Turn back with me if you would
to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. In this entire
chapter, we've been in this chapter for a few messages, and in this entire chapter, Our
Lord is exposing false religion. That's what he has been doing
for the entire chapter. Exposing it for what it is. One
of the definitions of the word religion is devotion to duty. That's one of the definitions
of that word. Devotion to duty. Being committed to something
that I believe I need to do. Doing it over and over and over. Absolute commitment. You can
do anything religiously. Anything. You can do something so much
you can get to the point where you don't even have to think
about it anymore. You know that? Everybody knows
what I'm talking about. You just mindlessly go through
it. You're just on autopilot. Almost every time I drive my
family somewhere, Hannah says, where are you going? That's not
the way. Almost every time. And the reason is because my
car autopilots to this church. When I get in it, I turn the
key, it's just going to the church. I don't even have to think about
it. And I don't. It's like I get blinders to everything
but the roads I take. I do it religiously. I do it
every day. I am afraid. I am honestly afraid. that religion is blinding people. I am honestly afraid of that.
I'm afraid that religion is making people blind leaders of the blind. I'm afraid that people are mindlessly
following men who have no idea what they're doing. They're standing
up in pulpits having no idea what they're saying. People are
sitting there listening to them having no idea what they're hearing.
No idea. Everybody is just on autopilot.
They get up on Sunday morning, they don't even think about it.
They get dressed. They go to church. They sit in
a pew. They sing the songs. They bow
their heads. Trying to be committed to what
they feel they need to do. Sincerely. Having no idea that religion,
false religion, the word religion is used in the Bible a number
of times, I should have counted them, but every time except for
one, It's in a bad sense. The Jews religion Pharisees religion
one time he said pure religion is this you go visit the fatherless
and widows. You want to do something over
and over and over again. You do for those who need it.
But this false religion this false religion people have no
idea that it is autopiloting every soul in it. Straight into hell. I say that
so sadly. So sadly. If I want my own soul
to be damned. All I have to do is get religion. That's all I have to do. Is get
religion. I don't want to be in false religion. I want to be. in Christ. I want to be in Christ. I want to worship the true and
living God religiously. I want to worship him over and
over and over again. I want to be committed to worshiping
him, but dear God, spare me from the lies and the damnation of
false religion. Spare me from it. Now, our text
begins in verse 35. I asked our brother to begin
at verse 28 and read to us the story of this man that we looked
at the last time we were here. He was in the Bible business.
He was a scribe. He wrote the Bible by trade.
He made copies of the Bible for a living. That's what he did
for a living. And he came up to our Lord and
he said, Master. You've said the truth. There is one God. And to love
him with all the heart is better than any sacrifice. And the Lord
said to him, you are not in the kingdom of God. You're not far from it, but you're
not in it. And that man turned and walked
away. Does that stop anybody's autopilot? That stops mine. That stops mine. Why was he not in the kingdom
of God? How could the Lord say that to
him? How could the Lord say that to him? It's because all that
man had was religion. And religion can't save anybody. It cannot save anybody. Right
after that man walked away, our Lord said in verse 35, And Jesus answered and said,
while he taught in the temple, how say the scribes that Christ
is the son of David? Why do the scribes, that man
that just walked away, he was a scribe. All right. And he turns and he walks away
and the Lord said, why do the scribes say that Christ is the
son of David? Why do they write that? They're
writing God's word here. They're copying it over and they
say he's the son of David. Christ is the son of David. He
said, why do they say that? Verse 36 for David himself said
by the Holy ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit down on my right
hand till I make thine enemies that footstool. David therefore
himself calleth him Lord. And whence is he then his son? If he's David's God, if he called
him Lord, Lord means controller, ruler, sovereign. If he's David's God, how can
he be his son? Verse 37 says, and the common
people heard him gladly. Who are the common people? That's
us. That's just the regular folks.
That's those of us who really don't know too much about religion.
I don't know a lot about religion. I really don't. What a blessing.
But these common folks, they said here, they hear him say
this and they all said, wait a minute. He is about to actually tell
us about God. He's about to actually talk about
God. Something's different. Something's
different about this. This is not the same old regular
religion. I don't think he's going to tell
us what we want to hear just to see what he can get out of
us. I don't think he's going to do that. I don't think he's
trying to get our money. I don't think he's trying to
get our following. I don't think he's trying to get our membership. I think he's about to tell us
the truth. Verse 38, he said unto them in
his doctrine, the word doctrine means words teaching. He said unto them in his teaching,
beware of the scribes. Beware of the scribes. That scribe
walked up to him and he said, hello, brother. Are you having
a blessed day today? Oh, you've said the truth. Amen,
brother. There's one God, amen. Gotta love him. The Lord said,
beware the scribes. Beware means be cautious and
alert to the dangers of. Be on your guard, watch out.
