Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 37 from your hardback hymnal,
How Great Thou Art. Number 37, let's all stand. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling
thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, And hear the brook,
and feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. And on the cross, my burden gladly
bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration
and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art. Then sings my
soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Please be seated. Psalm 48 verse one says, great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God,
in the mountain of his holiness, beautiful for situation. The
joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the North,
the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge, for a refuge. The Lord saying this is where
he makes himself known. This is the praise of the whole
earth where Christ is preached. And this is the place where God's
people find their hiding place, their place of safety. That's our hope this morning.
Amen. A couple of announcements. You
notice in your bulletin there's a couple things to take notice
of on the calendar next Sunday. We're going to have lunch together
after the service, so come prepared for that. Also, some of you may
know, most of you probably do not, that Yugo has been diagnosed
with lupus. They're doing more tests to try
to figure out exactly what type it is, but pray for Yugo and
Zobey. and the boys in that regard.
It's an autoimmune disease. You can read up on it and find
out more information about it if you don't know. Armida Pena
fell Friday and broke her arm. And, you know, Armida is 93. She'll be 94, I think, in January. And they did surgery yesterday,
put a pin in it and actually a rod. all the way down her humerus
in her arm. So she's doing well, actually. Doesn't seem to be in a lot of
pain and she's going home maybe today. All right, let's open our Bibles
to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we are thankful that you and your good providence has brought
us here to this place. We thank you for the promise
of thy presence. We thank you, Lord, for The hope
of knowing that if we're going to hear from you, that this is
the place that you speak, and this is the place where the whole
world exists for the purpose of thy church and the proclamation
of thy gospel. We ask, Lord, that you would
enable us to hear. We pray that you would enable
me to speak, and Lord, oh, how we hope that you would speak
infinitely more to our hearts than any man can say with his
voice. Lord, reveal to us the glory
of thy dear son and cause him to be our hiding place, our refuge,
our hope, and all of our salvation. We pray for our brother, Hugo,
and thank you for him and ask Lord for your hand of mercy and
grace to be upon him and Zobie and the boys Pray, Lord, for
the physicians that minister to him and ask that you would
cause them to be instruments of healing in thy hand and, Lord,
that you'd give them wisdom and give them understanding. We pray for our sister, Armita,
and thank you for her and ask, Lord, that your encouraging spirit
would just lift her up and cause her to find her rest in thee. And thank you, Lord, for the
successful surgery. Pray for your hand of healing
to be upon her. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. There are two phrases in Mark
chapter 12 that I want you to take notice of with me this morning
because these two statements summarize every person's response
to the word of God. And you can judge yourself based
on how you respond to what God says. The first one is found
in verse 13 of Mark chapter 12. And they sent unto him certain
of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch him in his words. Now we're going to look at this
passage in the second hour. I started to call this The common people heard him gladly
part one and part two, but I've decided that what we're going
to do this morning is consider how it is the common people hear
him, and then in the second hour we're going to look at what it
is that the common people hear from him. But here we have the
Herodians and the Pharisees. resting the scriptures, trying
to find some chink in God's armor to find a place of weakness and
twist his words to their advantage. Nothing's changed. I have that
happen all the time. People People say, oh yeah, well,
you know, I believe that but what about this and what about
that? And they twist the scriptures and rest the scriptures to their
own destruction and the scripture says they were ordained to that
end. And so, men either hear what God has to say and they
try to catch Him in His words or look at verse 37, David therefore
himself called Him Lord And whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him
gladly." What a contrast. The Pharisees and the Herodians
trying to twist what God says to justify themselves and the
common people heard him gladly. Now, if you ever hear from God,
if you ever hear what God's saying, that will be one or the other
of your responses. You'll either say, well, yeah,
but, and try to twist what God says to justify yourself, or
you will bow to what God says and be glad in what he says. Now, there is a third category.
