Let us turn back in our Bibles
this morning to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12, and I want to
begin my message this morning where I left off last Sunday.
If you notice in verse 12, we read, and they sought to lay
hold on him, but feared the people, for they knew that he had spoken
the parable against them, and they left him and went their
way. That is, the Jewish religious
leaders or rulers, they knew, the scripture tells us there
in verse 12, that they knew that the Lord Jesus had spoken that
parable of the vineyard against them. They knew enough. They didn't understand exactly
what our Lord was teaching, but they knew enough to feel threatened
by it. And so they left him and they
went away. They went away to plot how they
might destroy him. What we see actually in this
passage today is the fulfillment of the words in the second psalm
where the psalmist said the rulers, the religious rulers, not just
Herod and Pilate, not just those men, but the rulers take counsel
against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break
their bands asunder, and cast away their cards from us. He
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them
in derision." They left him, and they went to take counsel
as to how they might catch him in his words. Notice the next
verse. And they send unto him certain
of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. They took counsel and plotted
as to how they might catch him in his words. And so we're going
to see a few examples. We'll only look at the first
one this morning of how they thought they might catch the
Lord Jesus Christ in His words and His answers. I have three
parts of the message this morning, and the first is the great difference. I want us to see the great difference
between the counsel of God and the counsel of man. the difference
between the counsel of God and the counsel of man. What is the
counsel of God? Well, keep your places here,
but let's look over in Acts chapter 20. This is very informative,
these verses here in Acts chapter 20 that we're going to look at. These are the words of the Apostle
Paul concerning his ministry in the city of Ephesus. Ephesus
was a chief city of Asia Minor, and the Apostle Paul is the man
that God used to bring the gospel to them. And here we read he
meets with the elders from the church at Ephesus and reminds
them of the ministry that he had when he had been among them. If you notice in verse 27, he
tells them, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. All the counsel of God. Now,
what had he declared unto them? What is included here when he
said he had not shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of
God? It is the gospel, as we will
see. It is the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm sure that in Ephesus, as
in Corinth, the Apostle Paul did the same thing. In Corinth,
he wrote back to them, relating his ministry among them, and
he said, I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified." That's the gospel. The person. I determine not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ. That is the person of Jesus Christ
and His work and Him crucified. Now Paul tells these elders that
he had testified to them of the counsel of God. And if you look
back first in verse 25, there in Acts chapter 20, we see we'll
enlarge upon what this means, the counsel of God, the gospel
of God. And now behold, I know that you
all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, the counsel
of God, the kingdom of God. Now, Listen for just a moment,
let me say this. That parable we looked at last
week, the parable of the vineyard. Now in Matthew's gospel, he recorded
the Lord at that time told them that he would take from them
the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of God would be removed from
them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Think
about that, the gospel of the kingdom of God. How is the kingdom
of God taken from a people? That's what he told those religious
leaders, that the kingdom of God would be taken from them
and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. How
is the kingdom of God taken from the nation of Israel? The gospel
was taken from them. They had had the gospel. They
had had the gospel in the types and the shadows and in the law
of God that revealed Christ to them, His work, who was to come. And the gospel was taken from
them and given to a nation that is The kingdom of God now is
made up of both Jews and Gentiles. It's not a literal nation like
Israel in the Old Testament, but it is a nation. We are a
nation. We're called a nation, a holy
nation. That is the church, the believers.
All of us today who are saved are in this holy nation. We're
chosen. We are a royal priesthood. He
says it all there in 1 Peter 2, what we are. But a nation
has boundaries, doesn't it? A nation has boundaries. And
this holy nation that he has made us, those who he saves,
he's made us a part of this holy nation. The boundary is the new
birth. A person must be born again.
He must be saved by the grace of God to be a part of this new
nation, this holy nation. And a nation usually has a common
language. And the common language of this
nation is the language of grace, grace, grace. That's the language that God's
people speak. For by grace are you saved through
faith. It's not the language of works.
