Beginning with verse 23, when
he was come into the temple, my Lord, the chief priests and
elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching and said,
By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee
this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, I also will ask you one thing. which if ye tell me, I
likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things."
The baptism of John, which was it? From heaven or men? They reasoned with themselves,
saying, If we shall say from heaven, he'll say unto us, Why
did ye not then believe him? But if we shall say of men, fear
the people, all hold John as a prophet. And they answered
Jesus and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither
tell I you by what authority I do these things. Now, the Lord
had come into his temple as his manner was on the Sabbath. He
was always in. the synagogue and the temple,
worshiping God. That's what God's sons do. And chief priests and elders
who were impostors, they were not true priests or elders. They appeared to be. They said they were. They interrupted
the Son of God as He was speaking. Our Lord one time said, you don't
go in and you don't suffer others to go in. The Lord was preaching
the unsearchable riches of Himself, the Word of God, the Word of
life, and these men who did not have life didn't receive them. Neither wanted any others to
receive them. And they asked Him, they demanded
of Him actually, by what authority? Who told you you could come in
here and teach these things? Who told you? By what authority? Who gave you this permission,
demanding an answer of them? Now, the Lord of glory does not
answer the demands of human beings. He is not going to give an account
of Himself to man, but rather we are called to give an account
to Him. Elihu said this in preaching
to Job and his friends who began to question God after it was
all over. Job said, ìWhy dost thou strive
against God? For he giveth not account of
any of his matters.î And he added this, ìGod speaketh once, yea,
twice, but men perceive it not.î God is clearly spoken. If these
men had been truly priests and elders of God, they would have
been seeking the Lord, they would have been looking for the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they would have recognized Him when He came.
They would have come into His temple and heard His glorious
voice and bowed down and received His Word, believing Him to be
the Christ, asking Him for mercy. But no, they had no life in them. They had not the Word of God
in them, like Christ said, and they began to argue and make
demands with Him. That's what unbelieving men and
women do, make demands of God and argue with Him about His
work. So our Lord said, I'll tell you
if you tell me. I'll tell you this. And he used
John. John was his point of contention. He said, the baptism of John,
did God send him or did men? Is he a man sent from God or
is he just a man? Now, he is just a man, but our
Lord said, He's more than that. This is the second time our Lord
has used John. Remember? Before this, He said,
Who would you go out to see? A prophet? He said, I'll tell you more than
a prophet. And the point is, though He's just a man, He's
God's man. And so He needs to be heard.
Now, the Lord does not glorify men. Men do that. The Lord does not glorify men,
but he does magnify their office, the office and the place that
he's put men into. He verifies them as being his
men. He doesn't make men to be out
more than what they are, just sinners saved by grace. But he
does magnify their office, and he said this in Ephesians 4. When he ascended on high, he
left some men, some witnesses with the people, some prophets,
some apostles, some evangelists and pastors and teachers. And
he puts all those together. He lumps them together as all
being sent by God, gifts of God to men. And our Lord, thankfully,
for me and for you, He supports and honors the men that he sends
to preach for their comfort, for their courage. Like Elijah
said, I'm all alone. I quit. And the Lord said, no,
no, you're not all alone. I've sent you and there are others.
For the comfort and assurance of sheep who are told to follow
these men. You don't want to follow a bad
man. And our Lord gave this certain
promise. He said, a stranger's voice they
won't hear. My sheep hear my voice through
a man, but it's my voice, He said. A stranger's voice they
won't hear. And He said, I give you, pastor,
I will give you, pastor, that I sent after my own heart. And it's also for the condemnation
of those who will not hear them. Our Lord said that from the beginning
to Moses. He said, it's not you that hate
Moses, it's me. If they won't hear you, they
won't hear from me. By whose authority? Who gave
this authority? Now, Paul told Timothy, if any
man speak, let him speak as oracles of God, as if God sent it. That's
what he told the Corinthians. He said, we preach, we don't
corrupt the Word of God as many, but we speak as of God, as though
we are ambassadors for Christ. Be ye reconciled to God. Brother
Marvin and I were talking about something similar to this. many
things in Scripture written about preachers, to preachers, to the
people concerning preachers. And it's necessary because there
are so many false prophets out there. It's necessary that we
try them. And even the man himself needs
to know, did you send me or not? And we looked at that before,
not too long ago, how fruits will come with that. But Brother
Marvin and I were talking about this, how that it's the most
difficult and uncomfortable subject in all of the Scriptures for
a man to deal with. And Brother Marvin and I both
agreed that when these things come up, we wish someone else
was dealing with it. But it's come up, and the Lord
does this twice. for the sake of the people, for
their comfort, for their assurance that I sent this man. You can
hear him. You must hear him. Now, a man
can't be both. He can't be of God and of men. Because that's what they tabulate. He's just a man. Well, yes. I sent it, the Lord said. Maybe
he won't hear it. How is a man sent by God known? How was John known? Two ways. Number one, he denied himself
completely. He said he confessed and he denied
not. I am not the Christ. Don't look
to me. They came to him, who are you?
