Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to the book of Mark, chapter 11, Lord
willing, we'll finish up this study in chapter 11 this morning. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. And Lord, we carefully
and reverently come before your throne of grace this morning,
bowing before you, begging of you that you would see fit to
have mercy upon us this morning. As we look into your word, Father,
that you might let us see the Lord Jesus Christ with the eye
of faith, that we might hear of him, who he is, and that with
the heart that you would enable us to believe on him, to rest
in him. Father, I beg of you that you
would show us your glory, your redemptive glory in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how we need you. Without
thee, we can do nothing. We can't worship, we can't pray,
we can't read and understand your word. Father, I pray you'd
enable us this morning to, from the heart, worship you. of true
worship, we pray. For it's in Christ's name. For
his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. Now I've got a interesting
title this morning, but this is a true statement. Honest people
do not go to hell. Our text begins in verse 27 of
Mark chapter 11. And they come again to Jerusalem,
And as he was walking in the temple, there came to him the
chief priest and scribes and the elders and saying to him,
by what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee
this authority to do these things? You know, they're talking about
him coming in and overthrowing the money changers and their
booze and all those things and driving them out. Who gave you
the authority to do these things? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, I will also ask of you one question. And answer me,
and I'll tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism
of John, was it from heaven or of men? Answer me. And they reasoned
with themselves, saying, if we shall say from heaven, he will
say, why then did you not believe him? But if we shall say of men,
they feared the people. For all men counted John that
he was a prophet indeed. And they answered and said unto
Jesus, we cannot tell. And Jesus answering, saith unto
them, neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Now these men come to our Lord, and the thing I want us to see
is how he met them at their point of rebellion. Their point of
rebellion was their pride. Their point of rebellion was
self-righteousness. Their point of rebellion was
keeping their place of prominence in their religion. That was their
point of rebellion. That's why they would not bow
to Christ. And he met them at their point of rebellion. And
Lord's gonna meet us at our point of rebellion too, isn't he? If
God saved you, you know he did that. He met you at whatever,
wherever your particular point of rebellion was, that's where
he met you. And the way that the Lord met
them at their point of rebellion was asking them about the baptism
of John. And he told them, now if you
honestly answer my question about the baptism of John, I'll honestly
answer your question about where I get my authority. Now that
seems fair, doesn't it? Answer my question honestly.
I'll answer your question honestly. Now look back at Mark chapter
one. John's baptism was the baptism of repentance. When people were
baptized of John, what they were confessing is, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner and I'm confessing
that I'm turning away from my false religion and turning to
Christ, turning to trust the Messiah who's coming. John said
that he's coming. John the Baptist was the last
of the Old Testament prophets. He was sent before the Lord to
tell folks that the Lord's coming, make straight a highway, tell
folks that Christ is coming. And when people were baptized
of John, they were confessing, I'm a sinner, and I need this
savior to save me, this one who is to come. Mark 1, verse 4. The Lord says, John did baptize
in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all
the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem and were all baptized
of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now that's what they
were doing. They were coming, confessing,
I'm a sinner and I need a savior. That was the baptism of John.
That's what scripture tells us the baptism of John is. There's
no question, that's what it is. Now the Lord asked these scribes
and Pharisees and religious leaders, what do you say that the baptism
of John is? Is the baptism of John from heaven? Is it sent from God, ordained
by God? Or is it something that men made
up and it's useless and you can just ignore it like you fellows
did? You ignored the baptism of John.
Which is it, from heaven or of men? And instead of just answering
the question, The scribes and these elders and chief priests
and all these, they reasoned among themselves. You can just
answer the question. I mean, the answer is plain,
but they reasoned among themselves. How should we answer this? We
need to make up an answer that will suit our purpose. We need
to make up an answer that will defend what we've done. Because
if they said John's baptism was from heaven, if it was of God,
then the Lord's gonna ask them, well, if it's of God, you know
it's of God, Why weren't you baptized of John confessing your
sins? See, he met them at their point
of rebellion, didn't he? Their point of rebellion was
self-righteousness and pride. He met them at their point of
rebellion. If they would have been baptized of John, what they
would have had to admit is, I've been in false religion all along.
