The light ain't burning. Is that a little better Donna? I often find out that I've tried
to read a larger section of verses than I'm capable of reading simply
because I can't resist the temptation to make comment here and there
and sometimes it's more than just a small comment. It takes
a little bit more time. So, let's back up in Mark chapter
12. It seems like to me that to cover
the part that we need to cover. We need to see what is taking
place between the Lord Jesus and the leaders of the Jewish
religion of that time in which Christ was on this earth. So
I'll tell you in just a second where we're going to start. Let
us pray. Lord, thank you for these hymns
and the privilege of singing them in company with our brothers
and sisters in Christ. Lord, if we're not yours, make
us to know it. Without you, Without your eternal purpose,
without the shedding of your blood, without your sufferings
and dying on the tree, we could find no help in Old or New Testament
or any other book written by men. For without an atonement,
without a Savior, Without someone paying our sin debt, we are helpless
slaves of the devil. And we actually love it that
way until you enter the picture and everything changes. Lord,
we come in this passage to read of a great many people in our
Lord's day that thought they They were, of all the people
on the face of the earth, they understood the Old Testament
Scriptures better than anybody else. And alas, in almost every
case that is not the case. They abused the Old Testament
and misused it, just like we have the new one. But your work, your salvation,
your sacrifice, It cannot be denied. For whomever you made an atonement,
they must have that atonement. And that is a comforting thought
to our sinful hearts. Now Lord, as we come to this
passage, give us eyes to see and ears
to hear. what is really going on in this
passage. We beg your blessing for Christ's
sake. Amen. Starting at verse 13. Mark 12, 13. And they, that is,
the Pharisees primarily, They sent unto him certain of
the Pharisees and of the Herodians." Now, this group called Herodians
were followers of King Herod, same one that had John the Baptist's
head severed from his body. "...to catch him in his words." If these people knew, how little
they knew of the person they're trying to trap and expose and,
you know, make him to be embarrassed in front of the people. And yet,
in religion today, it is still the same. The same. To catch him in his words. And when they were come, they
said unto him, Now you have to read between the lines that these
people are just blowing smoke. They don't believe nor love a
thing they're saying to him in this case. They said in verse 14, Master,
we know that you are true and cares, you care for no man. For you regard not the person
of men, but teach the way of God in truth." Now if they believe
that, they ought to be on their face at his feet. Is it lawful to give tribute
to Caesar or not? How quickly they leave the subject
that they wanted to suggest that they believed. And there's no
possibility that they believed. If you just read a few more verses,
you'd find that out. Is it lawful to give tribute
to Caesar? They're under the Roman domination,
and they think if they can trap Christ, here is a case that he
cannot solve. Shall we give or shall we not
give? But he, the Lord Jesus, knowing
their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt you
me? Why do you try to put a trap
in my path? Bring me a penny, that I may
see it. And they brought it, and he said
unto them, Whose is this image and superscription that is stamped
on this penny? Who is this? And they say unto
him, Caesar's. And our Lord said, Render to
Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and render to God the things
that are God's. And they marveled at him. But
they're not through. The next group they bring before
our Lord is referred to as the Sadducees. Then came unto Him the Sadducees,
their pet peeve, their primary doctrine of their beliefs is
that there's no such thing as resurrection. There's no resurrection. None at all. They said, Master, Moses wrote
unto us, first five books in the Old Testament, if a man's
brother die and leave his wife behind and leave no children,
that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed unto
his brother. Now this is just a made up story,
but they got everything in it they want. So we learn that there
are seven brothers, and before this is over, they've all been
the husband of this woman, and none of them could bear children. So I'll skip that part. Down
in verse 23, here's what they're trying to do. You remember from verse 18, they
said, No, not 18, I'm sorry. Well, I can't find it. Oh yeah. And when they were come, they
say, Master, this is verse 14, we know that you are true and
care for no man, for you regard not the person of men, but teach
the way of truth. Is it lawful to give tribute
to Caesar? And they go on to say, Then came unto him the Sadducees,
in verse 18, which say there is no resurrection. That's the
point thereafter. They camouflage it quite well,
but they can't outsmart the Lord Jesus. All the men that's ever
lived on the face of the earth for all time, all of us put together,
could not cause Him to stumble. My goodness! Wonder why people
would do that? Because they don't believe He's
God. But if He's God, the best thing
we can do is fall on our face and beg for mercy. So these Sadducees said to the
Lord Jesus, Master, Moses wrote unto us about these brothers,
and all seven, in verse 22, had her as their wife, and they left
no seed. Now here's the whole point. They're
trying to get rid of anybody believing that there is such
a thing as the resurrection. But they miserably fail. Verse 23, In the resurrection
thereof, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the seven had her to wife,
all seven brothers, You know, I can't understand
that, but that's what it says, and that's what it's supposed
to say. Verse 24, And Jesus answering said unto them, Do you not therefore
err, because you know not the Scriptures, nor the power of
God? For when they shall rise from
the dead... Now listen carefully. Preachers often at funerals and
at other times, they tell you people are looking down from
heaven to see what you're doing. And they're so grieving that
we're living such wicked lives and careless lives and all this
stuff. Well, we may be doing that, but they ain't watching
us. You take the events that take
place on this globe every day, And you think heaven would be
a peaceful place if they knew what was going on down here?
