Take your Bibles to Mark chapter 12 this morning. Mark chapter 12, as we continue during the Passion Week of Jesus, still on Tuesday. We've looked at previously four different encounters that Jesus had with the religious elite, with the religious establishment, that they have bombarded him with four separate attacks. And now they are done. We'll start with verse 34. that says that they were done. They were stumped. They couldn't figure out how to way to trap him. All of their efforts were futile. But Jesus isn't done. So now he starts asking the questions this morning. So let's pick this up. Mark chapter 12, verse 34. We'll read down through verse 40. And then we'll back up. Here's what it says. Mark 12, 34. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question. And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, 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. And he said unto them in his doctrine, 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 feasts, which devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These shall receive greater damnation." So here, because of Jesus' answers, it gets to the point where nobody dares to ask Him another question. They figured out four questions to ask. That's all they could think of. They've run out of ammunition. And so now Jesus, not willing for the debating... Now, by the way, there's no more debating. He asks questions here. He asks two questions. And it's of note that there is no answer given. They were silenced by his question. There was only one true answer to the question that he asks, and it was very incriminating to them. There was no way that these scribes and Pharisees would dare to answer the question that he gives. So Jesus is remember all throughout his ministry when he's on the cross he was never carried away by the will of the people he was never a victim he laid down his life and as they're bombarding him he's not blown away he withstands all of their questions and then he has some for them to ponder to think about and this question that he asked this morning two questions but revolving around the same thing this question he asked this morning is very important as it relates to why they will kill him. They're going to lay charges against him. And he's going to, before the charges are even brought, he's going to show that they are false, that they're misguided charges. So he does this just about three days before he is crucified. I want to start this morning by looking at, so Jesus, he asks him a question and he quotes, and we'll turn to, in just a moment, where he quotes from in Psalm 110. But before we get to what he quotes, I just want to look at the high view of scripture that Jesus has. This is the correct view of scripture. It's the reality, it's the truth of what scripture is. In Mark 12, verse 36, here's what he says. For David himself said, by the Holy Ghost." And then he goes on to quote. So he recognizes here both the human element and the divine element in Scripture. Every verse in the entire Bible is of this same truth. That there is a human writer, some say something that's written down, some write something. There's a human element, but behind that, and more important, and if we can call it a primary and a secondary authors of Scripture, Who wrote the law? Well, Moses wrote the law. But who really wrote the law? God. And God is the one who wrote all of scripture. And Jesus points to that when he says, David said this by the Holy Ghost. David did not write any of the scripture that he wrote. He did not write any of it by himself. He said it by the Holy Ghost, through the power, through the enablement, through the control of the Holy Ghost. And it reminds us of a great passage in 2 Peter 1 verse 21. I'll just read it for sake of time this morning. 2 Peter 1 verse 21 it says, For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." And that Greek word, the verb there for move means that they were carried along, that the Holy Spirit carried along everything that was done. We can't really say that the men were inspired to write the words of God, as in some people go out and look at a sunset, wow, look how beautiful, and they're inspired to paint a picture or to write a poem about that sunset. That's not how it was. The word inspiration has to do with the words. God inspired the words. And the word inspiro, the Latin word, means that God breathed out the words. The men didn't just feel something come upon them and then they did something. It's that God was in charge of it the entire time. God moved the men. He put them in the right place at the right time and He made sure that every word that was said was exactly what He... He didn't just give them an idea. He didn't just say, just a moment. God didn't come to David and say, David, we need a good catchy, and it was a song, the Psalms are songs, this is a song book of the Old Testament. He didn't come to David and say, you know what, we need a messianic song, something catchy, let's write, it's going to be about the Messiah, it's going to include some elements. He didn't give them some ideas and tell them to run with it. God inspired every word that was said. He didn't just inspire the thoughts. It's the very words that will not pass away. It's not just that the heart of God, the mind of God and His ideas, it's that the very words of Scripture, and that's really important, Distinction to make and that's what Jesus held here. He says David said this by the Holy Ghost That's not really the thrust of our message, but I just wanted to catch that in passing Jesus' high view, and we need to share that view of Scripture. The bottom line is, the Bible is not a man's book, it's God's book. It was not man's ideas. There are so many in the world that that's... And if it is man's book, then it's take it or leave it, pick and choose. Chew on the meat and spit out the quote-unquote bones. There are no bones in the Bible. It's all the meat and the truth of God, the words of God Himself. So let's look at what Jesus quotes in Psalm 110, And as I mentioned already, this is a messianic psalm that was written by David through the Holy Ghost. And I'll tell you what, let's read it and then we'll talk about some of the elements of it. All seven verses, Psalm 110 verse 1. A psalm of David. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning. Thou hast the dew of thy youth. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through the kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen. He shall fill the places with the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way. Therefore, shall he lift up the head. You know, the importance of Psalm 110 in the Book of Psalms, in the Old Testament, in the entire Bible, really can't be overstated. It was such an important messianic psalm, and by that we mean it was a psalm that gave prophecies of the Messiah. There were other messianic psalms, there are other messianic places of Scripture in the Old Testament, but Psalm 110 is the only messianic psalm that is 100% in its fulfillment about the Messiah. The others, there are other prophecies of Jesus, you know, Psalm 2 talks about Jesus, Psalm 22, Psalm 69, there are places where it talks about what's going to go on on the cross, but all of the other ones are kind of secondarily about the Messiah. The psalmist is writing about something that he's going through. He's asking for God's help. He's asking for God's deliverance. And then all of a sudden God slides in a great prophecy about the Messiah that you could almost miss if you weren't paying attention. And then God, Jesus will explain it in the New Testament or The Gospel writers will say this is fulfilling this, this was actually about Jesus. A lot of them are secondary. This one is 100% just the Messiah. It's unmistakable. And it's an interesting conversation between God the Father and God the Son. in heaven before Jesus was ever born. So there's a lot of doctrines in play here that are supported and that are brought out by this. But one thing I want to mention very quickly about this passage and specifically verse 1, Psalm 110 verse 1 is the most referred to or quoted verse in the New Testament of all the Old Testament verses. It's been some 27 different times, whether it be a gospel writer or in the book of Acts or in the book of Hebrews. In the New Testament, 27 different times, more than any other verse in the Old Testament. Psalm 110 and verse 1 is quoted showing that it was a monumentally important truth about the Messiah and it's always there some who come away from someone 10 and get different ideas I think it's about David talking about himself it's unmistakable in Jesus himself in the other places New Testament every time it's quoted 100 percent the time it's always referenced only to Jesus only to the Messiah it's unmistakable the Jews agreed with that and that's why it's and that's why Jesus brings it out and demonstrates the truth of it. So a couple of things I want to mention before we look at a brief outline of it. Verse 1 here that Jesus quotes, it demonstrates that there is a Godhead It talks about the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's God the Father, Jehovah. The Lord said unto my Lord, so this is David calling Jesus, God the Son, my Lord. You have the Lord, Jehovah, and he is speaking to my Lord, Jesus. So it shows a Godhead, that there is more than one, the Lord our God is one Lord, yes. But he is in multiple parts. You can't necessarily get the word Trinity, the concept of three persons here. But there are three. But here it at least shows that there's more than one. God the Father is speaking. If this is not a privileged conversation, I don't know what is. We're allowed to peel back the curtain and look and see God the Father talking to God the Son. And it's recorded for us to know what was said. So it demonstrates the Godhead. It also shows the divinity of the Messiah when he would come. And this is very obviously about the Messiah, that he's the Lord, that he is David's Lord. It shows his Godhead, the divinity of Jesus. It shows the pre-existence of Jesus. Jesus did not come into being. He did not come into existence when he was born in a manger. what we often call the incarnation. We all agree with that, I hope, but there are many groups and many people in the world that don't agree with that. They believe that God created Jesus when He was born in a manger. He was pre-existent. He's all throughout the Old Testament. The New Testament bears that out. When Israel is going through the wilderness for 40 years, the rock that followed them was Christ. It says in 1 Corinthians 10 in the first few verses there. And so this is one of the places we can go to to show that Jesus always was from the beginning. In fact, before he ever came to earth, this conversation, and we don't know exactly when this conversation happened, but maybe sometime in eternity past, but God the Father is speaking to God the Son. I want to real quick give a brief outline of the psalm. It shows different elements of the Messiah. It's a very majestic and triumphant psalm. There are places in the Bible that talk about the suffering Messiah. This is not one of them. By the way, this is one of the passages that the Jews loved and they grabbed onto and they ignored some of the others. So remember when it says that Jesus crucified is to the Jews a stumbling block? It says that in the New Testament. Oh, I thought the Messiah was just going to be triumphant. I didn't know he was going to die. I didn't know he was going to suffer. It's because of passages like this. And by the way, this passage is not misleading at all. It's just that it shows only one side here. It shows the majestic, triumphal Messiah when he would come. So verse 1, this is a real fast five-point outline of the psalm. Verse 1 talks about the coronation of the Messiah. It's really God the Father anointing God the Son and saying, sit here on the right hand until you subdue all of your enemies until that time. So it's a great coronation type of moment. Verse 2, the second point, is that the Messiah would be given the power needed to accomplish that subduing. He's not going to go and lack power and lack ability. He will have all that power that he needs. Number 3, in verse 3 is he's given assurance that his people would be made willing in the day that he will reign that's a great truth look at verse 3 again it says thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." When Jesus comes to reign, His people... By the way, when He comes the first time, He came into His own and His own received Him not. But in this Messianic psalm, when He is installed as the ruler over the whole universe, His people then will be willing. It's not going to be pulling teeth. They're not going to be kicking and screaming. Number four, the fourth point of the psalm in verse four, is that it shows a special characteristic of his reign, that he will be a priest-king. He'll be a priest and a king at the same time, which was forbidden under the Mosaic Law. the Aaronic priesthood, as we call it. You could only be a priest. No one was allowed to be king and