Well, good morning. I thought
I'd read a few verses out of Psalm 119 from verse 88, just
these next few verses to begin our time today. I'm so thankful to the Lord for gathering
us here. I'm thankful for safe travels for all of you people
who've come such a long way to worship our God and our Saviour. What a great prayer this is.
And of course all the prayers in all of the Psalms are the
prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. But they are our prayers in Him.
Psalm 119 verse 88 says, Quicken me after
thy lovingkindness, so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. That word quicken is to make
me alive. Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all
generations. Thou hast established the earth,
and it abideth. They continue this day according
to thine ordinances, for they are thy servants. Unless thy
law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction. I will never forget thy precepts,
for with them thou hast quickened me. I am thine, save me, for
I have sought thy precepts. We're here because our God is
a God of loving kindness. We quote that verse out of Jeremiah
31 so often, don't we? It says in Jeremiah 31 verse
3, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. we come to a God whose word is
settled in the heavens and settled forever, established and pure
and firm and true. And he's the one that has drawn
us to himself. Let's pray. Now, Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the word made flesh that came and tabernacled amongst
us. that his dwelling place is with
the sons of men, and we, Heavenly Father, by the extraordinary
wonder and provision of your grace, have our abiding in him. We do thank you, Heavenly Father,
for the promise of your presence with us. The Lord Jesus Christ
said that where two or three are gathered, are gathered by
him, drawn to him, drawn to the wonder and the beauty of his
character, that he is with us in the midst. Oh, our Father,
we just wish for your word to be true to us today, that you
would fulfill your promises and you would meet with your people
and comfort them. We do pray, heavenly Father,
for those who are scattered both near and far. that your word
would be a word of blessing to the hearts and souls of your
dear children in this world, our Father. And draw them, draw
them by your word to yourself. We pray in Jesus' name, our Father,
in his glory. We're going to sing one of the
new hymns that's on your sheet. You probably know it well. I
hear the Saviour say, thy strength indeed is small, childhood weakness
watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. Thanks, Noel. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
in need is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Now, indeed, I find thy power
and thine alone can change the lapper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. by thy grace to play I'll wash
my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lamb Jesus paid
it all all to him I owe sin had left a crimson stain complete. Jesus died, my soul
to save. Thy lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin had left a prince Peace. Tom sings these hymns
for us, and he was with Owen the other day, and he was very
much appreciative of the hymn singing. Maybe that means that
he wasn't quite so appreciative of what he was hearing before,
but nevertheless, one day soon we trust we'll be allowed to
sing properly again and get Norm and Ben back into their normal
roles. So Owen sends his regards, and
Greg, I spoke to Greg a few days ago, and his daughter Jennifer
is doing much, much better. But Todd's wife, Lynn, needs
a kidney transplant, and that will be, I think, in another
six weeks or so for those of you who appreciate his idea very
much. Todd, his wife, is a delight. And so we are, we have every
reason to be thankful for our family around this world. Scattered, but one day, one day,
one day soon, we'll all be gathered together around the throne of
His glory. And while we're on the subject
of people, our friend Cole has an operation on the 15th of October. the prostate cancer. So as much
as it is difficult, the news is much better than it might
have been. And so we continue to pray that the Lord will be
merciful to us and keep our calm here. I know he probably wants
to go home, but Mirren and the rest of us don't at this stage. So anyway, we have a great and
glorious God. and he is good. He does good
to all of his people and he is good in everything that he does
all of the time. So we are in his hands and we're
delighted to be in his hands. I was going to read, if you turn
with me in Acts chapter 26, I wanted to read a couple of passages
of scripture and then we'll sing again. These, as I've said before,
are the last recorded apostolic testimony to the Jews. And in
the previous chapters, in chapter 24, Paul had been before Felix
with all the Jews there, accusing him, seeking a sly way to have
him put to death by having him brought to Jerusalem. And Felix
says in verse 25, As Paul reasoned, Acts 24 verse 25, as Paul reasoned
of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled
and answered, go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient
season, I will call for thee. And it's interesting that both
the Roman secular leader of that nation, ruler of that nation
from the Roman secular power point of view, and the king of
that nation. And I know in many ways they
were puppet kings, but this particular Agrippa that we're reading about
here is one of the Agrippas, one of the Herods. He's the grandson
of Herod the Great. and the son of Herod who set
the Lord Jesus at naught. But from all accounts, he was
a religious man and a zealous man and acknowledged by the Jews
as such. And so unlike his father and
grandfather, he had some serious interest in the things of God.
