This morning we're going to begin,
we're going to be in Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one. This is a continuation of our
series in Mark. We're going to read the first
three verses. Mark one, verses one through
three. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets,
behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
thy way before thee. the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now John is a prophet. Our Lord
said so himself. He said, I say unto you, and
more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written,
behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
thy way before thee. So John was sent of God at a
specific time for a specific purpose, to bear witness of the
Christ. Look at John chapter 1 verses
6 through 8 with me. John 1, 6 through 8. There was
a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him
might believe. Not that men were to believe
in John, just as you don't believe in me for preaching the gospel
to you, but to believe in Him whom we preach, Him who we're
bearing witness of, the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is the
light of men. Look there in verse eight. He
was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. So John had a very specific time,
a very specific purpose for which he was sent into this world to
declare Christ. Matthew 11, 11, verily I say
unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not
arisen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that
is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. So this morning,
I want to declare to you what John was sent to declare in light
of these two prophecies that were said concerning John. And our title is Christ the Witness
of John. And we'll just have two divisions,
Christ the Light and Christ the Life. So first let's begin in
Malachi. So hold your place there, Mark,
or actually just go to Malachi chapter 3. Malachi 3, you can
put a little space saver in John 1 because we'll I'll probably
look back in there a couple times. But in Malachi chapter 3, so
Malachi is just before Matthew. It's the last book in the Old
Testament. The one just before Matthew. Malachi 3, chapter 1,
and we'll see this, we'll look at a few of the verses here concerning
this prophecy of Christ. Behold, I send my messenger,
that's John the Baptist, and he shall prepare the way before
me. And in Mark it says that he shall
prepare thy way before thee. And what that's declaring to
us is that the one who gave this prophecy to Malachi is the eternal
son of God himself speaking. And the Lord, it says in verse
one, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple,
even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he
shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. And yet we know that when
our Savior came, he was despised and rejected of men, right? It's
John 1, 11. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. So that The religious Jews, the
chief priests, the Pharisees, they were seeking God, but it
was the God of their imagination. They were looking for a God that
would conform to the thoughts that they had and that he would
do the things that they thought were right because they thought
themselves to be righteous and that God delighted in them. And
so that brethren, we're very much by nature, we're all like
them, you know, we have the God of our imagination, we think
of God who we think that he is and we seek God, many of us seek
God, but it's the God of our imagination, so that when they
heard Christ speak, they rejected him, saying, this is a hard saying,
who can hear it? Who can hear the things that
this man is saying? And Jesus said to them, Verily,
verily, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because
ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. So that all this
was done according to the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah 53, verses
2 and 3. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it
were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. So that once we by nature begin
to hear the things of Christ and get to know him, who is the
light of men, we say, just like the Jews, we will not have this
man to reign over us. We reject him, and we despise
the things that he says and the things concerning him, so that
just like those Jews, we cry away with him, away with him,
crucify him. We want nothing to do with Christ
by nature. And the reality is, it's because
when we hear the truth of what Christ is saying, his light is
shining on our dark hearts, what we are by nature. And we don't
like that. It ticks us off. We get angry
when we hear what the word is saying to us. And that's why
in Malachi 3 verses 2 and 3, it says, But who may abide the
day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller soap, and he
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. So the reality is
that God rejects the righteousness of man. Man does these works.
He thinks that what he's doing is pleasing to God. Just like
Cain, back there in Genesis, Cain thought that what he was
doing was right. He was very sincere in what he
did. It's just that he came with his own works, the fruit of his
own labors, rather than what God required, which was the blood
of the Lamb. So he didn't come the way God
said to come to me, he came the way he thought was right. And
that's what we all do by nature. And so when we realize God's
not pleased with that, he doesn't accept your sincere works, it
angers man, it gets angry. I mean, you've, think about some,
some things that you've done in sincerity and how you, you
meant well, and someone rejects it, you get pretty angry. And
that's how man is with God. It doesn't matter that he's God
and that what he says is, is what we should follow. He's Lord,
but we reject him and we, we try to, We get angry about the
things that we do. So I've seen it even, you know,
when Clay came in as our pastor and just be aware even here,
you know, it might come, you know, you men, you families have
asked me to come and to be your pastor and the Lord willing,
I'll preach Jesus Christ, the simplicity that is in the gospel
concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I'll be preaching
that and you'll hear it over and over and over again. And
you'll think, man, this guy just, repeats himself. That's all he
does is say the same thing over and over again. And the reality
is that people can get angry with that. They can get offended
because that's all that they're hearing. And it begins to rub
against them. It begins to expose their sin
and expose their hatred of the manna from heaven. It begins
to expose that You know, they see it as just light bread, and
it's not challenging enough, and it's not telling them things
that they want to hear about what they can do and what they
should be doing. But like John the Baptist, I
have one message, and that's to bear witness of the light
of Christ, because he's the light of men. As Jesus said unto them
in John 635, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall
never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. If you think about it, Christ
said, I'm the bread of life. Moses isn't the bread of life.
