Amen. The first thing to see here in this passage is in verse 27, and that is Christ's gracious persistence. Christ's gracious persistence. They came again to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple. Now, what was he doing in the temple? Well, if you turn with me to John 18 and verse 20, we'll find out what Jesus was doing. John 18, verse 20. He answered the high priest, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogues and in the temple. So whenever he was in the temple, he says, I always taught. That's what he does. He comes to the temple and he teaches where the Jews always meet. And in secret, I have said nothing. And also go back to one book to Luke 19 and verse 48, which brings us to the exact same situation as it's recorded in Mark's gospel and in Luke's gospel, chapter 19, verse 48. So we will read from verse 45, sorry. He went into the temple, began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, it is written, my house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And he was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the people sought to destroy him and were unable to do anything, for all the people were very attentive to hear him. Do you not see the bravery of Christ? Up until now, he's had a three-year ministry to accomplish, and every single time his enemies have got close to getting hold of him or arresting him or seizing him, Christ was evading them. Not because he was a coward, but because the time had not yet come for him to die. But Christ is now bravely marching to Jerusalem. He's come to Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. He's been pronounced as Israel's king, Hosanna, to the king on the highest, and he goes to the temple, the place where those hate him, the place where there are people that want him dead, and now he no longer keeps these things secret, he is proclaiming openly and clearly who he is. That is what he's doing, he's teaching. But why is he teaching? Why is he teaching? Why does God reveal anything to people? Why does God speak? Why does God communicate? Why does God unveil things? Why did God send his son into the world? Why is he a teacher? You know, so often you get people on the street, people in the country, in Christianized nations, legacy nations, you might say, you know, he was a good teacher. Well, what did he teach? And why did he teach? Well, he teaches because he's seeking the souls of men and women. He's seeking our souls. He's seeking our salvation. He wants our hearts. Why? Why does he waste a breath? Why does he spend such tireless energy? And Christ's teaching ministry was relentless. He so often was so engaged in preaching and teaching and exhorting and explaining that he didn't even have time to eat. He didn't even have time to sleep. So earnestly was he going about telling people about who he is, why he's come, why they need him. Now, you're probably looking at me now and going, yeah, there's nothing significant. Who is he teaching? Who is he seeking? Who is in the temple? The very people, this is most likely Tuesday, the very people that are going to cry out, what, in a few days' time. The very people that are going to cry out, crucify him! Give us Barabbas. The very people that are going to jeer when he endures a Roman lashing, a Roman scourging, and as chunks of skin are ripped off his back. The very people that are going to rejoice to see a crown of thorns compressed into his head. Hail your king. He's not our king. He's the one who says he's our king. the very people who are going to cry out as he hangs there on a cross naked before his mother and his disciples they're going to cry out if you're the messiah if you really are the messiah why don't you call down a legion of angels to help to deliver you and bring you down from the cross and here is christ walking among them In fact, it says he was walking because that was one of the ways Jews would teach. Sometimes they would sit down. Sometimes they would walk. I don't know how you would feel about me walking up and down the aisles, but it's very intimate. He would be walking and he'd be looking, engaging with the eye. I once preached at a church and I got into terrible trouble after the sermon because, you see, their pulpit wasn't like this one. This is good because it contains me. It was one of those ones with a really wide platform. And the mic, you see, was here, but I kept wandering. up and down and I realized none of them could hear me. So that was a sermon no one heard. Christ walked up and down the aisles, he looked at people, he engaged with people, he read their faces, he saw their hearts, he explained to them why he is the hope of the world. He is seeking men and women who do not want him. He is seeking men and women who in their hearts are at enmity with them. He's already told us the state of Israel at the time. We know that from the fig tree. We looked at that book in previous weeks, many months ago now. Verse 12 of chapter 11. Now the next day when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing afar a fig tree having leaves, he went to see if perhaps he would find something on it. He's looking for fruit. This fig tree symbolized Israel, the nation at the time. He's come to his own people. Will his own receive him? Are his own people looking for him? Are they waiting for him? Are they earnest? Yes, he's here, praise the Lord. but he found nothing but leaves. But it was not the season for figs. So he knows there's no fruit there. He knows there's no goodness there. He knows there's no poverty of spirit, no repentance, no love for him, and yet still, still, he is graciously disposed to them. Still, he is trying to persuade them. He is trying to pursue them. His arms were open to them. You remember, as he approached Jerusalem, a day before, he said in Luke's gospel, oh, Jerusalem, oh, Jerusalem. the city which kills the prophets. How I would have gathered you, but you were not willing. You would not