Hail thou once despised Jesus. Let's all stand together, number
145. Hail, thou once despised Jesus! Hail, thou Galilean King! Thou didst suffer to release
us, Thou didst free salvation bring. Hail Thou agonizing Savior,
bearer of our sin and shame. By Thy merits we find favor,
life is given through Thy name. ? Paschal Lamb by God appointed
? ? All our sins on thee were laid ? ? By almighty love anointed
? ? Thou hast full atonement made ? ? All thy people are forgiven
? Through the virtue of thy blood. Is the gate of heaven. Peace is made twixt man and God. Jesus, hail, enthroned in glory,
there forever to abide. All the heavenly hosts adore
thee, seated at thy Father's side. Therefore, sinners, thou
art pleading, There thou dost our place prepare, Ever for us
interceding, Till in glory we appear. ? Worship, honor, power
and blessing ? ? Thou art worthy to receive ? ? Loudest praises
without ceasing ? ? Meet it is for us to give ? ? Healthy, bright
and just ? Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to begin this morning
in Mark chapter 10 if you'd like to open your Bibles with me to
mark the 10th chapter. Let's pray together, ask the
Lord's blessings on our time together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
it is our hope that you will enable us to join our hearts
together in praise, even as we just offered that prayer in hymn. Lord, that you would knit our
hearts together in the love of Christ. That you would send your
spirit to open the windows of heaven and shine the light of
the gospel in the face of thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in our hearts. We pray that you would bless
us with faith, enable us, Lord, to set our affections on him,
enable us to trust his person and his accomplished work of
redemption for all the hope of our salvation. Lord, open the
eyes of our understanding, teach us. Lord, you promised that you
would, and we confess to you our complete dependence upon
you, Lord, too. to teach us, teach us who we
are, teach us who you are, teach us, Lord, about the mystery of
the gospel, the redemption of our souls. For we ask it in Christ's
name, amen. Mark chapter 10, And we'll begin
in verse one. And he arose from thence and
cometh into the coast of Judea by the farther side of Jordan.
And the people resort unto him again. And as was his want, as
was his custom, as was his habit, he taught them again. He taught them again. They shall
be all taught of God. If God doesn't teach us, we won't
be taught. If all you hear is the voice of a man, then it will produce no hope,
no salvation, no comfort, no peace. But if the Lord speaks
to our hearts, if we're taught of him, that's a lesson that
can't be untaught, isn't it? Once the Lord reveals Himself
and shows you something about His Christ and His salvation
and who you are, that knowledge might grow deeper, but it's not
going to change. It's not going to change. When
the Lord teaches His people, He teaches them things that are
unchangeable, immutable truths. We believe things now that We
didn't used to believe. Things we used to believe, we
don't believe anymore. What does that tell us? What
does that tell us? It tells us that the things we
used to believe weren't taught to us by God. They weren't taught
to us by God. They were things we learned from
man. They were conclusions we came to on our own. The Lord
gathers his people together and as was his want. as was his custom
and it still is. His custom has not changed. His
habit has not changed. He said where two or three are
gathered together in my name there I am in the midst of them. He said take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. So the Lord does the teaching
and when he teaches he teaches us things of himself. When we come to see him at least
in part, as the one who is holy, the one who is undefiled, the
one who is separate from sinners, the one who is higher than the
heavens, we come to the same conclusion that Isaiah came to,
don't we? We can only respond by saying,
woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. We come to the
same conclusion that Daniel, we've been studying Daniel. Remember
what Daniel said? My comeliness, my strength, my
beauty was turned in me into corruption. Now those are immutable
truths. They can't be changed. When we
see the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted up, we say with our
brother Job, behold, behold, I see something I've never seen
before. I'm vile. I'm vile. I have no righteousness.
