Our good friend Russell from
Arkansas is going to open with prayer and reading. Well, I want to thank you all
for inviting me up here. It's an honor to come to somebody's
wedding. And I really didn't know Valerie,
but the father, the dad, and mother bid me to come. I started to put a big deal on
Facebook last night about that. It's just so special that when
you get the chance to come and witness a marriage. So I picked
this scripture to read and I hope you all enjoy it. It's the parable
of the marriage feast. And Jesus answered and spake unto them
again by parables. He said, The kingdom of heaven
is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son.
And he sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden
to come to the wedding and they would not come And again, he
sent forth other servants saying tell them which are bidden behold.
I have prepared my dinner my oxen My fatlings are killed and
all the things are ready Come to the marriage But they made
light of it and they went their ways one to his farm another
to his merchandise and the remnant And the remnant took his servants
and entreated them spitefully and slew them. But when the king
heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies
and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Then
said he to his servants, the wedding is ready. But they which
were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways,
and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage. So those
servants went out into the highways, and they gathered together all,
and as many as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding
was furnished with the guests. And when the king came to see
the guests, he saw that there was a man which had not a wedding
garment. And he said unto him, friend,
How canst thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said
the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away,
and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. Let us pray. Father, I thank you for bringing
us together to your weekly, daily wedding feast of Your Word, Father. I thank You for the brethren
here in Missouri and the brethren in Arkansas and all over this
world that You brought together to restore and uphold Your name
in glory by the preaching of the Gospel, Father. I pray that
You be with these folks up here as they build and honor You establish your light here in
this area. Father, we just, it's so glorious
to see a work be done and a work fulfilled as you promised, Father. Father, I want to thank you,
Father, for the marriage that we witnessed last night of a
young couple and that they may find and seek you, Father, in
their lives and that, Father, you'll bring them to know the
truth in time as they live. Father, I thank you for all these
things in your son's name. Amen. All right, brethren, we're returning
this morning to our study in Mark, Mark 11. Mark 11, and we'll
be looking at verses 25 through 33. 25 through 33. Now, here in our text, our Lord
concludes his teaching on prayer. He was teaching the disciples
when we left off on prayer, and we'll do a little review of that.
And then, when he returns back to the temple, from the work
he did there, he's questioned about his authority by the unbelieving
yet incredibly religious Jews that were there. They questioned
his authority. So we'll see from today's study
what we're looking at here. is the instruction of our Lord
regarding forgiveness. Instruction of our Lord regarding
forgiveness. Now, believers, what we're to
understand is that believers forgive because they are forgiven. And believers are gracious to
one another because they've experienced grace. We're gracious because
God has shown us grace, and that's how we know and are instructed
to be gracious to one another. So they hear, believers hear
this word because it's Christ who is the Lord. He has the authority
of heaven, of God and of heaven to say what He says and because
He speaks this word to us, we that are His hear it because
it comes to us with power and we receive that word and we obey
His word because it is Christ, the Son of God who speaks it.
Our title is Hear Christ's Word. Hear Christ's Word. And we'll
have two divisions. First we'll look at this word
about forgiveness. about forgiveness, and then we'll
see the very serious thing where the
Lord leaves them, leaves these religious Jews in darkness. He leaves them in darkness. Alright,
so first this word about forgiveness. Now we left off last time with
our Lord teaching or speaking to his disciples about prayer
and he was teaching them actually before that he was teaching them
about our behavior toward one another in the house of God.
He's revealing to them our behavior in the house of God that unlike
the religious Jews who trafficked themselves through the house
of God, he says, that's not how we're to be at all. And by trafficking,
I mean, if you remember, he had told them, don't carry, don't
you carry these vessels through the house of prayer. It was the court where the Gentiles
would go. And the Gentiles were there seeking
the Lord, the proselytes, and they're there to pray, and they're
just carrying through their vessels, like it's just a place to go
through. And we saw how it's like when we come to worship
the Lord with a heart that is not set on worshiping the Lord.
