We're looking in the Book of
Mark, Gospel of Mark, chapter 12. And we had looked last week
down through verse 17, as those had come to the Lord, the Pharisees
and Herodians together, quite an odd couple, to say the least,
but nonetheless, because they hated
Christ and they hated his word, they banded themselves together.
As many have, as the old saying goes, my enemy, or how does it go,
I can't even think of it, I had it in my mind there, the friend
of The enemy of my friend is my friend, or anyway, you get
the picture. Somebody that shares a common
enemy, they're able to put aside their differences. The Pharisees
didn't really like the Herodians, and the Herodians surely didn't
like the Pharisees. But in order to confound Christ
as a thought, They banded themselves together and they brought money
to him and asked him whose was this. Should they pay tribute? Now they figured that he would
tell them no, don't pay tribute. Caesar, but he said, well, show
me the money, and they showed him the money, and he said, well,
whose superscription and pictures on this thing? And they said,
well, it's Caesar's. He said, well, then render to
Caesar the things that are Caesar's and the things that are God's
to God, because there's no mixture of those two. In other words,
there is no, the people of God, the only reason that we have
any consideration of the government is because the government represents
the power of God. We don't bow down before the
government because we like the government or that we want the
government to tell us what to do. And so it is that God's people
are to follow the Lord. We have one Lord, one faith,
one baptism. We don't have any allegiance
to the government except in so far as the Lord would have us
to have some minor form of allegiance in that we obey the powers that
be. But we are not the subjects of
the kingdoms of this earth. We are subjects of the kingdom
of God. And that distinction must be made. The Lord made that
distinction quite clearly. As I stood before Pilate, and
Pilate said, don't you know I have power to put you to death? He says, you don't have any power
at all. And dear brother, our power is not in the arm of the
flesh. And we're not looking for the
government to carry our case. If the government set up tomorrow
and said, we're gonna decree that the gospel is gonna be preached,
and everybody's got to come and listen to it, I'd be the first
one to fight against that. Government doesn't have anything
to do with it, because in the first place, that wouldn't ever
happen, but because if they did do that, it would ultimately
be that which would turn from being the words of Christ, because
governments of this world are not in submission to Christ. Now he turns the heart of the
king with his every will, and thankfully he does. But they
don't gladly go his way. You don't have a bunch of politicians
desiring to honor and exalt Christ. They're desiring to honor and
exalt themselves, by and large, or their places of power. And
so that's what the Lord was saying here. The governments of this
world are a necessity. The Lord established governments
in this world for the punishment of evildoers. And that's the
function that they should serve. And all functions that they perform
beyond that is really extemporaneous to what the Lord has sent forth
the governments of the world to do. And so it is that we owe
allegiance in that respect, and we are bound to pay taxes in
that respect to support that. Now, we don't necessarily have
to do it gladly because of the waste and fraud and abuse and
everything that goes on in the name of government, which actually,
in my opinion, is outside of the purview of government, but
nonetheless, is where we are, and I'm thankful that I live
in this nation. I'm not seeking to overthrow
it. I'm not seeking to overthrow any nation. That's not what we're called
to do. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And that's the
kingdom in which I desire to fight, and that's the government
under which I desire to walk. And so may we be found there.
But anyway, they marveled at his answer, but they weren't
through. Because not only did the Pharisees
align themselves with the Herodians against the Lord, but the Sadducees,
they did basically the same thing. They took up where the Pharisees
left off. Now the Pharisees and the Sadducees
were like the Democrats and the Republicans in some ways. The
Sadducees were very liberally minded. They didn't literally
take the Word of God to be true in everything. They didn't believe
in the spirit world and that sort of thing. They made fun
of it. And that's what they actually were coming to do here with the
Lord. And then come unto him the Sadducees
which say there is no resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master,
Moses wrote unto us, if a man's brother die and leave his wife
behind him and leave no children, that his brother should take
his wife and should raise up seed unto his brother. Now there
were seven brethren. And the first took a wife, and
dying, left no seed. And the second took her, and
died, neither left he any seed, and the third likewise. And the
seventh had her, and left no seed. Last of all, the woman
died also. In the resurrection, therefore,
when they shall arise, whose wife shall she be of them? For
the seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto
them, do you not therefore err? Because you know not the scriptures,
neither the power of God. For when they shall rise from
the dead, they neither marry nor given in marriage, but are
as the angels which are in heaven. And as touching the dead that
they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, how in
the bush God spake unto him saying, I am the God of Abraham and the
God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead,
but the God of the living. You therefore do greatly err. Now we'll pause right there.