There is a third category and those are the people who don't
hear anything. They don't hear anything. And
that doesn't mean that they haven't. Heard it audibly, people come
and they sit under the gospel and they hear what God says,
and they're in another place. They don't hear a word. They're
indifferent. They're apathetic completely
to what God says. And what I want to say to those
folks is, get mad or get glad, but don't just sit there. You
know, don't just let it go over you. You know, hear what it is
God's saying. The word of God is either going
to cause people to get mad or it's going to cause people to
be glad. And if it has neither effect, then it just means that
they haven't heard. They haven't heard. So, no one likes to be considered
common, do they? Everybody wants to think themselves
to be unique exceptional, above average at least, who wants to
be considered to be a common person? And yet, those are the
folks, those are the folks that hear the truth. The common people heard him gladly. Gladly. In Acts chapter 2, after
Peter preached that message at Pentecost, The scripture says,
and they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the
same day there was added to their number about 3,000 souls. And
they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. Notice in verse 38, and he said
unto them, in his doctrine. Now the word doctrine in the
Greek language is the word from which we get our word didactic. Didactic teaching is telling
people how things are. Math and science would be didactic
teaching. It's not, we're not asking for
people's opinions, we're declaring facts for what they are. Did
you know that the United States of America among all the industrialized
nations of the world ranks number 40, number 40 in test scores
in math and science? You see, when Americans decided
that there were no absolutes, we veered away from didactic
teaching and we became attracted to the liberal arts where everybody
has an opinion and everybody has a feeling and everybody has
an expression and you just determine for yourself what truth is and
what truth is not. Now I'm telling you this in order
to say that this is what the word doctrine means. The word
doctrine means didactic teaching. It is a declaration by God for
what things are. He's not asking for our opinion.
He's not asking for our input. There's no discussion. There's
no feeling about it. What is the expression we see
oftentimes in the Word of God? Thus saith the Lord. Now, why is it that the common
people heard Him gladly? Because they just want to hear
what the truth is. They don't want to have any input.
They don't want to be discussing it. You know, whereas the Pharisees
and the Herodians and the Sadducees, those self-professed theologians
and those intelligentsia, they wanted to twist things. They
don't want to be told how things are. They want to have something
to say about it. They want, you know, this is
relative, isn't it? You know, let me put, and God
says, no, no. I'm going to declare my doctrine,
my didactic truth, and the common people are going to hear it,
and they're going to be glad. You know, here's the glorious
truth about truth. Truth is simple. It's simple. You've got to be simple to hear
the truth. People, you know, the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, they want to complicate things. You know, we want to
have something to say about it. Now I'm all for education. You
know, maybe it'll help you out in this world if you get some
education. But the truth is that the person who's most educated
needs to have the gospel be made to them most simple so that they
don't have any room to put their two cents worth in the gospel that's just you know that so
the common people here's my question for you and for me are you common
enough to not question what God says to accept the truth at its
face value. Do you lack enough confidence
in yourself to know that if I've got anything to add to what God
says, I'm going to mess it up? I'm going to mess it up. I'm
just that simple. I'm that common. I need to just
know what God says. You know, we live in a world
that just exalts knowledge and education so much
and yet some of the biggest fools I've ever met in my life are
the most educated people in this world. The common people heard
him gladly. To hear God gladly, you got to
be common. You got to be simple. You got
to believe what God says without any ifs, ands, or buts about
it. Now that's a work of grace in
the heart. It doesn't matter if you're well-educated or have
no education at all. The only way you're going to
hear the Word of God gladly. You remember when Paul in Acts
chapter 17 went to Berea and he said the Bereans were more
noble than those in Thessalonica because they received the Word
of God with readiness of mind. And search the scriptures daily
to see if what I said was true. You see, God's people just want
to know what God says. The common people just want to
hear what God says. They don't want to have any input. And you know, I've discovered
a long time ago that I'm not a counselor. God didn't call
me to be a counselor. A good counselor will sit and
let you talk and listen and let you come to your own conclusions.
