Back over to Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 22, where we looked at this morning. I want to begin reading in Matthew
chapter 22 and verse 41 and finish that chapter again. Chapter 22 and verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ, whose
Son is He? They said unto him, The Son of
David. And he said unto them, How then doth David in spirit,
or by the Spirit, call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my
Lord, Set thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If David then called him Lord,
How is he his son? And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither doest any man from that day forth ask him
any more questions." Someone wrote a song concerning this
verse, What Think Ye of Christ? It may have been Joseph Hart,
I'm not for sure. Let me read what he said in the
song. What Think Ye of Christ is the
test. to try both your state and your
scheme. You cannot be right in the rest
unless you think rightly of Him. As Jesus appears in our view,
as He is beloved or not, so God is disposed toward you, and mercy
or wrath are your lot. Some take Him a creature to be. a man or an angel at most. Sure, these have not feelings
like me, nor know themselves wretched and lost. So guilty,
so helpless am I. I dare not confide in His blood,
nor on His protection rely, unless I am sure He is God. Some call Him a Savior in word,
but mix their own works with His plan. and hope he his help
will afford when they have done all they can. If doings prove
rather too light, and little they own, they may fail. They
purpose to make up full weight by casting his name in the scale. Some stall him the pearl of great
price, and say he's the fountain of joys, yet feed upon folly
and vice, and cleave to the world and its toys. Like Judas, the
Savior, they kiss, and while they salute, Him betray. Oh, what will professions like
this avail in that terrible day? If asked what of Jesus I think,
though still my best thoughts are but poor, I say He's my meat
and my drink. my life, my strength, and my
store, my shepherd, my husband, my friend, my savior from sin
and from thought, my hope from beginning to end, my portion,
my Lord, and my all. What thank you of Christ is our
subject tonight as we look at this passage. These Pharisees
were the ones that asked Our Lord this question and He in
turn asked them this question. And these were the most religious
people of their day. They were the strictest people
of their day. We've got reason to believe that
they read the Bible. We know that they prayed. We
know they attended public worship. They did all of that. But how
wrong these religious people were. And their whole problem,
Jesus Christ put His finger on it here, is what they thought
of Christ. They had no right thoughts of
him. They thought wrongly of him. Sometimes you and I think of
Cain, and I've preached on Cain. We think sometimes of Cain that
he was somewhat open and a profane man, but you know he wasn't that
way at all. Cain was a very religious man
and probably in a way worked much harder than Abel did. especially to be accepted of
God. He put His back into His work
and grew a huge crop and brought that to the Lord to be accepted
of Him. But here was Cain's whole problem. Though he was a religious man
and a hard worker, it's what he thought of Christ. He had
low thoughts of Christ, that God would accept him by the works
of His hand. And Abel thought so highly of
Christ, he brought that lamb. that represented the Lord Jesus.
