I've entitled the message for
this evening, The Scribes' Objection. The Scribes' Objection. The scribes were the students
of the scripture, so to speak, and they had this objection that
they thought proved from the scriptures that Jesus was not
the Christ. Now, Peter, James, and John had
been given a physical, actual glimpse of the Lord being transfigured
before them. And they saw his face shine as
the sun. They saw his clothes begin to
become white. His countenance was altered,
the scripture says. They saw his deity. Now they knew he was the son
of God. Now they see he's the son of
God. Somebody says, explain that to
me because the Bible says no man can see God and live. Well,
I can't explain it to you, but I know they saw him shining above
the brightness of the sun and speaking with him was Elijah
and Moses, speaking of the deceased, which he should accomplish. We
considered that last week. And they audibly heard the voice
of the Father from heaven. That bright cloud came down and
overshadowed them. And they heard that voice come
from heaven. After Peter had made that incredibly
stupid statement, let's make three tabernacles. One for thee,
one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And then the cloud overshadows
and they hit the dirt. and they hear the voice from
heaven, this is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased, hear
ye him. Now, before anybody thinks, I
wish I had an experience like that, and I do. I would have
liked to have been there. I would have liked to have been
there. I would have liked to have been one of the three, wouldn't you? I think
those other nine, you know, look where I'm at. You know, I know
me enough to know the way I am. But do you know when Peter gives
this account in second Peter chapter one, where he saw this,
he said, we also have a more sure word of prophecy. And me and you right now have
something more sure, more authoritative than anything we've experienced.
We've got the word of God. What a blessing that is. This
is the more sure word of prophecy. And what the Bible says is more
authoritative than any experience you and I have. Now here they
are coming down from the mountain, having seen the truth of him
being the Christ, the son of the living God. They bring up
to the Lord while they're walking down the mountain, an objection. that the scribes had made to
them. And they said, why say the scribes
that Elijah must first come? Now, Elijah must first come. This was foretold in the Old
Testament scriptures. And they were using the scriptures
to disprove that Jesus was the Christ. They were using the scriptures
to promote their error. And isn't that what's going on
constantly around us? People use the scriptures to
prove their point of view, to prove their doctrine. And that's
what the scribes were doing at this time, the educated fellows,
the fellows who supposedly know the scriptures. They said to
the disciples, he can't be the Christ. because the Bible says
Elijah must first come. Elijah hadn't come, therefore
he could not possibly be the Christ. A great man, no doubt,
but he could not possibly be the Christ. Now look at the way
Mark begins this book. Verse one of chapter one, the
beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. the Son of God, as it's
written, here's the first thing he says, as it's written in the
prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall
prepare thy way before thee. Now turn to the book of Malachi,
it's the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Malachi,
chapter three. And here's what, He's quoting,
behold, I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way
before me. Isaiah said something very similar.
Hold your finger there in Malachi and look in the book of Isaiah
chapter 40. Verse three, the voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
made straight in the desert, a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked shall
be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." The voice said, cry.
And he said, why should I cry? I love that verse of scripture.
If I ever need to know what to preach, cry. What do you want
me to preach? What do you want me to cry? What am I supposed
to say? What does the voice of God tell him to cry? Here it
is. All flesh is grass. And all the
goodliness is as the flower of the field. The grass withers,
the flower fades, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. The grass withers and the flower fadeth, but the word of
our God shall stand forever. Now these were the words of John
the Baptist. Look back in Malachi chapter
four, verse five. Last words of the
Old Testament. Then there's 400 years of silence
after this. Behold, I will send you Elijah,
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest
I come and smite the earth with a curse. Now, obviously this
could not be the Christ because Elijah has not come. Elijah had come in the person
of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was not a reincarnation
of Elijah, but he certainly came in the spirit of Elijah, and
the Lord tells us that, in fact, he was Elijah. Now, the scribes were using the
scriptures to disprove the gospel. They were using the scriptures
to disprove that Jesus was the Christ. They were giving a half
a truth. Elijah must come. They were right.
