. "We love because He first loved us. If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." So there's the truth, there is black and white, but then it's also tempered with love and this commandment we have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother. Also, another example, Second John, in verses one and two, to the elect, lady, he writes, "and her children whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, for the sake of the truth which abides in us, and will be with us forever." And in verse six, he says, "And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments." One final example of how truth is tempered with love with John, we see this developing. Third John, verse four, "I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth." And isn't that true parents, grandparents? I have no greater joy as your pastor to see you walking in the truth and so forth. You know, folks, truth without love is oppression. Right? And love without truth is just sentimentality, is just superficiality it's nothing more than the saccharin, Jesus is my boyfriend garbage, that you see some of these phony teachers preaching and speaking about.

So John learned to speak the truth in love. And we see over the course of his life how he had to have repented of his selfish ambition and his desire to pursue a place of prominence. And he learned that well at the feet of Jesus, especially, and think of this, especially when he stood at the foot of the cross, and watched his precious Savior, suffer and die. He's the only apostle recorded to have been there. He learned well, but Jesus said in Luke 18:14, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." So originally John and his selfishness and his arrogance, wanted a place of prominence to exalt himself. And you know what? God gave him a position of prominence, but in a way that John would have never imagined. The Lord allowed him to be banished to a small island, off of the coast of Turkey, an island called Patmos. He was sent there by the Roman emperor Domitian. And there he quietly suffered as he lived in a cave, slept on a rock stone for his pillow. But there was the place of prominence that God gave him this side of glory an exalted position before Almighty God and the heavenly hosts. And here's why I would say that because it was there when the Lord Jesus Christ, came to him and revealed to him his coming glory. In the book of Revelation, the "Apokalypsis lesou Christos" the revealing, the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation one beginning in verse 10. Here's what he said, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like the sound of the trumpet, saying, 'Write in a book what you see,' verse 12, and "I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands and in the middle of the lampstands was one like a Son of man clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white, like white wool, like snow. And His eyes were like a flame of fire, and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace. And His voice was like the sound of many waters." Verse 17, "And when I saw Him, I fell at his feet as a dead man. And He laid his right hand upon me saying, 'Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last.'" Yes, it was Jesus once again, appearing to the disciple whom Jesus loved. What an indescribable joy must have filled his heart. Tradition says that John became the pastor of the church at Ephesus, years later, the church that Paul had founded and in his commentary on Galatians Jerome, who was one of the early church fathers, tells us of John's final days, he was so weak and frail, we read that he had to be carried into the church. And there was one phrase that was constantly on his lips, and it was this "My little children love one another." And when asked why he said this so often, he replied, quote, "It is the Lord's command. And if this alone be done, it is enough." And John died around AD 98 to 100. We're not exactly sure during the reign of Trajan. He was approximately 94 to 96 years old. What an amazing testimony of a man that God shaped in ways that were so difficult.

Well, today I'd like to also look at Andrew, are you open for one more today, this morning, one more? Isn't it wonderful to see how God works in the lives of others? This is like testimony time, right? I love to hear testimonies. Love to see them. Verse 18 of Mark three, we just read him, he says "and Andrew," by the way it means "manly." He was a fisherman from Bethsaida. We're not real sure we know really, in terms of where it was. Generally, I don't think they've been able to excavate it completely, but it was real close to the Capernaum and he was a godly Jew looking for his Messiah. But very little is said about Andrew, his name is not even mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, except in the list of the 12 disciples. And John's gospel gives us just a little bit of information about him that we will see now. Andrew was never as intimate with the Lord as Peter, James, and John and he's usually referred to simply as Peter's brother. We know that he shared a house with Peter in in Capernaum, and they owned a fishing business together, there at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. But we never see him in a public role. We always see him in the background. He was a quiet, faithful, humble, steady kind of guy behind the scenes kind of man. John's Gospel reports how Andrew first was a disciple of John the Baptist. And so you can glean from that, that he was a guy that was comfortable living out in the wilderness, another outdoorsman, just like all the fishermen would be, a man comfortable living an austere type of life like John the Baptist would have done, as he lived and ministered primarily in the wilderness. Who knows he may have, he may have liked locusts and wild honey like John the Baptist, the text doesn't say. But he first went to his brother, we read, and tells Peter that "I found the Messiah," and he introduces him to the Lord. And as we look at the little things that we can see in Scripture about his life, we see that he had just a fearless enthusiasm, to introduce others to Jesus, and that became really characteristic of this apostle. Now, let's look at John one beginning of verse 35. The context here is Jesus has just been baptized and we read in verse 35, of John one, "Again the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as He walked and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus." Now, traditionally, the identification of the two disciples was John the Evangelist, the beloved disciple that we've just talked about. And we know the other one for sure was Andrew, according to verse 40. So obviously, they wanted to know more. From the very lips of Jesus, they wanted to engage Jesus naturally, if somebody says, there's the Lamb of God, there's the Messiah. It's like, okay, let's go talk to the Messiah. That's what's going on here. And remember, again, the messianic expectations at this time was at a fever pitch. And we read "And Jesus turned and saw them following Him and said to them, 'What do you seek?' They said to Him, 'Rabbi, (which translated means teacher), where are you staying?'" In other words, let's don't talk here. We want to follow you. We want to go no, let's share a cup of coffee here. "And He said to them, 'Come, and you will see.' So they came and saw where He was staying. And they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the 10th hour." So Jesus was probably staying in some kind of a shelter in the wilderness. They didn't have, you know, Hiltons in those days. Sometimes they would rent places from other people, who knows where they stayed. But it was someplace obviously, where they could sit together and talk. You know, whenever I read these things, I just I, my imagination goes wild. What would that be like? To be able to sit down and talk with Jesus? Absolutely astounding. I mean, if it would have happened today, you know, the phones would be out, we'll be taking selfies, it'd be all over Facebook, right?

