Well, good morning. If you would, if you want to
turn to first Timothy chapter six, our lesson is still going
to be from Mark this morning, chapter 12, but we're going to,
this will be the first scripture we look at. If you want to go
ahead and turn to that and be ready for that when we get there.
So before we begin, let's bow together in prayer. Our father, we very carefully,
and reverently come into your thrice holy presence this morning.
So thankful that in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ that
we can come before your throne of grace confidently, confident
that we'll be accepted in him, confident that Your son is all
the perfection that you require of us and that we would be accepted
because of who he is, not because of who we are, because of what
he's accomplished for us, not because of anything we've done.
Father, how thankful we are not to have to earn our way into
your presence, but be accepted in Christ our Savior. Father,
we're so thankful. And Father, I pray that the name
of your son would be exalted in this place today. that he
be exalted in preaching and our singing and our praying and everything
that we do, that his name would be exalted and that we would
be put into the dust at his feet to see our need, to see our complete
and utter helplessness and to worship him in spirit and in
truth. Father, I pray you'd bless your
word as it goes forth. We know that you've promised
your word will always accomplish the purpose where until you sin
it. And father, I pray this morning that you might be pleased to
send your word forth on a mission of mercy, to reach the hearts
of your people, to reveal your son to each heart here this morning. Father, our constant prayers
that you would show us your glory. Let us see the redemptive glory
of Christ our savior. and what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for your people wherever they're meeting together today.
Father, bless your word for your great namesake and for the good
of your people. We especially pray for our children's
class, that Father, you would bless our children, bless Dan
in teaching and bless our children in hearing, that you might be
pleased to use this time to plant the seeds of faith in their heart,
that they may Be like young Timothy, that from a child they've known
the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make them wise unto salvation,
that you might be pleased in your time to be merciful to them. Now Father, all these things
we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his sake and
his glory we pray, amen. Now you'll recall that in the
past few weeks we've been studying about some people that came asking
questions of our Lord. And you know, there are good
questions to be asked, but there are also bad questions that can
be asked, and it would do you and me well to know the difference
between a good question and a bad question. A good question that
we would ask is a question that seeks Christ, that seeks to know
more of Him, to reveal more of His glory. A good question has
an answer that reveals Christ, who he really is, so that we'll
trust him. A good question is a question
that unites us together in the worship and trust and love of
Christ, that unites us together in him. A bad question is a question
that has a self-serving motive. The motive is not to know more
of Christ. It's a self-serving motive so
that people notice me, not so that they know or notice Christ. A bad question will cause division
and debate. A good question unites us together
with Christ, but a bad question causes division and debate so
that I know more about you, not that I know more about Christ.
That's a bad question. And scripture tells us to avoid
those things, to avoid bad and foolish questions. And a foolish
question is a question that does not edify by teaching us Christ. Paul tells Timothy that here
in first Timothy six, verse three, if any man teach otherwise and
consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ and to the doctrine, which is according to godliness, he's
proud knowing nothing, But doting about questions and strifes of
words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse
disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth,
supposing that gain is godliness. From such withdraw thyself. Look
over a few pages of Titus chapter three. Paul tells Titus the same
thing in Titus three, verse nine. This is a faithful
saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that
they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain
good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions
and strivings about the law for they're unprofitable and they're
vain. Now that's what we've been looking
at. Men have come to our Lord asking unprofitable, vain questions. And we want to avoid asking those
kind of questions and being concerned at all with those kinds of questions. Before we get to our text, let
me just remind you what's been happening on this day. The Herodians
and the Pharisees, they came asking the Lord a political question.
Should we pay taxes to this corrupt government or not? And the way
the Lord answered that question teaches us politics have absolutely
no place in God's church, none whatsoever. We seek a heavenly
country. We're citizens of a heavenly
country, a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one. And many
of you are like me, I have very, very, very strongly held political
beliefs. And the ones I hold the most
strongly to are things that I feel like come from God's word. These
are things that are taught in God's word. But that's just my
political thing. That's got no place in this building,
no place amongst God's people, none. The Sadducees, and they
came, and this is such a foolish and vain question. They're trying
to prove their point, not find out what the word of God says.
