[0:00] Mark chapter 12. I'm going to read verses 35 to 40. Mark chapter 12, verse 35 to 40. Again, this is the word of God.
[0:19] While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, how is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.
[0:39] David himself calls him Lord. How then can he be his son? The large crowd listened to him with delight. As he taught, Jesus said, watch out for the teachers of the law.
[0:50] They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogue and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.
[1:08] Amen. You may be seated. All four of the gospel writers are very zealous to teach us three things.
[1:20] Number one, who is Jesus? Number two, why has he come? And number three, how can we be saved? The gospels tell us he's the God-man, fully God, as much God as the Father and as God the Holy Spirit.
[1:40] And that he is at the same time fully man, as much as you and I are human. It tells us that he came in order to save sinners, to save his people from their sins and to do so by his perfect obedience to the law and then satisfying its justice by dying in the place of his people, suffering the wrath of God that they would have suffered.
[2:05] And they all teach us that the only way to be saved is through this Savior, Jesus, by trusting in nothing that we have done and only in what he has done to save us.
[2:19] Well, the tragedy seen so clearly in Mark, as we've been studying, is that these people had had the Son of God living with them and then ministering for three years in their very presence.
[2:32] And yet, here they are, three days away from crucifying him. And they still don't know who he is, why he's come, and how they can be saved through him.
[2:45] And this same tragedy is being lived out today, over and over, in lands that have had the gospel seed sown upon them like our land has.
[2:58] And yet, still, people do not know who Jesus is, why he came, and how we can be saved. Well, everyone stands guilty and condemned for their own sins, but here in Mark chapter 12, Jesus especially holds accountable the spiritual leaders and teachers of Israel.
[3:22] They were to be teaching them who the coming Messiah is, why he's coming, and how we can be saved through him. And yet, they were denying that he is God.
[3:35] They thought he was coming to save the nation from their political rival of Rome. And they were teaching that you could be saved by keeping the law, rather than fleeing to Christ alone.
[3:48] So you see the backdrop to our chapter and our passage this morning. What a day this Tuesday of Passion Week had been for our Savior.
[4:00] On Sunday, he enters Jerusalem triumphantly to the shouts and hosannas, welcoming him as the king of the Jews. Welcoming him as their Messiah, the son of David.
[4:12] He's seated. On Monday, he clears the temple of those marketeers who are bringing all kinds of distraction into the worship of God.
[4:24] On Tuesday, he comes back to the temple. And there, he's teaching, and his critics come then, these religious leaders, and they challenge his authority.
[4:36] Who gave you the authority to cleanse the temple and to teach here? And then still, on Tuesday, they're ganging up on him.
[4:46] And three times they come, trying to trip him up in something that he says that will put him in negative favor with the crowds, who at this point are still shouting, He's our hero, Messiah.
[5:01] And so they come with their questions to trip him. And each time, he answers them with a wisdom that sends them packing, embarrassed in front of the crowd.
[5:12] Embarrassed before the wisdom of him who is God. And we read at the end of verse 34, From then on, no one dared ask him any more questions.
[5:26] They finally woke up and wised up and quit asking questions. Not because they were repentant.
[5:36] They hated him all the more. But they didn't want to be embarrassed any further. So in our text today, we have two things from our Lord Jesus. There's a final challenge and then a final warning.
[5:49] And I say final because these are the last words that Jesus will speak in the hearing of the crowds. So they're important words.
[6:01] And from here on out, he will turn to teach his 12 disciples. So first, let's look at the final challenge, verses 35 to 37. This time, the challenge comes not from the critics of Jesus, but from the Lord Jesus himself.
[6:16] His enemies are done asking questions. So he has a question for them. And his question is not like their question. Their questions were to stir up strife and argument.
[6:29] Jesus' question is to stir up thought about who the Messiah is. Thought that would profit them. Yes, even for all eternity.
[6:43] And so he asks the question about the Messiah. Messiah. And he's going to challenge their view of Messiah. And say that he's more than just a man.
[6:56] And therefore, his mission is more than just to save Israel from their political enemy. So in this, we see the heart of Jesus. Because if anyone is to be saved, they must know who Jesus is.
[7:10] They must be trusting in the only Jesus that saves. And if he is not God, and if he is not man, then this Jesus' life and death does you nothing.
[7:22] So Jesus' heart is to reveal himself in this question, to get them thinking. Matthew's account is fuller. And it tells us that something happened before what Mark tells us here.
