Alright, we're going to be in
Mark 12, Mark 12 verses 35 through 44. Mark 12, 35 through 44. Now, in our study here, we find
that Christ is teaching the common people, the common people, and
he's teaching them about Christ. We know that Christ is the Son
of God. He's the second person in the
Trinity. He's the second person in the Godhead. And he's teaching
them about himself, about Christ, who is to come and to save his
people. And so one of the things that we see is that as Christ
is teaching the people, It's not the way man teaches. It's not according to the doctrines
and the teachings of men. It's according to God Himself. I mean, they're hearing Christ
speak, and this is the Son of God teaching them and speaking
to them. And He still teaches us, the
common people, to this day, and we're so thankful for that. What the Lord does is in opposite
of what we see in religion. We're all pretty familiar with
religion. A lot of us have spent quite
a number of years in dead churches, in places where the gospel isn't
understood and not preached therefore. And so a lot of religion we know
focuses on the external, on the outward form of religion. It's about teaching you how to
conform to their religion and their teachings and their practices
and what they say we should be doing rather than teaching you
and pointing you to Christ, where Christ will teach you and he'll
instruct you and he gives you the faith and the spirit to walk
in him, right? So we get all worked up and upset
in religion and and looking at ourselves and what we should
be doing better or not doing and things like that rather than
looking to Christ. So we find that through the Gospel
that it's a work of the Spirit. The Spirit is the one that's
teaching us today and he's the one who has to teach us and so
to do that he gives us a new heart and he gives us a willing
spirit. He does that. He says in Ezekiel,
I'll just read it, Ezekiel 36, 26, a new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put within you. So the Lord does
this. The Lord does this work in and
for his people. Now we'll see that Our faith
must be deeper than the outward form, alright, today as we go
through this, and that it is a matter of the heart. It's all
the work of the spirit doing this for his people. And he's
the one that gives life to dead sinners, alright? And so our
title is Two-Might Religion. Two-Might Religion. That's M-I-T-E. Two-Might Religion, which we'll
see in the last few verses there of our text today. Alright? relatively
brief divisions. First we'll see who is the Christ.
We'll look at his teaching about Christ. We'll take notice of
that phrase the common people and then that phrase in his doctrine. That's the second time we're
seeing that phrase in his doctrine. And then we'll see the creation
of Christ. The creation of Christ. So we'll
begin now with the first division, which is who is Christ? Who is the Christ? And so, if
you remember, the Lord had just been dealing with all those religious
people and their foolish questions. The Herodians and the Pharisees,
they teamed up together and came with their clever little question.
And then the Sadducees came with their clever little question
and they were challenging him and they came insincere. And what they did, what they
were doing when they came with their question was to introduce
strife and confusion to the people. They were hoping that they could
get Christ to say something so that they would either have something,
some basis to accuse him to the law and that he would be arrested
and taken away by the Romans, or that they could get him enough
so that he would be taken down and and lowered in the esteem
of the people and that the people would realize this this isn't
the Christ he can't be the Christ and so that's what their intention
was and they was they were saying things in a way so as to cause
doubt and confusion in your minds about Christ about Christ they
were taking you away from from the Lord Jesus Christ from looking
to him And then we saw that last fellow, he was a scribe or a
pharisee, and he had his question and he seemed to be a bit more
secure, sincere, sorry, he seemed to be a bit more sincere in his
asking, in his question. And what it did was it actually
gave Christ an opportunity to declare to us the Trinity, to
declare to us the Godhead more fully. So that's just happened. That's just what we saw recently.
And now what we see is that Christ begins to focus now on that second
person of the Trinity, of the Godhead, the Christ. He's going
to teach the people about Christ. And so Christ asks a question. He asks the question, and you
notice that the difference in his question wasn't to create
confusion, but to take away the confusion and put their focus,
to put their hearts on seeking Christ, to seek God that they
might know the Christ. All right, so he's glorifying
Christ. He's glorifying in the hearts
and minds of these people the Christ, who is the Savior, all
right? Let's look at verses 35 through 37, Mark 12. And Christ answered and said,
while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ
is the Son of David? For David himself said by the
Holy Ghost, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right
hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore
himself calleth him Lord. And whence is he then his Lord?
