Okay, again, welcome to our continuing
Bible study in Luke. We're going to back up to the
close of chapter 19 for some context here as we look at our
lesson today from the beginning of chapter 20. If you recall from our previous
lessons, Jesus had came into Jerusalem and wept over the city
as He approached it. and forecast what was going to
happen to them that turned out to be brought to pass in 70 AD
when the Romans reacted to the revolt that went on among the
Jews and surrounded the city of Jerusalem and laid it under
siege for several months. And the carnage was just awful,
the death and the The circumstances were just hard to imagine from
starvation and from those that escaped the city they captured
and crucified and those that remained in the city were beset
by robbers and brigands and starvation and it was an awful situation
there. And concerning the temple, he
said, in verse 44 of chapter 19, "...and shall lay thee even
with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not
leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest
not the time of thy visitation." There he was right in the midst
of them, and yet they didn't realize that the kingdom of God
was within them. So he came into the temple, in
verse 45, And he went into the temple, and began to cast out
them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying to them,
It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but you've made
it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the
scribes and the Chief of the people sought to destroy him
and could not find what they might do for all the people were
very attentive to hear him so they they had said in their heart
that they wanted to destroy this Jesus who was an interloper and
and came into their temple and threw out the money changers.
And John said, those that bought and sold, those that sold ox
and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. And they said, who are you? And so that brings
us to Our lesson today from John chapter 20. Remember in Luke 19, he said
he daily taught in the temple. In verse 1 of chapter 20, it
came to pass that on one of those days, as he taught the people
in the temple, and preached the gospel." Boy, what a key word
there, the very Lord of Glory in the temple preaching the gospel.
The chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders
and spake unto him saying, tell us, by what authority doest thou
these things? Or who is he that gave thee this
authority? And he answered and said unto
them, I will also ask you one thing and answer me. The baptism
of John, was it from heaven or of men? And they reasoned within
themselves, saying, well, if we shall say from heaven, he
will say, why then believed ye him not? But if we say of men, all the
people will stone us, for they be persuaded that John was a
prophet. And they answered that they could
not tell whence it was. And Jesus said unto them, neither
tell I you by what authority I do these things." Pretty telling
scripture there. There's quite a lot to unpack
in that small group of sentences there. You know, the text just shows
us that those opposed to Christ They'd been presented with truth
after truth, and yet they willingly denied it and turned away from
it. And that's just an effect of the fall. It's just an effect
of sin that we're brought to deal with. You know,
the truth was really revealed in Luke chapter 19, verse 47.
They sought to destroy him. That was their aim. That was
what they wanted to do. But they really couldn't do it
because there was just too many people around. And we kind of
peeked ahead in Luke a little bit where Judas came and said,
well, you know, we need to find a time when there's not so many
people around if you want to arrest him, because it's going
to be mayhem if we arrest him when there's a multitude around
him. It's going to be bad. So they came at him at night
and in a private place when everybody had gone to bed. So, you know,
the facts, they appear so plain, yet without the new birth, there's
just no possibility of laying hold on them. And actually the
reverse is actually the case. There's no desire for the truth. There's hatred for the truth.
That's what these religious leaders, that's what these elders, these
priests were faced with. The truth had been presented to them
over and over and over again, and yet They had no desire for
it and they actually hated it. There's nothing new today. It's kind of unambiguous how
people react to the gospel. They either love it or they're
violently opposed to it. And those that are violently
opposed to it have mostly tried to alter it to make it fit within
the scheme of man's thinking. But still, it's our responsibility
to lay out and declare the facts of the gospel and then just leave
the results to God. And that's a hard thing to do.