[7:37] It tells us that Jesus' question was aimed at the Pharisees. And indeed, most of the teachers of the law, which Mark speaks of here, were Pharisees.
[7:49] And so Matthew has the question put to them in the presence of the listening crowd, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?
[8:03] Now Mark says here in verse 35, While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the Son of God?
[8:17] Now the word Christ is not a name. It's a title. It means literally the anointed one. And in the Old Testament Hebrew, it meant the Messiah.
[8:30] The Greek, the Christ. So, how is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the Son of David?
[8:43] Well, they were right. They had many Old Testament passages to point to that would say, He is the Son of David. There's that 2 Samuel chapter 7, where God entered into a covenant with David that one of his sons, his descendants, would reign on his throne forever and ever over God's kingdom.
[9:05] Isaiah 9, familiar words, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.
[9:22] He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with righteousness and justice from that time on and forever. Dozens of other Old Testament texts could be cited, and on this the teachers of the law were correct.
[9:38] The Messiah, the Christ, is the Son of David. Indeed, the opening verse of the New Testament is very eager to make sure we understand that this Jesus who's introduced in the New Testament is none other than the Son of David.
[9:56] The very first verse of the New Testament, Matthew 1, 1, reads, A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.
[10:08] He is the Son of David. And he will reign on the throne of his father David, as the angel told the Virgin Mary. So Jesus is not denying this reality when he asks this question, but he's wanting them to think, How can you say he's David's son when David himself calls him his Lord?
[10:30] Now here Jesus is calling their attention to Psalm 110. It's the most often quoted psalm in the New Testament.
[10:42] And everyone understood it to be a messianic psalm. The scribes, these teachers of the law, the Pharisees, they knew that it was talking about Messiah.
[10:52] And so Jesus asks, verse 35 to 37, How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the Son of David?
[11:03] David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared, and now he's quoting Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.
[11:22] David calls him Lord. How then can he be his son? So Jesus moves to Psalm 110 and verse 1 to show that Messiah, Yes, he is the Son of David, but he is so much more.
[11:42] He's also David's Lord. David's God. Psalm 110, 1 says, Yahweh said to Adonai, To my Adonai, Yahweh said to my Lord, my God, Sit here on my throne.
[12:07] So yes, he is the Son of Man. As to his human nature, he is a man, a descendant of David. But as to his divine nature, he is nothing less than God, the eternal God, the creator.
[12:21] The one who existed from all eternity, before anything else but God existed. The eternal Son of God. And Jesus proves this by quoting their own scriptures.
[12:39] Psalm 110. David was speaking by the Holy Spirit when he wrote Psalm 110. That's what Jesus says. How else could David know a thousand years before the Messiah was born that he would be raised from the dead and ascend on high and take his seat on the very throne of God?
[13:06] That's what Jesus will say in Revelation 3 and verse 21. I sat down with my Father on his throne. Who sits on that throne? God the Father sits there.
[13:16] And God the Son sits there. He's more than just the Son of David then, you see. But that's what these scribes had missed. Jesus is holding two scriptural truths before them.
[13:33] The Bible says that he's the Son of David. But it also says he's David's Lord. Now how do you work that out? And these who boasted in their knowledge of the scriptures were silenced.
[13:47] They didn't believe for a moment that Messiah is God. Yet that's what Jesus himself was claiming for himself. Clear back in John chapter 5 and verse 18.
[14:01] John says the reason they tried all the more to kill Jesus was because he was even calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.
[14:15] You see, that's what will do him in in the end. It's Tuesday of Passion Week and in just three days, this will be the final straw that nails Jesus to the cross.
[14:27] The high priest will ask Jesus, are you the Christ, Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? I am, said Jesus.
[14:38] And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven. There it is again, Psalm 110.
[14:50] Sitting where? At the right hand of the Mighty One. On his throne with his Father. And then the high priest will tear his clothes and say, why do we need any more witnesses?
[15:03] You've heard the blasphemy. What do you think? And they'll all condemn him as worthy of death. That's where we're going in just three days. So Jesus is claiming to be both God and man and thereby qualified to be the one and only mediator between God and man.
[15:21] The only one to reconcile sinful men to a holy God is this Jesus who is himself God and man. You see, the blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away sin.
[15:38] Man had sinned. Man must suffer. So God becomes man in order to suffer and die. To suffer the torments of body and soul in the place of his people that they might be saved from their sin and the punishment of it.