By the way, we'll know what it's like to talk with Jesus one of these days, won't we? Verse 40, says, "One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother." And then we read in verse 41. "He found first his own brother Simon, and said to him, 'We have found the Messiah,' (which translated means the Christ).

By the way, this is such a great test of genuine saving faith, isn't it? The first thing that people want to do when they truly come to saving faith in Christ is tell other people about Christ. Not about me, but what Christ has done for me and what he can do for you. By the way, just think about how you were introduced to Christ. Somebody had to tell you, right, somebody had to communicate to you. I remember growing up as a little boy, it was the constant conversation in my, in our house. My parents were always talking to me about Jesus. I remember when Dad bought a series of books about this wide, it was called the Book of Life. It was all kinds of age-appropriate Bible stories. And it started, you know, one for little kids, and then it got increasingly more difficult. And we read through those books and so it was just part of our family life, to talk about Jesus. And I had great Sunday school teachers and youth leaders and people that discipled me, and you all could tell the same story. And beloved, don't ever think that the only way you can be effective and serving Christ is by having some kind of a public teaching or preaching ministry, because that is just not true. We read with Andrew, there was never any indication that he never preached anybody, any of the multitudes, he never taught anybody, but he was always there introducing people to Christ as we will see. I remember I grew up with Nancy in a little, it's actually the first Swedish Baptist Church in the United States there in Moline, Illinois, a lot of the Swedes came to work for John Deere and so forth. Bethany Baptist Church, and I was trained by primarily godly little Swedish women with a Swedish accent. I remember one of my Sunday school teachers, Sallie Mae Land, and she was about probably five feet tall, I could probably pick her up with one arm. And I could still see her with the flannel graph board, teaching me about Jesus. I can think of Nancy and I, Mike Rutherford, if he was here. He's couldn't be here today. But he remembers some of these people, Francis and Ethel Becker and Ethel Peterson, Margaret Peterson, Ethel Pearson, and so on and so forth. I remember these godly Sunday school teachers that taught us that poured their lives into us. Now, I can't remember everything they taught me, but the Spirit of God uses that right? Little by little to bring us to a place of genuine saving faith and my how I thank God for you parents, and you, Sunday school teachers and youth leaders and all of you that are pouring your lives into other people. And that's what we see with Andrew and we need to take every added advantage of every opportunity to do that.

Verse 42, we read that Andrew "brought him to Jesus" and I love this. Andrew literally led his brother to Christ, right? That's what happens here. Andrew brought him to Jesus. And then I love this. "Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon, the son of John, you shall be called Cephas', (which is translated Peter). Well, that's a great way to be introduced, right? I mean, I'm sure there were some other things that were said. But that's what is recorded. And then it was several months later, after Jesus had gone to Jerusalem and cleansed the temple and stirred up the hornet's nest with all of the Jewish leaders that Jesus went back up to the north end of the Sea of Galilee up to Capernaum and called Peter, Andrew, James and John to leave their fishing career and follow Him as we read in Matthew four. And in Luke's account recorded in Luke five, Andrew's name was never ever even mentioned, and yet he was there. So he was the behind the scenes kind of guy. It's interesting, too, that he's always bringing people to Jesus. Another example, the feeding of the 5000, which is really about 25,000, if you included all of the rest that were there beyond just the men, everything was stressed. If you read the account, everything was chaotic. You got people everywhere. You're kind of out in the middle of no place, there's nothing to eat. You know, there's no food trucks pulling up, no place to go. Philip is in a panic. And he says in Matthew 14:15 "This is a deserted place and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away Jesus that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food." I love Jesus reply, they don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. Okay, and then we read in John six, nine what happened? Andrew comes on the scene. And he responds. "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish." In other words, let's just take what the Lord has provided and see what he does, right? This is all we got so let's go from here. You see a guy that's just got this settled confidence in the Lord this, just a faithful servant that trust the Lord and believes in his omniscience and his omnipotence to do what only He can do. I like to think of Andrew as the steady Eddy as we call them. The steady Eddy, that calm, decisive poised guy. He's always relaxed in God's sovereign care, doesn't get flustered; he just exudes strength and stability. He is the opposite of a person that gets panicked and flustered and running around like a chicken with their head cut off, you know, John 12, beginning of verse 20, we read of, of some Greeks, Gentiles, and they come to Philip and they ask Philip, to have him bring them to meet Jesus. And you can almost see if you read the account, Philip basically say, Oh my, these are Gentiles. Oh my, what are we going to do? Oh, my, what should I do? So what does Philip do? He goes to, you guessed it, Andrew. Verse 21, "Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn, Andrew and Philip, told Jesus. You know, as you think about it, ministry is filled with uncertainties, you never know what's going to happen. When the phone rings, I never know what's going to be on the other line. And it can be very stressful. And boy, it's so great to have people in the church that are calm, that are collected that are steady. You know, a steady hand at the helm of the ship, when the storm is blowing things every which way. And that was Andrew. I think of Apollo 13. Houston, we have a problem. And if Andrew was there, he would have said, I'll handle it. That's kind of who he was. We never see him complain about his position, his role. He's never tried to run under the spotlight. No indication that he wanted to make a name for himself. He you know, he's the type of servant that every pastor in every church longs to have. And by the way, we've got so many of you here at Calvary, I am so blessed, we are so blessed. He lived in the shadow of his brother, Peter. But yeah, he was a bold, decisive man. And he is to the church what stone is to a foundation. You cannot build without it. But you never know it's there. That's who Andrew was. I found that some of the most devastating forces in a church can be a person that is ambitious, that wants to make a name for themselves, that wants to be affirmed and promoted and so on and so forth. Spiritual bullies, rather than gentle shepherds. Those people will drive the sheep and not lead them and scatter them in every direction. Very, very dangerous. Oh, Andrew was the opposite of that. By the way, you show me a man or a woman who is willing to serve the Lord in obscurity, and I'll show you a man or a woman that God will use to change the world. And that's what we see here.

Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland. And one Scotsman Daniel McLean wrote this of him, "Gathering together the traces of character found in Scripture about Andrew, we find neither the writer of an epistle nor the founder of a church nor a leading figure in the apostolic age, but simply an intimate disciple of Jesus Christ, ever anxious that others should know the spring of spiritual joy and share the blessing he so highly prized. A man of very moderate endowment, who scarcely redeemed his early promise, simply minded and sympathetic without either dramatic power, or heroic spirit, yet with that clinging confidence in Christ, that brought him into that inner circle of the 12. A man of deep religious feeling, with little power of expression, magnetic more than electric, better suited for the quiet walks of life than the stirring thoroughfares. Andrew is the apostle of the private life, the disciple of the hearth." He's the type of man you want to sit around the fire with you know, build that fire in the mountains when the horses had been put away and you want to talk with Andrew. There's no record of him again preaching or founding a church never even mentioned in the book of Acts or the the epistles, but I praise God for all of the Andrews in my life and all of the Andrews here in this church, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, just so many people that serve in so many ways. By the way, what a contrast to his brother, right? Peter versus Andrew, what a contrast, yet what a team, a team that God used to change the world. I hope this gives you hope in what God can do in your life. Well In closing, tradition tells us that Andrew took the gospel north as far as Scythia. According to Eusebius, ancient historian, he was considered not only the patron saint of Scotland, but also of Russia. And he was eventually crucified in Achaia which is southern Greece, that would be somewhere near Athens. According to one account, quote, "he led the wife of a provincial Roman governor to Christ. And that infuriated her husband. He demanded that his wife recant her devotion to Jesus Christ, and she refused. So the governor had Andrew crucified. By the governor's orders, those who crucified Him lashed him to his cross instead of nailing him in order to prolong his sufferings." Tradition says it was a Saltire that's an X shape crossed, sometimes now it's called the Cross of St. Andrew. "By most accounts, he hung on the cross for two days, exhorting passer buys, to turn to Christ for salvation." Be fun to talk with Andrew someday won't it? What a legacy of godliness, a faithful soldier of the cross, that fought many, many battles that no one would ever even know anything about, except the all-seeing eye of his general. And now his reward is great beyond comprehension. Beloved, even as Jesus shaped these two men, he shaping us and we need to humble ourselves before his word and submit to His cleansing work in our lives. Amen? I wrote a little poem reflecting upon this and I'll close with this thought.

I stand in all of all my sin. Selfish lusts reside within, Nare does a new day dawn, but what my heart more sin doth spawn. Yet by His grace and gift of faith, my sins forgiven, the dead erased and slowly still, my life he shapes until like him, my soul, he makes. Let's pray together. Father, we rejoice in the miracle of regeneration. And that ongoing work of sanctification whereby you can form us evermore into the likeness of your precious son, our Savior. Thank you for the testimonies of these dear men that you called to be your apostles. And I pray that we like them will submit to your pruning work in our lives, that we might bear much fruit, to the praise of your glory, and for our eternal joy. And Father, if there be one here today that's living a life of ungodliness, a life of hypoxia, see, a life that is well known for its wickedness. I pray that you will break that heart and cause them to run to the foot of the cross and cry out for forgiveness for mercy, that you will grant so quickly and so freely to those who are truly broken over their sin. May today be the day that they will experience the miracle of the new birth. Thank you for your word. Thank you for its power in our lives changes evermore for the glory of Christ. For it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

We come now to our exposition of the Word of God and we find ourselves in Mark's gospel. So will you take your Bibles and turn there? Today we are in Mark chapter three. In the section between verses 13 and 19, we're not going to be able to look at all of them, but we will look at some of them. So if you will turn to Mark three, we will look at that text in a few minutes. But before we learn more about the apostles, I know that from phone calls I've received, and emails of a lot of you, have your hair on fire, because of all that's happened in our country. Here this this last week, you're stunned by the weaponization of the FBI and the Department of Justice and targeting political opponents with the uni-party that's a part of Washington now and the Biden regime and all of these things. And I know it's difficult, I understand that. But, you know, it's just a reminder that we live in a fallen world. And folks, America, as many of us have known it, certainly those of us who have grown up in the 60s and the 70s, in particular, it's over, it will never be what it once was. Sin is metastasizing in ways that are exponential at this point. And Satan is the god of this world, and this country is under divine judgment, the wrath of divine abandonment continues to manifest itself in a country that literally mocks God at levels that are now incomprehensible. So we need to understand that and be excited about the fact that these are great days for the gospel. The darker the night, the more brilliant the light, right? And I want to remind you that God has ordained to allow evil to exist in his universe in order to display his glorious perfections and accomplish his purposes and, but even in his permissive providence, when he allows these things to happen, just rest assured that he retains his sovereign control over all things, and his inherent goodness, never forget that. According to Isaiah 46, and verse 10, he declares, "the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.' That includes all of the chaos and wickedness that we see right now in our country. Ephesians 1:11, "He works all things after the counsel of His will." And I also want to remind you of Psalm two, a few verses there beginning in verse one, "Why are the nations in an uproar and the people's devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, 'Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!' He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury saying, 'But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.' He goes on to say, "Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way for His wrath may soon be kindles. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him." Beloved, we are aliens in this world. We are citizens of another kingdom. And the Lord is going to come and he is going to judge the nations of the world, He will establish His kingdom. I believe it will be a millennial kingdom on earth, which will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state and the eternal kingdom. And yes, we should be righteously indignant over all forms of wickedness that we see in the world and yes, we should expose evil. And yes, we need to vote. You know, all of those things are a part of what God would have us do as Christians. But we're also told to "be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And here's what we should be thinking about. He says, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence in anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things." And I love this last statement, "and the God of peace will be with you."