I've been wrong all along. I'm unrighteous. I've been trying
to make people think I'm righteous by my works, by all this, my
broad phylacteries and my praying in the streets and my, you know,
transcribing the scriptures and all these things I'm doing for
God. I've been telling folks that's what makes me righteous.
If I'm baptized of John, I'm going to publicly admit I'm unrighteous. That my self-righteousness is
a lie and their pride and their self-righteousness wouldn't allow
them to do it. But if they said, well, John's baptism was of men. It's just a useless ceremony
that John made up, you know, trying to trick people. It was
just of men. Well, if they said that, then
all the people would quit following them. Because they all thought
John the Baptist was a prophet sent from God. The Lord met them
at their point of rebellion. Their point of rebellion was
keeping their place in that religion. we're not going to give it up.
We're just not going to answer that way. We're going to keep
the glory for ourselves. So the way we're doing things,
if salvation is by my works and me following the ceremonies and
me obeying the law and doing these things, then I get the
glory. But if I admit that if I would
say that this baptism was me and all the people are going
to quit following me, then I'm going to lose my place. I've seen the same thing. play
out today. Someone will hear the gospel
and they say, I hear what you're saying, but
I can't believe it because if what you're saying is true, my
mama's not saved. If what you're saying is true,
I'm not saved. And they're going to have to
humble themselves and beg God to save them. So they say, I
can't accept it. That's exactly what these Pharisees
are doing when the Lord met them at their point of rebellion.
And in general terms, isn't that the point of rebellion in all
mankind? It's self-righteousness and pride.
That's our point of rebellion. And those two things got to go.
If God's going to save us, our pride has got to go. We've got
to be abased. Our self-righteousness has got
to go. We've got to depend on Christ alone to be our righteousness. So these men did not answer the
Lord's question honestly. Now, they could have. But they
didn't. They didn't answer the Lord's
question honestly. And because they were dishonest,
the Lord would not tell them where he got his authority. Now
you think of that. What if the Lord had told them
about his authority? What if he had told them where
he got his authority and who he was and he's got this authority
because he's God in the flesh? What if he told them that and
revealed himself to them in that way? You know what, more than
likely, even if the Holy Spirit enabled them to hear what the
Lord was saying, you know what they'd have done? They'd have begged
for mercy. And if they'd have begged for
mercy, they'd have had it. And their dishonesty kept them from
hearing from God. That's pretty serious, isn't
it? That's pretty serious. That's why I named the title
The Lesson. Honest people don't go to hell. And they knew, you
know, they knew. They had a real good idea who
Jesus of Nazareth was. Nicodemus knew it. Didn't he? It was obvious. Now, when Nicodemus
first came to the Lord by night, he didn't know that Jesus was
the Christ. He didn't know that Jesus was the son of God, but
he knew he came from God. He knew that God was with him.
He knew that. He said, nobody could do what
you're doing, except God be with him. Nobody could do that. They
knew that, but they refused to admit even that, that this man,
that God is with this man, because if they admitted it, they would
have had to trust him. They'd had to give up some of
their credit, they'd had to give up their glory, they would have
had to give up their self-righteousness, and they refused to admit. And they went to hell trusting
in a false refuge. I mean, unless the Lord acted
in mercy later on and did something that's not recorded in scripture,
these dishonest men went to hell trusting in a false refuge. Now
that's them. I want us now to look at the
Lord's authority. What is his authority? Where
did he get his authority from? When you read the four gospels,
we learn something of the power of the Lord Jesus, don't we?
This man had power over the weather. He could stop a storm like that.
He could stop a wind like that. He could stop waves and make
the sea a glass just like that. Nobody else could ever do such
a thing. This man had authority over the demons. Remember, he
cast out that legion, and they had to ask him for permission
to go from this man to those swine. They couldn't even go
from one place to another without his permission. He said, come
out, and they came out. I mean, every single time the
Lord commanded a demon to come out, it came out. But those demons,
they even had to ask for permission to go from one place to another.
This man has that authority. He has authority over sickness,
incurable sickness. And one of the preeminent examples
in scripture is leprosy. This man had the power to instantly
cleanse leprosy. He had the power over sickness.
He has power over life and death. He raised the dead. He brought
the dead back to life. And when he preached, you know
what the common people saw? This man's speaking with authority. Not like the scribes and Pharisees.