priest. It was one or the other. In fact, they were separate tribes. To be king, you had to be from the tribe of Judah. To be priest, you had to be from the tribe of Levi. You couldn't mix. But Melchizedek in the Old Testament is an example of someone who was at the same time, he was a priest that Abraham tithed to and he was also the king of Salem. He was king and priest in one and so in that way Melchizedek was a type or a picture of Jesus, a representative or a representation of what Jesus would be like when he came. Melchizedek was not Jesus. We're not going to get off into that this morning. But after the same way that Melchizedek was both priest and king, Jesus would be both priest and king. So a great truth about him. And then number five, verses five through seven, talks about his conquest and triumph. No one would be able to stand in his way. No one would be able to stop him. So really just a great psalm about the Messiah. And so Jesus quotes only verse 1. We're back in, let's go ahead and turn back to Mark chapter 12. Why does Jesus quote verse 1? Why does he say, I have a question for all of you? And by the way, he starts out by talking about what the scribes say, not to criticize what they say, but really to criticize what they don't say. He says, how do the scribes say that Christ, when he comes, by the way, the word Christ and Messiah, Messiah is the Hebrew word, Christ is the Greek word. They both mean the anointed one, so we're talking about the same concept. How do the scribes say that Christ, when he comes, will be the son of David? Why do they say that? Now, he's not disputing that Jesus was the son of David. There are other places in the Bible we could turn to. but he's saying they say he was the son of David and yet how does that jibe with this verse? Psalm 110 verse 1 says, David is calling the Messiah, his son, his Lord. How could he do that? How could the Messiah be both at the same time? How could he be the son of David, which usually means you come after, you are under his authority. Whenever you have a father to a son, usually the father is the authority over the son and he gives him orders and at least that's how it used to be. Now it's flipped around in our society. and the kids run the show. But the way that it's supposed to be is that the parents are the authority over the children. So if the Messiah is the son of David, he should be under him. So then how does David say the Messiah is my Lord? How would his descendant be his master when he's not even there yet? One of the answers is, he was there. He already was there. He was already his Lord. When David would pray, he would pray to that Messiah that wasn't even born yet, but he was already there. So Jesus pulls out a really great truth, and he asks him this question, not to say that they don't go together, but to say they do go together, but why don't the scribes tell you about that? Why aren't the scribes out there saying, when the Son of David comes, he's going to be the Lord of all of us? Remember when Jesus would travel and preach and perform miracles? What did the scribes and Pharisees accuse him of that was misplaced, that was incorrect? They accused him of blasphemy. And they're going to do this again. We'll read a verse about it later. they're going to do this again on the day that he's crucified. They're going to accuse him of blasphemy because he, being a man, makes himself God. So let's crucify him. They take up stones a couple of times to try to kill him. And Jesus is pointing out here that, wait, wait, wait, wait, whenever the Messiah comes, he will be God. says right here in this verse the miss everyone agree this is a Messiah the Lord said unto my Lord God the Father said to the Messiah the Lord sit down on my right hand until I make thine enemies by footstool so Jesus asked this thought-provoking question that is unanswered because they know that if they give the answer it only points to one thing that the Messiah is God and therefore you have to listen to him therefore you have to submit to him you see the Jews were looking for a Messiah but they didn't embrace it in Jesus and Jesus is just pointing out the truth here that whenever someone comes that is the Messiah It's going to be God and man at the same time. And you shouldn't have a problem with that concept. Now, it would be blasphemy for anyone else, right? For somebody that's just a random man, and other people have done this, to say, I am God. The emperors did that, the Roman emperors. It would be blasphemy for anyone else. But if somebody can demonstrate himself to be the Messiah, then it's not going to be blasphemy. And the Messiah would, and you shouldn't be taking you know, taken aback by this, the Messiah will proclaim himself to be God. By the way, the Antichrist will do that, too. He'll claim to be the Messiah, he'll claim to be God, he will demand to be worshipped as God, and he'll fool people. But it's based on this truth, that the Messiah is God. So Jesus is not disputing that both are true. He's the Son of David and He's the Lord, but He's showing that they are true, and this points to a great point. Look at Matthew 11 and verse 2. Matthew 11. So Jesus demonstrated himself to be the Messiah. That's the missing point, right? The way that he demonstrated himself to be the Messiah was that he pointed to the works that he did. The things that he said as well, but the works and we can turn to we're not going to read this for sake of time this morning but Isaiah 61 talks about some of the things that the Messiah would do and Jesus fulfilled that he even read Isaiah 61 in Nazareth about himself. He closed the scroll and he said, this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. He's saying, I'm the Messiah, you can look at my works, and they're parallel to what the works of the Messiah would be. This is a passage about John the Baptist when he's in prison, when he has this moment of doubt. When John the Baptist said, is Jesus the Messiah, or did we get it wrong? So here's the answer, Mark 11 verse 2. It says, Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see. So he points to his works, namely these. The blind received their sight, and the lame walked, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. That was what he sent back to John. If you wonder whether I'm the Messiah, just look at the things that I've done. They prove that I am God. Only God could do this. Only God could speak this way, preach the gospel. Only God could raise the dead, allow the blind to see, allow the deaf to hear. These are proofs, by the