He said, I'm a voice. He said, what's your name? He
said, that's not important. You don't need to know my name.
There's one name, only one name under heaven given among men
whereby you must be saved. That's how you know. He said,
I'm just a voice. He said, behold the Lamb. That's the second thing. He denied
himself and he preached Christ. I mean he preached Christ. He
was always pointing men to Christ. Always. Every time. And that's
how you know them. And they're converts. They're
fruits. No false prophet profits anyone. Jeremiah 23 said that. Verse 32, they shall not profit
this people at all. No one has ever been saved under
a false prophet. Balaam had no convert. Judas
had no convert. No one is ever saved under a
false prophet. That would give some credence
to the false gospel. There are no new births, none
born again under a false prophet, a false gospel. Someone argues,
and I had someone argue this with me before, that it makes
salvation dependent on that man. No, it just is saying what our
Lord said, that you can't gather fruit from thorns. There won't
be bad water come out of a good spring. There won't be good water
come out of a bad. Our Lord said that. It's not
possible. Well, they answer, we can't tell.
We don't know. We're not going to tell you. They refuse to believe
it. So what does that tell you about them? They're not of the Lord. Because
our Lord said, My sheep hear My voice. Remember when Paul
said to the Thessalonians, he said, We thank God that when
you received the Word from us, you received it as it is in truth,
the Word of God. Not the words of men, but the
words of God. And you know how you know a true preacher sent
by God? Like the apostles, like the prophets,
they were only saying what God already said. They were just
repeating what God said. These men who come to preach
for us, I believe they're God's men. And the way you'll know
them is, if you listen carefully, their messages are full of Christ
full of the Word of God. If you know the Word of God,
you'll hear verse after verse after verse after verse. Brother
Tom Harding, there's not a man alive who is more well-versed
in Scripture than Tom Harding. If you know the Scripture, you'll
hear him quote a verse about every other sentence. And Todd,
Brother Joe, this is vital in these last days when so many
false prophets are going out into the world. It's so close in some places
that if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect.
But our Lord said, no, a stranger's voice they won't hear. And the hireling will flee. He may stay a while, but he will
flee. That's how you know he's a hireling. He's in it for the
money. He'll flee. Well, if that isn't close to
home, huh? The shepherd will stay, no matter
what. He loves his sheep, he loves
his master. And the Lord gives two parables to illustrate that.
Verse 28, he gives two parables. So it must be important, two
parables spent on this subject. Verse 28, he said, a man, what
think you? Think about this. A certain man
had two sons. He came to the first, said to
that son, go work today in my vineyard. And he answered and
said, I will not. But afterward, he repented and
went. He came to the second and said, likewise. And he answered
and said, I go, sir. But he went not. Which of the
two, whether of the twain, did the will of his father? And they
had to say, well, the first. Jesus said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom
of God before you. When John came unto you in the
way of righteousness, you believed him not. The publicans and the
harlots believed him, and he, when you had seen it, repented
not afterward that you might believe him." He gives these
two sons. Both appeared to be sons. Both
professed to be believers. That is, this is a picture of
two who professed to be believers. This is also a picture of preachers. But he said, now, though both
of these sons appeared to be sons professing like Christian,
only one of them walked. The first one was a rebel. Now,
when he heard, he said, no. I won't go. This is like the
lost sons, just like the prodigal. No. No God for me. But after the gospel came, after
by the mercy of God and the grace of God, he was called by the
gospel like that prodigal and came to himself. He repented
and came back and said, I'll go. And he went. He comes to
himself. He comes to Christ. He's convicted
of sin. He repented. And he was made
willing in a day of God's power. Same with a preacher. Remember,
the Lord called Jonah. Go to... He said, no, I'm not
going. He called Moses. He said, no,
I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want
to. I can't speak. But he ended up
going. And Lord, who made man's mouth?
Jonah? Arise and go to Nineveh. He ended
up going. But the second one now, verse
30, the second one said, I go, but he went not. He sounded good. Yes, I'm a Christian. I'm a believer. He said, but
did not. Our Lord said that. They say,
but do not. Pharisees, professors, church
members. They're church members. but they're
not Christ's followers. Self-righteous, not sinners. And our Lord said this, and He
said it twice, the publicans and the harlots. The publicans
and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. He said the
publicans and the harlots believed Him, believed the Lord, and they
went in. He said John came, verse 32,
in the way of righteousness. Is that way of righteousness
that John came in? Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
This is how you know God's preacher. They are preachers of righteousness. What righteousness do they preach?
This is how you know. Not man's. God's. God's. John didn't preach himself, didn't
preach man's righteousness. He preached Christ's righteousness. And these self-righteous Pharisees
believed Him not. Why? They didn't need a righteousness. They had established one. They
didn't need Christ to be their righteousness. They didn't need
Him to be their cover. They had all their bases covered. And our Lord said... Now, here's
the key of the Gospel. Publicans and the harlots heard
whenever the Lord preached, whenever John preached, whenever anybody
preaches the unsearchable riches of Christ, the righteousness
of Christ to cover a naked soul, the blood of Christ to cleanse
us from our sin, to pardon the guilty of sin. Publicans hear
that. They say, I've got to have that.
Self-righteous say, I've heard that before. Well, I don't need
that. Harlots! You mean there's a complete,
unconditional, free, pardon your past sins, your past is blotted
out and God will never bring it up again because Christ is
faithful? You tell me that again. Tell me that again. I need to
hear that. That's what a harlot says. I
am nothing, unclean, unclean. That's what lepers say. They're going to go in. Every
one of them, every publican and harlot that hears his voice,
though it be through a man. And they're not going to hear
it otherwise. They're not going to hear it otherwise. A man doesn't
want to be there, but made willing, given the ability, still knowing
his absolute, complete insufficiency and unworthiness and inability
to do this, yet he stands up and doesn't say, look at me.
Behold the Lamb, that's who I'm looking to. And the publicans and the harlots
who love the sound of mercy and grace, all of them are going
to go in, must be necessary to always stay
a publican and a harlot, to never
rise above that. The gospel is not sweet, and
that man isn't either. He's just a preacher, and this
is just another sermon. No, not according to the Lord. Words of life, and he's my messenger. The Lord gives another parable,
verse 33. He said, here's another parable.
There was a certain householder. planted a vineyard and hedged
it around about, digged a winepress and built a tower, let it out
to husbandmen, went into a far country. He left. A time of fruit drew near, and
this is the last harvest, no doubt about it. And he sent his
servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits
of it. He took his servants and beat one, killed another, stoned
another. Remember when our Lord said you
brag on the living and kill the dead? Opposite. You brag on the dead and kill
the living. Remember that? He said that. Stephen stood up
and preached that. Our Lord said that. A prophet
is not without honor, saving his own country, and he's got
to be dead. He's got to be dead. He took them all and stoned and
killed them. In verse 36, he sent other servants,
and they did unto them likewise. The apostles and the prophets
killed all of them but one, but John. Last of all, he sent his
son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen, that
is, they wanted the fruit for themselves, they wanted the glory
for themselves. They said among themselves, this
is the heir, let's kill him and you'll seize his inheritance.
The Pharisees and scribes were so jealous of our Lord. Jealousy,
envy, there's no place for that in the kingdom of God because
Christ gets all the glory. And they caught him, verse 39,
and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. And our Lord said,
now when the Lord of the vineyard cometh, what will he do under
those husbands? And they had to answer. They
were forced to. And they said unto him, He will
miserably destroy those wicked men, and let out his vineyard
unto other husbands, which shall render him and the fruits in
their season. Now, this is a picture also of
the gospel being taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles.
and all those false prophets, but taken from the Jews, given
to the Gentiles. And he said, no scribes, no Pharisees,
that is self-professing scribes. You see your calling, brethren?