How is he his Lord, if David's calling him Lord? And whence
is he then his son? If David's calling him Lord,
how is he David's son? And the common people heard him
gladly. So the scribes, they had rightly
taught the people that the Christ would come from the lineage of
David. That was right. There wasn't
anything wrong. So they rightly taught the people that Christ
will come from David's loins. But Christ goes to a scripture
that they would have avoided because they didn't understand
what it meant. They didn't know what this meant
that David is calling his own son Lord. So they would have
avoided that and the people wouldn't have heard that ever. They might
have heard it read, but they didn't understand what it meant.
And so the Lord goes right there to that point. And it's in Psalm
110. Psalm 110 verse 1 is the passage
that the Lord is quoting from. And I'll read it. It says, the
Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make
thine enemies thy footstool. And so David calls the Christ
that would come from his own line, his own lineage, My Lord. That's the confusion there. My
Lord. The Lord, when he was speaking,
he tells us how David even knew this, how could David know this
about the Christ, that he's not just his son, but that he's something
greater, that he's God. And so he tells us that David
himself said, by the Holy Ghost, that's how, by the Holy Ghost. And that reveals to us, that
teaches us, instructs us our need for the Spirit of God to
teach us. We've got to have revelation
from God. He's the only one that can make
this known to us so that it's not just up here in our minds
but down here in our hearts and that we understand who God is
by the revelation of God. And so the Spirit regenerates. We call it regeneration. It means
that He gives life to that which is dead. He gives life to those
that are dead. He regenerates his people. He gives them life and he gives
them light. Light as opposed to our darkness. And he gives us life as opposed
to our death. And if you remember, just think
about it. The scripture talks about the
believer as a new creation, a new creation created of Christ. And we know in Genesis, in the
beginning of Genesis, who created the world and the heavens and
all things that are in it. It's Christ. When God said, He's
the Word of God. When God said, let there be light,
and there was light. And that's what we see there
as the Son of God. Not only the spoken word, but
even the light itself is Christ. And so that's why he's the one
that gives us life and light. And that's why John even describes
him as the light of men. He's the light of men. He's the
life of men. And so, even in the beginning
of creation, God said, let there be light. Well, same thing, in
the beginning of our creation, God still speaks to his people,
his common people, and says, let there be light. And so, he
gives us that light and that life to know him and to understand
him. Alright, so the Spirit of God is the one who comes by God,
by His authority, His power, and He's the one who reveals
to us, gives us an understanding of God, to know that He's sovereign,
omnipotent, almighty, doing as He pleases, whatsoever He pleases.
The Spirit also comes and gives us an understanding of who we
are, that we all are sinners and desperately in need of His
grace and mercy, otherwise we can't work a righteousness for
ourselves. And then we also see, He gives
us light to see and understand His glorious salvation, that
He's the one who provides salvation for His people in his son Jesus
Christ. See, so he's revealing God to
us, he's revealing who and what we are and our problem, and he's
revealing how it is that God is the one who justifies and
is just to forgive his people because of his salvation in his
son Jesus Christ. That's really, that is the gospel.
That is the simplicity of Christ and how God saves his people. So the scribes, they would teach
the people some truth. They understood Christ is to
come from David's loins, but they only saw him as a man, doing
what a man does, maybe some wonderful things, but all he was was a
man. And it's like religion today. They might teach some truth,
Depending on where you go, you might hear some things that are
true and right, but the problem is they all deny or they all
miss the salvation of Christ. Because no sooner do they speak
of Christ, perhaps, they might pepper him in there a little
bit, but they get your eyes off of Christ and on to something
else. On to something else, either
activities or the law or something like that. They don't like you
staying on Christ for very long, because they miss him. They just
don't have any light to understand that it's all about the Lord
Jesus Christ. So their knowledge and their
understanding of the things of God is very carnal, very fleshly. It has nothing of the Spirit
in it. And so Christ now is beginning
to teach spiritual things. And even as I speak, we're trusting
on the Lord, to teach me and to help me word them correctly,
but more so that the Spirit would take that word and bring it home
to our hearts. I depend on it to hear it and
understand it because I'm in the flesh too and you all are
dependent on the Spirit to teach you and to help you hear and
understand. the things of God. So it's a
work of the Spirit of Christ. And so Christ is teaching us
here that Christ isn't just a man, but that he is the Son of God.