Alright, with this in mind, let's focus our attention on the glorious truths of God's word on the person in the work of Christ, our Savior, our coming King. Let me read the text to you here in Mark Three, beginning in verse 13. Jesus, "went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted and they came to Him. And he appointed 12, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the 12: Simon, (to whom he gave the name Peter) and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them, he gave the name Bonerges, which means 'Sons of Thunder'), and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." Now, may I remind you that what we're seeing here in Mark's gospel is a transition from Jesus public ministry, to his more private ministry, a private ministry whereby he is going to pour himself into the 12 apostles, and primarily just three of them. There's a fascinating ministry principle that we could glean here, let me touch upon it for a moment. And that is concentration produces multiplication, concentration produces multiplication; go deep with a few not shallow with the many. If you want to do great things with for God, you go deep, you don't go wide and shallow. And you focus primarily on key people. Jesus poured his life into 12 Men, three of them, in particular, Peter, James, and John. And then later on also the Apostle Paul. In fact, in Galatians, 1:16, and following, we read how Paul, after his conversion, the text says, "did not immediately consult with flesh and blood." In other words, he was not taught by other apostles or the disciples who were in Damascus during that time, where the he encountered persecution. You read about that in Acts nine. But he says, "I went away to Arabia," which is interesting, that's the same region where Moses and Elijah had communion with God centuries earlier. And then in verse 18, he says, "then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, the apostle Peter, and stayed with him for 15 days. So it would appear that Paul was alone with the Lord Jesus, he was learning, he was meditating. He was studying the Old Testament, and he was serving during that time as well. And he did this for three years before he went up to Jerusalem, which is interesting, because three years was the same amount of time that our Lord spent with his other apostles, and teaching them in the context of ministry and so forth. So it would appear that he was with the Lord Jesus during that time. So again, there's a great principle here, those who have had the greatest impact for the sake of the kingdom in the history of the world or those who went deep, not wide. And by the way, when I say deep, I'm not talking about depth in terms of theological acumen, necessarily, it's more depth in godliness. Men who committed to the pursuit of holiness, to enjoying God, levels of their being a life of worship and service and frankly, this must be the priority of every biblical, authentic Christian church. And I trust that as your priority. And as we examine these men that God ordained to serve as his apostles, we're gonna see many parallels in us, in terms of the bad things in particular, I mean, we're gonna see how that some of us shared their same temperaments, their character flaws, their habitual sins that become evident in their personalities, the way they react, and yet, we see also how God pruned the branches of their character, so that they would be able to bear more fruit as he continues to do in my life, and in yours by his loving grace.

So let's look at the text a little more closely, Mark three, verse 16. "And he appointed the 12." Now, bear in mind, now Jesus is always committed to doing the Father's will. And Jesus chose these 12 men only after a long season of prayer. Again, Luke 6:12 says, "And it was as at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God," verse 13, "He called His disciples to Him and chose 12 of them," that'd be 12 out of the many, "whom He also named apostles." I might remind you that the issue at stake was not so much who to choose, but he prayed for the men who were chosen. Very important distinction, and the Greek term, "dianuktereuo" in verse 12, which it says he spent the whole night, that term means to to endure a task throughout the night. And it's interesting, 12 men, 12 hours, I find that fascinating. He was praying for their mutual spiritual growth, their development, he was mediating on their behalf as their divine advocate. And here we see, frankly, a marvelous blending of Christ's humanity as well as his deity. So let's get to know these ordinary men, with an extraordinary calling. We're going to be able to look at two of them here this morning, not all of them.

So in verse 16, he says, "And he appointed the 12: Simon, (to whom he gave the name, Peter). Now, I want you to remember that Mark is just giving kind of a brief synopsis of Jesus's ministry here, and he tends to do this a lot, he's not going to go into great detail at this point. And so we're going to look at some of the snippets of information and use them as a launching pad, to look at some other passages of Scripture that help us understand more of who these men were and what was going on. So let's look first of all, at Peter in Matthew's gospel in chapter 10, verse two, we read, "Now the names of the 12 apostles are these: The first Simon, who is called Peter." Now, first of all, Simon Peter was a native of Bethsaida. He later moved to Capernaum, which is just kind of right down the road. He was a fisherman along with his father, John, who was also called Jonas and his brother Andrew. We know that he was married when Jesus called him. Paul comments in First Corinthians nine, five that indicated that Peter's wife traveled with him. And here in this text, and Matthew 10:2, it says, "The first," the "protos", the "protos" indicates foremost in rank. Now they were all equal in position, all except Judas Iscariot, they all have the same commission, they all have the same authority, they will all have power in the millennial kingdom. They will all judge the 12 tribes of Israel as we read in Matthew 19, and so on. But Peter was first or foremost in rank. In other words, Peter was the leader. No group can function without a leader. Whether it's a marriage, whether it's a company, a government, board of directors, even elders, in church, elders in the church, there needs to be a plurality of elders, but there will always be a leader, the pastor teacher will have the dominant voice. Sheep follow one shepherd. Primarily, they listen to one shepherd. They look to one shepherd, the dominant voice and frankly, anything in nature that has two heads is considered a freak. Churches with multiple pastors with ministry teams that lead the church, multiple men, constantly sharing the preaching and so forth. Those types of churches are inevitably weak, and sheep without a shepherd, and the sheep will tend to splinter off and follow different ones and it will cause factions and so forth. So, I mean, bottom line, if everybody's in charge, nobody's in charge. And so God put Peter as the leader.