What's a half a truth? A whole lie. Every time. They had a half a truth, but
they understood nothing about the fulfillment of the scriptures,
and they were giving a whole lie. You see, the scripture is
and can be used in a corrupt, Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
2. Verse 17. Paul says, for we are not as
the minority. No, he doesn't say that, does
he? We are not as many which corrupt the word of God, But
as a sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we
in Christ. Now, I hope that when I'm preaching,
I want you to believe. I want you to receive what's
being said, if it's the word of God, but there's one I'm concerned
about what he hears, God himself. We preach in the sight of God. And you know, I dare say, I bet
you wouldn't want to hear me if I didn't have that concern,
would you? If I was more concerned about pleasing men. But he said,
we preach in the sight of God. Look in chapter four, verses
one and two. Therefore, second Corinthians
four, verses one and two. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry and Chapter three is one of the most glorious chapters
with regard to the grace of God, the ministry of the New Testament.
Seeing we have this ministry that he's spoken of in chapter
three, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, Not walking in craftiness nor
handling the word of God deceitfully. Using the scriptures to maintain
our position. Using the scriptures to prove
our error. Now that is what the scribes
were guilty of doing at this time. They were using the scriptures.
He can't be the Christ. Elijah has to come first. And they were using the scriptures
to promote their error. Not handling the word of God
deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Now, what is
it that commends a man? The manifestation of the truth.
That's it. Turn to 2 Peter 3 for just a
moment. 2 Peter 3. Verse 15. and account that the long suffering
of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul,
also according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written
unto you. As also in all his epistles,
speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard
to be understood. which they that are unlearned
and unstable twist, rest, pull them out of their context as
they do also the other scriptures. You see, he is giving the writings
of Paul the place of scripture, isn't he? He says the writings
of Paul are like the other scriptures. And look what happens in doing
this unto their own destruction. Now you can prove anything you
wanna prove from the scriptures. Taking them out of their context,
handling the word of God deceitfully. Now the Bible can only be interpreted
by itself. You think about that. The Bible
can only be interpreted by itself by the gospel in light of this
word must, as we've seen in this text of scripture when the Lord
is answering them. The Bible can only be interpreted
by itself in light of the gospel. I better understand what the
gospel is and who the gospel is. I have to have the Lord to
be my teacher. And it's understood in this word
must or necessary. Now, as I said, Malachi, when
this promise of Elijah coming is given, 400 years, the Lord doesn't speak. No prophetic word, we have the
scriptures. But until the New Testament is
opened, the canon is closed. 400 years without a word from
God. Now I think it's interesting
during that 400 year period, if you read the book of Daniel,
Daniel tells everything that's gonna take place in that 400
years. He talks about the rise of Alexander the Great. He talks
about the falling of Alexander the Great and how he'll fall.
He talks about the rise of the Roman Empire and all kinds of
different things you can read in the latter part of Daniel.
He tells us exactly what's gonna take place in that 400 year period. You see, God's purpose is always
done. And everything that happened
in that 400-year period happened according to the purpose of God.
And everything that happened today happened according to the
purpose of God. And everything that'll happen
tomorrow will happen according to the purpose of God. There's
no such thing as luck, chance, happenstance, good luck, bad
luck, coincidence. God rules and everything that's
done has been determined by God before time began. It's called
providence. Now, after that 400 years and
during that 400 years, we got the rise of the Pharisees and
the Sadducees and the Herodians. and the scribes. These are the
religious people described in the New Testament. That happened
probably around 150 years before the death of Christ is when that
started happening. And this lets us know just how degenerated
religion had become. At the time of Christ's birth,
according to Luke, there were two high priests. one a Pharisee,
one a Sadducee, which lets you know that it had become completely
political. The Pharisees had their guy in
office. The Sadducees had their guy in office. There was no semblance
to the truth at this time when John the Baptist arrives on the
scene, and this is when Elijah appears with his loincloth preaching
from the wilderness, but they did not know this was John the
Baptist. Now how do we know? The Lord
tells us. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 11. Beginning in verse
seven. And as they departed, Jesus began
to say unto the multitudes concerning John, John the Baptist, what
would ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the
wind, conforming to public opinion? But what would ye out for to
see? A man clothed in soft raiment, rich? Behold, they that wear
soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what went ye out for, to
see a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more
than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written, and he
quotes that passage in Malachi, behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I