I have nothing to offer God. I'm completely dependent upon
Him to do all the saving. That's what Jonah came to the
conclusion of when he was in the belly of that whale. What
did he say? Salvation is of the Lord. If I'm going to be saved,
God's going to have to do it. He's going to have to do every
bit of it. He's going to have to elect me. He's going to have
to choose me of His own will and purpose. in a covenant, he's
gonna have to redeem me, he's gonna have to regenerate me,
he's gonna have to keep me, he's gonna have to sanctify me, he's
gonna have to present me faultless before his throne, he's gonna
have to do it all. I've said this before, I'll say
it again, life is short and soon will pass. That's true. And only what's done by Christ
will last. You remember when Joseph was
taken prisoner in Egypt and he ended up in prison. And in the
providence of God, the prison keeper made Joseph in charge
of the entire prison. And the scripture says, and whatsoever
was done there, he was the doer of it. He was the doer of it. Joseph is clearly a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ and here we are in the prison of our sin
and the Lord Jesus Christ whatsoever is done, He's the doer of it. Whatever righteousness we have
before God, He's the doer of it. Whatever light of the gospel
we have before God, He's the doer of it. Whatever faith we
have before God, He's the doer of it. Even in the natural sense,
whatever whatever skills and determination and plans that
we're able to carry out in this world and in this flesh. He's
the doer of it. He's the doer of it all. So that
he gets all the glory. We can't point to ourselves and
say, well, look what I did. Look what I did. The Lord knows
how to humble the proud, doesn't he? We saw that in Daniel, what
the Lord did to Nebuchadnezzar when he humbled him. As his want
was, he taught them again. He taught them again. I've been
accused of, well, you know, preacher, you just preach the same thing
all the time. You just talk about Christ. And they say that as an insult,
but they don't realize it's a badge of honor. Paul said, I profess
to know nothing among you save Christ and him crucified. We
preach the Lord Jesus Christ because he is the doer of it
all. And he gets all the glory. Listen
to what the apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter three.
He said, to write the same thing unto you, to me is not grievous,
but to you, it is safe. Also, I'm writing the same thing
to you again. I'm preaching the same message
to you again. And it's not grievous to me.
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not grieved over the fact that I, that I,
but to you it's the message that, that you need to hear. It's,
it's safe. And it's the only way that we'll
be safe before God. That word safe translated means
secure. And the only way that you and
I are going to be secure in the presence of a holy God is if
we hear the same message again about who Christ is and what
he's done to save sinners. That word also translated means
certain. The word safe, he said, for you
it is safe. It's certain. It's certain. It's true. What
other subject is there in the world that doesn't change? You know, we come to better knowledge
about medicine and science and, you know, and most of you probably
are involved in some sort of continual training in your profession
because things change, don't they? Things are always changing. God is immutable. He said, I
am the Lord and I change not. And that's the reason why you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. He's the only one that we can
say is immutable. And so when he teaches us, those
lessons that he teaches us never change. His word never changes. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Let men in the world change their religious doctrine
and their religious truths all they want. The word of God doesn't
change. It's as immutable as is God himself. And it's profitable for doctrine. and for reproof and for correction
and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly
furnished, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So what
means does the Lord use to teach us? He uses his word, doesn't
he? That's why we read scripture, we meditate on scripture, we
quote scripture, because this is the means by which the Lord
teaches his people. He teaches us by his word. Turn to me to Psalm 19. Psalm
19. Look at verse 7. And the word law there in verse
7 is the word for doctrine. It's the teaching of God. And it involves all of scripture,
everything that God says. And so the Lord says, the law
of the Lord is perfect. It's perfect. you can't change
perfectly can't it you you can't diminish perfect you can improve
on perfect it's it's perfect the doctrine of god the things
that god has said are perfect converting the soul well the
question the you and i have to ask is do we have a need for
our souls to be converted uh... and that's more than just our
our salvation was peter saved when he denied the Lord. He was,
wasn't he? And yet the Lord said to Peter,
he said, Peter, I've prayed for you and when you are converted,
teach the brethren. That word converted means to
be changed. It means to have your minds changed. It means
to have your heart changed. And so do you ever need to be
changed? We often focus on the hope that
things around us would change or other people might change,
but what about you? What about me? The means by which