way, Jesus did not come in, we've talked about this before, Jesus didn't come and do all these miracles just so that he could have mercy and compassion on people and help people. That was part of it, but the main reason he came to do the miracles was so that he could show everyone, I'm the Messiah. And then he could say, I'm the Messiah, and now the works back it up and now they can believe on him for salvation. It was a it was not the destination the miracles were just a journey the pathway to the destination which was I'm the Messiah I'm God I'm in late on my life and if you believe in me you can have eternal life yourself so that was a great truth and so putting the two and two together Part number one is Jesus is the Messiah. And then part number two is that the Messiah when he comes will be God. Put those two together and Jesus is saying unequivocally before everyone, I am God. And he does it in a way, they don't take up stones to kill him on this day. They huddle afterwards, and they do it in a few more days. But Jesus, make no mistake, by asking this question, why do the scribes say this? I'm going to quote Psalm 110 and apply it to myself. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. He is making an unequivocal claim to be God, not just to be the Messiah that might have some authority. The Messiah was God himself. And so Jesus is making a claim. This was not the only time that Jesus made such a claim. Let's look at a couple of other passages, and then we'll move on in Mark 12. Look at John chapter 8. We'll look at a couple of verses in John 8, and then we'll look at a passage in Mark 14. John 8, 24. And these are just, I remember when I was in college, one of my roommates said, he was kind of struggling with it. He wasn't struggling with Jesus being God, but he was struggling with all the times that Jesus seemed to kind of beat around the bush. How come he didn't just come out of the woodwork? How did he just stand up in front of everyone and say, I'm God? How come he didn't say that? And he did. By the way, it's very clear that he claimed to be God because they tried to kill him for blasphemy. So here's just a couple places where Jesus, before the Jews, declared himself to be God. John 8, 24, it says, I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe not, that I am he by the way the word he there is an italics which means it's added for understanding but literally he says if you believe not that I am which is the name of God you shall die in your sins got to believe that Jesus is God for salvation because he's not God is not qualified to die for your sins he's not qualified to be your savior Jesus says if you don't believe that I am you will die in your sins look at John 8 in verse 58 This was the climax of the whole encounter and really the end before. Once he said this, they take up stones to try to kill him and then he leaves. So here's the thrilling conclusion to Jesus' message in John 8, verse 58 says, Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, they said, you're not even 50 years old, you've seen Abraham. He says, before Abraham was, I am. He's the I am at the bush in Exodus 3. I am that I am. He's saying that's who I am before Abraham ever was. I am God. And then they tried to kill him for that. Look at Mark 14 and verse 61. Here's one more time. Now it is true that Jesus didn't just go around willy-nilly because the Bible says it wasn't his time yet. He didn't just stir up enemies or they would have killed him earlier. But here's the day he's crucified. It's now his time He can now say this in front of all of his hostile enemies and allow it to run its course. So Mark 14, 61. It says, But he held his peace and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes and said, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy. What thinking? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. Which, by the way, they were paying attention. But if they were paying attention here in Mark 12 with belief, never would have gotten to this point. They hear him claim to be God and they say it's blasphemy. He's worthy of death. But he just demonstrates here in Mark 12 that he's the Messiah and the Messiah will be God. And so he can prove with scripture that he's God. The Pharisees and scribes, however, are not interested in believing the Bible. They're interested in holding on to what's theirs. So let's talk about this second part of our message this morning. Let's talk about the difference between the common people which, by the way, look in Mark 12 and the end of verse 37. David therefore himself calleth him Lord, and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. What are the common people? they're the opposite of the elite, right? The religious elite, the hierarchy, the establishment. The common people, they didn't have any agenda. They didn't have any presuppositions in their mind that would preclude them from believing what he said. And so they heard him gladly. When Jesus get up, and this happened other places, other times in his ministry, that if you just listen to Jesus at face value, with nothing blocking, you would come to this conclusion. He's got to be God. Listen to the way he talks. There's authority. It's amazing. We learn. We were brought along. Didn't our hearts burn within us when he talked? The common people, the opposite of the elite, would hear him gladly. The only people that had a problem with what Jesus said on this day were those that stood to lose something by his success. The religious elite, and look at a passage in John 11, verse 47, we'll get there in just a minute. They were threatened by the success of Jesus. Their success was dependent on, their success was contingent on His failures. They needed Jesus to fail. They needed Him to not be popular. They needed Him to go away so that they could have what they wanted. Imagine if you were to buy an expensive basketball card. My brother has done this before. My brother at one time had what they often called the Holy Grail card. of basketball cards, the little Ron James rookie card that's an autographed rookie patch. He bought it for I think like $500 and then he sold it back a decade ago, more than a decade ago. He sold it for I think $1,200 or $1,400. He had to pay his rent so he sold it And that card is gone now for $100,000. He had it at one time. And they think it'll be worth $500,000 someday. Who knows? But anyway, if you were to buy an expensive basketball card or baseball card of your favorite player, and he's still active, you are now invested in his success. You watch