He's the second person of the Godhead. And if you remember,
he had just spoken to that scribe, you know, about the greatest
commandment, which revealed to us who God is, that God is a
trinity. He said, Mark 12, 29, when Jesus
answered him, the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O
Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. The Lord our God is one
Lord, and that was As we know from John, it was pointing us
to Christ, to believe on the Son of God, to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. I think we'll see that a little
later, but in Psalm 110, verse 1, the verse says, the Lord said
unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. So, you think about that, and
what we see there is God, the Father, is exalting the Son. He says, sit on my right hand.
You sit here next to me. That's exaltation. That's being
raised up to the place of prominence. God says, you sit on my right
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And Christ, as
we know, was exalted to that place because of the salvation
that he successfully accomplished. He is the successful Savior.
He did not fail. He's not up in heaven wringing
his hands and frustrated because people don't believe on him.
The Lord is successful. He shed his blood for every one
of his people, and every one of his people shall hear. And we all ought to be thankful
that we're hearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't automatically
discount. When you hear of God's predestinating
mercy and grace, of his election, don't automatically assume and
put yourself in the camp of the unbelievers. And say, why does
God do that? That doesn't seem fair. You're
here. Seek him. Look to him. Beg him for mercy
and grace to bring that home to your heart. He's the one that
will teach you that in the heart. And we read of Christ's success
in Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verses 12 through
14, we read of Christ, it says, but this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, he's there offering for the sins
because he's the high priest of his people. So he has the
authority, he's been raised up of God to offer this sacrifice
for sins forever. Well, when he did that, he sat
down on the right hand of God forever. Forever right on the
right hand of God and says in Hebrews 10 13 from henceforth
Expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. He's talking
about Psalm 110 verse 1 that promise For by one offering he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified And so what the
Lord is is teaching us here what he's revealing about the Christ
but what he's making known to us to his people through these
scriptures is that Christ offered himself, he sacrificed himself
as the substitute of his people, in the place of his people because
we can't work a righteousness, we have no means of saving ourselves,
we all know that as God teaches us that we're the sinners, that
we're unrighteous before God, but God in mercy and in grace,
faithfully, kindly, generously, gave us the gift of His own darling
Son, sent Him in the likeness of this corrupt flesh, but He
came perfect, holy, fulfilling all the law of God, so that in
Him is no unrighteousness and no sin. And as that perfect Lamb,
He went in the place of His people, bearing them, bearing their sin
in His own body, went up to that cross, and there was sacrifice. There was crucified that his
people would go free. He shed his blood. He paid that
payment, that death, shedding his own blood. He opened the
veil of his own flesh. He was sacrificed and died in
our place that we might go free and be freely received of God. God would receive us and bring
us into his presence without shame or without fault. So to
do this he's more than just a man. Because we know, we understand
that all men, there's no one that we can look at and say well
they were perfect. None of us knows anybody that's ever been
perfect and right in everything they did in word, thought, and
deed. And so he has to be more than just a man because if he
came from Adam's seed he would be a sinner. And that's why the
Holy Ghost came upon Mary, and that's why he's conceived of
the Holy Ghost. Adam wasn't his father. Mary's
his mother in the flesh, that he might have flesh, but the
Holy Ghost is the one who conceived Christ in the womb of Mary. And that's why, because he can't
be of the seed of Adam. He can't be of the seed of Adam,
otherwise he would have inherited the sin, just like we've all
inherited that sin seminally, right? We're all of that seed
of Adam. All right, so the Lord did that
in the place of his people, and we see that he wasn't coming
just to set up an earthly kingdom, right? The Jews, even the apostles,
believed and kept asking, Lord, are you going to set up your
kingdom now? Will it be now, Lord? Is now the day when you're
going to set up your kingdom? And they were looking for a very
earthly Jewish state in which the Messiah was ruling and they
had this great kingdom on earth. But Christ was doing more than
just an earthly kingdom. He was establishing the kingdom
of God. It says in Ephesians 1.10, as
our brother read, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times Christ might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him. And we know that he accomplished
this because in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. That's why his work is effectual. That's why it's everlasting and
eternal. And that we know that we are
safe and secure in him because he is eternal. He is the Godhead. He is the second person of the
Godhead. All right, now that brings us to our second point.