We're just getting from point A to B. What we really want is
to be doing what's on the other side of the service, and we just
want to get to that side And so we just blow through here
to hear what God has to say, but not really listening, and
then blow on out of here. And we saw that's how we just
traffic through here, as though we're just carrying our vessel
through, with no real thought of what we're coming to do to
worship the Lord God. And then Christ began to teach
the disciples about prayer. And we saw that the prayer of
faith. which is the cry of a heaven-born soul, the prayer of faith, which
is given to them by the Spirit of God, that prayer is given
to them, that faith is given to a child of God by God in order
for them to worship God in spirit and in truth. We all know how
to worship God in the flesh, which is no worship at all. That's
just of our flesh, we're just going through the motions to
do what we have to do, but there's no real heart, there's no truth,
there's no spirit in it. And the Lord had been quoting
from Isaiah 56, Isaiah 56 verse 7, which says, Even them will
I bring to my holy mountain. He's gathering his people to
himself, to his temple, which is Christ himself, because he
is the temple of his people. We worship God through, by, in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not this building. that
sanctifies us. It's not this act of being gathered
here, it's Christ gathering his people to himself, the temple
of God, and he sanctifies this work, and he's the one who makes
this worship acceptable to God. It's not this flesh that does
that. He's the temple, and make them
joyful in my house of prayer. All right, so we worship God
because he is God. And God is the sustainer and
the provider of all on the earth. All people, all beasts, everything
on the earth, it's God who is the provider and the sustainer.
And so we worship him as God, whether we believe he's God or
not, he's still God. And we worship him as God. Now,
our worship is made acceptable through the altar, which is Christ. Christ is the altar. We could
come without the altar and our works would not be received.
God would not receive our works because they're filthy and polluted.
Our works are only sanctified in Christ. It's Christ who sanctifies
the work. It's Christ who justifies us.
It's Christ that makes our worship to God acceptable to God. Without Christ, all we are is
sin and filth and rejected of God. So Christ is that altar.
And I'll read it there in Isaiah 56, 7. Their burnt offerings
and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar. Christ is the altar. We only
worship God in spirit and truth by that altar, the Lord Jesus
Christ. For mine house shall be called
a house of prayer for all people. And so the Lord began to teach
his disciples about prayer. He's teaching them about prayer.
We saw in verse 22, Mark 11, 22. It's the Lord that creates living
faith, a living faith in His people. He gives them light,
and He gives them life, whereby they worship God. And so, being
taught of God, the child of God is no longer satisfied with vain,
dead works, empty religion. We begin to despise that dead,
worthless religion that is so common among man. And Christ
says in verse 22, He answered and said unto them, Have faith
in God. Have faith in God. Trust Him. And that's because it's a spiritual
work. Our salvation, our hope of standing
before holy God without fault. is a spiritual work which God
does for the sinner. No sinner can save themselves.
God saves sinners by His grace and mercy through the Lord Jesus
Christ. So we look at the perfection
of the law, right? When God enables us, when God
makes us to see, we look at that perfection that's in the law
of Moses. We see that Mount Sinai with
its thunderings and its lightenings. upon which it said so much as
if a beast touch it, just touch it, thrust it through with a
dart. And what he's showing us there is that no man can approach
the God through the law. We will not be accepted, we will
come short of the glory of God trying to approach him in the
law. And so we look at that law and
we don't know how to perform it. If we're taught of God, we
see, I don't know, Lord, how to perform it. I don't know how
I can perfect myself enough to be able to stand before you and
say, Lord, aren't my works righteous and perfect to you? Haven't I
done all that I need to do? No, we've come short. And if
any man says that, he can teach you and methodically show you
how to approach God through the law. He's a liar and a deceiver. because no man can approach God
through the law. Paul himself said in Romans 3.20,
For by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. I've heard
it taught. Some have said God wouldn't give
a law if you couldn't keep it. That's not true. God gave the
law to shut our mouths, because if you're honest before the law,
you see, I don't keep it perfectly. I come up short all the time.