Sometimes people call me because I'm the pastor and they want
counseling. Well, I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not a
counselor. I'm a preacher. If you want to know what God
has to say about us, that's what preaching is. I have people say,
well, don't be preaching. Don't preach to me. preach to me, because I'm common
and I just want to know what God has to say. You know, we
don't get together and have Bible studies and discussions and pool
our ignorance together to try to figure out what's what. We
just want to say, what does God say? Thus saith the Lord. And
God's word confirms God's word. And the gospel is simple. It's
a simple message for simple people. People who want to complicate
things. are going to do exactly what these Herodians and Pharisees
did. They're gonna try to catch him
in his words. Are you simple enough to hear
the simple truth of God's word? When you hear the truth, you
just know it's true, don't you? You just know it's true. If you've
got a way through what a man's saying and try to figure out
what it is he's trying to say, he's not speaking the truth.
The truth is spoken didactically. The truth is the doctrine of
God. And the simple people, they receive
it gladly. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
16, Matthew 16. This is why men don't want to
hear the God. This is why men are offended
by the gospel. It doesn't give them any contribution. either
in their wisdom or in their knowledge or in their works or in their
will it cuts them out of the picture and it says that the
gospel of God's grace is a work completed successfully by the
Lord Jesus Christ and whatever knowledge you're gonna have of
him God's gonna have to give it to you and whatever ability
you have to believe on him God's gonna have to give it to you
You've got no contribution whatsoever to make at any level. The common
people heard him gladly. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
not here in the flesh now like he was 2,000 years ago, but he
is here. He's here in his church. And
those who would rest the scriptures are doing it now, not directly
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, physically but in the
face of him spiritually among his people and in his church.
They're doing the same thing. Nothing's changed. The attack
that men have on God is just as real today. It's just that
they're attacking his church. Matthew chapter 16, look at verse
1. And the Pharisees also and the
Sadducees came and tempting him, desiring him that he would show
them a sign from heaven. Now, what were they wanting?
Well, we've heard what you had to say, but we need proof. We need some evidence in a physical
manifestation of a miracle so that we can evaluate it and determine
for ourselves whether or not what you're saying is true. You see, that hasn't changed. I didn't say we want some contribution.
We want to be able to think about this for ourselves. We're free-thinking
people. And he answered and said to them,
when it is evening, you say, it will well be fair weather
for the sky is red. Red sky in the morn as the sailors
warn and red sky at night as the sailors delight. And that's
what he's saying. He said, well, you were able to Read the weather
based on the sky being red in the morning or night in the morning.
It will be a foul weather today for the sky is red and lowering.
Oh, ye hypocrites. You can discern the face of the
sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. You can figure
out what the weather is going to do, but you can't figure out
what God's done. Why? Because you won't listen to God.
You won't humble yourself to believe what He says without
any question. When God teaches, He teaches
didactically. He doesn't ask for our opinions.
He's not trying to figure out what our feelings are. He's telling
us the way it is. I'd be happy to talk to you if
you have an issue, back to me being a counselor, but just remember
I'm a preacher and I'll tell you what God says. People come
and they want you to massage their ego and let them come to
some conclusion about what they had already determined they want
to do anyway. Preacher just does what God says,
thus saith the Lord. That's what God says, now take
it or leave it. either twisted to your own disadvantage or receive
the Word of God with gladness. One way or the other. You say,
well, preacher, you're being hard. No, I'm not. I'm not. The child of God says, amen.
Oh, what comfort, what rest, what hope to know that I don't
have to, I don't have to figure it out. I don't have to make
any contribution. I don't, I just, just believe
what God has said. I'm common enough to be able
to believe the word of God and receive it with gladness. A wicked and adulterous generation,
verse four, seeketh after a sign, and there is no sign to be given
but the sign of the prophet Jonah, and he left them and departed."
Now what was the sign of the prophet Jonah? He spent three
days and three nights on the belly of the whale. The only
sign you're going to get is the sign of the resurrection. Christ
died, bore our sins, put them away by the sacrifice of himself
once and for all, went to the grave, satisfied the demands
of God's justice, And God raised him victoriously, conquering
death and sin and hell and the grave once and for all. He did
it all and he did it all by himself. And that's the only sign that
God gives us. That's the only sign we need. Only sign we need. And when his disciples were come
to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said
unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves,
saying, It is because we have taken no bread. When the Lord
rebukes them, He is warning them. He is saying, Be careful of the
leaven, a little bit of leaven. Leaven is the whole lump. You
give man a little bit of something to do and he is going to mess
it up. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
They're always trying to make some addition to what God has
already done. They're the liberal arts graduates. They want to sit around and discuss
things and rub their feelings together. And they reasoned among themselves,
saying, It is because we have taken, which when Jesus perceived,
He said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves,
because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, neither
remember the five loaves, and the five thousand, and how many
baskets you took up? What the Lord is saying here
is don't worry about your physical bread, I'll take care of that.