[15:55] And here's his challenge to the spiritual leaders of Israel. In Psalm 110, David calls the Messiah, my Lord.
[16:05] And you are calling me a blasphemer for saying such of myself. So by only thinking of Messiah as the son of David, just another human being, you see, that colored their whole view of Messiah's mission.
[16:24] Messiah's mission was then what? Was to come and to save the Jews from their political enemies. His salvation is a national salvation. Just like David.
[16:38] David, what a human king, and what did he do for Israel? He went out and fought their battles and brought Israel back to where it was the head instead of the tail.
[16:49] And the nations brought tribute to Israel. But now Israel's the tail. And Rome is the head. And they're paying tribute to Rome and under Rome's heel.
[17:01] But a Messiah's coming. A son of David. And he's going to save us from the Romans. It was a movement to make the nation of Israel great again.
[17:18] A mega movement. Make Israel great again. That was their view of Messiah's mission. But friends, if that's all that Jesus came to do, well, it doesn't even touch our greatest problem.
[17:38] Our greatest problem is our sin. Our greatest problem is no government. It's my sin. Do you know how wicked my sin is? It's so offensive to God that nothing will remove that offense than to have God the Son become a man and to suffer the torments of body and soul in my place that I might be forgiven.
[18:04] That's how serious my problem is. And you're talking about some freedom from Rome? I'm sorry. I need to be saved from my sin. And God didn't become a man just to free the Israelites.
[18:18] Folks, I don't know all of your heritage, but I would say most of you are Gentiles. Do you realize if that was the Messiah's mission, we'd be out? No, he's God.
[18:32] And he's come and his coming is, he's too great of a personage to just bring back to God those of Israel who have strayed. No, he will gather the nations.
[18:43] He'll gather the Gentiles. And that's why you and I, who are in Christ, are saved today because he came to save from all the nations. That was his mission.
[18:57] And so they were so wrong about who Messiah is and so wrong about Messiah's mission. But there's something comforting, isn't there?
[19:10] that just three days before he's hung on the cross, Jesus is thinking about Psalm 110, verse 1. Though I'm going to suffer and die there, that will not be the end of me because David said that Yahweh, the Father, will say to David's Lord, sit here at my right hand on my throne in heaven.
[19:41] He knew that for dying, God the Father would keep his end of the bargain, that everlasting covenant of redemption. You go and pay the price for a people, the Father says.
[19:53] And the Son says, yes, I'm more than willing to go. And the Father says, then I will raise you from the dead. And he raised him not only from the dead, but he exalted him to the highest place. What is the highest place?
[20:05] It is the throne of God that rules over the universe. And that's where God the Father raised him and gave him a name above every name. And Jesus is thinking about that three days before his death.
[20:20] wonderful comfort from the Word of God to the Messiah. He dies clinging to a promise from his Father. The crowds all hyped up during Passover.
[20:33] They want another national hero to set them free like Moses did from Egypt in that first Passover. Or as David did from the Philistines and the enemies of Israel. That's why they welcomed him so energetically on Palm Sunday.
[20:50] But they don't know who he is or why he's come. And they certainly don't know the only way of salvation through his accomplishments, not theirs.
[21:03] And so earlier, Jesus had told the Sadducees when they tried to trick him about the Leverite marriage and who would the wife be if she married seven men during her lifetime when they all died.
[21:15] Jesus said, you are an heir being ignorant of the Holy Scriptures. But now we see that the Sadducees are not the only ones. So are the Pharisees, these teachers of the law.
[21:26] They're exposed. Their ignorance is exposed. They don't know the Holy Scriptures. They have no answer for Jesus. And so their whole plan, the whole plan of Tuesday, of embarrassing Jesus in front of the crowd, backfired.
[21:43] It not only was worthless, it actually backfired on them. They want to make Jesus less popular. And yet what we read in verse 37 is the large crowd listened to him with delight.
[21:56] They're all the more on the bandwagon of Jesus is our hero to set us free from Rome. Indeed, no one ever spoke like this man. And there was plenty in what Jesus said to cause them to listen with delight.
[22:12] But that is no sure sign of grace. You can be here week after week listening even with delight to the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of God's word.
[22:23] They were doing it to the Son of God, the living word, Jesus, as he taught. They listened with rapt attention. Yes, even gladness and delight.
[22:36] We heard it in Sunday school that God warned Ezekiel that just because they come and sit at your feet and listen to you, do not think that they will do what you want and do what you say.