This man's speaking with authority. And if you look back at Matthew
chapter 11, I'll show you where he got this authority from. Matthew
11, verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and you
revealed them unto babes, even so, father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father, neither
knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. The father gave all things into
the hand of his son. That's where he got his power
from, from the father. And you wanna talk about power?
When the father gave him all things, he gave the son the power
to reveal the father to dead sinners. Those of us here this
morning that believe on Christ, and we can say honestly, I believe
Christ. My faith, I'm so ashamed of the
weakness of it. I don't wanna even talk about
it publicly, but now I believe Christ. I know God. You know why I do? The son had
the power to reveal the father to me. That's how, that's his
authority. Look over at Matthew chapter
28. Matthew 28 and verse 18. And Jesus came and spake unto
them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth.
The Father gave the Lord Jesus Christ power everywhere in heaven
and earth. And because he's given him power
everywhere in heaven and earth, here's what we're to do. Go ye,
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo,
I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. We're to
go into all the world and preach the gospel with this confidence.
Our Savior has power in heaven and earth, all power. He's gonna take our weak preaching,
our stumbling and our bumbling, the words that comes from the
sinful lips of a man, and he's got such power, he's gonna take
that and use it to put life in the heart of a sinner. That's
power, isn't it? Now look at Philippians chapter
two. See, what I'm trying to show us here is he's received
this power of his father, and it's all power. The father gave
it to him because he earned it. He earned it. Verse eight, Philippians
chapter two, in being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore, because he has done
this, God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name, that is the name of Jesus. Every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now the Father's
given him all authority, and it's right that he did, isn't
it? It's right that the Savior has all authority. Now that, to me, this is not
just a doctrinal point that separates us from free willers or something,
the sovereignty of God, the sovereign grace of our Savior, His sovereignty. It's not just a point of doctrine
that separates us from people in false religion. Thinking about
the authority of our Savior thrills my soul. You know what thrills
my soul the most? If the Lord Jesus Christ has
all authority and all power that he has the power to save my sinful
soul. He's got the power to give me
eternal life. He's got the power to give me
faith. He's got the power to keep me. Every true believer is scared
to death knowing I'll leave Christ. I'll fall away in a heartbeat
if Lord takes his hand off of me. Every believer's afraid of
that, because we know that that's so. What's your comfort? The
Lord's got all power, and he won't let me. He won't let me. He's got the power, even one
day, to glorify me and present me faultless before the throne
of his glory. Now that's power. Aren't you
glad he has all authority and all power? I love that. And if
the Lord will show us his authority, if the Holy Spirit will enable
us to see his authority, to see the glory of his power, this
is what will happen. We'll trust him. We'll fall at
his feet and we'll beg him for mercy and we'll stay right there
forever, won't we? If we see his authority. All
right, now that's, I wanted to bring that up about his authority,
because that's what these, These men who twisted the scriptures,
those are the things that they were saying. I love the authority
of Christ. I love it. It's such a comfort
to my heart. But I want to ask us a few questions
this morning. You know, the baptism of John,
that's not really anybody's point of rebellion here, is it? But
what about some other things? that could be our point of rebellion.
These are things that are commonly the point of rebellion that you
find in religious folks today. And I wanna ask you four questions.
And if the Holy Spirit will enable us to answer these questions
honestly, it'll force us to fall at the feet of Christ, to beg
him for mercy. And if we beg him for mercy,
we'll find salvation. That's where you find it, at
the feet of Christ. Now here's the first thing. This
book declares that all men are sinners. That all we are is sin. It's not just that we do some
things wrong. Everything that we do is sin. Everything we think, everything
we desire is sin. That's what this book declares.
My question to you is, are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? Let's look at a couple places.
First, Genesis chapter six. Genesis chapter six, verse five. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now is that
you? Is everything you think, everything
that you desire, everything that comes from your natural heart,
is it only evil continually? Is that you? Look at Romans chapter
three. Romans three verse nine. Now
what then? Are we better than they? I mean,
are we better than anybody? No, and no wise. For we have
before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, religious and heathen,
that they're all under sin. All. As it's written, there's
none righteous. No, not one. You know, it says
there's none righteous, and somebody might be thinking, oh, wait a
minute, I've done a few righteous things. No, not one. No, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They're together become unprofitable.
