Will you turn, please, in your
Bibles to Matthew 22? Matthew 22. Now, when we preach the gospel of
Christ our Lord, it's not very often that people
repel us point-blank with this statement, there's nothing to
your message. There is nothing to what you're
saying. They do not repel us point blank
with a refusal to hear what we have to say about religion. Because the natural man is religious. The people you work with are
religious. Your relatives are all religious. And every natural man and woman
feels the need for some sort of religion. Everybody in this
building and everybody out yonder in Ashland feels the need of
a religious refuge, some sort of faith, some sort of hope. So instead of flatly denying
the word of God, the world begins to present certain difficulties
They don't want to talk about substitution. They don't want
to talk about sacrifice. They don't want to talk about
sin and its guilt, God and his Savior. They want to talk about
hard-to-understand passages of Scripture. When you present the
gospel to them, they want to present to you for your discussion
and debate and argument certain miracles which they doubt and
question. They evade the gospel by debate. You know this is true, I know
it's true. They evade the gospel by argument, by presenting difficulties. There's a certain fish, I don't
know the name of it, but it escapes from its enemies by clouding
the water. And this is what your relatives
and your friends do when you want to talk about salvation.
They want to talk about something else. Something in religion that
has to do with difficulties and doubts and debate. We have an
example of that here in Matthew 22. In verse 15, the Pharisees,
the religious leaders of that day, took counsel how they might
entangle him in his talk. That's what men today want to
do. They want to entangle you in your talk. When you come to
them with the message of the gospel, they want to entangle
you in your talk. So they begin to present these
questions that are difficult. Some are impossible to answer.
And that's what the Pharisees tried to do with our Lord. For
example, in verse 17, one group of them presented a question
about church and state. He said, tell us, verse 17, what
do you think? Is it lawful to give tribute
under Caesar? or not? Are we supposed to pay
tribute to Caesar? Are we subjects of the kingdom
of God, or are we subjects of the kingdom of the Roman Empire,
Caesar, or some other great natural leader? Well, our Lord dealt
with that question, and then in verse 28, another one. These
were the Sadducees. They didn't believe in the resurrection,
and they wanted to debate about the resurrection. How is a man's
body going to be raised? With what form does he come forth?
where we know each other in heaven? Are there going to be tears in
heaven? Will we live in mansions in the
sky? Will we really walk on streets
of gold? Are we going to have flesh and
blood and bones? All of these questions about
the resurrection, and they wanted to know, there was a woman who
had been married three, four, five, six, or seven times, and
they wanted to know whose wife she was going to be in the resurrection.
All of her husbands are raised, and she's raised, she's got seven
husbands, Who is she going to be married to in the resurrection?
And then another group came to him, verse 34. He put the Pharisees
to silence and the Sadducees to silence, and then a lawyer
asked him, which is the greatest commandment? Which is the greatest
commandment? And our Lord said the greatest
commandment is to love God with all your heart. What he wanted
to know was this, is it a greater sin to commit adultery or to
steal? Is it a greater sin to lie or
to kill? Is it a greater sin to take God's
name in vain or to bear false witness? That's what he wanted
to know. And they were debating about which sin was the greatest
sin, or which law was the greatest law. You see the picture? It's the same thing today. And
after these people that stood around the Master and that asked
him all of these difficult, doubtful questions, And they didn't know
any more when they left than they knew when they came, because
they weren't looking for light. Our Lord asked them a question.
He asked them the question of the day. This is the issue. This
is what men do not want to discuss. This is what men do not want
to think about. But this is the issue. Look at
verse 42. The Master asked them, saying,
What think ye of Christ? whose son is he. This is the point on which salvation
and condemnation hinge. This is the point of difference
between heaven and hell. This is it. This is the point
of difference between God's religion and man's religion. This is the
point of difference between hope and despair. This is it. What
think ye of Christ? Now, I have three statements
about this question, the question of the day. It's human nature for us to want
the preacher to deal with something unusual, something, some great revelation. If I had
announced in the paper this morning that I had a special revelation
on prophecy and when the Lord was going to come and what was
going to happen over there and that in the Holy Land, and who
was going to win, the Arabs or the Jews, and what part Gog and
Magog had in it, and whether Red China was really the army
from the South, and Russia was the army from the North, and
what part the United States would play in it. And the answer to
all these things, you couldn't hold the people in this building
this morning, because folks are interested in those things. And
I suppose there's There's some virtue or credit to being interested
in those things. It might be good to study them.