And so it's just interesting, isn't it, that the Lord causes
there to be a chapter and a half out of this history of the 30
years of the early church. And it's devoted, this chapter
and a half is devoted to Paul's witness to this one particular
man. And we come to the end of it
here today in verse 24. Let's begin in verse 24 of Acts
chapter 26. Paul spoke, let's begin in verse
22. He says, Having therefore obtained help
of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small
and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets
and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer, and
that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and
should show light unto the people and unto the Gentiles. And as
he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul,
thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee
mad. But he said, I am not mad, most
noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.
He's not intoxicated anyway. This is sober and truthful words. For the King knoweth these things,
before whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none
of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done
in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou
the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then
Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And I want you to recall that
what Felix said was his testimony. I'll see you when it suits me.
I'll make the decision when I'll hear this again. And this is
Agrippa's testimony of himself, not Paul's. This is Agrippa saying,
he said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Almost. So close and yet so far. And Paul said, I would to God
that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were
both almost and altogether such as I am. That's the prayer of
God's people. Not that you'll be an almost,
but there'll be an altogether, except these bonds. And when
he had thus spoken, the king rose. rose up, and the governor, and
Bernice, and they that sat with them. And when they were gone
aside, they talked between themselves, saying, this man doeth nothing
worthy of death or of bonds. Then said Agrippa unto Festus,
this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed
unto Caesar. Almost. Almost. It is a theme that so resonates
through the scriptures that as heavy as it might be and as serious
as it might be, we need to be thankful that the Lord has given
us this testimony and given us this testimony in so many particular
and different ways that we might take heed, and that we might
not presume upon the grace of God, and that we might be wise
unto salvation, and we might know that around us, and I trust
not in us, are those who are all most. I'd like us to turn
back in Mark's gospel, and I'll have a look at this in a few
minutes with you, but I'd like you to turn back in the Mark's
gospel to Mark chapter 12, verse 28, The Lord Jesus dealing with a
man who in some ways is remarkable amongst the scribes and Pharisees.
If you have time and at your leisure you'll go back and see
that there were those that came to him to trap him in his words
and they'd all left. And this particular scribe stayed. The Pharisees had come to trap
him, the Sadducees had come to trap him, and this man stayed. And one of the scribes came,
and having heard them reasoning together, so he'd heard all this
reasoning, he'd heard the reasoning about paying tribute to Caesar,
he'd heard the reasoning about God being the Father of the living. It's the God of the living, not
of the dead. He'd heard the rebuke of the
Sadducees that they didn't. They heard because they didn't
know the Scriptures, neither the power of God. This is a man
who would claim to know the Scriptures. And one of the scribes came,
and having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that
he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment
of all? And Jesus answered him, the first
of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is
one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely
this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other
commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him,
well said, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth, for there
is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love him
with all heart, and with all understanding, and with all soul,
and with all strength, and to love his neighbor as himself
is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And
Jesus saw that he had answered discreetly, he had answered piously.
He said unto him, Thou art not far, from the kingdom of God. And no man after that does ask
him any questions. All those thoughts are in our
mind, we're going to sing. Is it in this order, Norm? Precious
savior, friend of sinners? I don't know you. Okay, let's talk about a precious
savior. Precious saviour, friend of sinners,
we are such to thee drawn near. Let thy spirit dwell within us
with that love that casts out fear. Are you right? And that's the same. ? Precious Savior, friend of sinners
? ? We as such to Thee draw near ? ? Let Thy Spirit dwell within
us ? ? With that love that cast out fear ? ? Matchless Savior,
let us know Thee ? ? As the Lord, our righteous Lord ? Cause our
hearts to cling unto Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now Thy precious treasure,
let Thy Word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
Tis Thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion,
let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions,
we would find our hope in thee. It's always a challenge when
we have to deal with passages such as this one in Mark 12,
and there is a command from God toward all of his servants who
stand in this place that we are to comfort his people, to comfort
his people. And in all these stories, as
much as there is a salutary warning, there is meant to be great comfort
for the children of God. Our Lord's faithful dealing and
faithful witness to these people is nothing short of the faithful
witness that he bears to his people wherever he gathers and
wherever he bears witness to himself. And so not only did
this particular scribe come near to God, But all who come into
contact with the gospel come near to God. He comes near, doesn't
he? And he reveals himself amongst
his people, and he reveals himself in his word. And so we love,
we love his word, and we love the gospel. the Lord's dealings
with these people. He always does what is right,
and what he does which is right is always good for us. And so
I trust the Lord might cause this to be good. The scribes,
as you probably can gather from their name, are the people who
were involved in transcribing the scriptures. And if you ever
want to read about the about why our translation has come
down to us so accurately. Just go and read the instructions
that the scribes had when it came to transcribing the scriptures.