It just seems like we always think we just need to do something
more to make it more effectual. And it's our natural inclination
to try to make it that way. And it takes a lot of trust in
God just to lay out the gospel and then say, I've done what
I can. And as Paul wrote to those Thessalonians,
he says, man, the gospel came to you not in word only, but
in power and in the Holy Spirit. And that's what it takes to make
it effectual. It's interesting that since Jesus
didn't really participate in the usual religious training
schools, I remember Paul said he sat at the feet of Gamaliel,
who was a professor of the law back in those days, and Jesus
didn't do any of that. And he wasn't an officially qualified
minister in their view, although they called him master and rabbi
and things. But they kind of did it out of
disingenuousness, I think would be the term. They didn't really
recognize his background. And they deemed it impossible
that he was really even legitimate. And in the old nature, through
natural wisdom, we'd seek to delegitimize what we've heard
regardless of the evidence. That can't be true. God would
never do that. God loves everybody. He wouldn't
do that. Well, the scriptures tell us
over and over again, yes he would. He is a pretty sovereign, and
we have a hard time grasping that in our natural condition.
You know, in the new birth, the truth is revealed, and what
we've strived against now becomes life. It now becomes precious
to us, now becomes the very words of Thou hast the
words of life. Where would we go without that?
And in our old nature, we choose to disregard what we don't believe, or what's contrary to just our
natural view. You know, those leaders who came
to Jesus, they didn't come to hear the truth. He was daily
teaching in the temple. they came with a scheme in mind.
They didn't come to hear the truth and believe, but to try
and gain an advantage over Christ by trying to obtain an incriminating
statement and through intimidation to discourage further activity
by Him. Isn't that Isn't that interesting
how they could rationalize that in spite of everything that they'd
seen and heard? Certainly he was no mystery to
them. I mean, he'd been around for
several years now and doing all kinds of miracles, raising people
from the dead and healing the blind and the lepers and all
kinds of miracles, and yet they couldn't see it. And they
think, isn't it just always amazing to me how people try to put Jesus
and the Lord in a position of smallness in that, well, I can
fool Him. He won't know what I'm thinking.
And yet time after time the scripture says, he says, you believe not
because you're not my sheep or my sheep and I know my sheep
and you are not one of them and all those things that he presented
to them and how little they understood of him despite all that he'd
done. You'd think that, you know, that they would be capable of
saying, well, He raised Lazarus from the dead not two miles from
here, but we want to kill him too. That was their thinking. But you know the scripture just
comes home to us over and over and over and over again that
unless a man be born again he can't see the kingdom of God.
He can't get a glimmer of it, as Norm said this morning. It's
completely gone to them. There's not a hint of it. And,
you know, they question his authority and from whom it's given. And
boy, religion is really really focused on this a lot. You have
to go, you know, in place where we've gone to in the past, some
young man would come forward and say, well, I think I'm, I
think I have a desire to be a preacher. And so right away, they pack
him up and send him off to some place. We won't mention any names, but
they send him off to some religious facility where they turn out
more and more of what they are. And, you know, they involve them
in psychology and psychiatry and emotional manipulation. And the list just goes on and on.
And how little they focus on the actual gospel and leaving
the results up to God. And yet they They say, well,
you have to have these credentials in order to be a preacher of
the gospel. You need to have that D.R. behind
your name, or you need to have this, whatever initials they
give you after you graduate from one of these institutes. And
John the Baptist was the same way. Well, he can't be a preacher
of the gospel. Look at him. Look at him. Where's the suit? Where's the
miter and the glossy robe and all the paraphernalia? Yeah,
the Rolex, the glitter and all that stuff. And Jesus pointed
out, you know what? He's just a man in rough garment. So the outside presentation doesn't
really mean that much. It's what they declare, who they
are, and preaching the gospel. And that's what John did, and
we'll look at that here in a minute. You know, they have the same
tactics of denial by all unbelievers in our natural condition. They
question authority. Who gave you authority to teach
this? And, you know, David wrote about
that in the Psalm 14. The fool said in his heart, there's
no God. They're corrupt. They've done
abominable works. There's none that doeth good. And that's where
these religious folks were that were approaching Jesus. They
didn't recognize Him as the Lord. They didn't recognize Him as
the Messiah. They didn't recognize Him as anything but an interloper
who was disrupting their established way of doing things, and their
established power, their established economy. And they didn't want to deviate.