Now here it is. It ain't my words. It is the
statement of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 25, For when they shall
rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. but are as the angels which are
in heaven, and as touching the dead that they rise." Have you
not read in the book of Moses how in the bush, the burning
bush, God spoke unto him saying, I am the God of Abraham. I'm going to bring the subject
of the sentence with me in these three cases because we have to
be hit pretty hard to ever see anything anyway and if God doesn't
open our eyes we never will see it. How in the bush God spoke to
Moses saying, I am the God of Abraham, I am the God of Isaac,
and I am the God of Jacob. Now there's three generations
of men from one family. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the kicker is that God says
through the mouth of God the Son, I am, I am, I am. He's the only God there is, the
triune Jehovah. But the point is that here are
three generations in one family, And this God is called, not I
was, but I am, three times. Therefore, for anyone to think
that there's no such thing as the resurrection, you know, if
they don't listen to what people have to say to them about the
subject, you know, they just might leave this world believing
that, but they'll find out it ain't so. Verse 27, He is not the God of
the dead, but the God of the living. You, therefore, do greatly err. You ain't even close to first
base, let alone being at home base. Just not happening. And one of the scribes came,
and having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that
Christ had answered them well, this man asked the Lord Jesus,
which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him,
the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord
our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
mind, with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like it, namely
this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There's none other
commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, I wish I could see Christ's face
when this man said this to him. And the scribe said to the Lord
Jesus, well master, you have said the truth. Boy, this guy's got a lot to
learn. He knows a whole lot more than
those first guys we met in this chapter. He said, Master, you said the
truth. There's one God and there's none
other beside He. And to love Him with all the
heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all
the strength, and to love His neighbor as Himself is more than
all, whole offerings. and sacrifices through the Jewish
system of religion in the Old Testament, something like 4,000
years. And they don't hold a candle
to our Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of those sacrifices
typified Him in one way or another. And the Old Testament worshipers
who were truly God's children could see their Redeemer in those
sacrifices, but the rest were blinded, just
did it because Moses said do it. Verse 34, And when Jesus saw
that he answered discreetly, He said unto him, these are the
words of our Lord Jesus, to this scribe, this man that was one
of the people that tried to maintain the presence of and the correctness
of what was being written in copies made from the Old Testament
Scriptures. When Jesus saw that he answered
discreetly, he said unto him, You are not far from the kingdom
of God. But I remind you that an inch
is just about as good as a mile. You and I can't make up ground.
We can't do what we don't have in our nature to do until God
saves us and then things change. But we ain't through sinning
then. We sin till our dying day. You're not far from the kingdom
of God. And no man after that dared ask
Him any question. Now let me read you quickly this
next little section. And Jesus 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 unto my Lord, sit you on my right
hand until I make your enemies your footstool. David therefore
himself calls him Lord, and from where is he then his son?" How
is it that Christ can be David's Lord and David's son? I can't explain it to you, but
it's certainly there, and therefore it is. And if I understand it,
that's not much significance as far as I'm concerned. We don't change God's purpose.
We don't alter what God says about His Son. We bow to these
things. David himself said in verse 36,
By the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord,
Sit you on my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.
David therefore himself calls him Lord. And how is it that
he, then his son, and the common people heard him gladly? And
he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which
love to go in long clothing, and love salutations or greetings
in the marketplace. Oh, reverend so-and-so, how are
you today? I ain't reverend. And people
who wear the name are lying. That word's only found one time
in our Bible, and it's talking about God. Talking about God. Seems like that's in Psalm 133,
somewhere like that. What verse did I stop on? Okay. And the chief seats, verse 39,
in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feast, which devour
widows' houses, and for a pretense to cover up their thievery, for
a pretense they make long prayers. These
shall receive greater damnation." There are degrees of punishment
in hell. Right there is what it says.
And if the Lord Jesus said it, that settles it, whether I believe
it or you believe it or not. We can all say, well, I refuse
to believe that. Well, help yourself. You'll change your mind one day,
but it'll be too late. Okay, let's see if we can make
up some lost time. I didn't mean to read that long,
but I did. I hope we got enough out of that
reading that we could learn some things that we're about to discuss
in regard to what God requires of us. Now be sure you understand
that the doctrine that we believe and love and preach is that whatever
God requires of me, He must give me or I ain't gonna
have it. That's true of faith. It's true
of repentance. It's true of dozens and dozens
of things. God gives what He commands. Boy, I remember the first time
I ever even entertained a thought like that. Just about blew me
away. Now I've got some scriptures
that my wife has printed for me so that we can get finished
on time or at least, y'all owe me about a thousand minutes probably
anyway, but I don't want to collect them all at one time. Alright,
the first thing I want to, I want to read you a statement about
repentance. I tell you no, but except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish. I tell you no, but except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish. You can find that in
Luke chapter 13 verses 3 and 5. Then we come to another gospel
statement in John chapter 3. Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he
cannot so much as see the kingdom of God. Forget about entering
it, he can't even see it. He doesn't believe there's any
such place. Then we move to another gospel.
These things are important, most important. I don't know if people who hear preaching like
whatever you call what we're hearing here, when they're confronted
with the fact that they must repent, They must. I don't know if they ever will.
But I'm telling you, if they don't, they're headed in the
wrong direction. The one we just read in John
chapter 3, having to do with the new birth, with being born
again. I don't know if you'll ever be born again, if you're
not already. And if you are not born again,
regenerated, have new life from above, which is a spiritual life
in a physical body, if you don't have these things, you cannot
enter heaven without them. Therefore, as in everything else,
the Lord Himself must give it. Here's another reading. Ask,
and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be
opened." Make sure you know this, God ain't playing games. He's not putting something desirable
in front of your face in order to do something else for you.
Whatever God says, do it! And find out you have to do it
with His own power and strength. Because we ain't got none of
our own. None. There's only one category that
we excel and that's sinning. So I don't know if you'll seek
God or not, but I know if you don't seek Him, you ain't ever
going to find Him. And if you do seek Him, it's
only because He sought you first. I got something in my Bible here
about, let's see if I can get it. Isaac Watts, the hymn writer,
wrote these words. Why was I made to hear and enter
while there's room? While thousands make a wretched
choice and rather starve than come? Here's the answer. Why? T'was the same love that
spread the feast. You remember the feast in the
gospel accounts? A gospel feast. T'was the same
love that spread the feast that sweetly forced me in. Brother
Richardson used to say, against my will and with my full consent. You figure that one out and you'll
have some understanding of it. Sweetly forced me in, else I
had still refused to taste. and perished in my sin." Now these other scriptures are
not in the Gospel accounts, at least not all of them. The Bible
speaks of a righteousness that God provides
for sinners in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the Lord our righteousness. That's His name. You can find
that name twice in the book of Thank you, Craig. Jeremiah. I
wanted to say Daniel. The book of Jeremiah. One is
in chapter 23, I think, and the other one, like, is in chapter
33. One of them says, you shall call his name Jehovah Sid Canoe,
which is a little, I think that course is in our course book.
And I lost my train of thought. My
gosh. Thank you Craig. In 23 it is
the Lord our righteousness and in 33 it says and she shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. That's his bride, his church.
Marvelous, marvelous indeed. Let's see. This righteousness that is everywhere
spoken of in our Bibles is nowhere better declared than in the book
of Romans chapter 10. But here's just a quick statement
out of several verses in Romans 10. This coming out of verse
4. For Christ is the end of the law. He's the end of the search. for righteousness to everyone
that believes. This is the only righteousness
there is for human beings. And when we have this, we have
everything. It's wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Here's another statement on believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He that has the Son has life. He that has not the Son of God
does not have life. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 12. The next word in this list has
to do with dying. Nobody knows when Christ is coming
back. And the people that say they
do, they do not know. They're just poor, ignorant,
dumb. Oh, I don't know how you can
describe them. This last character from California
that got it wrong, was it three times? And all those poor people
that were following Him and selling their houses and moving and all
this stuff, the guy should have been shot. He doesn't know that. But all
these people are carrying Bibles too. If they'd read it, they'd
find out that our Lord in this book says that no man knows when
this has taken place. This glorious, glorious coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is such a thing as dying,
and we're going to face that. I'll read it to you out of Hebrews.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Now, free willers, if they were
honest, would have to mark that word many out and put all. But
I'm telling you, whoever Christ died for is going to glory whether
they know it or not. whom our Lord did not redeem,
did not save, will not know Him. And they're glad and tickled
pink that they can resist Him and not be drawn into this. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Let's see, is that the end of
the row? Yeah. Alright, put that to sleep. Just a couple of other statements.
I want you to, I want you first of all to take
notice of how little turning we did on those scriptures and
now I want you to turn to one. It's real easy to find. It's
about two or three pages from the end of your Bible. It's called
Revelation without an S. No S on Revelation. Chapter 20. There is an expression used in
our Bibles that speaks of a book that is called the Lamb's Book
of Life. And in this book are written
the names of all God's elect from the beginning of time to
the end. Alright, let's see if I can find
where I'm supposed to be. be reading from. This is as short
as I can make it. Revelation 20 and verse 11 through
15. Verses 11 through 15. Revelation
20. And I heard a great white throne. I saw a great white throne, and
Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away, and there was found no place for them." Time is coming to an end on this whole planet. This great white throne. is the
same one in Ephesians in John chapter 5, verses... I don't remember, but he talks
about the resurrection. The resurrection of the lost
and the resurrection of the saved. It's getting on toward the end
of John chapter 5. Let me start at 11 again. And
I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found
no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, poor and rich, I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God. And the books, B-O-O-K-S, the books
were opened. The books were opened. Now that's
the book you don't want your name in. And another book, The way to distinguish these
two books is that one of them has an S and the other one has
nothing but B-O-O-K, book. This, we'll find out in a moment,
is the Lamb's Book of Life. Now that's where you want to
be. Beg God to show you what you
need to see and know and understand and bow to and believe. And keep
reminding Him that if you're to do any of these things, if
you're to repent, He must give you repentance. If you're to
believe, He must give you the ability to believe. And sanctification
and redemption and righteousness, the whole thing is a gift of
God in Christ. So another book was opened, right
in the middle of verse 12, which is the book of life. Well, if this is the book of
life, what is that other book? It's the book of death, eternal
punishment. And the dead were judged. out
of those things which were written in the books, an S. And get this, people who say when they get
to heaven, God is going to reward them for what they did for Him. Dear soul, I'm telling you, you're
on the other road. You're going the wrong way. Here's
where you're going to be. Oh, there's a book written. Ain't
no telling what all's in it either. But there's that other book that
doesn't have an S. And it is the Book of Life. Another book, this is in the
middle part of verse 12, and another book, which is the Book
of Life, No, I got that wrong. These are
the singular, yeah, which is the book of life. And the dead
were judged out of those things which were written in the books
according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them, and they were judged every man according to their
works. That ain't where you want to be. and death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death." Oh, look at 15 now. This is a sober statement. Whosoever
was not found written in the book without the S, The book
of life was cast into the lake of fire. There are just too many examples
in the New Testament alone to tell us that the majority of
people in this world are not believers. They hate the God
of the Bible. They want to go where it's never
mentioned or seen. But I'm telling you there's coming
a day you wish you'd have learned, beg God to show you what's in
that Book of Life. To have some degree of assurance
that even though we're still sinners, we've been saved by
God's grace in Christ. Whoever is not found written
in the Book of Life, was cast into the lake of fire. Well, I guess All right. Craig.