terribly, terribly sad picture.
Our Lord has just taught his disciples what he must do and
suffer according to the will of God for the glory of God and
for the salvation of our souls. Now that he would go to Jerusalem,
be delivered into the hands of the Jews and then to the Gentiles,
and they would beat him, spit on him, and crucify him. And on the third day, he would
rise again. Now, our Lord had told his disciples
this numerous, numerous times. And it appears to me that the
disciples would just have been overwhelmed. But then it appears
to me that we would too. Every time we think about this
great, glorious work of the Son of God, it ought to consume our
hearts and our thoughts. But not usually. It just doesn't. God forgive us. And that was
the case with these disciples. James and John, having heard
this great word of grace from our master, had something more
important on their minds. They had prophetic things on
their minds. They had visions of the kingdom
and the glory that was soon to be established, at least they
thought in their minds. And so they came to the Lord
Jesus and asked him that he would grant to them when he came again
in his kingdom and glory. Let's forget about the cost now.
Let's forget about death and your sacrifice and your substitution. Let's talk about your kingdom.
I ought to tell you something about these idiots who run around
the country talking about prophecy all the time. Let's forget about
Calvary and talk about the kingdom. James and John thought the Lord
was soon going to establish an earthly kingdom and they said,
now when you come in your kingdom, we sure would appreciate it if
you'd make us princes right alongside yourself. Set us in the place
of highest honor. Put us one on your left side
and the other on your right side when you sit on your throne.
Now this sad story is recorded here by divine inspiration for
our learning and for our admonition. May God the Holy Spirit, who
caused these words to be written, now be our teacher as we consider
them. If there's any one specific thing
taught by what I've already said and what is written in Mark chapter
10, verses 35 through 45, it is this. God's saints in this world, the
best of them, the most useful of them. James and John were
intimate disciples. These were among the favored
three. These were men greatly, mightily
used of the Lord. Greatly, greatly blessed is the
kingdom of God because of these men and their ministries. But
God's saints, the best of them, the most useful of them, as long
as they live in this world, sinners in constant need of grace, in
constant need of forgiveness by the mercy of God through the
blood of Jesus Christ. Now, let's not forget it. I want
this morning to go through this passage and show you five things
set before us in it. If you're taking notes, I'll
give you my outline and then we will move along. First, we
will consider a great problem that's set before us, and then
a great promise that's given to us. a great precept, a great
pattern, and a great purchase. First, look at verses 35 through
41. The Holy Spirit holds up these
disciples before us to set before us a great problem, a problem
with which we have to struggle all the time. The problem, of
course, is pride, our stinky, ungodly, disgusting pride. Verse 35, James and John, the
sons of Zebedee come unto him saying, Master, we would that
thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said
unto them, what would you that I should do for you? Not because
he needed instruction, he knew what they wanted. They say unto
him, grant unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand and
the other on thy left hand in thy glory. But Jesus said unto
them, you know not what you ask. Can you drink of the cup that
I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with? And they said unto him, why sure,
we can. Now look at verse 41. And when
the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James
and John. These two brothers, James and
John, were true believers. They were born of God's Spirit.
They truly loved the Lord Jesus Christ. They were and are our
brethren. And yet these two disciples,
who were themselves chosen apostles, were very ignorant of some basic
gospel truths and their ignorance was only overshadowed by their
silly pride. These two brothers asked the
Lord Jesus to give them the place of highest honor next to himself
in his kingdom. They presumed that they actually
had the ability by their own strength in themselves. They
presumed that they could endure everything he endured. and do
everything he did. You got a baptism to be baptized
with? We can handle that. You got a cup to drink? We can
handle that. You got something you're gonna
have to suffer? We'll go through that. We can't. And they sought
a position of superiority, not just that they might have the
position, but they sought this position of superiority over
their brethren. Now here are these two apostles
of Christ. Seeking great things for themselves. Show us some
things that we need to consider. But let's not be too hard on
them. Their pride and their stupidity is only a fair representation
of the pride and stupidity that resides in you and me. Just a
fair representation. It is the pride of our hearts
that this passage of scripture is intended to expose and check.