I don't know. But after you've studied them
all, you can't come up with any definite answers. All of it's
speculation. Whether Christ will come in this
century, I don't know, and you don't, and nobody else knows.
Angels don't even know. Only the Heavenly Father knows.
And if I were to announce that I was going to preach tonight
on where King did his wife, or is there really a missing day?
Did Joshua really make the sun stand still? I was going to answer
Charles Darwin's theories about the creation. People come to
hear those things, and I suppose it's all right to look into those
things, but that's not the question, and that's not the issue. The
issue is what think ye of Christ. That's the issue. Whose son is
he? This is the difference between
heaven and hell. This is the difference between
being saved and lost. This is the difference between
knowing God and not knowing God. What think ye of Christ? And
three things that I want to point out from this question, and what
I'm saying is this is what the Master said. When all of these
disputers of the Word, and these were men who knew something about
the Bible, they were scribes and Pharisees and lawyers and
religious teachers. And they had asked all these
questions, and Christ had dealt with them. But before they left,
he said, now I have a question. What do you think of Christ? Now that's the issue, and that's
the question the Master asks. If I ask you which you think
is the greatest law, it wouldn't matter a great deal. But I'm
asking you something the Master asks the people of his day. What
do you think of Christ? And first of all, it has to do
with a person. The question of the day has to
do with a person. and three things about that person.
Number one, he is all in all the counsels of God regarding
this world. Paul said that in Colossians
3.11, he said, Christ is all. Christ is all. He is all in all
the counsels of God concerning this world. There was a time
when this world had no being. There was a time when this earth
did not exist as we know it now. There was a time when there was
no sun, no moon, no stars, no earth, no world, no universe
as we know it now. If Christ is all, where was he
then? He was with the Father. The scripture
says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He prayed in John 17, glorify
me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. That's where he was, and that's
with whom our Lord at that time existed with God, was God, equal
with God. Then there was a time when this
world was created in its present form. Everything existed as it
exists now. God created the earth, God created
the sun and the moon, the greater light to rule by day and the
lesser light by night. There was a time when God made
the valleys and the mountains and the trees, and there was
a time when he made man. If Christ is all, where was he
then? Well, the scripture says all
things were made by him, and without him was not anything
made that was made. Colossians 1.16 says, By him
were all things created, yea, in heaven and in earth, and all
things under the earth. They were all made by him. Without
him was not anything made that was made. Then there was a day
when sin entered this world. I think that was the world's
darkest day. There was a day when sin and
darkness and death separation from God came upon the world
and the creation. If Christ is all, where was he
then? Where was Christ then? I'll tell you where he was. Genesis
3.15, that's the first mention of redemption. Right after Adam
and Eve fell, the Father said, I'll put enmity between thee
and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. Thou shalt bruise
his heel He'll destroy your power. He'll crush your head. That's
Christ he's talking about. In the day when darkness fell
upon this earth, Christ was the revealed light. In the day that
death came upon this earth, Christ was the revealed life. In the
day when darkness and death and corruption and condemnation fell
upon mankind, Christ was revealed in the promise and purpose of
the Father as the Redeemer, as the Savior. He's all. There was
a time when this world plunged in superstition and ignorant
religious superstition, and there's no worse superstition. Religious
ignorance, and there's no worse ignorance. Four thousand years
after Adam fell, this world was in its darkest days. where was
Christ then in the fullness of time, God sent his Son into this
world. The Word was made flesh and came
down and dwelt among us and went to the cross and died for our
sin. There is a time coming when all
evil shall be cast out of this world, when the righteousness
of God shall cover the earth as the dew blankets the grass
in the morning. There is a time when Almighty
God's presence shall dwell with men, when sin shall be cast out,
when sin shall be no more. If Christ is all, where will
He be then? Philippians 2 tells us that every
knee shall bow in that day, and every tongue shall confess that
he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And then there is
a day of judgment coming is a day when every son of Adam shall
stand before the great throne of God and be judged. If Christ
is all, where will he be then? The Scripture says we shall appear
before the judgment seat of Christ. That the Father shall judge no
man but hath committed all judgment to the Son. What think ye of
Christ? He's all in all the counsels
of God concerning this world. Before this world existed, he
was all. When this world was made, he
was all in the construction of it and the creation of it and
the formation of it. When man fell and darkness and
death and condemnation descended upon our earth, Christ was revealed
as the emancipator, as the redeemer, as the one who would conquer
sin. And when this world is over, when the fire shall destroy it
and when the righteousness of God shall reign and rule once
again, it shall reign in Christ. It shall rule in Christ. And
when God calls men to give an account, when every man shall
stand before God and the books are opened and they shall be
judged out of those books, it's Christ that shall judge them.
