Welcome to the Plenteous Redemption podcast, where the cross and the culture are on a collision course for discussion. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign The Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block. Under the Greeks, foolishness. But under them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now, here's your host, Thomas Ervin. All right, Mark chapter 12, verses 1 through 12, verse 1. And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set in hedge, and that's more like it, about it, and digged a place for the wine fat, and built a tower, and led it out to husbandmen, and went unto a far country. And at the season, he sent to the husbandman a servant. Now this is going to ultimately be a picture of Israel. The vineyard is Israel. The Lord is working in his vineyard. And at a certain point in time, at the season, he expects fruit to come. Now the same is absolutely true in your life and my life. When God performs His work in your life, He expects at some point that you're going to produce fruit. And when that fruit doesn't come, here's the problem, is that He's just going to show up one day in your life and want to know, where's the fruit? And if it's not there, what a shameful thing that would be. There's nothing worse, and I'm guilty of this, there's nothing worse than planting a garden and getting absolutely nothing out of it. You weed it. I had planted stuff before, and I was certain, man, we're going to feast off all this food. And I'm pulling the weeds, and I'm seeing the plant grow that I planted. And then I try to time it. I try to follow all the instructions about how to handle it all and when to harvest it. And I go out there, and I start pulling it out of the ground, and there's nothing there. I say, what in the world happened? You wasted all that time laboring in that garden only to find out, only to find out there's no fruit. It bears nothing. Well, that's what the Lord is dealing with here with the nation of Israel. Hopefully, that's not what He's dealing with in your life and in mine. Hopefully, we're being fruitful. Hopefully, the work that He's doing in our lives is bearing fruit so that when we stand before the Lord, we have something to show for His death, His burial, His resurrection, and His investment in our life as Christians. Back to verse 2. So it's time. I leased this vineyard out to you. I put it in your control. I put it in your hands. It was your job to take care of it. And now I'm sending someone to you to collect the fruit of my vineyard. It's mine. It's not yours. I have allowed you to stay there, to work there, to labor there, to benefit from it. But when it's time, when I send someone, I expect there to be fruit. Well, that's not what happened. Verse 3. and they caught him and beat him and sent him away empty." That's how Israel treats God's servants. That's how Israel treated God's prophets. That's how Israel ultimately treated the Son of God when he came. Now, it's not likely in modern day America that churches are taking pastors and beating them. I guess that might happen every now and then, but it's highly unlikely. But what they do instead is they sow discord in the church. They complain in the church. They murmur in the church. They go home and murmur to their wives in front of their children. And they're so divisive and destructive in the body from a political perspective. They bring just kind of a dark cloud over the atmosphere of the church. and end up doing nothing but causing problem after problem, and it prevents fruit from growing. And that should not be, that's not acceptable. Verse 4, and again, he sent unto them another servant. The Lord's going to try it again. And at him they cast stones, well that's kind, and wounded him in the head and sent him away shamefully handled. That is not how you treat God's servants. People don't like Nobody likes having the Word of God point out your sin, your character flaws, your problems, but the Lord is trying to rip out the weeds so that you can bear fruit. He is not trying to shame you. He's not trying to hurt you or harm you. Sometimes God's servants have to point out the problems in your lives from a biblical perspective so that you can then clean that up and go on to bear fruit. Well, instead, what they do is they start casting stones. They get angry. I don't want to hear it. Who do you think you are? Well, I'm nobody trying to tell you what God's Word says about you and your life. That's all. That's why they go to a megachurch, or that's why they go to a contemporary church. If I go here, they're nice to me. They say nice things and and tickle my ears and there's so much entertainment and there's so many things to get lost in that I never have to be confronted with the problems in my life verse 5 and Again, he sent another and him they killed and many others beating some and killing some having yet therefore one Son you see where this is going This is that God has sent servant after servant to Israel. Israel is that vineyard. I'll show you that in just a moment. God has sent servant after servant to Israel. He has tried to bear fruit. He has tried to help them. He has tried to encourage them to grow. He has tried to weed them. He has tried to plow. He has tried watering. He's tried everything that he can to get them to bear fruit and to grow and they reject God's