followed my instructions and
left your Bibles open at that location that I read to you in
Matthew 22. It is very interesting that this,
everything in this context is also found in the book of Mark,
Mark chapter 12, and also in the book of Luke, Luke chapter
20. Here's the setting. This is our
Lord's last few days that he will live on this earth before
he dies upon the cross of Calvary. And I'll tell you how the week
went. On Monday, he made his triumphant
entry into Jerusalem, even as Zechariah said that he would
do. He would ride into the city on
an ass and there would be great and there was great rejoicing
by the people. They sang hosannas to the son
of David. This one who was prophesied in
the Old Testament had indeed come into Jerusalem. The next
day, Tuesday, he entered into the temple. And he found the
money changers tables. We would call them concession
stands where all kinds of religious things were being sold. And our
Lord entered into the temple and he overturned the money changers
tables and he said, this is my father's house. This is to be
a house of prayer. This is not a place of merchandising. It's not a place for you to make
money. It's where God's to be honored.
It's where God's to be glorified. That was Tuesday. This portion of scripture that
I read to you happened on Wednesday. So it's the middle of the week.
And just for your kind of information, The next day, Thursday, was the
day of preparation for the Passover. And our Lord told His disciples,
go and find somewhere a house where we will observe the Passover. And He said, you'll find, you'll
see somebody and they will take care of all the provisions for
us to partake of the Passover. That night, of course, our Savior
did partake of the Passover with his disciples, and then that
Passover celebration kind of led into the institution of the
Lord's Supper. And then, of course, our Lord
prayed with his disciples. He prayed to the Father. That's
recorded in John chapter 17. And then late in the night, They began to hunt him, and they
found him. And then early Friday morning,
he was further tried. And then Friday afternoon, our
Lord Jesus died for the sins of his people. So understand
the setting. This is right toward the end
of his life. And here's what happened. And
I'll get you to back up just a little bit into this chapter.
The representatives of the Pharisees, and the Pharisees had nothing
good to say about our Savior at all. And the Pharisees had
made friends with the Herodians. The Herodians were sympathetic. They were Jews, but they were
sympathetic with the Herodian rulers. They liked Rome, and
they liked the rulers that Rome set over them. And so as you
back up verse 15 of Matthew 22, it says, Then went the Pharisees
and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. They sent out unto him their
disciples with the Herodians. Luke chapter 20 calls these men
spies. And what they're trying to do,
here's their goal, is to catch our Lord in saying something
in opposition to the law of Moses, something that they could accuse
Him of, of breaking some law or something like that, that
they could accuse Him of that before the people and before
the Sanhedrin. And of course, our Lord dealt
with them. The issue that they raised was
a political issue. And the political issue amounted
to this, shall we pay taxes to Caesar? And of course, our Lord
Jesus said, yeah, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's
and to God the things that are God's. And so these men, the
friends, the disciples of the Pharisees as well as the Herodians,
they had been outsmarted by our Lord Jesus. Here's how foolish
the Pharisees were. They thought that they could
match wits with the one who is the very wisdom of God and He
is the power of God. They really had no idea who they
were dealing with. So after he confounded these
men, the spies went running back to the Pharisees. And then there
came to him the Sadducees. It says in verse 23, The same
day came to him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection,
and they ask him about the resurrection. And they had concocted this crazy
story And they said, look at verse 24. It said, Master Moses
said, if a man die having no children, his brother shall marry
his wife, that is the widow of his brother, and raise up seed
unto his brother. Now, there were with us seven
brothers. And the first, when he had married
a wife, deceased. He died, and having no issue,
left his wife unto his brother. Likewise, the second also, and
the third also, all the way to the seventh, and last of all,
the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection,
whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had been
married to her. Now remember, the Sadducees,
there are two things they did not believe in, and this was
quite different from the Pharisees. They did not believe in the resurrection. And they did not believe in the
reality of angels. But yet they had mentioned in
the resurrection, whose wife shall this woman be married to? And Jesus answered them in verse
29, ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, that was their problem,
nor the power of God. If they had known the scriptures,
they would have recognized him as being the true Messiah, the
savior of sinners. If they had believed the Scriptures,
they would see in the Old Testament Scriptures, which is all the
Scriptures that they had, they would see all the prophecies
regarding the Son of God who was coming, Emmanuel, the Son
who was given, the Child who was born, He was coming to save
His people from their sins. They would have recognized Him
if they had truly known the Scriptures by the revelation of the Holy
Spirit of God. So he answered them in verse
30, for in the resurrection there is no marriage. There's no giving
in marriage. But as the angels of God in heaven,
so kind of in one fell swoop, he takes care of the issue of
their denial of the resurrection and their denial of the angels.