He's everything. And throughout all the eons of
eternity, throughout all the years of eternity, the song of
praise shall be unto him who loved us and washed us from our
sins in his own precious blood." And then, my friend, Christ is
all in the books that make up this Bible. Who wrote the first
five books of the Bible? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy. Who wrote those? Moses wrote
the first five books of the Bible. You know what Christ said? He
said, Moses wrote of me. Moses wrote of me. When the rich
man cried in hell, send Lazarus back to the earth to speak to
my brothers. Abraham said they have Moses
and the prophets. They have the writings of Moses.
The way out of hell is right there in the writings of Moses.
The way to God is right there in the writings of Moses. The
way of salvation is up there in the writings of Moses. Moses
wrote of me. They said, we have Moses. Christ
said, if you had believed Moses, you would believe me. Moses wrote
of me. The blood on the door in Egypt,
that's Christ. That's Christ. The brazen serpent
lifted up in the wilderness, that's Christ. The ark floating
on that sea of water, that's Christ. The rock smitten in the
wilderness that gave forth its life-giving water. That's Christ. That rock was Christ. Walk through
the tabernacle in the wilderness erected by Moses and the people.
Stop at the table of incense. Stop at the table of showbread.
Go through the veil and stand in front of the Ark of the Covenant.
Look down at the mercy seat. That's Christ. See the old high
priest as he goes under the veil with the blood. That priest is
Christ, that blood is Christ. Christ crucified is set forth
in every Old Testament sacrifice. Go to the top of Mount Moriah
and see Abraham as he's about to sacrifice his son Isaac. And
the Heavenly Father says, don't touch the lad. Look over here
in the bush, and there was a ram with its horns caught in the
thicket, and the ram was taken and put in the place of Isaac.
That's Christ. God shall provide himself a sacrifice. Walk through the Psalms. That's
Christ. Walk through the writings of
Isaiah, the minor prophets, Jeremiah, If you can walk through the Word
of God and not see Christ, if all you can see is history or
sound advice or moral precepts or beautiful proverbs, you're nothing more than a religious
Pharisee, splitting hairs and crossing T's and dotting I's
and missing salvation. It's Christ. Tonight I'm preaching
on the subject, are we modern-day Pharisees? I think most folks
are. Most religious people are nothing
more than right here what we're looking at right now. Modern-day
Pharisees with their disputations and doubts and debates and arguments
and quarrels and denominational splits, and we are of Paul and
we are of Apollos and we are of Cephas. What think ye of Christ? Christ is all in the counsels
of God concerning this world. It's all wrapped up in him. Christ
is all in the Word, in the books that make up this Bible. Christ
is all. This is Christ. This Bible's
Christ. It's not just somebody puts out
these little old silly things, when you're in doubt, turn to
this scripture, and when you have a burden, turn to this scripture.
when you'd cry, turn to this scripture, and when you do this,
turn to this scripture. That's like a crow picking grains
of corn out of a cornfield. This book is Christ. It's not
an almanac, it's not a good luck charm, it's not a scrapbook for
you to keep Mama's hair in or a picture of her grave and stuff
like that. It's Christ, that's what it is.