Now, Peter's very name gives us a little bit of insight into his character, his common name given to him by his parents, was Simon bar Jonah, which means Simon, son of Jonah. But we know that in Matthew 16, verse 18, when Simon correctly answered Jesus question concerning his identification and said that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, at that point, Jesus changed his name to Peter, which by the way, is Cephas in Aramaic. Jesus said, "I also say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock," that is the truth of your confession, not upon you as the person as the Roman Catholics falsely believed. But upon the truth of your confession, "I will build my church." And Peter means rock, or stone. So from the beginning, the Lord clearly made him the leader, the spokesman of the 12, even though, even though the Lord saw all of his flaws, especially his instability, his cowardice, and so forth. I always laugh when I think of this when the Lord saved me, he knew all of my flaws. He knew all the stupid and sinful things that I would do and yet he still saved me and continues to work in my life as he does you. Well, that's what was going on here with Peter. And perhaps this is why the Lord gave him such a name. To give him some some confidence to become something strong and, and unwavering. I mean, even as parents, I mean, we don't nickname our kids silly names. I remember this one kid, his mama called him sweet thing all the time. Sweet thing, I thought my poor guy, by the way, he kind of grew up to be a sweet thing. I mean, you know, there's, there's something about that name. And, you know, you don't call your kid bonehead or Buttercup or, I mean you want to give them a name that's good. And I think that's what was going on with, with what the Lord did. And it's amazing to read the various scenarios involving Peter found in the New Testament, you know, when you look at the scenarios, you would think this would be the last guy that Jesus would want to pick to be the leader of his apostles. I mean, he was overly confident, he was unloving, he was impetuous, proud, domineering, he was ignorant and in terms of just being dense, and cowardly, unstable. Think about it. He was the only apostle that Jesus rebuked by calling him Satan. It's pretty strong. He was a ready fire aim, kind of guy. His mind was always trying to catch up with his mouth. Someone said he had a foot shaped mouth, I can understand that. And the other disciples must have been dumbfounded when Jesus named him Peter, you know, rock, really? I mean, I can see maybe horseradish, you know? Because that's kind of how he would come across a lot of times like horseradish and hothead, loose cannon, but stone really? okay. And no other apostle was reproved as often as Peter, or as sternly as Peter. In fact, when the Lord would rebuke him, he would call him Simon, not Peter. In fact, in John's gospel, John calls him Simon Peter 17 times perhaps this was a way to reflect the old character and of his dear friend with the new. But over time, Peter's, exaggerated self confidence was turned into humble dependence. "I will never forsake you, Lord". Well, we know what happened and the Lord changed him through that. His vacillating cowardice would eventually be transformed into steadfast, bold love that would cause him to, to even go to a cross for the Savior. And his impetuosity was eventually transformed into Christ like restraint. I mean, for a guy to stand in front of 600 men and a Roman cohort and take a sword and cut off one of their ears. I mean, that's kind of stupid, right? Well, the Lord changed all of that, and gave him self control; that domineering hutzpah that he had, I mean, he would actually rebuke the Lord. Can you imagine that? Well, the Lord melted all of that into a man with a tender, humble submission to the master will washed his feet. And that loud kind of brash mouth of his was transformed into a fearless preacher of the gospel. And his ignorance about spiritual things was replaced by the marvelous revelations that came from the incarnate Christ himself. But I might also add that the Lord did not change, Peter, without Peter's own contribution to that change in the sense that he didn't just let go and let God as you hear people say at time, that's a very dangerous statement. We are told to walk by the Spirit, right? We're told to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we're told to flee from sexual immorality. We're told that Paul told Timothy to pursue righteousness, and we are to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, Second Corinthians seven, one, and so forth. So we are to put to death, the deeds of the body were to mordify the flesh. And so by God's working in us, we also obey his commands. Romans 8:13, Paul said, "I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." So the process of sanctification also requires our involvement to be obedient to the to the Word and the will of God to faithfully obey what he has commanded, and then he faithfully blesses us. Passive Christians never really produce the type of fruit in their life that they should, because they're just not engaged in the whole process of sanctification. Philippians two, verse 12, you're familiar with this, we are to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure." In other words, the work that we do is the effect of what God is doing in us. In fact, the term "work out" literally means to continually, the Greek grammar, means to continually work to bring something to fulfillment or something to completion. And so because God works, we work. It's an amazing mystery. And we do it in fear and trembling, in other words, with an attitude of legitimate fear of offending our holy God, combined with a sense of awe and respect for who he is, and all that he has done, is doing and will do.