He says in verse 31, but as touching the resurrection of the dead,
have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living. Our Lord said this back in Exodus,
the third chapter. And Abraham was then dead, and
Isaac was then dead, and Jacob was then dead. And the Lord did
not say, I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but that I
am. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, for they still lived. Death doesn't end it. It ends
your physical existence here, but it doesn't end the existence
of your soul, and your soul is the real you. When we die, our
soul exits this body and goes back to God who gave it. And
those who are found in Christ Jesus, washed in his blood, robed
in his righteousness, having on the garments of salvation,
are welcomed into the everlasting kingdom of our God. And those
who die hopeless and godless and Christless, their souls go
back to God also, and then God sends them into torment. And the scripture says here in
verse 33, the multitude they heard this, they were astonished
at his doctrine. But when the Pharisees heard
that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered
together, and then one of them, which was a lawyer, Ask him a
question, tempting him and saying, Master, which is the great commandment
in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets. So he took care of answering
the Pharisees. So here's been three great questions
directed at the Savior. And the goal or the motive with
every question was to trip him up, to entangle him in his words. And then in verse 41, the tables
are turned. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? That's
the title of the message. Whose son is he? So he's going
back into the Old Testament, said, What think ye of Christ?
What think ye of the Messiah? And they said, He's the son of
David. That's correct. He saith unto
them, Well, how then doth David in spirit call him Lord? In Psalm 110 verse 1. Saying,
The Lord said unto my Lord, Set thou on my right hand, till I
make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? How can Messiah, how can the
Christ be at the same time, at the same time, the Lord over
David and the son of David? And of course, what that is speaking
of is the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and his true humanity. How can he be both? We know He
must be both in order to save us. He must be God over all,
blessed forever. He must be God to deal with God
one-on-one, because we can't do that. God's a consuming fire. There's no way that we can deal
with God in and of ourselves. He is the eternal God. Thankfully,
He is God. He knows what God demands. He
knows what God's law required. The soul that sinneth shall die.
He knew every demand of God because He was and is God. But being pure God, God is spirit,
He could not atone for our sins as a spirit. So he had to robe
his spirit. He had to robe himself. He had
to robe or clothe himself in fleshly garments, in a body,
joining himself, joining this glorious one on the human flesh
from which there will never be a divorce. There will never be
a separation of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His
true humanity. As the God-man, He came, born
of a virgin, Jesus the Savior, God over all. And as the God-man,
He lived His life in perfect obedience to every statute of
God's law. And by that perfect life, He
proved Himself to be qualified to be the savior of sinners.
No one less than God could save us. No one less than man could
suffer, bleed and die for us. Thus God came down. That's why
we read in 1 Timothy 3, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And here our Lord Jesus asked
these questioners, These who had awful motives. He said, you've asked me a question,
I got a question for you. He said, what think ye of Christ?
Whose son is he? He's the son of God, isn't he?
He said he was the son of God. Others testified the fact that
he was the son of God. And he's the son of man. He's
one like unto us, but without sin. This is the question I put
to you this morning, to all of you, to myself, to those of you
who are watching, to those who are watching later on or listening
later on, I put this question to you, what think ye of Christ? Because your thoughts, your opinion,
of who Jesus Christ is, is mighty important. Who is he to you? Who is he to me? See, I don't ask you what think
you of me, because that doesn't much matter. And I don't ask you, what do
you think of this church? What think ye of this church?
What think ye of 13th Street Baptist Church? I don't ask you,
what think ye of Calvinism or Arminianism? I ask you, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? What is his identity? And I'll
tell you this, We must have a true and accurate opinion of him based
on the word of God. You see, what we know about Jesus
Christ has to come from the word of
God. I'm not asking you to consult
some theology books or religious books that you'd find in a bookstore. As you search through the Scriptures,
and I hope that you do that, you remember Christ said, search
the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life,
and these are they which testify of Me. As you search through
the Scriptures, what is your conclusion about this unique,
one-of-a-kind individual? What conclusion have you drawn
as you look through the scriptures? Is he to you, do you understand
him to be David's Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings?
The one who was crowned with lordship based upon his faithfulness
to do the work of salvation that God assigned him to do in the
covenant of grace. Do you see Him to be the King,
the Governor of the nations? The one to whom God has entrusted
all power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the
Father has given Him? Do you see Him to be that? Do
you see Him to be God? Do you see Him to be the Creator,
the Possessor of all things? Do you see Him to be the one
who works all things after the counsel of His own will? You
say, where do you get all that from, Jim? The Bible. The Bible. And do you see Him to be the
true man? Jesus of Nazareth? Do you see
Him to be born of a virgin? A young lady who had known no
man? Do you see that He was born of
the incorruptible seed of the Holy Spirit? He's the Son of
God. He's the Son of Man. He's born
of the seed of a woman, Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. As you read through the Old Testament
Scriptures, and thankfully we have the New Testament Scriptures
as well, if you're honest with the Word of God and if the Spirit
of God opens your eyes, opens your mind, opens your heart,
you'll see He's God, He's the Sovereign, He's the Lord, He's
the Lord's faithful servant. And upon this one, the Lord Jesus
Christ rests the full responsibility for the salvation of sinners. I see him to be that. Do you? That's what I think of him. I think of him, my opinion of
him is this. He's God over all. and he's the
man in Christ Jesus. I say again, we must have a true
doctrinal answer to this question taken from the word of God. Who
is Jesus Christ? This time of year, a lot of people
are talking about him. They do that at Christmas. We work. I think we were watching
the lighting of a Christmas tree. That one up there in New York
City. And immediately after they hit
the lights of the Christmas tree, a chorus broke in and started
singing, joy to the world, the Lord is come. I told Nancy, I
said, Isaac Watts could never have imagined that his song would
be sung by thousands upon thousands, yes, millions of people this
time of year. Joy to the world, the Lord has
come. That's who he is. See, this is
what the issue is right here. Who is Jesus Christ? What think
you of him? He's the Lord. The thief on the
cross who believed Him said, Lord, remember me. He recognizes
Lordship. After our Lord's resurrection,
Thomas finally saw Him and he fell down before Him and he said,
my Lord and my God and my Lord. He recognizes Lordship. Saul
of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus to persecute and arrest anybody
who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Savior stopped
him on the road and unhorsed him. I hope you've been unhorsed.