They wanted things to go on in the same old consistent way that
they were used to and where they had the authority and they had
all the control and they dictated the way things were and he didn't
fall into any of those categories and you know the very truth hampered
their efforts but it really didn't change their hearts or their
outlooks. They wanted to have their way
with him but they They were hindered for the time being because it
wasn't yet His time. And He said that over and over
again. My time is not yet. So until the prescribed time
by God Almighty, according to His determinate counsel, they
weren't going to be able to do that. But their decision was
already made. Their hearts were already set
in what they wanted to do, and they only lacked the opportunity
to implement their desire. And Jesus knew fully well, apart
from the work of the Holy Spirit and regeneration, no amount of
arguing was going to overcome a deceitful heart in a fallen
person. You know, when they said, by
what authority do you do this? He didn't say, well, let's see.
Were you guys there when I raised Lazarus from the dead? Were you
guys there when I healed the blind? Were you guys there when
I read from the scripture that this day these scriptures are
fulfilled in your ears? All these things that I've done,
all these things that I've demonstrated. And then he says, you have Moses
and the prophets and the psalm. Moses wrote of me. You have all that. He didn't
bother with that because they already had it. And they wouldn't
believe because they couldn't believe and they desired not
to believe. They seemed to be in control. and to be prospering
in their corrupt activities. And he was just a disruption
that they just wanted seriously to be rid of. And, you know,
Job spoke about that by the Spirit in Job 21. And this is pertinent
to the church today because we're just faced with the same kind
of thing. There's nothing new under the sun. In Job 21, verse
7 through 14, Wherefore do the wicked live
and become old, yea, and are mighty in power? Boy, we just
see that today. It's so glaring. Their seed is
established in their sight with them, and their offspring before
their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear,
neither is the rod of God upon them. It doesn't seem to be anyway
to us, from our natural viewpoint. We look at things and say, boy,
why doesn't God just turn them into charcoal? But, you know,
He has a determinate counsel and purpose in everything that
occurs. Herod and Pontius Pilate and
the Jews and the people were gathered together to do what
he had before determined to be done. All those things would
have to happen. Their houses are safe from fear,
neither is a rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth, and
faileth not their cow calves, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little
ones like a flock, and their children dance, and they take
the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They
spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.
Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire
not the knowledge of thy ways." Depart from us. We're doing fine. Isn't that what natural man says?
I don't need God. I'm doing just fine by myself. Look at all the stuff I have.
Look at how well I'm doing. Depart from us. And again, the
core issue lies in the fallen nature of man. No ability, no
desire. It's what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, and neither can he know them,
because they're spiritually discerned. And you could underline that
and highlight it, because it just means exactly what it says.
There's no ability there in spiritual things. Absolutely none. In Hebrews 4, when he's writing
about those ones in the wilderness that died in the wilderness,
and he said the gospel was preached unto them as well as unto us.
They had all of the gospel presented to them, and yet it didn't profit
them not being mixed with faith and them that heard it. this faith, this total reliance
on Christ for salvation. Their hearts were just not there.