efforts. But here in verse 6, having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. The indication that this passage is giving us is that God the Father had in His mind that if I send my son to Israel, there will be a change in their demeanor, there will be a change in their hearts. When they see my son, when my son is present with them, surely Though they've despitefully treated all the prophets, all the servants I sent before them, surely when the Son of God shows up, and their hearts will just melt and will turn towards Him. That's the indication that he got. They'll reverence my son, my well-beloved, the Messiah that they so long to see. Surely when he comes, oh, they're just gonna, their hearts are gonna melt for him and everything will be okay. They'll reverence my son, verse seven. But those husbandmen said among themselves, this is the heir, come, let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours. What a foolish idea. I was never ceased to be amazed in Uganda, if a mother and a father get old and they own land, It is not uncommon for their children to come and kill them to take their land. And it's brutal and horrible. And so they show up to their parents' house and they murder them in horrendous ways. I mean, ways that you don't even want me to describe. They don't have guns, so it's very brutish. It's a brutal death. And then they just move in as though nobody's gonna come and say anything about you murdering your family to take their land. The mentality that if I just kill them, I can take what belongs to them, like their entire property and their home, and nobody's gonna show up and say, where's your mom and dad? What happened? What's going on here? And of course, somebody always finds out, you can't do anything in Uganda without the entire country knowing what you did. It's just not, I used to tell Ugandans, I'd preach to them, I forget what the numbers are, at one time I had it memorized, but the number of people per square mile in the country of Uganda is insane. You can't get away from people in that country. So whatever you think you're gonna go and do, and not be seen. We went preaching in the hills. where you would think in the middle of banana trees that stretch as far as your eyes can see. And we're in the middle of those banana plantations, and you can't see people anywhere. And you start preaching, and all of a sudden people start coming out of nowhere in the middle of the jungles, in the middle of the banana plantations. They're everywhere. You're not going to get away from people. And I would tell them all the time, whatever it is you think you're going to do and get away with, you're not going to get away with it. So just don't do it. Somebody's going to see you. This is the same mentality. If we kill the son, if we get rid of the son, then we can take his inheritance. You think you can just kill the son of God and then take his vineyard? How did you come to that conclusion? You think his father's not going to have anything to do with that? There's going to be no repercussions for that whatsoever? People convince themselves of the weirdest things when their lust is out of control. They're gonna kill him and try and take his inheritance, verse eight, and they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the Lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the husbandman and will give the vineyard unto others. You're gonna kill the son and take his inheritance? No, no, no, no, no, no. Now the father's gonna come and deal with you. Now the Lord of the vineyard is gonna come and deal with you. And I imagine it's not gonna go well for you. Verse 10, and have you not read, here we go again, Lord's gonna ask this multiple times in this chapter. He asked it multiple times in this book up to this point. Have you not read this scripture, the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner? This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people, for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them. And they left him and went their way. Now, they didn't say, man, maybe we should back off this. They said, man, we're going to, as soon as we can. We're going to do exactly what you described in that parable as soon as we can. Now, hold your place here. Turn real fast to Isaiah 5. Real fast. We don't have a lot of time in these lessons to run cross-references, but this one is significant to the passage, so let's read it real fast. Isaiah 5, verses 1 through 7. Verse 1, now will I sing to my well-beloved a song, a well-beloved. What did the Father call the Son in Mark chapter 12? His well-beloved. All right, now keep that in mind that the terminology used in Mark chapter 12 And verses 1 through 12 are going to be repeated here in Isaiah 5, verses 1 through 7. Verse 1, Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. You have a vineyard, you expect it to grow fruit. You expect it to produce fruit. All right, well, verse two, And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. That's not good. Verse three, And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, And men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard, what could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked, that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. And now go to, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard." Uh-oh. I will