Your heavenly Father knows what need you have. Needed the seven loaves, and
the four thousand, and how many loaves were taken up? I fed those
people abundantly so that there was plenty left over, and I'm
going to take care of your physical needs. How is it that you do
not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
physical bread, that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees? Then understood they how that
he bade them not to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the
doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Be careful of
their doctrine. Their doctrine is not God's doctrine.
Their doctrine is to twist the word of God. Their doctrine is
to need proof from God. Their doctrine is to add to what
God has said. Turn with me to Mark chapter
1. Mark chapter 1. This is so liberating. The common
people heard him gladly. Are you glad to have a message
of salvation that you can't add to or take away from? A message
of salvation that is complete in itself? A message of salvation
that's simple and true and faithful? Mark chapter 1 verse 27, and
they were amazed in so much that they questioned among themselves
saying, what thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For
with authority commanded he even the unclean spirits. and they
do obey him." What kind of doctrine is this? This is not the kind
of doctrine we're used to. This is not the doctrine of the
scribes and the Pharisees. In one place the scripture says,
and they were astonished at his doctrine, for he spake unto them
as one having authority, not as the scribes and the Pharisees.
You see, when a man speaks and says, well, you know, it could
be this way or it could be that way, what do you think? You know,
let's just get together and all feel good about, you know, about
things. Or, you know, or a man says, well, you know, if you
just make enough of a contribution, you know, that, he's not speaking
with authority. You speak with authority when
you say, thus saith the Lord. This is what God says. And the common people heard him
gladly. Gladly. They didn't want to debate
it. John chapter 7. How do I know? How do I know the doctrine of God? How do I know
that I'm a common man? It's hurt him gladly. John chapter
seven, look at verse 14. Now about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and taught and the Jews marveled
saying, how knoweth this man letters having never learned? Unbelievable. These are the self-professed
pseudo-intellectuals. These are the intelligentsias,
and they're saying of God, He didn't go to our college. How
could He know more than us? That's the world. Nothing's changed. You're still calling God into
question. Well, He doesn't have our degrees. He doesn't have
our diplomas. He's not been to our schools.
He doesn't know the letters of the law like we do. How could
he speak with such authority? And Jesus answered them in verse
16, My doctrine is not mine. Now the Greek word is didache.
It's didactic. We're saying my doctrine is not
mine. This is a good word. It's teaching that which is true
without without any opportunity for suggestion. My doctrine is not mine own,
but his that sent me. If any man will do his will,
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself. This is the will of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. How do I become a common man
who receives the word of God gladly? Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. If any man will do his will,
if any man will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he will know
whether the doctrine that I speak is of God or if it's not. You see, every child of God believes
everything God says. And they receive it gladly in
simplicity of mind and gospel. It's just that, you know, that's
what Paul said, I fear lest the deceiver, Satan, do to you what
he did to Eve. and take you away from the simplicity
that is in Christ, the message of the gospel is simple and the
common people heard him gladly. Are you common enough to receive
the word of God with gladness? Matthew, I'm sorry, turn with me to how
important is it? I got just a couple of questions
to answer before we conclude. How important is it for us to
have right doctrine? Turn with me to 2 John right
there before Jude and Revelation, 2 John chapter 1 verse 9. Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any
unto you and bring not this doctrine, doctrine of Christ, Christ is
all. He's all in election. He's all
in redemption. He's all in regeneration. He's
all in sanctification. He's all in glorification. He
has done the work all by himself. And if any man gives you something,
some contribution to make to your salvation, gives you a decision
to make or a work to perform or something that's not within
the didactic doctrine of Christ, What does God say about him?
Receive him not into your house, and neither bid him Godspeed,
for he that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds. Now we want to be kind to people.
