Luke chapter 20. Luke chapter
20, we're going to try to cover a lot of verses. This might be
a good illustration of the difference between teaching and preaching
this morning. Every preacher is a teacher.
Not all teachers are preachers. Teaching It's more line upon
line, precept upon precept, studying, digging, searching, that sort
of thing. Learning while preaching is a
way of preaching. And the title and subject in
the bulletin is Truth versus Human Reasoning. The Lord who
is the truth. was confronted by three different
groups of men, religious men, often lawyers and Herodians and,
you know, people in the world, worldly wise men. He was confronted
often by them. And the Lord could not resist
his wisdom. When this is all over, it says
nobody asked him any more questions. He asked one question they couldn't
answer. And it's the question of all questions, and it's the
question of salvation. This is what our Lord asked when
it was all over, what thank ye of Christ. So let's look at it. Verses 19 and 20 is where we
pick up. Chief priests and scribes at
the same hour sought to lay hands on him, the Lord, and they feared
the people. False preachers don't fear God,
they fear men. They're on their payroll. They
fear losing their jobs, and so forth. They perceived that our
Lord had spoken this parable against them, and he had. And
they watched him and sent forth spies which should feign or pretend
themselves just that they might take hold of
his word that is find something he said to deliver him to hold
against him to deliver him to the power and authority of the
governor so they could convict him. Spies. They sent spies. Chief priests. Spies. Do you see how corrupt
religion has become? And our Lord came, and that's
why he said, if I had not come, you'd have no sin, but now you
have no covering, no cloak. He said, the light has come,
exposes darkness. And these men that were corrupt,
the truth exposes corruption, doesn't it? And they sent spies
to try to find something to hold against the Lord. Because they
didn't believe he was the Lord, they just thought he was Jesus
of Nazareth. They weren't seeking the truth.
They weren't true men. True men seek the truth. But
they were all about lies, and they were trying to get rid of
Him to justify their own evil works. Could that happen in our
myths? Could someone want the preacher
to fail? Could someone want to find something
on the preacher to hold against them to justify their own unbelief? Happens all the time. Sad isn't
it? That wisdom is justified of her
children. The Lord says there must be heresies
among you. That they which are approved
might be made manifest. Meaning there's going to be people
like this, but the true people will shine forth. They which
are true will be made manifest. Those who love the truth and
love those who preach it, they will rise to the top. Verse 21,
here's what they said. They asked him, saying, Master,
and I can't you hear the syrup in their voices? We know that
thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person
of any, but teachest the way of God truly. Flattery. That's all that is. Flattery. Turn to Daniel 11. Turn to Daniel chapter 11. Flattery. Scripture speaks a great deal
of flattery. Flattery. Listen to Proverbs
29. It says in verse 5, a man that
flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his thief. Daniel chapter 11. speaks of
anti-Christ and how he deludes and deceives and woos many is
flattery. That's what false religion does.
Flatters. Flatters. Lies to people. Telling them
how much God needs them and loves them. Jesus loves them. We love
you and church can't be church without you. Flattery, that you're somebody. Listen to Daniel 11 verse 32.
It says, such as do wickedly against the covenant, shall he,
speaking of Satan, corrupt by flattery. But the people that
do know God shall be strong. They're not going to be taken.
They're not going to be deluded by his flattery. Verse 33, they that understand
among the people shall instruct many. That's what I'm doing right
now. Yet they shall fall by the sword. They're going to be hated
for the truth, by flame, burned at the stake, by captivity, by
spoil. Verse 34, But when they shall
fall, they shall be opened with a little help. But many shall
cleave to these false teachers with flatteries. That's how they
get. Why are these churches packed,
so-called churches packed with people of that flattery? Flattery. If you stand up and tell people
the truth of God's Word, who God is, what man is in the sight
of God, you're not going to get a crap. You're not going to get
a crap. Flatter? Paul said in 1 Thessalonians
2, he said to the people, you know me. He said, at no time
did I use flattery. And the scripture says good words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. But not
the wise. The wise aren't deceived. Satan and his ministers use subtlety
and they're wily and they use a smile. I imagine Satan has
a smile on his face when he was deceiving me, don't you? Pleasant
look on his face. Maybe a tear in his eye. If you've
never heard that message by my pastor on Weep Not For Me, you
need to hear it. Scripture says that kisses of
an enemy are deceitful, but the faithful are the wounds of a
friend. The best thing somebody can do
for you is tell you the truth, and it's going to hurt, it's
going to offend you, and it's going to save your soul. These men were full of flattery.
Here's their question. Verse 22 through 26. Is it lawful
for us to give tribute unto Caesar or not? He perceived their craftiness
and said unto them, Why tempt you then? Show me a penny. And
they did. And whose image in superscription
hath it? Whose picture is on that money?
I answered and said, Caesar. He said unto them, render therefore
unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the
things which be God's. And they could not take hold
of his word. They couldn't resist that. And
they marveled at his answer. They held it. He shut them up.
Now, as much as I'd like to go into the separation of church
and state, That's not what this is about, but however it is,
it's going on today. It has, now through the year.
There's supposed to be a separation between church and state, and
you can blame that on the so-called church. It's become a business.
Whenever it became a business, then the government had to get
in on it. That's all because of money,
isn't it? The love of money is the root
of all evil, and Judaism back then was these These Jewish leaders
were in the pockets of Roman government,
and vice versa. They were working together for
money, for influence, for power, for place, for prestige, for
their jobs. And it's been that way in our
world for years. Catholicism has been one of the
most powerful governments in the history of the world. It
still rules countries everywhere today. The Vatican is a super-rich,
powerful government. It controls millions of people. This question is about taxes. Taxes, okay? And he says, if
you use Caesar's roads, pay Caesar. That's taxes, okay? If anybody
uses any kind of government paid-for facilities or whatever it is,
if they use it, you've got to pay for it. Right, Margaret?
Margaret says, amen. And pay them on time. Right,
Margaret? She's our tax commissioner. We've got a good one. An honest
one. But if you use Caesars Road,
you pay for it. If you use God's House, I got ordained back when the
temple was being built. Ten percent. Ten percent. That's not much. Don't you wish
taxes were ten percent across the board? Ten percent. But that wouldn't be fair. The
rich, ten percent is nothing to them. Ten percent to a poor
man is a lot. The next story is the widow giving
her money. But the Lord would have been
tired of it, or else people wouldn't have given anything. But that
ended. The Lord ended that. And grace
became giving. And it's not what's required
of us, but it's not how much do I have to give. But grace
works in someone's heart to say, how much can I give? I'm not
going into that either. This is about taxes. And we obey
the laws of the land. God's people never want to deal
with that in 1 Peter 2. But we obey the laws of the land.
No one can convict us of that. We obey the laws that you do,
don't you? You do the speed limit, don't you? You do the speed limit, don't
you? No. OK, we no one can accuse God's
people of obeying disobeying the laws of the land, but. We
ought to obey God rather than the curse. Long before man's
law, God's law. God's ordinance. We're under
him. We're under his reign and rule. Anything that supersedes
that. Separation of the church and
state. I said I wouldn't say that. I did. We render to the government its
due, and we render to our God his due, and God first, and man
second. Well, here came the Sadducees.
In verse 27, the Sadducees deny that there's any resurrection.
Now, this is some sort of religion. You may not know this. But the
name Sadducee came from a man, Zadok, Sadducee. And these were
some kind of heretical followers of this man named Zadok or whatever,
like the Nicolaitans. You remember in Revelation, the
Lord said about the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, he said,
I hate that. Well, that's some fellow named Nicholas who was
an apostolate, and people began following him. It's always the
case, all heresy, all error is following a man. All heresy,
all untruth, all falsehood and lies comes from
man. And you follow any man. You become
a follower of any man other than the God-man, Jesus Christ. You'll
fall into error. All error, error and heresy.
Look at 2 Timothy 2. And a sister brought
this passage up to me the other day. 2 Timothy 2 on rightly dividing
the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2. This 1 and 2 Timothy
are the instructions of Paul the Apostle to a young preacher
named Timothy. And he instructed him where and
every preacher should read these read this often. But 2 Timothy
2 verse 15 he said to young Timothy, study to show thyself approved
unto God. Study what? Well study the reformers. Study the... No! Study Marty used to say this, and I
loved it, man. He's from Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, Holmes Fund for Wisdom. He started out as a professor
in Appalachian Bible College, Piedmont Bible College. Now,
he was a professor of theology, didn't know God. He was Saul
of Tarsus, Rob Berner. He was a professor of theology,
didn't know God. And he heard some preacher preach
the truth. And he began preaching the truth.
They went, the Lord used him. We're here because of that man.
This church exists indirectly because of his preaching. He's the one that my dad heard.
You know the story. Well, Barney, why did I bring
him up? Why did I bring him up? Let me look here. 2 Timothy 2,
I lost my train of thought. Look at verse, he says, study
to show thyself approved, a workman that needeth not be. Oh, here's
what he said. Paul told Timothy, study the
word of God. And Barnard used to say, and
he told my dad this, a young preacher, he said, the Bible
will shed a lot of light on those commentaries. Seriously. And that's so true. I find myself
and the Lord used me to translate the scripture. I'm so thankful
that the Lord preserved, gave us a wonderful translation of
God's original Hebrew, a very wonderful one. And he led these
men to put these center references in the Bible. Do you look at
I find myself, you know, thinking, there's a scripture somewhere
that goes along with it. And I look, and there it is.
They did the work for me. Right there it is. You turn it,
it'll open it up. If the scripture, you're in the
dark about it, you turn, ah, that's what it's saying. We compare
a scripture to a scripture to a scripture to a scripture. No
one's scripture stands alone. You know, I'm glad we're joined
together. But he's looking on, he says,
he says in verse 17, verse 16, shun profane and vain babblings. That's anything other than the
study of God's Word. And they'll increase unto more
ungodliness. Their word will eat as doth a canker, a cancer,
gangrene. He goes on to talk about too,
verse 18, concerning the truth of erred. saying the resurrection
is passed already and overthrow the faith of some, that's when
Paul said evil communications corrupt good manners. He was
talking about Paul's teachers. Chapter 3, verse 13, he says
evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving and even
deceiving themselves. So he told young Timothy, chapter
4, verse 3, verse 2, preached the word. First, three time will come.
They will not do or sound the word. But after their own lusts,
they shall heap to themselves. Teachers have an itching ear.
Turn away their ears from the truth. Preach the word again. The church at 13th Street, where
my pastor preached for so many years, has a bulletin board out
front, a sign, and I used to be in charge of putting scripture
verses, and that's all we put up there, nothing else, just
scripture verses, and two sides, put a scripture verse over here,
a scripture verse over here, just scripture. You know, that's
what the church is all about, saying what God says. Not clever
cliches, not man's wisdom, not human reason, and try to get
people to come in. No, the Gospel, the Word of God
is His power. What we tell this world is, thus
saith the Lord, not what we think or try to bribe or coerce people
in. No, God's Word is His power. That's
how God brings people in. God said in Isaiah, I will say
unto them, come. And you'll come by the word of
his God. Well, we put those scripture
verses on that sign, and one of the ladies, a member of the
church, was talking to someone in the world, out in the world,
and the woman asked her where she went to church. And our sister
said, I go to 13th Street. And she said, oh, she said, you
mean that place that has all those strange sayings on their
sign? Seriously. Because the truth
is a strange doctrine to man. The fact that God, and this is
my next message, that God is God. Isn't that strange to people
today? Well, he's not God unless you
let him be God. And what it is, is man is a stranger
to the truth. He's dead in there and he's not
going to know the truth unless God reveals it to him. We're
talking about a person here. We're not talking about a doctrine.
Principle. Theories. We're talking about
a person. God. A man. A person. You don't know me unless I reveal
myself to you. And you can't know God. I can't
know God unless God reveals it. How does he do that? His word. One way. So, he told Timothy. He preached
the word. Where are we? Go back to Luke
20. Now, these pharisees denied the
resurrection and they were religious. What? Why? They say there's no
life after this. Then why be religious? That's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15. Today we live, and tomorrow we
die, and there's no... Let's eat, drink, and be married!
This is it! Why are we sitting here on our
day off? We're about to be out in the
world! This is it! Better grab all you can! And
that's why all of 1 Corinthians 15 is about. If Christ died and
he'd find his bones in a grave over there, our religion is vain. This is a hoax. He was the greatest
impostor that ever lived. But Paul went on to say, ah,
he lives. And he's seated on the circle
of the earth right now. Reigning and ruling, person,
living Lord. That's why the Lord, the Scriptures
keep calling him the living Lord. Because we're talking about,
we're not talking about doctrine. And I've been teaching and preaching. So be it. We're not talking about
doctrine. We're not talking about you coming
to an understanding of doctrine. We want you to know the Lord.
And I want you to know that. And He does it through the dismay.
And the world calls this foolishness. What I'm doing is foolishness.
They can't stand up to the wisdom of it. Can they? Paul said that in 1 Corinthians
2. Bring on the scribe. Where is the wise man? Bring
him on. Have not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? And
that's what we're looking at. Christ who is wisdom, brother
John. Christ who is the truth. Christ who is God. Walk this
earth. And men confronted it. And they
I had to back down. You can't argue against God.
You can't refute the truth. You can't do it. Get all the wise
men in the world together and ask all the questions you will
and one word from God will silence them. Oh, the worldly wise and the
wisdom of this world. You know, why would you believe
and trust and listen to people that say all this came from Trump? That's what's in their heads.
Man didn't come from a monkey, but he has become one. It's the fact that you didn't
have to be a blooming idiot to look at this world. The heavens
declare His glory. The firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day after day utter the speech. What does it say? God is our
Creator. The sun, that big ball of helium,
we think it's helium. Who knows? You can't get close
enough to find out. And it just stays right there
burning, burning. He can't live without it. If
he gets a foot closer, we burn up. A foot farther away, we freeze
to death. And everything rotates around
it. No, ain't no flat Earth. But everything rotates around
it. What's that a picture of? Jesus Christ, the Son of Rochester,
the light of the world. There it is. Every day, day after
day, there he is. What are you going to do about
that, man? We get a lot of little space
ships and try to get as close as we can. No, better yet, let's
look into black holes. Yeah, that's where you're at,
all right. Where am I? Luke 20. Our Lord refuted all
these. They said, now, I'll not read
it all. But they brought up this scenario.
Here's a woman. And in the Jewish law, if a woman,
her husband died, the brother of that husband was to take that
woman and marry her to raise up seed so that the man's seed
would live on, okay? So they brought up this scenario.
This woman had a husband, he died, had a husband, he died,
had seven men, they all died. Had the same woman. No seed,
no life, and then she died. It all ended. It's all dead.
Oh, now, see? Now, teacher, we don't say like
that. Who's in the resurrection? Whose wife is she? She has seven
husbands. Don't you know they stood back
for the God in man? Can you catch their folly in
bringing that up? What man in his right mind would
marry Looks like John's got a divorce,
if he doesn't, I ain't married to her. But here's something, 7, and
it revealed their perfect ignorance and our Lord's perfect knowledge.