Let me point out a few things here. First, genuine believers
are often ignorant of things which seem to be elementary to
others. Now consider this. James and
John had been told repeatedly that the master was going to
Jerusalem. That he was going to Jerusalem to die. That he
was going to die at the hands of the Jews and the Romans after
suffering great ignominy and shame. And that after he died,
he was going to rise again from the dead. But they didn't understand
a word of it. They didn't understand a word
of it. They were true believers. These are men to whom the Lord
Jesus said, your sins are forgiven you, and men to whom he had given
the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Mary Magdalene understood. The
problem wasn't the instruction. Mary Magdalene came and anointed
the Lord for his burial, anticipating his resurrection from the dead.
That's exactly what he said in Mark chapter 14. But these disciples
didn't understand. Well, what's your point? The
point is this, let's not try to determine and set ourselves
up as judges of men by saying, now, what did you know when the
Lord saved you? How much knowledge did you have?
That's not the issue at all. That is not the issue at all.
Men can have knowledge of great things concerning the facts of
Christ and the doctrines of Christ, but salvation is not in knowing
facts and in knowing doctrines. Salvation is in knowing Him.
Knowing Jesus Christ the Lord. Now I recognize the only way
men know Him is through the preaching of the gospel. But salvation
is not in what you know, it's in who you know. James and John
knew him. Understand this as well. God's
saints in this world are sinners still. That includes you and
me. We are a people with vile, hellish,
ungodly, sinful natures called flesh. And that which is flesh
is flesh. It'll never be anything else.
We are such wretched sinners that we must constantly watch
over our souls and guard against pride, self-esteem, self-confidence,
this terrible arrogance that's in us by nature. These things
are so deeply rooted in us, so ingrained in us, that really
we're seldom truly aware of them. We sometimes talk about our pride,
and when we do, we're talking real proud. We sometimes talk
about how horribly proud we are, but we're seldom really aware
of our pride. These other disciples were just
exactly like James and John. If you read the Scriptures and
compare Scripture with Scripture looking through the Gospels,
these disciples weren't really too upset that James and John
had come to the Lord and asked for these two seats of preeminence. They were upset because they
didn't think of it first. They were upset because they didn't
get to the Master first. James and John dare ask these
things. You would have to, I would have to, if God left us in the
same circumstances. It's pride. Not at all unusual. It ought to be. It ought not
exist at all. But those who have truly come
out of the world, who have taken up the cross, who follow the
Lord Jesus Christ, who truly believe Him, who trust Him, who
love Him, those who are born of His Spirit, still become envious,
jealous, and offended when a brother is promoted a little bit above
them. Shoot, we get upset, get a little angry. Somebody talks
about two or three folks, mentions their name in public, forgets
to mention ours. Wonder why he didn't mention me? Wonder why
he didn't talk about me? Wonder why he didn't say anything
about what I've done? The fact is, the greatest problem we face,
the most dangerous enemy we have, is not the promiscuity, the ungodliness,
the homosexuality, the abortion, the president, the Congress or
the Senate. That's not the biggest problem. The biggest problem
we've got to deal with every minute of every day is our stupid,
stinking pride. It's the oldest of all sins,
the most universal and the most destructive. We all love power
and preeminence and property and prestige and position because
we're all very, very proud. It is our pride that causes us
to crave attention. It's our pride that causes us
to get upset when we don't get attention that we think we deserve.
Pride is that which inspired Lucifer to lift himself up and
say, I will be his most high God. It's pride that deceived
his heart. Pride that brought Adam's fall
and the fall of the human race in him. It was pride that caused
men all the time through history and this very day and as long
as history shall stand to be divided from one another. The
psalmist said the wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. What is it that divides, separates,
and distinguishes men and women from one another according to
race, rank, and riches? It's pride. Why, his skin's not
the same color as mine is. He didn't come from the same
family line as I did. Why, those folks, they come from
across the tracks. They come from down there in Samaria. They come down in Nazareth. Nothing
good can come out of Nazareth. I know something good came out
of Nazareth. The Son of God came out of Nazareth. But we have
our pride. We think we're something, somebody.
The only thing that ever divides brethren is pride. Said, no,
that wasn't the issue. Yes, it was. Yes, it was. She did this. No, problems with
pride. No, problems with pride. No,
the problems are pride. That's the only thing that divides
brethren. The only thing that divides families is pride. After
some years of sober study and reflection, I'm just almost convinced
the only thing that ever causes war is pride. We have our pride. What you've got is what it is.
