Proverbs 8, verses 12 through 21. I have counsel and sound wisdom, I have insight, I have strength. By me kings reign and rulers decree what is just. By me princes rule and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me and filling their treasuries. Matthew chapter 21 verses 23 through 32. And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? Jesus answered them, I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man? And they discussed it among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, why then did you not believe him? But if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, we do not know. And he said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. What do you think? A man had two sons. And when he went to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard today. And he answered, I will not. But afterward, he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, I go, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, the first. Brothers and sisters, this is the word of the Lord. Most merciful God, we thank you and praise you for your word to us this day, that you have opened it to our eyes, that we might read it into our ears, that we might hear it. But Father, it is our desire, our hope, and our prayer that you might open it to our heart, mind, and souls by the power of your Holy Spirit, that we might understand these things, that we might gain the heavenly knowledge and divine wisdom. Father, cause your word to go forth this day according to your will and by your power alone. Cause your word to go forth, that it might not return void, that it might indeed serve your purpose in the lives of each one of your saints. And Father, we pray that as your word works your will in us, it might once again open our eyes, that we might behold this great salvation you have given us, that we might behold the one through whom this salvation has come, that we might behold Jesus Christ, he who is the word made flesh. Lift him up in our midst, we pray, that as we look to him, we might be refreshed, restored and renewed in the joy of our salvation, that we might find ourselves even now sanctified by his blood, that we might find ourselves made more like him. Father, honor your word, we pray, that as we attend to it, we might be built up in faith, that in all things, we might be made more like our Savior. For we ask these things in his most precious name, amen. Please be seated. From 1985 to 2010, Larry King Live was one of the most watched and certainly longest running programs on CNN. The host, Larry King, sat at a table wearing his suspenders with an old school radio microphone sitting on the table between him and his guest, usually a cup of coffee and a pen and paper there before him. He would interview most anyone of note, from politicians, to celebrities, to psychics, to scientists. And he also hosted a number of religious leaders from a variety of faiths. Islam, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, and Evangelical. Some of his interviews were tough. Some of them were not so tough. But when interviewing professing Christians, one question was inevitably asked. Do you believe Jesus is the only way to heaven? Or sometimes he might switch it up and ask, do you believe that everyone who does not believe in Jesus will go to hell? But whichever way he framed it, the root question that he asked almost every Christian that appeared on his show probed at the heart of the gospel, which is the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. Is he who he said he is, and is he the only way? To be put on the spot in this manner was expected. But over the years, a variety of professing Christians seemed surprised by the question. To be sure, many answered with a yes, and went on to explain the gospel in some form, There were those few who actually denied it, noting that, well, actually there are many ways to heaven. Or as we have seen in recent months, the current pope of the Roman Catholic Communion stating that all religions are a path to God. But in the middle were others. And these were those who hemmed and hawed. These were those who tried not to answer. These were those who would say things like, well, that's not really for me to decide, or I'm not the judge of men's hearts, or I leave that up to God. All of these direct quotes from evangelical leaders who wouldn't actually answer the question one way or another as they sat under the wilting gaze of Larry King before a national audience. This group, this group who dodged, this group who played the word games, were perhaps unwittingly emulating the priests and the religious elders of Jesus' own day. For in our text before us this morning, we find that very same thing. We find that hemming and that hawing as the religious leaders sought to challenge Jesus by questioning his authority, but then they really didn't want to say anything when they were challenged. And so they come to him, and they challenge his authority. He is in the temple, and he is teaching. And they are the authority. They are the people running the show. They are the ones who have the people under their spell, if you will. They are the ones who run the temple. They are the ones who have the say-so. And so they come to him, and they ask him, by what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority? That he had authority was clear. It was clear to them. It was clear to everyone. He had come into the court of the Gentiles as if he owned the place, which he actually did. And he threw out the money changers, and he threw out the sellers. And in doing so, he had challenged the priesthood. Indeed, he had challenged the high priest himself, who was allowing this practice. In fact, his whole ministry was one that demonstrated authority. both his passive authority and his active, whether he was doing and saying things or whether it was just by the miracles he was performing, how he taught and the parables spoken. But Jesus was not of a rabbinical school. Jesus hadn't been trained under the scribes and the elders of that day. Jesus had no formal learning. Jesus was beholden to no man as his mentor. Usually when the rabbis of that day, and you still hear it today in Judaism, when they speak of their learning, they