God changes us, the means by which he converts us is his word. James put it like this. He said, well, I can't quote it right
now. I'll just think about it in a minute. Look at the rest
of this verse 7. Here's what James said, by his
own will, by God's own will, he has saved us by his word,
by his word. And that's the means by which
the Lord saves us. Look at the rest of verse seven,
the testimony of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord is sure,
it's sure. It's certain. It doesn't change. Everything else is changing,
isn't it? When God teaches us something, he teaches us things
that never change. What never changes? Well, God
never changes. We've seen that. He never changes. He's holy. The work of redemption never
changes. What the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
on Calvary's cross was sure. Everyone that God chose in the
covenant of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished their redemption
on Calvary's cross. When he said, it is finished,
it was finished. Everything necessary for us to
stand in the presence of a holy God, everything necessary for
us to have a righteousness that's pleasing to God, everything necessary
for our sin to be covered. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass by you. God Almighty looks at the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which never changes. It never
changes. Men have a God who changes all
the time, don't they? They have a God who's trying
to get folks saved, but he just can't quite get it done. He wants
to bless you, but he's got to have your cooperation. He's got
to have your... No. No, our God reigns sovereign. over all the affairs of men,
and over all the armies of heaven, and he hath done whatsoever he
wills." The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. Oh, you and I by nature are simple.
We don't know the things of God. We can't see the things of God.
We can't believe the things of God. And the Lord uses his doctrine,
his law, his testimony, his word in order to convert our soul
and in order to make us wise. Wise unto salvation. You know
what wisdom is? Wisdom is looking to Christ. That's what wisdom is. Wisdom
is coming to the conclusion, I'm mortal. I'm gonna die. There is a God with whom I must
do. I have no claim on His mercy
and on His grace. I need a Savior. I need a substitute. I need a sin bearer. I need one
who's able to stand in my stead before God and present me to
God on His righteousness. and on His salvation. That's
wisdom. God has made Him to be unto us
all our wisdom, all our redemption, all our sanctification, all that
we need. The statutes, look at verse 8,
the statutes of the Lord are right. They're right. They don't change. You and I
live in a world that's changing. Oh, we've seen a lot of changes
in our lifetime, haven't we? Those of us that are a little
bit older, we've seen many things change in this world. God's Word
doesn't change. His view of truth doesn't change. Faith is believing what God says. How easily we are influenced
by the opinions of this world. The opinions of this world are
contrary to the things of God. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. Oh, we're found in Him. We don't
have to be confounded by the things of this world. We don't
have to be confused by the ever-changing opinions of this world. We can
rest all our hopes in this God who never changes. That's what
the Lord teaches His people. He teaches them by His Word.
He teaches them of His immutable nature and of His immutable work
of grace. The commandments of the Lord,
the commandment of the Lord is pure. This is His commandment
that you believe on Him whom He has sent. That's the Lord's
commandment to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What a pure
commandment. What a simple commandment. Enlightening
the eyes. Oh, I see now. I see things I
never saw before. I see who I am. I see who God
is. I see how it is that God is able
to save sinners. I see how it is that God is able
to be just and justify sinners at the same time. The truth is
there's no mercy without justice. You know, we often, we share
the gospel with friends and family members and oftentimes they'll
respond to us by saying, well that's not fair. That's not fair. It's not fair that God would
choose some and not others. That Christ would die for some
and not others. That just doesn't seem fair to
me. If by fair we mean equitable, the gospel is the only message
that the world's ever heard that's equitable. It's the only message that is
fair. It's the only message that upholds the justice of God and provides mercy for God's
people. He is just and justifier. It's the only true message you
see every other message denies the justice of God it says well
God is just going to overlook sin or or or or no all sin the Lord said in Exodus chapter
34 when he met with Moses on Mount Sinai he said I will in
no wise clear the guilty that's justice all sin will be punished
I will in no wise clear the guilty." Now that's fair, that's equitable,
that's justice. Now how is it that all of us
who are guilty are going to find comfort and hope in that? Well,
that's exactly what happened on Calvary's cross. This is the
immutable, unchangeable lesson that God teaches every one of
His people. I satisfied my justice when I poured out the full fury
of my wrath on my son who bore in his body upon that tree all
the sins of all of his people and suffered and died once for
all to put them all away." Now that's equity. That's justice. I will in no wise clear the guilty.
