Let us turn back in our Bibles
today to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. For several weeks we have looked
at questions that the Lord Jesus Christ was asked while in the
temple on the third day of the week in which he was crucified. And we saw last time that after
he answered that last question, then in verse 34, we are told,
and no man after that does ask him any question. If you follow the parallel passage
in Matthew, We find that after this, the religious leaders met
and consulted how they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill
him. Now there are three topics we
will look at in these remaining verses today. We have a question,
a warning, and an example. If you notice first in the first
verse of chapter 13, when he left the temple that day, that
was the last day that he would ever enter into that temple,
that beautiful, majestic temple that was the pride of the nation
of Israel. He left it for the last time
and then outside the temple, the Lord willing, we will see,
he was asked other questions, but not by the Pharisees and
the Sadducees and the scribes, the religious leaders, but by
his own disciples. And those questions concern the
destruction of the temple that he pronounced and his second
coming and the end of the world. And the Lord willing, we will
look at those. But today, in these verses, verses
35 through 44, a question, a warning, and an example. First, the question. How does King David call his
son, Lord? Notice that in verses 35 through
37. And Jesus answered and said,
while he taught in the temple, how say the scribes that Christ
is the son of David? Now, in the parallel passage
in Matthew's gospel, this question was somewhat larger than what
we have here in Mark. For he first asked them, what
think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? How say the
scribes that Christ is the son of David? For David himself said
by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right
hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore
himself calleth him Lord, and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him
gladly. So the question this time is
one the Lord Jesus Christ asked the religious leaders. How does
King David call his own son his Lord? Now, the religious leaders,
they taught from the scriptures that yes, God had promised to
send the Messiah. You know the term, title, Messiah,
is the New Testament equivalent. It's the Old Testament equivalent,
rather, of the New Testament title, Christ, the anointed,
the anointed. It was synonymous also with the
son of David. Remember when Bartimaeus, the
blind man, was by the wayside begging, Jesus, thou son of David. In other words, Jesus, thou Messiah,
thou anointed of God, the anointed of God. They knew that God had
promised and they taught that God had promised to send a Messiah. Actually, that was the promise
from the Garden of Eden forward. From just as soon as Adam sinned,
and plunged all his posterity into sin, God gave the promise
there concerning the seed of the woman who was later identified
as the Messiah who would come and bruise the head of the serpent. But then he was revealed to be
the son of Abraham in thee. And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed. And that was repeated to his
son, Isaac, and to his son, Jacob. And it was to the nation of Israel. And then when David later became
king, it was revealed, promised to David that the Messiah would
be his son. They taught that. They believed
that. Yes, God has promised a Messiah,
a Christ. and he shall be the son of David. If they had been asked for a
passage from the Old Testament, most likely they would have chosen
this one in Isaiah chapter nine, one that we are very familiar
with. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government, the government shall
be upon his shoulder. of the increase of his government
or his kingdom and peace there shall be no end. For upon the
throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forevermore. They believed and they taught
that the Messiah would come and that he would be the son of But
now we see they are stumped. They are stumped, these religious
rulers, they are stumped by the question that the Lord put to
them. How then does David say, by God
the Holy Spirit, the Lord That is, Jehovah said to my Lord,
set thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Why didn't David in that psalm
say, the Lord said unto my son, set thou on my right hand? Why
did David call his son his Lord? And they couldn't answer that.
They could not answer that. Why? And the Lord said David
spoke by God the Holy Spirit in that psalm. Psalm 110 in verse
one. Why did David call his son his
Lord? That just doesn't connect to
these religious rulers. how a man would call his son
his Lord. He must be more than his son.
And this is what they didn't understand. This is what they
did not comprehend. That the work that the Christ
was going to do, it would be the work of a man, but he had
to be more than a man. He would have to be a man to
suffer and bleed and pay the penalty for man's sin, yes, but
he'd have to be God also for that payment to be of any value,
for that payment to satisfy God's holy justice. In the book of
Revelation, almost the end of the Bible, Revelation chapter
22, the Lord Jesus confessed, I am the root, the root and the
offspring of David. As the eternal son by whom all
things were made, he is the son of God and by him all things
were made that were made, we read in John chapter one, And
so he was the maker, the creator of David. He's the root of David,
but he didn't stop there. I am the root and the offspring
of David. He became the offspring of David
by taking into union with his person. That is the eternal son
of God taking into union with his person, that body which was
prepared him from Mary, the Virgin Mary, who was a descendant of
David. He became the offspring of David. But these religious leaders,
they were stumped. They couldn't answer that question.
