If you will open your Bibles
with me again to Mark chapter 11. Mark chapter 11. Since we came to this 11th chapter
of Mark, we have been looking at events which took place in
the life of our Lord during the week of his crucifixion. The
first day of the week, we saw his triumphant entry into Jerusalem
and into the temple. If you notice in verses 9 through
11, And they that went before and they that followed cried
saying, Hosanna. Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Blessed be the kingdom of our
father David that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in
the highest. And Jesus entered into Jerusalem
and into the temple. And when he had looked round
about upon all things, and now the even tide was come, he went
out unto Bethany with the twelve. And then the second day of the
week, we saw him returning to Jerusalem, and on the way he
cursed the fig tree, and then he cleansed the temple, verses
14 and 15. Jesus answered and said unto
it, that is the fig tree, No man eat fruit on thee hereafter
forever, and his disciples heard it, and they come to Jerusalem,
and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that
sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the
money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves. And
then the following day, which would be the third day of the
week, they returned to Jerusalem, And they observed the fig tree
which was dried up and then into the temple. Notice in verse 20,
and in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried
up by the roots. And so in verse 27 is where we
will begin today. This still is the third day of
that week in which he was crucified. Verse 27, and they come again
to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, there come to
him the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, and say
unto him, by what authority doest thou these things, and who gave
thee this authority to do these things? And Jesus answered and
said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer
me. And I will tell you by what authority
I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from
heaven or of men? Answer me. And they reasoned
with themselves, saying, if we shall say from heaven, he will
say, why then did you not believe him? But if we shall say of men,
they feared the people, for all counted John that he was a prophet
indeed. And they answered and said unto
Jesus, we cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto
them, neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. I want to remind us first of
all this morning of how the Jews recognized a day, a 24 hour period
I assume, but how they recognized a day. I want you to turn back
with me to the book of Genesis, the first chapter. It seems to me that they followed
the order that we read here that God followed. In Genesis chapter
1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. and
the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters. And God said, let there be light,
and there was light. And God saw the light, that it
was good. God divided the light from the
darkness, and God called the light day, and the darkness he
called night. Now notice, and the evening and
the morning were the first day. The evening and the morning were
the first day. In other words, the Jews believed
that day began at sundown. When the sun went down, the evening
came, that began a new day, a different day. Just as our Lord God said,
and the evening and the morning, first the evening, then the morning,
was the first day. Now we know this has a spiritual
analogy. What do I mean by that? I mean
that when God's people, those who are chosen of God, when we
come into this world, we come in in darkness. Darkness first. Darkness first. And then, if
by the grace of God, we are saved, then in the same way God commands
the light to shine in our hearts, and it's day. It's day. But our day, our life in this
world, every man's day, every man's life begins in this world
in darkness, that is in spiritual darkness, blindness. And until
God does something, and unless God does something, We will continue
in darkness. But when God commands the light
to shine, then our day begins. Let me show you this in the New
Testament. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 7. I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The apostle
writing, saying, therefore saying, we have this ministry. Now what
ministry did the apostle Paul have? Well, back in the chapter
just before this, in verse six, he said, who also hath made us
able ministers of the New Testament, the new covenant. That was a
ministry of the apostles. They were not preaching the law,
the old covenant, They were preaching the new covenant. This was a
ministry. And Paul says, therefore saying
we have this ministry 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. Many
who call themselves preachers and ministers, they do handle
the word of God deceitfully. God's ministers compare spiritual
things with spiritual things. In other words, scripture with
scripture. We do not handle the word of
God deceitfully. But by manifestation of the truth,
preaching the truth as it is revealed unto us and given unto
us in the word of God to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. But, now listen, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. The natural man cannot perceive
the things of God. That's the reason the Lord said
to Nicodemus, who was a very religious man, had a lot of knowledge,
no doubt about that. Probably could quote a lot of
Old Testament scripture. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot perceive the kingdom,
the gospel, the mystery of godliness. The God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them that believe not. lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. For we preach not ourselves.
Then who do you preach, Paul? Christ. Christ the Lord. The Lord. Not just Christ. Not just the Messiah. Yes, but
Christ who is the Lord. He's not some weak, needy person,
he is the anointed of God who is the Lord of all. Every man, woman, boy, and girl,
we all live and move and have our being in him. He's the Lord
Jesus Christ. We preach Christ the Lord, the
Apostle Paul said, who is the image of God. And ourselves, you're for Jesus'
sake, you're servants for Jesus' sake. Now notice, for God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness. We just read
that, didn't we? Genesis chapter one. The earth
was covered over, there was nothing but darkness. But God commanded
the light to shine. Light be. God commanded the light. And think about this, he commanded
the light before he created the sun and the moon and the stars. Light is one of the most mysterious
things that I've ever read anything about other than the gospel. Light. God commanded the light
to shine. And just as God commanded the
light to shine in the beginning, For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give,
to give. Salvation is a gift, isn't it?