Might get further than that, but we'll at least look at those
verses. And Now understand that these
men did not come to the Lord because they sincerely wanted
to know the answer to a question that burned in their heart. They
came to Him because they wanted to trip Him up. They came to
Him because they wanted to make Him look foolish. They came to
Him because they wanted to promote their line of thought. Now how
often it is that men go to the Bible and they want to prove
a point and they say, well look here. Now here's what it says. Well, oftentimes the Bible says
things that are hard to understand. And I like something that Brother
Ralph Barnard said. Years ago I heard this. He said,
the Bible doesn't mean what it says. It means what it means. Now, that might be hard for you
to grasp what I'm saying here, but that's what the Lord's saying
here to these men, because they came with the scriptures, and
they were right. They said the truth. Moses did
write exactly what they said that he said in the scripture.
that if a man dies and he has no offspring, then the man's
brother has to raise up children, has to marry that wife, her as
a wife, and raise up children. Now the purpose of that, of course,
was to protect the inheritance for that family and to keep the
family name going. And so what they were doing,
they had that, They knew what the letter of the scripture was,
but the Lord said, ye do err. Now they knew the truth. What
they said was the truth. So what we say is not the important
thing. See, when you read and study
the scripture, and you can become very, I've known of men that
were very versed in the scripture. who had no idea what the scriptures
were about. I took a class one time when
I was at the University of Florida, and it was on some comparative,
not comparative religion, but it was some class having to do
with the Bible, and the old guy that was teaching the class,
I mean, he knew a lot about the Bible. He could quote the scriptures
and all this, but he had no clue what the scripture was about.
Because if you see everything there is to see on the pages
of this book, as you read the scriptures, and you miss the
glory of Jesus Christ in every jot and tittle of it, then you
have missed the meaning of the scriptures. It doesn't make a
difference what you know about the scriptures. If you don't
see Christ, you missed it. You know, great prophets, even
in our day, they rise up and they tell us all about the book
of Revelation. And they tell you what hair on
the horse's tail are and the claws of the beast and all these
different things, and they can write them out in detail and
all of this, but they fail to see that the very truth of that
book is given in the very first verse of the book. The very title
of the book, which is The Revelation of Jesus Christ. You want to
know what the book of Revelation is about? It's about Christ.
I mean, that's what it's about. You know, and every word that's
written in this scripture is not written for the carnal use
of men, but it is to bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, there are many things. You can go through the book of
the Proverbs and you can learn a lot of practical truth. But
if the practical truth of the book of Proverbs is the only
thing you get out of it as you go through it, you have missed
the truth of it. And that's the way these Sadducees
were. They knew what the letter of Moses' law was, but they did
not know what the meaning of the scripture was. And so it
is that the Lord said to them, you do err because you know not
the Scriptures. Now they knew the Scriptures,
didn't they? It's the same thing that he said to the Pharisees
when he said, search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have
eternal life, but they are they which testify of me. Now you
don't need any clearer definition of what the subject of the Scriptures
is than that. The Lord said, when you read
the scriptures, He said, study the scriptures. He said, it doesn't
matter where you read. He said, they are they which
testify of me. Even as Brother Thomas said this
morning, as he read the book of John, as John said. And this
is the record. This is the testimony. This is
that which is given to us. that God hath given to us eternal
life, and that life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now
that's the truth of the Scriptures, summed up. And so if you miss
that, it doesn't make any difference what you know about the Scriptures.
And so it is that these men, they came there, And they had
very detailed explanation. And the Lord listened to them.
Now the Lord didn't always listen to everything everybody had to
say because He didn't need to. When Nicodemus came to Him, He
never let Nicodemus ask a question. Now, Nicodemus had some questions.
He was wanting to ask the Lord the question, but the Lord never
let him ask it, because he just cut right to the chase. And he
said, well, there's no need to go any further. Nicodemus, except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And so
it is. He let these men ramble on. And then he told them, well,
you don't know what the scriptures say. Search the scriptures, for
in them you think you have eternal life. He said, you think you
know something. But he said, you don't know, there's two things
you don't know. Number one, you don't know what the scriptures
mean, and number two, you don't believe in the power of God.
