The title of my message this
morning is Temple Teachings. My text is found in Mark chapter
12 verses 35 and 44. Now if you want to read this
chapter at your leisure when you get home, it begins with
our Lord sitting in the temple teaching. He has already cleansed
the temple. He has already demanded that
his name be honored, that his house cease to be a place of
entertainment and money-grubbing and pleasure, and be rather a
place where God is honored, his name is honored, his word is
honored, his gospel is preached, and he is worshiped. Now our
Savior sets in the temple and teaches, and as he does he put
forth a parable, plainly declaring how that the Lord God was soon
to come and destroy the nation of Israel, He would send the
armies of Roman to destroy that nation as it came to pass in
70 AD. He would destroy the nation himself
in a spiritual sense in sending blindness to the nation and thus
sending the gospel to his elect to gather the true Israel of
God out of the four corners of the earth. And when our Lord
gave that parable, he spoke so pointedly and so plainly that
the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees understood
distinctly that he was talking about them. And they would have
killed him if they could have. They thought about it. They wanted
to kill him, but they feared the people. And so they, instead
of making an effort to kill him, they thought, well, we'll try
to destroy his character. We'll try to destroy his name.
We'll try to destroy his claims as a prophet, a teacher, indeed,
as the Christ of God. And so they, these fellows got
together, the Pharisees and the Rhodians, the Sadducees and the
scribes and And they decided they'd come try to deceive the
master with some trick questions. They thought they were smarter
than he was, and they just lead him into a trap. And by getting
him to say something he really didn't mean to say, getting him
to make some erroneous doctrinal or theological statement, then
they could point at him and say, now there, you see, he's a fake.
He's not really a prophet of God. He's not really the Christ
of God. You don't need to follow him. And as they put their heads
together, Pharisees and Herodians came with their question about
these matters of insignificance. And the Herodians came with them,
and the Sadducees came, and then this scribe came, a young scribe
apparently, but he had been listening. He didn't pay attention while
the Lord was speaking to these other folks. And he asked his
question, but not as he had originally intended. Apparently, the Lord
had gotten hold of his attention. Apparently, he was now concerned
somewhat about the things of God, his soul and eternity. And the Lord Jesus looked at
him when he answered him discreetly and said, you're not far from
the kingdom of God. But as far as I know, that's
as far as he got. I wonder how far. I wonder who
or what hindered her. I wonder who or what caused this
man who obviously was convinced of the truthfulness of our Lord's
words and his doctrine, he obviously was convinced of the truthfulness
of the Master's claims as Messiah, the King, the Son of God, and
yet he comes up to this point where the Master himself says,
thou art not far from the kingdom of God. But he stops right there. He stops right there. As far
as we know, he's in hell today. Wonder who and what's getting
in the way. And as I looked at that earlier
this morning, and I thought about you who are yet outside the kingdom
of God. Not far away, but outside. And
I asked myself, I wonder who? Wonder what's keeping you? from
entering in by Christ the door. Oh, may God be pleased to get
your heart's attention and graciously force you in, graciously make
you enter in by faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. All right, now
let's look at this last section of chapter 12, verses 35 through
44. And here the instruction that our master gives
in these verses. First in verses 35, 36, and 37,
we have a question, a question about scripture. The Lord Jesus
answered and said while he taught in the temple, how say the scribes
that Christ is the son of David? Now the scribes all thought this,
they said when Messiah comes he's going to be the son of David,
he's the one of whom God spoke back in 2nd Samuel 7 whenever
he promised a king to sit upon the throne of David forever.
He's the one of whom Solomon was just a type. How so described
that Christ is the son of David? For David himself said, now notice
this, David didn't just say this, he said it by the Holy Ghost.