What think ye of Christ? Oh, what a good question this
is, and our Master asked it Himself. Isn't that an essential question? What think ye of Christ? What do we think, first of all,
of His blessed Person? Do we even think? Do we think
of Him? There are people that go all
day long and never give a thought to this glorious person. There
are some who think about Him on Sunday, but they never think
about Him all through the week. And the first thing here I guess
we could ask is this, do you think of Him? Do you think of
Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God? And secondly, what
do we think of His blessed person? First of all, what do we think
of His deity, His Godhood? He asked us this year, whose
son is He? Well, of course, He's David's
son, but He's more than that, isn't He? And that's the point
He was getting at here. He said, I'm more than the son
of David. I'm David's Lord. So what do
we think of Jesus Christ in His deity? Before Abraham was, He
said, I am. I love that passage, how the
book of John begins. He says, In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus Christ was with God. It shows a distinction between
Him and God because He is indeed the Son of God, and yet He is
one with God. He is co-equal, He is co-eternal
with God, His Father. I love the passage where the
Lord Jesus Himself said, He is the only begotten Son of God. I can't understand that. Can
you? How can you be eternally begotten of the Father? But that's
the way He describes Himself. The Lord said, O Father, glorify
Thou me with Your own self, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was. What? Thank ye of Christ. What
do you think of His deity? What do you think of His eternality? What do you think of His Godhood,
His Godhead? He is indeed the eternal Son
of God. But we have to ask ourselves
here this too because we find it in the text. What do you think
of Christ in His humanity? For He's called here the Son
of David. He's the Son of God in His deity,
but He's the Son of David in His humanity. What do we think
of Christ in His two natures? Isn't that wonderful that the
Eternal Son of God took our humanity to Himself, born of a virgin? The children being partakers
of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part of the same,
though He took no sin to Himself. He was born holy, and He lived
holy, and He died upon the cross to atone for our sins, the man
Christ Jesus. Isn't this a good question then
to ask ourselves? What do we think of Jesus Christ
and His humanity, the Son of David? And think of Him in His
offices. What do we think of Christ in
His offices? As a prophet to teach us. As
a priest to reconcile us to God. To represent us before God. What
do we think of Him as a King to rule over us? Do we see the
need of Christ in His offices? Do we think of Him in His offices? What do you think of having a
high priest? to represent you before God. What do you think
about a king to subdue your iniquities and rule over you? What do you
think about a prophet to teach you? What think ye of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Do you think of Him where He
is now and what He's doing there and what He's going to do? What
think ye of Christ? That's a good subject, isn't it? That's a good
question to be asked. What think ye of Christ? If you
think rightly of Christ, secondly, how did we get this knowledge
of Him? What think ye of Christ? Well, I think He's the eternal
Son of God, equal with the Father. I think He took our humanity,
that He died upon the cross and atoned for our sins. I think
He's there in Heaven in all His offices. How did you get that
knowledge? Was it through careful study,
even of the Bible? Did you hear it from somebody
else? And we know that God uses means,
but brothers and sisters, the knowledge of Christ, the knowledge
of His person doesn't come through a lot of study. We grow in grace
and knowledge, but the true, saving, glorious knowledge of
Christ that we have in our hearts has to come by revelation, doesn't
it? That's the only way to know Him
in His glorious person, is by revelation. I remember he asked
his disciples one day, he said, whom do men say that I am? And
they said, some of them say Jeremiah, and one of them said Isaiah,
and all of these others. But he said, who do you say I
am? And Peter said, ìBoy, youíre the Christ. Youíre the Son of
the living God.î And remember what the Lord said to him, ìPeter,
flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. You didnít learn
this from some man, but my Father which is in heaven, Heís revealed
this to you.î And thatís the way the knowledge of Christ,
of His glorious person, becomes real in our hearts, in our understanding. Paul said it like this. He said,
When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, immediately, he
said, I conferred not with flesh and blood. So how? How do we
know Him? How do we know Him? How do we
come to the knowledge of Him? It's by revelation. And you know
something about this revelation? It always brings faith with it.
It never comes without bringing faith with it. The prophet said,
ìLord, who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed?î Those are one and the same, arenít
they? They come together. A revelation of Christ and His
glorious person always brings faith with it. The Lord Jesus
asked His disciples one day, ìWill you go away?î Everybody
else is leaving. Will you go away? And they said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that You're the Christ,
the Son of the living God. We believe that. But how did
He know that? It was revealed to Him of the
Father, which is in heaven. So how did we come to this glorious
knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Lord? It was revealed to us. He's precious,
isn't He? He's precious. Thirdly, let's
ask this question. What think ye of Christ? How
did you come to that knowledge? And thirdly is this, and this
always needs to be asked because it always happens this way. What
have you given up for Him? If you think rightly of Him,
He's precious to you. And when He's precious to you,
there are always things that you give up for Him. I bet you
I could look at each one of you this evening and ask you, what
have you given up for Christ? And you could tell me some things
that you've given up for Him. You know what Paul said that
he had gave up for Him? He said, I've given everything.