Now, Peter's spiritual growth, as I thought about it, really revolved around three commitments. I want to share these with you, because I think they can be beneficial to all of us, as we grow in Christ, first of all, and this is so obvious that it's easy to overlook it. He was a follower of Christ. He was a follower of Christ, Matthew four 19. Remember Jesus, He comes, He sees Peter and Andrew, they're casting the net and into the Sea of Galilee. And he says, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." And we read that they "immediately left their nets and they followed him." Luke 5:11, "they forsook all and followed him." I mean, that's commitment. Today, many people will follow culture, they will follow tradition, but they're not really following Christ. They show up for church, but they're kind of fairweather Christians. It's kind of Sunday in the South. When the battle gets difficult, they're nowhere to be found. When their sin gets exposed, when they're confronted in some way, they find another church or they stop going all together and they follow their flesh. Now beloved, our number one priority, as believers to become a faithful follower of Christ, not a casual observer, not a spectator, but one who knows him intimately, and who obeys Him completely. So we need to position ourselves in the middle of kingdom activity. And watch what God will do. It's interesting Paul wanted to be near the master, or I should say Peter wanted to be near the master. He wanted to be on the front line of the battle. He wanted to be shall we say the tip of the spear This is what makes a good leader you can't lead troops from the rear. You can't lead troops into battle if your way back in the back. You must stand in front, remain in the fray. You must be the last one standing when the dust settles and the smoke clears and for Peter, everything else in life had to be submitted to this commitment. He gave up his career, his pleasures, his personal dreams and aspirations. And he understood the cost of discipleship that it might take him to a cross and eventually it did. So he was a follower of Christ. Are you?

Secondly, he was a searcher of truth. If you study his life, you'll see that he's always asking questions many times they were self centered questions. Many times they were immature questions. Seldom did he receive the answer that he wanted. But he was always asking questions always learning. I'm reminded of Proverbs one five "A wise man will hear and increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel," verse 20 goes on to say, "Wisdom shouts in the street." Verse 22, she utters her saying, "How long O naive ones will you love being simple minded, and scoffers delight themselves and scoffing and fools hate knowledge." He goes on to say in verse 32, of Proverbs one, "For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them, but he who listens to me shall live securely, and will be at ease from the dread of evil." Beloved, you will never be useful for the sake of the kingdom unless you sit at the Master's feet, unless you immerse yourselves in the Word of God. And you'll certainly never be a leader. The spiritual self discipline of learning and applying the Word of God in your life has to be a priority. And that is the pathway that is the prerequisite to godliness, and especially all that want to be involved in, in some kind of activities. We all need to be involved in ministry, but especially if you're going to be involved in leadership, you need to apply yourself and discipline yourself to that end. That's why I tell every one of you you need to have a MacArthur Study Bible. I mean, if you don't have that, that's like a real priority, because that will give you the great doctrinal explanations of those passages, along with other things that you can use. I have a well equipped gym at my place that our family and friends will use, my grandson's in particular, and I have told them on a number of occasions, guys, make sure you're spending as much time working on your mind and your heart as you are your body, which is going to get old and deteriorate and pass away. All right? You need to grow mentally, spiritually and physically, don't get out of balance. And how sad to see great athletes who have spent their life training their body but they neglect their mind and their heart and the great doctrines of godliness and blessing. First Timothy four remember what Paul told Timothy in beginning in verse six, "Be a good servant of Christ, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine, which you have been following." I mean, there's your priority, "but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women," which by the way, was an epithet denoting the aberrant beliefs. Today, it would be you know, the silly things like urban legends and blogs and websites and conspiracy theories and enneagrams, you know, those types of goofy things that people get caught up in, going out into the woods with a pen and paper and waiting to have some word come to you and writing it down as if that's somehow God speaking to you, man, talk about neglecting the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture, or being involved in silly things like, you know, the channeling of what's her name, Sarah Young and Jesus calling and all of those ridiculous things that people get caught up in. So he says, "Have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women." But then he says, "On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline," could be translated exercise, "is only a little profit." By the way, I want to add it's of some profit All right. So you know you do you need to have some physical exercise. But it's a little profit, "but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise to the present life and also for the life to come." Well, Peter learned to do this over the course of his life. You know, growing and the grace and the knowledge of Christ your friends has to be just the number one priority of your life and you have to do everything you can to do that. Remember what Jesus told Martha in Luke 10:41, "Martha, Martha you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only a few things are necessary, really only one." Then he says, "For Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." And the good part was listening to the words of Jesus with an open heart and mind. Peter we know, longed for divine revelation. He fed upon it, he never assumed he knew at all. That's why he said in First Peter two two that we are, "to be like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation." And certainly, an infant's milk from Mama's breast as a matter of life and breath are life and death. And the child needs it just like we need the word of God. In fact, Peter's last words in his second epistle, second, Peter 3"18. He says, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forevermore. Amen." And I think of the apostle Paul, he's about to be executed. He is in a Roman prison and what did he ask for? In Second Timothy 4:13. He said, "Bring me my cloak," because he was cold, "and the books especially the parchments." In other words, bring me my Bible. The books is reference to the Old Testament papyrus the scrolls and the parchments were the the vellum sheets, made of treated animal hides, probably copies of letters that he had written, maybe even blank sheets for writing other letters, that was his priority, all the way to the end. So Peter was a follower of Christ. He was a searcher for truth.

And he was also a joyful sufferer number three, John 21. If we go there, we would read how Jesus promised him that someday he would die on a cross. And yet for 40 years he faithfully ministered knowing that that would be how he would finish his life. And in light of that, he said in First Peter, four beginning of verse 13, "To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also with the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." He goes on to say in verse 16, "If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name, let him glorify God....Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls, to a faithful Creator and doing what is right." I love to think about this. I mean, despite his failures, despite the Lord's loving rebukes, despite the relentless criticism and personal attacks, when he preached, he never gave up. And he never complained, he continued to follow Christ. And he did so with joy because he never lost his fellowship with Christ. The early church father Eusebius, in his what's called the Ecclesiastical History, describes Peters crucifixion. There we read that he was forced to watch his wife being crucified, and he was at the foot of her cross, constantly repeating, "Remember the Lord, Remember the Lord, Remember the Lord," until she died. And it is said that Peter felt unworthy to be crucified as the Lord. So he asked to be crucified, upside down. Now only the Spirit of God can do that kind of a work in a human being. So he was a joyful sufferer. And what a marvelous testimony of God's transforming power. And this should be a great comfort to all of us Simon's in the world, right? To see what God can do. In the guy like Peter, I can't wait to talk with him someday. I can't wait. I mean, God can and will use anyone who submits to him completely.

Next, Mark three verse 16. Again, and we read, "He appointed the 12: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter) and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means "Sons of Thunder"). Now again, Peter, James and John, were the three most intimate companions of the Lord during His earthly ministry, they were in his inner circle. And they were the ones in whom the Lord invested most of his time shaping them into his glorious image. Examples to all of us. So as we think of James and John, we think of, I don't know the dynamic duo here. I mean, they were the sons of thunder. They came from the sons of Zebedee, they are a prominent family. Some evidence in early church records indicates that Zebedee may have been a Levite and closely related to the family of the high priest. James was the elder brother. Perhaps he thought he should have been the leader of the group. But Scripture would indicate that he was second in command to Peter. And while James, like all of us had many sinful issues to deal with, we see that God just continued to work in his life. And most of his issues fell under a couple of broad categories in his life that the Lord had to change. First of all, he had to learn to rule his emotions rather than them ruling him. I can't identify with that at all. Maybe you can. But this was certainly an issue for him. If you look at lots of passages in Scripture, you see that James and his brother John, were both hard charging, in your face kind of guys. They were passionate. They were zealous, they were fiery, fervent. They were hot blooded guys. That's why Jesus nicknamed them Sons of Thunder. They were the go ahead and make my day kind of guys. All right, that's kind of who they were. Remember, Jesus gave Simon the name Peter, referring to "rock" to shape his personality, and keep it from vacillating towards cowardice and to be steadfast in the faith. Well, perhaps he did the same thing here with with James and John calling them Sons of Thunder. Maybe he did this humorously to gently and perhaps get them to harness their passions, tone down their rhetoric a little bit. We can't say for sure. But we know as we study the life of James that he was very outspoken, He was impatient. He was very similar to Peter. He was a ready fire than aim kind of guy. He would shoot first and ask questions later, as we're going to see, this is a very dangerous and sinful aspect of, of his character that God had to change. We go to Luke nine for example, we read how the Jesus and the guys were traveling through Samaria region, a pagan idolatry, just so that you remember the Jews intermarried with the pagans after the Assyrian captivity, and they embraced that ecumenical spirit that mixed Judaism with mysticism and paganism, and kind of created a mongrel race and religion that the Jews despise. They call us, we'll call them unclean, they would walk many miles around Samaria to get to where they were going. And so there was this mutual disdain and hatred that the Samaritans had for the Jews and vice versa. And scripture records many examples of, of the wickedness that existed in this region. Remember, Ahab and Jezebel had a wicked son, Hosea. And he tried on a couple of occasions to kill his nemesis, Elijah, who would call down fire and killed Elijah did that two times remember? Well, James and John, they remembered this, okay. He wanted to well, Elijah wanted to consume his captors, and, and instantly incinerating them and, you know, reducing them to ashes. You read about this in Second Kings one. But Jesus loved these people. He wanted them to come to faith in Christ. And so he's going through the region, the Samaritans offered him no hospitality. And so, James and John remembering the Old Testament, and the precedent of Elijah thought that they had a remedy for that blasphemy. So we read in Luke 9:54, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?" In other words, Lord, can we nuke them? You know, that's what he wanted to do. But Jesus "turned and rebuked him and said, 'You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And it says, "and they went on to another village." Now James and John must have been shocked with this whole deal. I mean, is this how you handle unfair treatment, you just kind of move on and wait for something else to happen? There was such profound wisdom in Jesus words and how easy it is, by the way, for us to let some unkind, acrimonious remark from someone, or some unfair, hurtful situation, turn us into just an angry revengeful type of a person and look for a beachhead for revenge and then call it righteous indignation. When in fact, it's just wounded pride, our agenda has been derailed. And that was the case with them. So we all have to examine our motives. And as I say, don't throw your dog in every fight saving for the big ones, right? But that's not how they were, I've had to learn this the hard way. You know, I seldom get really angry. But when I must, I want to make sure that it's for the Lord's sake and not for mine. So even when defending the honor of Christ we have to be careful to measure our emotions.