Now that's a bad combination. Now either one of those is enough
to destroy you, but brother, when you combine those two things
together, you're in deep trouble. And so it is. That's where they
were. He said, you don't know what you're talking about. You
don't believe in the resurrection. He says, you can't even get to
first base. You don't even know anything.
You don't believe God raises the dead. Because they didn't
believe it. They were making mockery of the
resurrection because they didn't believe that was going to happen.
They thought they'd make how foolish this idea of the resurrection
was. See, that was their whole purpose,
really, was to come there and promote their idea that there
was no such thing as the resurrection. But the Lord didn't take the
bait, and he taught them the truth. And, of course, they said,
you know, and the details of this are not vitally important,
but he mainly was teaching about the state of those who die in
the Lord. And that is that in the day of
the resurrection, we're not going to rise as carnal men. Now we're
gonna rise in the body in the same fashion as the Lord went
into the grave and died, and he was raised in the same body
in which he went into the ground. We're gonna be raised in the
same body in which we're put in the ground. Or burned up,
I hope not, but maybe. Some of you might want to be
burned up. I don't want to be burned up. I want to follow the
Lord as He was buried in the earth. Now, you know, maybe I
ought not to say anything about this, but cremation, is never
taught in the scripture. Now I know today it's become
just a thing. I've even heard people say, man,
I want to be cremated. Why would somebody want to be
cremated? I mean, I know it don't make
a difference to me if you do cremate me. I mean, when I'm
dead, but I don't want to be cremated. I'm not wanting to
do that. I want to be buried in the earth, even as our Lord
was buried in the earth. And if you look, you find that
the only people in the scripture that ever burnt their dead was
the heathens. The pagans, they burn their dead.
They do even in the present time. Why on earth have we come to
that place? Because I believe it's just an
underlying evidence of how far men move away from the truth
of God. Christian people have buried
their dead. down through the ages. And I
believe that's the proper thing. Now again, I'm not gonna fall
out with somebody, nor am I gonna consign somebody to a place of
unbelief because they're cremated. But it's not a practice, I believe,
that is a godly practice. And I know some will say, oh,
well you don't believe the Lord can take the, does he? Look,
the Lord can take the body of a person who has been eaten by
a beast And then that beast is eaten by another beast and it's
scattered to the four winds. The Lord can bring it back together.
Now the Pharisees, the Sadducees didn't believe that. They just
said, how foolish is that? But you see, the Lord said, you
don't know the power of God. I mean, the Lord that created
the body from the dust of the earth can do so again as it pleases
Him. Now the bodies in which we are
raised are going to be, even though they're the same body,
Paul said that we are raised a spiritual body. Now I don't
fully understand exactly what that means, but I believe that
the same body that goes in the ground is going to come out,
but it's going to be glorified. It's going to be different. that
which is of the earth is of the earth, and that which is of heaven
will be of heaven, and we are given a heavenly birth, a heavenly
resurrection, even as Christ rose from the dead. Now, what
did he do when he was raised from the dead? He walked among
men, they knew him, they saw him, didn't he not? And he ate food. You know, I
don't claim to know all the answers to all the questions that arise
in people's minds about this, but I will say this, I do believe
in the power of God to do as He sees fit. And I know this,
that the existence that He has designed for His people in the
resurrected body is far greater than any joy or pleasure that
we could ever have in this carnal one. And so the Lord was saying
to them, you don't know. or how this is to occur. God
is not the God of the dead. See, their mindset was that when
you're dead, you're dead. He said, God's not the God of
the dead. Now, I believe that there is
an eternal death. There is a second death. But there is eternal life in
Christ. And those who are in Christ shall
live forever. And they shall rejoice in Him
and worship Him. And they shall live forever without
sin. Now brethren, a man that doesn't
think that's a glorious thing has never understood what the
awfulness of sin is. But you know, as a man becomes
to be acquainted with his own sin and the sin of those around
him, what a glorious thing it would be to live in a kingdom
wherein there is no sin, wherein our desire is continually to
love one another and to love Christ. I mean, I can't think
of a better place to be or a better situation. He said, you don't
know. how it is. Because when men die, they neither
marry nor are given in marriage, but as angels which are in heaven.