take away the hedge thereof, as exactly what he said in Mark, and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. Now that is exactly what has happened to Israel. Verse six, and I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is what? the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment, but behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry." According to God, the opposite of judgment is oppression. If you don't have judgment, righteous judgment, what you end up getting is oppression. People look at judgment the exact opposite. They consider judgment to be oppression, and that's not the case. Now, it might be the case if it's judgment based on my opinion. You may end up being oppressed if I have an invalid or improper personal opinion, but if I apply righteous judgment, which God expects, it prevents oppression. Everybody's treated equally, everybody's treated righteously, and you don't have all that. Now, this parable demonstrates the ultimate conflict between Israel and their Messiah. God gave them oversight of the vineyard. He didn't give them the vineyard, He gave them the oversight thereof. Now they are the vineyard, so essentially God gave them oversight of themselves, and they were required to produce fruit. And they failed. There was always an expectation that one day the Lord of the vineyard would come expecting to find fruit that resulted from Israel laboring in God's vineyard. And if you remember in the last chapter, what was fruitless in the last chapter? A fig tree. It had no fruit. Again, that's a picture of Israel. The Lord shows up. You don't know when He's coming. The same is true in your life. So you want to be laboring to produce fruit. You want to allow the Lord to work in your life so that you produce fruit because one day, out of nowhere, you're standing before the Lord Jesus Christ given an account of your fruit or the lack thereof. That fig tree, no idea the Lord's coming. There He is. Where's the fruit? I don't have any. Good, you're cursed. You're done, and it withered away. Here we have Israel. The Lord of the vineyards sent the prophets, sent his servants. Where's the fruit? We don't have any. Well, I got to go back and tell the Father. No, we'll just kill you. We'll stone you. We'll beat you. Get out. And so finally, the Father says, well, my well-beloved son, surely if I send my son, they're going to just, they're going to reverence him. They're going to love him. They're going to listen to him. And no, they convinced themselves, we can kill him and take his inheritance. They hedged themselves in as the owners of the vineyard, and they were not. As a result, God took away his hedge, and Israel is scattered across the world, bombed every night. Now, it just so happens that with the protection of the United States of America and other powerful countries, they have become a great technologically advanced power in the world. They're very good at defending themselves. When we're talking about the little tiny remnant of a nation that is there now that they call Israel, In fact, I don't know exactly what's going on, but the past few nights they have been bombing Iran. They promised to carry out this attack on Iran, and then it never came, and somehow our wonderful administration leaked their plans. to bomb Iran so they had to pause everything, reorganize, make new plans, make sure that the current American administration knows nothing about their plans because they're so incompetent and they're so dirty that they leak everything that Israel tries to do. And so the past few nights they have been bombing Iran. and it's well-deserved. A small remnant live in the land, but they are bombed and attacked continually. The hedge of protection around them has been removed. God promised, if you are faithful to Me and My promised land, you will never, your enemies will never bother you. You will know no disease. You will have no wars. No one will harm you. Nothing negative will happen to you. That land will flow with milk and honey, and it'll be a wonderful representation of what happens if you live faithfully to me." And they rejected that. They rejected it, and instead, they got the negative promises. Lord said, I'll make that place a desert wasteland. if you reject me." And they rejected the Lord. God the Father appears to have expected Israel to have some sort of special reverence for the Son, as we saw in verse 6. Instead, they took Him and beat Him and slew Him on a cross, thinking that getting rid of Him would preserve their special relationship with Rome. And that was their hope, at least. The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner. They thought they were getting rid of that stone. We can destroy the stone of stumbling. And instead, the stone became the head cornerstone of a spiritual building fitly framed. And so you can be a part of it if you trust in Jesus Christ. They sought to lay hold on him. The warning did not slow them down or cause them to reflect. Instead, they doubled down on their hatred and their desire to destroy their Messiah, their Savior. What an amazing thing. That's like drowning in the water and somebody comes along to save you and you say, as soon as they get here, I'm gonna take them out. You're drowning, they could save you. Oh, if they come over here, we're gonna slay them. It's your only hope to get out of that