Turn back to Matthew chapter
12. When I was a young boy, I was
telling Cecil, we used to go to a place that heated the building with
a wood stove. When we'd come in, somebody would
light the stove. You talk about cold. This feels
like, I mean, this feels good. I can still remember how cold
it was. This is pleasant compared to
that. The title of the message is Christ
Greater Than the Temple. Christ Greater Than the Temple. Now back in chapter 11, our Lord
spoke of the sovereignty of God. He sends the gospel where he
will send it, and he withholds it from whom he will. You remember,
Paul wanted to go into Asia, and the Lord forbade him to do
that. He forbade him. He said, you
know, you're going down, I think it was Macedonia. But he didn't
let him go over to Asia. He sent him someplace else at
that time. And the Lord revealed in that
chapter that we looked at last week, divine sovereignty and
human responsibility, because he said that those places who
had seen mighty works, the works that he had done, that those
Tyre and Sidon and Sodom would fare better in judgment than
they would. And he said, all things are delivered unto me
of my Father. As the Mediator, all things were delivered unto
his hands. And no man knows the Son, but the Father, and no man
knows the Father except the Son, to whomsoever the Son will reveal
him. He's sovereign. The Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. There's only one God, but they're
all three sovereign. As he said, it's to whomsoever
the Son will reveal it. And then he says, come unto me,
all you that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Rest from the burden of religion.
Rest from the burden of trying to earn salvation, trying to
please God, really trying to quiet your conscience. That's
what it comes down to. It comes down to really more
trying to quiet a conscience than anything else. But he said,
I'll give you rest. give you rest from an accusing
conscience. And he said, my yoke is easy
and my burden is light. Go back and read Leviticus. Go
back and read all those things that they were given to do. And you realize his yoke is easy
and his burden is light. And after this, in chapter 12,
He with his disciples, they go through the cornfield and they
do it on the Sabbath day. Why? Because they're hungry. You know, you get hungry on a
Sabbath day like you do any other day. And they are hungry. And so the Lord, Lord of the
Sabbath, takes them through this cornfield. And this shows also,
really, their poverty. I thought about that. I thought
they get up on the Sabbath day and they have no food in the
house. And what do they do? They go out into a cornfield
and they pick some corn to eat. That shows even how poor they
were. So they do this. They go out
and they pick some corn to eat. And those Jewish leaders, those
Pharisees, those self-righteous Pharisees, see this, and they
get upset. They don't care how hungry they
are. It doesn't matter how hungry you are. They're upset because
the Sabbath day had been violated. Those Jewish leaders made this
day, this day of rest that God gave, this day that the rest
from all the labors and to worship God be able to come together
like we have this day. Be able to come together and
worship God. They made it really a day of burdens. It really became
a... I believe this day became a day,
a miserable day. This had to be a miserable day.
This day was a day that they started having to watch every
little thing. Because a lot of things were tagged on to it that
was not meant to be tagged on to it. So they started adding
this and adding that. And then all of a sudden, you
know, you have this whole list of things. You've got to watch
it. You can't do this, you can't do this, you've got to go here.
It became a burden. It became a miserable day. It's what the day of rest became.
It became a miserable day. Now that's religion without Christ.
That's what it is. It's a miserable day. And many
Jewish traditions were tagged onto this day of rest that was
never given of God. They tagged a lot of stuff onto
this. That day was never given. That day was never to supersede
doing good to someone. That day was never given to where
you put aside everything, even doing good, even showing mercy.
It was not given for that purpose. It was given as a day to rest. The law, no law, listen, no law
was ever given that forbade mercy. God didn't give a law that forbade
mercy. Not even to an animal. He said, how many of you have
a sheep? You have a sheep and it falls
into a ditch. Will you not get it out on a Sabbath day? Will
you not do that? I told Henry one time. I talked
to him in the study before we went out to the pulpit. I had
to miss some services because of some hot jobs that I was having
to do at the place that I was running. It was emergency jobs
at breakdown. And I said, I feel bad having
to do that and having to miss, you know, what I was having to
miss. He said, well, it sounds to me like, this is wisdom, it
sounds to me like a sheep fell in the ditch. That was all he
had to say. And it lifted that burden. Because it was troubling me.
It was troubling. I think there was a couple Sundays
that there was a breakdown and I've been the plant manager. I had to take care of it. I had
to be there. I didn't make everyone else be there and me go home.
And I just told him, I said, you know, I feel bad about that.
He said, well, that sounds like a cheap feeling to me. I'm glad
I have you as pastor. But that's what he's saying.