Now, again, here's another little pet peeve of mine. People talk
about going to heaven. Everybody goes to heaven. Well,
everybody doesn't go to heaven. When I was a kid, they all used
to sing, when we all get to heaven. Only problem is, that's not a
true thing. All men are not going to heaven.
Those who are in Christ will be in His presence. Those who
despise His way, as Brother Thomas said, those who believe Him to
be a liar. Now, you know, it's an amazing thing. I was sitting
there as he was teaching and thinking about that. And the
Lord says as much in that passage of Scripture. He says, we believe
the witness of men. See, you'll believe if a man
comes in here and tells some outlandish tale. Unless you know
him to be a bold-faced liar, you kind of believe. Well, man,
that's really amazing. I never heard of such a thing
as that. But you believe him. But when the Lord says something,
men don't believe it. I mean, unless the Lord, in His
mercy and kindness, opens up our mind to receive the truth
of God, we will automatically say, well, that can't be true.
I mean, all men can't be totally depraved. I mean, you know, there's
some good in everybody. You know, old so-and-so, it just
wouldn't be right for old so-and-so to be destroyed. I mean, I know
he didn't care for Christ or anything, but you know, he lived
such a good life, and he cared for people, and he did all these
things. And we think in our natural mind,
well, there's gotta be, you know, it can't be that he would eternally
perish. But the Lord said, if a man is
not in Christ, he will perish. That's the only place of safety
for any man, is to be in Christ, or to be found in Him. And so the Lord taught them that the people of
God shall be in heaven as the angels, not being angels. Now that's another thing. See,
I'm gonna get off on all these little things. Whenever a baby dies, you often
hear people, oh, well, the Lord needed another little angel in
heaven. Well, there wasn't an angel to start with, and the
Lord's not teaching here that you're gonna be an angel. You
never were an angel. Angels are angels. Men are men. And nobody, based on what they
are in this life, have an acceptance with the Lord. Now, do I believe
all babies who die in infancy or whatever are going to be in
the presence of the Lord? I do. But you know why I believe
they will be? It's not because they're little
angels. It's not because they have no, they're pure. Because if they have Adam's blood
in their veins, they are conceived in sin. But the reason that I would believe
that they were is because I believe Christ died for them. See, their
righteousness, will be that of his. Now if they're not all of
the elect, that's his business. I'm not gonna stand around and
say something's wrong with God if he does see fit to cast infants
into eternal destruction. I certainly wouldn't say anything
about it, would you? What would you say? You know,
because that is the power of God. That's the purpose of God,
to do as he sees fit. And so it's not up to us to have
some morality play and say, well this will be good and this will
be bad. But when he says that they will be as the angels, he's
saying they will have a existence that will be like the angels
in that there will not be the carnal necessity of propagating
the race. See, I mean, the Lord filled
the earth, and He told men to go out and populate the earth.
He's not telling us to populate heaven, because heaven's gonna
be populated by the exact number that He has set there. So there
won't be an expansion of it. And there won't be any expansion
in this world except insofar as the Lord would have it expanded
to get to the number that he's pleased for it to be. And when
that number's reached, brother, and that's it, the Lord is gonna
call his people. Now some of his people have not
been born yet. Some of them are yet to be born.
But I can tell you this, when the last one is born into this
world, it's just a matter of time until the Lord comes back
and receives his own unto himself. And so it is indeed true that
we shall be as the angels in heaven. What a glorious thing,
because you see, the angels have one chief desire, and that is
to magnify the name of the Lord. Oh, what a glorious thing. I
don't know what all the Lord created us for. I know he created
us for his glory, and we shall bring glory to his name. And
he loved his people enough that he sent his only begotten son
to die, that they might have eternal life. Oh, what a glorious
Savior he is. What a wondrous God he is, to
show mercy to such sinners as we are. Because you see, the
Lord, was under no obligation to save any, but it pleased Him
to save many according to the good pleasure of His will. May
He be praised forever, and may men know that He is the Savior
of sinners. And if a man knows himself to
be a sinner, I can tell you He's the Savior.
He said, I believe this is a true statement. He's going to save
every sinner. See, all men don't think they're sinners. And they
won't be saved. A man that doesn't believe he's
a sinner will never be saved. Because it's necessary for a
man to come to the end of himself to cry out to the Lord for mercy. And oh, what a merciful God He
is to those that call upon His name.