I fall short of the glory of God in his law. So we don't know
how to approach God through that law, and we can't perform it.
And the religious Jews in that day, they had turned religion
into business, good business, and it was profitable for them.
So they had their money changers and they had all their set up
to make it nice and efficient and easy just to come in, do
your 20-minute prayer service. I think there's even churches
now with their little drive-thrus, you just go through and do your
thing, yeah, and it's pretty bad. And so it's just good business
and profit, and that's what the Jews had done with it. And just
because men and women corrupt the truth of God, it doesn't
mean that there's no God. God still is God, and he told
us, he warned us. Christ warned us, the prophets
in the Old Testament warned us, they all warned us, the apostles
warned us, Peter, Paul, they all warned us that there would
be many false teachers. And I'll just read 1 John 4,
1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits,
whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone
out into the world. And so false prophets always
turn you back to your flesh. They turn you back to your flesh,
not to Christ. Because Christ in Christ alone
is salvation. He is the hope of every sinner.
And they turn you from Christ back to your flesh in looking
to the law or some other law that they say is necessary for
salvation. But Christ the Savior tells his
people, have faith in God. Because it's in Christ, and only
in Christ, that we can look to that mountain of the law and
say, be thou removed and cast into the sea. You have nothing
more to say to me because of what Christ has done for me in
putting away my sin and the stain of my sin through the sacrifice
of himself and shedding his own blood, he put away my sin so
affectionately, so perfectly, so completely that the law has
nothing more to say to a believer, one who rests in Christ. That's
exactly what the law says. And he said that, verse 23, for
verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain,
this mountain of vain, dead, worthless, man-made religion,
be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall
not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which
he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith."
He's confessing Christ, in the heart he believes, with the mouth
confession is made and he's confessing the Lord Jesus Christ that he
has finished the work so completely that there's nothing left for
the sinner to do. And God is not looking to the
sinner to add one thing, one bit of his own work to the work
that Christ has done. It is finished. Christ finished
the work completely. Alright, and so beholding Christ
our salvation. Only in Christ a sinner can say
this, but behold in Christ, let's read on now, verses 25 and 26
of Mark 11. Our Lord continues, He says,
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any,
that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your
trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither
will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. Now, This isn't the only place
where the Lord uses this language in regards to prayer, in relation
to prayer. When he says, forgive, forgive your brethren. If you
have any problem with somebody, you forgive them because God
has forgiven you. And we see it in Matthew 6.12.
In Matthew 6.12, why don't you turn over there. In Matthew 6, 12, this is where
what many call the Lord's Prayer. When the Lord is teaching his
disciples how they are to pray, he says in Matthew 6, 12, as
part of that prayer, and that doesn't mean this is what we're
supposed to specifically say. These words don't have to come
out of your mouth specifically, but he's showing you that we're
glorifying and worshiping God, and these are the outline that
we go through, if you will, just remembering that God is God and
we're the sinner and we need his mercy and grace to forgive
us and to keep providing for us as we go through this world
and these bodies of sin. And he says, forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors. Now here the Lord describes our
sins, our iniquities, our trespasses as debts. And what that means,
what the picture is that we have is that through our unrighteous
works, the things that we do, whether they're religious or
not religious, whatever they are, they come up short and God
says these are debts. We owe God a debt of righteousness.
God can say to us, here you should have done this, instead you did
that. You owe me righteousness. You
owe me the perfection of the law here. This is part of your
debt and that gets heaped on. And everything we do, good or
bad, all goes on the dead side. Because it's all filthy works
in our flesh. We cannot please God by the works
of the law. So it's a debt of righteousness
that we owe to Him. And this is the only word that
the Lord expounded on. When He went through that prayer,
He only expounded this word. And look at verse 14 and 15.
He said, for if ye forgive, this is Matthew 6, 14, 15, for if
ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also
forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. You know, you think about it,
when we're angry with somebody and we hold them, when we continue
to be angry with them and unforgiving and ungracious towards them,
it doesn't condemn them. They're not the ones condemned.