And for those who weren't punished on Calvary's cross, I wouldn't know why it's clear
to them either. The fiery wrath of my justice will be suffered
for all eternity. I don't know if I'm in Christ.
I don't know if I'm in Christ. You've rested all the hope of
your salvation on Him. You're not looking anywhere else.
You're not looking to your works. You're not looking to a decision
you made. You're not looking to your righteousness, you're
not looking to another person, you're looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, but I've got all my eggs in one basket. I'm persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him. You see, those for whom Christ
did not die are going to find someplace else to hang the hopes
of their salvation other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, they
may have their version of a Jesus in the mix with everything else
that they're trusting, but they're not going to be resting their
hope on Christ alone. He taught them again. When you're
taught of God, you hear an unchangeable truth about who God is, about
who you are, and about how it is that God's pleased to save
sinners. When you're taught of God, you cannot be untaught.
You cannot be untaught. John put it like this. He said
they went out from us, although they confessed to believe what
they heard, they went out from us because, in fact, they never
were of us. They weren't taught of God. Now, in this passage of scripture
that we're in Mark chapter 10, the Lord speaks on the subject
of adultery and divorce. And the Levitical law, the Levitical
law made it clear that if a man wanted to divorce his wife, he
had to give her a bill of divorcement and she was free to remarry.
And if she remarried and her second husband divorced her or
died, she could not go back and remarry her first husband. It
was forbidden by the law. What is the spirit? The Pharisees were trying to
trap the Lord on the subject of divorce, weren't they? And
I hear people in religion do that all the time. They're always
trying to split hairs. Well, what's the grounds for
divorce and what's the result of divorce and what about it
all? This is a spiritual picture. This is a picture of Christ and
His church. And I can say that personally,
I've never known of someone who's heard the gospel, confessed faith
in the gospel, professed the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism,
left the gospel, went back to a works freewill gospel, and
ever came back. Ever came back. John speaks of that as the sin
unto death. And he says, I say not that you
pray for them. Now, I've known people that heard
the gospel, professed faith in the gospel, walked away from
the gospel and come back. But they didn't, they didn't
profess faith after having heard the gospel in another gospel. That's what that message in Leviticus
is about. You hear the gospel and you profess
faith in that gospel and you're able to go back to another gospel,
you'll never come back. You'll never come back. Those are the ones who have not
been taught of God. Here's my point. If God's taught
you the gospel, you'll never go back to a false gospel. You
won't do it. There's a whole lot of things
that Christians and believers will do. A lot of things they'll
do. And I'm very hesitant to say,
well, if you're a child of God, this is something you're never
going to do. I'm very hesitant to say that because the people
of God can do anything. But go back and profess faith
in a false gospel? Go back and then come back and
marry your first husband? It's not going to happen. They've been taught of God. They've
been taught of God an unchangeable truth. They've been taught of
God that cannot be untaught. And when you're taught of God,
the Lord always leads us to Christ. Always. When the Spirit of God
comes, He convicts us of our sin because we believe not on
Him, of righteousness or our lack thereof because He's gone
to the Father, and of judgment because the Prince of this world
has been judged. When God teaches, He always teaches
His people about His Son. That's why the Lord said, if
you want to know God, this is life eternal that they might
know they're the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. If you want to know God, you're going to have to know
me. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father, for I am the
Father of one. The Lord always teaches us of himself. Come, learn of me. As his want was, as his habit
was, as his custom was, he taught them again. He taught them again. And we're
just in need of being taught again and again and again and
again, aren't we? We're so prone to wonder. We're
so prone to leave the God we love. We're so prone to forget.