They're trying to prove their point, there's no resurrection
of the dead, and they come up with this ridiculous scenario,
trying to prove, you know, this is what I think, and at all costs,
I gotta prove it. You know, they come up with these
seven brothers, all marry the same woman, and have no child, so
you know, whose wife's she gonna be in glory? And in being so
self-serving and so concerned about trying to prove what they
think, they showed their ignorance of the scriptures. They showed
their ignorance of the nature of heaven. They were only concerned
with about what they thought, not what the scriptures teach.
See how dangerous that kind of question is? And the scribe,
he just came to argue. And he picked the laws as what
he's gonna argue about. He asked the Lord, well, which
law is the greatest? And I'm sure his plan was, well,
whichever way the Lord went, he was gonna go the opposite
way, just play devil's advocate, you know, so they'd have something
to fuss and fight about. But the Lord answered so wisely
and so graciously, the man couldn't dispute. The Lord left him no
way he could argue with the Lord. And what the Lord taught us,
it's not knowing about Christ that's salvation. It's knowing
Christ. It's trusting Christ. It's not
knowing about the kingdom of heaven, it's being in the kingdom. Knowing the king and being in
the kingdom, that's what's important. And these men asked bad questions
that took everybody's focus off what was important, didn't they?
But the Lord, even though they asked bad questions, this is
something about our Lord that just makes me love him even more. They asked such evil questions. But the Lord in his wisdom answered
that question in a way. that turned everybody's attention
back to him, didn't it? Back to the scriptures, back
to the Lord. I just love that he did that. But you and I don't
have that wisdom and that ability, do we? So the best thing for
us to do is just avoid these kind of questions. Just don't
have anything to do with them. Well, those are bad questions.
Now our Lord's gonna ask a good question. And before we look
at Mark, look back at Matthew chapter 22. I wanna read Matthew's
account of this because Matthew here gives us a detail that Mark
was not led to give us. Matthew 22, verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, what think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? They say unto him, the son of
David. He saith unto them, how then, Doth David in spirit call
him Lord, saying, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my
right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David
then call him Lord, how is he a son? And no man was able to
answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask
him any more questions. Now the Lord asking them this
question from the scripture and from memorizing the scriptures,
They knew the answer, didn't they? They knew the answer that
the Christ, the Messiah is the son of David, but they didn't
know the son of David. Can I say that they knew the
answer, but they didn't know the answer? They knew what the
answer was, but they didn't know who the answer is. Maybe that's
a good way to say it. And what our Lord asked is the
question. It's the question for every soul
here. What think ye of Christ? What
think ye of him? To the believer, Christ is everything. He is everything. Christ is all. Christ is all from what we call
eternity to eternity, from before man's time on earth till after
man's time on earth. Christ is all. He's all in election. When the father chose a people
to save, who did he put them in? He said, mine elect and his
son. The father chose the son, elected
the son to be the redeemer of his people, then he elected the
people to put in him. Christ is all in election. Christ
is all in the redemption of our souls. He paid the price. He himself is our redemption. He's all in our sanctification. Don't ever fall for these false
prophets that say, well, now Christ redeemed you, but you
gotta earn your own sanctification. You gotta earn your own holiness
by what you do or what you don't do. No, sir, Christ is our holiness. Not only does he make his people
holy, he is our holiness. Christ is all in keeping his
people and preserving his people. All through our walk here below,
time here below, Christ is the one who keeps his people. We
do not keep ourselves by the power of our just stiffening
up our spine and refusing to quit. No, Christ keeps us. The
shepherd keeps the sheep, doesn't he? And Christ is all in the
glorification of his people. What is glory? It's to be made
like Christ. It's to be with him where he
is. He's all in our glorification. The difference between life and
death is Christ. He's all, He's all of the difference. I know this, Christ is all to
the Father. Everything that the Father looks for for His people,
He looks to His Son for. Christ is all to the Father.
By God's grace, He's all to me too. How about you? What think
ye of Christ? He's everything. He's everything.