It would have been an extraordinary task. They had to wash themselves
before they wrote the name of the Lord. And so you can imagine
in those passages in the Old Testament where it's there all
the time, they'd be up and down, up and down all the time. And
if they made a mistake, the whole page was thrown away. It's just
extraordinary, the detail. And so not only did this man
transcribe the Scriptures, he knew them and the scribes were
involved in interpreting the Word of God. So they knew them
and they taught them. And this man, like many of his
contemporaries, possibly knew the Old Testament off by heart.
It's remarkable. And this man had an interest
in the kingdom of God. He had an interest in the kingdom
of God, but the Lord's testimony of him is that he's not far from
the kingdom of God. This man was religious. He was devoted. He would have
been like Saul of Tarsus and all of the Jews that day. He
would have been able to trace his lineage back to one of the
tribes of Israel. He would have been able to trace
it back to being one of those particular children of Abraham. And he would have been able to
trace his lineage with great pride because he was one of the
descendants of the people that had survived that 2,000 years
of history. and he had survived and his family
had come out of Babylon and come back into Judea and his family
had been ones that had survived the Maccabean desecration of
the temple and all things of God where it was a capital offense
150 years before this to own a copy of the scriptures. And
yet the scriptures had been preserved and his family, he could look
back on his heritage and his history and his traditions. He
could look back and look around at his knowledge And this man not only had all
those things, but he had an interest in the morality of the law. He actually had an interest in
the fact that the law not only is extraordinarily broad, but to obey the law is a heart
understanding. You see what he says there? He
says, and to love him with all the
heart, verse 33. This is a man who lived in an
age, as Paul and all the other episodes we see in the gospel
accounts, this is an age where outward religious performance
and show was everywhere to be seen. And yet this man comes
to the Lord Jesus Christ and he speaks of a heart religion.
He's doing very well, isn't he? He's doing very well. So he's like us, isn't he? He's acquainted with the things
of God. He's like the religious world
around us. They're acquainted with the things
of God. He's laid out before us as someone
with whom we need to be taking, hey, don't we, 2 Corinthians
13 verse 5 says that we ought to examine ourselves to see that
we're in the faith. In the faith, if you look back
in the passages in 2 Corinthians, 1 John and other places, being
in the faith is being in fellowship with both the brethren, in fellowship
with the Lord Jesus Christ, to be in love with them, to have
and be brought in to a loving relationship with them. You see,
you can talk much of love. this man may well have been able
to talk much of love and much of devotion. And as we know from
this secular world that we live in, that word love is a word
that is used often and has been gutted of its meaning in so many,
many ways. To talk about love is so much
easier than to be loving in reality. But we're people, aren't we? This man had an interest in the
law of God. This man had an interest in morality. This man had an interest in the
word of God. This man was an authority on
the scriptures. He'd memorized them, studied
them, and he had seen there is to the
natural man a way of life and a way of salvation in the scriptures. And like many men who have some
sort of natural stirrings when it comes to the things of the
Spirit of God, he had a serious interest in the fact that the
law requires a deep and heartfelt relationship and knowledge with
God. And like all people who are unregenerated,
they have an understanding of the law of God, and yet they
think they can keep it in some way, and we'll examine that in
a little bit longer. But this man knew the scriptures,
and the Lord Jesus Christ says, he wasn't in the kingdom of God. The Lord had said, you can turn
there in John chapter five with me, the Lord said to these people
that came to him often, often to trap him and often to challenge
him. He said to these people who search
the Scriptures, he says in John's Gospel in chapter
5 verse 39, search the Scriptures, you search the Scriptures. For
in them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of me, John 540. They are they. which testify of me, and you
will not come to me that you might have love. I receive not
honour from men, but I know you, and you have not the love of
God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not.