say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath
not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding,
he that's least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
Who's least in the kingdom of heaven? Christ. He became least. He who is the greatest became
least when he was made sin. And he said, when I'm talking
about John the Baptist, understand this, he can't be compared with
me. He that's least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the
Baptist to now, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and
the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the
law prophesied until John, and if you will receive it, this
is, alas, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Turn to Matthew chapter 17, verse
10. This is Matthew's account of
this same event, and his disciples asked him, saying, why then say
the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and
said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias
is come already, and they knew him not. but have done unto him
whatsoever they listed, likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer
of them. Now, look at that word, restore. Elias truly shall come and restore
all things. And Mark uses the term as well,
back to Mark chapter nine. Elias verily cometh first, verse
12. Elias verily cometh first and
restoreth all things. Now the word restore, this is
very important. The word restore means to bring
something back to a former state. Now that's what his ministry
was. to bring something back to a
former state. Now this tells us a couple of
things about John the Baptist. Number one, he did not have a
different message. He was bringing the message back
that had been lost. During this 400 years of the
Lord not speaking, there was plenty of religion going on,
but there wasn't Very much gospel preaching, if any. We don't have
a record of any. I know the Lord's never been
without witness. There's never been a time when he didn't have
a witness, but Simeon here, Anna there, not many. And he is restoring
things to where they had been. Now, turn back to Malachi during
this prophecy. Last book in the Old Testament, I want you to look in the first
chapter. Verse six. Malachi says, a son
honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father,
where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is
my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts unto
you, O priests, that despise my name. And you say, wherein
have we despised thy name? You offer polluted bread upon
mine altar. And you say, wherein have we
polluted thee? And you say, the table of the
Lord is contemptible. And if you offer the blind for
sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and
the sick, and he's talking about the offering of the lamb. Is
it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor.
Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person, saith the
Lord of hosts? Now, they were offering the lamb.
They were going through the motions. They were slaying a lamb. But
it's pointed out that it was a lamb that was blind and lame
and sick. It wasn't the spotless lamb.
It wasn't the lamb without blemish and without spot. What was it
that made this? Lamb, blind and lame and sick. What they were doing was offering
their own works. They were going through the motion of offering
a lamb, but they had no idea what it meant. Somebody says,
well, they were trying to use a less expensive lamb. Maybe
so, but what this represents is they were offering their blind,
lame, sick works. They weren't offering the lamb
without spot and without blemish. They were offering the lame and
the sick and the blind. And this was Malachi's prophecy
and he talks about John the Baptist coming to restore all things.
He's come to restore all things with this message. Behold the
Lamb of God. Not a sick lamb, not a blind
lamb, not a lame lamb, not your works. the Lamb of God's providing. And this is the message of the
Bible. This is the only message of the Bible. This is what John
the Baptist was being used to restore. What was his message? Behold the Lamb of God. Not some lame, sick, blind lamb
that can't do anything for anybody. Behold the Lamb of God. Now this was the subject before
the foundation of the world when we read of the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. I reckon I ought to try to say
this about every time I preach, the Lamb slain is the gospel. The lamb dying is the most godlike
thing God ever did in giving his son, and his son volunteering
to do this for the glory of his father. The lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Why, as soon as Adam and Eve
fell, a lamb was slain. That's the first shedding of
blood. And they were covered by God himself. He covered them. He didn't hand it to them and
put them on. He covered them. Abel comes into God's presence
with what? The blood of a lamb. He said
by that, I know I can't come into your presence because of
my sinfulness. The only way I can be accepted by you is the coming
lamb of God. He knew that physical lamb wasn't
what put away a sin, but what it represented, the coming lamb
of God. And the scripture says, God,
had respect to Abel and his offering. This is that substitute lamb
for Isaac. Remember, Isaac said, here's
the wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb for the burnt offering?
Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering. You can't provide anything God
would accept. God's the one who provides the
lamb. Everything God requires, he provides. Isn't that glorious? I love it that way. He provides
for himself. For him to do something for me,
he had to first do something for himself. He had to make a
way to be just before he could justify me and just put my sins
under the carpet. That's not the way it works.