You're just condemning yourself. You're the one who's sitting
and stooing in it and condemning yourself. The one that you're
holding still in anger, they're not the condemned one. They don't
have anything against you. They're probably sorry for it,
but you're only condemning yourself. And Christ's word goes to every
one of us, because we're all filthy in the flesh. We're all
guilty of grudges and holding things against people and blaming
people and getting angry with them, even though we ourselves
do the same things. We find it very easy to justify
ourselves and not others, not excusing others. So the blessed
hope of the believer, though, is that God gives His Spirit
and He ministers and works grace in our hearts to make us willing,
to give us a heart that's willing to forgive and to forgive and
be gracious to our brethren. Now, without the Spirit, Without
the Spirit of Christ, we continue to operate in the flesh. We continue
to work and to operate in the flesh, and in so doing, we'll
continue to hate and despise our brethren, and we'll hold
them to a standard that we ourselves can't do. And so, the truth is
that What he's saying to us, I said it earlier, but the truth
is that if we forgive, it's because we are forgiven. And if we are
gracious, it's because we've been shown and experienced grace. Otherwise, it's just the flesh
and we'll only deal with one another in that flesh. And I'll show you that in the
scriptures. Turn over to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, verse 1. Because I know it's not exactly
worded that way in Matthew, but that's what he's saying. Those
that are forgiven will forgive, and those that have been shown
grace by God will be gracious to their brethren, even when
offended. 1 Peter 2.1. laying aside all malice and all
guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings." Those
are works of the flesh. That's what comes naturally to
our flesh to do with one another. But he says, as newborn babes,
desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. Look at verse 3. If so be ye
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. So he's saying if you've
tasted that the Lord is gracious to you because you're a sinner,
unworthy of his forgiveness and grace and mercy to you, if you've
tasted that he's been gracious to you, then you'll be gracious
to one another. You may be offended. I'm not
saying that you don't get offended and that sometimes it's not without
just cause, but you'll be gracious to those because God has shown
you grace and mercy. All right, let's break this down
a little more, this grace of God. So we forgive and we're
gracious. The reason is because God's revealed
his son to us. He's revealed his son to us.
And what does that mean, that he's revealed his son to us?
We hear and we see the gospel in that. The good news to us
is that we're unworthy sinners, unworthy of His mercy and kindness
to us, but He's shown us grace in His Son. We've earned that
death and that condemnation. That's the debt we've accumulated
through our unrighteous works, and yet God is pleased to be
gracious and forgiving through his son, Jesus Christ. If it
was just the law, we'd all be condemned, because we all come
up short, but it's through Christ, right? So looking at the law
of Moses, we see how far short we fall. It says in Romans 3.23,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So that, Romans 3.10, there is
none righteous. No, not one. Not one of us is
righteous. Turn over to Romans 8. Romans
8, and we'll look at a few verses in Romans 8. So just stay there
a bit with me. Romans 8, 5. And Paul writes, Romans 8, 5,
saying, in the first half, for they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh. And then look down to verse 6.
And to be carnally minded is death, right? If you're after
the flesh, if you're working in the flesh, it's to be carnally
minded. And they that are carnally minded, it's death. Because the
carnal mind is enmity, hatred against God. For it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So, that's all of us
by nature. And we all have this flesh to
contend with. This flesh isn't getting better, it's not improving
in any way, it's still the flesh. And it's still wicked and does
the things that the flesh does. Alright, drop down to verse 9,
Romans 8-9. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the
spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, now here's the promise that we have through the Son of God,
that he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken,
make alive, raise up your mortal bodies in the grave by his spirit
that dwelleth in you. He'll raise you up also to newness
of life in him in that day. That's the promise. Therefore,
right now, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after
the flesh, because it's corrupt and dead. But for if ye live
after the flesh, verse 13, ye shall die. But if ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. And so again, let me reiterate
that salvation is a work of revelation. It's by the Spirit giving us
life. That's how we have the Spirit.