water. He better not come over here. You fool. Verses 13 through 17. And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to learn from him, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true. What a bold-faced lie. That's how you always know when somebody comes to me. As a missionary and as a pastor, as someone who tries to invest in the Bible, when people come to me and they start talking like this, I start getting real nervous. Something is off. What do you want? And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man. For thou regardest not the person of men. Now, everything they're saying is true of Jesus Christ. But the question is, do they actually believe it? Not likely. But teachest the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Now, here's the question. Is it right, as a child of God, to pay my taxes? That's what they're asking. They're hoping to catch Jesus, to entrap Him, and so the question is, should I pay my taxes? Well, let's see what Jesus says. Verse 15. Shall we give or shall we not give? But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it, and saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's." All right, now here's the premise of the Lord's response. If you don't want to pay taxes, then get rid of your Federal Reserve notes. If you don't want to pay taxes, don't use the United States government's roads. Don't use the lights. Don't call the police. Don't use their water. Don't use their electricity. If you don't want to pay taxes, then stop living like a rebel in the country, taking full advantage of all the wonderful things that your taxes help to provide. Are there some negatives? Absolutely. But wouldn't you say that as you drive around in this area, every time somebody comes here to visit us, they are surprised at how nice the roads are, and how nice looking the town is, and how the amenities that are available to us, whether it's the electricity, or whether it's the water, or whether it's the internet, or whatever the case may be, all seems to work so great in this little small town area. That's because people pay taxes. And fortunately, it's also because whoever is in charge of those things has some level of competence to be able to make sure that it's taken care of. Well, if you don't want that, then don't pay your taxes, but also don't take advantage of those things. Don't enjoy those things. Don't partake of those things. You have all these fools, these sovereign citizens who, they get pulled over having no tags, no license, and when the cop says, why are you driving without tags or license? Well, I'm not driving, I'm traveling. You moron. Whoever convinced you of that, or however you convinced yourself of that, if you want to live that way, no problem. But buy a piece of property that you're gonna have to pay taxes on to the United States government, and then head out into the wilderness of that property and live there in your own world, never coming out and taking advantage of the wonderful things that your taxes provide for you. The Lord said, you see this piece of money, whose image is on it? Well, Caesar's. Then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. If you don't want to pay taxes, then get rid of Caesar's money. And Christians all over the country, why? I'm a Christian, we don't pay taxes. Well, Jesus did, so why would you not? Peter did, why would you not? You're going to destroy your testimony, and you're going to end up in jail. Not far from here, there was a man who was, for years, destroying atheists left and right. A Christian teacher who was excellent at debating atheists and just tearing them apart. Well, he didn't believe he had to pay federal income taxes. Guess where he spent 10 years? In prison. Guess where his wife spent two years? In prison. because they didn't believe that they were subject to what everybody else is subject to. Now, you can come to me and you can show me how you don't believe that the income tax is constitutional and that we really shouldn't be doing it. No problem. I would probably even agree with you. But try not doing it and see what happens. It's not a good choice to make. If you don't want to pay taxes, then get rid of the government's money so that you don't have to pay those taxes. Well, then how am I going to keep my property? You're not. We no longer have property rights the way that we used to. It just doesn't exist anymore. Now, if you don't pay your property taxes, they come and take it from you. You are leasing your land, your house, your property from the United States government. Well, where can we go and get away from that? You've got to leave the earth. I don't know where you're going. Pluto? I don't know. There's no option for you. There's nothing available to you. It's just how it is. Jesus said, is this Caesar's image? Is this Thomas Jefferson's image? George Washington's image? Abraham Lincoln's image? Well, then give it to him. I know that's exciting. Verse 17, And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him. Now, here's the amazing thing. Here's what's amazing. The Lord said, not only do I expect you to pay your income tax and to do so properly and faithfully, you also, over and above that, still need to give to God. Amen. This is just, this is the stuff people love to hear from churches. They say, every time I go to church, all you preach about is