come. This is the Christ. This is the persistent, gracious Christ who seeks those who will not be sought, who seeks those who will not be found. And here he is seeking them again. And tonight, dear friends, Christ is seeking every one of you. Do you know that? Because I'm special? Oh no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. He is seeking you tonight because there is an open Bible and there is a preacher of the Bible. How shall I believe, Romans 10 says, unless someone preaches? How shall someone preach unless he is sent? How beautiful the feet of those who bring good news. I am a nobody. but I have been sent by somebody this evening to preach to your souls. The very fact that you have an open Bible means the God of heaven and earth, the one who formed you in your mother's womb, the one who knew your name before you were born, the one who numbered all your days and determined the boundaries and dwelling places of your life, the one who ordained all your circumstances, both the difficult ones and the good ones, that God, the God of Jesus Christ, the God who is Jesus Christ, he is seeking you through his word tonight. He's not given up on you. The very fact that we have a pulpit, the very fact that we have a ministry which seeks to be biblical is evidence that God is gracious and He's favourably disposed to us. Well, what was His message? What was He saying? Well, He would have taught on the sinfulness of sin. He would have gone over His ministry. He would have preached on the need to be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of a woman is sinful. You do not teach your babies or children to sin. You must be born again if you want to see the kingdom of God. You must have a heart of change. God must deal with your heart. You must cry out to him for a new heart. He preached on the folly of hypocrisy. He preached on the stupidity of external religion when God looks at the hearts. It's not just about whether you're outwardly good. He would preach on the need to have a renewed heart. He'd preach on the reality of judgment and hell. You often hear people say, Christianity is meant to be a religion of love. It is a religion of love. And boy, the love of God is seen in greater measure when you understand what Christ saved us from. Jesus Christ, the Savior, saved from what? Savior from judgment, Savior from hell, Savior from wrath. He would have preached on the need for humility. What does God look for in men and women? A broken and a contrite spirit. He would have preached on being the way and the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except by me. What a grace it is that God is still striving with men. What a grace it is that God is still speaking to you tonight. You say, well, I'm a Christian. Well, let me ask you a question, Christian. Because if you're like me, How much use have you made of the sermons you've heard? How faithful have you been to put into practice what you've heard? It's a searching question. But I don't know about you, if I was a teacher of a student like myself, at some point I would think I've had enough of teaching this individual. And yet God, in his Son, Jesus Christ, is constantly seeking us, constantly reminding us, constantly, by way of a reminder, stirring us up to really live in the light of things that we've heard. The problem isn't that we need new doctrine, the problem isn't that we need new truths, the problem is we've not understood, we've not embraced and lived in the light of the truths we've already heard. We preached and looked at this morning on the authority of Christ. Who of us really lives with that conviction? It would change our very lives that he has authority. There's a hymn that says, God is calling, and shall he knock? And I, my heart, close the lock. He is still waiting to receive, and shall I dare his spirit grieve? God calling yet, and shall I give no heed, but still in bondage live? I wait, but he does not forsake. He calls me still, my heart awake. My God calling yet, I cannot stay. My heart I yield without delay. Vain world, farewell, from thee I part. The voice of God have reached my heart. And Christian God is always calling you. He's always calling you to deeper union, deeper fellowship, to know more of his presence. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man answer, I will come in and dine with him. God is calling to you. But there were those who would not heed the call, no matter how many times he called. Secondly, see with me, Christ's interrogators. And we all meet people like these men. people who believe that they have the right to ask questions of God and He has to answer them. God better answer my questions. Until He answers my questions, I'm not going to listen to what He calls me to do. There's a pride of man. My children, if I say something to my children, they have no right to turn the tables on me and say, I will not do this until you give me a reason why you do it. Put your washing in the washing basket, son. I am an authority, I have the right to ask you this, but why now? Son, here we see men who come to him in verse 28, by what authority are you doing these things and who gave this authority to these men? They want to understand Who gave Christ permission to do the things he did? To clear the temple, to curse the fig tree, and everything that we've read about, and we thought about that this morning. It reminds me of a similar incident that happened in Israel's history. If you turn to Numbers and chapter 16, we read of a rebellion. And this rebellion was against Moses and Aaron. Now, if you're familiar with the Exodus account, Can I ask you a question? Was Moses evidently among the people the man God had called to lead them from bondage? You think of the signs he performed. You think of the plagues that he brought about with the power of God. You think of his staff being placed into the Red Sea and the Red Sea parting. Moses and Aaron were so evidently called by God and authenticated