will talk about the rabbi they sat under, the mentor that is over them. But Jesus had none of that. From a human perspective, there was no authority by which he should be preaching. From a human perspective, there was no authority by which he should be able to practice the things he did. He was an upstart. Here's this prophet out of Nazareth. What good can come from Nazareth, has been said. And here he is, acting like he has authority, throwing people out of the temple, teaching in a way that the people are listening. Here he is, acting, speaking, and with great authority. And the preachers, or the priests and the elders, recognized it. We know that he did so throughout his ministry. After delivering the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, 28 and 29 records that when Jesus finished teaching these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. Jesus was teaching as one who had authority, rather than their scribes, who were supposed to be able to teach them these things. Two chapters later, Jesus claimed that authority for himself. Matthew 9 verse 6, that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Here he is claiming an authority that even the scribes and the priests wouldn't claim. Here he is claiming an authority reserved for God himself to forgive the sins of people. And to prove that, in Matthew 9, he then said to the paralytic, rise up, pick up your bed, and go home. Then two verses later in Matthew 9, verse 8, when the crowd saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to him. And so Jesus had the authority. Jesus exhibited the authority, and the people knew it. The people embraced it. The people sat under him, and they went to him for the miracles. But the priests also knew that if they could get Jesus to explicitly say that his authority came from Yahweh directly, that if his authority came from the Lord God, then they could charge him with blasphemy. If he would just say that, then they could say, we've got you. Because no man has that authority, especially the authority to forgive sins. Alternately, if his authority was only from himself or other men, Well, then nobody had to listen to him. He was a phony, and he was a hypocrite. He was just a one-off guy who happened to show up and be pretty good at what he was doing, but at the end of the day, he wouldn't be worth listening to. And so, either way, they were setting the trap. They were either going to discredit him before everybody if his authority is from men, or they were going to charge him with blasphemy if his authority was from God. And so they sought to trap him, and they sought to trip him up, And particularly after his very public display in the court of the Gentiles, they came and they asked, by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority? But Jesus, as he so often does in the scriptures, did not answer them directly. In fact, Jesus asked them their own question. I will also ask you one question. If you tell me the answer, I will tell you by what authority I do these things. And they were probably thinking, great, we're going to get an answer out of him. How hard can this be? Here's my question, the baptism of John, where did it come from, heaven or man? Uh-oh, that's not the question we were expecting. It's a great question because John was considered by many of the people to be a prophet of God. John himself, at the beginning of his ministry, had pointed to Jesus as the Messiah of God. John had pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, points to Jesus as the one whose sandals he is not even fit to tie. And so here is John the Baptist, who had pointed directly, specifically, to Jesus the Messiah. And his question to them was, where was that from? And so they were in a dilemma. They knew it, as they discussed it among themselves, whether Matthew could overhear their discussion, or whether by the power of the Holy Spirit he was made privy to their discussion, we don't know. But here are the priests and the scribes, all collected over to the side, away from Jesus, talking about it. What are we going to say? If we say it's from heaven, then he's going to say, why didn't you believe in him? So we can't say that, because we don't believe in him. because he's pointing to Jesus. We can't do that. But if we say from man, well then the crowd's gonna have at us because they all think he was a prophet. And so we're kind of, what are we gonna do? And so they have this discussion and they come up with the brilliant solution of saying, we don't know. We don't know. We don't know if it's from heaven or from man. If they admitted John's authority was from God, they would have had to admit his preaching was faithful, and his baptism for repentance was valid, and his claims about Jesus were true, and admitting that, they would have to admit they were wrong. But if they go the other way, then the people would have stormed to the temple and probably tried to stone them. They were afraid of the crowd. The people who had submitted to his baptism would rebel and rise up against them. And so rather than have a mini-rebellion on their hands, and certainly unwilling to validate John's claims about Jesus, they stonewalled. They refused to answer. They acted as if they couldn't really be certain. Eh, we don't really know. It's not really for us to decide. We're not the judge of that. And so Jesus refused to answer them. not giving them the means at that moment to either denounce him as a fraud or arrest him as a blasphemer. They would do so a few days later, but not now. But then Jesus moved directly into a parable, a short, simple, but very poignant parable. What do you think, he asked. A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, son, go work in the vineyard today. The son said, no, I'm good. I'm not going to work in the vineyard today. It's hot outside, whatever the excuses are. I'm not feeling it, whatever it may be. I'm not going to the vineyard today. But then he changed his mind and he went and worked in the vineyard. The man went to his other son and said the same thing. Son, go and work in the vineyard today. Yes, sir, he said. I'm headed out there right now. And he never did. He didn't bother. And so Jesus asked that question. Which of these two did the will of his father? Of course it was the first. He said he wasn't going to, but he did it. Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. How shocking was that? here are the scribes and the priests and the elders, the people who did have the authority, the people who wielded that authority, the people who were to be instructing those underneath them, those who were supposed to be holy, the law keepers who beat their chest out in front of the temple saying, oh, thank you, God, that I'm not like that poor, miserable tax collector over there. Because I keep your law and I tithe and I do what I'm supposed to do. And Jesus says directly to them, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going to the kingdom before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. They heard and they believed. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. You had the chance. You were told. And even though you said no at first, you still could have changed your mind and done the will of the Father, yet you did not. And in this parable, we find Jesus dividing the people into two categories. Both of them were sons. One said the right thing, but disobeyed, while the other said the wrong thing, but ultimately obeyed. And the tax collectors and the prostitutes, two of the most reviled groups of the people that day, were one son. They were the ones who initially were saying no to the father. They were the ones living a lifestyle outside of his law. They were the ones living lifestyles of sin. They weren't even pretending to be religious. Yet when John came and John spoke the word, something happened. When John began to preach repentance, and they heard his preaching, they were cut to the heart. And they realized they could no longer go on saying no. They could no longer go on rejecting that which their father had called them to. And they realized they had no hope other than that which John was offering. And they came to him, and they fled to him, as the initial chapters of all of the Gospels tell us. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us that the people were coming out to John in droves and they were being baptized with his baptism of repentance. They repented of their sins and they heard his preaching. But the other son, the Pharisees and religious leaders did not. They spent their whole lives telling the Father, oh, absolutely, we're doing what you say. Oh, absolutely, we're doing your will. Oh, absolutely. Everything we do is perfect according to your law. They said all of the right things. They sought to live the law out, and they bragged about it. They acted before men as if they were obedient to God. They told anyone and everyone who would listen that they were doing the will of the Father. But they did not repent. They did not actually do it. When John called them to repent, they did not. And then in Matthew 3, 7 through 10, John himself called them out on their hypocrisy, telling them they were vipers, that they must bear the fruits of repentance. If they were going to be what they said they were going to, what they were, if they were going to be followers of the law, they had to repent, and they had to bear the fruits of repentance. That was not optional. They did not. They did not repent. They did not bear fruit. Like the leafy fig tree of our last text, they were empty. They looked good, but there was no food there. They looked great, but there was no fruit. They were empty. They would not change their minds, as Jesus says in our text, though they could have. And even here, I imagine this was their last chance. Even here, as Jesus preached this to them, they could have fallen on their knees and repented, and they would have known the forgiveness of their father, and yet they did not. They did not bend to the will of God. They maintained their hardness of heart. Better to be resistant initially, but finally bend to God's will, then act pious, but never actually obey. And at the end of the day, We cannot waffle about who Jesus is. At the end of the day, we cannot hymn and haw. At the end of the day, we must bend our knee and confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. We must hear the words of the gospel and believe. We must accept that Jesus is the Messiah of God. We must accept that Jesus is the Son of God, sent to bear our sins in his body on the cross, that we might be then given his righteousness. We cannot look for a way out that allows us to neither confess him or deny him. We must stand with those who have come before us and by faith declare with voice and heart, Jesus Christ is the only way to God. And we must not only declare it with our lips, we must believe it in our hearts. There's a lot of people who say the right things, but it means nothing. This is not one and done Christianity. This is not say the prayer and you're in. This isn't walk the aisle and it's all good. This isn't raise your hand in the middle of a congregation of people with heads bowed and eyes closed. This is daily, weekly Christianity in which we recognize we are like the tax collectors and harlots and recognizing that we have sinned against our God. We must flee to the only one who can cleanse us. The only one who can heal us, the only one who can give us the joy of his saving grace that leads to life everlasting. For Jesus is the one to whom John pointed. John, as the last of the old covenant prophets, came to baptize for repentance. And it was the sinners, the outcasts, the poor and the wretched that ultimately responded. As the religious leaders, those who said all the right things, rejected repentance and remained fruitless and empty. In commenting on this passage, R.C. Sproul noted, it is often said the church is full of hypocrites. No, the church is full of sinners. Only those who claim not to be sinners are hypocrites. I know of no other organization, he says, other than the church that requires members to publicly declare themselves to be sinners before they can join. Indeed, part of our baptismal vows are to confess that we are sinners in need of grace and that we have no hope apart from Jesus Christ. Or as Martin Luther said in a letter to a depressed pastor who was struggling. He had made a poor decision and given poor