David’s Lord And David’s Son

Let's turn to Luke chapter 20. Luke 20, looking at the end of this chapter now. And in our last study, we ended with this record being recorded in verse 39 and 40. Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said. And after that, they dare not ask him any question at all. They dare not ask him any question at all. However, this didn't prevent our Lord from putting a punctuation mark for just making it very clear and plain that these men were all ignorant. That the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, the scribes, they were ignorant. of the Christ of God. And he makes this evident by the questions that he asks them, including a question that we'll look at today.

Now, the scribes were known to be students of the law. They were known to read the law, to be familiar with the law, they would do the readings. in the synagogues, as I understand it, and they would even expound on the things that they had read to the people. But what they said, I don't know, because it seems to have been nothing like what the Lord taught the people. When Christ spoke and when he taught the people, it's recorded in scripture several times that the people were astonished at his doctrine.

They were astonished at his doctrine. And when the officers of the Jews went to arrest him, when they sent these men to arrest our Lord the first time, or one of the first times, they came back empty handed. And they said, why didn't you bring them? And they said, never man spake like this man. We haven't heard this before. However, these scribes, they were esteemed to be men of honor, men of renown, men who knew the scriptures well. and that they were wise among the Israelites.

But it was obvious that these scribes, along with the various sects of the ruling Jews in religion there, that these men were enemies of Christ and enemies of the gospel. They claimed to believe God, but they rejected Christ. Well, then you don't believe God. You're not a child of God if you're rejecting Christ. And just like many men in religion, even if they're enemies of the truth, they may like some preaching, some gospel preaching.

They may agree with certain points, like these scribes said, thou hast well said. They liked what our Lord said to the Sadducees. Our Lord took a complex question that stumped them and answered it, solved the riddle that befuddled them. And they were well pleased with that. But just like many who like some things in gospel preaching, they like it so long as it's directed to somebody else. Then they're fine with it. But as soon as the arrow of God hits the mark in their own heart, then they're angry. They're cut to the heart. They're not pricked in a good way as the Jews were who were convicted. They're cut to the heart.

And they show their enmity then against God and rejecting God and his word and his Christ. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ is going to expose the ignorance of these men with another simple question for them. And it's gonna show that these men are deceivers of the people. They pretend to know God, but they're ignorant of the Christ whom the Father sent.

And if you don't love Christ, you don't love the Father. The scriptures make that plain. If you have no love for Christ, then you don't love the Father who sent him. who knows that we need him, who knows what we stand in need of, and he provided everything for the salvation of his sheep. And his sheep know his voice, and his sheep follow him. And so if you're not following Christ, it's because you don't know the Father. You're still ignorant of the Father and of the truth of God.

Men can have a knowledge of the Bible. They can have a knowledge of the Bible. They can know many facts about the Bible, and yet know nothing of Christ. And the scriptures, and the Lord tells us, don't follow them. Don't follow them, don't follow their ways, don't do as they do because a knowledge of the Bible that doesn't lead us to Christ and doesn't lead us to see our need of the Lord Jesus Christ, but leaves us ignorant and blind. to our Lord, and ignorant and blind to the Lord Jesus Christ, as him being the believer's righteousness, all our righteousness and all our acceptance with God.

A true and right understanding of Christ, a belief of Christ, faith in Christ, in the true and living Christ, shuts a man up to know that he's all my righteousness and he's all my acceptance with God. It's not me plus Jesus. It's not 99% Jesus and 1% me. It's all of Christ. It is not my obedience to the law. It's not by what I do that makes me accepted with God.

Christ is all the acceptance of the believer with God. And everything you need and stand in need of, you can be certain that he provides it. That's why he gives his Holy Spirit. to lead us, to teach us, to convict us, to instruct us, to keep us, to preserve us. He provides everything that we need.

And so we don't want a knowledge that the scribes have if it leaves out Christ. If it leads you to think that you're religious and righteous by what you're doing, that's not a good understanding of the Bible. That's a vain understanding of what the scriptures are teaching us, because the scriptures teach Christ and him crucified. And Christ is all. That's what the scriptures teach.