For those who come to you in the name of religion, I am not
here in the name of religion. I'm here in the name of Jesus
Christ. Verse 38, he said unto them in
his doctrine, beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing. They love to put their robes
on. Verse 38, and they love salutations in the marketplaces. They're
not interested in getting alone in their closet before God like
he told them to. They want to be seen. They want
everybody to see them. They want everybody to hear them.
Oh, what a religious man. Do you know him? Oh, yes, he's
a religious man. Verse 39, they love the chief
seats in the synagogues. You've seen, I'm sure, on TV
these churches, especially the charismatic ones. where one man
will be up in the pulpit preaching. And for some reason, he has to
have nine or 10 other men either standing or sitting behind him.
What are they doing up there? What are they doing up there? They don't need to be up there. The guy will be saying something
and one of them, you know, if they're standing up, they'll
want to lean in toward the pulpit and, yeah, yeah, you know, hop
on one foot, yeah. What are they doing up there?
They want to be seen. That's what it is. They just want to be seen. Our Lord said, beware of those
men. Be cautious and alert to the
dangers of those men. Verse 39, they love the chief
seats in the synagogues, the uppermost rooms at feasts, which
devour widows' houses. That is exactly what happened
to my poor grandmother, my mom's mom. She was a religious woman and she was a poor widow. My
grandfather died when I was seven years old. And they never had
anything. I mean, they had nothing. Neither
one of them ever drove a car, not one time in their life. They
had nothing. And she watched the 700 Club
all day long, however long it was. You know, I think it was
on for a few hours. I felt like it was all day long.
When can we watch cartoons? Whoever it was, you know, Pat
Roberts or Oral Roberts or whoever it was, she loved him. Jimmy
Swagger, Jim Baker. Oh man, those liars. Those hucksters, those cheats
got on her TV and they said, you need to make an investment
in God's storehouse now. I remember they had a big pile
of money in the floor one time and somebody come in with a wheelbarrow
and dump more money. These are others who have made
an investment in glory. This is God's storehouse. Now
we have a team of people over here praying. You send $100 and
we'll put in a good word for you. You send $200, we have an
upgraded package. Isn't that awful? Poor thing.
She'd sit there, she'd get her little bitty social security
check. It wasn't hardly anything. And she'd write whatever she
could. I mean, she was sincere. She
was a generous woman. Almost, we're not going to look
at it today, but we're about to hear about a woman who threw
in two mites. Oh, she didn't have much. She was a generous
woman. Verse 40 says they devour widows' houses and for a pretense
make long prayers. You know what the word pretense
means? I really didn't. I thought I did, but I really
didn't. So I looked it up in the dictionary.
It means an attempt to make something that is not the case appear true. It means make-believe. It means
putting on an act, faking. That's exactly what religion
is. That's what our Lord just said it was. For a pretense,
they make long prayers. Oh, they put so much sorrow on
their face when they pray. So much sorrow on their face.
You know, they can't just bow their head and close their eyes.
They've got to lift their head up and just put so much agony
on their face, you know. Listen to what our Lord said
about every bit of that. The end of verse 40, He said, these
shall receive greater damnation. Wow. Greater damnation. The Lord said, beware of them. Don't fall in with them. Because
you do not want the same damnation they are going to receive. You
don't want it. I'm just, to me, I wrote this
message out and I thought, this is just me being honest. I do
not want to have anything to do with what this world calls
religion. Nothing. Well, then here's my
question. What am I doing here? What am
I doing here? I stand here every week. I seem to be committed to what
I believe I need to do. If I don't want to have anything
to do with false, phony religion, what am I doing here? By God's
grace, I'm here to tell the truth. I'm here by God's grace, by God's
spirit, by God's message, by God's doing, by God's calling,
by God's ability. I'm here to tell the truth. I'm
here to tell the truth. I'm here to tell the truth about
God, and I'm here to tell the truth about how he saves sinners
like me. Sinners like me. And I tell you
this, you do not have to give your money. You do not. You don't have to give a dime
not to be saved. Not one dime. You do not have
to make an investment in God's storehouse. God does not need
our money. It came from him. We only give because we love
Him and we're just thankful for what He's done. That's the only
reason. You don't have to give a dime
to be saved. Not one dime. We cannot buy our
salvation. We cannot buy our salvation.
Don't tell people that. They'll stop giving. What are
you doing? You're literally going to preach
yourself out of a job. When God performs a work in the
heart of a sinner, I mean, some of you sinners know what I'm
talking about. When God moves on the heart of
a sinner, does it produce stinginess? Grace in means grace out, doesn't
it? You don't have to give a dime
not to be saved. And I tell you this too, you
do not have to let Jesus come into your heart. Not to be saved. If God wants you to be saved,
Jesus Christ will come and knock your heart's door down. I promise. I promise if he wants in, he's
coming in. He will take what belongs to
him. I love knowing that as I preach.
