Good morning. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 442. 442. Praise him, praise him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing o'er earth his wonderful
love proclaim. Hail him, hail him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to his
holy name. ? High shepherd, Jesus will guard
his children ? In his arms he carries them all day long ? Praise
him, praise him ? Tell of his excellent greatness ? Praise
him, praise him ? Ever in joyful song Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For other sins He suffered and
bled and died. Be our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. His praises, Jesus who bore our
sorrows, love unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ? Praise Him, praise Him ? Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer ? Heavenly portals, labyrinthos and a spring
? Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever ? Crown Him, crown Him,
prophet and priest Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
175. 175 Standing on the promises of Christ
my King Through eternal ages let his praises ring Glory in
the highest I will shout and sing Standing on the promises
of God Standing, standing Standing on the promises of God my Savior I'm standing on the promises
of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail. When the howling storms of doubt
and fear assail, by the living word of God I shall prevail. Standing on the promises of God,
I'm a Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord Led to Him eternally by love's strong cord Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword Standing on the promises of God
my Savior. Standing on the promises of God
my Savior. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall Listening every moment to the Spirit's call Resting in
my Savior as my all in all Standing on the promises of God Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises Mark chapter 11, and I'm going to go on into chapter
12 too in my reading this morning and hopefully by God's mercy
and grace be able to preach from it, say some things about it.
Verse 27, Mark 11, 27. And they come again to Jerusalem,
and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the
chief priests and the scribes and the elders, and say unto
him, By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave
us thee this authority to do these things? Our Lord answered
and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and
answer me, and I'll tell you by what authority I do these
things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? Answer me.' And they reasoned
with him, saying, it said, If we shall say from heaven, he
will say, Then why did you not believe him? And if we shall
say of men, they feared the people, for all counted John that he
was a prophet indeed. And they answered and said unto
Jesus, We cannot tell. And the Lord answering saith
unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these
things. And he began to speak unto them
by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard,
and set a hedge about it, and digged a place for the wine vat,
built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into
a far country. At the season he sent to the
husbandmen a servant that he might receive from the husbandmen
of the fruit of the vineyard. and they caught him, and beat
him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent unto them another
servant, and they cast stones, and wounded him in the head,
and sent him away shamefully handled. And again he sent another,
and they killed him, many others beating some, and killing some.
Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him
last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But these
husbands said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us
kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took
him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What
shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and
destroy the husbandmen and give the vineyard unto others. Have
you not read this scripture? The stone which the builders
rejected has become the head of the corner. This was the Lord's
doing and is marvelous in our eyes. And they sought to lay
hold on him, but feared the people, for they knew that he had spoken
this parable against them. And they left him and went their
way. Our blessed, blessed God, sovereign,
eternal, immutable God of heaven and earth. The creator of this
universe, with your word, by your word, he spake and it was
done. You commanded and it stood fast.
And not only did you create this world by your word, but now you
uphold it by the word of your power. And Lord, someday soon,
You'll fold this world up like a man folds up an old useless
garment and throws it away. And Lord, you'll make a new heaven
and a new earth where everyone who dwells there is righteous. It's a world of righteousness,
a world where Christ is honored and worshiped and loved and adored,
bowed to and submitted to. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful
future we have. Oh, Lord, to come someday and
spend eternity with you, basking in your glory, basking in your
warmth, basking in your love and compassion, your mercy and
grace. Lord, we bask in it here. We
delight in it here. We enjoy it here. And we enjoy
your presence. We enjoy the worship. We enjoy
your word. We enjoy the gospel. We enjoy
our fellowship. And Lord, we bless you for it
and thank you for all of it. Lord, we would not have a life,
would not have the enjoyment, not have the peace, and not have
the joy without you. So Lord, blessed be your holy
name. And Father, we pray that you'd meet with us here today,
that you'd come down among us, cause the gospel to run well.