So we need the grace of God to deliver us from that deception and that carnal vain religion that men so easily fall into. Because the problem in the world isn't that we're not religious enough. There's plenty of religion. The problem is we're sinners without a covering. And we don't believe Christ, except God come and empower and in grace and mercy. And so we need that grace to deliver us from what Paul called the ministration of death. And he called the law ministration of condemnation. And it's clear that these men had studied the law of Moses, but they didn't believe Moses. Had they believed Moses, they would have believed Christ, of whom Moses wrote.

And so to expose their ignorance, Our Lord of Christ and the righteousness of God, which is the same thing, Christ is the very righteousness of God, our Lord puts forth a question in verse 41. And he said unto them, how say they that Christ is David's son? This is a question about the relationship between David and the Messiah. At this time, no one was doubting that the Messiah would come through David's loins, that he would descend from the lineage of David. They understood that, but they didn't understand what David said. in Psalm 110, don't turn there, we're just gonna quote what our Lord quoted.

He quoted the first verse of Psalm 110, and our Lord says, David himself saith in the book of Psalms, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. And then our Lord says in verse 44, David therefore calleth him Lord. How is he then his son? How is he his son? If the Messiah descends from David, then how is the Messiah David's Lord? And if he's David's Lord, how then is he his son?

How are these things so? And this is a complete mystery to us all until the Lord reveals it. And these men, to them, it was a mystery. They were studiers, studiers, and studiers of the law. And they spent their time in the book, and yet they did not understand this. They didn't know the answer to this question. It was right there in the psalm, Psalm 110, verse 1. And so they had no understanding of it. They had no knowledge how to answer the Lord's question.

And our Lord answered the question. He answered questions. He had no problem. When the Herodians and the disciples of the Pharisees came on opposite sides of the question to trap him, to tempt him, to snare him, he answered their question without condemning himself in any manner. When the Sadducees came with their question, he answered their question.

But they could never answer his question. They were always silenced. They were always lost and unable to answer it. And so they couldn't answer Christ. and yet he taught them from the scriptures. He was faithful to teach them according to the scriptures, and yet they refused to believe that this Jesus of Nazareth, who can answer all our questions, and we can answer his questions, who does the works that the Father sent him to do, and does things that we can't explain, except God be with him, and yet they did not believe that this Jesus of Nazareth, standing before them, is the Christ of God. that he is the son of God.

I'll never forget talking to a Jewish man who said, your problem is that once you see Jesus in the scriptures, that's all you can see. All you do is see him then. He's everywhere. I said, that's exactly right. And you've just condemned yourself. By your own words, you condemn yourself. Because you know that he's the answer. He's everything that these scriptures are talking about. And you just put him in there, and you can see it. He fulfilled everything. He fulfilled everything there.

So if Christ is David's son, how does David call him Lord? And if he's his Lord, why do we call him the son of David, right? That's the question. Even blind Bartimaeus could see it. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And the Lord had mercy on him and was gracious to him. Because that's what the Lord does. All who need mercy and grace, who call upon him, receive mercy and grace.

Because God has put that need in them. And he's given them that cry. And he showed them their great need. It's good to be shown that we're needy sinners. It's the grace of God that shows us that we're needy sinners, and that leads us to Christ. It's his work. It's what he delights to do in his people.

And what Christ did was he left these scribes shut up to this mystery. He didn't solve it for them. He said, well, if you know everything, if you're so wise, and you know everything about the scriptures, and you don't need Christ, well, then you go solve it. You solve this mystery that you can't answer.

I'll just leave it with you, he said. But to you, brethren, who are poor in spirit, who hunger and thirst for righteousness because you have no righteousness of your own, he showed you that. And he shut you up to Christ, to leave you with Christ, to need him. and to hang upon him till he bless you. You can't let him go. You need him, and it's him doing that. To you, the mystery is revealed. He makes it known who he is.

Christ Jesus is the Son of God, and as God, he is David's Lord. He's the son of God, and as being divine, he's David's Lord. And Christ Jesus is the son of man, and as man, he's David's son. This reveals the two natures of Christ, that he is God and man.

Paul wrote it this way in 1 Timothy 3.16, saying, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. This mystery that the scribes can't solve, They don't understand it, it's a great mystery, but to you it's revealed, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. There's only one man of whom all these statements are true, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God manifest in the flesh.

The Lord Jesus Christ is both the root and the offspring of David. That's another way of saying it. He's the root and the offspring of David. How is that possible? It sounds like a contradiction. How can he be the root of David and the offspring of David?

