Well, good morning. How do you get everybody's attention
in class? Well, good morning. If you care to open your Bibles
with me to Matthew chapter 22, where our lesson will be from
this morning. Matthew chapter 22. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
another opportunity to meet together and to worship. Father, I pray
that you would speak to us through your word this morning. Enable
us to truly see and believe. who the Lord Jesus Christ is
to cast our soul, the entirety of our soul upon him. Father, be with us. Don't let
us just go through the motions of religion, but enable us by
thy spirit to worship in awe and wonder who our Lord Jesus
Christ is and what he would do for such poor sinners as we are. Father, I thank you for this
place and thank you for the the family of believers that you've
called together. Father, pray that you would continue
to bless your word, continue to bless your people, enable
us to faithfully serve our generation, that you might keep this place
as a lighthouse of the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
sinners might come and hear of him and find rest and peace and
hope and comfort in him. Father, we continue to pray for
those who are hurting who are sick, we pray that you be with
them in a mighty and special way. Restore them to us quickly
if it could be thy will. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. All right, our lesson this morning
is Matthew chapter 22, beginning in verse 41. And I've titled
the lesson, The Most Important Question. Now you remember throughout
the day that is given to us here, Matthew chapter 22, the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, the Herodians have all tried to come and trip
the Lord up and trap him with foolish questions. They're foolish
questions. Nothing wrong with questions.
These are foolish questions. And the Lord's answers to those
questions reveal how foolish those questions really were.
And by his simple answer to them, put them all to silence. And
you'll find that religious people are still the same way today.
They love to debate and things. It's always about foolish questions. They should be asking questions
that have some significance to your soul, and they don't. They
always want to debate and argue and ask these foolish questions.
Just like the men here in chapter 22. They ask questions like,
should a Christian have to pay taxes? And then they want to
argue about it forever. And the question they should
be asking is, how does a person become a Christian? How does
a person become a believer? That's the question we ought
to be asking. You know, they question what kind of body will
we have in the resurrection? What will all that be like? And the question they should
be asking is, who is the resurrection? And how can I know him? I mean,
I don't even think that they know the resurrection is a person,
not an event. I don't think they know that.
Even though the Lord plainly told us, I am the resurrection.
They ask questions about the law. You know, asking, what is
the most important law? Give me the most important things,
you know, that I'm supposed to keep. You know how foolish that
is? All the law is equally God's word. How can one be more important
than the other? You know, they want to know,
well, how can I keep the law? That's a foolish question. In
our nature, we can't keep the law. That's just foolish. The
question they should be asking, is there somebody who can keep
the law for me? Is there? You know, is there a second Adam
who can come and make me righteous by his obedience the same way
the first Adam made me unrighteous by his disobedience? Is there
somebody that can do that for me? And if there is, how do I
know him? Where can I worship him? You
know, these, I mean, you could just go on forever about these
kinds of questions people ask. And my strong advice to you is
do not get drawn into debates. Ain't trying to answer these
foolish questions. These people will drag you down to their level
and beat you with experience. Just stay away from it, you know. And after suffering all their
questions, now the Lord's gonna ask them a question. Now, our
Lord never asked a foolish question, so we should pay attention to
this, shouldn't we? It's not a foolish question.
As a matter of fact, this is the most important question that
you can ask to yourself and to your soul. What thinking of Christ? Ooh, now we're not talking religion,
are we? Now we're not talking religious
ideas in theory. Now we're not talking about church
government. Now we're not talking about how the church should be
ordered. Now we're not arguing religious viewpoints, you know,
like Calvinism or Arminianism. We're not talking about our favorite
preachers of the past. We're not talking about the politics
of the day. Now we're talking about spiritual matters of life
and death. we should pay attention. Now
we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the savior of sinners. And your answer to this question,
what think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Your
answer, it reveals the state of your soul before God. It really
is hard to imagine a more important lesson than this. What think
ye of Christ? So hope you pay attention to
it. Here's our Lord's question, verse
41. While the Pharisees were gathered together, they were
all still there gathered together where they'd come try to trap
him. Jesus asked them saying, what think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? They said unto him, the son of
David. Now, these men, they knew the right words of scripture.