He's on every page, he's in every type, he's in every picture,
he's in every pattern, he's in every book. It's Christ. And
then Christ is all the faith and hope of every believer. Turn
to 1 Corinthians 1.30. 1 Corinthians 1.30. What I'm saying, my friend, is
this. What I'm saying is this. If you've
missed Christ, you've missed the Bible. If you've missed Christ,
you've missed God's purpose. If you've missed Christ, you've
missed God's counsel. If you've missed Christ, you've
missed God. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, But
of him that is of God, of his sovereign pleasure, of his sovereign
mercy, of his own sovereign will, are you in Christ? That's how
you got there. who of God, Christ is of God,
the will of God made unto us. Wisdom. He is our wisdom. He
is our wisdom. He is our righteousness. He is our sanctification. I pity those who are trying to
be holy without Christ. What a job you've got on your
hands. He is our robe. He is our righteousness. He is
our garment of perfection. He will present you holy, unblameable,
unreprovable. He is our comfort. He is our
peace. There's no life without trial,
you know that. But we sorry not as those who
have no hope. All things work together for
good to them who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
He is our hope for eternity. He is our redemption. Christ
is these things. It's not we believe on Christ,
therefore we have wisdom. We have Christ, we have wisdom.
He is our wisdom. It is not I made a profession
of religion and now I have redemption. It is I have received Christ,
and in receiving Christ, I receive redemption. He is redemption. He is sanctification. Now that
I'm a Christian, I must live like one. Christ is our sanctification. Christ is our holiness, Christ
is our righteousness, Christ is our hope for eternity. Who
are these, they say, and whence cometh they? These are they that
have come out of great tribulation and washed their robes in the
blood of the Lamb." That's who they are. When our Lord asks this question,
and when I ask it this morning, what think ye of Christ." I'm
not asking you what you think of God's plan of salvation. I'm
not asking you what you think of God's doctrine or God's ordinances. I'm asking you this, what do
you think of a person? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the issue. He is the issue. And in all the
counsels of God, he's everything. concerning man, concerning the
world, concerning redemption, concerning judgment, concerning
eternity, Christ is all. Christ is all. As far as this
book is concerned, from Genesis to Revelation, Christ is all.
It's interpreted in the light of Him, His person, Himself,
His work. And as far as faith and life
and hope and salvation, Christ is all. Now here is the second
statement, hurriedly. Look at this question again our
Lord presented to these people. He looked at them and he said,
What think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Now
the second word that catches my attention is this, What think
ye of Christ? What think Most people's religion consists
of everything but thinking. They go to a place of worship,
but one hour later they can't tell you what they heard. Their
bodies were there, but their minds weren't there,
they weren't thinking. What are most of the formal ceremonies
and rituals but forms to enable men to play religion without
thinking? That's right. Most of these, most of these
bulletins, you open your bulletin, your church puts out on Sunday
morning, there's the altar of worship. You know what it's for?
To keep you from having to think. That's exactly what it's for. When the preacher gets up to
pray, he doesn't dare pray without an organ behind him. You don't
want to have any silent spots. Folks might have to think. You
want to keep the program going. There must not be any break in
the program. There must not be any silence.
You've got to have something going continually because men
do not want to think. what our most preachers and priests,
but someone we pay to do our thinking for us. But this is what the Lord asks,
what think ye? Not what do you profess, not
what order of worship do you follow, not what denomination
is your preference, but what think ye of Christ? I've got a new idea for religious
census. Instead of going out here next
week and knocking on everybody's door and asking them what denomination
they are or what denominational preference they have, wouldn't
it be strange if somebody knocked on your door and you went to
the door and said, What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? Well, we're Baptists. That's
not what I asked. What think ye of Christ? Well,
we belong to a Baptist church in the country. We just hadn't
taken the time to move our letter, you know. All of our folks were
Baptists, and our letter's up in the country at the Mount Joy
Baptist Church. Well, what think ye of Christ?