as prophets of God before the people. And yet, there were people who were not satisfied with the evidence. Verse 1, Now Korah the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and on the son of Pilate, sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel. Verse three, they gathered together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, you take too much upon yourself, for all the congregation is holy. We're equals. That's what they're saying. We're all holy, every one of them. And the Lord is among us all. Why do you exalt yourself above the assembly? And Moses heard it, he fell on his face. And then if you were to read the rest of the narrative, God once again vindicates Moses and Aaron before those who rose up. Here are men who think that they're in a position to demand more evidence than God has given. But here's the point. Who has a right Who is the only authority that can demonstrate divine authority? God, Christ. If we had to base our arguments for God on human authorities, we have made human authority higher than the divine authority, haven't we? Only God is in a position to authenticate and demonstrate who he is and why he has come, why Christ has come. You know, people today respond to the gospel. You speak to people, I've had this before. What right have you to come into my life and tell me these things? Who do you think you are? What's your authority to speak to me like you do about my sin, about my heart, about my need to repent? Who do you think you are? Are you holier than thou? Well, we illustrate it like this. If the army turn up at your door, this night and they say you need to leave your homes. We've been sent here by the King whom we serve to empty Eastbourne because a nuclear strike is imminent. You'd have no basis to say well what authority do you have to ask me to do this? They have been sent there by the King And here are men, furious men, they're livid that they've not been consulted, that they've not given permission to him to do what he does. But the point is, the evidence for his authority was obvious. It was obvious. And they were willfully blind. The authority of the scriptures. The authority of the scriptures demonstrate who Christ is. The scriptures are themselves self-authenticating. The scriptures confirm the scriptures. For example, where was Jesus born? Where was he born? Where? Bethlehem. Micah chapter 5 verse 2 predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Who gave birth to Christ? What was she? She was a virgin. Return me to Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14. And Isaiah is recording these words, pre-exiles who were dealing with over 700 years before Christ came. Isaiah 7, verse 14, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Now you have to remember the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the scribes, they knew these scriptures. They had memorized the Hebrew Torah and the prophets off by heart. They could recite them to you. That's how thorough and comprehensive their knowledge of the scriptures were. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgins shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel. What does Emmanuel mean? God with us. God with us. Give us a sign Lord. Demonstrate your authority to claim to be who you are and to do your word. The Lord will give you a sign. The virgin shall conceive and you shall call him Emmanuel. So his birth was predicted. His identity as God with us was predicted. What about his miracles? Were they predicted? Look at Isaiah 35 and verse 5. And what I'm trying to do, even to you who believe these things, wake up! Wake up! Christ is who He says He is! And bank your eternity and every decision on that fact. Live your life on the basis of who Christ is. Isaiah 35, verse 5. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like the deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water. Turn with me to Luke four. O Christian, arise you who sleep. You do not need to be in doubt about your Saviour. It says in Luke 4 verse 16 that Jesus came to the synagogue. He took the prophet Isaiah up, verse 17. When he opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to pray liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. And you read the gospels and you read Christ doing those very things that were spoken of him. What's even more interesting is you come to what we will look at now next week, Jesus tells the parable of the vine dresser and how the owner makes a vineyard and he delegates that vineyard to men who are to work that vineyard with the goal that in the vintage time, the owner will send a servant to collect what is rightfully his, the wine that's been produced. In the parable, every servant that the owner sends to those who are taking care of the vineyard is beaten or killed, or sometimes both. In the end, Jesus says, the owner has one more option left, to send his son. And what's interesting is, they kill the son. You see, Jesus is predicting what they're gonna do to him. Jesus is so knowledgeable about his identity, his mission, why he's come, that in this very parable, he tells them what they're gonna do to him. And look what was the result, verse 12 of chapter 12. After he tells them that parable, they sought to lay hands on him. They're actually themselves fulfilling his own words. What about his death? Was his death predicted? Turn to Psalm 22. Look at verse one. My God, my God. This is some 1,400 years before Christ hung on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's the prophecy. People that say you can't trust the Bible don't know what they're saying. They've never looked it, they've never read it, or they've read it in a very uninterested way. Look what it goes on to describe in verse 14. I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. When they crucified him, they had to disconnect his joints to stretch him out on the cross. They had to dislocate his bones. They weren't broken, but they had to be dislocated. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. My tongue clings to my jaws. What did he cry? Lord, I thirst, I thirst. They gave him sour wine, didn't they, on the cross. And then you come to verse 16 and have an unbelievable prophecy. They have pierced my hands and my feet. Do you know, when David wrote this, Roman crucifixion hadn't even been invented. It's unbelievable prophecy, beloveds. The Persians invented crucifixion and the Romans perfected it and it became their primary form of execution. Jesus here is, through David, 1400 years before he was born, the spirit of Christ is giving David, it's almost like David starts speaking about himself but then he's carried to speak about a greater David, the son of David, the king of kings, the lord of lords, one who was born to the tribe of Judah, the one who was promised, the one who would be crucified for our sins. But that's not the only prediction of his death. Turn with me to Isaiah in chapter 53. And you know these verses so well, but pray to God as I read them that familiarity doesn't breed contempt. Who has believed our report? Who's believed the report of Christ? Is there anyone that believes? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He, verse two, had no form or comeliness, and when we see him there is no beauty that we should deny him. The Son of God was an ordinary man to all intents and purposes. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Look at verse 4. So the crowds thought that Christ was forsaken of God. God is finished with him. God is done with him. God is punishing him. And in one sense he was being punished but not in the way that they thought. They thought God was punishing him because he wasn't who he claimed to be. But verse five tells us, but he was wounded for our transgressions. God was punishing him, but not because he was a fake, not because he was a charlatan, not because he was a liar, not because he was a false prophet, but because he was punishing him for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Who gave you this authority? The scriptures themselves demonstrate the reality of the divine authority for what Christ was doing. And all these things were seen by eyewitnesses, weren't they? 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you. Verse three, for I delivered to you, first of all, which I also received. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, that he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. and after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once. Some people say, oh well, the eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Christ, they were hallucinating. Have you ever known a situation where 500 people all at the same time have an identical hallucination? Psychiatrists, people that study these kind of things have said in the history of psychiatrics there has never been a recorded instance where so many people have an identical hallucination and also a hallucination that leads to a transformed life And people, says many of them, remain to the present. So at the time Paul is saying this, you can go and speak to them, they're still alive. The letters of the Bible were written in contact with the eyewitnesses. That was the test for the trustworthiness of the New Testament. They had to have eyewitness authentication. To say there is no evidence for Christ's claims is like a fish in the water asking evidence of water. Our faith is true. Christ is king. He does have authority. And they fail to see the stupidity of their question. How many today, like these men, interrogate Christ What credentials do you have that I should trust you? Tell me how you could be good and allow that in my life. Let me ask you a question. Are you the standard of all wisdom, goodness and power? That brain you have, who gave it to you? I was discussing with some friends recently on the fact that AI, AI is an amazing thing, isn't it? It is an amazing thing. I was watching recently, there's an AI video that's been done of Eastbourne seafront, it's awesome. It's like from the Victorian period, you've got like, it's like taking a frozen picture and it's just brought it to life, horse and carts moving. But I was reading the comments and there were some details I hadn't noticed. Someone had spotted that there was a man swimming in a full suit. It's like, that wasn't in the original picture, but it's just like AI has failed to probably, like it's just gone wrong. There was another one I saw of a moving motion sort of 20 second clip of Tunbridge Wells, and there were elephants walking down the road. And someone also noticed that there was an SUV parked in the corner over there whilst there were horses and carts. It was still amazing, still very realistic. But the point is, anything created is going to have a less capacity than the one who created it. I saw a video this week of Russia invented these kind of robots, and on the revealing of these robots, and there was a great kind of excitement, and they come out of this robot, the robot fell over. And they had to pick the robot up. It's a bit like the whole point of idols in the Old Testament, when ancient nations worshipped idols. It's like, how insane are you to worship something you created with your hands? It's crazy. It's less than you. I mean, you have eyes and you can see, but the idols have eyes and cannot see. But the point I'm making is, we're not in a position with our little minds to put God in the dock and to assess whether we think it's reasonable to embrace the claims of Christ. No, rather, it is we who are in the dock before Christ. And Christ says to every one of us, who do you say that I am? on the basis of my authority and what I have done. Now, their question actually wasn't a sincere question. There's a big difference from someone who's seeking, coming to the preacher or coming to a Christian and saying, I'm still struggling to see all these dots. Can you help show