Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing Bible study in the book of Luke. And we're in
chapter 22. The plan is to close out chapter
22 in the last little portion where Jesus is just at the high
priest's chambers and being interviewed by them. before it goes before Pilate
in chapter 23. So we're going to read verse
66 through 71 at the end of Luke chapter 22. And as soon as it
was day, they'd been tormenting him all night long, and as soon
as it was day, the elders of the people, And the chief priests
and the scribes came together and led him into their council,
saying..." And remember, they had been meeting apart with the
plot to kill him. How are we going to do that? So, they led him into their council,
saying, "'Art thou the Christ? Tell us.' And he said unto them,
If I tell you, you will not believe. And if I also ask you, you will
not answer me, nor let me go. Hereafter shall the Son of Man
sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then said they
all, art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, ye
say that I am. And they said, what need we any
further witness? For we ourselves have heard of
his own mouth. And so that's all they were desirous
of saying. It's interesting that he almost
always referred to himself while he was tabernacling among men,
he almost always just referred to himself as the son of man.
but others declared Him the Son of God. And we find that from
the very beginning of Luke, Zacharias. He shall be called the Son of
God, the Son of the Highest. So our message today is entitled,
Questions. Questions. In verse 66, they're laying forth the charges
against Him that they're going to accuse Him of. They came together
and led Him into their counsel saying, Art thou the Christ? the Messiah. That's another name for Messiah. And Jesus asked, if I ask you
that, what will you say? Isn't that the question? Who
do men say that I am? And how does that revelation
come about? And we'll be exploring that a
little bit today. And that's the same thing he
asked Peter. Who do men say that? Well, who
do you say? What do you say? And you know,
no man can reveal it. Jesus said, no man can reveal
that, but my Father, which is in heaven. No man can call him
Lord but by the Spirit." Those from Matthew 16 and 1 Corinthians
12. That's what the scripture said. You know, they weren't asking
to be spiritually enlightened. They weren't asking for a good
purpose. They were asking for a false
purpose. And yet it was all according
to the determinate counsel and purpose of God for purposes of
accusation and not for true revelation of the facts. They just wanted
to catch Him saying something whereby they could accuse Him.
And there's such a difference between the dialogue between
Him and them and the dialogue that He has with believers. Like
the woman at the well. If you would have asked of me
living water, I would have given it to you. And these men, they
ask him, are you with the Christ? And he says, it doesn't matter
what I tell you. You will not believe. because you're not my
sheep. That's what it says in John chapter
10. So they were asking not for a
good purpose. And, you know, they ask him several
different questions in the next few verses in the beginning of
our next chapter. They ask him, are you the Messiah? because they knew Messiah was
coming, because Daniel 9, 24, 25 says, Messiah the Prince is
coming and He'll be cut off, but not for Himself. And they
give the timing and the date and all the details of it in
Daniel. And in fact, that woman at the
well said, I know Messiah cometh. I know He's coming, because the
Scripture said He's coming. And when he has come, he'll tell
us all things. And isn't that what he did with
her? He said, oh yeah, I know you. You're with the fifth man,
and he's not even your husband, and all those things. And they
asked him, are you the Messiah? Are you the Son of God? And,
you know, in verse, we mentioned this earlier in Luke 135, it
was declared, he shall be called the son of God. It's interesting,
too, that, you know, he never, he never referred to himself
as that. And yet the devils knew him as
the son of God. They called him thou son of God
in Luke chapter 4 and Luke chapter 8. What have you got to do with
us, thou son of God? They recognized him, not in a
saving way, but they recognized who he was. But on earth he said of himself,
the Son of Man." They ask him, are you king of
the Jews? That's what Pilate's going to
ask him in chapter 23. Are you the king of the Jews?
And so the answer to these questions are, they're in, they're written. They're playing for everybody
to see. The problem, he's so succinct here, he says, the problem
is, if I tell you, you will not believe, even if I tell you. So we have
to say, what is required then to believe? There's a really
good article in your bulletin today on inside cover there by
Maurice Montgomery about lying. and what people's perception
of God is and how they view Him and how their ideas of God are
just from the fall are defective. They can't have a true understanding
of God based on fleshly nature. It's just not possible. You know,
questions are asked. And the Word of God is readily
available everywhere. I mean, you can go to any motel
and open the drawer and there's a Bible in there usually. You
can go anywhere and get a Bible. And there's people on TV saying,
just call me and I'll send you a Bible that'll have my name
down in the corner. so you know who to give the credit
to for free. But it's readily available everywhere.