The prophets, they're not the bread of life. The apostles,
they're not the bread of life. The law isn't the bread of life. Coming to church regularly, reading
your Bible, saying prayers, being baptized in the manner of Christ. Those things aren't the bread
of life. Christ himself is the bread of
life. And so as a servant of the Most
High God who was sent to feed the sheep, what is it that I
should set before the children of the Most High God? Should
I give you stale, crusty, putrid, cankerous bread? Know that if
you eat it and consume it, it'll rot you from the inside out and
cause you to die an eternal horrible death for all eternity? Or should
I set before you Him who is the bread of life? Because He feeds
you. He feeds His sheep. He heals
you. He comforts you. He instructs
you in every way that is perfect and right. He tells you the way
that you should go. He delights your heart in Him.
That's who we are to declare, the light of men the Lord Jesus
Christ. But as long as there's a root
of bitterness in us, you know, it's going to hurt. And just
preaching Christ is going to hurt the flesh, because He knows
exactly what you need. He knows exactly what you need
to hear, and He's going to declare the truth always. And you're
going to hear it, and it's a light shining in a dark place, because
that's what we are by nature. And if you're not His, you'll
hear it, you'll get angry, and you'll leave. You'll find some
excuse to leave. Malachi said, Who shall abide
the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appear?
For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. So just
like a fuller, that's a launderer. He takes a bar of soap and he
just keeps rubbing it over the stain over and over. and over
again in that same spot, just wearing away that stain. And
if you're not his, you'll get angry. You know, I've seen men,
we had men with us in the beginning who, they find fault with the
pastor. They don't like something that
he's saying. It won't be the gospel, of course. It's never the gospel
that they're upset about, they say. They always find something
and they'll set you up and they'll try and get you to say things,
they'll get you to provoke you in the flesh, they'll try to
get something out of you so that they now have an excuse why they
can leave and justify why they're leaving the gospel. Because they
wouldn't dare say, well, I'm leaving Christ, but they're going
to find fault with the preacher, they'll find fault with the brother,
they'll find fault with the building, they'll find fault with the time
that you're meeting, things like that. They're going to find fault
so that they can, you know, so that they have an excuse and
to cover why they hate God and hate his Christ. So if we're
his though, you know, it may rub us for a time. It may expose
what we are by nature if we have need of seeing what we are, but
the Lord will break our hearts and he'll conquer our hearts
and he'll turn us to him so that we do delight in him, and I know
it from personal experience, you know, just how the Lord as
a fuller broke me down and wore me down. You know, even someone
who believed the gospel and claimed to delight in it, but when I
had a pastor preaching it every single time There were things
that the Lord dealt with in me, you know, and he shined his light
in a dark place and had to deal with me in many ways so that
I delighted in him and only in him and not the things of this
world. So it wasn't me, it wasn't me
turning to the law, it was Christ. And just through that precious
gospel over and over and over again. So the more that we exalt
Christ, the further man goes down. You notice that? The more
Christ is exalted, the further man gets dropped down the ladder
and it begins to anger him because he's looking for work and he's
looking for something whereby he can receive praise of men
and feel good about himself. John the Baptist, the one we're
We're looking at John here, but he said, he must increase, but
I must decrease. And that's true of every one
of us. We'll decrease. We're going to go down as we
hear this gospel and the Lord feeds us in our flesh that it
goes down, down, down into the dirt. and Christ is exalted and
lifted up before our eyes. Christ himself said in John 5,
39 and 40, search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have
eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, the
bread of life, that ye might have life. All right, so this
is a good time to go over to Isaiah. Hold your place in Malachi
3, but go over to Isaiah 40, and we'll pick up in verse 3. Isaiah 40 verse 3, the voice
of him that crieth in the wilderness. This is the other prophecy that's
mentioned there in Mark 1 and Mark 1 3. This is the other one. So this one comes from Isaiah.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our
God. And so that God is not going to leave us clinging to our dead
religious works that give us no life. And he says in verse
four, every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall
be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the
rough place is plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it. Now, that doesn't mean that all
flesh is gonna see it at the same time. What it's saying is
all flesh are gonna see it from the same vantage point, with
our face in the dirt, looking up at the precious Savior the
Lord of Glory Himself, who is beautiful and holy and wonderful
and altogether lovely. We're all going to see Him for
who He is, that He is Lord of all. Whether you're a self-righteous
Pharisee or you're a man who abuses yourself with mankind
and every one of us in between, whether you're high, low, crooked,
or rough, the Lord we all need the salvation that the Lord has
provided in the Son himself for if we're to stand before holy
God it must be through the Lord Jesus Christ who is our hope
and our peace and our righteousness and he'll be our comfort and
he'll be the one that leads us to God the Father. So it's all
found in Christ who is the bread of life himself and the reason
is because this flesh no matter how good we try to make it no
matter how we perfume it and dress it up and try to to do
that which we think is right, it cannot produce any fruit that
is good or acceptable to God. So the flesh can't, only the
spirit can. And I say this because just as
in Paul's day, there's people today that would point men away
from Christ and back to the law, saying things like, except ye
be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. And they don't necessarily, you
know, bold, so bold as to say it in that particular way, but
that's exactly what they're saying. They're teaching you that you
need to circumcise your heart. You need to go back to the law
now. You have to believe in Christ. Now you need to turn back to
the law and begin to follow and keep the law as best that you
can because that's how you're going to sanctify yourself. It's
through a law of sanctification that we circumcise our hearts
is what they say. They'll agree today that yes,
we are justified by Christ, but sanctification now is a co-effort
between God and the sinner, so that you now are laboring under
that law to make yourself pleasing to God. But the Word declares
that God put all the work of salvation in the hand of his
son. That includes sanctification. That's all given over to Christ. So turn over to Romans 8 for
a bit. We'll just look here. Romans
8 verse 3. The more I look at this, the more
it just becomes more and more clear that The apostles are warning
us not to go back to the law, that Christ fulfilled the law
and that by his spirit we walk in him. and trust Him, and the
Lord takes delight in us because of Christ, His Son, and what
His Son has worked in us, and the heart that He gives us, and
the desires that He gives us, not the desires of the flesh,
but what He works in us. It says in Romans 8.3, for what
the law, and you could write in there, of Moses, for what
the law of Moses could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, and that truth still hasn't changed, the flesh is still vile,
corrupt, wicked, wretched, dead flesh that can produce no good
fruit. What the law of Moses could not
do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh." So it's Christ that condemns sin in our flesh,
not our law keeping, not our works of sanctification, but
Christ that condemns sin in the flesh. that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, that is, attempting to please God by the works of the
flesh using the law of Moses, but after the Spirit. For they
that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but
they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. And
that's what John the Baptist said in John 3.31, He that is
of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth. That's why they
talk of these things, because they're of the earth, they're
speaking of earthly things, they're telling you what you can do in
your flesh and what you have to do in your flesh now to be
pleasing to the Lord. Because to be carnally, it's
carnal, it's carnal mindedness, it's sensual, it's fleshly, it's
just the works of the flesh, and to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. So they're taking the law and
they're using it unlawfully. They're using it to teach men
that by their keeping of the law they can sanctify themselves
and be pleasing to God so that they begin to just cut up the
word of God and get you to think that what you're doing is right.
And they'll take scriptures and say, well, that's just talking
about justification. It's not talking about sanctification.
But when you read Galatians 3.3, it says, having begun in the
Spirit, being justified in the Spirit by Christ, justifying
you, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the
flesh? Are you now made perfect, sanctifying
yourselves? by the flesh? No, not at all. So I don't know why they would
say that's only justification. That's of sanctification as well. So it's Christ that begins and
Christ that gives life throughout our entire lives and into all
eternity. Christ is all. So, it's Christ
that makes us perfect, it's Christ that leads us to the Father,
it's Christ that continues to feed us, being the bread of life,
He's the one that continues to feed us and nourish us and give
us all things necessary. Now, back in Isaiah 40, verse
6, Isaiah 40, this is also tied to that prophecy concerning what
John would say. In Isaiah 40 verse 6 through
8, it says, The voice said, Cry, and he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the
flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
faded, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. The grass withereth, flower fadeth,
but the word of our God shall stand forever." And the Apostle
Peter added to that, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. So that if we want to puff up
the flesh, all right, if I want to puff up your flesh and produce
death in you, I preach the law. But if I want to wither the flesh,
if we want to see the flesh withered and the Lord to produce life,
we preach the gospel. the Lord is going to heal us.
That's how the Lord is going to give us life. It's through
the gospel. Hearing what He has accomplished
for His people and the Spirit gives faith. He provides that
faith and that life in you to hear that word and to believe
it and to see the folly of thinking that we can be pleasing to God
by the works of our own flesh, by the things that we do. So
it's to bear witness of Him who is the life, to bear witness
of Him who is the light of man. That's how life is produced in
the child of God, by the Spirit. But I'm saying He uses the word
to teach us and to bring to light Him who is salvation, Him who
is our hope and our joy and our peace and our deliverance. It's
Christ and Christ alone. In John chapter 1, John chapter
1, if you turn there, and let go of Isaiah. No, we'll be back
in Isaiah, sorry. John chapter 1. It says in verse
8, John was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that
light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Because we're all dead in trespasses
and sins, we're dead in Adam. But as many, verse 12, as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name. And why would God do that? because
you are birthed by God. You are His creation. That's
why He's going to give you the power to become the sons of God. As it says in verse 13, John
1, 13, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So contrary to the
preaching of our day, which also existed in the days of the apostles
by that group that Paul called the concision, those that would
try to get you to do things in your flesh and cut up the flesh
and mutilate the flesh that they might glory in your flesh. We,
like John the Baptist, bear witness of the light, the light of men,
the Lord Jesus Christ, because our flesh is grass and no matter
how hard we try, you take all your grass clippings, you're
never going to make a sturdy house worthy to live in and to
dwell in. Doesn't matter how green and
vibrant it is and how healthy that grass is, it's weak and
flimsy and cannot withstand the heat of the day, so the flesh
is just like that. It's weak, it's flimsy, you're
never going to be able to build a house that you can stand in
and glory in before the Lord because it's just going to get
burned up. It's only fit for the fire. The
Lord has provided salvation. He's provided the one in whom
the child of God is hid and protected and fed and given life and that's
in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He's the propitiation provided
for sinners by the Lord God Almighty. All right, now our second point,
the price of life. Turn back over to Malachi chapter
3. Malachi 3 verse 2, but who may
abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap. And he
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify
the sons of Levi. And that's what Christ did, right?
When he came to Israel in the flesh, he declared the truth. He bore light on the things that
they were doing and they didn't like it. He told the truth. He spoke in parables. He declared
him who was truth. He told them who he was and what
he came to do. He healed them of their sicknesses
and various diseases. He rebuked the Pharisees right
in their presence. He cleaned out the temple, just
like that. All those things that are mentioned
there, that's what Christ came and that's what he did. He was
purifying the people as gold and silver. Now, those who were
just children of the flesh, they hated it and they didn't appreciate
what Christ was doing because he was disrupting everything
that they had built up and what they gloried and what they were
comforted by, those works of the flesh. It was for the children
that Christ came and did that, that we might know the truth,
that it's not by our works, that we shouldn't try to strive and
be like the Pharisees and try to do those things to be pleasing
to God, but rather that Christ, that we should see and know that
Christ is our salvation. As it says there in Malachi 3,
3, the second half, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering
in righteousness. Then, verse 4, shall the offering
of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days
of old and as in former years. So that the reason why the offering
of the children would now be pleasing to the Lord and be sweet
and received of Him is because we're coming in the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see now He's rebuked all those
works of the flesh. We see how they're insufficient
to save. He showed us what the weakness
of our flesh is, that there's no hope in the things that we
do. And we see that all hope and
all sufficiency is provided in the Son, so that now we come
before the Father, offering Christ. Because that He offered Himself
to Christ, and God received Him. He accepted the sacrifice of
Christ, and we come in the blood of Christ. And so now God, the
Father who is holy, and perfect and not like us who are weak
and sinful and wicked, He receives us. Not because of our works,
but because of the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's why
it's an offering of righteousness and why the Lord is pleased with
that pleasant offering and receives it. Now look back in Isaiah,
as a result of Christ being our righteousness, and that's why
we declare Him, and we boast of Him, and glory in Him, and
why we continually declare that Christ is our righteousness.
In Isaiah 40 verse 9, O Zion that bringest good tidings, get
thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God. Right? And that's what we're
doing. We're pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold the light of men. Behold your God. We're declaring
Him to be the one that Zion delights in. Behold, verse 10, the Lord
God will come with strong hand and His arm shall rule for Him.