Hope he's knocked you to the ground as it were. And Saul of Tarsus in his blindness,
In His blindness, the Lord, that bright Shekinah glory of the
Son of God blinded Him. He said, Who art thou, Lord? That's what He said. Is He Lord
to you? Do you see He's Lord over everything?
He's Lord over creation because He's the Creator. That's who
He is. He governs all things because
He's the one who fulfills the eternal purpose of God about
every single thing. He's Lord, He's Lord. The scripture says in Romans
14, to this end, He both died and revived, that He might be
Lord in order that He'd be Lord of the dead and the living. You
say, well, I don't believe on Him. That may be a fact, but
He's still your Lord. That cuckoo preacher from Texas,
he says, won't you make Jesus your Lord? And, you know, we
just say, hey, God beat you to that. He's already the Lord. You can't make Him anything. You can't make Him to be who
He already is. But thankfully, because He's
the Lord, He can make you to be what you are not now. He can
make you to be a believer. He can make you bow at His sovereign
throne of majesty. Who is Jesus Christ? They sing
songs about Him this time of year. They have what you call
cantatas. have singing Christmas tree and
sing about him. And don't get me wrong, I like
the Christmas songs that are coming out of the scriptures.
I love Handel's Messiah. Some of y'all have sung probably
in choirs or choruses and you sang Handel's Messiah. Nancy
and I did in college. We even sang the Messiah when
I was choir director in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Gave Tim James
a solo, in fact, from the Messiah, from Handel's Messiah. It's a
beautiful piece of work, and it's all scripture. And by the
way, when you hear the Hallelujah chorus being sung, you stand
up, because that's the tradition there. There's no charge for
that. Just do that, that's the way it's supposed to be. I tell
you what, we honor Him. We honor Him, we glorify Him. People write about Him, talk
about Him, sing about Him. He's the eternal God. He said,
I and my Father are one. One in power, one in essence,
one in will, one in authority. We're one. There are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
These three are one. He's God, I tell you. To deny
His Godhead, to deny His deity, is to shut yourself out from
any possibility of salvation. You can't be saved if you deny
who He is. And He's the perfect man. He did everything God instructed
him to do. We have never really done anything
fully for the will of God and the glory of God. That's an impossibility. We're sinners. But he wasn't. He was the sinner's representative. And he honored God in everything
he did. Something we can't do. He was the perfect man. And when
he reached the age of about 33 or 34, he laid down his life
to save his sheep. He came to save his people from
their sins, Matthew 1.21. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
son, came as the sinner's substitute. He took my place. He died my
death. He bore the wrath of God for
me. He delivered me from the curse
of the law. I'm saved because of who he is
and what he did. Where is he now? Exalted to the
right hand of God. Think of it. The God-man, David's
Lord and David's son. He's now seated at the right
hand of God. And everything, everything accomplishes
his will. And I'll tell you this. He's
not in your hands for you to do with Him as you please. Now you can just forget that. You're in His hands. And He can do with you as He
pleases. And He won't give an account
to anybody as to why He did what He did with you. He answers to
nobody. And that ought to set us to being
beggars before the king. Lord, if you will, that's what
that poor leper, that's what he cried. The Lord had preached
his great sermon on the mountain. And there was one man waiting
on him. He needed him. And when the Savior
came down from the mountain, he saw that poor leper. He said, Lord, if you will, if
you will, you can make me clean. You can
make me whole. You see, the Lord Jesus, he's
your king. He's your sovereign. He can do
with you whatever he pleases. Doesn't the Bible often talk
about the potter and the clay? Well, you've been hiding under
a rock and you haven't read that before? You never heard that
before? He's the potter, you're the clay. He can mold you into
whatever kind of vessel he chooses to mold you into. Oh, God mold
me into a vessel of mercy. Give me a beggar's attitude that I would come before you
and say, Lord, I'm nothing. You're everything, but you're
sure the Savior I need. And if you come before him like
that, then you're thinking rightly of him. So here's the question of the
day. What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Jim, he's David's Lord. That
means he's your Lord. And he's David's son. He's the
man of Christ Jesus. That's good news. That's good
news for us sinners. Let's sing a closing psalm. Get your psalm books out. Let's sing Near the Cross, 351. That's how He saved us, by His
work upon the cross of Calvary, near the cross. Sing verses 1
and 2.