Notice this phrase there at the end of verse 37. Mark 12, 37,
where it says, and the common people heard him gladly. The common people. And so here
the Lord is making a distinction, a distinction between his people
and those that are self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisees, and the
scribes, and the Sadducees, who trusted in their outward form
of religion. So the common people who are
nothing in themselves, they gladly heard Christ. They were glad
to hear Christ speak of Christ. They rejoiced in the hearing
and the teaching of the Christ. And so there's a difference between
the common people and the religious people. One delights to hear
Christ revealed. One delights to hear of what
Christ has done, what he's accomplished, what he's successfully done for
his people. And the other people say, I'm
getting tired of that. I don't want to hear that. I'm
getting tired of this light bread, right? They begin to loathe it
and hate the preaching of Christ. And they say, I really want to
hear those husks of religion that are for the swine and the
goats. That's what I want to hear about. Tell me what I need
to be doing. Tell me about religious things. Tell me about what I
can do in this outward form of religion, but please stop telling
me about Christ. Don't tell me about what he's
done. for his people. And so religion through that,
I mean, they don't usually put in those words, but they do it
in practice, right? Because they don't preach Christ.
They show their hatred of Christ and his cross because they don't
speak of him. Or they speak of it in a way
so as to put the work into your hands. As to something that you've
got to do to make it effectual and to keep it going. And that's
how they deal with it. Today, in religion, today's Pharisees,
they spend a lot of time teaching the law because they think that
that's how salvation is found, that's how salvation is cultivated,
that's how salvation is brought to a cured state and made effectual
for the people, and teaching the law and teaching religious
practices. But the Lord himself He preached
Christ. He preached himself. And we see
that even later on as you know in Luke 24 where he taught them
of Christ. He showed them and expounded
to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
And so here he is teaching the common people and what's he doing?
He's speaking of Christ. He's teaching them Christ. And
so that's what we do. We preach Christ knowing that
the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. And so
we speak of him trusting that if you're to be saved, he's gonna
save you through Christ. He's gonna save you through the
preaching of the gospel that is applying that word effectually
to your hearts through the preaching of the gospel. And so if you
look over at Psalm 116, Psalm 116, and look at verses five
through seven with me. Here the psalmist says, Psalm
116, verse 5, he confesses, gracious is the Lord. Gracious is the
Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. And
you think about that compared to what you hear in religion.
I mean, they'll say those things, they'll quote those verses, but
God isn't taught as a merciful and gracious God. He's taught
as more of a vindictive God who's going to get you if you don't
adhere more perfectly to the law and keep yourself conforming
to the law of Moses. And so it says then in verse
116, verse 6, the Lord preserveth the simple. And that's what we
are. We're the common people. We're the simple. We're not.
We're not intelligent in the things of God unless The Spirit
of God teaches us those things. We don't know them. We might
be wise in the things of the world and the things of the flesh
and how to do things in the flesh, but we're not wise. and the things
of God. And in the psalm it says, I was
brought low and he helped me. He brings us off our high horse,
off that high mountain, down low, and he takes those that
are low in the valley and he brings them up so that we're
all level, we're all on the same field, we're all in need of God. And thankfully he's gracious
and merciful and kind to his people. And then it says in verse
seven, and think about what we were talking about earlier in
between the services, where he says, return unto thy rest, O
my soul. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. And, you know, as
dead religionists, we're always looking to some work that we've
done. We're always looking to how well
we've kept the law, how well we're advancing in the law, how
we're improving, Or we look at some stumbling that we've done,
some sin that we've been doing or something we've done again.
And we're always looking at either how well we're doing or how poorly
we're doing in religion. And that's where we're never
at rest. You never have any rest. But
when the Lord directs you to see Christ and you behold what
he effectually successfully accomplished, that's when the soul returns
to its rest. That's when you're at peace.