the word which is the answer, and yet it's really not believed
and cannot be believed unaided by the Spirit. You must be born
again. Unless the man be born again,
he can't see the kingdom of God. You know, in the time of the
tabernacling on earth by Jesus, the word of God, through the
Old Testament and in the person of Jesus Christ, clearly testified
that He is the Son of God, and the Son of Man, and the Messiah,
and the King of Kings, and the Prophet, and the Counselor, and
He's called Peace. Many titles that He has that
declare the things that He is and does. And in Hebrews chapter
1, boy, the great message by Lance Heller in chapter 1 of
Hebrews, God who at sundry times in diverse manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, half in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, and by whom also he made the words." Great message
there he had about in these days spoken to us by
his son. Jesus himself said, and Norm's
mentioned this a couple times in the last few messages, in
John 5, 46, Jesus said, had you believed Moses, you would have
believed me, for he wrote of me. John the Baptist fulfilled the
prophecy of God as stated by the angel of God to Zachariah
in testifying to Christ. He shall go before him in the
spirit and the power of Elias. That's from our lesson at the
very beginning of the book of Luke in chapter 1. to turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient,
to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord. And the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled
in John the Baptist, that I'm the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord. Make straight. That's an interesting concept. Make straight the way of the
Lord. Don't be going off this way or
going off this way. Give the straight counsel of
the Word of God. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. You know, John was questioned. But he was mostly not believed. He was only believed by a few
people. But a lot of people came to him
and wanted to participate in the religious ceremonialism that
they believed was going on. And he said, you're just a generation
of vipers. Who has warned you to flee the
wrath to come? Bring some evidence that there's
been a work of grace in your heart. Then we'll talk about
baptism. Again, John, he declared that
the Messiah was coming just as it was prophesied. Before Christ comes, I'll send
my messenger and he'll declare it. Yet they didn't believe him. And eventually he was killed
for declaring the gospel. And he had the same message,
kind of, who hath believed our reports, what is revealed in
Isaiah 53, the verse 1. Isaiah cried out to God, who
hath believed our report? I'm giving you all the facts,
all the record that he had from the word of... He had the, thus
saith the Lord to him, and all the record of Moses before that. Who hath believed our report?
And then the key verse is, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? You know, John, he was not readily
believed, except those ordained of God to hear him. Jesus stated
an important truth in the gospel, John, in chapter 5, verse 38,
he says, and you have not His Word abiding in you. You have not His Word abiding. It's not a living thing in you.
It's just words. And the evidence of that, he
says, for whom He hath sent, and he's talking about John the
Baptist, he says, him you believe not, Which of the prophets that he
sent did you believe? None. How many of them did you
kill? All of them. All of them. Which of the prophets have you
not stoned or in some other horrendous way killed? So the evidence was,
the result was that believing requires the word abiding in
you, the living gospel abiding in you. What's required to believe?
What a question. And is, in fact, it's the true
question. What is required to believe?
As we mentioned, the facts are all there, recorded. The word
is readily available everywhere. It can be easily read or listened
to. You can jump on the radio or
sermon audio, and there's millions of sermons on there. The evidence has been displayed
and demonstrated. So why is it not really believed? What's required? You know, Jesus,
and we mentioned this a minute ago in John chapter 10, verse
26, you believe not because you're not of my sheep. The facts are recorded. The truth is declared. Had you
believed Moses, you would have believed Me, because he wrote
of Me. People, they actually saw Jesus in the flesh, and yet
mostly they didn't believe. So seeing is not believing. That's
what Jesus said in John 6. He says, I said unto you that
you have also seen Me and believed not. So those... Physical elements are not what
gets you there. The works of God have been displayed
from creation and yet generally not believed. And Jesus said
in John 10, if I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not.
But if I do, though you believe not in Me, believe the works
that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and
I in Him. All the works that He did. All
the healings, all the miracles, the raising of the dead, all
the things that He sent to John in prison. Go and tell John The
deaf hear. The blind see. The lepers are
cleansed. The dead are raised. All the creation. Isn't that
what it says in Romans? The creation declares. the fact
of God, and yet it's not believed. So again, the question remains,
what is required to believe? And well, did Isaiah truly say,
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And then we have to
ask then, well, how is he then revealed? And what is required
for salvation? What is required to believe?
And, you know, this seems to be the, I like, that's why again,
I like that, that quote from Maurice Montgomery in your bulletin
there about the the defective lying about God and Jesus and
salvation, and you're both in there. How has salvation come about? How do you believe? And that
seems to be what plagues religion, because they have not the true
understanding of God. So their religion and their evangelism
is based on their own precept of how they think it ought to
be. And yet the answer is clear,
having been written, having been demonstrated, having been declared,
but again, not believed. The issue of religion is that
there's some You're not dead in trespasses and sin. There's
some part of you that still has ability, that still has life
and is able to believe unaided and to make a decision to accept
Christ. Yet the Word of God clearly states
that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, their foolishness unto him. Well, that's not right. God's not fair if that's the
way he is. And that's my opinion of it.