He provided for himself and here's the glory of this. He provided
himself as the lamb for the burnt offering. This has always been
the gospel. What about the Passover lamb? without spot, without blemish,
slain, put over the lintel of the doorpost, and God made this
statement, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. He didn't say I'll pass over
you if you do anything. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. This is the land of the great
day of atonement. The scapegoat taken into the
wilderness, bearing the sins and iniquities of the children
of Israel. This is the lamb spoken of in Isaiah 53, the sovereign,
substitutionary, silent, suffering, successful, satisfied lamb in
Isaiah 53. John was restoring that. He was
recovering that. Now, these are the weirdest days
we've ever seen, I suppose. I want to say this. Lynn saw
a sign, she told me about it. And I'm not advocating saying
anything like this because God's in control of 2020. But somebody
said on the sign, let 2020 go to hell. Because of all the things
that have happened and taken place. No, God's in control of
2020. Everything that's happened has
been according to his will. But in the midst of this, Strange
time, and it is a strange time. Oh, that we would have a restoration
of gospel preaching, a recovery of the gospel. You know, Paul
said to the Galatians, this is such a sobering thing. He said,
I marvel. And these are people who'd received
the gospel, who claimed to believe the gospel. He said, I marvel. that you are so soon removed
from the grace of Christ unto another gospel. And he goes on,
the theme of the book of Galatians is the recovery of the gospel.
They had it, they lost it, and this is what John the Baptist
is doing. He's coming to restore the preaching of the Lamb of
God. a restoration of the gospel. And I pray that the question
Isaac asked so many centuries ago would be asked again once
a day, where is the lamb? We have the wood, we have the
structure, we have the fire, we have the heat, where is the
lamb? Oh, would to God that every one
of us would be asking that question. Now look in our text in Mark
chapter nine, and they asked him saying, why say the scribes
that Elijah must first come? And he answered and told them,
Elijah verily cometh first and restoreth all things and how
it is written. When things are restored, here
is the focal point. It is written. It is written. That's the only emphasis. It
is written. How the Son of Man must suffer many things. Now notice that word must. It is written, it is written
at the son of man, the scripture is concerning him, must, must. It's absolutely necessary. It's
absolutely imperative. It can be no other way. The Son
of Man must suffer many things. And when gospel preaching is
restored, the word must is restored. Now hear me out. Must means necessity. And the reason for the necessity
is the will and purpose of God. who works all things after the
counsel of his own will, the God of purpose. That's why these
things are necessary, because God is a God of purpose. Everything he does, he does on
purpose. I've heard people object to the
gospel. They say, doesn't God give everybody a chance? Beloved
salvation is not by chance, it's by the purpose of God. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. 2 Timothy 1.9 says he saved us,
he called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose. And grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, God is a God of purpose,
of absolute sovereignty, the one who, as Daniel said, he doeth
according to his will. In the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? Everything that takes place is
what his hand and his counsel determined before to be done. And a God that's not like that
is a false God, is a peanut God that cannot save anybody. God is the God of purpose. Don't you love that one who said,
I must be about my father's business, my father's purpose. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring. There's none other name given
under heaven whereby we must be saved. Now understand this,
everybody he saves must be saved. There is a divine necessity to
it. Look back in Mark chapter eight.
We looked at this a few weeks ago. This keeps coming up in
the scriptures. Verse 31. He began to teach them that the
son of man must suffer many things. He must be rejected of the elders. He must be rejected of the chief
priests and the scribes. He must be killed. And after
three days, he must rise again. That word must refers to every
single one of those statements. He must suffer many things. Our text says he must be said
it not. You know, that's a terrible thing
to be disrespected. Everybody in here knows the sting
of being disrespected. And I dare say everybody in here
has disrespected someone too. When you disrespect somebody,
that means you treat them as if you're their superior. And
no man, I don't care who it is, is to be disrespected. It's an
evil thing to treat someone disrespectfully. I want to treat everybody with
respect, don't you? Oh, may the Lord give us grace
to treat all men with respect. All men are created in the image
of God. And I'm never to look down my nose at anybody and be
dismissive toward them. I'm sure I've done it. I'm sure
I do it, but it's not right. It's not right. But you know,
if you're honest, if somebody disrespects you, if you're honest,
you know that if they knew what you were really like, they would
treat you even worse. You know that, don't you? If
your heart was exposed to everybody and they could see you for what
you are, you'd not be surprised by any way anybody would treat
you. But the Son of God, to be said
it not? It's one thing for me to be said
it not. I deserve worse. But the Son of God, the holy,
spotless Lamb of God, to be said it not? He must suffer many things. The sorrows of knowing what was
head, the physical pain, knowing that he's going to be separated
from his father, knowing he's going to be made to bear sin.