When you can see Christ perfectly and you're not looking to you
anymore, that's when the soul is at rest and at peace. And so if our law obedience is
necessary for salvation, if we've got to sanctify ourselves through
our keeping of the law, what we're confessing there is that
Christ is insufficient. He did the best he could, he
did all he could, but he really is coming up short. And that's
why I've now got to look to the law to improve upon the weakness
and the failure of Christ. That's what we're saying. If
you've got to go back to the law now to sanctify yourselves,
and you better keep at it, then Christ isn't doing what he said
he's doing, and he's coming up short and not doing enough. And so the reality is we're not
hearing the commandment of God then. We're not hearing the commandment
of God. We're taking it and using it
unlawfully and unrighteously. It says in 1 John 3.23, this
is what I was referring to earlier, when John said, this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ
and love one another as he gave us commandment. Our brother was
talking about how some people, they just push Christ aside and
they say, well, we're supposed to love God and we're supposed
to love people the best that we can. We're supposed to do
the best that we can towards people. But there's no hope in
Christ. They don't need Christ. They're
just saying we're to love people. And none of us loves people perfectly. None of us loves God perfectly.
None of us has anything to boast in. If we're honest, we've got
nothing to boast in. All we do is come up short over
and over and over again. And so that commandment is the
law of faith. We're trusting God, be merciful
to me, a sinner, because if it comes down to anything that I've
got to do perfectly, I'm a dead man. I fall short and I'm just
dependent 100% on the grace of God through his son Jesus Christ
because I'm never going to be perfect enough if it's something
to do with the law and me keeping it. So believers are walking
by the Spirit. We know and trust it's Christ
that sanctifies us. It's Christ that teaches us what
we need to know in the heart and he's teaching us. He teaches
us what we need to know. I don't know what each one needs.
I don't even know what I need. All I know except that it's Christ. And so he's the one who's making
us, you know, revealing to us the things that we need to hear
and what He would have us to do. And that's why I preach Christ
because I'm trusting, I'm that confident in Christ that He sanctifies
you, that He justifies you and teaches each of you as you have
need of of teaching. So the righteous can only look
to Christ. That's what we're taught by that
law of faith. Only we can look to Christ and that's how we return
to our rest. That's how we return back to
our rest. Otherwise we're just a tossed
sea. Up and down. If you're looking
at something you're doing, you're in a very vicious, harsh, tumultuous,
raging sea because you're always up and then you're down and you're
up and you're bipolar, you know, you're just constantly going
back and forth and you're all all over the place because you're
looking at you rather than looking at the anchor who doesn't move,
which is Christ. He's fixed. He's perfect. All
right. So now those who would come and
hear this, if you come with an agenda, right, if you come saying,
well, I know what they preach and they've got to be preaching
the law and they're not preaching the law, they're preaching just
they're speaking of Christ. You know, if you come with an
agenda, then you're going to despise and hate what we're preaching
here, what we're teaching here, because we're not preaching the
law as the rule of faith. We're preaching Christ as the
rule of, I'm sorry, as the rule We're not preaching the law as
the rule of his people, we're preaching Christ as the rule
of his people, as the rule of faith, as the hope and how his
people walk. But if you come with an agenda
then you've got only yourself to blame for how you hear and
what you hear, right? Because everything you hear is
going to be shaded with your agenda, what you think is right
and what you should be doing. So we preach Christ and him crucified
knowing that God, that's how God saves sinners and knowing
and understanding that the common people, you that have nothing
to boast in and glory in of yourselves, you hear Christ gladly. You're thankful to hear of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you want to hear.
Alright, now moving on, we come to Christ's teaching which begins
to expose now the plague of every man's heart, that hypocrisy,
that self-righteousness, that satisfaction with that outward
form of religion. So Christ exposes that here now
in his doctrine. So you'll notice as we read verses
38 through 40, There's a great difference between what Christ
is teaching, which is Christ, and the outward form of religion
being taught by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Alright, so
Mark 12, 38. And he said unto them in his
doctrine, Beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing,
and love salutations in the marketplaces, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
and the uppermost rooms at feasts, which devour widows' houses,
and for a pretense make long prayers. These shall receive
greater damnation. And so the Lord is saying that
God looks on the heart. He's not impressed with our outward
form of religion and what we do to earn favor. Really what we're doing is justifying
ourselves before men. despise religion because they
see the hypocrisy in religion and so they despise religion,
but even if they're honest, they're guilty of the same things. Because
they have their form of religion. They worship themselves. Their
non-religious practices are still a form of religion and worship
and serving their own selves. And so every one of us is guilty
of hypocrisy and self-righteousness, right? Even when you're judging
somebody who looks at the law and you're judging them as well.