To know Christ. And the only way a man may know
God, he must know God in Christ. There's one mediator between
God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. People can talk about
knowing God and loving God and worshiping God all they want
to, but if they leave out the Lord Jesus Christ, it's just
a bunch of empty words that they are speaking. There is no coming
to God, there's no knowing God, there's no being accepted of
God apart from Jesus Christ. And God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge and notice of the glory of God in
the face and the person of Jesus Christ, the glory of God, how
God may be just and justify the ungodly only in Christ, only
in Christ satisfying God's holy law. and paying the penalty for man's
sin. Because you see, God, He's a
God of mercy. Aren't you thankful? Sometimes
when I think about that, when I'm praying and think about the
fact that God is a God of mercy, and that's what I need. And where
else would I go for mercy except to Him? He's the God of mercy. My friends,
His mercy is in, His saving mercy is in Jesus Christ, the Lord. Over the years, I've heard people
say, well, I'm going to go, and they're talking about a civil
court or a criminal court, and they say, well, I'm just going
to go before the judge and just cast myself on the mercy of the
judge. Well, that may be all right in
a criminal court or civil court down here. But don't think about
doing that before God Almighty. His mercy is in Christ. And to think of just casting
yourself on the mercy of God apart from Jesus Christ, you're
not going to find mercy. You're going to experience God's
justice. Now let's go back. You say, how'd
you get over there? I want to talk about the days,
how the Jews recognize days, because I'm emphasizing the first
day of this week in which the Lord was crucified. He enters
triumphantly into Jerusalem, enters the temple. We find this
in the other gospel narratives. Heals some people, teaches, and
then he goes back out to Bethany. Comes back the second day of
that week, which would be Monday. curses the fig tree that he saw
on the way, enters into the temple, cleanses the temple, and once
again leaves and goes back to Bethany to spend the night about
two miles from Jerusalem. And then on the third day, he
comes back. And in the temple, he's teaching. And I want us to think this morning
about the question. that was put to him by these
in the temple. It's actually two questions,
but we will consider it as one question. By what authority doest
thou these things? And who gave thee this authority? By what authority doest thou
these things? And who gave thee this authority? Three things. First, who asked
this question? Who asked the Lord this question? Well, if you look in verse 27,
we see those who asked this question, the chief priest, the scribes,
and the elders. Now let's think about these three
groups. First, the chief priest. When God gave his law to Moses
or through Moses, that old covenant at Mount Sinai, we know that
he revealed the gospel through the types and the shadows that
were contained in that law. And one of the types was that
of the high priest who was Aaron's brother, the first high priest.
and all of the other high priests were to be descendants of Aaron. But it was many, many years,
as far as I can find, in looking at the Old Testament, before
any high priest was ever called a chief priest. You don't read
that in the Law of Moses, that he made Aaron a chief priest.
He made Aaron a high priest. But now we read of chief priest. The high priest was such a beautiful
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, he's the only one who
went into the most holy place to make atonement for the sins
of the people. How does that picture our Savior? By his one sacrifice. by His
one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." the names of the people on his
heart and on his shoulders. What a beautiful picture of our
great high priest who ever lives to make intercession for all
who come unto God by him. And he bears us on his heart.
In fact, we, the scripture tells us in Isaiah, our names are graven
on his hands. How about that? Our names are
the names of God's children, his elect. They are graven on
his hands. You see, when they drove those
spikes through his hands, he still bears those marks, doesn't
he? The purchase of his people. But
now we see they have chief priest. In other words, the priesthood
had degenerated to the place where a high priest was appointed. appointed by the civil rulers. And we read of two of them in
the Gospels, Annas and Caiaphas, two high priests. And what's
strange about that is that one was a father-in-law of the other. Well, that could never be. A
man could not, one of his sons, he could not be the father-in-law
of one of his sons. But that's the way the law was
given, that the son would take the place of the high priest,
the father who passed away. Now we know that was a picture,
a beautiful picture, but here we have several high priests,
several chief priests they're called now. And then the scribes. These were the men who spent
their time in copying the scriptures, the Old Testament, And they were
very precise, they were very exact in copying the scriptures,
and I thank God for their work. We have the Old Testament scriptures.