Almost anybody can memorize those words of scripture. Our little
ones memorize words of scripture. They have memory verses, you
know. These men knew the right words. but they didn't know the
who. They knew what the word said,
but they didn't know the message of the word. They memorized the
words, but they didn't know the word incarnate. They knew the
words, but they didn't know the message. They didn't know the
message of grace. And that would be like you and
me knowing the right doctrine. but not knowing the person. Not
knowing the person to whom all doctrine points. It's useless
to know the doctrine if you don't trust the Christ that the doctrine
points to. I'm telling you the truth. You can go to hell knowing
the right doctrine, but you cannot go to hell knowing Christ. And
the Savior exposes their ignorance of the meaning of scripture and
the purpose of scripture with his question. Now, verse 43,
he saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him
Lord? Saying, the Lord said unto my
Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him
any more questions. Now the smart religious people
all gathered around there trying to trap the Lord, trick him,
you know, trying to expose this carpenter's son's ignorance,
they couldn't answer the Lord's question. They were exposed and
they didn't dare match wits with the Savior anymore. But I want
to ask this same question to you and to me. What think ye
of Christ? See, the issue is not what the
Pharisees and the Sadducees thought of Christ. The issue is, what
do I think of Christ? What do you think of Christ?
What is he to you? And I tell you, our answer needs
to come from the word of God. Because you know what? It really
doesn't matter what we think about anything if it doesn't
match the word of God. Well, I think it doesn't matter
what somebody else thinks. What does the word of God say? So
I want us to look at some scriptures and get an answer to this question,
who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Because whoever's scripture,
whatever scripture says he is, that's what I think. By God's
grace, that's what I think. And we'll start with what the
Savior talks about here in our text. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, I believe he's the God-man. The Lord Jesus Christ is both
David's son, he's a real man descended from David, and he's
David's Lord because he's God. Now, everybody that saw the Lord
Jesus, they knew he was a real man. They knew he was descended
from David. They knew his mother Mary was
descended from David. They knew he was a man. I mean,
he was a man. They could see his flesh and
bones, blood. They saw he was a man. But you know, anybody
paying any attention at all ought to also have known he's the son
of God. The father spoke from heaven audibly so everybody could
hear and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
He didn't say that about anybody else. This is the son of God. They should have known that.
This is the God man. Now, you know, this is not just
a nifty bit of prophecy that Jesus of Nazareth is both the
son of God and the son of man. This is vital to the salvation
of God's elect, the saving, who's come to save his people from
their sin has to be God. He has to be God so that he can
produce a perfect righteousness and a perfect holiness to give
to his people. He must be God so that he's perfect. But he also must be a man who
has blood. So he has perfect blood to shed,
put upon the altars and offering for sin. He has to be a real
man so he can be my representative and your representative. You're
real men, you're real women, well the Savior's gotta be a
real man too if he's gonna be your representative, if he's
gonna be your sacrifice, and that's who he is. In 700 years
before Christ was born, Isaiah told us who he'd be. For unto
us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. Now the son
of God wasn't born, he's given, he's eternal, he came from above,
but that child man was born, he is the God made. Now that's
the person of Christ, he's the God made. Now what think ye of
Christ? Is his person alone enough to
save you? Is it his person alone enough
to make you righteous? Well I sure hope so, because
he's the only savior of sinners. Number two, who is the Lord Jesus
Christ? What think ye of Christ? Well
I believe He's the sovereign king. Our Lord said here, talking
about David, said, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my
right hand. I make thine enemies thy footstool. He said, the father
told him, sit on my throne. Sit on the throne of heaven.