Their hearts were still in their natural condition for most of
them, except for a very few. They all died in the wilderness
that generation. They all died in the wilderness. John 8.43 says, why do you not
understand my speech? What Jesus said to those... And
it's something that we have trouble with as born-again believers
and ones that are really believers in sovereign grace and the power
of that. And we say things that are right
out of the Scripture. And like Jesus, why do you not
understand my speech? because you cannot hear my word. The same problem with, as in
John chapter 3.3, it says, unless man be born again, he can't see
the kingdom of God, he can't enter the kingdom of God, and
he can't even hear the words. That's why in typology where
he says he gives hearing to the deaf, and sight to the blind,
those things picture what needs to be overcome in natural man
to receive the gospel. Their ears have to be open. Their ears have to be unstopped
because there's examples of that in the Old Testament where someone
was preaching the gospel and they stopped up their ears and,
I don't want to hear that. They desire not that knowledge. You know, what had John said,
back to our text here in Luke chapter 20, they said, by what
authority are you throwing our money changers out of the temple
and wrecking everything and disrupting our very economy and our way
of life and all of our Our corrupt schemes that we have going who
give you the authority to do that and who told you that you
could teach in the temple in that gentile court remember we
had that the court of the gentiles and the that partition wall that
went around there that kept the gentiles from going up to the
next elevation where the the court of the Jews were, and what
did John say that they couldn't admit to? What did John say when
he was in Jordan baptizing and he was going around declaring
the gospel? That Christ was the Messiah, the sent one. Behold the Lamb of God. He said, there he is. Behold the Lamb of God. that
taketh away the sin of the world," John 1, 29. And they said, well,
if we deny John, all the people think he's a prophet. And so
if we deny him, they're going to stone us. They won't be happy
with us. But he was one who declared the
gospel. His predecessors, said, someone
is coming. That's where one of Norm's messages
on Sermon Audio, all the Old Testament was someone's coming
all the way up to Malachi. And then we have John the Baptist
saying, someone's here. One who declared the gospel.
Yet few believed and and you know John was there could have
been some of these very people that were approaching Christ
who came to John in the in the Jordan when he was baptizing
and said hey we'd like to get in on some of that seems to be
pretty popular and he says generation of vipers who has warned you
to flee from the wrath to come he's bring bring me some evidence
of repentance before I before I engage in baptism with you.
Bring me some fruit." And, of course, they couldn't really
do that. They couldn't admit that John
presented a great truth in spite of the evidence. John delivered
the gospel straight out of the Old Testament, which they claimed
to uphold. They claimed to be the dispensers
of that. They only dispensed it in the
way that profited them and that suited their needs and kept people
under control that they exerted over them. In Luke 3, verse 4,
it says, As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias
the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. That's what John said. He quoted
them right out of the book of Isaiah. He said, that's who I
am, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. You know, when
I was studying for this, I was going back to the gospel of Malachi,
and he kind of foretold exactly what was now transpiring as recorded
in Luke. So let's go back to Malachi chapter
1. Malachi 1 won the burden of the
word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. He was to present this
word of the Lord, this gospel. He was to declare it, to preach
it. And so what does the Lord say
through him? I have loved you, saith the Lord,
yet you say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord? Yet I love Jacob." He had eternal
love for the Jacobs, for the church, and eternal hatred for
Esau. Remember, Esau was the father
of the Edomites. And if we remember back to our
previous lesson in Luke, that Herod was an Idumeano, which
was the Greek term for Edomite. And Herod was forty and six years
in building the temple, and yet he was of this tribe that the
Lord hated. I hated Esau, and laid his mountains
and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness." Verse
3 of Malachi 1. Whereas Edom saith, we're impoverished,
but we will return and build the desolate places. Thus saith
the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down.
So Herod built this temple up 46 years, and the Lord says,
this is going to not be one stone laid upon another. It's going
to be torn down. They shall build, but I will
throw down, and they shall call them the border witness, and
the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. And
your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified
from the border of Israel." Around the edges where those Gentiles
were. A son honoreth his father, and
a servant his master. If I then be a father, where
is my honor? Isn't that just what Jesus was
saying to them in Luke? Where is my fear, saith the Lord
of hosts, unto you, O priests that despise my name? And you
say, well, where in have we despised my name? Look at this temple.
Look at all these offerings we're doing. Look at all these sacrifices.