It's not the language of free will. It's the language of grace. Grace, grace, when that top stone,
according to the book of Zechariah, when that top stone, that is
the very last of God's elect, is saved and put into this spiritual
temple, that last stone will be brought forth with shoutings
of grace, grace, undo it. In other words, from the first
stone that's laid, in this spiritual temple, the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ of the very last stone. And that's what we are
called living stones. Each one is brought in by the
grace of God. Notice there in the text here,
back in Acts chapter 20, In verse 25, verse 26, we saw that he
had not shunned, or verse 27 rather, he had not shunned to
declare unto them the counsel of God. And then in verse 25,
he said that I have gone preaching the kingdom of God. Notice in
verse 24, but none of these things move me, neither count I my life
dear unto myself. so that I might finish my course
with joy and the ministry. What ministry were you given,
Paul? What was your ministry? Which
I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. That so-called gospel of free
will is no gospel. It is no gospel. because it speaks
of man and his works. But the gospel, the good news,
is not what we do for God or what we do for ourselves, but
it is what He has done for us, what He has done for His people,
the gospel of the grace of God. What I'm showing is, as we look
back, first of all, He testified, He's told them of the counsel
of God, He had preached the kingdom of God. He had testified the
gospel of the grace of God. Now look back one more time into
verse 21, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He had not shunned to declare
the counsel of God, that is what The gospel contains all that
a man needs to know in order to be saved and reconciled unto
God. Repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance, what does the word
repentance mean? It means, of course, a change
of mind. and repentance toward God and
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. These two always come together. Someone used this illustration
of breathing, inhaling, exhaling. When you breathe, you inhale,
you exhale. And when God brings salvation
to a sinner and gives that sinner life, that life is manifested
in repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's no way that you can
say one comes before the other. You can't say that, because we
don't know. They both come together. Repentance toward God. A man
comes into this world, born into this world, a boy, a girl, and
we have some thoughts about God. And most of our thoughts are
wrong. Most of them are dead wrong. We think God is like we
are, for the most part. We think God is like we are.
But when God grants repentance, we learn and our mind is changed
about God. We recognize that God is not
like we are, that God is holy, that God is of pure eyes and
to behold iniquity. We can overlook a fault because
we're not just, because we're not righteous as God is. God
demands satisfaction because he is holy, because he is righteous. And when we repent toward God,
we realize that God is holy, that he is righteous. And for
us to be accepted by him, something has to happen. We have to have
a righteousness that God will accept. We have to be washed
in a fountain that will cleanse us from all our sins. And that's
where faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ comes in, isn't it? You
say, what is faith? Repentance is a change of mind.
Now I know we change our mind about God. We change our mind
about sin when God gives us repentance. We change our mind about ourselves. What is faith? Faith is resting. I mean, it's described in many
different ways, but faith is resting, laying our weary soul
down upon Jesus Christ. As we sang just a few minutes
ago, Jesus, I come, I come. And I love that hymn, Just As
I Am, Without One Place. I mean, just as I am, we don't
clean ourselves up. That's what the flesh will insinuate
to a person when under conviction. Well, I need to make these changes.
I need to do this, and I need, no, no, no. Just as I am, weary
and worn, loaded down with sin, just as I am, coming to Christ,
resting upon his person and his work. Horatius Bonar, he wrote
this hymn, I heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and
rest. Lay down thou weary one, lay
down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was, weary,
worn, and sad. I found in him a resting place,
and he has made me glad." What is faith? It's just resting.
Charles Spurgeon, in a message I read years ago, he illustrated
faith like fainting. Fainting. Have you ever been
with someone when they fainted, or maybe you fainted, and they
just fall down? that fall on Jesus, that fall
on Him. That's what faith is. It's resting
on Him, trusting in Him. Well, that's the counsel of God.
The counsel of God is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's the message that Paul preached in Ephesus. And listen
to what God declares about His counsel. And in Isaiah 46, in
verse 10, he said, my counsel shall stand and I will do all
my pleasure. Let that sink in. My counsel
shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. If we think of the
gospel as the counsel of God, as we saw Paul declared that,
His counsel shall stand. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And God will do all His pleasure. His counsel will stand. The gospel
will stand. From the very first of God's
elect that God saved until the very last one, His counsel shall
stand. It will stand the test of time. It has stood the test of time. Heaven today, the hundreds and
thousands and yay millions of God's people who are already
there, they have found the gospel stands. It gets the job done. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's what the word of God says.