And our blessed Savior, we pray for those among us whose bodies
are weak, whose bodies are frail. And Lord, we pray for our brothers
and sisters in Christ, our preacher brethren, and pray especially
for our families, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, Children
and grandchildren. Lord, if you don't do something for
them and go where they are, they won't come where you are. So
we ask you to go where they are. And Lord, open their hearts,
open their understanding, and do for them what only you could
possibly do in this world. Blessed be your holy name. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand together and
sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Jesus our priest forever lives
to plead for us Jesus our King forever gives
the blessings of His love, the blessings of His love. Thou hast redeemed our souls
with blood, ? Has laid us kings and priests
to God ? ? Then we shall reign with Thee ? ? And we shall reign
with Thee ? ? The whole creation joins in one ? ? To bless the
Holy Name ? of Him who sits upon the throne, and to adore the
Lamb, and to adore the Lamb. He breaks the power of Manic
Sea, He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean, His blood avails for me. His blood avails for me. I hope everybody can make it over
to the house next Saturday. We're going to have a pig picking
and a big feast, we always do. Always do, always have a wonderful,
wonderful time. I want to deal with these verses
I read. You remember last week we talked
about forgiveness, faith, forgiveness, and prayer. And this time we're
going to talk about by what authority, by what authority. And you know, and it says there
in verse 27, they come again to Jerusalem. The last time he
was in Jerusalem, you look down there in verse 19 of chapter
11, and this was after he had went into the temple and scourged
it, overthrew the tables, run out all the people, and overturned
the money changers, and called, you know, you've turned my house
into a den of thieves. And then it says in verse 19,
when evening had come, he went out of the city, and in the morning,
Got up the next day. This is Tuesday. He's going to
be apprehended on Thursday night in the Garden of Gethsemane.
So he's got two and a half days before he's apprehended. And
so he comes again into the temple. This is the next day. And they
come again into the temple. And as he was walking in the
temple, there came to him the chief priests, scribes, and elders,
and said unto him, But what authority would you get authority? Do you
do what you do? And who gave it to you? Who gave
it to you? You know, they had already sought
to destroy him. That's what they said there in
verse 18 of chapter 11. They sought how they might destroy
him. But our Lord goes on with His
ministry, goes on preaching, goes on doing what He does, undisturbed,
unperturbed, not bothered by what these folks do. He's not
bothered by what they do. No, He's not. Now, there's three
different stories of this, Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. Luke's account goes into a little
bit more detail. In Luke chapter 20 and verse
1 it says that He was in the temple and He taught the people.
He taught the people. And it says He preached the Gospel
to them. Now Our Lord Jesus Christ, He's
preaching the Gospel at the same time it said over in Luke when
He went into this temple. He was standing there preaching
the Gospel. You know Our Lord Jesus Christ
not only purchased our salvation from us, but he also come and
published our salvation. He come and published the gospel.
And I tell you what, he come publishing peace, come braiding
good tidings unto his people by God reigneth. And you know,
when he published the gospel, it was his own gospel. You know,
our Lord Jesus Christ, when He preached, He preached Himself. You go to Luke chapter 24, and
the scripture says that He preached unto them, said, MUST OUGHT NOT
CHRIST TO HAVE SUFFERED ALL OF THESE THINGS, TO ENTER INTO HIS
GLORY. AND HE STARTED AT MOSES, THE
PSALMS, AND THE PROPHETS, AND PREACHED UNTO THEM HIMSELF, PREACHED
UNTO THEM HIMSELF. CHRIST PREACHED HIMSELF. And
I tell you what, he preached the gospel. And you know who
he preached the gospel to reach? He said, all that the Father
gives me. He preached the gospel to those that were given to him
by the grace of God, given to him by an eternal covenant of
grace. He said, all that the Father gives me. If Christ hadn't had a people
given to him, nobody would be saved. Oh, no! I tell you what, you know, He
said, All that the Father gives Me, guess what they're going
to do? They're going to come to Me! They're going to come
to Me! Oh, and everyone that hath heard
of the Father, learned of the Father, He comes to ME! He comes
to me. That's where people come. We're
coming to Christ, not to a doctrine, not to church membership. Down
here they had a sign that said, you know, like the leaves changes,
we can change too. I tell you, you can't do it.
A leopard can't change his spots and an Ethiopian can't change
his color. And then our Lord Jesus Christ
said also, I preach to God, I'm on the trail of my sheep. My
sheep hear my voice. My sheep follow me. I lay down
my life for the sheep, not ever Tom, Dick, and Harry. He laid
down his life for a particular, particular people. And when our
Lord prayed in John 17, you know who He prayed for? He said, I
pray not for the world. I'm not praying for the world
out here. I'm not prayin' for everybody in the world. I'm not
prayin' for everybody to be saved. I'm not prayin' to give everybody
a chance. I'm not prayin' that God might
give everybody an opportunity. I'm not prayin' for the world.