Just add them together, they're still unprofitable. There's still
a negative number. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher,
just an open grave. With their tongues they've used
to see the poison of asbestos under their lips, whose mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way
of peace, if they not known. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. Now that's what scripture says
about all men. Is that you? Does that describe you? Look
at verse 23. For all have sinned. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Look at Romans
chapter five. Verse 12. Wherefore, as by one
man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. And that phrase, all
have sinned, means in whom all have sinned. All men became sinners
in Adam. When Adam sinned, every one of
us sinned. When Adam became guilty, every
one of us became guilty. And that's why I commit all the
sin that I commit. That's why I am the way that
I am. That's why I can't do anything righteous. Because in Adam, I
became dead. I became a sinner. Now I want
you to be honest. Does that describe you? Are you
that sinner? Can you cry unto God, God be
merciful to me, the sinner. Not just a sinner among many
sinners, but the worst sinner. The sinner. Does that describe
you? Now be careful, be careful and be honest when you answer
that question. Look at 1 John chapter 8. I'm sorry, 1 John chapter 1 verse 8. 1 John chapter
1 verse 8. If we say we have no sin, and
that means a sin nature, If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say, well, I'm not
that sinner. I don't have a sin nature like
that. We're not being honest. Verse 10 says, if we say that
we've not sinned, we make God a liar. His word is not in us. But verse nine, if we confess
our sins, if we answer this question honestly, I am the sinner. If
we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we answer this question honestly,
I'm the sinner. God is faithful and he's just
to cleanse us of all of our sins because he punished our sins
in the Lord Jesus Christ, our substitute. He's faithful and
he's just to cleanse us of all of our sin because he washes
us in the blood of Christ. If we answer this question honestly,
I'm the sinner, it'll force us to beg God for mercy on it. All
right, number two. This book declares that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the only savior of sinners. He is the only way
of salvation. There is no other way. There
is no other hope but the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, do you believe
him? Do you believe him? Scripture
says there's none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved. This is the only savior of sinners,
and if God gives you the faith to believe him, you must be saved. Because he's the only savior.
He's such a powerful savior. If you believe, I don't care
who you are, I don't care what your background is, if you believe
on him, you must be saved. The angel said, you call his
name Jesus. for he shall, without any doubt, save his people from
their sin. The Lord told his disciples one
day, I'm the way. I'm the way. I'm the truth, I'm
the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. He's the only Savior, he's the
only way to God, he's the only way to holiness, he's the only
way to righteousness. Isaiah wrote of him, Isaiah 43,
verse 11, where God said, Even I and the Lord, the Lord
Jehovah, and beside me, there is no savior. There's no other
savior other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now be honest. Do you believe him? Notice I
didn't say, do you believe that that's true? Do you believe him? Do you believe him? See, I'm
talking about believing Christ. I'm not talking about believing
a Calvinistic set of doctrines or another set of doctrines and
catechisms that somebody's giving you. Do you believe Christ? Do you believe that there's no
hope found in anything that you do? That there's no work that
you can do that would recommend you to God? Do you really believe
that the very best things you've ever done the best things you've
ever done in the service of God and in the service of his church,
that the very best things that you have ever done, the best
prayer you've ever prayed, the best time of scripture reading
that you've ever had, the best time of talking about the Lord
to someone that doesn't know him or someone that does. I mean,
the best things that you've done. Is that really enough to send
you to hell? Do you believe that? Do you believe that Christ saves
from even that, from even my best works? Do you believe that?
Do you believe Him? Do you really believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is your only hope? You have no other hope
before God but Him. Has God given you faith to trust
Him? Do you really trust Christ to do everything God requires
of you? That I feel no inclination whatsoever
to do something, to add to the work of Christ, to add to the
person of Christ, to add to the righteousness of Christ, to make
myself accepted with the Father. Do you really trust Him to be
all your salvation without you adding anything to it? Do you
trust Him? Do you trust Him to be your wisdom,
the wisdom to know God, the wisdom to know yourself, to see His
wisdom, how by His sacrifice God can be both just and justifier?
Do you trust Him to be your righteousness? His obedience is the obedience,
the righteousness of His people. Now, do you trust Him to do all
that for you? And here's how you know you trust Him to be
all of your righteousness. You wouldn't dare add anything
you've done to Him. Do you trust Him to be your holiness?