I've gave my old righteousness up. Ain't that what he said?
I counted all loss for the excellency of the knowledge." That's it
isn't it? Christ is precious to me. And he said, I gave up
my righteousness. And not just gave it up, but
he said, I counted it done. It felt that I might win Christ
and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law. And Moses, my goodness, remember
what Moses gave up? He was the daughter of Pharaoh.
And he was telling us that he was next in line for the throne. And the Scripture says that he
gave up the prestige of being called Pharaoh's daughter. And he gave up the throne for
this. He chose rather to suffer affliction
with a people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. He counted the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. My goodness, don't
you know that Moses looked around him and he saw all the pleasures? And I imagine he lived in pleasure.
just like the rest of us. But when the Lord was revealed
to his heart, he let all of that go. The pleasures of Egypt he
let go. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
one said to our hearts, is not only a joyous thing, but it's
a killer to the pleasures of sin. The love of sin will kill
us, or the knowledge of Christ will kill our love for sin. And Moses chose to suffer rather
than enjoy the pleasures of sin. But what made him leave that
place and go out and suffer with the children of God? It was this
precious knowledge. I remember one time, when the
Lord told him, I'm not going up with you guys into the new
land. And Moses went into prayer. And he wanted that new land more
than anything, didn't he? But there was one thing worth
more to him than that land, and that was the Lord Himself. And
he said, Lord, if you don't go with me, don't lead me up. I don't want to be anything.
I don't want to go anywhere without you. That's what this precious
knowledge does. Brother Larry has been teaching
about the apostles following the Lord. And Matthew was setting
up the receipt of customs. That was his job. That was his
livelihood. But Christ had been revealed
to his heart. And when he went by and spoke
and said, follow me, he left all, didn't he? He left all and
followed him. And boy, there's times when the
Lord says, what do you think of me? Do you think more of me
than that? Do you think more of me than
this? And we say, No, Lord. No. No. Give this up. Let this go. And when He says
that to us, are we like the rich young ruler that was grieved?
Or are we like the Apostle Paul? We count all loss for the excellency
of the knowledge. What think ye of Christ? Fourthly,
think of this. And I think we have this at least
hinted at here in our text in verse 44. What think ye of Christ
as a mediator between God and man? But doesn't he mention this
here in verse 44? The Lord said unto my Lord, the
Father said to the Son, Set thou on my right hand, till I make
thy enemies thy footstool. Is that not our mediator? He's seated on God's right hand. A mediator between God and man?
And the question we could ask you this evening, what does Christ
mean to us? What do we think of Him as a
mediator? Is He our friend? Has He reconciled us to God? Do you come to His footstool? What do you think about having
access to God the Father? What do you think about that?
Randy mentioned that in his prayer. Isn't it a wonderful thought
that we have access to the Father? Doesn't that give you peace?
Doesn't that give you joy and assurance in your heart? That
24 hours a day you have access through the Son of God because
He's seated there at the right hand of His Father. Nothing alarms
you. Nothing alarms me more than someone
coming to God and not coming through the mediator between
God and man. I told you a story that happened
to me not long after the Lord saved me. My goodness, it would
have been 40 years ago or more probably. We were at this park
and I think this is the reason it made such an impression upon
me. I was a young Christian and I knew the necessity of coming
to God through Christ. all my young life, I had bypassed
the mediator. And God would have nothing to
do with me. All I saw was His frowning face. And when I found out that there
was a mediator to plead my cause in God's right hand, that made
such a joyous impression upon me. I was at the park, me and
my family, and we was having some kind of a thing out there.