I'm prayin' for them that you gave me out of the world. They
were yours and you gave them to me. And here's another thing
that our Lord priest, bless his name, he said, you give me power
over all flesh. And that's what we said here
today, flesh. Give power over all flesh that
he should give eternal life to who? As many as thou hast given
him. That's the gospel. And that's
what our Lord preached. And oh my. And he said the poor
would have the gospel preached to them. And oh my, how gracious. How gracious, how condescending
for our Lord Jesus Christ to come down and to accommodate
Himself to our minds, to our understanding, and open our understanding. Here's the one who had all power,
who had all wisdom, who had all the glory. He is eternal as His
Father, is immutable as His Father, and is old as His Father. And
yet he was the ancient of days and then he was born an infant.
Oh, yeah. And he taught the people and
he preached the gospel. That's what he did in Luke chapter
1. Then look what happens down here. And he is walking in the
temple. He's walking in the temple there
in verse 20. He's walking. He's not running anybody off
this time. He's not being mean to people this time. He's not
rudely mistreating people, not whipping them with whips. But
he was interrupted. He was interrupted walking in
the temple. And look what happens to him.
There come upon him the chief priest. Everybody wants to be
chief. Everybody likes them big titles.
They like titles. Men like titles. Oh boy, yeah,
they like titles. They like reverend. They like
doctor. And they, oh, the chief priest,
there's more than one of them, it says chief priest. There was
three types of people came to our Lord right here. And then
there were the scribes, that's the fellas that writes the Bible,
you know, that interpreted the Bible and wrote down the Bible.
And then all the elders. So there was a whole bunch of
these fellas gathered around our Lord Jesus Christ while he
is walking, and they stopped him. And they interrupted him
while he's walking through this. And over there in Luke, it says
they came upon him. They thought to surprise him.
They thought they would intimidate him. They thought that they would
make him be very cautious. I thought they'd gonna frighten
him, thought they're gonna upset him. Oh, our Lord bids wrath to praise
him. And then, oh my, they asked this
question. YOU TELL US, TELL US THESE THINGS. BY WHAT AUTHORITY
DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO? AND WHAT THINGS IS HE TALKING
ABOUT? THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT THE WAY HE TREATED THEM IN THE
TEMPLE, THE WAY HE RAISED THE DEAD, THE WAY HE SENT REPUBLICANS
AND SINNERS AND ATE WITH THEM. WHERE DID YOU GET THIS AUTHORITY?
WHERE DID YOU GET THIS AUTHORITY? AND YOU KNOW, I'LL TELL YOU ONE
THING THEY NOTE, He said, we didn't give it to you. That's
what they're saying. We didn't give you this authority.
And we run this place. We're the main piston rods around
here. And ain't nobody does nothing
without us saying so. We didn't give you this authority.
We give everybody else authority. Ain't nobody makes a move without
us. You know, we're the chief. We're the scribes. We're the
big shots. We're the elders. No, we didn't give it to you.
Oh my. And then who gave you this authority
to do what you do? Well, I'll tell you what. You
know who gave him this authority? Him. God gave all things into
his hands. Everything into his hands. He
said, my father loves the son that had given all things into
his hands. God sealed him. And I tell you,
they were willfully, willfully ignorant and blind and unbelieving. You know, it's obvious. It's
obvious His words revealed His authority. The reason they didn't
destroy because He spake with authority. They were astonished
at our Lord's doctrine. Oh, they were willfully ignorant. His words revealed His authority
and His works revealed His authority. Who else could raise the dead?
Who else can open eyes of the blind? Who else can clean the
leper? Who else could do that? And oh my, and his miracles revealed
his authority. And they said, boy, I tell you
what, I want you fellas, I want you fellas to go and lay hands
on him and bring him to us one day. They said, go get him and
bring him. And they went over there to get him. A bunch of
them went over there to get him. They stood around outside and they
was getting ready to get him. And he started preaching. He
started preaching. And they went back and said,
where's he at? Why didn't you bring him? I said,
boy, he started preaching. And he started talking. And I
never heard anybody speak like he did. I got so caught up in what he
is saying, I couldn't do anything else. And ain't that the way
it is? Once you hear his voice, what are you gonna do? What are
you gonna do? Oh, and I'll tell you something
else. Men still question our Lord's authority. Men still question
his authority. Still, men still question his
power. Men still question his right. Oh my, oh, it's unjust for him
to choose some and pass by others. It's unjust for him to not give
everybody an opportunity, everybody a chance. Oh my, they still question
his authority and his rights and his power, but oh my, that
just proves them to be fools. Now he asked them, he said, now
look what he said in verse 29. And Jesus our Lord answered them
and I said, I'll ask you just one question. They asked him too, would you
get this authority and who gave it to you? He said, I'm just
going to ask you one. And if you tell me, answer me,
I'll tell you by what authority I do these things. And he asked
them the baptism of John. You know, John came baptizing
in the wilderness. Did it come from heaven or of
men? He said did John's ministry get
his heaven from his authority and his right to baptize from
heaven or did men give it to him? Now listen, this is what
I think that happened. Now they had to reason things
out. So I think they walked off here
and got in a little huddle, you know, got in a little conversation.
Now listen, this is what's going to happen. He said, if we say
from heaven, you know what he's going to say? He's going to say,
why didn't you believe John then? And if we say of men, men are
going to stone us because they believed he was a prophet. So
what in the world are we gonna, we come to get him and he's him,
he's him, what are we gonna answer him now? What in the world are
we gonna say? Well, they're gonna do like every religion does.
They're gonna lie. They're gonna tell a lie. That's
what they're gonna do, gonna tell a lie. And then he says,
in verse 32, If we say of men they feared the people, for all
counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. And our Lord answered
and said unto them, We cannot tell." Now they just told a lie. They just told an out and out
lie. They knew exactly who John the Baptist was. They knew exactly
why he came. And I tell you, neither I'm gonna
tell you by what authority I do these things. Oh my, I tell you
what, our Lord Jesus Christ, John, you know, John's ministry,
there's only two people in the Old Testament that was told that
was gonna come in the days of Christ. There
would be one prophet that would come before our Lord Jesus Christ. And he was the one that came
to be a forerunner for Christ. He come to prepare the way of
the Lord. He come to, that John the Baptist would identify Christ
and would point him out. And that's exactly what it did.
He was prophesied and promised to come other than Christ Himself. He came to WITNESS of Christ. He came to POINT to Christ, to
PREPARE the WAY of Christ. There's one coming AFTER me,
is how He said it. There's one coming AFTER me.
I'm not worthy to get down and lose the latching of His shoes. And so that was John's message.
And oh my! That's why they said, oh my,
they just told an out and outright. They could have told, but they
could have said, he's naturally from heaven, but they said what
they really believed because they said if we tell the truth,
we'll find ourselves be the ones that condemned. We'll find ourselves
condemned. And I'll tell you something,
if you won't be truthful about John's ministry, he said, I'm
only going to tell you by what authority I do. And then he started
a parable. Then he started a parable against
them. And I want you to notice something about this parable.
And he began to speak unto them, to these chief priests, these
scribes, and these elders, and that's who he's talking to. And
they're talking about authority. And he said, a certain man, a
certain man. Now we know this is God Almighty
he's talking about here. He planted a vineyard. I want
you to notice that this certain man done everything that needed
to be done. Nobody helped him. He planted
a vineyard, put a fence around it, digged a place for the wine
fat, and that's where the grapes would tread the grapes and the
wine fat, and it'd run downhill in a little ditch into that.
and then the wine fat. Then he built a tower for everybody
to watch so that nobody wouldn't come in there and start stealing
things from them. And he said, I'm going to rent
it out. I'm going to rent it out. I'm going to lease it to
these husbandmen. And then he went into a far country.
And here comes the time. These were just paid tenants.
They were farmers. They were laborers. They were
hired. He let this place out. He rented
this place to these people. And oh, and when it come time
after a little while, it was come time for him to go get his
part of his rent, to get what was owed to him from these men
that he hired and let this vineyard out to. He sent somebody and
said, Now, give me my part, whatever it is. They had already had an
agreement that I get this much, you get that much. And at the
season he sent this husband, a servant that he might receive
from the husband of the fruit of the vineyard. Give me my part. He didn't want all of it, he
just gave me my part. And they caught him and beat
him. Beat him. These are some pretty
rotten men. And they beat him and sent him
away empty, didn't give him anything. They didn't give him what, you
know, that's the way men is. They're not going to give God
the glory. They're not going to attribute to God his power.