counsel against that which Luther and others had told him to give. And then he realized that the counsel he had given was indeed sinful. And he fell into a depression. He fell into a funk. But he was a good friend of Luther's. And so Luther wrote him a long and beautiful letter. But in the midst of that letter, he said this. Therefore, my faithful request and admonition is that you join our company and associate with us who are real, great, and hard-boiled sinners. You must by no means make Christ to seem paltry and trifling to us, as though he could be our helper, only when we want to be rid from imaginary sins or nominal sins or childish sins. No, Martin Luther said, no, that would not be good for us. He must rather be a savior and redeemer from real, great, grievous, and damnable transgressions and iniquities, yea, from the greatest and most shocking of sins. To be brief, from all of our sins added together in a grand total. This is our sinfulness. It's what Paul talks about in Romans chapter seven. This is what the Pharisees and their priests denied. to recognize the depth of our sin and depravity. One of the things John Newton, the man who wrote Amazing Grace, is known for saying is, I am a great sinner, but Jesus is a great savior. Jesus came to save sinners. That's what he told the disciples when he came in the beginning of Matthew. He came to save sinners. He came to save those who would recognize their need and flee to Him. He came to save those who would recognize their sin and fall before Him in repentance. Not like the Pharisee pounding his chest, but like the tax collector crying out, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And with that cry, the Gospel is given to those who look to the Father and repent. and the sins are forgiven, they are cleansed. Righteousness, the very righteousness of Jesus himself is given in place of that sin. The joy of our salvation is worked in our hearts by the power of his Holy Spirit. This is why we confess what we do in Heidelberg Catechism number two. When we're asked how we might know that we live and die in the comfort of the salvation we confess in Heidelberg I, we say the first thing we must know is our sin and misery. The second thing we must know is how we are redeemed from our sin and misery. And the third thing is how we are to be thankful for that great salvation. This is why we must be faithful to hear the whole of the scriptures, even the law. This is what the law of God does in the hearts of the faithful, it convicts us of our sin. Not that we might ignore it, not that we might despair over it, not that we might flee from it, but that we might repent of it. And flee to Jesus Christ in faith and find forgiveness and comfort there. Sometimes we're like that first son, we don't do it right away. I'm okay, God. I can confess in my own life there have been those times I've been challenged with sin, and it takes me sometimes days or weeks before I finally admit, yes, that was actually a sin, and I need to find repentance, whether it's to reconcile with somebody else, and certainly to reconcile with God. But the question is, even if we resist up front, the question is, do we eventually bend the knee before Jesus? Do we eventually flee to the cross? Do we come before him and say, yes, you're right. Your law is right. I am a sinner. And the only hope I have is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why so many of the reformers argued that the right preaching of the word must be both law and gospel. The law strips away our pretenses. The law shows us our sins. The law humbles us before a holy God. The law levels the playing field. Everyone in here is the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7. Everyone in here is a wretched sinner. Everyone in here is a worm as we would sing in Amazing Grace. That's what the law does to us. But then as we are humbled before a holy God, by the law, the gospel comes. and lifts our heads, and dries our tears, and cleanses us of our sin, and clothes us in the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. And as those who have heard and believed both the law and the gospel, we recognize that one of the first fruits of faith is that of repentance. we might know without a doubt the saving grace of God that as we flee to the cross of Jesus Christ again and again and again we might ever give him thanks and praise for that mercy that love that never comes to an end that forgiveness that we are given every single time we approach the cross of Christ, given because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For the Son has indeed been given all authority from the Father to be our Savior, to be our Redeemer from real, great, grievous and damnable transgressions. Ours is to look to him in faith and repent of our sins and trust in Christ and Christ alone, not just in word, and heart, mind, and soul, that we might bear the fruits of faith as the Holy Spirit works in us. Ours is to turn to Jesus Christ day after day in faith, that as we find our only comfort in the great salvation he has given us, we might honor him in word and in deed, that we might do so among one another and that we might do so before the watching world as a testimony. to his authority, his power, and his might, but also to his grace, his mercy, and his love, for he saves sinners. May God glorify himself in us. May God glorify himself in his people. May God glorify himself in his church as we heed his word and flee ever and always to Jesus Christ for grace and mercy, as we are guarded and guided by his Holy Spirit until that last day when we shall know the full comfort the full eternal peace and the joyful rest that he has promised us in the gospel of his son, given because of his great love, given to those who bend the knee before him, given to those who have received his grace and his mercy, not those who have done it themselves, but those for whom it has been done perfectly and completely by Jesus Christ. And so may we recognize this truth. And may we rejoice in this truth. And may we cry out with the Apostle Paul, unto the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, to him be glory, honor, dominion, and authority, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.