Well, we've been meaning to start, we've been meaning to come out,
and the wife goes sometimes, she takes the children, you know,
and we listen to the radio, but what think ye of Christ? Well,
I've been immersed, and so have my wife, the children have, and
I made a profession when I was about 12 or 13, but what think
ye of Christ? We give to the United Fund, and
we give to the Red Cross. I give down at the office, you
know. I believe in those things. I believe we ought to take care
of the widows and orphans. But what think ye of Christ? Well, I don't know. I believe
the Lord is coming. I don't know whether he'll be
a millennium, or maybe he'll come before the millennium, or
maybe the Church will go through the tribulation. I don't know.
There's a good possibility. Dr. Sorensen, I've been reading
his book, and he says the Church is going through the tribulation.
But what do you think of Christ? Who's son is he? Think. Come
on. Think. Do you think of him as
Almighty God? Do you think of him as your representative? Do you think of him as the one
who came from heaven's glory to this earth in the form of
man, who went to the cross as your substitute and your sacrifice
and died for your sins? Do you think of him that way?
Can you bow your head and unclutter it from all these things, these
religious things that people have have baffled you with and confused
you, can you dismiss all these things and bow your head and
think, Thank God, O God, thank thee for Christ, my Redeemer,
who died for my sins. I see him as my substitute, I
see him as my sacrifice, I see him as my Redeemer, I see I can
take the broken bread and see Christ's body bruised and bleeding
and broken in my place. Oh, my sins deserve God's wrath,
but instead I get God's mercy. Do you think of him at the right
hand of God as your mediator, interceding for you? Do you think
of him as your righteousness? Do you think of him as your reigning
king who will come again? Sit down. The Lord said to the
disciples, sit down. They'd been out there fishing.
The Lord had been crucified and buried and rose again. The disciples
went back to their vocation, they went back to their profession.
Peter said, I'm going fishing. They said, well, we'll go with
you if you won't be in too big a hurry. So they went out fishing,
and he appeared to them that morning, and he'd already fixed
breakfast so they didn't have to worry about that. He had the
fire burning, they didn't have to worry about that. He had breakfast,
had some fish and some bread and something to drink, and he
said, Sit down now. And they sat down. And they ate
a little bite, and then the Lord Jesus moved his seat over closer
to the Apostle Peter, and he knew Peter was going to be the
leader of the disciples. He knew Peter was going to try
to preach the gospel. He knew Peter would be the one
to stand at Pentecost and declare his word and his gospel himself
to those who had crucified him. And he said, Peter, do you love
me? And Peter said, Lord, I knowest
I love thee. He said, Peter, feed my feet. And he asked him a second time,
he said, Peter, Do you love me?" And Peter said, "'Yea, Lord,
I love thee.' He said, "'Feed my lamb.'" And he asked him the third time, "'Peter,
do you love me?' That's what I'm asking you. Do
you love Christ? What think ye of Christ?" The
Lord Jesus knew if Peter loved him, there was nothing Peter
wouldn't do for him. The Lord Jesus knew if Peter
loved him, there's no sacrifice that he wouldn't endure for him. The Lord Jesus knew if Peter
loved him, there was no distance too far to go for him. The Lord
Jesus knew if Peter loved him, there was no death he wouldn't
be willing to die for him. Do you love me? We've been sidetracked. The issues
are other things. We've got little play putties.
We're like little children sitting over in the corner playing with
these play putties. And most of it's speculation. You don't
know any more than the other fellow. That's the reason you
can't argue. You can't argue truth. It's truth, and that's
all there is to it. The rest of it's error. Christ is all. Salvation is Christ. There's
no argument. That's the reason they didn't
ask him any more questions. He said, whose son is he? What do you
think of Christ? Whose son is he? No more to ask. Now the last statement, this
is the third, it has to do with a person. What think ye of Christ? It has to do with thoughts. Thoughts,
that's what it has to do with, thoughts. What do you think of
Christ? Whose son is he? Now the third
thing, it has to do with what you think of him. What do you
think of Christ? Oh, we're so good at judging
other people. We're experts at judging whether
or not Brother Fitzsimmons is saved, or whether or not Brother
Lewis is saved, or whether or not Brother Thompson is saved.