But this woman got up behind this little podium, something
like this, to announce the activities. And she said, let's go to God
in prayer. And she just flippantly rushed into God's presence and
started making all these requests and thanking Him for this and
that. And she never had in her mind one thought of a mediator. I kept listening for it. She
didn't even say in Jesus' name. She said nothing. She went directly
to God. And you know, if I had it to
do over, I'd have went up to her and I'd have said, well,
thank you, Christ. Do you ever think of the necessity of Him
seated at the Father's right hand? Doesn't our Lord hint here at
something else in verse 44? Not only that Christ is the mediator
on God's right hand, but why did He mention this, that He
is sitting there? Did you ever think of that? Sit
at my right hand. What they give Christ as He's
seated. You know what that means to me?
That He's not too busy. He's not too busy. And he's sure not restless. He's
not walking the floor and wringing his hands in frustration. When you think of your sins,
how black and vile they are, do you think of this? That Jesus
took your sins and paid the price for your sins? And He succeeded
in doing that? And the evidence is right here
in this verse that He ceded? That He's resting at the Father's
right hand. He wouldn't be resting, would
He, if He hadn't atoned for your sins. What a wonderful thought
this is. We not only have a Mediator that
has atoned for our sins, but He's finished the work. Oh, to
enter into that rest. To enter into that rest. We were
talking about this just before the service. Boy, sometimes our
sins bother us. And it bothered the prophets
sometime, Lord, don't remember against me the sins of my youth.
Well, here's some rest for us. What's Jesus doing? He's seated
at the Father's right hand. Enter into His rest. Something else, when trouble
comes to you, and all around you seems out of control, and
your heart is heavy about it all, what do you think of Christ
then? Can you trust Him then? Do you
think things are not out of His control? He is not up in arms. He is not alarmed. He is patiently
and calmly ruling all things while sitting upon the throne
of His divine sovereignty. His enemies may be out of my
control and your control, but they're not out of His control.
And He's not upset about it. He's not pacing the floor and
getting frustrated. He's sitting calmly in heaven. It must be well with Him. He had a terrible battle here,
didn't He? Man, how He fought here, and it took everything
He had to do what He did. Strength enough, but none to
spare, the old preacher said. But boy, when he finished that
work, he sat down, didn't he? And he said, the Father's given
everything into my hands, and I'm reigning. But how's he doing
it? He's seated. He's so calm, and
he's so restful. Doesn't that give us a little
bit of quietness in our soul? Dear Spurgeon, I never have forgot
something he said. He was talking to some people
that was in such great trials and frustrated in their minds
and heartbroken about things. He said, Think of this. Your
chief friend is in heaven. And how is it with him? It's
well with him, isn't it? And he said, if you've got a
friend that you love dearly and you hear that it's well with
him, then that ought to really encourage you and make you feel
good if you love your friend. It's well with Jesus, brothers
and sisters. He's seated. He's seated in heaven. Do you think rightly of Christ?
Do you think of Him seated and restful? When darkness veils
His lovely face, can you trust Him then? Can you rest on His
unchanging grace then? Does your anchor hold within
the veil? What think ye of Christ? What do you think of Christ when
you think of the last day? And oh, he mentions that here
also in verse 44, doesn't he? Set at my right hand until I
make your enemies your footstool. When you think of that day, That
last great day of judgment, when all His enemies are coming and
bowing before His footstool, how will it be then? Is your
hope in Him now? Then your hope will be in Him
then. He's already given you a good hope through grace. And
when He turns His enemies out, He'll turn and say to you, Come,
you blessed. Come, my friend. Come, you that
thought rightly of Me down below. Come, you that forsook all to
follow Me. Come and inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Can you say with
David, This is my Lord? Ain't that wonderful? What did
David call him? How did David address him? Lord. The Lord said unto my Lord. Christ is Lord, isn't He? Somebody
said, Make Him Lord. You're really too late. A long
time too late. He's always been Lord. We just
bow to Him, don't we? And we own Him as our Lord. And
we address Him as our Lord. He's David's Lord. And He's our
Lord. God bless His Word. Let's pray.