Now only kings sit on a throne. This man sits on the throne of
God. He sits on the throne in heaven. That makes him God. Now this
is not just a physical place where Christ sits, sitting on
the throne of heaven. This describes who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. He's the sovereign king. The
one who sits on the throne of heaven is the sovereign king
over all of creation. Has to be, right? Well Christ
sits upon the throne and everything and everyone in his creation
is at his disposal. All of it was made by him and
for him. For him, for his use, for his
glory. He's the king and he can do what
he will with everything and everyone in his creation. He can save
whom he will. He has the right, the royal crown
rights to do that because he's king. And he can damn who he
will. He's the judge. He has the sovereign
right to show mercy on whom he will show mercy. And he has the
sovereign right to withhold it from whom he will. See, it's
his to give. In his sovereign power, he saves
his people. He calls them out, he keeps them
saved, he keeps them secure in him, and no man can pluck them
out of his hand because he's the sovereign over all. Now,
what think ye of Christ? this hearing of Christ's sovereignty
that he can do with you, that he can do with yours, he can
do with your children, your grandchildren, he can do with you as he will. Does that make you bow and worship
him? Or does it make you mad? Which
one? That's who he is, he's the sovereign
king. All right, third, what think ye of Christ? I believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the righteousness of his people.
Now, righteousness is not something you and I can earn by our obedience
to the law, because I said it earlier, we can't keep the law.
Righteousness is not something that we can improve. Righteousness
is not something that we can prove and show to other people
by our outward obedience to the law. Christ is the righteousness
of his people. He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. He is the righteousness of his
people. His obedience to the law as a man. You know, when
Christ came to this earth as a man, he didn't keep the law
to do anything for himself. He's already righteous, wasn't
he? His obedience to the law as a man was for his people so
that he could give that righteousness to his people so that he could
obey the law for them, just like Adam disobeyed the law for all
of his race. And the obedience of Christ,
that's the only righteousness that there is. And that's the
righteousness that he gives his people. Romans 5.19 says this,
for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. Now what think
ye of Christ? Is he enough to make you righteous? Are you satisfied trusting him
to be all of your righteousness? Or do you gotta add to it by
what you do? What think ye of Christ? Drive forthly, what think
ye of Christ? I believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the holiness of his people. Now, just like righteousness,
holiness is not something that we can attain by not sinning
in what we do, what we don't do. Holiness is never sinning. I mean, people talk about pure
holiness. There's no degrees of holiness.
You're the perfect or you're not. Holiness is never sin. Well, I sure hope it's obvious
to all of us we can't attain that, can we? So if we're gonna
be righteous, Christ is, or holy, Christ is our holiness. He's
made us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. He is our holiness. God's elect are made holy because
we're joined to Christ. It's by union with Christ. He
made his people holy. by his sacrifice, by the new
birth, when there's a new nature born in them, it's his nature,
born from his seed that's holy and pure. Hebrews 10 says this,
verse 10, by the witch will, we're sanctified. How? Through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Once for all, he made his people
whole. Now what think ye of Christ? Is he all it takes to make you
holy, or do you gotta add to it? Do you gotta do something
to prove it, or is he all? Which is it? Fifthly, what think
ye of Christ? I think that he is the faith
of all of his people. Hebrews 12 verse two says, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Christ is the author
of our faith. He's the beginning of it. He's
the one who gives faith to his people, and he's the finisher
of it. He's the one that's gonna see
it last to the end, till he takes us to glory when we don't need
faith anymore, because now we see him face to face. He's the
author and finisher of our faith. All of our faith, from its beginning
to its ending, is in Christ alone. Faith is all in Christ. Faith
is not why I believe this doctrine, this doctrine, I believe this
fact, I believe this fact. Faith is believing Christ. Faith, saving faith is resting
in Christ. It's depending on Christ to do
all the saving for me. That's what faith is. But more
than that, we're saved by faith, through faith, by believing Christ.