If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe and receive
honour from one another, and seek not the honour that cometh
from God only? So the scribes were honored,
weren't they? Do not think, says our Lord Jesus
Christ, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There
is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For have you believed Moses? You would have believed me, for
he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe my So this man, like so many of
the religious and lost that think they're in the kingdom of God,
and the Lord's testimony is that they are not far from the kingdom
of God. You can be very close to the
kingdom of God and not far. If you miss the mark, If you're
an archer or a shooter like our young friend Sam, you've missed
the mark. It doesn't matter whether you've
missed the mark by a millimeter or a million miles, you've missed
the mark. There is just one mark, isn't there? And that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. This man was an authority on
tradition and on history, on doctrines. He had a personal
interest in them all. He would have claimed, like all
of the Jews, that he was a child of Abraham. He would have claimed
that he was one of the faith children of Abraham. And the Lord, as we read in John
5, said that you can know the Word of God and not know the
God who is the Word. And this man not only knew all
of these things, but this man acted in a way which was above
and beyond so many of his contemporaries, so many of his fellows for this
season, didn't he? He says the Pharisees and the
Sadducees had all left, but he came to the Lord Jesus Christ. He heard it all and he came.
He's looking very good, it looks very hopeful. And he came inquiring and he
wants to know the Lord's understanding and the Lord's knowledge of these
things. He calls him master. And he wants
to know what is most important. Which is the first commandment
of all? Verse 28. Which is the first commandment?
Which is the prime commandment? What is the commandment that
holds all of the commandments of God together? What is the
chief one? What is the greatest in rank
and honor? And the Lord gave him this remarkable answer, isn't
he? The first of all the commandments.
He's here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. This is
the first commandment. And the second is life, namely
this, that thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is
none other commandment greater than thee. The Lord answered him. And what did he respond? He says, Master, thou hast said
the truth. He acknowledged that the Lord
Jesus Christ had said the truth. The scribe believed that there
was one God. The scribe was not an idolater.
The scribe believed in the one God that was in the Old Testament.
the one God revealed in what he was writing day in and day
out. There is throughout the New Testament
Scriptures and throughout the Old Testament Scriptures and
all of them, there is much believing which is not believing unto the
salvation of your souls. You can read about it in John
chapter 6. They followed the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter
6 thinking that they would see him perform more miracles and
there'd be more bread. In John chapter 8 there's a remarkable
description of people that believed in him. When so many had left,
in John chapter 8 verse 30, he says many believed on him. He spoke these words, many believed
on him. If you read on in John 8, you'll
find that these same people that are declared to believe on him,
by the end of John 8, they're picking up stones to stone him.
They'll believe on Him until He reveals Himself as He really
is. When He reveals Himself as Lord
and God and Saviour and Ruler over all things, and having all
things in His command, and including all people at His command. And
people will not bow, the same people that believed. In Acts
chapter 20 we have a whole parade of people who believed. They had some sort of Christian
belief. and they were zealous for the law. This man was zealous
for the law. James reminds us, doesn't he,
the devils believe. The devils believe. Felix trembled,
as we read in Acts chapter 24. For this man, who is not far
from the kingdom of God, he knew that the condition of a man's
heart was more important than And yet, he's not far from the
kingdom of God. He's not far from the kingdom
of God. He knew, and I suspect like so many others,
and I think we'll come to it in a few minutes, I think he
suspects like so many others who claim to be living in righteous
morality and claim to be living under the law of God and in obedience
to the law of God, always, always what they do is they reduce the
depth and the breadth of the law of God to something that
they can manage in their own activities. The law of God is
exceedingly broad and exceedingly deep. This man had all of these things
going for him. He treats the Lord Jesus with
some respect. He says, Master, you're a teacher. You teach really well. I'm a
teacher. I teach really well. You're a teacher and you teach
really well. But he is laid out before us.
as Agrippa and Felix, and Judas and Diotrephes, and countless
others throughout the history of the scriptures and throughout
the history of this last 2,000 years since the scriptures are
finished, who is not far from the kingdom of God. They've come
into contact with the things of God and shown a great interest.