The Lord said to my Lord, set thou on my right hand until I
make thy foes, thy enemies, thy David therefore himself calleth
him Lord, and whence then? Whence is he then his son? And
the common people heard him gladly. Now here's a question far different
from the questions that he had been asked. Religious folks come
along and they ask questions, you know, about trifles, insignificant
things. They ask questions that are sure
to divide men. They ask questions that gender
strife. But the Lord Jesus asked a question,
which the answer, when it is found, will give unity in the
hearts of men. He asked a question here that
is a vital concern. It's much like he said in Matthew
23, I believe it is. Let me ask you one thing. What
think ye of Christ? What do you think concerning
this man who is the Christ of God? And here he's asking a question. which is of absolute importance
and necessity. It's vital to the souls of men.
The answer to this question tells us the meaning and the message
and the content of Holy Scripture. The message of the Old Testament,
as well as of the New, is the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I want you to hold your
hands here and turn back to Psalm 110. This is the text that our
Lord quotes. The 110th Psalm. And in this
passage, he's quoting what is commonly referred to as a messianic
psalm. The old Jewish writers, as well
as those who write and expound scriptures today, almost without
exception, even the liberals acknowledge that Psalm 110 is
talking about the Messiah. It is a prophecy of the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when our Lord speaks to
these men, he says, I want to ask you a question. And I want
to ask you a question drawn from the scriptures. And here's the
scripture you're first to. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Now that is a clear, certain
promise and prophecy, a promise and prophecy of the certainty
of Christ's universal dominion, having accomplished the redemption
of his people. It is a promise concerning the
Lord Jesus, the King of Glory, who comes down here from heaven,
the Messiah. And having finished the work
the Father gave him to do, the Father said to him in Psalm 2,
ask of me, I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance.
And now the Lord receives him back up into heaven again. And
the Lord, David said, said unto my Lord, sit now on my right
hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall
send the rod of thy strength. See it in verse 2? Here's this
king sitting upon the throne of glory, waiting till his enemies
are made his footstool. And this is how it's accomplished.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule
thou in the midst of thy enemies. He sends out his word and it
causes his people to be broken and they bow in repentance and
And yet his word is the rod of his strength and the rod of his
power. And he rules in the midst of his enemies as well, whether
they like it or whether they don't. And the Lord will eventually
cause every one of his enemies to bow to his feet and acknowledge
that he is indeed King and rightful Lord. Read on. Verse 3, thy people,
thy people. Now notice what he says, thy
people. He doesn't say those who shall be your people. He
says thy people. But he's not yet come into the
world. I know. But he's not yet redeemed them.
I know. But they're not yet born again. I know. But they haven't
yet been called. I know. Some of them haven't
even yet been born perhaps. But here he says back here in
this psalm. Thy people, they were His by
covenant agreement with the Father in electing love, mercy, and
grace before the world began. And they never cease to be here.
Thy people, look at it, shall be willing. Shall be willing. People accuse us of saying God
knocks folks in the head and drags them into heaven whether
they want to go or not. No, no, no, no, no, no. He just makes
them willing. He makes them willing in the
day of his power. I can think of no better illustration. I've used it many times. I'll
continue to. First time I told Sheba I wanted to marry her,
she looked at me and said, well, you're crazy. You don't know
what you are. And I proceeded to court her. I proceeded to
show her Everything about her I wanted her to know. Or everything
about me I wanted her to know. And there were a few things I
didn't want her to know. Still wish she didn't know. But she's
learned better now. But at that time, I just put
on the best face I possibly had. I'd take her out every time I
got a chance. I camped on her doorstep. And I wooed and wooed
and wooed and wooed. And finally, one night I knelt
down in the living room of my aunt and uncle's house and I
asked her if she'd marry me. And she said, I believe I will.