[22:50] They're just listening to you like one who plays fine music on an instrument. And so they enjoy, they delight hearing, but they won't do what you say.
[23:03] And in this very gospel of Mark, early on in chapter 6, we saw the King Herod imprisoning John the Baptist. And yet he loved to have him come and preach to him.
[23:16] And he was perplexed about John, but Mark chapter 6 says that he heard him gladly. He heard him with delight.
[23:29] It's the same word used here, the crowd who sat and heard Jesus with delight, yet he chopped John the Baptist's head off a few days later.
[23:41] And it's only Tuesday and they're listening with delight. That's not the same as listening with prophet to their everlasting souls to believe on Jesus as the God man for their salvation from sin and not from Rome.
[24:04] So, they're delighting to hear his words, but they're missing it. They're missing the whole point. They're still thinking Jesus might be our messianic hero to save us from Rome. But it's just Tuesday and Friday's coming.
[24:20] And how quickly popular opinion can turn from delight to disgust. For just three days later when they see their so-called Messiah hero now bound in Roman chains, weak, impotent before the Romans, being tried, they will be easily convinced by the priests that this is no Messiah for us.
[24:48] This is not what we wanted. And so, Pilate, the governor, the Roman governor will say, well, every Passover it's my custom to release for you a prisoner.
[24:59] Should I release Jesus, the king of the Jews? He said, no, no, give us Barabbas, a murderer, convicted of murder in the insurrection, in the rebellion against Rome.
[25:13] He's our man. Well, then what shall I do with Jesus? Crucify him. Crucify him.
[25:24] Well, that's how fickle the crowd can be like the stock market.
[25:38] The stock on Jesus was up on Tuesday, but it was down on Friday. Crucify is all their breath and for his death they thirst and cry.
[25:55] So that's the final challenge of Jesus to the crowd, to the Pharisees about their view of Messiah and his mission. And now he closes with a final warning.
[26:07] Verses 38 to 40. It's a warning from Jesus against the teachers of the law, the Pharisees and the Pharisees. He's exposed their ignorance.
[26:20] Now he exposes their evil practice. You know, back in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned the people against false teachers. Well, how shall we know a false teacher?
[26:34] Jesus says, by their fruit you will know them. It's by their fruit, the fruit of their lives, the kind of fruit coming forth from their behavior that you will know and recognize the false teacher.
[26:48] and Jesus is now going to expose that evil fruit coming forth from their life. He's exposed their ignorance of Scripture. He's now going to expose their evil fruits.
[27:03] Now, in Matthew 23, we have a much fuller account of what Mark says here just in a few verses. Matthew 23, you remember we studied it when we studied the Pharisees.
[27:15] Jesus spends 39 verses with seven woes denouncing them as hypocrites. Mark just gives us a summary of three verses.
[27:28] Verse 38, as he taught, Jesus said, watch out for the teachers of the law. I don't think that catches us like it caught them. If someone stood in this place and said, watch out for your pastors, how would that get you?
[27:47] Well, I trust it would hit you hard. You've entrusted us to be faithful guides in this book leading you to Christ, leading you home to heaven.
[27:58] And now, this Jesus is saying, watch out. Watch out for your teachers of the law. Oh, they held them in high honor, just like you hold us.
[28:12] Are they even higher? they had a saying, if only two men made it into heaven, one would surely be a Pharisee. And Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, your proverb is wrong.
[28:28] Because unless your righteousness, I tell you the truth, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Oh, they thought they were in like Flynn.
[28:41] And Jesus says, no, their righteousness is a sham. Their lives are a hypocrisy. And so, don't listen to the hypocrites.
[28:55] Don't listen to your leaders. Beware. You see, it was serious business. Why would Jesus make the last words a word of warning against their teachers? Because in following them, they're following them to hell.
[29:10] They claim to be lights and guides to those in darkness. We'll lead you to heaven. And Jesus says of them in Matthew 23, this very context that you go over land and sea to make one convert, and when you've made him a convert, you make him twofold the child of hell that you are, you hypocrites.
[29:31] You not only do not enter the kingdom of heaven, but you shut the door so that others who would enter do not enter. These were harsh words from Jesus against the leaders, the spiritual leaders, the teachers of Israel.
[29:46] And if this is the state of the teachers, no wonder the sheep are lost with no idea about the Messiah and his mission and their need for a savior from sin.
[29:58] Can you see the heart of Jesus beating for this multitude before him? they're like children following the Pied Piper and he's leading them into hell.