Men have come up with ideas and thoughts, but man's counsel will
not stand. You know, that's the big difference
between the counsel of God and the counsel of man. God's counsel
will stand. Man's counsel, it begins at a
very big disadvantage because man is not omniscient. He makes his plans, but he doesn't
know what's going to happen in just a few days, doesn't know
what's going to happen in an hour from now. But God knows
all things. And not only is man not omniscient,
he's not all powerful. His counsel shall not stand.
Many times our plans, they fade. Young people say, well, I'm going
to graduate from school and I'm going to go to college and I'm
going to graduate and I'm going to get into business and I'm
going to work and I'm going to do this, that and the other when
you don't know that you'll even make it home today. None of us
do. That's the reason the Apostle
James told all of us When we make these plans, and we do make
plans, that's have goals, that's good, but always include if the
Lord will. If the Lord will. We don't know
God's will. Man's counsels, it doesn't stand,
but God's counsel, it does stand. In fact, the Proverbs says there
are many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord it shall stand. So go back with me to Mark chapter
12 now and let's notice the execution of the counsel of these men to
catch him, that is to catch the Lord Jesus Christ in his words. The perpetrators the Pharisees
and the Herodians. That's what we read in verse
13. And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians
to catch him in his word. Now these two groups of people,
the Pharisees and the Herodians, represent religious authority
and civil authority. And they use great subtlety.
Their words, their mouth is full with flattery and gall, but in
their hearts, their hearts are filled with treachery and hatred. And I just want us to go through
these words that they used and look at them. They didn't believe
what they're saying. They're using gall. They're trying
to flatter, if they thought that were possible, to flatter the
Lord Jesus Christ. and trick him in some way to
catch him in his words. Notice the first thing they said
unto him, Master, Master. They didn't believe that, but
it was true. It was true. They didn't believe
what they were saying, but it was true. You say, well, these
people were not saved. Makes no difference, my friends.
He is the Lord and Master of all men. Saved and lost. The apostle in Romans chapter
14 in verse 9 wrote, for to this end Christ both died and rose
and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. Both of those who are still dead
in trespasses and sins and those who have been quickened and made
alive. We both, we all have one Lord. Now, I know we've heard this
term, most of us have over the years, make him your Lord. That's
not so, my friends. That cannot be true. Why? Because
God has made him both Lord and Christ. He's every man's Lord. If you're here this morning and
you say, I don't believe any of that, makes no difference.
He's still your Lord, as he is my Lord. and my master. If we've been saved by the grace
of God, we recognize him as our Lord and as our master. But that's
the first thing they said, master. And then the second thing is
thou art true. He is. They didn't believe it. But you see, something isn't
true because man believes it. Our belief doesn't make God's
Word true. God's Word is true because it's
His Word. I'm sure you've heard that. God
said it, and I believe it, and that settles it. No, you believing
it didn't settle anything. God's Word was true, and God's
Word was settled from old eternity. The psalmist said, Thy Word,
O God, is settled forever in the heaven. And they spoke and
they said, thou art true, he is true, he's truth incarnate. They said, next thou carest for
no man, for thou regardest not the person of man. He didn't. He didn't in the sense in which
they said this. You're not a respecter of persons.
And what you say, you don't respect persons, and if it offends, it
offends. Now that was true. If we take
that word cares, thou cares for no man, we know there's a way
in which that certainly isn't true. Because as the hymn writer
said, no one ever cared for me like Jesus. But the way they
said this, thou cares for no man, In other words, for thou
regardest not the person of man, he's not a respecter of persons,
he spoke the truth no matter who was offended. When the Apostle
Paul exhorted and commanded, charged Timothy to preach the
word, he said this, reprove, rebuke, exhort with longsuffering
and doctrine. A man cannot preach the gospel,
cannot preach the word of God faithfully as we should if it
doesn't at sometimes rebuke and cut someone because the word
of God is sharper than a two-edged sword. Someone said, well preacher,
you really were stepping on my toes today. No, I'm not ever
stepping on anyone's toes. Now the word of God may. It may,
it's a two-edged sword. And sometimes we need, as we
need to be taught, we need to be rebuked. And we need to be
reproved at times. Lord, thou cares for no man.