What's the difference? She was made willing by that
which she now observed and saw in God's good providence. And
God the Holy Spirit calls his sinners who today are not willing
in the day of his power when he reveals Christ in them. He
makes them willing to trust the Son of God, makes them glad to
come to the Savior, makes them glad to be saved by his blood
and his righteousness alone. All right, now look at this,
verse 4. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now here is the
one and only person who fits all three of these offices in
one person. The only one. In the Old Testament
you had some men who fulfilled one, some men who fulfilled one
or two, but none who fulfilled all three. But here is that man
of whom the psalmist here speaks, standing in the temple. And he
said that David is talking about me. And here I am, the prophet
of God. The king sitting upon God's throne
and the priest of my control. A high priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. Now you remember who Melchizedek
was. He's that fellow who came and met Abraham after Abraham
returned from the slaughter of the king. See he'd gone down
and launched, Abraham's nephew had been taken captive with the
kings of the plain and Abraham went down and he Brought back
the Kings and and defeated their enemies and brought back Lot
and gave him everything he had before and now Melchizedek comes
to meet Abraham He comes with bread and wine and he comes to
Abraham and Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek That's the only
time we read of this man Melchizedek anywhere in Scripture Whether
he was a type of Christ or whether he was himself the Lord Jesus
Christ who came in a pre-incarnate manifestation, I don't know.
It doesn't really matter. But our Lord Jesus Christ is
he of whom Melchizedek spoke. And here our Lord Jesus is seated
upon the throne of glory. Will you hear me now? We have
a blessed high priest. That one who bears our names
on his breastplate. who has our name inscribed upon
his hand, that one who stands before God with a sin atoning
blood sacrifice which is himself, he sits upon the throne of total
dominion, he is himself the king of glory. This high priest then
must prevail, this high priest shall save his people in the
day of his power. Now then, the purpose of this
quotation The purpose why our Lord speaks as he did to these
scribes, Pharisees and Herodians in the temple. He is making them
to understand that the Old Testament scriptures were inspired of God
and inspired of God to record and reveal and speak of one person,
one thing. And that person is Christ and
that thing is God's salvation in Christ. That's the purpose
of Old Testament Scripture. We should always remember that
when we read the Old Testament. When you read the stories, the
miracles, the types, the pictures, the prophecies, when you read
the events of the Old Testament history, remember the message
of Scripture in the Old Testament particularly is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. You'll never understand the Old
Testament until you get the key. It's like a treasure chest and
oh what a treasure chest it is. Some of you have told me you
read the Old Testament and it just seems like a closed book.
Until you started hearing the gospel of God's grace and suddenly
you open the book up and you say, well that's all about Christ. And you open up again, well that's
all about Christ. You open up again, that's all
about Christ. Because that's the key. That's the key. You can't understand it until
you understand it's all about Him. Folks tell me all the time,
I can't understand Leviticus, read Hebrews. I can't understand
what God said in his law, read what God said in his gospel.
It's all the same thing. It's the message of Christ and
him crucified. Now look at verses 35 and 36
again. I want you to see these five
profound facts clearly revealed here in the utmost simplicity. I'll just give them to you as
we move along. Number one, that which is written in the book
of God, all of it, was written by divine inspiration. David
himself said, by the Holy Ghost. Now, I speak to you and I seek
a message from God, and I seek inspiration from God in that
sense of the word, being inspired, moved, motivated. But the word
inspiration, when we use it with regard to Holy Scripture, does
not imply merely that David was sort of nudged along and the
Holy Spirit gave him an idea and he wrote it down. That's
not it at all. But holy men of old spake as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit. The Word of God, all Scripture,
is given by inspiration of God. Now this is what that means.
That means that God uses a man as an instrument to pin the words
of scripture. And that man uses his own language
and his own character and his own style of writing. If you
read the scriptures, you can easily spot what Paul wrote as
opposed to what Peter wrote, what John wrote as opposed to
that which is written by Peter. That's no trouble. You just open
it. Well, that's got John's mark on it. If you know anything about
John's character. But as those men were moved of
God, They were carried along by the Holy Spirit to write exactly
the word and letter and syllable intended by God the Holy Spirit
in Pharaoh. Either this book is in its entirety
the Word of God or it's useless. Either it's entirely the Word
of God or it's a fake and a fraud and you and I have been And that's
all there is to it. This is God's Word. This is God's
Word. Secondly, God's promised Messiah,
the King, our Redeemer, that Savior spoken of in the Old Testament,
must be the Son of David. All the scribes and Pharisees,
even the Sadducees, understood this. That's what our Lord refers
to in verse 35. He said, how say the scribes
that Messiah, Christ, is the Son of David? Messiah, you'll
notice, is not a son of David, but the son of David. David had
lots of sons. Solomon was one of David's sons.