[30:11] They're not safe guides, they're blind guides and if you follow them, you'll both fall into the ditch of hell. That's why he's giving such a severe warning against them.
[30:22] That's why it's his last word to the crowd. These are not safe guides. Well, he loved people.
[30:39] He wanted to see them saved. So he exposes the practice, the fruits of these false teachers. First of all, their pride.
[30:51] Verse 38, watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces. They dressed up like they were important dignitaries, kings, judges, priests, long white linen robes so everyone would notice them as they walked through the marketplace.
[31:09] Indeed, everyone would stand in honor of them as they walked through. You couldn't miss them. And then they would acknowledge their greatness with exalted greetings like father, rabbi, master.
[31:28] But their preoccupation of studying the law of God should have made them the most humble people in Israel, shouldn't have it? To know who God is and what he demands of us. These scribes, these Pharisees, should have been the humblest of men.
[31:42] Instead, they're puffed up with their own importance, wanting others to acknowledge it so they walk around like peacocks preening their feathers. Jesus goes on to say in verse 39, they also love to have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.
[32:00] Wherever they are, they seek out the most important seats so everybody will know they're the most important people there. Dan, who are those guys in the white robes and the long tassels?
[32:12] I don't know, but they're very important people. Look at them. Look at the seats they're in. Oh, how they sucked it in for their pride.
[32:26] Whereas Jesus said, true greatness in God's kingdom is to be the servant of all. And in a few days, he will disrobe himself and wrap a towel around his waist and get down on his knees and wash the dirty feet of his disciples and dry them with the towel.
[32:48] But their pride was matched by their greed and hypocrisy. Verse 40, they devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. They were greedy.
[33:01] Luke chapter 16, earlier Jesus has said, no one can serve two masters. Either he will love the one and hate the other or hate the one and love the other. You cannot serve God and money.
[33:13] And Luke says, the Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. Jesus knows their heart.
[33:25] They love money. They're greedy for it. They're not only greedy with what they have, they want more. And they sneer at Jesus.
[33:36] But they're not only greedy for money, they're also hypocrites. That's what Jesus called them over and over in Matthew's account of this reaming out.
[33:46] Here their hypocrisy is seen in their lengthy prayers. They're all for show. Indeed, Jesus says everything they do is for men to see. fasting, giving, praying.
[33:57] It's all done not for the eye of God who sees in secret, but for the eyes of men. Because in seeing me do these spiritual things, they'll think how spiritual I am. It was all just an act.
[34:11] It was for a show that they prayed these long prayers. There was no real communion with heaven at all. No talk with God at all. They weren't talking to God.
[34:22] They were talking to the ones who were listening to their long prayers that they might impress them. And here Jesus seems to link their hypocrisy to their greed.
[34:34] Their long prayers are used to impress vulnerable widows and taking advantage of them financially. It says, they devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers.
[34:50] There's some question as to how they were devouring widows' houses. One thing is that these teachers of the law were not allowed in the first century within Judaism to collect a salary for interpreting the law and teaching it.
[35:04] So they depended upon the hospitality of people and often it was the widows. Hmm, interesting. And they often devoured the widow's house by impressing them with their long prayers.
[35:22] You can just imagine a widow speaking to her neighbor after a visit from one of these teachers of the law. You know he came and he prayed for 15 minutes for me without stopping.
[35:35] And he told me that God would be very pleased if I gave so much for his aid. That's how it worked.
[35:47] Using religion as a means of financial gain. Others say, no, no, it wasn't just that. It was the fact that they were laying hold of the deeds of their home and saying, you know, God would be pleased if you deeded that to the temple treasury.
[36:04] And then they'd pounce on it themselves. Devouring widows' homes. Well, as students of God's law, if anybody knew, they should have known that God wanted them to have a special, that widows should have had a special place in their hearts to take care of them and to show compassion to them.
[36:30] But instead, here they are devouring their homes. I suppose it's much like why scammers like to go for older people and, yes, widows.
[36:49] Well, it's one thing when it's a scammer from Nigeria. It's another thing when it's your religious leaders. that is stooping to a new low. And so Jesus ends this warning how, by saying, such men will be punished most severely.
[37:09] Hypocrites posing as teachers, leaders, who are all out for themselves. such men will receive the greater damnation for King James.