He's all I want. He's all I need. Now look in
our text in Mark chapter 12. This is where the Lord in verse
35, this is Mark's account of this now. And Jesus answered
and said, while he taught in the temple, how say the scribes
that Christ is the son of David? Now they knew from over in the
Matthew's account of this, they'd memorized the answer, didn't
they? They knew, yes, this is true, that the Christ is the
son of David, but they didn't know what it meant. They memorized
the words of scripture. but they didn't know what they
meant. God must reveal the scriptures to us. He must reveal Christ
to us from the scriptures. This is what the Lord told the
Pharisees. How you read and you study the
scriptures and in them you think you have eternal life. You think
you have eternal life just because you spend your time reading it
and the scribes, you know, transcribing it. And our Lord said, but this
is what you don't know. They testified me. They testified
me. And if we're going to see that,
God the Holy Spirit has to reveal it to us, doesn't he? He has
to reveal it to us. You know, these men, when they
read about the son of David sitting on the throne, this is what they
thought. They thought there's a man coming. He's going to be
related to David. He's going to be in the line
and lineage of David. And eventually he's going to
set up an earthly throne, an earthly kingdom. And, you know,
the scribes were, and the Pharisees, were certainly hoping that he
would come in their lifetime and get them out from under the
rule of Rome, get Rome's boot off their neck, you know, and
set up an earthly kingdom like David's, where they're the most
powerful kingdom in the world. And then they're going to be
the top dogs again. And they go around, Lord, and over everybody
that we got more power than you. We got a more, a stronger king,
a stronger army. And, you know, y'all can't make
us do what we don't want to do anymore. That's what they were
hoping for. That's what they thought that
the son of David was. And that just shows you this
flesh. We can't think past the end of our nose. I mean, we just
can't think about anything but what affects my flesh. It never
occurred to these men that God was sending a king who would
establish a heavenly kingdom, a spiritual kingdom. That's what
our Lord told Pilate. He said, my kingdom's not of
this world. If it was, my people would fight, but it's not of
this world. It never occurred to them that
the Lord was setting up a heavenly kingdom, a kingdom where his
son would be the king and his people would be the subjects.
It never occurred to them. So then the Lord tells them who
the son of David really is. Verse 36, 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. Now this is a, this is
a great mystery that the Lord is revealing. And we were talking
about this Wednesday night after the service with so many things
about the tabernacle picture, the God man. That's what our
Savior's teaching here, the God-man. What a great mystery. The Apostle
Paul, writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Now this
is not just Paul's thinking or Paul's opinion. This is him writing
under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And Paul Smarter and
all of us put together said, great is the mystery of godliness. What a great mystery that God
was manifest in the flesh. God whom the heavens cannot contain
was manifest in the body of a man. What a great mystery, but that's
who the Lord Jesus Christ is. He's the God man. Now he's God,
but he became a man related to David in the line of lineage
of David. Mary was, was in the lineage
of David. Our Lord was born of Mary. So
he's in the lineage of David through his mother, Mary, gave
birth to a real man. I mean, this is a real baby.
Didn't have a halo over his head or nothing. He was a real baby.
Looked just like any other Jewish baby. He was a real man. But
he was the son of God. The Lord Jesus was not conceived
in the womb of his mother by man. She was a virgin. He was
conceived in her womb by the Holy Ghost. And an angel came
from heaven where he saw God. I mean, you think of when this
angel came from heaven and he came to Mary to tell her that
the Lord Jesus was conceived in her womb and this angel, who
is such a higher creature than you and I are, didn't know what
to call him. I don't, he's that holy thing
that's in you. I mean, he just couldn't think
of a word to describe how miraculous this is that God is manifest
in the flesh. God became a man. The root and offspring of David
is the son of God. Now, I don't care how long we
live. We're never going to understand that. But it has to be revealed. And even though I don't understand
it, I believe it with every fiber of my being. And it thrills me. It thrills me because the only
way a sinner like me can be saved is through this God-man. He's
got to be God so he can satisfy God. But he's got to be a man
who can be my representative. That's who the God-man is. And
he came, he lived a life of perfection, but he had to die. See, before
he can ascend back to the Father, sit on the throne of his Father,
first he had to die, didn't he? He had to die for sin. Before
he can ascend back to the father and sit on the throne, he had
to purchase the right to sit on the throne. He had to die.
He had to die for sin, for the sin of his people. One of his
sin is the sin of his people. He had to die as a sacrifice
that would put away the sin of his people. So after he died,
he had to be raised again from the dead. He had to be resurrected.