There was not given a day, this day of rest was not a day where
mercy was set aside. Doing good was set aside. That's
not so. But that's what they had turned
it into. Turned it into that. But what our Lord is going to
teach here is this. He is Lord of the Sabbath. He's the Lord. He's the Lord. If He wants to take His disciples
on the Sabbath day through the corn and pluck it and eat it,
it's okay. He's Lord. This is the Lord of
the Sabbath. And then it's always right to
show mercy. It's always right to show mercy
than to keep, now listen, than to keep a ceremony or a ritual
or the sanctity of a day. It's always right to show mercy.
Okay, here, verses 1 through 2. First, the Lord with his disciples,
they go through the cornfield on this Sabbath day, and the
Pharisees see him. They become upset, and they charge
him with breaking the Sabbath law. Our Lord, first of all,
never broke a law. This is the law giver. This is
the law giver that they are charging with breaking the law. He never
broke a law, a jot or a tittle. He kept the law perfectly. He kept the law of God perfectly. He honored the law of God. Let
that first be established. He honored. He magnified the
law and made it honorable. He did that. He did that by his
obedience. But he says to these men, he
says, Have you not read? He takes them to the Word of
God. Everything our Lord said and did was within the boundaries
of Scripture. Have you not read? Have you not
read? They read the Scriptures. They
could quote the Scriptures. I mean to the letter. They could
quote Scriptures. No one knew the letter better
than they did. But they did not understand what
they were reading. You can read this book from front
to back. and not understand what you are
reading. The Lord has to reveal the truths
that are in His book to you to understand it. When Philip went
up to that eunuch, he said to him, Do you understand what you
are reading? He said, How can I except some
man show me, reveal to me what this says? Many who read the
Scriptures have no clue what the Scriptures are saying. And
you know that when you talk to them. I'm not saying we're scholars,
but if the Lord has revealed the Gospel to you, you understand
the Scriptures. He's opened the Scriptures to
you. And you can talk to a lot of people outside of here and
other religions. And when they talk about the
Scriptures, You understand, they don't know
what they're saying. They don't know what the Scriptures are
saying. But he says to them, you've read the Scriptures. You read them. He said, you read
where David, King David, they thought, you know, they thought
the world of King David. They said, now you read where
he went into the tabernacle there and took the showbread. That
was not lawful for them to eat. That was not law. Only the priest
was to eat that. But David came. David was hungry. And David's men were hungry,
those that were with him. And they gave him the showbread.
Gave it to him. He said, now, it was not lawful
for David to do that. But he did it. He did it. And then the priest, he said,
profaned the Sabbath every week. In other words, they perform
the ministry. They slay the animals, the sacrifices. They do that on the Sabbath day.
And he said, they are not held accountable for that. I thought of this last night.
I said, let us never excuse ourselves of showing
mercy are doing good, but we're trying to keep some commandment.
Remember that man said, this is Corbin, this is a gift. He
told him to honor his mother and father. He said, well, this
is a gift that's dedicated to the temple, so I can't help my
mom and dad. I can't give it to them. No, that doesn't excuse.
He said, that doesn't excuse you. Not at all. Not at all. And our Lord says here in verse
6, He's going to reveal His deity. He's going to assert his Godhead
here, his right to do this. And this goes right over their
head. You'll see this later, how this just goes right over
their head. He says in verse six, after discussing this with
them, but I say unto you that in this place is one greater
than the temple. They thought more highly of the temple than
anything else than God. God was the only one they thought
of higher than the temple, because the temple represented God's
presence. It represented everything they did, you know, the temple.
They thought so highly of that. And Christ, he lets them know
that they are in the presence. He said, you're in the presence
of one greater than the temple. You remember the disciples one
time when they walked outside the temple and they said to the
Lord, look at this, look at this temple, look at these stones.
They were so impressive. That temple was so impressive.
And here stands a man unimpressive. Here stands a man dressed in
poor garb. And he said, there's one standing
here greater than the temple. Well, if he's greater than the
temple in their minds, he had to be God. If he's greater than
that, he has to be God. And what he's saying here, I
have the right, I have the right to do this. I have the right to do this.
There's one standing here greater than the temple. The temple,
think of these things. The temple was made of stone. I mean, it was beautiful stone
and beautiful stone work. But it was made of stone and
it was the work of men's hands. And you know, I think that was
the third, second, I know second, I think it was the third time
that thing was built. It was destroyed. It was destroyed by
the Babylonians. And then he says to them, I'm
greater than this temple. I'm greater than the temple.
Why is that? Here's why he's greater than
the temple that he speaks to them of. Because he is the eternal
God. He is the self-existent God Almighty. No one made him. He is the living
God. I'm greater than the temple.
I am God. That's who I am. I am God Almighty.
And then this temple was a thing of time. It would eventually
be destroyed. It says over there in Hebrews,
They shall perish, but thou remainest. You shall fold them up, they
will wax old like a garment, and you'll fold them up and put
them away. But thou art the same, and thy years shall not change.
He's eternal. It was a time limit put on that
temple, but this is the eternal one. This is the eternal one. He has no beginning of days.
The temple was a symbol. It was a symbol of God's presence. Christ is God. He's present right
there in front of it. He's not a symbol. He is God. He is. He is Emmanuel, God with
us. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. The fullness of the Godhead,
it says, dwells in Him bodily. The temple was but a shadow.
Christ is the real substance. He said, I'm greater than the
temple. Now, seeing He's God in the flesh, He has the right.
He has the right to do His business on the Sabbath day. He has the
right to take His disciples and go through the cornfield and
eat on the Sabbath day. He's Lord of the Sabbath. This
is God Almighty. He's under no law. He's the lawgiver,
as I said. But He's under no law. He can
do this if He will. He can do it if He will. And
if the priest, if the priest on the Sabbath day can profane
the Sabbath day, if they can offer the sacrifices and work,
how much more God? How much more the one who gave
the day? How much more Him? He's setting forth here His deities,
what He's doing. He's setting it forth. One time a year, the high priest,
he would go into the Holy of Holies that was in that temple.
He'd take the blood of bulls and of goats, which could not
put away sin. He'd go into that Holy of Holies
one time a year to make atonement for sin. Now here's, listen, they did
that one time a year in the temple. Here's Christ greater than the
temple. In Christ we can come boldly into the presence of God
at any time. At any time we can come boldly
into God's presence, not just one day a year, at any time. Anytime I have a heartache, anytime
I have a care, anytime we can come into His presence, into
the presence of God Almighty through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, he said, I'm greater, I'm greater than the temple. And
then I want you to notice something here. This is interesting. The temple, this temple, this
temple right here was built by Herod. Herod had this temple
built to satisfy, to pacify the Jews. There was no cherubim in
this temple like there was the first one. There was no ark. The ark of the covenant was not
in this temple. It was gone. It was destroyed when the Babylonians
came and destroyed it. They took all this stuff and
it was gone. Aaron's rod that budded, the
mercy seat. that was overlaid with gold,
the tables of stone that were engraven, the pot of manna, all
of that was gone. It was destroyed by the Babylonians
when they took over the city. In Christ, in Christ, we have
no missing parts. In Christ, there's nothing missing.
Scripture says, In Him ye are complete. Ye are complete in
Him. In Christ we have the fullness
of God. They only had shadows and types. In Christ we have the full Shekinah
glory of God. They didn't even have that anymore.
They didn't even have the Shekinah glory. They didn't have the Urim
and Thummim anymore. All that was gone. They just
had a shell there of what it used to be. Just a shell is all
they had. But in Christ, in Christ, we
have all we need. There's nothing missing. This
stood out to me more than anything when I studied this. Nothing
missing. In Him, you're complete. In Him,
everything is provided. Everything that we need to stand
before God, everything that we need to worship God, we have
in Christ. We have the fullness of it in
Him. We have it. And then the temple was a place
where people, people who was in trouble, people who had a
broken heart, they'd go to the temple and pray. Remember Hannah?
Remember Hannah went to the temple there and prayed? How much better place is Christ?
How much better is it to come to Him? How much better? Oh, He's much,
much better. A temple was a place where they
went to worship. Gathered together to worship God. We worship God in Christ now. We gather here together in this
building. We come to read the Word, to sing His praises, to
worship Him together as His family. But it's in Christ, that's where
we worship Him. We worship Him in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You leave Him out of the service,
and we don't have a service. Not a worship service. Social
gathering maybe, but not a worship service. He's greater. He's greater than the temple.
Now, He says in verse 7, If you had known what this meaneth,
I will have mercy and not sacrifice. If you knew what that meant,
you would not have condemned the guiltless. You wouldn't be
standing here condemning me or these disciples. And he's referring
to Hosea 6.6. It says this, for I desire mercy
and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
If you knew what that meant, you knew what I desire mercy
and not sacrifice. If you understood that, you wouldn't
be standing here condemning these men. You wouldn't do that. Had
they understood what the Scriptures taught, instead of just reading
them and memorizing them, if they understood what they taught,
He said you wouldn't condemn the guiltless. You wouldn't condemn
the Lord, the Sabbath, nor these disciples. It's better to show
mercy than preserve the sanctity of a day. That's what He's saying
to them. Now, verse 8 sets forth the whole matter He sets this
whole matter beyond dispute. He says, for the Son of Man, He identifies Himself as the
Son of Man. Not just as the Son of God here,
but as the Son of Man. For the Son of Man is Lord even
of the Sabbath day. He's Lord of it. It's His day.