Look at all this grandeur. Look at my robe. Look at, look
at, look at, look at all the stuff we do. And yet, he said,
you know, your hearts, you honor me with your mouth, but your
heart is far from me. You've polluted, you offer polluted
bread on my altar. And you say, wherein have we
polluted thee? In that you say the table of
the Lord is contemptible. And if you offer the blind for
sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and
sick, is it not evil? Offer it now to the governor,
and will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith the
Lord of hosts? And now I pray you, beseech God
that he will be gracious unto us. This has been by your means. Will he regard your person, saith
the Lord of hosts? Who is there even among you that
would shut the doors for nought? Neither do you kindle fire on
my altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your
hand." Because it was meaningless. It didn't typify the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. They didn't use that to declare
the gospel. For from the rising of the sun
even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great
among the Gentiles. And in every place incense should
be offered in my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be
great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." So he said,
remember, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations
from Isaiah 56 verse 7. And he said, I will, if we went
back and read that, he said, when the Gentiles offer up their
sacrifices, not the physical things, he said, they will be
accepted of me. I'll have respect to them the
same way that he had respect to Abel's sacrifice. It was a picture, it was a type.
It pictured the coming of the Lamb of God slain from before
the foundation of the world. Verse 12 of Malachi 1, but you
have profaned it In that you say the table of the Lord is
polluted, and the fruit thereof, even as meat, is contemptible."
Remember what they said to Paul? You've corrupted the holy temple.
You brought Greeks in here. And you've polluted the holy
place. That was from Acts 21. And amidst
all of this, the word of the Lord came to Malachi in chapter
3, verse 1. He says, In the midst of all
that stuff going on in the fake religion and the polluted sacrifices
and the fakery of all their activities, he said, Behold, I will send
my messenger, John, and he shall prepare the way before me, and
the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the
messenger of the covenant, whom he delight in, behold, he shall
come, saith the Lord of hosts." And so all these things came
to pass that were written in the Law and in the Prophets and
in the Psalms. And that's what Jesus said to
those in Luke chapter 24, verse 44. He says, He expounded to
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. and
that all must be fulfilled, that we're in the law and the prophets
and the Psalms. And again, we go back to Acts chapter
4 in verse 24, and when they heard
that, they lifted up their voice to
God with one accord and said, Thou art God, which hath made
heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them is. And who by the mouth of thy servant
David said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine
a vain thing? The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and
against his Christ." Isn't that what we just have been reading
here in Luke chapter 19 and Luke chapter 20? They wanted to kill
him and put him away. they were gathered together against
him for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou has
anointed both Herod Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done and Jesus said unto them neither
tell I you by what authority I do these things You know, it's
interesting, there was just no response to that. There was no
response possible. I was telling Norm this morning,
I'm sure every one of you have come across someone in your life
that took issue with God and said, when I meet Him face to
face, I am going to tell Him a thing or two. You did things that I don't agree
with. What give you the right to do
that? You who created heaven and earth and all that is therein,
who are the potter that has control over the clay to do with whatever
he will. But you know, when he faces his
opponents, there's no response. They're going to hear the final
word from him, and that will be that, and there won't be They'll
have to bow, as Norm said this morning, every knee will bow
and they may still be cursing him and saying, I hate you, but
I'm on my knee. There was no response possible
from them who in their minds thought that they had all the
answers. And that will never change until
the gospel is brought to them and they believe it in the new
birth. We believe according to the working
of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised
Him from the dead. That has to happen. That has
to be the change. But apart from that, there's
no argument that you can make. There's no amount of definitions
that, you know, we always kind of go through that phase. Well,
if I just merely get my strong concordance out and say, well,
here's predestination. Here's what that word means.
Here's what elect means. Here's what dead in trespasses
and sin means. We define all those terms somehow
and think that surely they will have to understand, but unless
a man be born again, They're just words. They have no meaning. They have no sway in them. So, you must be
born again. And the gospel of Christ coming to
die for the sins of His people in their place is the only answer
to that. So, until our next time, and
we look at this Next lesson that we, Lord willing, that we get
to in Luke chapter 20 deals with a parable that kind of encapsulates
everything that's happened and is about to happen. And He gives
it in the form of a parable to these people. So we'll look forward
to bringing you that next time. Until then, be free.