Yes, he'll be the son of David, they could confess that, but
then how did David call him his Lord? He must be more than just
a man. He must be the God-man. That is a fundamental, that is
the fundamental truth if a person wants to learn the gospel. Who
is the Lord Jesus? These preachers all over the
world are saying, believe in Jesus, believe in Jesus, look
to Jesus. Well, who is He? Who is he that
I am to believe in? You say believe in Jesus? You
say look to Jesus? Why should I look to Jesus? Because he is God manifest in
the flesh. Look and keep your places here,
but turn over to Romans chapter one. I like these verses here
to to emphasize this truth, it's so clearly stated by the Apostle
Paul here, Romans chapter one. Verse one, Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel
of God. which he had promised afore by
his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ
our Lord. Which was made, now notice, he
was made, his son Jesus Christ our Lord
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. and declared, now he's not made,
he's not made the son of God, he is eternal son of God. But he's declared to be the son
of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the
resurrection from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ raised
himself from the dead. You say God raised him, he is
God. He is God. Yes, he raised himself, declared
to be, not made, but declared to be the eternal Son of God
by the resurrection. Now back in our text, there are
three truths that I want to mention before we move on to the second
topic. First of all, The Lord Jesus
testified to the inspiration by the Holy Spirit of the scriptures. When he said, how then, for David
himself said by the Holy Ghost, notice that in verse 36. In other
words, David said, David wrote, the word of God is inspired by
God, the Holy Spirit. This is not just any book that
we have in our hands here. This is the Word of God. And we better take heed to God's
Word. And as the psalmist David, inspired
as he was, said, I esteem all thy precepts to be right. in
all things. Someone said, told me recently,
the Bible is not a pick and choose book. You don't pick this out
or choose this and say, well, I believe that, but I don't believe
that. Well, I believe this, but I don't believe that. That's
the way a lot of people look at the scripture. Here you have
puny man, as my friend used to say, with a peanut brain, And
he's going to set in judgment upon God's holy inspired word. I believe that, but I don't believe
that. No, we better believe all of
it. It's God's word. And our Lord testified here to
the inspiration of the scriptures. The second thing is, This tells
us of the kind of kingdom that the Jewish leaders expected. They expected an earthly kingdom. They expected a kingdom much
like the kingdom that David had in the Old Testament when he
reigned over a large portion of land, area, and he was a great
king. He had all kinds of wealth and
the people They expected that was the kind of kingdom the Lord
Jesus Christ was going to come into this world and set up. And
Jerusalem would be the capital. They would be the capital of
this kingdom. And the nation of Israel, the
physical, natural descendants of Abraham, they would be the
head, not the tail any longer. No, no, like they were at this
time. They were under the dominion.
The reign, the rule of Rome, they were expecting, they were
looking. And our Lord said, my kingdom is not of this world. That's what he told Pilate. If
my kingdom was of this world, he said, I'd have soldiers to
fight. No, he said, my kingdom comes
not with observation, not with a large army and all the fanfare
that goes along with a mighty monarch. No, my kingdom is within
you. This shows us what kind of a
kingdom by their answer, by their not being able to answer, I should
say, his question. This shows us what kind of a
kingdom they were looking for. And the third thing, the Lord said to my Lord, set
thou at my right hand. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ
today? The God man, where is he? He's at the right hand of God. That is a place of authority.
That's a place of honor. That's a place of rule. The Lord
Jesus Christ is not going to be king sometime in the future.
He is king. King of kings and Lord of lords. A king uses a scepter sometimes. It's a symbol. Symbol of their
kingship or their authority and The scepter of his kingdom is
not some beautiful gold scepter with that big large diamond like
that one they have over there in Britain. No, the scepter of
his kingdom is a scepter of righteousness. Righteousness. Where is he? He's sitting upon
his throne, the throne of God. which is also the throne of the
Lamb. And that reminds us, he's there
today, just as sure as you're sitting where you're sitting,
he's on the throne of God. And he's not in our hands. It's
not a question as people say, what will you do with Jesus?
No, that's not the question. What will he do with you? What
will he do with me? We're in his hands. He's not
in our hands. He's the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. And he got there, let me say
this, he got there by way of a bloody cross. That's how he got to that throne.