Well, the point is, the Sons of Thunder needed to learn the priority of love and patience, especially when presenting the gospel. They needed to learn how to rule their passions, their emotions, rather than letting them rule them. They needed to learn how to bridle their emotions and harness their zeal and their wisdom. And that was not a time for judgment, however, the time would come. But now Jesus had come to seek and to save sinners. In John 12:46, we read "I have come as a Light into the world that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world." Now, as a footnote, several years later, we know according to Acts eight five that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. Certainly many of those who had rejected Jesus earlier would have heard his preaching would have been in his audience. And then we read this, "The multitudes with one accord, he did the thing spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city." James and John had to learn a lesson the hard way, didn't they? We cannot despise our mission field. God's timing is always perfect. So Jesus helped James to rule his emotions, to temper, his zeal and passion give him tenderness. He had to learn the meaning of Exodus 34, six, "God is merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding and goodness and truth." And Ezekiel 33:11, we read that he has, "no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather the wicked turn away from his way and live." And as we see, James, and the Sons of Thunder, began to learn this, as the master gently shaped their self centered religious zeal and help them control their passions. So not only did he have to deal with his emotions, but secondly, you had to replace selfish ambition with humility. He had to learn what is meant in Luke 18:14 "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Now, here, I would take you back in the New Testament, remember the story, in Matthew 20. And we're going to come to it eventually in Mark 10. And there James and John enlist their mother to secretly ask Jesus, if her sons could sit on his right and left sides when He ascended the throne in the kingdom. All right, a little politicking going on in the background. And because of their affluence, they were able to follow after Jesus, they were able to minister to him and so because of that, they were in the inner circle. They I mean, after all, they witnessed the transfiguration. They're on the mound with Jesus. And mom was a faithful follower, faithful servant, come from this prominent family, the Zebedees, so it would be easy to assume that this would be an appropriate request. The problem was their motives were selfish. And so they sought to exalt themselves and Jesus of course saw right through it. So we read Matthew 20, beginning of verse 20. "Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with their sons bowing down and making a request of Him. And He said to her, 'What do you wish?' She said to Him, 'Command that in Your kingdom, these two sons of mine might sit, one on your right and one on your left.' But Jesus answered, 'You do not know what you are asking, are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink?' They said to Him, 'We are able.' He said to them, 'My cup you shall drink, but to sit at My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My father.' And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers." So the other guys heard about this. And, you know, they were upset. And I would imagine they were upset because they were thinking the same things about themselves right, as that's probably what was going on, so their displeasure was probably fueled by jealousy. I mean wherever you see strife, you can back up and you can see jealousy and pride. In fact, often in Scripture, we see jealousy and strife mentioned together. In fact, this was the same silly debate that they were having at the Last Supper, remember the same type of thing. Verse 25, of Matthew 20, goes on to say, "But Jesus called them to Himself and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come, to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.'" Beloved, we must all guard ourselves against selfish ambition, against jealousy, trying to seek a place of prominence, whether it's in the church or trying to be the star of the Sunday school class, or whatever it is, you have to guard against that, you know, guard against positioning yourself to be seen or to be heard. I mean, all this Facebook, I mean, that's what Facebook does, primarily, it preys upon people who are desperate for affirmation and so forth. And eventually, if you feel like you're underappreciated, eventually your secret resentment will become public. And it will cause divisions within a fellowship, as was the case with James and John again, Matthew 20:24. "And hearing this the 10 became indignant with the two brothers." If we look at First Peter five, in verse five, Peter warned the persecuted saints of this very thing and he focuses on the younger men. Because we tend to be this way, I should say, you I'm not in the younger man anymore, but I am in the man category. "You younger man, likewise be subject to your elders. And all of you clothe yourselves with humility", in the original language, it carries the idea of tying on something with a knot as a slave would his apron, in other words, put on humble service, "clothe yourselves with humility toward one another for God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you." So by the Lord's gentle hand of discipline, he continued to work in his life. And James was gradually conformed more into the image of his master. He learned to control his emotions, he learned to replace selfish ambition with humble service, in fact, in Acts 12, in the final chapter of James's life, we read this beginning in verse one. "Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James, the brother of John with the sword." In other words, he was beheaded. "Because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to sieze Peter also." And of course, we know that angel came and delivered Peter and that didn't happen. But James was the first of the 12 to be killed for his faith.

Herod Agrippa, the first the nephew and successor of Herod Antipas, who killed John the Baptist, put Jesus on a trial. I mean, that's kind of the whole group there that we're talking about. And you will recall how the Lord took out his vengeance later on. In fact, those of you who go with me to Israel, we're going to be in this very amphitheater there in Caesarea. But you will recall how Herod arrayed himself, the text says, and royal apparel and he sat on his throne and he gave an oration to all of them while he was in the amphitheater, in Acts 12:22, "The people kept shouting 'The voice of a god and not of a man! And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died." Folks never take the sword of God's vengeance out of his hand. Vengeance is Mine, saith the LORD. And God is far more creative in the way that he brings about vengeance than you could ever imagine. And certainly, this is what happened. It's fascinating, as we think of the radical change that took place in James and his brother as well. Eusebius, who's one of the early church historians gives us an account of James's execution that came from Clement of Alexandria. Let me read this to you as we draw this to a close this morning. Quote, "Clement says that one who led James to the judgment seat, when he saw him bearing his testimony was moved, and confessed that he was himself also a Christian. They were both therefore," he says, "lead away together. And on the way he begged James to forgive him. And James, after considering a little said, 'Peace be with you' and kissed him. And thus they were both beheaded at the same time."

Well, dear friends, it's amazing to see the power of God work in the redeemed, regardless of how dysfunctional, sinful, whatever we might be, God can take us and he can mold us into men and women that can be used mightily for the sake of the kingdom. John MacArthur summarize James's life so poignantly, he said "James wanted a crown of glory, Jesus gave him a cup of suffering. He wanted power, Jesus gave him servanthood, he wanted a place of prominence, Jesus gave him a martyr's grave. He wanted to rule, Jesus gave him a sword not to wield, but to the be the instrument of his own execution." So my friends, we can rejoice that God is working in all of us in ways that we can't even imagine as he continues to conform us into the image of Christ, we must all be deeply moved by this. And we must do all that we can to submit ourselves to the Spirit's work in our heart, that we might become more conformed into the likeness of Christ. And to be able to enjoy all that is ours in him to the praise of his glory, amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these reminders of your work and in these men that you chose to be the foundations of the church. I pray that we will learn much as we look at their lives and rejoice in the ways that you worked in them knowing that you are at work in us in the same way. To this end, we rejoice we give you thanks. In Jesus name. Amen.