in the book of Mark chapter 12. And he began to speak unto them
by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard
and set an hedge about it and digged a place for the wine fat
or the wine press and built a tower and let it out to a husbandman.
and went into a far country. And at the season he sent to
the husbandman a servant that he might receive from the husbandman
of the fruit of the vine of the vineyard. And they called him
and beat him and sent him away empty. And again he sent unto
them another servant and at him they cast stones and wounded
him in the head and sent him away shamefully handled. And
again he sent another, and him they killed, and many others,
beating some and killing some. Having yet therefore one son,
his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying,
They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen 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 will give the vineyard unto others. And have
you not read this scripture, the stone which the builders
rejected is become the head of the corner? This was the Lord's
doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And they sought to
lay hold on him, but feared the people, for they knew that he
had spoken the parable against them, and they left him and went
their way. And they sent unto him certain
of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. And
when they were come, they said unto him, Master, we know that
thou art true and carest for no man. For thou regardest not
the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. Is it
lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Shall we give or shall
we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy,
said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny, that I
may see it. And they brought it. And he saith
unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they
said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto
them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God
the things that are God's. And they marveled at him. 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 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 seven had her, and left
no seed. Last of all, the woman died also.
"'In the resurrection, therefore, when they shall rise, "'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 are 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,
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. And one of the scribes came and
having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that he had answered
them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all?
And Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is, Hear,
O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with
all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely
this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other
commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him,
well, master, thou hast said the truth, for there is but one
God, and there is none other but he. And to love him with
all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the
soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself,
is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And
when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him,
thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that
durst ask him any question. And Jesus answered and said,
while he taught in the temple, how say the scribes that Christ
is the son of David? For David himself said by the
Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right
hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore
himself calleth him Lord, and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him
gladly. And he said unto them in his
doctrine, beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing,
love salutations in the marketplaces, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
and the uppermost rooms at feasts, which devour widows' houses,
and for pretense make long prayers. These shall receive greater. damnation. And Jesus sat over
against the treasury, and behold how the people cast money into
the treasury. Many that were rich cast in much.
And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites,
which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples,
and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow
hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury.
"'for all they did cast in of their abundance, "'but she of
her wont did cast in all that she had, "'even all her living.'" Now we will, of course, probably
not cover all of those verses, but I wanted to read the passage,
and of course to get the context. of what the Lord is saying here
when he begins this chapter 12, we must look at the end of chapter
11 as those Pharisees came to him, the chief priests, scribes,
and the elders, and they came to him with this question asking
him about what authority did he speak in. And of course he
confounded them by asking them the question. Well, whose authority
did John the Baptist come in? And they wouldn't answer it because
they knew that the people revered John as a prophet. They couldn't
say that he wasn't sent from God. But then on the other hand,
they couldn't say that he was because then the Lord said, well,
why didn't you believe him? And so they were in a... in a
mess and they did that every time they asked him a question
because it was not given to them to know the things of the kingdom
of God. And that's why the Lord said
to them, since you couldn't, they answered and said, we cannot
tell by whose authority he comes. And he said, well, neither then
do I tell you by what authority I do these things. So he spoke
with authority in confounding them. And they knew it. And they
hated it. And they set out to overturn
him. Now keep in mind that as he's
just told them that, and while they're still standing there,
he begins this parable. And he said, you know, that a
certain man planted a vineyard. Now we realize that what the
Lord's teaching here, or we should realize, that what the Lord's
teaching, because the Pharisees understood, because they said,
well, it says here, and they sought to lay hold on him because
they knew that he had spoken this parable against them. And what the Lord is speaking
about here is the fact that he chose out Israel in the earth,
and he blessed them above all the nations of the earth. and
he gave them the law, he gave them the prophets, he gave them
all the blessings that were associated with those things. But every
time that And he would receive blessing from them like a dog
that bites the hand of his master. They turned from him. And they
killed the prophets and those that were sent to them. Even
as he said, he sent these servants to them. And they beat them and
they sent them away. They wouldn't listen to them.