The Lord Jesus Christ spoke the truth. And that, they said, was
true. And then they said, thou teachest
the way of God in truth. He did. He said, no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. There's no other way of salvation.
As I said earlier, to be saved, for you to be saved or any other
person to be saved, your sins must be put away. And there's
only one who has put away the sins of God's people, and that
is the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one fountain that
cleanses from sin. Not only must your sins be put
away, but you must have a righteousness that will allow you to come into
the presence of God and be accepted. And that is the righteousness
of Christ. Now here's their trap. They finally
got to where they had been heading all along. Is it lawful to give
tribute to Caesar or not? And they thought that no matter
which way he answered, just a simple answer, yes or no answer, will
ensnare him in his words. If he answers no, it's not lawful
to give tribute unto Caesar, then we will have that which
we can take to the civil authorities and accuse him of preaching and
teaching sedition. And if he answers yes, then we
can accuse him, the religious authorities, then we can accuse
him of setting aside the law of Moses. Because as they understood
the law of Moses, it commanded that they not set a foreigner,
a person who was not an Israelite, over them, that is, as their
ruler. They thought they had him, didn't
they? They thought they had him in a trap. No matter which way
he answers, we're gonna catch him in his words. But notice
thirdly, The Lord Jesus brought their counsel to nought. In the Psalm, Psalm 33 in verse
10, we read, the Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to
nought. He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect. He asked for a Roman coin and
then asked whose image was on that coin. Now this showed It
showed the image of Caesar, but it also showed that they were
already under the dominion of a foreign government. They were
using the Roman coinage because they were under the authority
of Rome. The Pharisees, they contended
that to pay tribute to Caesar would violate the law of Moses,
which commanded thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which
is not thy brother. And of course, the Herodians,
they were defenders of the Roman rule. His answer was simple,
but it showed his great wisdom. Render to Caesar the things that
are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. The Lord Jesus
Christ we know is God. He's wisdom. He is God, man. And all the gifts and all the
graces of the Holy Spirit, he had to the fullest extent. He had them all in perfection
as man, as man, knowledge, He had all knowledge, wisdom, faith,
and love, and meekness, and patience, humility, and self-denial. And
those of us who are members of his body, if we look at this
and we just say, well, We know he has all wisdom, but listen,
the thing we must recognize is that he has all wisdom, yes,
and he's the head of the body. We are members of his body. And
just as in our physical bodies, the head has wisdom for the feet,
for the arms, for every member of the body. And we are members
of his body. And that wisdom that he has,
he has for us. And we too will find ourselves
in places and in circumstances in which we don't know which
way to go. We don't know how to answer. What are we to do? We're to look to Christ. We're
to trust in Christ to give us that wisdom, that grace that
we need at that particular time. And as the Apostle John wrote,
he's full. of grace and truth, full. And he's full of grace and truth
for his members, for those of us who are part of his church,
his mystical body. The members of our physical bodies
receive from the head all that the head has for our well-being. Why doesn't the foot just walk
into a fire? The foot doesn't have a brain.
Not its own little brain, does it? Why doesn't it just walk
into a fire? Because of the head. The head
tells the foot, that's not going to feel good. You see, Christ
is our head. He's the head of his body, the
church. The apostle tells us that his
body is the church. Not everyone who professes faith
in Christ understand that, but all of us who've been born of
the Spirit of God, we are in union with Christ. just as a branch is in union
with the vine. You take the branch away from
the vine, it's not going to produce fruit, but in union with the
vine, the branch brings forth fruit. And we need to recognize
as we look at this and we see how the Lord just completely
destroyed these men in the sense that All of their wisdom and
their counsel, it was all brought to nothing. They didn't catch
him in his words. We know that, but we must recognize
for ourselves today that his wisdom is for us. We might have
the wisdom we need as we live in this world. Because we live
in enemy territory, don't we? And there are always those who
would ensnare us, would catch us in our words, and catch us
in our actions. God, the Lord Jesus Christ, will
give us the grace that we need for every situation. There hath
no temptation taken you, no trial taken you. That is not common
unto men. But God is faithful. who will
with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able
to bear it. May the Lord bless this word
to us here this morning.