[37:27] Well, Jesus is teaching at least one thing, that there are degrees of punishment in hell. Some will have greater damnation than others. And it seems like some of the greatest punishments of hell are for those who are hypocrites, pretending to be something that they weren't, and all for themselves.
[37:47] Misleading others. By their fruits you shall know them. Jesus knows these words against, spoken so boldly now against the leaders of Israel are going to hasten his death.
[37:59] That's why he hasn't, he didn't do this when he first started out his mission, or he never would have had three years to preach. But now it's time. And so he warns the crowd lest they be led to hell following these false leaders.
[38:17] Do you know who Jesus is? I mean really know.
[38:28] Not just up here and check the box of mental agreement, but down here. Do you know that Jesus is God? Would somebody know that by watching you live?
[38:41] You know it was a wonderful thing a month ago in our afternoon service when Clara Hoskins stood here and gave her personal testimony. You remember how she talked about the time her and her husband were invited to go to a service on the base there in Guam.
[38:56] And Dennis, godless sailor, went. when he got home with wide-eyed wonder, he said, Clara, do you realize Jesus is God?
[39:17] That was it. He knew who Jesus was. Why? Because his eyes had been open to this reality. And everything changed. That godless sailor did a 180 degree about face.
[39:31] And from then on it was Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. The son of David, yes, but the son of God. And everything that he said was taken as gospel truth and reordered and changed his insides and his outsides.
[39:50] Do you know who Jesus is in a way that changes the way you live, the way you worship, the way you do family, the way you do recreation, the way you do money, the way you do all things?
[40:05] Because Jesus is God. That means everything he says about God is true. He's holy. He cannot even look on evil with a compliance.
[40:18] But there's a hell to pay for sin. And everything he says about the sinner is true of me. I am a sinner. And I need a Savior. And he says he is the way, the truth, the life.
[40:31] No one can get to the Father except through him. And I believe that. He is God. And only God can get me to God. The God-man. Do you know Jesus that way?
[40:44] Has it made a difference? Or is it just, yeah, I believe. I believe. Oh, my friend. Do you really know at all if it's not affected the way that you live?
[40:58] You see what Israel did to their master. What are you doing with him? What are you doing with him? Just tipping your hat to him once a week?
[41:12] Or is your whole life like Paul's? To me, life is Christ. If you could define my life in one word, it's Christ. Because I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
[41:27] You are my all-sufficient hope for heaven. My life is all about Jesus being God. My God. Not dead in a tomb.
[41:39] Risen. Reigning. Oh, dear Christian. I want you to get a view of Jesus that he had of himself from Psalm 110. See him there. Risen.
[41:51] Risen. And reigning on the throne that rules the universe. And he's there for you. He rules over all things for his church. Ephesians 1. It's for you that he's there.
[42:02] It's for you that he prays. It's for you that he protects you. It's for you that he sends mercy and grace to help you in your time of need. He's on the throne that rules the universe.
[42:15] And he prays into the ear of his Father beside him. What a privilege to be a Christian. And my friend, if you're outside of Christ, you're going to meet him too on that throne.
[42:27] For we must all appear before the throne of God to give an account of our lives for everything that we've done while in the body, whether good or evil. Oh, don't show up there without having trusted in Jesus as your Savior.
[42:44] You see, he's done everything. What did you need to get into heaven? Well, you needed perfect obedience. He's come from heaven as a man, born under the law, that he might obey the law and thereby redeem those of us who were sin lawbreakers.
[43:00] And then he went to the cross to pay the price for justice to be satisfied. The law said the soul that sins, it must die. The law said there's hell to pay for sin.
[43:13] And Jesus goes and he pays that for every one of his people. And who are his people? They are whoever believes in him. Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, black, white, nothing else matters.
[43:26] Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Have you believed in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, that he's your only way to heaven? You shall be saved.
[43:37] And Jesus delights to save sinners even more than sinners delight to be saved by him. So come to him today. And say, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.
[43:53] I am the sinner that the Bible talks about. Please forgive me. Cast yourself on his mercy. Amen. He delights in mercy.
[44:07] Upon a life I did not live. Upon a death I did not die. Another's life, another's death. I stake my whole eternity. Do that and live.
[44:23] So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law because by observing the law, no one will be justified.
[44:35] And if we could be justified by the law, then Jesus Christ died for nothing, says Galatians chapter 2.
[44:46] Do you think for a moment that God would send his Son to die for nothing? No, he came to die, to suffer and die for all who trust in him.
[44:56] May he be our joy today. Amen. Amen. Amen.