They're not going to attribute to God his rights. And look what
else he goes on to say. And it said in verse four, and
he sent unto them another servant, another servant, another servant. And you notice they're his servants.
They're his servants. And then look what it says. And
they sent another servant and what they do, they stone him.
They stone him and they cast stones and wounded him in the
head and sent him away shamefully. Now you keep Luke chapter 12
here and look over and I want you to see in Acts 7, look over
in Acts chapter 7, in Acts chapter 7 verse 50, excuse me 51, Acts chapter 7
verse 51. You know it was this man's vineyard,
it was the Lord's vineyard, He planted it and He had the right
to expect fruit from it. And oh, look what it said here.
This is Peter preaching on the, Stephen preaching, and they end
up killing him at the end of this story here. They killed
Stephen. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears, you're filthy in your heart and you're filthy
in your ears. YOU DO ALWAYS RESIST THE HOLY
COAST, AS YOUR FATHERS DID, SO DO YOU. WHICH OF THE PROPHETS
HAVE NOT YOUR FATHERS PERSECUTED, AND THEY HAVE NOT SLAIN THEM
WHICH SHOWED BEFORE OF THE COMING OF THE JOSUAN, WHOM HAVE HE HAD
NOW BEEN THE BETRAYERS AND MURDERERS? You remember they wanted to stone
Moses. They ended up killing Isaiah,
they hated all the prophets. Jeremiah, they throwed him in
a ditch, throwed him in a dungeon. They hated God's message. They
took God's Word to them one time, and you know what, when they
gave them God's Word, you know what the king did? Now, this
is the king that did this. He got out his knife and went
to cutting. I don't like that, I don't like
that, I don't like that. He wouldn't cut that. He cut
that Word all to pieces. Because he didn't like what God
had to say. Didn't like what God had to say.
Cut it, cut it, cut it. And that's what they done. And
then, oh my. And he sent another, in verse
5, he sent another and many others, beating some and killing some.
They beat some and kill some. And oh my. He said, I'll tell
you what I'll do. You know, our Lord, God, instead
of going there and absolutely destroying them at that time,
He said, Oh, He could open His heart, He could have done a lot
of things. And look what He said in verse 6, Having yet therefore
one son, one son, and look, not only one son, His
well-beloved son. He said, I'll send him. I'll send the son of my love.
I'll send my son that was daily my delight, that I rejoiced in
him. Oh, my son, my son. And oh, my
beloved son, my well-beloved son. Oh, my. He sent him also
unto them. And this is what he said. They'll
reverence my Son. They'll show deference to Him.
They'll reverence Him. They'll delight in Him. They'll
show some worship to Him. Surely, surely, I'll send my,
I ain't got nobody else. I'll send my well-beloved Son. And He'll send Him last unto
them, Sam. They'll reverence Him. They'll
reverence Him. They'll love him. They'll delight
in him. They say, oh, this is him. This is him. But, oh, my. Now, listen to this now. But
these husbandmen said among themselves. Now, this is, in the court of
law today, this would be first degree murder. This is prededicated
murder. They said this is heir. This
is the one that the father, this is the one that's gonna inherit
this whole vineyard and everything that's in it and all the fruit
that's in it. He's there, he's gonna inherit every bit of it.
Oh my. And they get, I tell you what,
come, come. Let's kill him. Let's kill him. That's what we're
going to do. They premeditated this. They
plotted this. And that's what they said. They
sought to destroy him. And they said, come, let us kill
him. And look what they said. Then
this whole shoot match will be ours. It'll be ours. It'll belong
to us. Nobody will be able to come.