But they also studied the scriptures. They were students of the scriptures,
the scribes. And then we see the elders. Now
the elders would include some from the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin
was a body of men, 70 plus the president of the Sanhedrin, and
they were the Jewish rulers or civil, not civil, but religious
rulers to decide cases about the law. When there was an issue,
does the law say this or does the law say the other? They were
the ones who met to make the decision. And when a person was
charged with sin, they were brought before this group of men. So
these are the ones who asked the question. They were the religious
leaders of the nation of Israel. No question about it. They were
the who's who of Jerusalem. And these were not country. These
were not country priests. These were not men out in the,
in the boondocks. These were men who were at the
center of their religion. That is Jerusalem. People respected
them, the Israelites, they respected them. In fact, there was a saying,
and you know this, if only two men go to heaven, one will be
a Pharisee and one will be a Sadducee. These high priests were Sadducees. They were greatly respected.
They're the ones who came to the Lord Jesus Christ and asked
this question, by what authority doest thou these things? And
who gave you this authority? Well second, the second point,
what did they mean by these things? Who gave you this authority to
do these things? Who gave you this authority? Now what things are they talking
about? Well, here are three things which
surely would be included in their things. Who gave you authority
to do these things? Number one, who gave you authority
to come into the temple and just take over? Just take charge like
you owned it. He did. It was his temple. Who gave you this authority?
that you come in and you cast out men who buy and sell and
overturn the tables of the money changers and drive out the animals? Who gave you authority to do
this in our temple? Who gave you this authority?
Don't you realize? I'm talking about what these
elders would think. Don't you realize this is the
way we make money? Oh, we've got a good thing going
here. People come from the countryside, they must come and they must
offer, must pay the temple tax. They've got to exchange their
money for money that we recognize. We've got a good thing going
here. This is our source of revenue. And here you come and just overthrow
it all. Who gave you this authority?
What authority do you do these things? And the second thing
that would be included in these things is teaching in the temple. Verse 18, we read, and the scribes
and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy
him for they feared him because all the people was astonished
at his doctrine, at his teaching. Who gave you authority to teach
in this temple? We don't recognize you. We've
never put our stamp of approval upon you. You didn't sit at the
feet of some great rabbi. You didn't graduate from the
schools that we recognize. Who gave you this authority to
teach here in this temple? Scripture here says people were
astonished. They were astonished at his doctrine. They were amazed at his doctrine. And they were amazed at the doctrine,
at the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ for at least these two
reasons. Number one, he taught as one
who had authority. In fact, in that sermon called
the Sermon on the Mount, he says that quite often. You have heard
of old. You have heard of old. It hath
been said unto you. For instance, it hath been said
unto you, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. That's what you've been taught.
But here he shows his authority. Set aside all that teaching.
All that Pharisaical teaching that promotes self-righteousness,
set all that aside. But I say unto thee, love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you. They were astonished at his doctrine
because he taught as one who had authority. He didn't say,
so-and-so said this, and Rabbi so-and-so said this, and Rabbi
so-and-so said this. No, he said, I say unto you.
He spoke with authority. Their doctrine was the work That
is the Pharisees, the religious leaders, their doctrine was that
of works. His doctrine is the second reason
they were amazed. People were amazed that his teaching
is because his doctrine, his teaching was diametrically opposed
to the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees. Their doctrine
was one of works. And that doctrine of works, it
always does the same thing. I don't care where you hear it
today, in any denomination, in any religious organization, a
doctrine of works promotes self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. We're here
to speak to you today about God's righteousness. And our Lord said,
except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. You, me,
and every one of us, we must have a righteousness that God
will accept. The teaching of the religious
leaders of that day was the opposite. Our Lord told a parable, it's
recorded in Luke 18, you're familiar with it, of two men who went
up into the temple to pray, and one was a Pharisee. Now listen,
listen to the prayer of the Pharisee. I thank thee that I am not as
other men. Who said you weren't like other
men? I did. I did. I made that decision. I'm not like other men. I'm not
like this Republican over here. In doing so, they set aside the
doctrine of God, the commandments of God. He said, I fast twice
in the week. Whoever told them to fast twice
in the week, God never did. The law of God never commanded
men to fast twice in the week. God commanded one fast in the
year. You know what day that was to
take place on? The day of atonement, the great
day of atonement. But they'd come up with all kinds
of rules and regulations, and what they did, they set aside
the commandments of God. They were amazed at his teaching
because it was so contrary to the teaching that they had heard,
they'd been used to hearing. His doctrine showed that the
law is spiritual. It's not just what you do outwardly,
it's what you do inwardly. You know the Apostle Paul, Saul
of Tarsus, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he said. I
guarantee you. If he had been that young, rich
young ruler, I don't believe he was, but when that rich young
ruler said, I've kept all these things from my youth up, I believe
Saul of Tarsus would have, could have said the very same thing. But then he tells us when the
law of God came with power. In other words, when God, the
Holy Spirit showed him what the law means. It's not just the
outward observance of certain rules, but it's inward thoughts
and desires of the heart. And our Lord told them, it's not that which goes into
the man. They had their ceremony. You
go to the market, you go out anywhere, you might come in contact
with some center. So you come home, you wash your
hands, not for hygiene, but to be ceremonially clean. You wash
your hands. And they saw our Lord and his
disciples not following their ceremony, and they were critical
of him. And he said, it's not that which
goes into the man that defiles the man. You eat, drink, goes
into your stomachs. and your body takes it in, takes
it out, what's waste? That doesn't defile the man.
What defiles the man is what comes from the heart. Because
the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. We were born with a heart like
that. We have a heart like that. You see, his teaching was so
contrary. He told them, you set aside the
commandments of God to follow your traditions. The people were
amazed, astonished at his. Who gave you authority to do
these things? Take charge of this temple. Teach
here in our temple. Who gave you this authority?
And another thing that would certainly be included, who gave
you authority to forgive sinners? Who gave you this authority?
No one but God can forgive sinners. Remember he read their thoughts
that time when he told that That lame man, that paralytic that
was brought to him, thy sins be forgiven thee. And those Pharisees
sitting there, they said, my, my, who can forgive sin but God? He's blaspheming. And our Lord
said, listen, that you might know that I have power on earth
to forgive sins. I say unto thee, take up your
bed, or walk rather, not take up your bed. He said that to
another man, walk. And that man walked. Manifestation
showing, yes, he had power to forgive sins on earth. Who gave
you this authority? Now thirdly, and quickly, I want
us to consider how the Lord chose to answer them their question.
They ask Him the question, who gave you this authority to do
these things? How did the Lord choose to answer
them? Number one, He could have chosen
not to answer them a word. He could have. He could have
chosen not to answer them a word. We know One case when a woman,
a Syro-Phoenician, a Greek woman, came to the Lord, and she said,
have mercy upon me, O Lord, son of David. And the scripture says,
but he answered her not a word. He could have chosen to do the
same thing here. Now he eventually, we know, did
answer that woman. But he first tried her faith.
And oh, how great was her faith, because when she heard him say,
it's not me to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs, she
latched on that like a dog on a bone. Truth, Lord! Truth, Lord! But even the small
dogs eat the crumbs from their master's table. if you'd just
be so kind and so gracious and so merciful to brush off a crumb. That's all I need. Because your
table's different from anyone else's table. Your table has
power. And the Lord did answer her.
But the Lord could have chosen here not to answer them a word. Or he could have chosen, secondly,
he could have chosen to answer them like this. You ask me by
what authority I do these things? By the same authority as nature's
God that I rebuke the wind and it obeyed my voice. You ask me by what authority?
By the same authority that I cast a legion of demons out of that
demoniac of Gadara. You ask me by what authority? The same authority that I commanded
a man who'd been lame for 38 years to take up his bed and
walk, and he took up his bed and walked. You ask me by what
authority I do these things? by the same authority when I
stood just a few days ago outside the grave of Lazarus and commanded
him, Lazarus, come forth. And he came out of that grave. You ask me by what authority
I do these things. But he did choose to answer their
question with one of his own. The baptism of John, was it from
heaven or of men? You answer me this question and
I'll answer yours. Now, the baptism of John, John
baptized men who heard his message and believed his message, just
like we do. Baptism is for believers. It's
not to make a man a believer. Not to make a person a Christian. It's because a person has believed,
does believe, and in obedience to their Lord's command, desires
baptism. The baptism of John. Was it of
men or was it from heaven? In other words, the message of
John. the gospel that John preached. And what was that gospel? It
was very simple and very clear. Behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. That's the same message that
the Lord, pre-incarnate Lord, spoke to Adam and Eve in the
garden. And it's the same gospel message
that has been preached down through the ages. It's a message, the
gospel message of substitution that is innocent in the place
of the guilty and satisfaction that God in Christ reconciled
the world unto himself. That message, the baptism of
John. Was it from God? Was it from
heaven? Or was it of men? And of course,
they said, we can't answer that. Now these are men, listen, these
are men who spent their life studying the scripture. John
was spoken of in two of those Old Testament prophets, in Isaiah
and Malachi. Why couldn't they answer? because
they did not believe the gospel. They did not believe Christ. That's why. By what authority doest thou these things? And
who gave you this authority? We just say, because of who I
am, I am. I am. I am the great I am. My authority. I do these things
by my authority as the God of nature, God of creation, God
of providence, and the God of salvation. I do these things
by my authority. We want to sing a hymn before
we are dismissed, number 224.