By way of a bloody cross, suffering, dying. and the stead of his covenant
people. Now the second topic, the warning. In this passage of scripture,
verses 38 through 40, we have a warning about the leaven of
the scribes and the Pharisees. Let's read these verses 38 through
40. And he said unto them in his
doctrine, that is the Lord Jesus in his teaching, Beware of the
scribes, which love to go in long clothing and love salutations
in the marketplaces, and the chief seats in the synagogues
and the uppermost rooms at feast, which devour widows' houses,
and for a pretense make long prayers. These shall receive
greater damnation. The Lord warned about the leaven
of the scribes and the Pharisees. You know, several times in the
Gospels he warned his apostles about the leaven. And they, like
most of us, they didn't understand many times what he meant. They
didn't understand what he meant by leaven when he warned against
the leaven of the Pharisees. One time he had just fed several
thousand people with just a few loaves of bread. He multiplied
it, created enough bread to feed 5,000 men, not including the
women and children. And they get in the ship and
he says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And they reason
among themselves. It's because we brought no bread.
Takes leaven to make bread, right? Yeast. No, he wasn't talking
about that kind of bread. He wasn't talking about that
kind of leaven. He had to tell them, no, the
leaven I'm talking about is hypocrisy. the hypocrisy of the scribes
and the Pharisees. Now Mark, here in this gospel,
Mark only mentions three ways that they displayed their hypocrisy. First of all, they dressed different
from everybody else. They go in long clothes. They
called attention to themselves, in other words, by their dress,
by their clothes, so that everyone who saw them would kind of stand
in awe of them. Boy, those are really some super
religious people. I mean, look at the way they
are dressed. And that one prayed, I thank
thee that I'm not like the publican, like this publican. Now our Lord
said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. They love to go
in long clothing. They thought they were obeying
the law. I want you to look back to Numbers
with me, the book of Numbers, chapter 15. Numbers chapter 15 and beginning
with verse 37. They loved to go in long clothing. And the Lord spake unto Moses
saying, in Numbers 15 verse 37, Speak unto the children of Israel,
and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their
garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe
of the borders a ribbon of blue. And it shall be unto you for
a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments
of the Lord, and do them. and that you seek not after your
own heart and your own eyes, after which you used to go a
whoring, that you may remember and do all my commandments and
be holy unto your God. I am the Lord your God, which
brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the
Lord your God. You see, they made these fringes
and the law told them to do that. and to put a blue ribbon in that
fringe. And as they walked, and that
was not the only place where they were told to put the law
of God, but it was to remind them when they saw that blue
ribbon, God's commandments. But it wasn't just to remind
them of God's commandments, but did you notice, and do them,
and do them. No, they wore these long garments
so people would recognize them, but they missed the part. They
thought they were obeying the law of God. In a sense, they
were, but they missed the part that the long garments, the ribbon
was to remind them of the commandments of God that they might do them.
They used to dress the garments just so people would recognize
them and think highly of them. And the second thing that Mark
tells us, they desired to be addressed in a way which called
attention to their superior knowledge in the things of God. Other people
went to the market to buy, to sell, but not them, not these
men. They went to the market with
the desire that they would be saluted. Rabbi, rabbi. That just made their day. For someone to look up to them
and call them rabbi, master, teacher, as though they had something
to teach that was worth hearing. Today, I guess it would be equivalent
to right reverend. I see that sometimes in the paper
in front of someone's name. Right reverend so-and-so. Our father so-and-so. We say
that a lot, don't we? Our doctor sounding brass. Whatever,
just some kind of a title whereby they could glory in that title. Did you notice when we read over
there in Romans just a few minutes ago, Paul. Not the right reverend
Paul, not even the apostle Paul. Paul called to be an apostle. Peter, speaking of Paul, our
beloved brother Paul. Why do men need these titles? To build themselves up, make
themselves think that they're somewhat different from anyone.