But here's one thing they forgot. What about the father? What about
the one who made it? What about the one who owned
it? They forgot that there's somebody
else. They forgot this is my beloved son. Oh my, I tell you. So go with me in Acts 13. You
keep Mark 12 here. Look in Acts 13 with me. I'll
show you something else over here about these people. Oh my. You know, and I know this as
well as I know my name. I may forget my name, but I do
know this right now. Acts 13, verse 46. You know, if our Lord came to
this world again today, if he came into this world like he
came the first time, you know what reception he'd get? Exactly
the way he did the first time he came. Man ain't changed. HE HAD JUST A HANDFUL THAT WORSHIPED
HIM, AND HE'S GOT A HANDFUL THAT WORSHIPS HIM NOW. YOU COMPARE
ALL THE PEOPLE THAT KNOW CHRIST AND WORSHIP CHRIST, COMPARE THAT
TO THE WORLD, AND THE RELIGIOUS WORLD, AND ALL THAT'S GOING ON
IN THIS WORLD, AND I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, IT'S EXACTLY LIKE IT
WAS IN THE DAY OF NOAH, THERE'S ONLY EIGHT. COMPARED TO THE REST
OF THE WORLD THERE'S ONLY EIGHT. BUT OH MY, LOOK WHAT PAUL SAID
HERE, in Acts 13, 46. Then Paul and Barnabas, they
was blaspheming Paul and contradicting Paul and the Jews were, oh, they
hated the gospel. They hated those that preached
it. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold. They grew real bold and
said, it was necessary that the word of God should first have
been spoken to you But seeing you, put it from you. You don't want this word. You don't want what God has to
say. You put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life. We're gonna turn to the Gentiles.
For so hath the Lord commended us, saying, I've set thee, I've
set Christ to be a light of the Gentiles, and that thou shouldest
be for salvation to the ends of the earth. Now back over here
in chapter 12, Mark. Oh my, they took him, killed
him. They took him and killed him
and cast him out of the vineyard. Cast him out of the vineyard.
And oh my, and it says, what therefore shall the Lord of the
vineyard do? What in the world you think they
gonna do? What do you think he'll do to
these people? What do you think he'll do? Huh? He said he's gonna come. And he's gonna destroy. They
wanna destroy him, said he gonna destroy them. And you know what
he's gonna do? He gonna give that vineyard to
somebody else. And you know who he gave the
vineyard to? Us. And guess what he does the scripture
says that he If there's any fruit comes from us, he's the one calls
us to bear We can't bear fruit up, you know Without me you can
do nothing. He said I've chosen you that
you should bear fruit You should do it and he said, you know,
and that's if we have any fruit He's the one that's got to give
it to us and look what he says and this is what our master said.
I He says, now, did you not read in the Bible? Did you not read
in the scriptures? The stone, and this is out of
Psalm 18, 118, the stone which the builders rejected, and that's
what they call these, you fellas wanna build something. He said,
but the stone which the builders rejected, God said, he's made
it the head of the corner. The whole building's gonna come
off this one corner. And then look what he says. And
this was the Lord's doing. God Almighty done this. The Lord
done this. The Lord done all this wonderful
work. And it's marvelous, absolutely marvelous in our eyes. We delighted
what God's done for us in Christ. And look what it says now. And
they sought to lay hold on him. Oh, they said, how in the world
are we gonna get him? but they feared the people. And listen
to this, they knew, they knew that he had spoken the parable
against them. He's talking about us. He's talking
about us. And they left him, and I tell
you what, they never was with him, but they left him, and the
next time they get him, is when they come out and Judas has to
give him a kiss to let him know which one he is. They left him
and they never come back until they apprehended him. Three days
later, this is on Tuesday morning, Wednesday's gonna roll around,
Thursday's gonna roll around, he's gonna go out into the Garden
of Gethsemane on Thursday night, and they're gonna come out there
before daylight and they're gonna get him. And they're going to
bring him in front of these chief priests, these scribes, and these
elders. And we already know what's going to happen. Next time they get him, they
think, boy, we got him. We've got the heir. We're going
to kill him now. Huh? Oh, man. You know, I don't like saying
this, but men today, they would treat him exactly the same way.
And if apart from the grace of God, you and I do the same thing,
we really would. Oh, our blessed, blessed Savior. How precious your gospel is,
Lord. We see how desperately wicked man is, how he doesn't
delight in you, doesn't rejoice in you. And it was the religious
leaders of the day. It wasn't just the common people.
Common people heard him gladly. It was the religious people,
the powerful people, the people who thought that they were somebody
and would not come under his authority. would not delight
in him, found fault with what he said, where he went, what
he did, who he did it for. But the gospel that they despised
is our delight, it's our salvation, it's our blessed hope, it's our
righteousness, it's our savior, he himself is. God bless this
gospel to the hearts and minds of people here today. and those
that are listening. God bless it to their hearts,
minds, and understanding. I ask it for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. All right. I'll see you tonight
at 6 o'clock. The Lord bless you.