his games. You want him to do well. You don't want him to lose. He's got to win. He's got to win big so that the value of his card, the value of my investment, can appreciate. I'm all in for this guy. He's my guy. What does that mean, then? By the way, same thing if you were to place a bet on somebody. Place a bet on a horse to win a race. I'm not advocating this, but if you were to place a bet on a certain team to win, now you're invested. Now they've got to win. And that means for them to win, everybody else has to lose. and somebody else's rise to the top is a threat to your well-being, to your financial gain. If this guy wins the championship, then my guy loses and my car doesn't increase in value. I've got to do something. I've got to sabotage this guy. We've got to poison him. There are people who go out and they do these things, and there's conspiracy theories. But if you are financially invested in something, now he's got a win or else you're threatened by it. That's the state of these Pharisees. These Pharisees are invested in something and then along comes Jesus. We'll talk about in a little bit what they're invested in. They're invested in something and along comes Jesus and threatens what they are invested in. They've got to hold on to it at any cost, so that means they have to go for the failure of Jesus. That's their number one agenda in life now. We want Jesus to fail. What an awful place to be in life. And it blinds them now to any truth. I can't listen to Jesus. I can't believe what He has to say. He has to fail so I can hold on to my part in life. Look at this passage in John 11, verse 47. These people were predisposed to reject the truth when it came because of this. John 11, 47. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees, a council, and said, What do we? For this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him. By the way, if they have no dog in the race, then what they just said is a wonderful thing. Jesus has done many miracles. If we just let it run its natural course, everyone will believe on Him. That'd be great, right? If everyone believed in Jesus, it was the worst thing for them. Because it says, the next thing, it says, if anyone believes on Him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. So they were invested in their place and nation, the Romans allowing them to have that. And if we allow Jesus to be successful, we are threatened. So they have to double down on the failure of Jesus. By the way, it's ironic that what they're claiming is absolutely false. If everyone had believed on Jesus, the Romans would not have come and taken away their place and nation. False. Bible says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. In fact, the exact opposite happened. Because they rejected Jesus, then their worst nightmare came to pass, and the Romans did come and take away their place and nation. The worst thing that they imagined, they did the exact opposite. If they had believed on Him, He would have been their Messiah. He would have brought to them the kingdom. They would not have lost it all. They would have gained it all. But the devil's got them believing this lie, and they are invested in the failure of Jesus. Look at a passage in 2 Chronicles chapter 25. We've mentioned this passage before with a little bit of a different slant. But the King Amaziah of Judah, he's hired, he's going to fight a battle and he's hired some ungodly men from the army of Israel and he's paid them money. He's paid them 100 talents. So look what it says, 2 Chronicles 25 verse 7. It says, And there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee. For the Lord is not with Israel to wit with all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle. God shall make thee fall before the enemy. For God hath power to help and to cast down. And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? In other words, I can't turn my back on them now. I'm in financial investment with them. I'd lose it all. What am I going to do with that hundred talents? And the answer comes, the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this. You know, there are times when we need to be willing to let go of some investment we've made and instead side with God. You know, I found out this wasn't God's will, I made this decision, this house, this job, this relationship, and I'm too invested now to turn back. You are never too invested to turn back. You can always let go of what, sometimes you can do it knowing it wasn't God's will, sometimes later you can find out it wasn't God's will. But the Bible says, if you let go, God's able to give you much more than this. You will never lose out from what God wants. But we need to be willing to let go. The Pharisees were not willing to let go of their power. They weren't willing to let go of their place and nation. They were so invested in their minds, they had to double down at any cost. Jesus has to fail. And we will always be miserable in life whenever we are in competition with Jesus. There are many people in life with with political power or with their businesses, with money. There are many people who are in competition with Jesus. So that if the things of God would go forward, their finances would go backward. So they can't go with God because I'd lose money on the thing. I kind of made a list here. We're not going to spend a lot of time talking about all these things. But if people were to stand to make money, directly or indirectly if they were to stand to make money from abortion or prostitution or gambling or drunkenness or homosexuality or pornography or sexual promiscuity or theft or fraud or taking advantage of the less fortunate. There are a lot of ways that people make money that is wrong. Somebody has to sin for me to make money if I'm involved in those things. And if I'm involved in making money and my financial well-being is based on somebody sinning, I should quit that business immediately. Oh, I'm not going to have enough money if I quit. No. Trust God. But so many people are so invested. And what if there were a great revival in the nation and everyone decided, Let's say somebody's in, say, the pornography business. There was a great revival and everyone said, OK, we give up pornography. Oh, no, no, we can't have that. All my business would go away. We've got to make sure that there's not a revival in the nation. There are people who have these thoughts. What if everybody stopped drinking and I have to close down my business? That'd be awful. never position yourself in life where you are in competition