No, we're all sinners. By nature, by choice, by practice,
we're all sinners. It's only the grace of God that
makes anyone to differ. One of my favorite verses is,
where sin abounded. And that's when I look in the
mirror and I see myself. Where sin abounded, grace. God's wonderful, amazing,
marvelous, undeserved grace. Grace hath much more abounded. The third thing Mark says, they
sat in the chief seats in the synagogues and they loved to
get to the head of the table so everyone will know them and
recognize them. They were somebody. Have you
ever seen that book? The people that are most famous
or most recognized people, most hundred recognized people in
whatever field it may be. And I had a preacher one time
write me a letter. He was asked in our church to
give him some money, but he said he was listed in the who's who
of some religious book. I wouldn't give a penny to anybody
who said they was listed in the who's who of any religious book. Would you? Bunch of con artists. And so just like these Pharisees,
they took advantage of the most vulnerable people in that society,
the widow women. They consumed what little they
had to live on. Just like these so-called preachers
today, you see, if you don't send money to me, I'm gonna have
to shut down my ministry. I'm not going to be able to have
a jet to fly me all around the world and all across the country,
anything like that. You've got to do it. Now, you've
got to do it. Take your little Social Security
check that you have and send it to me. A bunch of thieves. A bunch of robbers. Just like
these that our Lord dealt with. Religious hucksters. That's the
best you can say about them. Well, in Matthew's gospel, our
Lord pronounces at this time eight woes upon these people,
eight woes. Well, let's go on in closing
to the example, the third, the example of trusting God to meet
our need, verses 41 through 44. And Jesus said over against the
treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury.
And many that were rich cast in much, and there came a certain
poor widow. I like those certain people in
the gospels we read about, don't you? A certain blind man. God, the Lord Jesus Christ, came
into this world to save certain people. Certain people. Those his father had chosen and
given unto him. in that covenant of grace. Came
a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which made
a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples
and said, I can just, come here, come here. Come here. I want to show you something.
I want to show you something. And they were in the, you know,
the temple had three courts, the court of the Gentiles, the
court of the women. That's where these treasure chests
were. They had, I believe, seven chests
in this court where people could give their money, put their money
in the chest. And he said, I want to show you
something. Verily I say unto you that this
poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast
into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their
abundance, but she of her wont did cast in all that she had,
even all her living. Now, some preachers take this
example here and use it to shame people, try to shame people into
giving. God's people give out of love. Now that's just so. We love him
because he first loved us. To you which believe he is precious. And one of the ways that we manifest
that he is precious to us is we give. I'm not saying there's
never a time or a need to teach on a believer's responsibility
to support the ministry, the gospel, but I wouldn't take that
passage. I'd go to 2 Corinthians chapters
8 and 9 where the Apostle Paul lays out how we are to give. I see this as an example of a
person who believed God. This poor widow, she believed
God. She knew God. She's one that
is described in Daniel chapter 11 and verse 32, the people that
know their God shall be strong and do exploits. This is an exploit. This widow woman was strong. She believed she knew that her
God, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. Jehovah Raha. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. You know, the scripture says
without faith it's impossible to please God. And obviously
what we have here is someone who pleased God, who pleased
the Lord Jesus Christ. She did what she did in faith,
believing God. The scriptures say the young
lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. She believed God. She cast in
all of her living. And the apostle Paul wrote to
believers, to Christians in Philippi, and he said, but my God, my God,
can you call him your God? Paul could. My God. But my God
shall supply all your need, all your need, according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. And every person, everyone who
trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ finds this to be true. What do I need? What do I really need? I need
righteousness. I'm going to stand before God,
and you are too. And if I don't have a righteousness
that he will accept, I'm going to be turned into hell, and so
are you. I need righteousness. I need cleansing. I'm polluted
with sin. I need mercy. And mercy deserved is not mercy. I need grace. I need justification. I need sanctification. I need to be made holy as he
is holy. My God shall supply all your
need according to his riches. by or through Christ Jesus. How is it that any of us have
righteousness, sanctification, redemption, mercy, grace? How is it? By Jesus Christ our
Lord. I need fellowship with other
believers. I'm a sheep, and a sheep by itself, my friends, is sick
or lost, one or the other. God has supplied us with a church
family. He supplies all our need. And
yes, I need food for this body. I need clothes and I need shelter. And my God, here I am. I can
say he has supplied all my need. I have never, I have never gone
naked down the street. I've always had clothes. I've
always had a roof over my house, over me rather, and I've always
had food. God will supply. This woman believed it. What
an example. What an example of faith. Brother
Streeter's lesson, first Bible study today, that passage, The
apostle said, Lord, increase our faith. Increase our faith. I'd say this woman had great
faith, wouldn't you? May the Lord bless His word to
all of us here today. Like a river glorious.