And folks looked at Solomon and said, well, he's the one David,
that the Lord was talking about when he said, I'll give him a
son to sit on his throne and he'll have a kingdom of peace
and righteousness. No, no, no, no, no. Solomon was just the
type. He was just a picture. That one
who sits on David's throne forever is the Christ of God and he sits
on that throne by right of redemption for he has redeemed his people
from their sin and brought in everlasting righteousness and
unquestionable, undestroyable peace, peace with God himself.
The Messiah, the son of David, thirdly, though he is a man,
He is and must be himself God Almighty. The Sovereign Lord
of the Universe. This man who is David's son is
David's Lord. David knew that. Now I know folks
sometimes they look at these Old Testament saints and say
well those fellows didn't know much. David had enough sense to understand
that Christ is his son and his Lord, he called himself. He understood
that. He understood more than most
do these days. David recognized that this man who is the Messiah
is himself God incarnate. I do not pretend he understood
all the ramifications of that or understood how it came to
pass. I don't. I don't. I've got the whole revelation
of God here. But David understood that he
who is his Messiah His Redeemer, His King, He who is His Son to
sit on His throne is God Himself in human flesh. And fourthly,
the Messiah, God in human flesh, having finished the work He was
sent here to do, now sits upon that throne, the throne of grace
at the right hand of the majesty on high. It's called in scripture
the throne of David. Read the second chapter of Acts.
Peter explains this so plainly. A lot of folks, they visit Israel. Now, go visit Israel if you want
to. That's fine. That's fine. But don't call it
the holy land. It's just dirt. Just like Kentucky
dirt. Not quite as rich. Not quite
as fertile. But it's just dirt. And God's
not going to return over yonder and set up another Jewish temple
and another Jewish priesthood and set a Jewish throne over
there and caused the Jews to rule over the world again. That's
nuts. That's just nuts. The Lord Jesus
Christ now sits on David's throne and those who bow to him in saving
faith are the Israel of God of whom that physical seed of Abraham
was just a type and picture. Fifthly, the text here tells
us he must reign. until all his enemies are made
his footstool. One of these days, you're going
to bow to the Son of God. That's right. It's not a matter
if you're going to bow. No, no. That was settled a long
time ago. When God made him Lord in Christ,
that issue was settled. You're going to bow to him. You're
going to surrender to his dominion. You're going to kiss his rod.
You will either do so in the terror of judgment announcing
amen to your own damnation or you do so now in the experience
of his grace announcing amen to the power of his grace and
his salvation. Now look at this last thing here
in this 37th verse. And the common people, the common
people heard him gladly. They still do. They still do. How happy they were to go to
church and instead of listening to men wrangle about theological
nonsense. Instead of listening to men fuss
and debate about issues of insignificance. Instead of listening to men argue
about the historical validity of this text or that. Instead
of listening to men quote foreign languages and call it scholarship.
They heard a man speak with authority. the Word of God in such language,
everybody there understood what he said. Everybody there. That's how preachers are preached.
I wish I could get hold of the ear of every preacher, particularly
those who are my brethren, who believe the gospel of God's free
grace, and make them understand. A pastor must be a diligent student
of the word. He must be scholarly in preparing
to preach. But in preaching the gospel,
it's the pastor's responsibility to speak with such simplicity
and such clarity that anybody who will just pay him attention
will understand what he says. He just... I can say that, plain
as it can be. That's what the pastor's supposed
to do. Our Lord spoke plainly. These scribes didn't know how.