with Jesus, to where if the things of God, if the Word of God goes forward, that you take a hit. And if you're positioned in that way, we should quit it now, or we should have the attitude, by the way, here's the attitude John the Baptist had. John the Baptist was almost in the same position as the Pharisees. A little bit different because he was believing and preaching the word of God and they weren't. But if we can put it this way, the success of the ministry of Jesus was a threat to the success of the ministry of John the Baptist on a human level. Because people left John the Baptist and they went out and followed Jesus. And somebody came to John the Baptist one day and said, Jesus, John the Baptist, what's going on? These people, they're following after Jesus and you're actually, you know, you send them over there to follow him. What about your followership? What about your financial prosperity? And John the Baptist said that great verse, he must increase, but I must decrease. he did not align himself in competition with Jesus and if we ever find ourselves in that place where if if someone were to follow God they they might not follow after me I'm in the wrong place and I need to push people toward Jesus I need to say he must increase the Pharisees were not willing to say this they said we must increase He must decrease. He must be crucified so we can keep our place in the nation. They were in competition with Jesus and because of that they were blind and they had a predisposition to reject the truth of the gospel. Horrible. And there are so many people like this in life that they will not believe the gospel and they won't turn their lives around. They won't give up something in their life that they're holding on to because they'd lose out on something. And it's ironic, just like the Jews. It's totally flipped around. They think, if I give this up, I'm not gonna have enough. And God says, if you give it up, I'll provide all that you need in life, I promise you. But that's the lie of the devil, to keep people in competition with Jesus, and to keep people rejecting the truth of the gospel. I wanna look at, specifically, three things here that the Pharisees were holding onto. Look at Mark 12, and let's read verses 38 through 40. So by the way, here's the flow of thought. The common people heard Jesus gladly, but the scribes and Pharisees did not hear him gladly, and so Jesus warns them about the scribes and Pharisees. You know, you guys are listening to me gladly. You see those guys over there that are not listening? Let me tell you why they won't hear me gladly. Let me tell you why they're invested in my failure. Verse 38, And he said unto them in his doctrine, 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 feasts, which devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These shall receive greater damnation. You know, the scribes in their lives, they never spent any time looking to help other people for the right motivation. They never spent any time looking to edify, looking to build up others spiritually. Their whole lives revolved around themselves, what they could get, what people could think about them, their place, their position in life. It was all about them. There are three ways here that their selfishness was manifested. Number one, we see this in verses 38 and 39. Number one was their pride. They loved to have the preeminence in life. They loved to be number one. They loved to be the best. Listen to what it says. They loved to go in long clothing, which was to show how spiritual they were and their clothing showed their exaltation. They loved salutations in the marketplaces. Oh, Rabbi, Rabbi, let me take a step back and kneel in your presence. Oh, you're so wonderful. You guys are awesome. They loved that. They loved it when everyone said how awesome they were. It also says in verse 39, They love the chief seats in the synagogues. They like to just walk in the synagogue and say, oh, good to see you guys. We got a special place for you right here in the front. You get out of the way. You go sit in the back. You sneak. The scribes are going to come and sit here. And they love to have the best seats of honor so that when people would come in, they'd say, where's the seat of honor? Oh, scribe, look at that guy. Isn't he wonderful? They love that preeminence. And then the last thing it says is the uppermost rooms at feasts. When they'd have a wedding or another feast, they would have different rooms. It'd be kind of like you go to a game and there's the box seats, or you're in the box that everyone else is out there in the cold and the rain and the wind, but you've got a box seat. and it's enclosed, and it's air-conditioning, and you've got a gourmet chef preparing all your meals. Kind of that idea, where they'll go to a feast and they have the greatest place of authority, so you look up and say, man, I wish I could be like him someday. Isn't he awesome? And their pride, the Bible talks about the pride of life. they grabbed onto this. They loved to be the best, the most respected, the most looked up to. They were invested in that. When Jesus came along, he was a threat to that. He told them, you shouldn't do that. What do you mean you shouldn't do that? This is who I am. They all worship the ground that I walk on. Look, there's a passage in Luke 14, turn to Luke chapter 14, where Jesus specifically addresses this attitude and the way that they would You know how people get to an event early because it's going to be really crowded? We had to get good seats. We had to get there early. The scribes and Pharisees were never late. They made sure they got there ahead of time so they could claim that best room, that best seat. While you're turning there, I'm going to read Luke 18 in verse 9. It just shows the attitude of the scribes and Pharisees. It says, And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. It's the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. They go to pray in the temple, and the Pharisee prays with himself. He doesn't pray to God. He prays with himself. He thanks God that he's so wonderful and he's not as bad as the publicans. It says that they were righteous. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and they despised others. They looked down on everyone that they were surrounded by. and they thought they were better than everyone. That was their pride. They knew that they were the best. They were better than the Gentiles, the heathen for sure. Those were dogs. They were better than the Samaritans. They were better than the Jews who were not of great elite upbringing. They were just the best in the world. And they despised others. That was their pride. Look at Luke 14 and verse 7. It says, And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms. They got there early. Oh, this is going to be my room. Saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. And he that bad thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place. And thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room. that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Imagine you're invited to a great party. And you get there, and you've got the choicest room. And then it turns out the President of the United States was also invited. Nobody told me he was here. You've got to get out of this. This is a presidential suite. You're out of here. He's got to, OK. And then I'm not as high as I thought I was. And he says, you're embarrassed. You, with shame, have to take the lowest room. Because you've got, now it's all full. And the only thing that's left is the one around back that nobody wanted. Now you've got to go sit there. He says, don't exalt yourself. humble yourself and then allow others and if nobody ever says come up then be fine with that. The goal here is not to be exalted the goal is just to humble yourself and God might see fit to exalt you but he might wait till heaven. We need to be willing to wait as long as God is willing. But what's our attitude? Do we have an attitude of pride that I've got to be the best? I've got to be the most recognized, the most respected. This is the goal of so many in life. I've got to climb the corporate ladder. My name has to be mentioned first in gold lights at the top. And if it's not, that's the goal. Jesus says, whenever that's the goal, Now you're going to be predisposed to rejecting the message of Jesus because he came humbly and he says, I want you to embrace a lifestyle of humility. But if it's all about pride, if it's all about me, then I'm going to reject the gospel. I'm going to reject the teachings of the Bible. Number two, the second thing about these scribes was they were greedy. Number one, they had pride. Number two, they had greed. They wanted more. It says a very despicable thing about them. back in Mark 12 verse 40, it says that they devour widows' houses. What does that mean? Somebody would be married, the man would get up in years, maybe he was a man of some means, whatever he had, he would die, and now the woman, she's older, she can't that she has some things that her husband left to her, and these scribes would swoop in, and they probably didn't tell everybody about it, it was probably under the table, kind of a secret way, they would swoop in, and maybe under the guise of, let me give you some financial advice of how you can make it. Just invest all of your money right here, and just go sit over there and take care of everything. And all of a sudden these widows have nothing now. These widows were at a destitute part of life. They had nothing, except whatever they did or didn't have left of them, by their husbands. And these scribes would come in and take everything. They would devour these widow's houses. They didn't care to help the widows. By the way, look at James 1 verse 27. And for sake of time I'll go ahead and start reading. James 1 verse 27 it says, Pure religion, if you want to find a good Christian, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. The scribes were doing the exact opposite of what God desired. When someone is a widow or an orphan, somebody that is destitute, they can't take care of themselves, they can't provide for themselves, they are vulnerable We should swoop in and help them and deliver them whatever we can do. The Bible talks about that taking widows into the number and helping provide for them. They did the exact opposite. They swooped in like vultures circling around a dead body and they took everything and left these widows practically for dead. They had no way to take care of themselves and the scribes did not care. and Jesus condemns them for this, their greed. And so many people in life are so greedy they don't care who they step on, they don't care who gets hurt in the process as long as they get more. These crimes, people sit around with nothing better to do Have you ever been on eBay or Craigslist and people wake up today and say, I think I'm going to try to swindle someone today. I'm going to get online, I'm going to create this profile or people come in and they send mass emails and they do it in the name of God. They send these mass emails of, I'm a religious person, I'm a Christian, and someone left me $500,000 and I have nothing to do with it. So if you'll just send me your bank account information, I will send this to you. I just need a place to keep it for a while, and you can keep half of it, but I just need your bank account information. And they just sit around trying to think of some new way to scam somebody. and they involve God's name in it, and God's going to swoop down someday and bring judgment on these people. But they don't care, it's just nameless and faceless. They don't care who gets hurt. It's just greed. It's just avarice. And God condemns it and condemns the scribes for this. And then number three, the third thing that he condemns is their hypocrisy. The word hypocrisy in the Bible means to wear a mask or to be an actor, to pretend you're just playing Christianity. It says there in verse 40, which devour widows' houses, and for a pretense, make long prayers. They did spiritual things, but it was all a show. They just pretended to be spiritual by making long prayers. And by the way, they probably did it to everybody else's time-wasting. You know, this guy's praying long, and he's not actually talking to God, he's not actually getting close to God, and we're all just wasting our time so that we can think how spiritual he is. The Bible talks about... the vain repetitions that the heathen would do. You know why they would use vain repetitions sometimes? So they could make their prayer longer. How long was your prayer today? Man, my prayer was 13 minutes and 47 seconds. Got you beat. My prayer was 27 minutes. Ah, 27, I gotta go work on it. I gotta see a few more of this and that. Next week I'm gonna get it to 33 minutes. That's gonna be my goal. And their goal was a long prayer just because people would say, did you see how long he prayed? That guy's gotta be close to God. I fell asleep three times, but how long was it? They, for a pretense, made long prayers. Sometimes maybe it was public, sometimes it was