But you know, we're also saved by the faith of Christ. by the
faithfulness of Christ to do everything it takes to save his
people from their sin. Paul says in Galatians 2 verse
16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed
in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of
the law shall no flesh be justified. God's people are saved by the
faith Christ, the faithfulness of Christ to do everything that
it takes to save his people from their sin. Now I ask you, what
think ye of Christ? Was he faithful enough to do
everything it took to save you? Or do you got to do something
to make it effectual? Which is it? Number six, what think ye
of Christ? I think that Christ is the life
of his people. You know, this decaying shell
of a body, all the perishing things of this world, that's
not my life. I hope it's not your life. It's
not the believer's life. Now, I enjoy those things. I'm
thankful for them. You know, as long as I got to
be in this body, I just soon, you know, it'd be relatively
healthy and, you know, not so much pain. I mean, I'm thankful
for that. I'm thankful that I got a house to live in. I know someday
it's going to burn up. I know all this world's going
to burn up someday, but I'm sure I'm thankful for them. We're
going to eat dinner today. It's going to perish with the
using, but I'm sure I'm thankful for it. I mean, you know, thankful
for these things, but these things are not my life. Christ is my life. Not only does
he give me life, Christ is my life. Because I live, he said,
you live also. I live unto Christ. I live to
serve Christ. I live seeking Christ. Christ
is my life. Colossians 3 verse 4 says, when
Christ, our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with
him in glory. He is our life. Now, what think
ye of Christ? Is he so important to you that
he is your life? Or do you have to have something
else? One or the other, isn't it? Number seven, what think
ye of Christ? I think that Christ is the hope
of all of his people. I tell you so often, the word
hope in scripture almost always is expectation. Christ is all
of the believer's expectation. I thought about this this morning
as I was going over my notes. Our daughters love the book,
at least they did when they were in high school and reading it.
Great expectations. That's a believer. A believer
has great expectations. A believer, you who's sitting
here in the flesh this morning, expect grace and glory. Don't you? You expect it. You
expect Christ to keep you and to preserve you. Don't you? You
expect it. And it's not wrong to expect it, because he said
he would. He promised he would. Just expecting those, you know
all that is is faith and just believing God's gonna do what
he said he'd do. You expect one day to finally be satisfied. Right now you're not satisfied,
are you? We can't be satisfied in this flesh? I mean, I bet
you're like me, even sitting in the worship service, your
mind wanders and you think, don't think that, Focus on it. We're
not satisfied. But if you believe Christ, you
expect one day to be satisfied, don't you? When you awaken glory
in his likeness. Now, how in this world can you
expect such a thing, such great things? How can you have such
great expectations? Because Christ is our surety.
In 1 Timothy 1.1, Paul called the Lord Jesus Christ which is
our hope. He is our hope. He is our expectation. All of my expectation is in who
the Lord Jesus Christ is, what he accomplished for his people,
and what he promised them. He's all my expectation. Now
what think ye of Christ? Do you expect glory? Do you expect
blessing from God because of what you've done? Do you expect
to have a little better place in glory because of what you've
done? Or do you expect at all based on who the Lord Jesus Christ
is? It's one or the other. Our expectation is one or the
other. All right, number eight, what
think ye of Christ? I think that Christ is the love
of his people. Now, all of God's love is in
Christ. The father loves the son. The father loves the son. And
you know, the only way you and I can love Christ and know Christ
is to be in Him, is to be, He's got to enable us to love Him.
We love Him, and if you believe Him, you do, you love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. See,
He first loved us. John said, 1 John 4, 7, Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is of God. Love can only
come from God. Everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Now, if you're one of God's people,
you love the Lord Jesus Christ. You love him. You can say with
Peter, Lord, you know all things, you know I love you. I do and
say and think embarrassing things sometimes, but Lord, you know
all things, you know I love you. You know it because you put that
heart of love in me. If you love Christ, you love
his gospel. Don't you love hearing his gospel? You love hearing the gospel that
tells how and why he would save such a sinner as you. You love
the way God saves sinners, you love the gospel of Christ, and
you love the people of Christ. Now what think ye of Christ?