We've got it all figured out. We know whether they're sound
in the faith, or whether they're hypocrites. But the question
the Lord asks is not, What does Brother Fitzsimmons think of
Christ? It's, What do you think of it? It's not what does Brother
Thompson think of Christ, it's what do you think of Christ?
Let's hear it from you this morning. I believe the deacons ought to
run the Church and the elders, and that's their business. I'm
not asking you that. What do you think of Christ? Bill, what do you think of Christ? Ed, what do you think of Christ?
You, huh? Roe, what do you think of Christ?
Henley, what do you think of Christ? And nobody here but me
now. The Lord Jesus pointing his finger
in my favor. Betty, what do you think of Christ?
You better isolate yourself and answer this question. What do
you think of Christ? You are going to stand at the
judgment as if you were the only human being that ever lived on
this earth. Every man shall give an account of himself to God. The book is going to be opened
and they are going to call your name, your name. Now you think
about that. Have you seen your need Not just the world, this is a
wicked world! That's not the issue right now. Here you are right now in front
of Christ. It's not the wicked world that's
there, it's you that are there. You're the one that's there. Boy, I tell you, I believe in
total depravity. Well, we're not dealing with
that right now, we're dealing with you. We're dealing with you. Clare,
we're dealing with you right now. What do you think of Christ?
Huh? You see what I'm saying? You, personally. As if there
were no one else here. The doctrine of sin, we're talking
about the presence of sin. That publican prayed as if no
one else was ever in that temple, had ever come there. He said,
Lord, be merciful to me, me! Have you really seen him in his
redemptive glory? He that seeth the Son." Have
you ever seen him? He said, if this offends you,
wait till you see the Son of God ascend up where he was before. Wait till you have to stand and
behold his glory with unregenerated eyes. Have you seen him? Is he your
prophet, priest and king? Isolate yourself. Will you do
that? You must do that. It's essential that you do that.
God does not deal with men in masses and mobs. He deals with
them individually. He saves a Philippian jailer,
he saves an Ethiopian eunuch, he saves a seller of purple at
the riverside, he saves a Cornelius. It's individuals God deals with.
The Holy Spirit crushes individuals and convicts them and brings
them to see their sin. Repentance is personal, faith
is personal, Christ is personal in salvation. Have you really
received him as your Lord? If you've never prayed individually
and personally, Lord Jesus, receive my soul in grace, I guarantee
you, you'll never be able to say in the day of death, Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit. You've got to walk that lonesome
valley. You've got to go there by yourself.
Ain't nobody else can go there for you. You've got to go there
by yourself. You've got to stand that judgment
call. You've got to stand it by yourself. Ain't nobody else can stand it
for you. You've got to stand there by
yourself. Think about it. And try not to hide in the religious
crowd. Try not to hide in the mob that
either says, crucify him or crown him. Peter said, save yourself
from this perverse generation. Get out! Get alone with God! That's what I'm saying. Get alone
with God. Isolate yourself. Christ says,
what do you think? Think of Christ, the person whose
son is he. When that issue is settled, all
the other issues will be settled. when that issue is settled. We're
afraid to be alone, we're afraid to think, we're afraid to be
isolated, but oh, someday we will be, someday. And if I have the right opinion
of him now, he'll have the right opinion of me then. If you confess
me before me, I'll confess you before my Father which is in
heaven. You deny thee before men, I'll deny thee." Joshua
stood there and said, As for me and my house, we serve the
Lord. Our Father in heaven, reveal
to us, each one of us individually, our guilt, the presence of sin
in our hearts. Reveal unto us our need of Christ,
our inability, Reveal to us Christ as our Lord and our Savior. I
know not what course others may take, but as for me, Christ is
my Lord and my Savior. Whom do you say that I am? Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What think ye of
Christ? He is my Lord, my Prophet, my
Priest, and my King, my coming Redeemer. Speak to every heart this morning.
May every person have this issue, this question, eternally settled in heart and
in thought this day. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen.