The lesson this morning will
be taken from Luke chapter 20, in verses 19 through 26. You'll
recall the last two or three lessons have been about this
group of men and how they approached our Lord, their attitude toward
Him, and so on, and His words to them, His reaction to them. I chose for a subject this morning,
of God, of men. Luke chapter 20, let's read these
verses together, beginning with verse 19. And the chief priest and the
scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him, and they
feared the people, for they perceived that he had spoken this parable
against them. And they watched him, and sent
forth spies which should feign themselves just men, that they
might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him
unto the power and authority of the governor, and to ask him
saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly. Neither acceptest thou the person
of any, but teachest the way of God truly. Is it lawful for
us to give tribute to Caesar or not? But he perceived their
craftiness and said unto them, why tempt ye me? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription
hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's. And he said unto them, render
therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God
the things which be God's. And they could not take hold
of his words before the people. And they marveled at his answer
and held their peace. Now there's many things that
come to mind as I looked at these verses and as I read and studied
what other men have had to say about them, but I was struck
with this thought of God, of me. Everything that goes on in
this world is of God and of me. Everything. Everything of God
is wise and just and holy. Everything of God is good and
righteous and wholly consistent with his own character. God never
violates or compromises his character. Everything of men is sinful and
full of sin. If you just read and take it
at face value what the scripture has to say about man, what else
could he be but a sinner? There's none righteous, so that's
out. All his righteousness is, he
says, is his filthy rags. Man at his best state, altogether
vanity. And yet we look at men and expect
rightness out of them, don't we? Everything of men is sinful and
full of self. And everything of men is consistent
with his nature. And he is by nature a child of
wrath. He's fallen. He's depraved. And
yet we're shocked when he does that. We're shocked. Both Jews
and Gentiles, Paul said, before we prove they're all under sin.
They're all under sin. And over and over the scripture
tells us that Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh did that.
He thought about what was said to him. He thought about his
power and his station. He thought about his His rule
and his ancestry and his bloodline and all of these things, he thought
about it, reasoned about it, and he hardened his heart against
what Moses said. But it also says the Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart. It was of God and of men. The Bible teaches us clearly
that men are deceived by Satan and anti-Christ religion. They're
beguiled by these lying hucksters and brought to believe their
lies. At the same time, it says God has sent them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie and be damned in their own unbelief. When God sends judgment, Men,
and not just that individual, but all that are around him,
mostly don't see it at all. They don't see it at all. They
don't see God's judgment. You're not going to hear the
gospel preached. I'm just using this one thing
as an example. You can apply this to the commandments
of God concerning anything. And everything God says is a
commandment. He's the sovereign God. When he said the carnal mind
is enmity against God, it's not subject to the law of God. He's
not talking about the law of Moses. He's talking about the
authority of God. Everything God says is law. It's
to be obeyed. He doesn't send you four or five
little squares and you check one. If he tells you something,
that's what he means. If you disregard it, huh? Oh my. At the same time, God has sent
them strong delusion that they should believe a lie and be damned
in their unbelief. And everything that goes on in
this world is of God and of men. Listen to these verses over in
Acts chapter 4. This is the most striking example
of this that I've ever found in the scripture. Acts chapter
4 verse 26. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. How come that? Well, there was
natural circumstances involved, wasn't there? There was the hatred
of Israel. There was the scheming, craftiness,
planning to trap him, and so on and so forth. And finally,
they just hired some men to be liars and just went down and
accused him before the governor. Said, he's the king. He's coming
up. He's going to oppose you. You
let this man go, he's going to have your country. But Pharaoh knew, our Pharaoh,
Pilate understood what was going on. He knew about those liars. But here it says, the kings of
the earth stood up. They got together, they talked,
and they said, hey, we need to get together. We need to talk
about this. The kings of the earth stood up, the rulers were
gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ for
of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou has anointed
both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and all the
people of Israel. That's everybody in here. Everybody's
represented here. Even though they were all gathered
together Even though they were privately and outwardly separate
in their ideas and their religion and their goals, yet they were
all doing what they wanted to do, and suppose what they were
doing was for the best. Acts 4, verse 28. They were gathered
together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. Of God. Amen. Everything that goes on in this
world is of God and of men. And in our text, these Pharisees
and scribes being exposed as wicked husbandmen, retired to
the privacy of their own little council room, and they hatched
a plan that they felt sure would expose Jesus of Nazareth as a
false prophet. They'd reach a treaty with the
Herodians, Nobody would ever suspect because these men were
opposed to one another. You have to go to Matthew's account.
He includes the Herodians in this. But these Herodians, they
were in favor of Herod. And yet they were in favor of
the things of God and so on. And they believed Herod to be
a king sent of God. Anyway. They chose these Rhodians
because nobody, the people already disliked them because our Lord
had just spoken a parable against them. And they feared the people, and
they retired, and they said, we got to do something. We're
going to wind up being the bad guys. We got to do something. And they talked, and they schemed,
and they said, we'll go get the Rhodian. Nobody will suspect
them. And they don't like him either.
So that's our common ground. We'll get together with them.
We're going to send them down there and they're going to come in
and under pretense they're going to butter him all up and tell
him how great he is and how true he is and what a great prophet
he is. And they hope that Jesus would
not perceive it was from them and they'd just blindside him
with this question over tribute to Caesar. What they didn't realize
And what I want us to see is that their thinking was the very
judgment of God concerning their own belief in Christ. It was
a judgment. It was a judgment. Our thinking. We sit down and think. We hear
something, we're opposed to it or don't like it. Sometimes we'll
throw our Bible down or stomp out the door or huff off and
not listen to whoever's talking to us, but most of the time we
walk away silently, not wanting to make a public fool out of
ourselves, we'll walk away silently and then we'll scheme something
to say. We'll get something to say. They didn't realize, and that's
what I want us to see, is that their thinking was the very judgment
of God concerning their rejection and unbelief concerning the Son
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. They thought they were in control
of the situation, and what they didn't know was the situation
was in control of them. That's what was going on. They
thought they were in the place of of scheming and planning what
to say, and in a sense they were, but God overrides that. He overrides
that. In Romans 1, Paul talks about
heathen men rejecting the witness of God in both creation and conscience. Read it. Read it. It's a good
study. Read it. And because of their
actions, because they become vain in their imaginations, they
didn't They didn't want to retain God in their knowledge. They
didn't want this conscience pricked every time they did something.
They didn't want that. They didn't want to look at creation. I don't hear all this stuff about
parameciums and all that. It's just a bunch of junk is
what it is. It's just a bunch of junk. Men
too smart for britches sitting down figuring up stuff. Well,
they'll buy this, you know. There's no way that you can look
at chemistry and look at biophysics and all this stuff and say a
paramecium evolved into a man. That's just a bunch of junk,
that's what it is. And yet they looked at creation
and creation has an order about it, it has seasons about it.
We look at these other planets through telescopes and whatever
that we have and we look at these things, man they're beat to pieces.
Look at them. There's craters all over them.
They're just beat to pieces. We're comets and things. Why
ain't the earth that way? Because there's an order in the
universe. That's why. And there's seasons. Perfect
seasons. It'll get hot, but it won't get too hot. It'll get cold, but it won't
get too cold. We'll have rain. We'll have dry spell. There's
an order. about creation, and it testifies
of God. And these men, through conscience
and creation, God witnessed to them His power and His glory. And the fact that He's upset
with sin. He's angry with the sinner. Look
at disasters. Look at all these. They're not
accidents. They're sin on purpose. They
become vain in their imaginations. Their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools and change
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto
corruptible man. But that didn't satisfy them.
And then they went to birds. Boy, that's a long way from a
man to a bird. But that didn't satisfy them.
Then they went to four-footed beasts and finally to creeping
things. Think of God out of caterpillars,
dung beetles, on and on it go. Wherefore God also, God also gave them up to uncleanness
through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own
bodies between themselves. This was a judgment, a judgment
of God, and that judgment was because of their rejection of
truth. Well, where are you getting that,
preacher? I'm telling you that there was a judgment on these
men because they rejected the truth. They rejected the Son
of God. And every time we're confronted
with Him and we walk out that door in indifference, there's
a judgment. You're not in a vacuum. You're not going out that door
and everything just fine and dandy. No, it ain't. And every
time you do it, your thoughts will grow farther and farther
and farther. What is that? That's of men,
but it's of God. Of God. uncleanness, through the lust
of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves,
and because they changed the truth of God into a lie. And
they worshiped the creature more than the Creator. God gave them
up to vile affections. He just let them do what they
wanted to do. And we look at these things and we say, oh,
how horrible! How, oh, I can't even stand to
thought of it. The only thing keeping you from
that is the restraining grace of God. It's already in here. You're not getting this out of
the air. This is not something foreign. This is right here in
your heart. The only thing that keeps you
from doing what these men did is the restraining grace of God.
And what God did to them, it's very obvious if you study Romans
chapter 1, was a judgment. It was a judgment. And even, listen to this, and
even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Oh, you don't want God
to turn you over to yourself because that mind of yours naturally
is a reprobate mind. The last thing on this world
you want to do it'd be turned over to yourself. What these men attempted to do
to Christ, they did in the name of religion. They were confident
that they did the right thing, that they had the right motives
and the right goals. Isn't that what our Lord said? A day's coming, He said. He told
His disciples, when men will kill you thinking they're doing
God a service, they'll reason it out in their minds. And this
thanking is the judgment of God upon all those who believe not
the gospel of Jesus Christ. In our text it says they sent
forth spies which should feign themselves just men. Have you
ever looked that word feign up? The word feign means to pretend,
to fabricate, to devise, to make believe. They just took on a
part. Just like an actor in a play,
they took on a part. And we're going to appear to
him as just men. We know who you are. Boy, you're
a fine preacher. You're a fine preacher. We know
that. You're not impressed with men. You're not intimidated by
men. You always say the truth. Our Lord had just ended this
parable with these words, Whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall
be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, I'll grind him
to powder. And this grinding into powder
is the ungluing of the minds and hearts of men. It is the
taking away of godly restraints and active consciences, and they
become seared as with a hot iron. It's turning over men to themselves
and the unrestrained influence of Satan. There was a man in
the Corinthian church. He was sleeping with his stepmother.
And they were okay with it. They were okay with it. Called
him brother when they come in the door. Glad to meet you, brother. He might have been a big contributor.
I don't know why they put up with what they did. And for this
open fornication, he was to be, Paul said, delivered unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh. Have you ever looked at that
scripture and wondered what in the world he's talking about?
Well, I'll tell you what he's talking about. Put out of the
assembly of the saints and exposed to the influence of the world,
where Satan's power and influence reigns. That's what he's talking
about. I'm going to tell you something.
God has a lot of restraining grace out here. His prevenient
grace going out here before you and keeping you out of things
and so on. But the major restraining grace is right here. This is
where you learn about God and about his son. The major restraint
in grace comes from being right here. It comes from godly brethren
and sisters who know you and you communicate with one another
and you're encouraged by one another and you love one another
and you tolerate one another and forgive one another. You're
influenced by those things. And the last thing you want is
to be out there without anything in here. I'm just telling you. These men were enraged religionists. Why? What was the burr under
their saddle? What did he do to make them so
angry? What makes religious men or even
natural men so violently opposed to truth? Are you listening? Gospel claims. Uh-huh. That's what it is. When men and
women are confronted with the gospel claims of Jesus Christ,
they'll either be broken or ground to powder. One or the other. You'll either take sides with
God against yourself or you'll take sides with yourself against
God. One or the other. When the gospel
is preached in spirit and in truth, there are certain claims
sent forth to the sinners. I'm not talking about just words
going into your ears. I'm talking about when God presses
it on your heart. What claims? Well, let me just
give you a few. The first claim declared in the
gospel is the absolute sovereignty of God over all things, including
you and your mind and your heart. Huh? It's God that worketh in you.
That's what Paul said to those believers. It's God that worketh
in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And if
you belong to Him and understand what He's saying, oh, what a
comfort. What a comfort. But if you're
not, that's offensive. You mean God butts in? Yeah, that's what I mean. He's sovereign. And there's many
things in Christ to motivate men in the ministry of the gospel.
But as our Lord ascended into heaven, he chose only one. He turned to them and he said,
all power in heaven and earth given unto me. Now you go preach. And this is a heavenly pillar
to lay a weary head on. in every situation in you, the
absolute sovereign dear God. I tell you, a weak God who won't
interfere, who won't lift a hand, that weak God, he's of no use
to you when that doctor comes in shaking his head. No, now
you need a sovereign God. Now you need somebody who has
power over that doctor and power over his medicine and power over
this body. You need a sovereign God. And I tell you, it's a good thing
to know. He holds the sector. The government's
on his shoulder. He rules over all things, arranges
all things, and brings all things to pass for our good and his
glory. But to that unbelieving rebel,
God's sovereignty is a breach of his so-called God, his favorite
God, his free will. Secondly, the gospel claims Christ
to be the plumb line of every attribute of God. Well, preacher,
I think, and I'll just throw that out on the dung heap. What
you think ain't got anything to do with anything is what God
says. I already know what men think. I've been there. He's the plumb line of every
attribute of God as to God's judgment concerning the truth
of it. Paul said, God has appointed
the day in which He'll judge this world in righteousness,
now listen, by that man. Not by your church covenant,
not by your favorite thought of what righteousness is. He's
going to judge this world in righteousness by that man. And righteousness has been demonstrated
in Him. It's appeared before your eyes
in Him. He's righteous. Which of you
accuses me of sin? They couldn't find a sin, not
one single thing to charge them with, but to hate it is good.
Boy, if that don't tell you something about the fallen man. It's not
man's ideas about righteousness or man's definition of God's
righteousness that are the basis of judgment, but righteousness
revealed in Christ. And it's the same in every attribute
of God, even His wrath. Men have certain ideas about
God's wrath. You want to know something about
God's wrath, look at His Son on the cross. Now, I'm going
to tell you something. If God was going to go easy on
sin, well, you'd see it right there on the cross. That's His
Son. That's His Son. Will God punish the sinner? Look
at the cross. Every attribute of God, His sovereignty,
His kindness, His mercy, His grace, it's all revealed in Christ. I wonder how many times, someday
I'm going to sit down and figure it out, where He says, I am. Who shall I tell Him sent me
Moses said to tell Him I am? I am. What's that mean? That
means I am the way. I am the truth. I am the light. I am the good shepherd. I am
the resurrection and the life. He's the revelation of God. To
say, if you've been so long time with me and you haven't seen
the Father, I am the Father. He's the revelation of God, and
therefore the revelation of God's character and way. And this claim
offends man's pride and intellect. Here's another gospel claim,
the eternal and unconditional election of God's saints. All
creation, he said, waiteth. What are they waiting for? His creation is ordered, it's
going on every day, it's being preserved. is made by him and
for him and by him all things consist. It's being held together. It's been given a continuance.
Why? What's it waiting for? He said
it waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Who's that? That's his elect. That's his
elect. The reason for creation and the
preservation of the same is for the manifestation of the sons
of God. He chose a people to salvation
in Christ and made full provision for them in His Son. And God's
choice of them is said to be according to the good pleasure
of His will. You look at Jacob and Esau. You look at Esau, man, he was
a man's man. He had everything going for him. Jacob, he was a heel grasper
when he was born. Grabbed his brother's heel. Jacob had by love, Esau by hate. The elder's gonna serve the younger.
Why did he say that? That the purpose of God according
to election might stand. That's right. Scripture said, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
And he said to those unbelievers, they said, how long are you going
to keep hiding this thing? Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
He said, I told you, plainly. But you believe not, because
you're not my sheep. And his atonement secures the
salvation of chosen sinners by his accomplished redemption.
And what about irresistible grace? His people shall be willing in
the day of His power. You saying God saved men against
their will? Huh? He makes them willing. Makes
them willing. How does He do that in the day
of His power? Irresistible grace and calling
are always effectual. I said, I know your election
to God. Because the gospel came to you in power. It came to you
in the Holy Ghost. Huh? You become followers of
us. Who's us? Some old fishermen
converted? You become followers of us and
the Lord. Irresistible grace and calling
are always effectual, and when the Spirit calls, the sinner
must obey and shall, and all restraints are removed. Whatever's
holding you back won't hold you back anymore. Paul said old things are passed
away. Old restraints, sin restrains
all that blocks out the glory of God. Old things passed away
and behold all things are becoming new. And gospel claims offend
self-righteous rebels. But those like these pretenders
of religion, this judgment takes place, and they, nor even the
world, see God's judgment come to pass. That's righted off to
them. Righted off to them. That's just
the way they react. They just don't know what I know.
They just do this, they just do that. If you ask them if they're
doing what they want to do, they'll tell you yes. I've got good reason,
I'm doing this, this is what I want to do. But you'll never
hear one say, God did this to me. This is the judgment of God. They look on their own thoughts,
their own will, and they see it as the judgment of God. Have
you ever been introduced to that? Have you ever experienced that?
That's where conviction comes from, when God makes you see
what you are, what you are. Thank you.