Pride, that's all. Even among God's saints, There's
no problem, no difficulty, no trouble that we face that really
is not the result of our pride. Thomas Hooker once said this,
pride is a vice that cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men
that if we were to strip ourselves of all faults one by one, we
would undoubtedly find it the very last and hardest to pull
off. He was exactly right, pride.
It's pride that keeps you who yet live with your fist in God's
face in rebellion and unbelief from coming to Christ. That's
all. This is what the psalmist said.
This is what God's book says. All right, now I've got my reasons
for not trusting Christ. No, here's your reason. The wicked
through the pride of his countenance will not seek God. God's not in all his thoughts.
Of all those things named in the Bible which God hates, according
to Proverbs 6, number one is pride. It's our pride that makes
us weak and vulnerable in time of temptation. When our Lord
asked Peter and James, now fellas, do you really think, do you really
think you can endure the baptism I have to endure? And you can
drink the cup I've got to drink that I've just described? They
didn't even hesitate. They didn't even hesitate. Well,
sure we can do that. Sure we can. Did you ever notice
in the Word of God that the recorded falls of God's saints are usually
at the very point where they're strongest? Not in their weakest
point, but in their strongest point. Look at Job. Was ever
a man so patient as Job? And yet I know of none so impatient.
Consider David. What a man David was. Loyal to
the core. Saul never had a friend like
David. And that same man David stole
his dearest friend's wife and had him killed to cover himself
up. Look at Solomon. The wisest man who ever lived. The book says so. But I'll be
honest with you. I don't know of anybody more
foolish. I don't know of anybody who ever acted more foolish than
Solomon. Samson, the strongest man who ever lived, but a woman
took him. A woman took him down. Moses,
the meekest man who ever lived, and yet Moses in his rash, impetuous
anger, struck the rock when God said speak to it, and his hastiness
kept him out of the land of promise. My point is this, we must never
be so proud as to trust in our own strength. God's strength
is made perfect in our weakness, not in our strength. Therefore,
the apostle says, I will glory in my infirmities, for his strength
is made perfect in my weakness. When I am weak, then am I strong. When we foolishly imagine in
the pride of our hearts that we are strong, then, Rod, we're
most likely to fall. Alright, that's just a small
thing, we can handle that. That's just a little city, we
can take that one. We don't need prayer about this, we don't need
God for this, we can handle that. You better watch out, you're
fixing to fall. You're fixing to fall. Doug and I were discussing
this yesterday, and he made a very wise observation. He said, when
we think we're strong, we think we can do things on our own,
and we don't need him. When we think we're strong, we
think we can do things on our own, we don't need Him. You better
watch out. You better watch out. Now look
at verses 39 and 40 again. In spite of their ignorance and
pride and sin, the Lord Jesus gave His disciples a great promise.
Jesus said unto them, you shall indeed drink of the cup that
I drink of. And with the baptism I am baptized,
wherewithal shall you be baptized? But to sit on my right hand and
on my left in my kingdom is not mine to give, but it shall be
given to them for whom it is prepared. Now, I have in the
last couple of weeks read everything I've got in my library, good
and bad, on this passage of scripture. And I hadn't been able to get
any help. I just, I hadn't been able to get any help. Our Lord
Jesus said unto them, you shall indeed drink of the cup that
I drink of. And with the baptism that I am
baptized with oil shall you be baptized. Perhaps there is some
sense in which our Lord is saying to his disciples here, James
and John, you too shall be persecuted and you too shall suffer. Perhaps
there's some allusion to that, but that's not what this text
says. That's just not what it says.
I believe God's given me three things. Now, I may not know all
that's taught here, but the three things clearly taught in these
two verses. Number one, all the horror of God's indescribable
wrath, which our Lord Jesus was about to endure as our substitute. was voluntarily endured. A cup
is not something somebody sticks in your hands, sticks a gun to
your head and says, drink it. A cup is something a man takes
voluntarily and drinks. Listen to me now. The Son of
God, when he was made to be sin for us, as willingly took the
cup of God's wrath and judged as our substitute in surety,
as a thirsty man takes a cup of water. And with one tremendous
draft of love, he drank damnation dry. The baptism is not something
that a person is forced to do. Baptism is not something that's
done unwillingly, unknowingly, unwittingly. Oh no, no no. Baptism
is that which men and women come to do with full knowledge of
what they're doing because the Lord Jesus commands it. And so
our Lord Jesus Christ goes to be baptized under the wrath Some
of the pedo-baptist commentators jump at a chance to say here
now that since the Lord speaks of his sufferings as a baptism,
then you can't talk about baptism being an immersion. That's exactly
what he's talking about. Bobby, he was overwhelmed in
the sea of God's wrath for you, willingly. He willingly buried
himself in the sea of God's wrath as our substitute. And yet, baptism
is something that's done to a person. Though that person willingly
submits to it, it's done by another. And it was by the hand of his
father that the Lord Jesus was immersed in the wrath of God
as our substitute. Now that's exactly what's pictured
in the ordinances as we celebrate them. We come to the waters of
baptism and say, I was crucified with Christ. And I am buried
with Christ. And I have risen with Christ.