And the Lord said to this man, you are not far, you are not
far from the kingdom of God. What are the problems here? The first one is that as much
as he acknowledges that to love God with all heart, with all
understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength,
and to love his neighbor as himself, and he says that's more than
whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, there's not a mention in any
of this. that there is the law of God,
and here am I. I've come so, so far short of
it. There's not a mention in this
account before the Lord Jesus Christ of this man breaking the
law at every single point. The law is spiritual. The law reveals something of
the glory and the character of God. But the law was given not
so that men could know how to live righteously before God,
but so that every mouth would be stopped and the whole world
held accountable, held guilty before God. That's right, the
law keepers in our day, they actually think that they can
do it. They actually think that they can do it. I read in the
Modern Confession of Faith just last week, written by two people
who have a master's degree from the best Bible colleges in this
country, and associated with the best Bible colleges and Bible
teaching in evangelicalism around this world. And when it comes
to how you now live the life of a Christian, What they say
is that Christians will from time to time sin. From time to time sin. That necessarily means that from
time to time you don't sin. It's like the local Pharisees
that we dealt with all those years ago. One of them said,
I had the occasional slip up. Which means that most of the
time he's not sinning at all. Another fellow said, well, I
have times in my life when there is no sin. And we asked him,
Simon, I asked him, I said, is that in terms of you being united
to the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, no, twice he said, no,
it's me personally I have no sin. Another one of the local
Pharisees said that he's reduced his sinning down to one. He's
only got one left that he was working on. You love the Lord your God. Listen
to what the Lord said. You love the Lord your God. You'll
shout, thou shalt love the Lord your God with all thine heart
and with all thine soul, with all thine mind and with all thy
strength. And this is the first commandment.
And the second is like namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself. How are you going? How are you
doing? Is it the occasional slip up
or is it as David said? Listen to a man who wasn't just
far from the kingdom of God or near the kingdom of God, was
in the kingdom of God. In Psalm 51, David after the
horror of his fall and murder of Uriah and the pain that he
brought upon his family and his nation, he says, Against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
But thou might be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when
thou judgest. When God judges in all he does
in that judgment as he finds. And you're just a sinner. You're
much worse a sinner than you can possibly imagine. Behold,
says David, I was shaken in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. He's not talking about the act. He was talking about the
fact that that's what he was. In Adam he sinned. He'd sinned
in the garden. He'd sinned in thought and word
and deed. He came forth from his mother's
womb speaking lies. You don't have to teach people
to sin. They sin because they're sinners.
Sin is both in the scriptures a noun, a being word, and because
it's a noun, a being word, it can be a verb, a doing word. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
no wisdom. And see, David, who's in the
kingdom of God, makes a plea, doesn't he, on the basis of the
fact that he's a sinner and he's broken all of God's laws. James
2.10 says, if you've broken one, you've broken the lot. And you
can't do anything to fix it yourself. He says, purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. The child of God, unlike this
scribe, confesses the sin that he is. To confess sin, as Ben
and I were talking about earlier, is to actually agree with God.
Agree with God that we can say amen to what David said. Lord,
as the publican came to the temple, he said, Lord, be merciful to
me, the sinner. The religious people want to
look at other people and measure themselves by all sorts of standards
that they concoct. The child of God is only dealing
directly with God himself. This man had no personal confession
of sin. Everyone that really comes to
the Lord Jesus Christ comes as a sinner you'll call his name
Jesus that's why he came you'll call his name Jesus because he
came to save his people from their sin he came to call he
didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance as
Paul says he came to save sinners he came to save sinners real
sinners not sinners like this scribe This man came talking well, but
he didn't bow. See, so many people want to honor
other people and honor other people in religion that they
will actually have some honor for themselves again. He didn't
bow. He didn't plead. He didn't plead
for mercy. Everywhere in the scriptures,
the Lord Jesus Christ creates a thirst, a thirst for righteousness. The blessing is in the thirst.
The blessing is in the hungering after righteousness. This man acknowledged those scriptures. speak of one who would come and
be that perfect sacrifice. He said, didn't he? He said that
doing these things, loving God, loving God is more than whole
burnt offerings and sacrifices. But he had no acknowledgment
from the scriptures that there was one who was coming and one
who was standing before him, who was the one, the one sacrificed
to sin. He would have read them and written
them. He would have had on his lips if you had begun to talk
to him about the Old Testament Scriptures. And if you'd begun
in Isaiah 53, he would have written the rest out for you, wouldn't
he? And he had no idea that the one standing before him was the
one true sacrifice. That one true sacrifice to by
his loving God with all of his heart and all of his mind and
all of his soul and all of his strength. For him, the one who
really did love his neighbor as himself, all of God's people
were in him in that time and he obeyed the law of God absolutely
perfectly. Not to work out a righteousness
for himself, he already had it as the son of God. But to prove
to everyone, he could say to them at the end of his life,
can you convict me of any sin? He did it that he might be that
lamb, that spotless lamb of God. He would have written Zechariah's
promises, wouldn't he? Zechariah 9.11 says, Thou shalt
be also by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners
out of the pit wherein is no water. Everywhere in the Old Testament
Scriptures we have pictures. And that's what all of the Old
Testament Scriptures are about. They're about the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. This man knew the Scriptures
and didn't know the Savior in the Scriptures. And therefore,
standing before the Lord, who had publicly confessed to these
people again and again that he was God, he began his ministry
saying, I am God, and you have three years to examine me as
God. I am the Christ, the Messiah of God. I am the sent one from
God. I am the fulfillment of every single promise in all of
those Old Testament scriptures. He made those claims of himself.
John the Baptist made those claims of him. This is a lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world. God the Father made a
testimony. All of the Old Testament scriptures
testified. And yet this man can call him
master. This man can stand before him
and says that you're a teacher who speaks really well. You're
a teacher who speaks really well. There's no confession, but this
one standing before him is the Redeemer of Israel. The question
is, isn't it, what think you of Christ? What think you of
Christ? What do you think of the law?
What do you think of yourself? What think you of Christ? If
you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that God raised
him from the dead, you shall be saved. The other thing that's
sad about this fellow is that as much as he left them for a
season and joined with the Lord, and came with good words, and
wise words, and words of morality, and words of commendation for
the Lord, there's not even a hint that he ever stayed there. He
went back into his religion. He'd come out, as it were, into
the light for a little while, and then he went back. He went
back. He was better for a little while,
and he went back, and Lord Jesus says, you take up your cross
and you follow me. You follow me. You follow me. If you read in Zechariah, chapter 13, is that glorious
picture, that glorious promise of what happened on the cross
of Calvary when there was a real sacrifice, and a real sacrifice
that really put away sin, And the transaction of that sacrifice
is a transaction between God the Father and God the Son, as
promised by God the Holy Spirit. It was God the Father who put
his Son to death. And the offering that the Lord
Jesus Christ made was not an offering to men. He's not offering
himself to men. His offering was an offering
to God. And his resurrection proves that God the Father accepted
his offering in Zechariah. Chapter 13 verse 7, he says,
Awake, O sword, the sword of my justice, against my shepherd. The Lord Jesus Christ has said
in the hearing of this scribe, I'm the good shepherd. I'm the
good shepherd. I'm the shepherd of the sheep
of the Lord God of Israel. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd
and against the man that is my fellow, my companion, my equal. saith the Lord of hosts, smite
the shepherd. And the sheep shall be scattered,
and I will turn my hand upon the little ones. He'll turn his
hand of grace and love upon the little ones. And it shall come
to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein
shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein. And this is how he's bringing
these ones. the sheep of his pasture, and I will bring the
third part through the fire, and I will refine them as silver
is refined. Our Lord Jesus Christ will refine
his people. He refines them with the trials
of this world. He refines them with all of the
things that cause them to depart from any of their righteousness
of their own. and all the activities of their
flesh. He refines them as silver is refined, and I'll try them
as gold is tried. And this is the one word missing,
the one essential word missing from this man's discussion with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to how Zechariah put it. And they shall call upon my name,
and I will hear them, You might have recalled in Acts
chapter 2 and in many other places, whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, call upon him in his true character as revealed
in the scriptures, they shall call upon my name and I will
hear them. And then this is what God says
of those who are his. He says, I will say, it is my
people. That's the word that's missing,
isn't it? It's a personal pronoun, the my. It is my people. And they shall say, the Lord
is my God. Religious and not far from the
kingdom of God is a dangerous place to be. I pray that it's
not the portion. I love how the Lord spoke to
that woman, who the scribes and Pharisees and others would have
looked down on. In John chapter four, in that glorious picture
of the Lord Jesus with the woman of the well, he has a remarkable
word for her. And it's a remarkable word for
us today, isn't it? It was a word that the scribe
may well have heard. He says, if you knew and who it is that sayeth unto
thee, give me to drink, you'd ask, you'd ask, you'd ask of
him and he would have given thee living water. May the Lord make
us mercy beggars. May the Lord refine us. May the Lord teach us through
his word, may he cause us to know the gift of God, that we'll
be beggars. It's a great place to be, to
be a beggar, to be a beggar in the presence of the great giver. May the Lord bless his words.