He's Lord of it. Being in union with God. with
the Godhead, being in union with the Godhead, makes Him Lord of
everything. Back in verse 27, chapter 3,
all things are delivered unto me of my Father. He's Lord even of the Sabbath
day. And if He wants to take His disciples
and take them through the cornfield and satisfy their hunger, He
has the right to do it. He's the Lord. He has the right
to do it. He's under no law. You see, as
God, He's under no law. As the Son of God, He's under
no law. As the Son of Man, He kept the law and honored it.
But He's Lord, even of the Sabbath day. And then, here's what He
does next. He proves. See, at first He asserted
His Godhead. Now He's going to prove His Godhead.
Verses 9-13, the Pharisees are going to try to trap him. This
is what they come to the synagogue for. This is what they come to
church for, try to trap him. That's what they're trying to
do. They try to trap him with another situation. Boy, doesn't
that reveal him. They go up there to the temple. And there's a man there with
a withered hand. They may have brought him. They may have brought
this man there. I don't know. But they may have
brought him. But here's a man with a withered hand. Here's a case. They're looking
at it this way. Here's a case that does not need
immediate attention. He has a withered hand. So this
can wait till tomorrow. You see, first they was hungry.
And there was a necessity, so they gave in to that. He had
him. So now they think, well, we got him here. Here's a man
with a withered hand, and this can wait till tomorrow. Now let's
see how he handles it. Let's see now if he can wait
till the next day. Well, it's evident they missed
the message, isn't it? They completely missed it. The
Lord of Glory spoke to them Himself and they missed it. They missed
the message of mercy to the needy, grace to the guilty. They missed
it. So instead, they go up to the
temple to dispute. Well, that's the last reason
we ought to come here. They go up to the temple to dispute. Not to worship. Not to listen. Not to hear us say, Lord, speak.
Thou servant, hear us. They go to dispute. That's what
they go for. They did not ask to be taught,
but they went to accuse Him. Motive is everything, isn't it?
Motive is everything. And our Lord, in His infinite
wisdom, makes them be their own judges. He makes them be their
own judge. He says here in verse 11, He
said unto them, Shall there be among you that shall have one
sheep, an animal? And if it fall into a pit on
the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out?
Will he not stop and lift that sheep, that helpless sheep out
of the pit? Yes. They knew the answer. I guarantee you some of them
have done it! Yes! Yes, he would. And how much better
is a man than a sheep? How much better is a man than
an animal? How much? Is it lawful to do
well on the Sabbath day or not? I tell you, when people are lost, You can
just see the ignorance. Ignorance. Here trying to trap
infinite wisdom. And he said, how much better
is a man than a sheep? Is it lawful to do good to this
man or not? Well, yes, it is. Yes, it's lawful. See, they're trying to catch
him in breaking the law. Yes, it's lawful. Well, here's what he does. This is so wise. He heals the
man. I never noticed this before.
He heals the man without breaking the Sabbath. All he did was speak
a word. He didn't work. He didn't perform. He didn't go and do a sacrifice. He just said, stretch forth your
hand. And with that command came the
power for that man to stretch forth his hand. They couldn't
accuse him of breaking the Sabbath for doing good. He said, is it
lawful to do good? He said, yes, it's lawful to
do good. No doubt about that. And then
without lifting a finger, he said, well, stretch forth
your hand. Without breaking the Sabbath. And you know they went
out there just dumbfounded. They went out there absolutely,
I tell you they went out dumbfounded, they went out mad. It says in
verse 14, then the Pharisees went out and they held a council
against him. How are we going to handle this?
How are we going to destroy this man? How are we going to deal
with this man? How are we going to get rid of
him? He healed him without breaking
the Sabbath. He never broke the law. Never
broke the law. And showing mercy. in showing
grace to the guilty, to sinners. God never breaks a law. He's a just God and a Savior.
He can save the vilest of men and women. He can save the vilest
of them, which we all are. We're all vile. But in our way
of thinking, we put measures on things, some more vile than
others. But you can take the person that's the worst that
you can think of in the world, other than yourself. And He can
save that person and never break a law. Never break it. Because He kept the law. He kept
the law in the stead of everyone whom He saves. He kept it perfectly. He can do it and never break
a law. Religion condemned that man,
or they was condemning Christ, but they came up short. They
came up short. Christ is greater than the temple. Christ is greater than any day,
any ceremony, any ritual. Christ is greater. He said one
greater than the temple is here. Okay, Cecil.