maybe over by themselves, like the Pharisee and the public, and they go to the temple. A guy's in the corner by himself, just praying all by himself for an hour, just so that people could walk by and say, man, that guy is still praying. I wish I could be as close to God as him. And it was a total lie. And we need to watch out as Christians. Maybe we don't do that exactly. Maybe we don't set ourselves up somewhere and pray and have a hundred people walk by and watch us pray. But it's really easy as Christians to do things so that other people can see it and there wasn't even anything there. My heart wasn't with God. I was just saying things. I really wanted people to think better of me than was actually true. And it was a lie. The word hypocrisy, you can substitute it for the word lie. There's deception. And it's a total lie. Oh, I didn't say anything, I was just doing this. And he happened to think this. No, the motivation was there to deceive people and to lie to them and tell them, make them think I'm better than I really am. Have you ever been involved in that? I have by the way. Have you ever been involved in living a certain way or saying certain things? You know, maybe I wouldn't have even prayed publicly, but I didn't want other people to think I wasn't spiritual, so I prayed. And the devil comes in, and in the name of God, he uses spiritual things to twist it and make us bigger liars. And shame on us when we go that way, shame on me. But God wants a true Christianity. God wants us to be open. God wants us to be humble. You know, sometimes it just is what it is. You know, I sinned. The Bible says, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Sometimes it's just, it's not the time to hide it. It's not the time to put on a happy face and make everyone think that I'm super spiritual with God. It's just time to be real and say, I need help. I need God's forgiveness. Will you pray for me? Will you pray with me? And that would go a long way to reaching out to the other people, too, because they're probably doing the same thing. You know, we're putting on masks to impress each other. We're showing that we're all closer to God and really we're all getting further from God. God wants a true, honest Christianity. And so these, for a pretense, they made long prayer. It ends with this statement. These shall receive the greater damnation. because of the way that they live, because of their pride, their greed, their hypocrisy, they're going to receive a greater damnation than others. They'll go to hell, and hell will be worse for them than with those that just went because they were ignorant. There are some people who didn't hear the truth, they didn't believe. Now, this is not to excuse anything and make somebody shouldn't be in hell, and everyone that goes to hell deserves to be there. But Jesus says that hell will be worse for those who knowingly hear the truth, interact with Jesus, and reject him, bold-faced. And I'm gonna look at a passage that talks about this. This will be the last. We'll look at two more passages and we'll be done. And then we'll look at James chapter 2. Matthew 11 and verse 23. There's a phrase where it says in the Bible, to whom much is given, much is required. That's true of Christians. It's also true of unbelievers. that when God gives unbelievers the gospel many times, He requires of them even more that they believe it, that they submit to it. Here's Matthew 11, verse 23. It says, And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. but I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. Sodom is like the poster child for wickedness, right? It's the benchmark. Who is worse than Sodom? Capernaum, because they heard the truth of the gospel and they saw the miracles of Jesus. And Jesus said a striking statement. He said, Sodom never saw the miracles. By the way, when they saw the miracle, it was too late. Here comes the fire and brimstone and there was no turning back. But if they had seen the gracious miracles that Jesus did, they would have repented. God didn't allow them to see those miracles in advance. But Capernaum, he did. And because he gave them more opportunity and they rejected it, hell will be worse. It'll be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom. And you and I may know people in our lives today, family, friends, that this could be said of them, that it would be more tolerable for for Sodom than for them in the day of judgment. It's a scary thought. It's an awful thought. But it's absolutely the truth. Here's James 2 and verse 13. This will be the last passage we look at this morning. It says, for he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy. And mercy rejoiceth against judgment. The scribes and the Pharisees had no mercy toward other people. They were ruthless They were selfish. Everything revolved around themselves. They didn't care about anyone else. And Jesus says, because of that, when judgment comes, their judgment will have no mercy in it. God in A.D. 70, the destruction of Jerusalem was unparalleled with this. that because they didn't have any mercy, God didn't allow the enemy to show them any mercy. By the way, we always need to be aware of that if we're authorities over someone and we have the opportunity to pass judgment, we could do it really harshly or we could say, you know what, I'm not any better than them and we could be lenient and merciful. The Bible says if you are merciful, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. But if you're just a hard-nosed person that's really harsh, then God will allow that to come to you. and especially if you haven't received the gospel in your life that way, that judgment for all of eternity will be without mercy for those that have showed no mercy. The scribes were blinded to the truth of the gospel because of those three things. They were, and other things as well, they were holding on to their power. They were so selfish, they were filled with pride, they were filled with hypocrisy, they were filled with hatred toward other people, and because of that, They couldn't abide the success of Jesus. And we need to embrace, we need to learn to deny ourselves, to die to ourselves, and embrace the truth of Jesus no matter what it means for us. Oh, I might have to take a step back financially. Do it, and God'll bless you. Oh, I might have to give up this. Give it up. Never compete with Jesus. It's a losing battle, and it ends with greater condemnation. At all costs, we need to embrace the success of Jesus in the gospel and the things of God. Let's pray together.