Well, look over in Revelation 22. I just want you to see this so you can come back to it. That's the last chapter in the Bible, Revelation 22, and verse 16. Verse 16, I, Jesus, He's speaking here. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. This is where this mystery is revealed, in the churches, that you might understand the mystery of godliness, that you would know the mystery of God. which is Christ. God reveals himself to us in his darling son, Jesus Christ.

I am the root and the offspring of David. He says it plainly. I'm the one who gives life to David, and I came forth from David as a man. I gave life to him as God, and I come forth from him as man. And so by his human nature, Jesus is the offspring of David. He's a branch of David's family. He is David's son descended from David.

That's what he's saying there. And Isaiah 11, I'm just going to read a few verses there, even though verse 1 really captures it. Isaiah 11, verse 1, and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. So out of Jesse came David, and from David as a root came forth a branch, the Lord Jesus Christ. He descended. from David.

And the spirit of the Lord Jehovah, he goes on to say, or the scriptures tell us, of the spirit of the Lord Jehovah shall rest upon him, upon the son of David, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord Jehovah.

I keep saying Jehovah because it's the capital L-O-R-D. All of that meaning it's Jehovah in the original. And that knowledge, that wisdom, that spirit of wisdom, we see it in Christ. We see it in Jesus of Nazareth speaking here to these Pharisees and the Herodians and the Sadducees and the scribes. He's solving all their greatest riddles. He knows the truth of God and he reveals the Father unto us.

And he shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord Jehovah, and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. We do that all the time by nature. We look at a man and we think, well, he looks rough and doesn't look like he has much or knows much, and we could be totally, totally wrong. And we often think too highly of ourselves and justify our own selves while condemning another. But our Lord doesn't do that.

He knows. He knows the heart of man, and He knows exactly who the Father is, why the Father sent Him, and He accomplished it for His people. He did everything we need. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.

These are spiritual terms that describe us spiritually. We are bankrupt of a righteousness of our own. We have nothing except God give it to us. And he's the great shepherd of them. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

So I read all that because that's exactly what we see here in this passage. This is describing our Lord Jesus Christ, who came in the likeness of our flesh that he should be a high priest for us who is able to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and he's able to help us, to succor us, to help us, to draw near and comfort us in our most painful afflictions. In our deepest sorrows and worries and troubles, Christ draws near, because he was made like us. He came in the flesh, and he knows exactly what we are, And yet, he calls us friends. And he's merciful. He loved us to the end. knowing how we betrayed him and fled from him.

All picture there, and Peter, and John, and the other apostles. And yet he went to the cross willingly for us, laying down his life for us, shedding his blood for us, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree as the Lamb of God, sacrificing himself unto the Father, to make an atonement for our sins, to obtain our forgiveness, and to give us life in himself. All that for us. He did that.

And then by his divine nature, Jesus was also the root of David, meaning the root gave rise to David and everything David needed. And we've been going through 1 and 2 Samuel, we see just how much grace David needs and how gracious the Lord was, because he's his root. and he's providing everything that David needs in order to bring him forth to give rise to him as king, to him as having a lineage, and a man to sit on the throne forever, pictured in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in John 15, verse five and six, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us, I am the vine. All right, because just as this is true of David, it's true of us.

I'm the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. That's how we bring forth fruit. That's why he's our boast. We're not looking at ourselves in the mirror, we're looking at Christ. before us, and that's how we bear fruit. If a man abide not in me, he's cast forth as a branch and is withered.

If you think that you're something and you cast Christ away for the law, thinking I've arrived, I've got it now, I can do this. No, you can't. You are broken off. If you continue in that, it's because God has cast you aside and you wither and die. Just like if you're outside in the yard and you break off a branch, it's no longer fruitful. because it's no longer connected to the root. And men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

And so as he is David's Lord, so he is to all, the Lord God Almighty. He's Lord of all, of heaven and earth. He's the true and living God come in the flesh to establish a perfect righteousness for his people. Because you and I, we cannot establish a perfect righteousness for ourselves, let alone others. We cannot do it by the law, we cannot do it by religion, we cannot do it by anything. Without Christ being both God and man, where would we be? Who are fallen in Adam? What would we be? They would be ruinous, terrible. But now the righteousness, I'm going to quote the good news from Romans 3, verse 21 through 26. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.