Behold, His reward is with Him and His work before Him. So that
we understand the glory when we read in John 1 14 and the
word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory
the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and
truth and John bear witness of him and cried saying this was
he this was he of whom I speak he that cometh after me is preferred
before me for he was before me right he's the eternal son of
god behold your god zion and of his fullness have all we received
And grace for grace, for the law was given by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. So that what more do we need
than the Lord Jesus Christ and what he provides for you, his
people? Isaiah 40, verse 11. He shall
feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. And so how does Christ feed his
flock? Turn over to John 6, John 6,
48. I alluded to this earlier. Our
Lord said to those Jews that were gathered there around him,
he said in verse 48, John 6, 48, he said, I am the bread of life. Your fathers, under the law of
Moses, did eat man in the wilderness and are dead. This, Christ said
of himself, is the bread which cometh down from heaven that
a man may eat thereof and not die. So Christ is declaring to
us that he is both needful and the one who alone is sufficient
to save. He said in verse 51, John 6,
51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that
I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world. And the Jews at that began to strive among themselves, saying,
How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And that's just
how the Judaizers speak in our day. How is it that Christ is
sufficient to save? How is it that Christ is enough
for you, that he's both your justification and your sanctification? He can't do all that. He's not
sufficient. You have to turn back to the
law of Moses that you might whip your flesh into shape and keep
it from doing the things that your flesh would otherwise do.
But Jesus said in verse 53, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have
no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
So Christ is saying that he is enough. He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him, as the living
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna under the
law of Moses. Remember, they were under the
law of Moses, and they ate the manna and are dead. He that eateth
of this bread, the body of Christ, shall live forever. As we read in John 117, For the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth cometh by the Lord
Jesus Christ. So that's why we declare Christ
and what he's done. We declare his works. and so
we feed and feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ and we rejoice in
what he's done because that's how we're nourished and fed and
kept in the way that we should go. As Hebrews 7.25 said, wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. So that Christ isn't a priest
after the order of Aaron, or the order of the Levitical priesthood,
but after the order of Melchizedek, right? And so if he's a priest
after the order of Melchizedek, why would he bring us back under
the law to yoke us with the law of the Levitical priesthood?
That's not even who he's a priest after the order of, right? He's
after the order of Melchizedek, and he saved us to the uttermost.
So back in Malachi, in Malachi 3, I just want to look at one
last verse. This is what the Savior would
do when he comes. Malachi 3.5, 3.5, yeah. And I will come near to you to
judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against
those that oppress the hireling and his wages, the widow and
the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right,
and fear not me, sayeth the Lord of hosts. Now, it's certainly
true that we are not to be sorcerers and adulterers or to oppress
widows, but to actually care for those that can't care for
themselves and to be a light in this world. We're not supposed
to practice those things that we all know are the works of
the flesh. But what Christ is primarily
speaking of here, what he is speaking of here, all those who
are coming to God by their works of the law." That's who he's
speaking of in this verse. Not just coming to the Lord in
their justification, but in sanctification. They're the ones that are sorcerers
and adulterers and false swearers. They're the ones that are oppressing
the hireling, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn
aside the stranger from his right. And they might ask, well, how
is it that we turn aside the stranger from his right? And
our Lord said in Matthew 23, He said, Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men. For ye neither go in yourselves,
neither suffer ye them that are going in to enter. And that's
how you shut up the kingdom of heaven. That's how you turn aside
the stranger. from his purpose, from the way
that he would go. How are we oppressing the widow?
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows'
houses. He said of them, How are we false
swearers? How do we say things that aren't
right concerning God? Woe unto you, ye blind guides,
which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing.
But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is
a debtor. ye fools and blind, for weather is greater, the gold,
or the temple that sanctifies the gold. And there's many others,
but it all boils down basically to this, as our Lord said in
Luke 11, 44. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men
that walk over them are not aware of them. So it's through subtlety
and craft that men are just changing the gospel and that are turning
you from the preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and resting
in him. So that, don't hear them brethren,
don't hear them. Hear those that exalt Christ
and lift them up before your eyes. Even if it hurts you, hurts
you in your flesh and puts your face in the dust, that's what
we need to hear is what Christ has accomplished for his people.
And we have salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's
pray. Our gracious Lord, Father we
thank you for your mercy and your grace in providing salvation
through your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, help us indeed to feast
upon him, to glory in what Christ has done for his people. Lord,
we pray that you would establish this body here that your spirit
would be upon us, that you would bless the times that we gather
together in worship of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that, Lord,
as it pleases you, you would feed us and nourish us and grow
us in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Amen.