This is a picture of religion. There's no life in it. OK. The church is supposed to be
the bride of Christ. The church is supposed to be
the wife of Christ. Married to Kenneth. They're married to these men,
and seven of them came along. I don't care how many preachers
you send to a church that doesn't belong to the Lord. There's no
life in it. Why? No seed. There was no seed. What's seed? Christ. No Christ, no life. I don't care
how long it's been there. I don't care how many pastors
you've had. If your Christ is not in it, it's dead, and it's
going to end. And you and Adam all die. But now, when one man comes along
and marries you, when one man Dimeaker said, I
said, it's for his diaspora. And he said, I called you as
a woman forsaken. Oh, you may have been a religion.
Not the woman at the well. She had five husbands. A lot
of good they did her. She's living, she's having another
one. And then her husband comes along. And he marries her. Now, what's he done? He's deceived. He's now given her life. She's married to him up there.
She's married to Christ. He said, look at it in verse
36, verse 35. They which shall be counted worthy
to obtain that world and resurrection from the dead, neither married
nor given in marriage. Why? Y'all, you two aren't going
to be married. You two, you're not going to
be married. John, you're not going to be married. We're all
going to be the bride of Jesus Christ. And we'll know, even as we've
been known, we'll know why the Lord united us to our spouse. What for? For the furtherance
of His kingdom. For another elect. That's right. Like Ruth. She was married to
a Moabite. Didn't last, did he? He died.
Mary, what happened? David. Oh, they caught themselves up
in a in a trap. He said, and then look at verse
37, he said, the dead are. Verse 36, neither can they die
anymore. They're equal under the angels
and children of God, children of the resurrection. You know,
the resurrection is not an event, although the second resurrection
when our Lord comes back and raises up his people out of the
grave, which is a mystery that we can't really go into. It's
going to be marvelous. He said, I'll raise them up to
the last day, everyone. Nobody's going to be left behind. But the resurrection is when
you meet Jesus Christ. He said, I am the resurrection.
Then to say, you have to who were dead and trespassed
in. He raised us up together. Right? If you've met Jesus Christ in
the morning, you've been raised from the dead, from the death
of the life, and He is your life. You've already been raised from
the dead. Understand? As much as we can. All right,
in verse 37 he said, Now that the dead are raised,
Moses showed at the bush. You know, we can ask lots of
questions that man couldn't answer. What is the burning bush? Isn't
that a good question? What is the burning bush that
Moses stood in front of? God said, take off your shoes,
you're on holy ground. What is that? The bush that burned was
not consumed. Where Moses heard the voice of
God. Where Moses found out who God
was and what he was. What is that burning bush? It
ain't a bush. It's Jesus Christ, crucified,
and yet not consumed. Our gods have been sent in fire.
That's where we find out who God is and how Christ crucified
him. That's where we find out what we are. Take off your shoes.
Hold a man. That's where God speaks to us.
That's where we hear his voice. That's where we see his faith.
I did a good question to ask people. What's that Marnie Bush?
Moses at the bush showed when he called the Lord the God of
Abraham, Isaac, God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Here's
a good question. Our Lord said, Salvation is of
the Jews. He told that woman, Salvation
is of the Jews. Well, but he's not a Jew, which
is what happened. Not all Israel is of Israel.
What does that mean, Salvation is of the Jews? Jacob, what does
that mean? He said, I am the Lord, I have
changed not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not his sons. What's
that mean? You find out. You find out something
about the God of the Bible. Something about man. Something
about salvation. Well, he's the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and all that's Romans 9. Election. All right, the last question
that is asked is asked by the Lord. And I'm just going to mention
it because I'm going to bring a whole message on it today. After he asked this question,
they asked him no more questions. He said, verse 41, how say they
that Christ is David's son? David himself said unto him in
the book of Psalms, the Lord said unto my Lord, Psalm 2, Psalm
110. And it says unto him, Sit thou
on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
David therefore called him Lord. How is he then his son? And nobody answered. Nobody knew him. None of the
men that didn't know the truth, stand right in front of him.
They didn't know the truth. Can you? Can you? Can you know? If he's the son
of man, how can he be the son of God? Is he a man? Or is he God? How can that be? Do you believe
that? Let's look into that one more
fully. That deserves a message all by itself.