That's my view of it. And therefore, I'm right and
God is wrong. You believe not because you're
not on my sheep. You know, religion has always been in the business
of putting things backwards. of reversing how things truly
are. Let's go over to Isaiah 29. There's
an interesting passage here in Isaiah 29. Let's drop down to verse 13.
Well, actually, as Mike Richardson
always says, well, you could back up, you could back up, you
could back up. You could go to verse 12 where it says, the book
is delivered to him that has not learned it. Well, isn't that
religion? The book has been delivered to a lot of people that are not
learned. They are not learned from God because the arm of the
Lord has not been revealed to them. The book is delivered to
him that's not learned, saying, read this, I pray thee. And he
said, well, I'm not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, for
as much as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with
their lips do honor me. They say all the religious words,
they say all the Jesus words, all the praised gods, all those
things, and yet their heart is far from me, and their fear toward
me is taught by the precept of men. Therefore, behold, I will
proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous
work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the understanding of the prudent men shall be hid. Woe
unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord,
and their works are in the dark." And they say, who seeth us and
who knoweth us? You know, they say, God is not
doing such a good job in the salvation thing. So we need to
help Him out. Verse 16, surely you're turning
things upside down. And that's what religious folks
do. They turn it upside down. They
put all the impetus on the man to be effectual in his own salvation. All you have to do is say this. If you say these words, then
God is under obligation to act in a certain way. Your turning of things upside
down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay, for shall the
work say of him that made it, he made me not, or shall the
thing frame say of him that framed it, he had no understanding.
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into
a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a
forest?" And then he says, in that day. You know what that
day is? That's the day that the Lord
interacts with His sheep. It's not a specific day in the
future, in the apocalypse or whatever, the crazy end time
stuff. In that day is the day that the
arm of the Lord is revealed to every one of His sheep, whenever
that time is, when it please God to reveal His Son in me."
That's what Paul said. In that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book. For the first time, they will
actually hear the words of the book. And the eyes of the blind
shall see out of obscurity. Unless a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. That's what it says in John 3.
He can't see out of the obscurity unless he be born again. And
out of darkness, out of the darkness of the air of whatever religious
business they're in. In that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out
of obscurity and out of darkness. And the meek also shall increase
their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel." Because that's who makes the difference.
That's who causes you to believe. That's who works the works of
grace in you. So the matter then becomes a
total failure in trusting what God has declared and ordained.
You know, Paul, he wrote of that. There's nothing new under the
sun. Paul wrote of the very issue all through every Gospel. He
wrote, by the Spirit, the nature of man being dead in trespasses
and sin, and finding that the only life
and justification lies in Christ. And then he goes out and he lays
all these things out in such precise order. Here's the problem,
here's the solution. Well, how does God affect that?
Well, God chose by the foolishness of preaching to save his people. And they can't get around that
issue. And thus causing them to truly
understand and appreciate grace. And subsequently, they're stripped
of all boasting. because they come to know that
it was all external things that happened to them that caused
them to believe. And in 1 Corinthians 1 18 says,
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved, it's a power of God. For it's
written, I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of the world? For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God." They think they have
some understanding. He said to them, you think that
I was altogether such a one as yourself. You think that I am
like you. And I'm not. And you know, as Paul wrote through
Romans, And we find this true in other verses and other Gospels. John, he'll take one verse and
make an entire doctrine for God so loved the world. And you know
the rest of that one. In Romans, Chapter 10, we have a couple
of verses that are segregated out of context and used to issue
a formula for salvation, which rests entirely on the actions
of a dead man. It's just unbelievable. We find in Romans 10, verse 9,
that all that's required for salvation is to confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. All
you've got to do is say these magic words. And the second is from Romans
10-13, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. That's on a sign just down the street. Well, if we read the rest of
the chapter, and indeed the entire Word of God, it elaborates on
how that is possible and in fact achieved And so in answer to
that first error, when we go back to verse 9, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe
with thine heart, thou shalt be saved. In verse 10 he says, here's the
order. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation." So you can't confess what you don't know. What you
don't know. So the first thing that has to
happen is, with your heart, you have to believe. And Jeremiah
said, I'll give you, because it's required, I'll give you
a new heart. Because you have to have that. So first, the heart must believe.
And then, confession is made unto her with regard to salvation. And then in regarding to the
second proposition that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved, there in v. 13, the very next verse clearly
defines how that can come about. V. 14 says, well, how then shall
they call on Him in whom they've not believed? It's as clear as
day. You're not going to call on someone
you don't believe. You can say the words, but you
don't really believe. How shall they believe in Him
in whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? So then if we paraphrase that verse, it would seem that
one cannot call on whom They've not believed. And secondarily,
and this takes us back to what was written in what Maurice Montgomery
wrote in your bulletin there about lying about God. How can they believe in Him in
whom they have not heard? What they're hearing is not God.