And so that is the heritage of the nation of Israel. and of
course you know we live in a in an age when the primary or at
least one of the strong uh... teachings that is around uh... is that the nation of israel
at the coronal nation of israel still holds some sort of a special
place with the Lord. But I think if you look into
the Scriptures and you have any spiritual understanding of the
Kingdom of God, you have to understand that the Lord turned from the
Jews. Now, when we say He turned from
the Jews, we realize that it was never His intention from
the beginning. because the Lord chose His people
in Christ from before the foundation of the world. So Israel was merely
an interlude or an illustration of the Lord's love, that everlasting
love that He has unto His people, but He would show that in the
flesh that the kingdom of God is not flesh and blood, and Israel
after the flesh could not inherit the kingdom of God, because they
wouldn't listen to God. And the covenant of law that
he gave to them, they broke. He said, if you do these things,
you shall live. But they didn't. You know, they never fulfilled
anything that the Lord said for them to do. They turned from
it. And so this is what the parable of the vineyard that the Lord
planted and He said. And then ultimately He says that
He sent to them His Son. Now I'm sure that The Pharisees
didn't have a complete knowledge of who Christ was, but they had
an inkling in their mind that he was who he said he was. And
they didn't want him to be who he said he was because they preferred
their way. See, even knowing that he was
the Messiah, they didn't want him to be the Messiah because
he was going to overturn their apple cart. And they wanted to
be the ones who were revered of the people. even as he goes
on down here to speak about those that love the chief seats in
the synagogues, those that like to be exalted. And of course,
that's no different than today. Religious men love to have followings. You
find this to be true, that as a general rule, preachers want
to gather unto themselves a people and then they want to guard those
people against anybody else because they're afraid they might hear
something that's a little different or whatever and so they're fearful. But you see the Lord's Church
is the Lord's Church and He doesn't have any head over the Church
of Christ other than Himself. And He does raise up men in the
midst of the church to feed His flock. He most certainly does
do that. But there's no chief seat for
them. You see, there's no place of great honor and power among
the saints of God except insofar as God gives them authority with
the Word of God. Now you can't speak against the
prophets of God who come speaking in authority, because they come
speaking truth. See, a man that doesn't come
speaking the truth can't be speaking in the authority of God. And
so if a man comes telling lies, then he cannot be sent from God,
except he be sent as a lying prophet, which the Lord does
send lying prophets. He did in the Old Testament.
I believe He does in the present time. But he does so that his
people, you see, might be made strong, that they might not be
carried about with every wind of doctrine, but that they might
be built up in the faith by the mutual work that he does among
the saints of God. See, we're made strong by the
strength of the body, not by the strength of one man, because
men die. You know, every man has an end
coming to his ministry. He can't continue on. And so
when works depend upon the ministry of one man, when that man dies,
what happens? The sheep are scattered, and
they go their ways. But you see, that's not the picture
that the Lord has set forth in his word that he would have how
his churches to operate. but that we are made strong by
that which every joint supplies. See, the body is made strong
as each individual part of the body encourages the other parts
of the body. And so it is that the Lord would
indeed teach us how his kingdom operates and that we are not
to be as the world or as the world thinks of the church as
being. And of course, you know, there's
no shortage of preachers, as he says here, who devour widows'
houses to enrich themselves. That happens. It's an unfortunate
thing. And so they sought to lay hold
on him, but they couldn't. Now, we were talking yesterday
as we were riding along about the fact that the Lord was often,
they often sought to lay hands on him. One time they had hands
on him, and they carried him up to the top of the brow of
a hill, and they would have cast him off. But he turned and walked
out of the midst of them. See, I mean, the Lord allowed
them to carry him right up there to the hill. And they thought,
man, we got him now. Even as when they by evil hands,
ultimately, according to the foreordained purpose of Almighty
God, they did take him by wicked hands and crucify him, and they
said, now we're done with him. But in the back of their mind,
they wasn't too sure about it, because they said, well, we better
do something, because he said he's gonna rise the third day,
and so we need to set a watch here at this tomb. Be sure that doesn't happen,
as if they could prevent it. And so they weren't done yet
because they hated the Lord's message. And so they came to
Him. And I noticed something here. It says, they sought to lay hold
of Him, feared the people, and they left Him and went their
way. And then they sent to Him They said, well, you know, we'll
send in the big guns. We'll get the ones that, you
know, these guys, they're gonna come up with something that'll
really get him. And so they sent the Pharisees, certain of the
Pharisees, and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. Now,
what is the Pharisees and the Herodians? See, the Pharisees
are the epitome of religious men. They were Calvinists. I mean, they were predestinarians,
see? They were strong in doctrine.
I mean, they had it. And what'd they do? They aligned
themselves with the Herodians. Now, who were the Herodians?
They were the members of the House of Herod. They were the
followers of Herod. They were part of the king. See,
they were politically connected. Now, we've heard a lot. I heard
a lot, and it troubled me greatly. among some of our wondrous politicians who said,
well, what we need to do is we need to impose the Bible on men. Basically what they were saying.