Do you trust Him to be the forgiveness of your sin, His precious blood? Do you trust Him to be your spiritual
light? that in him I see, I see my sin, I see my need of him,
I see his glory, I see, I understand. How can God be both just and
justify a sinner like me? It's in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I trust him, I trust him. Do you trust him so that
you know you're accepted in the beloved, that the Father accepts
you in the beloved? Not because he sees you and Christ,
but he sees Christ only, accepted in the beloved. Do you believe,
now be honest, do you believe that? If the Holy Spirit has enabled
you to believe that, you know what you'll do? You'll come to
Christ begging for salvation, because he's the only one that
can save you. And this book says, if you seek him with all your
heart, you beg for mercy with all your heart, you'll find salvation
in Christ. God will give it to you, he sure
will. You come beg Christ for mercy, he'll give it to you. You won't
find one example in this book of anyone who ever begged God
for mercy that didn't receive it. And the reason we beg God
for mercy is God showed us. He showed us ourselves. He showed
us my first point, we're sinners. And he showed us the second question,
Christ is the only savior of sinners. If God shows me that,
I'll beg him for mercy. All right, here's my third question.
This book declares that God will keep his people. He'll keep them
by his power, by the power of his grace, and he will not keep
us by our works. God's not gonna keep his people
because we've decided to do something good. No, it's all by his power,
the power of his grace. Now, do you believe that? Are you resting in Christ to
keep you? Are you depending on him to keep
you? Now, every person in this room this morning, we believe
this. Christ saves his people by himself. We believe that,
don't we? We believe that we're saved by
grace, not our works. We all believe that. Surely,
after all this time, there's nobody here that believes if
God saves us by his grace, that he'll keep us by our works. Surely
not. Surely not. God's gonna keep
us by the same grace that he saved us. That's how he keeps
his people. Look at Jude, the book of Jude. Verse 24. Now unto him that's able to keep
you from falling, to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory, and majesty, dominion, and power, both now and ever. Amen. Unto Him that's able to
keep you from falling. Now be honest. Do you believe,
really truly believe, that the only way you'll be kept and presented
before, perfect before the Father, is by the Lord Jesus Christ,
by His power, by His grace, by His will, and His alone? Do you
believe that? If you do, you know what you'll do? You'll live humbly. You'll live
in this world humbly before God and men, not giving anybody any
thought that you're being kept because you're so good and holy
and righteous and religious. No, we're kept by God's grace.
I'm completely dependent on God's grace to keep me, and I don't
have the right to harshly judge anyone. Anyone. because I'm just as sinful as
they are and just dependent on God to save me and keep me as
they are. All right, here's my last question. This book declares that the gospel
that we preach is the only gospel. It's the only gospel that saves.
Now, is it or isn't it? Do you believe that? And when
I talk about the gospel, I'm talking about the gospel of Christ,
the gospel that's all about him, It's the gospel of God's sovereign
grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace that saves through faith
alone, grace alone by faith alone. Anything else is another gospel,
what Paul called another gospel. It's a perversion of the gospel.
It cannot save anyone because the object of the message is
not Christ alone. The only message that saves is
the gospel of Christ alone. Now, I want you to be honest.
Do you believe that? Do you? Is this gospel we preach,
is it the only gospel? Or are there other gospels? You
know, is this the gospel? The gospel of God or Is there
room to compromise? You know, is there some rigmarole
on this thing, you know, of Christ alone? Is there some rigmarole
on this thing of my works, you know, kind of contributing to
this thing of my salvation? Paul said there's not. He told
the church at Galatia, that's not another gospel. It's a perversion,
he said. You know, is this the gospel?
Is this the only way of salvation? Or can we all go different ways
and end up in the same place? It's one or the other, which
one is it? Well, if you believe this is the only gospel, it'll
force you to beg God to teach it to you, to beg God to reveal
it to you, to beg God to give you faith to believe it. And
if you believe this is the only gospel, you'll take every opportunity
that you have to hear it. because it's God's gospel. This
is the opportunity to hear from God himself, from God himself. If I believe this is the only
gospel, I believe I want to hear that. I believe I do. And I believe
I can find myself easily begging God to reveal it to me. How about
you? All right, Lord bless you.