These Pharisees didn't have it in them. The Sadducees weren't
capable of doing so. So that the common people, they'd
come in, go to church. They'd been going in and out
of church for years and never heard anything. So accustomed
to hearing anything, they didn't expect to hear anything. And
suddenly, God stands for them. God in human flesh. And He speaks. Oh, He speaks like never a man
I've heard speak before. He speaks with a thought of death.
with the authority of God. Now secondly, verses 38, 39 and
40, we have a warning. A warning about self-righteousness. He said to them in his doctrine,
beware of the scribes. Do you know how seldom our Lord
used that word beware? I mean, it was one of those things
he just didn't often use. And when he used it, he meant,
buddy, you better pay attention to what I'm telling you. Beware. He said, beware of false prophets.
He warned us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, that
is, to beware of their doctrine and of their hypocrisy. And here
he warns us to beware of the scribes. Beware. Watch out for them. And here's
the reason for the warning. Their religion is repugnant,
odious, obnoxious to God Almighty. Beware those fellows which love
to go in long clothing and love salutations in the marketplaces. That doesn't mean they love you
to say hello to them, I kind of like that and you do too.
That means they love you to say hello to them in such a way as
this, they're not. Hello, Edwin. Hello, Martha. Hello, Doctor. Hello, Aisha. Hello, Don will be all right.
They love salutations. Look at that. Everybody knows
now I'm somebody. Because you address me with them
up there. They love it. And the chief seats
in the synagogues and the uppermost rooms at feasts. which devour
widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers, thee shall
receive the greater damnation." If you read the four Gospels
carefully, you cannot help avoiding, or help observing the fact that
this wickedness is self-righteous. Hypocrisy. And religious show
was just as common in that day as it is in ours and it was common
among folks who walked in every branch of religion. It didn't
matter whether they were conservative or fundamentalist or liberals
or neo-orthodox or heterodox or orthodox. It didn't matter.
The Pharisees and Herod, the Herodians and the Sadducees,
the Zealots and the Scribes, all of them. had this thing in
common about them. All of them. Now they all did
things differently in certain ways, but they all made a show
of religion that was pretentious, hypocritical, pretending to be
what they knew they were not. Pretending those things because
men love it. Men love it. We all naturally
love outward religion. It's just It's just the religion
of depraved human beings. We love self-righteousness. That's the reason our Lord warns
us against it. Let's over and over and over
again. We won't. Now, over the years,
I've heard fellows justify this kind of behavior in many, many,
many ways. They say, now, you want to be
a good witness for the Lord, so when you go to the restaurant,
You know, you pray, and you bow your head. You can pray without
bowing your head and calling attention to yourself. You don't
have to do that. We need to dress a certain way.
You go down here to these folks down in Amish country or among
those settlements down there, you know, they dress funny. That
makes us look. Everybody then knows we're praying
people. We love the Lord. We're God-fearing. You give titles. Call men by titles. Display your religion for everybody
to see it. Loving honor for men. Making long, showy prayers. Our Lord calls it a preaching.
I do too. A preaching that's fake, that's
sham, that's scam. Beware of them. because these
fellows devour widows' houses in the name of Christ. They come
under the pretense of serving Christ, and serving the souls
of men, and would rob widows of their livelihood. Beware of
the tendencies of your flesh to these things, because these
things we all love, for we love to be pampered and to pamper
ourselves. Natural to men to seek to be approved of and promoted
by other men. Beware of following such men,
because if you do, you shall with them receive the greater
condemnation. God give me grace to be honest,
thorough, and sincere before you. God give you grace to be
so as well. Now, one last thing. Here's an
example of true godliness. Not true giving through God's
will. Not just through giving, through
faith. Our Lord comes and sits in the
temple, he watches. He watches. And rich folks came
and they cast in a lot of money. And they all came, they had a
lot. They all cast in a lot. And then there's one certain
poor widow. She came. She cast in too much. But when she did, she cast in
everything she had. All her substance. That is, she
took everything she had to feed herself with that day. All she
had. And she gave it to God. And looked to Him. to supply
her needs. That's what Christianity is.
It's giving yourself to God. Giving yourself to the rule and
dominion of Christ. Surrender to Christ the Lord
in the totality of your being. of shame, of pain. Amen.