What they're hearing is not who He is or anything in truth about
Him. God Almighty who saves His people
from their sins, it's mostly not declared. What they do declare is vastly
in error concerning God, and so truly, they have not heard. They've not heard anything about
God. You know, Paul said, I'm free from the blood of all
men because I have not shunned to declare all the counsel of
God. And that includes election and
predestination and Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated,
a remnant according to the election of grace. All those truths where
God has actually saved his people from their sins all through time,
is thrown to the side in favor of freewillism and all you've got
to do is say the magic words. Sign here. And so Paul says, we've learned
that They have to call on God, but
how can they call on Him in whom they've not heard? So what is
required is then someone to actually faithfully declare the gospel
in truth. And that's what it goes on to
say. How shall they call on Him in
whom they've not believed? How shall they believe in Him
whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher, one to declare these truths? And how shall they preach
except they be sent? And then, for the believer, how
It is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. To declare that someone actually
saves his people. Someone actually effects salvation. So what of them who hear but
only with ears of flesh? These religious folks that Jesus
was dealing with in that council, they'd heard Moses. They'd heard Him speak. They'd
heard Jesus Himself speak. They heard John the Baptist.
But they just heard Him with the ears of flesh. So Paul writes in Romans 10-16,
but they've not all obeyed the Gospel for Isaiah saith, Who
hath believed our report? It takes us back to Isaiah 53.1.
Who hath believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? So he says, here's a problem. In our natural state, we have
ears of flesh, eyes of flesh, we can't see spiritual things,
we can't receive them. Verse 17, so then, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." The Word of God causes them to
hear. Isn't that what he told in Luke
chapter 7? The deaf are made to hear. The
eyes of the blind are opened." You go tell John in prison there,
the deaf are made to hear, the blind are made to see, the dead
are raised, all those spiritual things that he did physically
that represented what happens in salvation. He's in v. 18, "'But I say, have
they not heard Verily their sound went into all the earth, and
their words to the ends of the world. But there was mostly no
spiritual hearing. There was mostly no spiritual
seeing. Because Hebrews says that it
must be mixed with faith to be effectual. The gospel was preached
unto us as well as unto them, but it didn't profit them. because it came to them in word
only. That's what it tells us in Thessalonians. It must go out in power and in
the Holy Spirit and not in word only. Many hear the words of
the gospel in word only, but few believe. In verse 19 of Romans
10, he says, but I say, did not Israel know? First Moses says,
I'll provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and
by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold
and says, I was found to them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me. There is none that seeketh the
Lord. But to Israel he saith, all day
long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and
gainsaying people." And yet, you wouldn't come. Isn't
that what Jesus said when He stood there on the Mount of Olives
and He looked down at Jerusalem? He said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks,
but you would not. So what's the answer? What's
required to believe? Well, if you were to go on through
Romans 11, you'd read about a testament of grace bestowed unto the remnant
according to the election of grace. Given ears to hear the
Gospel, given a heart to believe the Gospel, given the ability
to love God and find out that we love Him because He first
loved us, True evangelism then is declaring grace bestowed by
the Sovereign Lord God Almighty who has mercy upon whom He will
have mercy. And leaving the result up to
the Spirit of God. And so those who Jesus is chatting
with there in this council, these religious folks, these elders
of the Jews, the priests, posing these questions to the
king of kings with an unbelieving heart and a desire to kill him.
They're not believers and never will be. Art thou the Christ?
And he said to them, if I tell you, you won't believe. In John 6.64, he says, there
are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that believed not and who should be
trampled. Not that he just has a good crystal
ball, but he knows that they believe not because he has not
caused them to believe. And if I ask you, they said,
aren't thou the Christ? If I ask you, it's the same as
he asked Peter. Well, who do you say that I am? You won't answer me. They're caught in the same perplexing problem that he caught
other leaders in. There's no right answer for them.
If they answer, well, The evidence says that you're the Christ.
Well, if the evidence says that, why don't you believe? And if
you say that I'm not, then you're ignoring all the evidence. So
there's no good answer for the unbelievers there. He says, you
won't answer me and you won't let me go. They can't. God has purposed that they will
not. They've been hardened to the
task required for the redemption of the church. Then said they
all, art thou then the Son of God? And he said to them, you
say that I am. And they said, what need we have
further witnesses? For we have heard with our own
ears." We've heard this from his own mouth, this blasphemy. And yet, when they take him before
Pilate, they said, this man, he's saying we ought not to pay
our taxes. Because that's what the Romans
were interested in. They didn't care anything about
the Jews' religion. Oh yeah, and he said he was king.
We have no king but Caesar. So taxes and power, that's what
the approach to the Romans. We heard what we don't want to
hear and do not and cannot believe without the Spirit of God. in
His action. So, that's where we'll end chapter
22. Be free because the Son of God
makes you free indeed.