It's by the power, the choice, the purpose, the will of God
to make alive sinners. He causes some sinners to hear
His Word. and to have light given to them
to know I am the sinner, unworthy. All I've done, Lord, my whole
life is heap up death and debt to you, to your righteousness,
and you've provided your son your faithful, righteous, holy
Son, to take upon Him flesh like me, and come in the weakness
of flesh, to be righteous, to fulfill all righteousness which
I cannot fulfill, and to go as the Lamb of God to the cross
and lay down His life for a filthy, stinking sinner like me, who
can do no good? Thank you, Lord. And he's the
one that gives that light and life and liberty to sinners.
He makes that known. So it's through revelation. It's not by your decision. It's
not by your choice, because you'd never choose him. He gives you
faith. He gives you that will and desire
to believe and trust him. But it's all by his grace, because
you know plenty of people that hear the same word and don't
believe it. and don't call on Christ and
don't trust Him and rest in Him. So it's by revelation, the Spirit
quickening His people. Alright, now to His children,
to the children of God, our Lord promises to us. He says in 1
John 1, 9 and 10, that if we confess our sins, and we've got
lots of sins to confess, if we confess our sins He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if we say we have not sinned,
we're making him a liar and his word is not in us. If we try
to stand here and justify ourselves and say, wait a minute, I ain't
so bad. I'm not as bad as that other
guy over there. We're calling God a liar because
God says every one of us is a sinner. Because if there was one righteous,
he wouldn't have had to send his son, Jesus Christ. But all,
God has counted us all as sinners, condemned as unjust sinners before
him, so that he might be gracious to all his people through his
son, Jesus Christ. This grace and design is all
of the Lord. He's purposed it to be this way,
and He put us for safekeeping before the foundation of the
world, before we did anything good or bad. He put us in Christ
there for safekeeping, knowing that He was sending His Son to
put away the sin of His people through that faithful sacrifice,
which He did as our surety. In short, he just means that
he said, I'll come and pay their debt. Don't hold them accountable,
hold me accountable and I'll pay their debt. You put them
in me and I'll put away their sin so perfectly, so righteously,
so wholly and completely that God they will be able to stand
before you who are perfect and cannot stand to bear sin before
your sight. They shall stand in me complete
and perfect, righteous, covered in my blood and my robe of righteousness. and you'll gladly receive them
because of my work and that's what Christ has done for us unworthy
sinners. Look at Romans 8.28, we'll see
that there. Romans 8.28 through 30, it says,
And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. See, all his people are called
according to his purpose, his good will, his choice, his good
pleasure. For whom God did foreknow. He
also did predestinate, right? He chose us out and predestinated
us to be in Christ, to put us in Christ, to be conformed to
the image of His Son that He, Christ, might be the firstborn
among many brethren, right? When He was raised from the dead,
the first man to die and to be raised again, never to die anymore. He's the first one that did that,
never to die again. Moreover, verse 30, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also
justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified, which
he did through Christ. And it says in Hebrews 9, 12,
that neither by the blood of goats and calves, And that's
a reference back to the way that man would come and worship God.