And so the Lord gathers His people together again and again and
again and He teaches them. What's the result of being taught
of God? Rest. Rest. I love listening to preaching
that enables me to rest. Preacher starts telling me things
I ought to do and not do and things I've done and starts pointing
attention to me. I don't get much comfort out
of that. But oh, but comfort, rest, hope,
joy of the Holy Spirit. When you're taught of God, You
find yourself resting in Christ, don't you? Just resting in Him. Go back with me to our text. I want to say something particularly
to our young people. The world you're growing up in
is not right. The world we all grew up in is
not right, but things have. I looked this up. You all know
I'm not on Facebook, but you can check it out. Let me know
if it's true. I read, by Googling this information, that on Facebook
there are 56 designations that you can choose from to identify
your gender. Fifty-six. on Facebook and you
can choose up to 10 of them to identify your gender. Our
young people are growing up in a world where the lines between
male and female have been so blurred and young boys are encouraged
to be effeminate and girls are encouraged to be masculine and
that's not the way God made us. God did not make transsexuals. God did not make metrosexuals
and bisexuals and now the bigenders. God made men male and female. And when God teaches you the
truth, you come to realize that God's made a difference between
men and women. Don't be swayed, young people. And don't be intimidated. That's
the means that they use, don't they? Well, if you don't believe
things the way we see them, if you don't open your mind to all
these different sexual preferences and genders, then you're just
a homophobe. You're just a pinched brain Neanderthal. You're backwoods. You're ignorant. You're stupid. And they use those
kind of arguments to intimidate us from not believing God. Young people believe what God
says because all that stuff out there in the world is not true. It's a lie. It's man's ultimate
rebellion against God. And it goes right along with
his view of the gospel, doesn't it? There's a lot more than 56 different
views of the gospel. You can choose whichever one
you want. You can have up to 10 of them if you want. There's
but one. There's one God. There's one
Savior. There's one faith. There's one
church. There's one baptism. There's one Lord. And when God
teaches you, you're not, yeah, I can stand here today and say
to you, I'm close-minded and I make no apology for it. I'm
close-minded when it comes to what God has taught me. I cannot
negotiate what I've been taught of God from His Word. to consider
any other opinion that's contrary to what God says. And if you've
been taught of God, you're going to be closed-minded about some
things. You are. And the world's going to try
to shame you for that. Well, you're not of this world. You're not of this world. That's
what being an overcomer of this world is. You know, I've got
a different set of standards. I've got a different value system. I've got a different God. I know
the truth. And the Lord said, if you know
the truth, the truth shall set you free. Men, be men. It's okay to be masculine. Now,
I'm not suggesting that we put on some fake masculinity to cover
up the fears that we have by being macho. You know, that's
what macho is. Macho is covering up fake masculinity. Or it's
covering up your fears with a fake masculinity. That's what that
is. The scriptures are very clear. Look what the Lord says. And
the Pharisees, verse 2, came to him and asked him, Is it lawful
for a man to put away his wife, tempting him? And he answered
and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said,
Well, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement and to
put her away. The Lord knew that if he didn't give them this law
that they would just abuse their wives for no reason whatsoever. They had to at least write out
a bill of a divorcement. And by the way, Scripture makes
it clear that the Lord himself, this is a picture of Christ and
his church. That's what the marriage is. Ephesians chapter 5 is clear
on that. It's a mystery concerning Christ
and his church. Husband, love your wives as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. Wives, submit unto your
husbands as unto the Lord. It's very clear in Ephesians
5 about Christ and his church. Should we not be surprised that
the world would so pervert the union and the distinction that
God has made between men and women in order to aspurge Christ
and His church? That's what they're doing. That's
what they're doing. Moses suffered to write a bill
of divorcement and put her away and Jesus answered and said to
them, for the hardness of your heart, he wrote you this precept.