Not many wise men of the flesh, not many mighty, not many nobles
are called. The only ones the Lord calls,
the only ones that really hear his voice, even though it be
through a man are harlots and publicans. And then this stone. I love this verse, don't you? Verse 42. Did you never read
in the Scriptures? I love when the Lord said that
to these Pharisees who prided themselves in reading the Scriptures. They could quote You know what
the phylacteries were, don't you? They make broad their phylacteries. They still do it today. Scripture
verses. They memorized whole books. Probably
the whole Law of Moses, they had it memorized. They knew the
letter of the Law. Paul said, I did. I did, but
I didn't know the spirit of it, he said. I knew the letter. I
could quote it verse by verse. I kept Jack Band, what's his
name? Impy? Wimpy? You know that they
call him the walking Bible? He can. He can literally quote
the King James Bible from cover to cover. People are amazed by
that. But he doesn't know the Lord
Jesus Christ. He doesn't preach it. He doesn't
know the Word in the Word. If they belong to the testimony,
our Lord said, if they speak not according to My Word, that
is, preach Christ. People preach the Bible. That's
what confuses a lot of people. They preach the Bible. You hear
the Bible, and you do too. You hear some... I've heard that
woman in front of us say, you know, more Bible than other men
false preach, haven't you? And that confuses people. Well,
she said some good things, but nobody is saying, you know, a
woman or a false prophet. No sir. And they can quote it
from cover to cover, but if they're not preaching Christ, they're
not preaching God's Word. And why did I say that? Because he
said, have you never read? And those phylacteries were. They memorized, and as much as
they memorized, and they would put, you know the script. All
right, here's an example. Our Lord through Moses said,
let these scriptures be a frontlet between your eyes. Bind them
about thy wrist and about thy head. Let them be a frontlet
to your eyes. Did he mean that you're supposed to wear a Bible
on your head? This is what they did. I'm serious. And they brought their phylactery.
They put little scripture verses in leather boxes and would wear
them. And according to how many they
memorized, that's how big their phylactery was. So that people could see them
and say, look at that. He's a walking Bible. And they
have their glory, our Lord said. That's their glory. That's their
honor. But they're not glorifying me, the Lord said. John didn't
wear any phylacteries. Our Lord didn't, did He? The
Word of God is written on the heart, and the front look between
your eyes may have these things in your mind, in your mind, regulating
your deeds and works for the glory of God. Have you never read, he said,
the stone which the builders rejected, verse 42, the same
as it'll come ahead of the corner? This is the Lord's doing, and
it's marvelous in our eyes. Have you never read that? Here's
a good illustration for you. Out there on 220, there's a little
building. They just built a new one behind
it, a little white building. Some tabernacle of praise or
deliverance or something like that. On the right, their motto,
their scripture is Psalm 118, 122. Psalm 118, 22, which says
there, and our Lord just quoted it. This is their motto. It's on their bulletin board.
Psalm 118, 23. This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in
their eyes. That's their motto. This is the
Lord's doings. And it's marvelous in our eyes.
In other words, look at us. Yes, we say the Lord did this,
this building, this organization. They didn't quote the stone which
the builders rejected is the head of the corner. This is the
Lord's doings. And He is marvelous in our eyes. Not us, not our building, not
our organization, but the stone, the rock of ages. This is the
Lord's doings. On Christ the solid rock I stand.
Let that out completely. Isn't that fitting? That's a
perfect illustration of what our Lord's saying here. But for
the grace of God, we do the same with it. We brag it on our building
and our works, not on Him. Oh, the stone of stumbling, the rock of ages,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the headstone of the corner, our salvation,
our foundation that no man can lay but that which is laid, Christ
the rock. Oh, He is marvelous, and this
is the Lord's doing, His work, His person. So our Lord said
in verse 43, Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God
shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the
fruits thereof. All those Pharisees, all those
scribes, all those doctors and lawyers, all those who profess
to be waiting on the Christ, they missed him when he came.
But there were a few, like Saul of Tarsus. And the Lord came
and called him by his grace and revealed his son in him. And
he said, that's who I preach from here on out. A bunch of
fishermen that these Pharisees rejected. They said the same
thing to those fishermen. Who gave you the authority to
come in here and preach? He who has all authority in heaven
and earth. He didn't take dishonor seriously.
And it will be taken from you, he said, and given to others.
And verse 44, and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken.
Oh, people, fall on him. Cast yourselves upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. Your heart will be broken, alright.
Your heart will be broken over your sins, alright. But that's
a good thing. The only good heart is a broken
heart. And if he breaks your heart by casting yourselves upon
him for mercy, He'll also heal it. He'll pour in that oil of
gladness, that wine of gladness, that balm of Gilead. And He'll
say unto your soul, Thy sins be forgiven. But if He falls on you, He can grind
you to powder. And when the chief priests and
Pharisees heard these parables, see, they heard them, but they
didn't receive them. And they were offended. Say, are you talking
to me? Absolutely. Absolutely. Do we get offended when we hear
the word? You were aiming at me, weren't you? Yes, I was.
Not me. I'm just shooting the Lord's
arrow. Are you talking to me? I hope the Lord is talking to
you. I hope He's talking to me. It's all convicts me. And they said they sought to
lay hands on him. We'll get rid of him. They feared
the multitude. They took him for a prophet.
Publicans and harlots. My, my. Let's keep our place
there and hear from him. Bye!