money. Well, you only go to church like once a year, so that's not, you don't know what they're talking about the rest of the year. But no, the church doesn't always just talk about money, but here it is in the passage, and we've got to address it. Don't be a Christian and claim that you're doing God's work by not paying your taxes. It's ungodly. The Lord said, pay the tax. I will take care of you, you just do what's right. And if you do what's right, then I, your God, will take care of you. But if you're going to defy my instruction and not do what I've told you to do, and you're going to live in rebellion to what God has instructed you to do, all in the name of Jesus Christ, well, you're only fooling yourself. So the Lord said, first of all, I want you to pay your taxes. Secondly, you also need to give to God. Both are absolutely true. Both are your responsibility. You need to do both. You don't get to escape one for the other and vice versa. Fighting the income tax, that's not a battle you want to fight. It's not a battle you should be fighting. It's just not your responsibility. You have a way to fight that battle. It's called voting. All right, so that is one of your constitutional rights. That is an expectation that you have that you should participate in. And if you're not going to participate in it, then don't be surprised when you get people that don't govern in accord to your values and expectations. That's just how it is. You don't always get what you want, and it doesn't always go the way you want. But if you don't participate, that's one way to ensure it doesn't. All right, verses 18 through 27. Verse 18. Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection. That is the distinguishing factor between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The two of them believe in very similar ways. The main difference between them is that the Sadducees do not believe in a resurrection. The Pharisees knew there was going to be a resurrection. And so they're going to come and they're going to try and trap the Lord with a very odd question. Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now we've been studying that very thing in the book of Ruth, right? That is a biblical idea, which is To us, a very odd idea. All of a sudden, you might be real interested in who your brother was marrying. Who's your wife? Well, no, don't pick her. You need to... Because if she dies, I might have to, you know, no, I'm not, I'm not, you know, anyways, it's just an odd situation. Needless to say, families were far more involved in who you married back in those days for very practical reasons. Don't you marry that woman. Don't you marry that man. You don't know what you're doing. Could you imagine your sister? She said, well, if my husband dies, I got to go to your husband. No, don't. Don't. Don't marry that guy. Yeah. Well, you have a son, so you don't have to do that. So you have seed. Anyways, you could imagine how family dinners could get real weird. You want me to marry that man if you die? Well, I don't, God does. Anyways, we don't have time for all that, but just interesting. Now, that's what Moses wrote, verse 20. Now there were seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed, and the second took her and died, neither left he any seed, and the third likewise, and the seven had her. Now look, Either this woman was up to something, or this family of men are just They got, what a foolish question. And this is how, this is how foolish questions always go. It's always so outlandish or it's some sort of, it's so, you know, it's like when it comes to abortion, people say, well, we need abortion in case a woman is raped or molested by her family. Well, okay. The problem is, less than 1% of all abortions are because of rape and incest. And so you're taking this extreme case that might exist and may provide a valid argument for what you're suggesting, maybe. Now, I disagree with it, but from a societal standpoint, a lot of people are going to agree with that because society feels bad for a young woman who was raped. So I get it. Well, until society finds out that less than 1% of the women who get abortions are because of rape and incest, then they realize, well, you just lied to us. You just pulled the... We felt bad for you, and all you've done is manipulate the situation so that you can get... There are women that have had 10, 15, 20, 30 abortions. It's just, it's not what they try to make it out to be. So here you have this woman. Well, all seven husbands had her. Really? Come on, man. Either this family is very problematic, or this woman is, don't eat her cooking. Don't turn your back on her. You better keep an eye on her, because you're going to end up the next husband, I guess. And they left no seed. And they left no seed. Last of all, the woman died also. In the resurrection, therefore, when they shall rise. Well, they don't believe in a resurrection. So why are they asking a question about the resurrection? So the question that they're asking is already based on a false premise according to their beliefs. They don't believe there's going to be a resurrection. So why are you asking about whose husband she's going to be in the resurrection if there's not going to be one? It's all a farce. When they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the seven had her to wife, and Jesus answering