I love knowing it has nothing to do with this poor saved sinner
and everything to do with the will of God and the work of Christ. I love knowing that. He will
take what belongs to him. Your heart and my heart will
both cry, Abba, Father. We will. So don't worry. You won't have to let him in.
Oh, what if I don't let him in? That's not a problem. It's not
a problem at all. You do not have to accept him
as your personal savior. You don't have to pray a sinner's
prayer. You don't have to come down here
and shake my hand. I'd love it if you did, but you
don't have to. You don't have to get into a
tub of water. You don't have to eat a wafer, and you don't
have to drink a cup of wine. You don't have to do anything. You do not have to do anything.
I'm gonna show you why. Our Lord asked them a great mystery
here. He said, how can the Christ be
David's Lord and David's son? You know the answer to that? The answer is salvation. It is
salvation. Turn with me, if you would, to
First Timothy, chapter three. First Timothy, chapter three. Verse 16 says, and without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The God of all heaven and earth
made himself to be born in the likeness of sinful flesh. It
had nothing to do with my investment. It had nothing to do with what
I was willing to accept or not accept. God became a man. If he's David's God, how can
he be David's son? If this is God, you're saying
it's God, and if this is God, how could he become a child? If this is the almighty God,
how could he be tempted for 40 days and become weak and become
hungry? If this is the God who created
everything, and I mean everything, How could he have no place to
lay his head? How is that possible? If he owns
it all, it's because he humbled himself
and he made himself to be a servant for sinners. He came here and
he obeyed the will of his father perfectly. Verse 16 says, and
without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God
was manifest in the flesh and he was justified in the spirit. God the father said out loud,
I wish I could have heard this out loud. This is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. I believe he's going to say that
again at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Here are the sins of all those
people I chose. Put them away. Deal with them. So God in human flesh walked
straight into the heart of Jerusalem. bearing the sin of his people
and he allowed them to nail him and those sins to a cross and
they all died. All of them. He died and the
sins of all his people, they all died. As the final blow of God's wrath
came down, the Lord Jesus Christ cried so everybody could hear
it, it is finished. You know what he said right there?
You don't have to pay a dime. You don't have to pay a dime.
I've given it all. I have given it all. The price
is paid in full." Wouldn't it be so refreshing to see a man
get on television and say, you don't have to send a dime. It's
already been paid. It's paid in full. Verse 16 says,
without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels. Three days after he was justified
of God, laying down his life, dying for those sins, taking
those sins with him, three days later, he was seen of angels.
He was seen of angels as he came walking out of that tomb. God
the Father sent him down. He said, go roll the stone away. And as soon as they pushed it
out of the way, out walked the Lord of glory. The angels all waited around
so they could tell everybody, he is not here. He's risen, as
he said. As he said. Right now, today,
inside this little building, by God's grace, he is being,
as verse 16 says, preached unto the Gentiles. who he is, what he's done, where
he is right now. That's the message of grace.
That's the message of truth, who he is, what he has done,
where he is now. And if God in mercy will send
his spirit inside this building. If he will call out his sheep,
he will be, as verse 16 says, believed on in the world. Right now, today, in this world,
some sinners will all of a sudden receive a heart to believe. And his promise is that every
soul that believes on him will be, as verse 16 says, received
up into glory, just like he was received up into glory. That
is the truth of salvation. That is the truth of salvation. That's how God saves. But I will tell you this, OK,
this is a morning of truth. This is a message of truth. I'm
going to close with this. He did not come here and save
everybody. He did not come here and save
everybody. He only saved particular certain
chosen people, a certain group of people, only this one type
of people can have the hope of this salvation. And if you want
to know what it is, look at first Timothy chapter one, verse 15. It says, this is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. If you are not a sinner, you
cannot have any hope of this salvation. It's not for you.
Christ only saves sinners. He only came to save sinners. Only sinners. He said, I did
not come for the righteous. So if you're a sinner, you come
to Christ just like you are. Don't reform yourself. Don't
turn over your leaf. Don't you do anything. You come
to Jesus Christ just like you are. Just as I am without one
plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. and that thou bid'st
me come to thee, Lamb of God, that's exactly how I'm coming.
Just because I know you're drawing me, I have to come. Just as I
am, poor wretched blind, sight riches, healing of the mind,
yea, all I need in thee I find. Oh, Lamb of God, that's exactly
how, it's the only way I can come. as a sinner to the Savior. That right there is not religion. That is not religion. That is
coming to Christ. That is bowing to the finished
work of Christ. And I'll tell you, that is salvation. That is salvation. Let's sing
that song. Let's all stand together.