We take the Lord's Supper, and as we take the bread and wine,
we take His body and His blood, symbolizing that we feed upon
Him by faith. His blood is our redemption,
His body, His obedience, His righteousness is our righteousness
before God. Secondly, our Lord Jesus promised
these sinful, errant, sinful men his disciples that they would
indeed be baptized with his baptism and they would indeed drink of
his cup. Now I can't think of but one
way that can possibly, possibly be fulfilled in its fullness. Only one way, by imputation,
through a substitute. When the Lord Jesus was baptized
in the wrath of God, in the sea of God's offended justice. I
was baptized with Him, buried with Him, in the sea of God's
wrath. When the Lord Jesus, with one
tremendous draft of love, took the cup of damnation and drank
it dry, oh, bless God, I took that cup in him and drank it
dry. So that now there's no condemnation
to me, no wrath for me, no damnation for me, and none for you who
are his disciples who believe him, who are chosen by him, redeemed
by him, and called by him. What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits toward me? The psalmist said, But the only
thing I can render to Him is this, I'll take the cup of salvation
and I'll call on the name of the Lord as long as I live. The
only way we can do it is by faith in Him. And then thirdly, the
Lord Jesus assures us that there is a kingdom of glory kingdom
of heaven already prepared by our Heavenly Father for his elect
which shall be given to those for whom it was prepared. You
see that in verse 40? It shall be given to them for
whom it is prepared. The kingdom of glory then, eternal
life, is a kingdom prepared by God for a specific people. And it shall be given by God
to those people, and it shall be given by Him as a matter of
free grace in all its entirety. Now then, the third thing in
this text is a great precept. Our Lord Jesus says to His disciples,
Verse 42, You know that they which are
accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them,
and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But it shall
not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among
you, he shall be your minister. Whosoever of you will be the
chiefest shall be servant of all. One of the old writers said
true greatness consists not in receiving, but in giving. Not
in the selfish absorption of goods, but in imparting good
to others. Not in being served, but in serving.
Not in sitting still and being ministered to, but in going about
and ministering to others. Now this is the meaning of our
Lord's precept. If I want true greatness, true
greatness, then I must find that place in God's kingdom where
I am needed and most useful and minister. The word minister is
the word that's commonly translated deacon. It means to serve tables,
to do menial tasks. The kind of tasks that are seldom
noticed by anyone, but usually the most needful. If I want to
be truly admirable as a person, not a person admired, but admirable
as a person, in the church and kingdom of God, I must make myself
the servant of all. A servant is a slave, one who
voluntarily gives himself to the servitude of God's people.
Now that's an admirable character. You may think, well, Father Don,
you can't expect anyone to do that. I don't. No one except someone who's seen
the greatness and glory of God in Jesus Christ. Our Lord gives
us a great pattern in verse 45. He said, now what I'm calling
for is for you to follow me. You want to be like me? Then
you be minister and servant to my people. Even as the Son of
Man came not to be served, but to serve. He that abideth in
him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked. The Master
says, if you want to be like me, then serve my people. wash their feet, take care of
them. And I don't want to do that. I didn't much think so. I didn't much think so. Those
who want to follow the Master do. The Lord helped me to live
from day to day in such a self-forgetful way that even when I kneel to
pray, my prayer shall be for others. Help me in all the work
I do to ever be sincere and true. And know that all I do for you
must needs be done for others. One last thing. Here's the motive
for it all. Our Lord tells us the greatest
thing of all is a great purchase. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life
a ransom, to ransom us by legal payment from the curse of God's
law, a ransom for many. Who? The many who were ordained
unto eternal life and now believe on his name. May God be pleased
to grant us grace that we may know him and follow him. in the kind of servitude he portrayed
and exemplified. Amen.