It's not by the blood of bulls and goats. It's not through our
religious service that saves us. But by Christ's own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For us who are sinners, who are
needy sinners, who have no hope of working a righteousness for
themselves through that law. Christ did that. under the leading,
the sweet influence of the Spirit, we're led to see that. We're
brought to see, Lord, I can do nothing before your law. I can't
save myself. Have mercy. We're brought to
see I'm the sinner, to confess it to Him, and to cry out to
Him for mercy. It's all by His leading. And
He brings us to cry out, to seek Him for mercy and grace. Lord, have mercy upon me, the
sinner. And He brings us to say, to confess
that by His Spirit. And so having forgiveness and
having His Spirit, we're enabled then by His power to hear the
blessed admonitions in this word about forgiveness. Turn over
to Ephesians 4.31. And we'll finish up this point. Ephesians 4.31. where again Paul reminds his
hearers, don't, don't work in the flesh, don't, don't, you're
not a debtor to the flesh, don't deal with one another in the
flesh. And he says in Ephesians 4.31, let all bitterness and
wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from
you with all malice. And listen, be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you. And he goes on in 5 verse 1,
Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. As dear children. Don't you love
it when your children are dear? When they listen to you and do
what you ask them to do, you're like, oh, wow. It's such a blessed,
wonderful feeling when your children listen to you and do what you
ask them to do rather than giving you such a hard time fighting
against it. And so he says the same thing
to us. as dear children, hear his word and seek to get along
with one another and forgive one another. And he says, verse
2, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given
himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet
smelling savor. That sacrifice that Christ made
of himself for his people makes us accepted with God in Christ. In Christ we are that sweet smelling
savor. Otherwise we're just the smell
of death by our own works. All right. So, in Christ, we
hear that word. By His Spirit, we hear that word,
and we walk by faith in that word. We don't want to sin against
Him. We're not looking to do that
which is wicked and unrighteous. But it's not through the teaching
of the law that we do it, but by His Spirit of grace and power. that comes upon us and dwells
within us and causes us to hear His Word and to obey His Word,
to love one another and to love our God, to stay upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, looking to Him only, trusting that He shall
bring us to that day complete in Him, having made full satisfaction
for us by His sacrifice, by His righteousness, by His blood.
Alright? Now that brings us to our next point there. To those
that refuse to hear Him, that will not hear Him, will not obey
Him, we see these Pharisees that were left in darkness. Left in
darkness. Alright? In the rest of the passage,
what we see here is that Christ has the authority to say what
he said. None of us wants to hear that
in the flesh, that we're going to forgive one another and to
be kind to one another, that those that offend us and would
hurt us, we don't want to do that. But he says, That's exactly
what we're to do, and so we're reminded who has the authority,
that Christ himself has the authority to say what he says. He is the
Lord, whether you count him Lord or not. He's the Lord, alright?
And so let's look at verses 27 and 28. This will be a lot quicker.
And they come to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the
temple, there come to him the chief priests and the scribes
and the elders. This is where they were cast
out by Christ before. And so they come in their works
and they ask, they say unto him, by what authority doest thou
these things? And who gave thee this authority
to do these things? And so we're reminded just in
seeing these Pharisees, they're always They're challenging Christ.
They're always looking for an excuse not to hear his word and
not to believe him. They're challenging him. And
so the wicked would sooner find fault with Christ and say, you
don't know what you're talking about. You don't understand what
I've been through. And this is why I'm the way I
am. And you don't understand. So we'd sooner find fault with
Christ than with our own selves and say, I'm the one who's got
the problem. I'm the one with the fault. But
thankfully, Christ doesn't leave his children in sin. He doesn't
leave his children in sin and he has a way of dealing with
his children right where they need to be dealt with. He'll
put his finger right on the place in our own wickedness right where
it needs to be put and he does it in such a way that we'll hear
him and understand The Lord's dealing with me in this. He's
dealing with me in this. And we don't want to let it go
in the flesh. But if we're His, He's going to strip us of it.