You don't need the law. You don't look to the law. We don't turn to the law for righteousness. We don't go back now and slip our neck under the yoke of the law. which the Jews themselves couldn't even keep. And a whole nation of people trying to keep it, they couldn't keep it. You and I aren't going to keep it either. That's not our righteousness.

So a righteousness without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, because they all wrote of him, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. That's how we fulfill the spirit of the law, is by faith in Christ, trusting him, walking in him, believing him.

He teaches us. He chastens us. He corrects us. He keeps us. He gives us love in our hearts for others. He does all of that. What the law was given to do, in a sense, but to show that it couldn't do it, is why it was given, to reveal sin. Christ does it all in the giving of his spirit. by the laying down of his life and the shedding of his blood. He accomplished this. He gives us life in giving us his Holy Spirit.

So we don't go back looking to the law, we keep looking to Christ. Keep looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's upon all them that believe, right? For there is no difference, meaning this is how God manifests his children. They believe Christ. They glory in Christ. They trust the Lord Jesus Christ. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Meaning, there's not another way in the world. There is no other way in all the universe for us to come to God. For us to be righteous before God and accepted of Him, it is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't matter what someone says, well, I'm keeping the law, or I got this religion. I do this for myself. No, you don't. You're a liar. You're deceived, and you're in darkness.

Because the only way that we come to God in perfect righteousness, accepted of Him, is in and by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Alone. That's it. being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That leaves room for nothing else. Jesus Christ alone, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.

That is, that's how the wrath of God, which was against me justly and rightly for my works, for what I did in the flesh, under the law, in religion, Christ Jesus, he saves by grace. Christ Jesus, what he did, propitiated God's wrath, turned it away from me, put it away from me, put it away from all his people because he bore the wrath in the room instead of his people.

So through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. So that puts all the attention on Jesus. And it makes sure that we understand and know that's how God is just and justifier of all his people, in Jesus, in Jesus Christ alone.

These scribes were ignorant of the true righteousness of God. They believed that their adherence to the law, their keeping of the law, their striving in the law, their doing what the law said to the best of their ability, that that was their righteousness and their acceptance with God. And this is why Jesus Christ is exposing their ignorance right now, lest you should follow them and go off the cliff into hell with them, smelling good in religion, but stinking to God. And so Romans 10, three and four says, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That's how you come to God. Believe in Christ. Believe him. Trust him. Follow him. Stay upon him, he is the very righteousness and acceptance of God, with God. That's how you're gonna dwell with God forever, is in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, those Pharisees haven't gone away. There's plenty of modern day Pharisees in our day in the churches, in the churches, Gentiles. that are Pharisees, claiming that they are righteous before God, paying lip service to Christ, no doubt, pretending to be followers of him, but their righteousness isn't Christ.

It's their obedience to the law, and they get angry when you emphasize and put all the glory on Christ and you exclude man, that the carnal man hates being cut out of glory. He wants the glory in this. That's why they speak of the law and say, well, now, don't go crazy here. Don't preach Christ up too high, because then people are going to go off and do what they want to do.

Well, if you have the spirit of Christ, you are gonna do what you wanna do. Christ is gonna keep you. He's gonna keep you and instruct you and bless you with all spiritual blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ. Men fall with the law. And if you stumble believing on Christ, it's Christ that's gonna lift you up and gonna wash you in his blood and cleanse you of your sins and convict you and turn you again to Christ. He's going to do it. The law isn't going to do it.

All the law is going to do is harden you and make you a justifier of yourself before men, rather than justifying God. And so there are many men today, they speak of Christ, but then deny him by looking back to the law for righteousness. And warn men, don't trust Christ that much. Don't believe in him that much, to that degree. You're going to go crazy without the law. No, you've gone crazy under the law and putting your neck under the law rather than trusting Christ. Let your deceived trust in what they do under the law of Moses for righteousness and acceptance with God. They're making their boast in the law rather than Christ.

But when a man is a sinner, and made to know his sin and offense to God that he is, then no works that he does, no striving in religion, no spending, no laboring, no giving, in that dead letter will give him any relief or comfort. And there's nothing he can do, and then he becomes a mercy beggar. That's when he cries out to God, begging him for mercy, to forgive him.