And he's the only one that knows what that means. I don't know
what it means. You don't know what it means.
We don't understand the evil of sin. He does. And all of his life, he knew
this burden was ahead of him. He said in Psalm 88, I've been
afflicted from my youth up. He must be rejected by religion.
John the Baptist was. That's why I was out in the wilderness
preaching. You didn't see him in the synagogue, did you? You
didn't see him in the temple. No, if you were gonna hear from
God, you had to get away from organized man's religion. You
had to go out in the wilderness to hear the word of God. Religion
has always rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and always will,
but he also says he must be killed. It's absolutely necessary that
Jesus Christ be killed. Why? Because it's God's purpose.
He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This
is God's purpose. Number two, he must be killed because he's
guilty. He's guilty. When the Lord Jesus died, God
wasn't punishing the innocent. I've heard preachers say that
so many times. The innocent was being punished.
No, the innocent was not being punished. The guilty was being
punished because my sin became his sin, that he personally was
guilty of the commission of it. Somebody says, are you saying
Christ sinned? No, I'm not saying that. Worse, he was made sin. And he was guilty of it. And
the justice of God killed him. That's why he must be killed.
God's purpose. God's justice. But thank God,
he must rise from the dead. You know why he must rise from
the dead? Because complete satisfaction was made. The sins he died for
were put away, made to be no more. Everybody he died for,
he justified. And understand this about justification.
Justification isn't some kind of layer between me and God that
makes God treat me like I'm good. No, if I'm justified, I'm righteous
through and through. That's what justification is.
That means I've never sinned. How can you say that? Because
Christ never sinned. Just as truly as my sin became
his personal sin, his personal righteousness becomes my personal
righteousness. And I stand before God without
guilt. He must be raised from the dead
because of the success of what he did. You see, there's no gospel
preaching without this word, must. He must be killed, he must rise
from the dead. Sin was put away, justification
accomplished, complete satisfaction was made. Now he says in verse 13 of our
text, but I say unto you that Elijah is indeed come. Now they were making all kinds
of objections to Christ. He couldn't be the Christ. Elijah
hadn't come. where they were just blind as
bats. They didn't know that this scripture had been fulfilled
in the person of John the Baptist. They were using the scripture
to further their corrupt agenda, but they didn't know that Elijah
had indeed come. And I think of John the Baptist,
his closing days were in prison. The man who was greater than
any man born of woman. Nobody better than him. He spent
his final days in prison. Oh, the Lord loved him. But he
spent his final days in prison. You remember from prison where
he started getting some doubts and saying, if you're the Christ,
tell us, or should we look for somebody else? You say, how can
he doubt? Say, well, you can. But he was
in prison. And one day he was laying there,
maybe sitting up, I don't know what, position he was in, they
open the door and drag him out and unceremoniously cut his head
off. And it's over for him. This great
man. So don't look at circumstances. They don't mean anything. They don't mean anything. John the Baptist comes and describes,
use the scriptures, this is a dangerous book. And let me say this, me
and you, we'll either be saved by the message of this book,
believing the message of this book, or we'll be damned twisting
the message of this book. This is a dangerous book. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for thy
lamb, the lamb of your providing. Lord, deliver us from using the
scripture to maintain anything, but cause us to believe what
you say and preach what you say. And may we be found in Christ
And Lord, we ask in Christ's name that in our day, according
to your will, for your glory, by your grace, we might see a
restoration of the preaching of the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sins of the world. Enable us to preach thy gospel
in this generation. We pray that we might see, according
to your will, the preaching of thy son, and that many sinners
might be brought to bow the knee to him and trust him completely. In his name we pray, amen. Dwayne.