He can't ascend back to glory until he's raised from the dead,
can he? And he was raised from the dead as evidence to all of
creation. His sacrifice put away the sin
of his people. Christ died for sin. But why
was he resurrected? Because there's no more sin left.
Sin demanded his death, but when his blood put that sin away,
where there is no sin, there must be life. And he was raised
again from the dead. When Christ walked out of that
tomb, raised from the dead, he walked out as the justification
of his people. That proved he justified his
people, made them sinless. Now again, can't explain that. When I look at myself, if I look
at myself honestly, all I see is sin. That's all I see. How
can I have no sin? Before God, I don't. I can't
explain how that is. but I believe it to be so. It's
my hope of salvation that Christ by his death justified me from
all of my sin. And then that man ascended back
to glory. And when he got there, David
said, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit here on my throne until I
make your enemies your footstool. Sit here on this throne and you
rule and reign over creation until it's time for you to return
and gather your people to yourself and bring them to be with you
where you are. That was a conversation between God and God. That's what
David was saying. He's my son is also God. He's my Lord and my God. Now,
David, as a prophet, he knew this. The Lord showed him this
would happen. He knew what the father would
say to the son when he ascended back to glory because David knew
he would be the successful, victorious savior. He would sit on the throne
because it's his. Now, think about what David told
us all those years ago and what our Lord's telling us here in
our text. Right now, at this very second, There is a man in
flesh and bones like ours. Now it's glorified flesh, it's
sinless flesh, but a man in flesh, just like ours, sitting on the
throne of God. There's a man there. A man who
suffered and died for his people. And now he's on the throne. Now
do you reckon he's gonna lose anybody he died for? Do you reckon
he's gonna lose anybody that he loves, that he set his affection
on? No, he's king, ruling and reigning
to guarantee the salvation and glorification of his people.
He's king. David told us that. How many
years before Christ was born, David told us that. You know,
people ask him, I don't know if this is probably a bad question,
I don't know. It could be a good question,
maybe depending on your motive in asking it. But people, I've
heard asked, what do you think the Old Testament believers really
understood? I'm sure of this, they understood
more than we give them credit for. They understood more than
we give them credit for. And they knew what the Holy Spirit
was pleased to reveal to them. And the Holy Spirit revealed
enough to them to see Christ and trust Him, see Him by faith
the same way you and I do. By faith, we've never seen him
bodily, they didn't either. But we see him by faith and we
trust him. Abel saw Christ. That's why he brought a lamb,
that lamb that pictured Christ. Did he see Christ as clearly
as you and I do? I don't know, maybe not. But
he saw Christ, that's why he brought a lamb. Abraham and Isaac
saw him. Our Lord said, Abraham saw my
day and he was glad. Abraham and Isaac saw that day
on the mountain when Abraham did not slay his son. And he
saw that ram caught in the thicket behind him, caught by his horns.
And he took that ram and he offered him up in the stead of his son,
Isaac. Abraham saw Christ's day and he was glad. He wasn't just
glad that his son was spared because Abraham already knew
if he killed his son, God's gonna raise him from the dead and they're
both gonna walk back down the mountain again. He already knew
that. Abraham was glad he saw how Christ is gonna put his sin
away. He saw how God would be just and justifier and bring
Abraham to glory, because he's gonna slay his son in Abraham's
place. Abraham saw him. Moses saw him. Our Lord said,
Moses wrote of me. Isaiah saw him. We call Isaiah
oftentimes the gospel according to Isaiah. Isaiah, 700 years
before Christ was born, wrote of Christ almost as clearly as
the apostles did, didn't he? He saw Christ, and we do too,
the same way, by faith, by faith, because the Holy Spirit has revealed
him to us. You see how the question that
the Savior asked pointed people to Christ the Savior, didn't
it? It revealed more of who Christ is so that we trust him. And the common people heard it,
and they were glad. They understood what the Lord
was saying and they were glad because that's how God can save
me. I see what he's saying. That's how God can save me. Now
that's a good question. That's good doctrine and that's
good religion. But the Lord goes on, he doesn't
stop there. He goes on and he warns us about bad doctrine and
bad religion and bad motives. Look at verse 38. And he said unto them in his
doctrine, in his teaching, You beware of the scribes, which
love to go in long clothing, and they love salutations in
the marketplace, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and
the uppermost rooms at the feast, which devour widows' houses.