said unto them, and this is the proper answer to these things, Do you not therefore err because you know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God? You're asking a stupid question because you don't know the Scriptures. You don't know the word of God. Your lack of understanding, the premise of this question, and that's the beautiful thing about questions. When I'm trying to tell somebody about Jesus, I often ask them a lot of questions or try to encourage them to ask questions, because what'll end up happening is someone will ask a question, and what you will realize is the premise of that question is based on a fundamental flaw, a lack of understanding. They're missing information. Now, that's perfectly fine for a new convert or somebody who's learning and growing, but for a Pharisee or Sadducee, the leaders who are responsible for teaching the nation of Israel, that is unacceptable. You're asking a foolish question trying to entrap your Messiah because you haven't read your Bible. And that's the problem that a lot of people have. A lot of churches get torn apart because people have questions over things that they shouldn't have questions about. So he said, not only do you err because you don't know the scriptures, you also don't know the power of God. Now I wonder if that power of God, if that little detail is added there because it's kind of a jab. You don't even believe in the resurrection, why are you asking this question? You don't understand the power of God, the ability God has to make you rise from the dead. Your entire question is false from the start because you don't even understand the resurrection, you don't know anything about the resurrection, which is directly related to the power of God. Verse 25, for when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven. Now, just real fast. People read that and then their imaginations start racing. It does not mean that all the angels in heaven are all men. It doesn't mean all the people in heaven are all men. It doesn't mean that people don't marry or are given in marriage. It just says that they don't do that in heaven. It doesn't say that angels don't marry or are given in marriage. It says they don't do that in heaven. So don't make it say more than it actually says. Just believe what it says. That'll help you in other places in the Bible when you start trying to force this idea into those places in the Bible. You can't do that. You can't make this go there. Just believe what it says. Angels don't have wings. There are a lot of misconceptions that cause people to do weird things and believe weird things based on books they've read, movies they've seen. You know, who was that guy that had all those, that TV show that he was an angel going from place to place? What's that guy's name? Yeah, that guy. Nice guy. Seemed like a really nice guy. TV show completely false and ruined everybody's mind about angels. Well, yeah, it's amazing. And people will find stuff like that more authoritative than the Bible. You know why they're in error? Jesus just told us. You don't read your Bible. If you want to know about angels, why would you go read somebody's book about angels and not just go in the Bible and see what God says about angels? Wouldn't that be a good thing to do? So anyways, verse 26, And as touching the dead, that they rise. Have you not read in the book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Ye therefore do greatly, greatly err. Now, I would take that as a strong warning to anybody who would mess up their doctrine regarding the resurrection, Jesus said, your doctrine about the resurrection is so wrong that you greatly err. That's a serious warning coming from Jesus Christ. In other words, he's saying, you don't mess up this doctrine. You need to get this doctrine right. And so the idea here is, Abraham, is he dead or alive? Yes. Isaac, is he dead or alive? Yes. He's both. He died in the flesh, but He's alive and well in paradise. He's doing just fine. Peter, James, John, are they dead or alive? Well, their body is dead, but they're doing pretty good in heaven right now. So, He is not the God of the dead. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection, which means in their minds, to some extent, they believe you die, and that's it. It's over. Well, that's the modern atheist belief. You just, you die and you go back to the ground and, I don't know, become worm food. And that's it, it's over. And the Lord said that is a tremendous error. It is a tremendous lack of understanding. And so we don't want to mess that up. Verse 28, we got to go quick. And we got one minute to cover all those verses. And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And again, this is another attempt to trap him. Verse 29, And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. The second is like, namely, this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." Now if you do those two, you follow those two commandments, that will orient your life towards God and help you properly treat your neighbor in a godly manner. It's hard to mess that up. When it comes to treating your neighbor, you know, loving your neighbor as yourself, just ask yourself when you get in a situation, how would I want them to treat me in this situation? and however that would be, you need to apply the same. If you would want them to be kind, you