See, look at all the things that they do. You're still judging
yourself because we're all guilty of it ourselves. So the Lord
exposed this outward form of religion and what he's doing
is he's warning his hearers and that's continues to this day,
we're still his hearers, we're still the common people hearing
him today and he tells us to beware. Beware of deceiving your
own selves and thinking yourselves to be fine and right in what
we hear and what we trust in and how we hear and what we're
hearing. And so what this phrase is that in his doctrine, it's
the second time that he used that phrase. Mark also captured
that. He worded it that way in Mark
4, verse 2. He used that same phrase in Mark
4, 2. I'll read it. It says, and Christ taught them
many things by parables and said unto them in his doctrine, in
his doctrine. And then he went on and taught
them the parable of the sower, or he spoke the parable of the
sower. And we know that the parable of the sower is, you have some
people that are maybe even here today, they hear it, but they
don't hear it. It just goes in one ear, right
out the other, because as soon as the word goes Satan comes
and just takes that word away so it never, they don't even
hear it. They're not even sure what, I don't even know what
they're hearing. Maybe they think they're fine and that they're
good religious people and so everything's good or they just
don't hear anything at all. And then you had those that were
the stony ground here so that at first they delighted in what
they heard and they made a profession of Christ. until persecution
arose and for shame they then abandoned their confession of
Christ. And then you have those who just got so caught up with
this world and the cares and the practices of this world that
the weeds just choked that word out. So it was ineffectual in
themselves. And so either way, when we're
looking at this here, it's all dealing with that outward form
of religion. And Christ says, beware. And so his doctrine is,
I'm not pleased or satisfied with your outward form of religion.
He's looking for Christ. He's looking for his workmanship. He's looking for his creation.
which is the new man created in us by the effectual work of
the Spirit of God. And so the Pharisees were all
about that external form because they felt like if I can convince
others, then surely this must be real. They were just looking
to convince others that they were good religious people and
not worried about God. And the Lord said in Luke 16,
verse 15, He said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. And so that's
what we see in religion, right? It's just 1%, a confession of
Christ, and then 99% or more of now focusing on that outward
form of religion, right? And they get you wrapped up either
looking to the law or their category categorization of how they categorize
people, whether in the church or out of the church, or they
get you focused on volunteering or puppet shows and entertainment. And I've seen puppet shows. I've
seen it done and sat there gladly, happily. And that's the deception
of religion. And so Christmas cantatas and
all kinds of things that they they think, you know, are good
because it's got a slap of religion, you know, a little whitewash
of religion across it, and it's not. And that's just religion,
is that outward form and doing those things. And so, you know,
even Paul addressed that when he says in Colossians 2, verses
20 through 23, he says, Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ, right,
those that believe on Christ were all dead, And so the things
that are here in the flesh, they don't matter. But he said, if
you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why
is the living in the world are you subject to ordinances? This
is the world's ordinances. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Don't touch those things. Don't play cards. Don't go to
movie picture shows. Don't pick up a drink of alcohol.
Don't do anything, because it's all bad. It's all the flesh.
It's going to excite the flesh and get you corrupt again. And
so they tell you these things. But he says, all those things,
everything that we do, it's all destined to perish. It's all
going to perish. And it's all after the commandments
and doctrines of men. And he tells us, these things
have indeed a show of wisdom and will worship. And now we're
worship of the will and what we do or choose not to do and
humility and neglecting of the body but not in any honor to
the satisfying of the flesh. And so that's the focus of religion.