And for a pretense, make long prayers. These shall receive
greater damnation. Now the Lord says, he warns them
about the doctrine of the scribes, the teaching of the scribes.
He warns them, it's outward. It's only outward, it doesn't
deal with the heart, it's only outward, and it's hypocritical. I mean, it's hypocritical. God
help us from being religious hypocrites. I think that's the
worst thing we can be, is a religious hypocrite. These men were concerned
with their pet doctrine about the resurrection, and they're
not concerned about Christ. They're just concerned about
their pet doctrine, proving their pet doctrine, making themselves
look good, Now, they're very sincere. They were very, very
sincere. But their religion, without Christ,
just like every religion without Christ, leaves a person empty
and mean, and mean. They dress for show, to impress
other men. And you know why they're doing
that, to impress other men? Because they don't know God.
That's exactly why. God looks on the heart. He didn't
look on the outward countenance. He looks on the heart. And that's
what we ought to be concerned with too. And oh, they love religious
titles. Oh, they, you know, they want
to impress men and they want to be praised of men. They're
seeking the praise of men, not the praise of God. And if you
look over in John chapter 12, I'll show you something very
sobering, that that attitude keeps us from salvation. John
12, verse 42. Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers also, many believed on him. I don't think that's saving
faith that they believed on him. They might've believed something
about him. I say that because of this next
phrase. But because of the Pharisees, They did not confess him lest
they should be put out of the synagogue for they love the praise
of men more than the praise of God. They love the praise of
men so much that they would not confess Christ. And our Lord
said, those that don't confess me, I won't confess him for my
father. He can keep us from salvation. These men, these scribes that
the Lord's talking about, warning us now about their doctrine,
don't follow this doctrine, don't follow this teaching, don't follow
this way of religion. They never missed a service in
the synagogue. I'm sure of it, they never missed
a service. But they came to be seen of men. So the other men would say, oh,
look what good Christians they are. They never missed a service,
they're so faithful. Look what good Christians they
are. They came to be seen of men, so the other men would be
impressed with them, instead of coming with their faces in
the dirt, seeking Christ, seeking mercy from Christ, seeking salvation
from Christ. They came to be seen of men,
instead of seeing Christ by faith. That's one of the saddest things
I can think of. And they love to pray in public places. They
like to pray in the street corners. Today, they'd be people praying
in restaurants. And people that do that to be
seen of men, they're just like the Pharisee in the temple that
the Lord told us about. He prayed thus with himself.
They're not praying to God. They're praying thus with themselves,
because they're not talking to God from the heart. They're going
through this outward show to impress you, not to bow before
God and thank Him, and thank Him. And they devour widows'
houses, the Lord says. They prey on widows. You know,
they did this before televangelists could get on TV and tell widows,
you know, send in your last dime, you know, and the Lord's still
gonna provide for you. They did it without all that.
They still preyed on widows' houses. They preyed on these
widows who didn't have anybody to help them, who didn't have
anybody to teach them, to point them in the right direction.
They preyed on them, they preyed on them. I think you could sum
this up by what the Lord is saying about these scribes this way.
Their doctrine, their teaching, their way of religion, what it
was that they were concerned with did not make them helpful. It didn't make them merciful. If you find a religion that does
not make a person merciful, it's false religion. If God's been
merciful to you, how can you not be merciful to others? If
God's loved you, even though you don't deserve it, how can
you not be loving to others? If Christ is your helper, how
can you not be helpful to others? If somebody's religion does not
make them helpful and merciful, they're in false religion. That
religion's not of God. I promise you that. And our Lord
says there, you avoid that. You avoid that. And you find
a way to seek Christ. True religion, true doctrine,
true teaching that comes from God points us to Christ. We'd be well served, not ask
all these ridiculous questions, but come with this question,
this motive, to every single worship service. Like those men
that came to the apostles and said, sirs, we would see Jesus. We would see Jesus. If the Lord
would show us him, All our ducks will get in a row right quick.
I promise you they will. All right. I hope the Lord bless
that to you.