He's going to strip us of thinking we can skirt around it and come
at it some other way. He's going to bring us right
through the way that He's intended and purposed for us to go through
it. And He'll deal with our sin. We all have certain sins that
we would rather hang on to and just keep to ourselves those
secret things that we love that may not be what somebody else
is struggling with, but he knows what we struggle with and what
we have need of being dealt with, and he will deal with it. He'll
put his finger right in there through the preaching of the
gospel. That's why I say these things, because I know the Lord's
got somebody to hear this word, and they need to hear it. But
in doing that, it's not just to press them down, and to destroy
them forever. It is to strip and bring the
flesh down to nothing, but it's so that in grace and in mercy
He then draws them out from their darkness into the light, out
of that prison of darkness that they would stay, but He draws
them out to hear and to know His grace and mercy, all right? And he says in verse 29 and 30,
and Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one
question and answer me. And I will tell you, if you answer
me, I'll tell you by what authority I do these things. And then he
says, the baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? Answer
me. Answer me. And Christ holds him
right there. Answer me this question. Is it
from heaven or of men? And the word to us today, because
we don't think much of the baptism of John today, but for us today
is this Jesus of Nazareth. Is he the Christ or isn't he? Is he sent of heaven? Is he sent
of God or is he not? Answer me. And he holds us to
that, to answer that question, to know whether or not he is
the Lord, that he is Christ. And if you hear him, if you hear
him, then it's because he's given that to you. And if he is the
Lord, if you know him to be the Lord, then stop making excuses. Stop to not hear his word. Stop
making excuses to not hear his word and to refuse to hear what
he says, because these men refused him. They wouldn't hear it. And
they were left in darkness. He didn't answer them. He didn't
tell them. They would not answer his question. And so he left
them. And here's the response in verse
31 and 32. And they reasoned with themselves. They reasoned with themselves,
saying, If we shall say from heaven, he will say, Why then
did ye not believe him? But if we shall say of men, they
feared the people, for all men counted John, that he was a prophet
indeed." But notice there that they reasoned with themselves. We're not to reason with ourselves,
we're to seek the living God and beg Him. None of us can hear
His word in the flesh and this flesh doesn't want to hear His
word, but we're to seek the Lord. We're to seek Him for grace and
mercy and to help us because we are weak and we do come up
short and we're to seek Him. These men didn't seek God for
grace and light and understanding. They reasoned with themselves
and that's what we do in the flesh. We hear the word of God
and we reason it away and say, I don't need to hear that. I
don't need to hear that. And we just find some reason,
some fault with the preacher, some fault with the building,
some fault with the people, some fault with anything else but
our own selves. And so we won't hear what God
is saying lest that word should take root in our heart and we
be converted. and delivered from that which
binds us and keeps us in that darkness. And so here's what
it says, and they answered in defense of themselves. They answered
and said unto Jesus, we cannot tell. I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to answer you right
now. I don't want to. deal with this right now. We can't tell,
Lord. And Jesus, answering, saith unto them, Neither do I tell
you by what authority I do these things. So they wouldn't hear,
and Christ left them in darkness. In darkness. And so I say to
you, to you, like here, is Christ, is Jesus of Nazareth the Christ
or isn't he? Is he the Son of God or is he
not? If he's the Son of God, then
hear him and seek him with all your heart. And he says, all
who seek me with the whole heart, they shall find me. Don't put
it off another day. Don't be satisfied with being
left in darkness and saying, Lord, I can't tell. I don't know.
I'll deal with that some other time. We may not have another
time. We may die pulling out of this
parking lot here today. So seek Him now to know Him and
to trust Him and to all who look to Him because we're not righteous.
We don't do good works. only by His Spirit, He brings
forth fruits of righteousness. Fruits that are willing, that
look to Him and trust Him and love Him and seek Him and rejoice
in Him. So, I pray the Lord will bless
that to our hearts, make us willing to hear Him, make us willing
to love Him and to know Him and to seek Him because Christ alone
is salvation. It's not in our works, it's in
Christ alone. All right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, We thank
you that you, in mercy, sent your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord,
help us, because you know that we're sinners, that naturally
we're just of this flesh and can do no good thing. But Lord,
would you have mercy upon us? Would you be gracious to us?
Would you help us to hear your Son and to confess that he is
of you, Lord, that Christ came from heaven, sent to the Father
to put away the sin of his people so perfectly, so completely,
Lord, that by his blood we are washed and made righteous in
him to stand faultless before the throne. Lord, help us, because
you know our sin, and you know what each sinner here has need
of, Lord. You know that we're not able
in ourselves, but Father, please be gracious to us in Christ.
Please pour out your spirit upon us and fill us with your spirit
in our heart, causing us, making us willing to seek you, and Lord,
by your mercy and grace, to know you, to find you. We pray this
in Christ's name, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.