Do you love him? Or is it something you can take
or leave? Which is it? If I could use this example,
you know, there's a lot of people, you know, I like being around,
you know, if I don't see him for a while, that's fine. Not
her. Not her. It's love. It's love. Is Christ
somebody you can take or leave? Or do you need him because you
love him? Number nine, what think ye of Christ? I think that Christ
is the forgiveness of his people. Almighty God forgives the sin
of his people. Nothing could be more plain from
scripture than that. He forgives the sin of his people,
but he only forgives the sin of his people when their sin,
justice has been satisfied for their sin through the death of
their substitute. Colossians 1 verse 14 says this,
in whom we have redemption, how? Through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. The sin of God's people has been
put away. It's been blotted out, paid in
full by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God can only forgive
your sin. Christ died for you. It's the
only way a holy God can forgive your sin. He can't ignore it.
He can't pretend like it's not there. It's got to be paid for. And forgiveness of sin is found
in the death of Christ as our substitute. Now what think ye
of Christ? Does God forgive your sin because
you act better than the rest of the general population? God
forgive your sin because you're a good little boy, good little
girl. You got less sin than somebody else? Does God forgive your sin
because you got all your doctrinal ducks in a row? Or does God forgive you purely
because Christ died for you and shed his blood for you? I'm telling
you, now think about this and answer this question in your
heart because it's one or the other. We think one or the other. And if I somehow think that God's
gonna forgive me because I'm better than somebody else, I'm
telling you what, I wanna know this right now. Right now. So that I can quit trusting in
myself and start trusting in Christ. I wanna know. Number 10. I'm gonna put 10,
11, and 12 all together. What think ye of Christ? What
do you think of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ? Was his life,
his perfect life, his life of perfection under God's law, was
that enough to make you righteous? Because you were in him doing
what he did? Or do you gotta add something to it? Do you gotta
live right in front of everybody so everybody can see how good
you live? Which is, what do you think of the life of Christ?
Is his life your life? What do you think of the death
of Christ? Was the death of Christ enough to satisfy God's justice
and put your sin away? I mean, put it away so that it
does not exist. Is his death enough? Or do you
got to keep part of the law in order to kind of finish this
thing up, get yourself into heaven? Do you got to finish this thing
up and, and, and, you know, kind of, kind of quit some of your
sin or for God to really bless you? Do you got to do, or is
the death of Christ enough? What do you think of the resurrection
of Christ? Is the resurrection of Christ proof enough, his death
put your sin away? Christ died, he died for the
sin of his people and he was raised from the dead. He was
literally dead and then he was alive again. You know why God
raised him from the dead? There can only be one reason.
The sin that was charged to him is put away by his blood, by
his death. Now is the resurrection of Christ
proof enough for you? His death, his life, his death,
his burial, his resurrection, is that enough to save you eternally?
Is that proof enough that Christ has saved you so that you can
never lose that salvation? Or do you gotta live holy enough
and sinless enough and righteous enough and good enough before
men in order to keep your salvation? Here, the whole question boils
down to this. Is Christ enough? In whatever
topic you want to talk about, is Christ enough for you? That's
the question. And believe me, I could have
gone much, much, much longer. I had many other points I had
to trim down for time's sake. And if I had told you who know
me very well that I had 12 points and I could finish them in 27
minutes and 50 seconds, you wouldn't believe me, but I did it. I could
have gone a whole lot longer. But I hope you get the point.
This is the point I'm trying to make. When we really consider
What do I think of Christ? Is my answer, Christ is all. That's what the scripture says
he is. Is he all to me? Well, I hope so. I hope so. By God's grace, I
can tell you he is. He is. I hope he is for you too.
All right, the Lord bless you.