want them to be gracious, you want them to be merciful, then do the same. If not, then, well, just expect the same treatment in return. Now, these are not to be compartmentalized and separated. You have the first commandment and the second commandment, but within them, loving the Lord thy God with all thy strength, soul, mind, all that is not, well, let me get number one down, and then number two. No, it's a whole package. You don't need to try and divide all this up and break it up. You just do it. And the scribe said unto him, Well, master, thou hast said the truth. For there is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself is more than the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 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." Imagine coming to ask him a question to entrap him, and you walk away saying, man, that was a really good answer. I don't know what to do there. But the Lord saw something in this man and said, quit following that crowd. You're so close to the kingdom of God, and yet you're not there yet. You need to get away from this crowd that's going to mislead you. Verse 35, 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." The rich and the powerful, they don't want to hear from God. They don't think they need to hear from God. The common man, you go to a third world country and pass out 100 tracts, 99 people are going to take them and 90 of them are going to sit down right there and read it. It's amazing. It's wonderful. You do that in America, well, out of 100 people, 7 might take it and 1 might read it. And it's very different. America is just so rich and comfortable, they don't think they need God. Now, this appears to me to be a declaration, the Lord declaring his own deity. He's telling them, how can David say that I, the Son of God, how can David say that I was before him? How is it that he can call me Lord, but I am his son? How can that be? Well, he's the Word, who is God, who in eternity pre-existed David, and David perfectly understood that. Then he was made manifest in the flesh through the seed of David, and so you have this entire situation, this entire discourse, and the common man heard him gladly. They were happy to hear it. Verse 38, and he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing. That's why I wear short clothing. Anyways, love to go in long clothing and love salutations in the marketplaces. See, I don't like people, so I don't care about salutations. Anyways, verse 39, and the chief seats in the synagogues and the uppermost rooms at fees. I definitely don't care about the uppermost rooms at fees. Now, that's not to say that that means I'm somehow better than these men. It's just more of a personality thing. I'm just joking. But this is their mentality. This is the religious mentality. You look at that Catholic priest, look at what he's wearing, what he has access to. I'm always frustrated that they get all the beautiful buildings. How come they get the really nice, beautiful, ornate, incredible looking buildings? Well, you got to be willing to rob widows to get them. And I'm not willing to do that. That's an ungodly thing to do. Verse 40, "...which devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers, these shall receive greater damnation." Right now, there are levels of damnation in hell. And according to God, religious people who take advantage of people will receive greater damnation. I would encourage you to be very careful how you treat not only lost people, but especially God's people. You abuse them and misuse them. God said there is greater damnation for people that would do something like that. No thank you. No thank you. Verse 41, And Jesus sat over her against the treasury, and behold how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a far thing. Everybody knows what a far thing is. That's just common knowledge. Verse 43, And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living." Now here's the idea. This woman didn't have anything, and yet that didn't keep her from giving to God. This woman had next to nothing, and yet she faithfully gave to God. What's your excuse? There's not one. It's a choice. It's a heart matter. Not only so, this woman is giving to the temple that is run by a corrupt priesthood, and yet she still gave, and it still touched the Lord's heart. I'm not telling you to find some corrupt priesthood to give to, but if you have a good church and you have a good pastor who's going to try and lead it in the right direction, who's going to try and further the gospel and do everything for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ, then you have no excuse not to give. Amen? Here we are with the giving thing. Here we are with the money thing again. Well, it's in the Bible, and I've got to teach it. So I don't receive any of it. I get no paycheck from this church, which is perfectly fine with me. I'm still happy to be here and still happy to do it. It has nothing to do with that. But the point is, all the reasons people come up with for not giving. I don't have any money. The church just wants money. It's just crooked. They just want money anyways. Well, this woman had no money and still gave, and she's given to a corrupt priesthood. So that means you're running out of excuses according to Jesus Christ. All right. 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