And I'm not promoting the flesh. I'm not saying that because we're
dead with Christ that we just do anything that our flesh lusts
for and wants to do. But you're not going to put those
things down in looking to the flesh and in disciplining yourself
in looking to the law. We walk by the Spirit of God,
and we're trusting that He's teaching us, and that He's dealing
with us. It doesn't all just go away slickly,
you know, split quick. The Lord teaches us, and He turns
us away from the things that we have need of being turned
away from, but it's through the preaching of the Gospel, it's
by the Spirit in you, teaching you what is profitable or not
profitable and what you're going to do. And so he's going to teach
each one of us that. As we have need of hearing it
and learning it, he's the one that's going to do it, but he's
going to keep us looking to Christ and resting in him. And not just
going out with a reckless abandonment, but we're trusting him to do
it. That's why we're not turning to the law to whip you and beat
you and threaten you with things of the law, right? So our Lord
said it best, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said
unto thee, ye must be born again. That's why we've got to be born
again. It's got to be a work of the
spirit. Otherwise we would use our freedom as a cloak of unrighteousness,
right? Then we would do those things,
but the Lord teaches us. He knows how to instruct us and
keep us for Himself. So the only one that can save
us from that dead letter profession is the Spirit of God regenerating
us, giving us that light in life and dwelling in us so that He's
instructing us and keeping us looking to Christ. And that brings
us to our final point where we see an example of the new creation. Christ gives us an example here
of the new creation. And he shows his disciples and
he's showing us what true faith looks like. Now look at Mark
12, verse 41. Mark 12, 41 through 44. And Jesus
sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast
money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. They put in out of their abundance. All right, whatever they had
left over that they didn't feel they need, that's what they put
into the plate. Then 42, and there came a certain poor widow
and she threw in two mites, two mites, which make a farthing.
And he called unto him his disciples and saith unto them, verily I
say unto you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they
which have cast into the treasury. All right. And, you know, you
wonder, well, how can two little mites be more than what everybody
else was putting in? Well, verse 44, for all they
did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want, of her want,
of her need, what she needed to have, that she did cast in
all that she had, even all her living. Right? And so the sense
of what Christ is saying is she needed that money. She needed
that to actually get through the day. Whether it was her money
to actually buy bread or whatever it was that she needed, she gave
that. She parted with that for the
Lord. to the Lord because she loved
them, she was devoted to the Lord, and she trusted that God
would provide for her. And we all understand that physical
aspect of it. We understand, wow, we know what
we'd have to give up if we were doing that to forego what we
needed for a day. But the spiritual lesson, what
we see that is, here's a woman whose utter dependence is on
the Lord. She's depending on the Lord for
her very life. She really believed God, she
trusted Him, and what the others were doing, what it pictured,
is that they were keeping back. They were keeping back so that
they could provide for themselves. They weren't trusting the Lord
to provide for them, they were keeping something back to provide
for themselves, whereas she cast in all that she had. They retained
part of their living, but she cast all her living into that
pot. And think about it, not in that
specific sense, in that monetary sense. I mean, if it helps you,
you can think of it in that, and that's why the Lord shows
us that, but are we living so as it's evident that all our
dependence is on the Lord, that we need the Lord to provide everything
for us. Now think about how the Lord
responded to that scribe back in Mark 12 verse 30, because
this is all in that context there. Mark 12 verse 30 says, 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 so what we see is that we
have A body and a soul. Two mites, right? Two mites.
A body and a soul. And our bodies and our souls
are either ours, to do with them as we will, and they'll perish
with us in hell. Or our body and our soul is the
Lord's, and they're His, and we're casting everything upon
Him, and if they're His, they'll be with Him, they'll dwell with
Him forever, and for all eternity. Either these things are ours
or these things are the Lord's. We're casting everything on Him
or we're not. We're holding back for ourselves.
And so to see this, look at 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. This will be our last verse. 1 Corinthians
6, 19 and 20. Paul says, what, know ye not
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are
bought with a price, the price of Christ's blood. You're bought
with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. The Lord has given
you a body, and He's given you a soul. He's given you life by
His Spirit, and that's our living. We're casting all that, we're
giving that all to the Lord, saying, Lord, I can't save myself. I can't do this, but You, Lord,
You are my salvation. You're my Savior. You're my Lord,
and we're trusting Him to teach us, to lead us, to guide us,
and to keep us, and provide everything for us that we might stand before
God, accepted and perfectly righteous in Him. So those are, that's
the two-might religion that we're taught here. That we need the
Lord, it's not the external, it's not what we do, it's all
what He has done and accomplished for His people. So I pray the
Lord will bless that to your hearts. Why don't you close this
in a hymn and then we'll close in prayer after.