We need to make the government See, to teach the Word of God. We need to teach men the Word
of God by the government. Well, the government has never
been established by God to teach anybody anything. All that the
government has been established by God to do is to punish evil
doers. And anything that the government
does beside that is outside the realm of their right to do what
they do. Religious men should never align
themselves with politicians. It doesn't make any difference
who the politician is, because they're dealing in one thing
and we're dealing in another thing. Now I know there's kind
of a crossover in this, and I'm not saying God's people shouldn't
be involved in government, but we shouldn't have any thinking
that by getting so and so elected that it's going to enhance the
gospel. Or, you know, that we've got these people that go and
they supposedly are these spiritual advisors for the president, and
because they're laying hands on him and praying for him and
all these things, that that's just a wondrous thing. Well,
no, it's not necessarily a wondrous thing, especially when a man
surrounds himself with people that have no understanding of
the gospel, of what it is. What are they counseling him
to? I mean, just because somebody comes saying that they have knowledge
of the Bible and of God doesn't mean they know anything about
the truth of God. And so I said all that to say
this. There's no place for the mixture
of government and the kingdom of God. These are two mutually
exclusive things. We're not gonna promote the kingdom
of God through the government. Neither can the government hinder
the kingdom of God, thankfully, because the Lord is going to
accomplish what He will with His people. Oh, that the Lord
might teach us that and teach us not to rely on government
in any way. Now, you know, it's an easy thing
when we get to seeing some of these politicians that go contrary
to what we think is common sense. And we think, well, if we can
get this one in there, he'll help. But you know, the Lord
turns the heart of kings for the sake of every will, for the
purpose of guiding things exactly as he would have it to be. And
so, you know, we have to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves,
but don't let us get thought in our mind that we can somehow
or other mix If we could just get us a Christian president,
well now, what would that be? You know, could such a thing
be? I don't know. I'm just asking you. I mean,
you know, can a man be a true believer in Jesus Christ
and occupy the place of president? I'm not sure. I don't know. I
couldn't tell you that he can, because there's a lot of things
that he'd have trouble with, looks to me like. Now, I'm not
saying that the Lord doesn't raise up men who are believers
to do these things. I'm just saying, can a man stand
before a nation as a believer and tell him anything
other than that Jesus Christ is the Lord of glory. Can he
do anything else? So I don't know. I don't see
how you can mix those things. Now maybe you can and maybe I'll
shut up about that, but it just came to my mind as I saw the
Pharisees and the Herodians, two people that really were at
odds with one another. The Pharisees didn't like Herod.
they didn't like the Roman government, they didn't like anything to
do with the government. And yet, here they are. Well,
we'll go over there and we'll trip up Christ. We'll trip up
this man, Jesus, and we'll really get him this time, because you
see, we're going to get him with the power of the government.
Because if he says, don't support Caesar, we've got him, because
here we've got Herodians and they'll appoint a special council. And they'll destroy him. And so it is. So the Lord said
to them, he said, well, show me the money. Should we give? He said, show me the money. They
gave him the money. He said, well, now, whose superscription
and name is on this stuff? And they said, well, Caesar's.
He said, OK. Whatever Caesar demands of you,
give it to Caesar. And whatever God demands of you,
give it to God. And they were confounded. They
couldn't say anything. What could they say? And so that
is the place. You see, we're called to serve
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're called, I mean, as men
in this world, we gotta pay taxes. I hate paying taxes. as much
as anybody does, but we've got to pay them. And the government
has the right to get taxed. I didn't say they had the right
to get every bit that they get, or they sure don't use it very
wisely. But nonetheless, we can't avoid
that. And there is a place where we
render unceasar things that are ceasars. If we're going to live
in a free country, that is going to be, you know, if we're called
to jury duty, we need to serve. I mean, we need to do whatever
it is that we're called to do, apart from being, from violating
our conscience before God. Now, if the government tells
you to do something that you don't believe is correct, don't
do it. It's just like when they had the COVID thing and the government
said don't meet together. Well, the Lord said to meet together.
He didn't say meet together unless you got the COVID. I mean, he
said, meet together. So why would we, why would, I
was baffled by it, really. Well, I wasn't baffled by it
per se, but I mean, it was an amazing thing. As you saw, just
practically every one of these churches that call themselves
churches folded up like a $2 suitcase when the government
said, quit meeting. They all should have rose up
in anger together and said, we're gonna do what the Lord told us
to do. And so it is, brethren, that we do render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's, but Caesar doesn't own everything.
Caesar's not our master. The Lord Jesus Christ is. So
may we be those that have wisdom in these things and know that
the Lord is able to guide us and direct us and lead us as
He sees fit. And may we be found to be obedient
to Him But in all these things, may we know and understand the
authority of Christ. Because you see, that's what
the whole issue was. Whose authority are you doing
these things in? I think he pretty well summed
it up in all that he said there, whose authority it was. It's
my authority. And he said, I give Caesar, you
remember when Pilate said, don't you know that I have power? to
put you to death. He said, you don't have any power
at all. He said, the only power you got is what's given to you.
He says, I have all power in heaven, earth, and hell. May
the Lord give us a mind to bow before him today and before no
other.