If someone compromises the gospel, don't say to them, God bless
you. Don't bid them God's blessings on their way. Warn them. Warn them. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter
4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. You see why men hate this, don't
you? You see, they're not common. You've got to be a common man
to receive the word of God gladly. You can't put your confidence
anywhere else in any ability of your own. You cannot have
any confidence in your intellect or in your will or in your works. You've got to cast all your hope
on him. And the common people heard him
gladly. Look what Paul said to Timothy
in first, second Timothy. Chapter 4 beginning at verse
1, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ
who shall judge the quick and the dead at the appearing of
his kingdom. Now, this is not Paul to Timothy, this is God
to every gospel preacher and every believer. I charge you before God, preach
the word. Just preach the word. Just declare
the truth. of God's doctrine in Christ.
Don't leave any side doors open. You see, preaching the gospel
is not explaining the gospel. It's not defending the gospel.
It's declaring the gospel. It's just declaring the gospel.
And men will say, I'm not going to have that. You're not going
to preach to me. I'm going to have something to
say about it. No, you're not. Not if you're going to believe
God. The common people heard him gladly, and they searched
the scriptures daily to see if these were true, because the
scriptures confirm the scriptures, and truth supports truth. I just
want to know what God says. Let's see, does God say the same
thing over here? Oh, yeah, yeah. Comparing the spiritual to the
spiritual. And so the Lord says, preach
the word. Be instant. Be instant. in season and out
of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. Didactic teaching, that's what
preaching is. It's telling men how it is. It's not trying to make the gospel
relevant to culture. It's not trying to explain or
defend the gospel. It's just declaring the gospel. And the common people heard him
gladly for he spoke to them as one having authority, not as
the scribes. For the time will come when they
will not hear sound doctrine, but after their own lust. And we think of that in a sexual
sense, most of the time we use the word lust, but he's talking
about just building up the flesh. up the flesh. We are the true
circumcision which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. But the unbeliever,
the Pharisees, the Herodians, the scribes, the Sadducees, they
have confidence in their flesh. Well, I made this decision. I
prayed that prayer. I did this work. I'm a good person.
I've done what I need to do in order to make what God wants
to do work for me. I'm okay. They will, after their own lust,
they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears,
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall
be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things,
endure affliction." Endure affliction. If you say,
To your friends and family members, as every gospel preacher has
been called of God to say, thus saith the Lord, this is the way
it is, and if you don't believe this, you don't believe God.
You're gonna suffer affliction. People are gonna hate you for
it. Here's the good news. If God
be for me, who can be against me? Let the whole world be against
me, it's okay. As I'm just doing what God said
to do. Watch thou in all things, endure
affliction, do the work of evangelists, make full proof of thy ministry. One last verse, Romans chapter
16. Romans chapter 16. You see, this is the reason why
those who are not common are offended by the gospel. It cuts
them out. It leaves them naked before God. It doesn't allow them to impress
God or man with anything they've got. Romans chapter 16 verse 17, now
I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and
offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid
them. I was talking to a man yesterday,
going to a false church. And he said, I know they don't
preach the same Jesus that you all preach, but we still believe
in the same God. And I thought, I told him, I
said, I said, they're telling lies where you're going about
my God. And I'm gonna sit there and listen
to them. And you and I, if you're able to go there and listen to
that and be a part of that, we don't worship the same God. If they, Do anything that's contrary to
the doctrine which you have learned. Avoid them. Avoid them. The disciples at one time tried
to find some common ground with the Pharisees after the Lord
had offended the Pharisees with his doctrine, with his didactic
teaching. And the disciples came to the
Lord and said, Lord, they've been offended by you. Isn't there
some way you can smooth this over? You know, isn't there some
way we can kind of incorporate them into the kingdom of God?"
And the Lord looked at His disciples and He said, leave them alone. They are blind guides leading
the blind and they're all going to fall into the ditch. Unless
you want to end up in the ditch, just come out from among them,
and be ye separate, saith the Lord." Now that's an offensive
message, I know it is. But it gives to the Lord Jesus
Christ all the glory. And the common people, the common
people heard him gladly. Gladly. Alright, let's take a
break. th th