Oh, I know I was going to say, God said that he divorced Israel. He wrote her a bill of divorcement
and he married another. That's exactly what the Lord
said when he was talking to those Pharisees and he said, that the
owner of the property came and the husbandman would not provide
for the owner and then he sent his son and they killed the son.
And the Lord said, you remember the story, and the Lord said,
what should the owner do unto those husbandmen? And the Pharisees
pronounced their own judgment. They said, well, he should take
that property away from them and give it to another. And the
Lord said, and so be it. That's exactly what he's going
to do. I've given you a vineyard. I sent you servants, you persecuted
my servants, I sent you my son, you killed my son, you have not
produced any fruit of righteousness for the owner of the vineyard
and I'm taking the vineyard away from you and I'm giving it to
another." So God divorced Israel. National Israel, He divorced
them. He gave them that one generation
from the death. A generation in Judaism is 40
years. and the Lord died around 30 and
then in 70 AD the Romans came completely destroyed Jerusalem.
One generation Israel had to hear the gospel between the death
of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem. And now, now the
vineyard's been given to another, another nation. It's been given
to the church hasn't it? That's what this divorce and
remarriage is all about. Don't get caught up in splitting
hairs. Those of you that have been divorced
know the pain of divorce. And you know the guilt. And you
know the shame. And if anybody wants to consider
divorce, talk to somebody that's been divorced. Get their advice. or just believe what God says
and don't do it. Believe what God says. So much
pain, so much agony. Now, scriptures are clear from
the beginning. Look at verse 6. From the beginning
of creation, God made them male and female. Now there it is. Simple, clear, to the point,
two genders, not 56, two. God made them male and female. If God made you a male, be a
male. If God made you a female, be a female. That's what God
made you. And what a compliment the two
genders are when both man and woman believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a picture of Christ and
His church. What a blessing in the marriage
under the married bed undefiled. What a union when the two flesh
shall become one. And look, and for this cause
shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave unto
his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. So then they are
no more two, but one flesh. That's why the Lord said to the
believers, don't be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. Make sure the person you unite
to in marriage is a believer. Otherwise, there's going to be
constant conflict. You're going to have two different
entire views of everything. You have nothing in common. What
fellowship hath light with darkness? What therefore God hath joined
together let no man put asunder. There's your answer for divorce.
Don't do it. Let no man put us under. And
in the house, the disciples asked him again the same matter, and
he said unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry
another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall
put away her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
That's pretty simple. Now, Before you begin to have thoughts
about those who have committed adultery by divorcing and remarrying,
consider what the Lord said about your own heart. Man looks at
the outward appearance, God's looking at the heart. If any
man, you've heard it said of old that if you commit adultery,
you're guilty. But I say unto you, if you've
lusted in your heart, you've already committed adultery. We don't stand in judgment. What
are we going to do? We going to do like the Puritans
did and sew a big red A on everybody's and make them sit in a different
room and treat them? No, there's forgiveness for adultery. There's forgiveness for each
one of us who have committed adultery in our heart and there's
forgiveness for those who have broken their marriage vows. doesn't change the fact that
we committed adultery. The Lord makes that clear. That's just
what it is. Don't do it. Don't do it. There's a lot of things. Oh,
how many lives have been destroyed by sexual sins? And every one of us knows something
about it, don't we? We know about it in our hearts.
If we've not done it in our flesh, We know about it. Young people, here's another
thing. The world's telling you, you
know, not only is it okay to cohabitate before marriage, but
it's actually prudent. It's a good thing. You get to
know each other and find out if you're compatible and don't
believe it. Don't believe it. Sex outside
of marriage is wrong. God says it's wrong. You see,
have I been taught of God? are you going to do is bring
heartache on yourself? That's all you're going to do. As his want was, he gathered
them together and he taught them again. That's our hope every
time we come together, isn't it? That the Lord will just teach
us again. All right, let's take a break. th th