It's such a mercy when God shows you that Your works under the law and in religion aren't cutting it. They're not saving you. And then it's such a mercy that it doesn't just stop there, but he drives you to Christ. He brings you to the Lord Jesus Christ. And because such a one like that has already been shown the grace and mercy of God. That's why they become mercy beggars. That's why we became mercy beggars and trust the Lord because God was merciful and gracious to us. He did it first. And so no man turning you to the law for righteousness can at the same time turn you to Christ. Because they get you in, telling you to believe on Christ.

And as soon as you come through the gate, they say, now run along to Mount Sinai. You did that. That's good. Now run along to Mount Sinai and get that yoke on your neck there. And that'll be your righteousness from here on. That's how you're going to prove that you're a Christian. No, believe in Christ. That's how the Lord's gonna prove that you're a Christian. Trusting him, staying upon him, hungering and thirsting for his righteousness. Following Christ, hearing his voice. That's how the Lord proves them that are his. And those that go off to the law, you're lost. You're back in darkness. You prove that you never heard, because you're not hearing the law, and you're not hearing the voice of Christ. You're hearing Moses, and Moses said, What are you doing here? I said, hear him who will come after me, like unto me. He's the prophet that the father would send. He's the one that's going to save you. He's the one that saves. Go to him. That's where we must go.

And so then in the ignorance of it all, our Lord exposes their ignorance in all of this, and in the midst of this all, He says, in the audience of all the people with the scribes there and those that hung around of the religious leaders of the Jews and his disciples. Verse 46, he says, beware. He's not going to leave his disciples in darkness. He says, beware of the scribes which desire to walk in long robes and love greetings in the markets and the highest seats in the synagogues And the chief rooms at feasts, they put on a good show.

And they want you to think that they are the highest of the highest of the highest, that they've arrived and you haven't. And they put on a good show so that you would aspire to be like them, because Christ ain't in the picture. They want you to look like them. And so that's what they're doing. They're putting on a good show. And Christ is exposing it to say, don't follow them. They're going off to the slaughter. And you're going to be destroyed with them. Don't follow them. They devour widows' houses. And for a show, make long prayers. The same shall receive greater damnation.

There is a greater damnation because they, by their deeds and teachings, they lessen, they minimize, they just chip away at Christ and his glory and what he did for his people. They're just chipping away and they're taking it away and they despise his redemption and they just make you forget about him because now all your focus is in religion and in the law. and dead letter things. And it becomes a ministration of death and condemnation to those in it. And they render the blood of Christ and his death on the cross to be nothing more than a little trinket, a little token, a little something that God did. But now you're back in religious things, dead things.

And so beware of their subtleties, brethren. Beware of Their ways are like the strange woman of Proverbs 7, which flattereth with her words. And this wisdom being spoken here in Proverbs 7, turn there, we'll look at this in closing. Proverbs 7, picking up in verse 24, All right, the wisdom says, hearken unto me, but it's Christ speaking. Hearken unto your Lord now, therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of his mouth, right? Listen to Christ, the wisdom of God. Listen to him. He's the wisdom given to us. He instructs us and keeps us in paths of righteousness. All right, look at verse 25, Proverbs 7, 25. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, Whose ways? The whore of Babylon, the false church with the false gospel. Don't decline to her ways. Go not astray in her paths. Don't go the way of the scribes and the Pharisees.

They're dead. For she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her. How many people have you heard confess that they just feel safer under the law and under the form of religion? They just want all that form because they think that's my protection, that's my hedge. Because they're not trusting Christ. Christ isn't their hedge, it's their works and their religion. Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death.

But Christ Jesus is the bright and shining light of God. Believe him, trust him for all your righteousness. Look to him in faith, confess him before God and men. He's everything. If you're a beggar, you're begging God for that mercy and he's made everything to you. And if he's made everything to you so that you're trusting him and you've got nothing to fall back on, right? I can't fall back on my religion, it stinks. I can't fall back on my works under the law, they stink, they're rotten. I have no hope of Christ and that's how it should be. And that's a good place to be. That's where you wanna be is at the feet of Christ.

David’s Lord And David’s Son

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David’s Lord And David’s Son

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