me? I'm really interested. And you remember the Ethiopian eunuch who's reading the prophet Isaiah and he says to Philip, who is this one I'm reading about? Well, Philip tells him, and he believes in Christ. These men are asking a question not because they're interested. Rather they want to find an opportunity to condemn him. Because if he says God, which he could have said, that would have been true, they would have said blasphemy and they would have whipped up the crowds to oppose him. So that's what they were looking to do. They were looking to charge him with blasphemy. We know that because in verse 18 of chapter 11 they were already seeking how they could destroy him. Geoff Thomas writes, I am asking you what you think of the authority of Christ. I am insisting that if his claims are true, then you must bow the knee to him. You must submit your intellect. You must fall before him in wonder, love, and praise. But you protest. I don't feel anything. I'm not talking about feelings. I am telling you a great fact of history. Christ said God and I are one. That is objective reality. That is either the authority of a simpleton maniac or it is the authority of the living God. If they are God's words then you must bow the knee and submit to the authority of Christ because the Christian faith is true. It seems that often men and women are just looking for reasons not to become a Christian. And that was the case here. But to us there is one great reason for being a Christian and that is because it is true. And because it is true, it has the right to allegiance of your every being. So they asked this question. But then thirdly, Christ asked a counter question. And Christ does this, if you actually read the Greek, he's speaking very bluntly here. There's a sense in which, not unsinfully, not unrighteously, but his patience now is reaching the limits of what would be righteous to be patient. And he says to them, I will ask you one question. You've come here to ask me a question, and now I will ask you a question. Then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. What's the question Jesus asks him? The baptism of John, which speaks of the whole ministry of John, his preaching, his life. Was it from heaven? or from men. See what he's done? And look what he says next. Answer me. You came here to ask me questions. You came here to expose me. What Jesus has done is he's asking them a question which is going to expose their hypocrisy. Because they are now being forced to confront the real issue in their lives. Because there's only two options that you can conclude in answering to that question, and they know the answer. Look what they say next. They reasoned among themselves. If we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe in him? Because John the Baptist preached about the Christ who was to come. So if we accept John as a prophet, by definition and by implication, we've got to accept that Christ is the promised one that the last great prophet spoke of. You see the trap? We've got to repent. We've got to own this Christ. But this is the problem. If we say he's from men, verse 32, they feared the people because all the people knew that John was a prophet, that he was the one Malachi spoke of. Behold, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way for the Lord. Now if they really were, if this was a question from a sincere point of searching, if this was a question of I'm seeking truth, if all they were interested in was truth, if they really were the righteous guardians of the law, the promoters of righteousness in Israel, they had two options. Admit they've been wrong and blind, and embrace Christ. Or, even if it means they get stoned by the people, or for truth's sake tell the people whatever you do to us we don't care we are responsible for telling you the truth we are teachers of the law this man is not the prophet if they really were concerned about truth they would have picked one of those two options but do you notice what they do? what do they say? we don't know that was a lie a lie because we know they didn't accept John as a prophet. The Bible says in Luke's Gospel they did not accept John's baptism. John the Baptist called them brood of vipers. They didn't like that very much. So they did reject his baptism but they weren't willing to say it because fundamentally they didn't care about truth. They cared about their power. They cared about their authority. You see, the issue with belief and obeying Christ is always a question of authority. They want autonomy. And that is what sin is. Sin is autonomy from God. I want my life to be lived the way I want to live it. And so these men were unwilling to repent because that would have meant seceding authority to Christ. It would have meant repenting. It would have meant asking for a new life, to be born again. But they equally didn't want to say what they actually believed, that he wasn't who he claimed to be, because the people would have gone crazy and they would have lost their status and their influence among the people. And so what Christ has done is exposed the root issue in all unbelief. It is never about lack of evidence. All creation is a museum to the glory of God, isn't it? So in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament that the expanse above shows his handiwork, the stars, the galaxies. They are today the utter speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. This is why the Gospel is urgent for the tribes and the cannibals and the people that have never heard of Christ. Because they are without excuse, even if they've never heard of Christ, because the glory of God is made known by the things that have been made. And yet they worship created things. They worship statues made out of wood. And it's self-evident by looking at creation that there must be an eternal God. Romans 1 chapter 18 and 19. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. What is the chief mark of ungodliness and unrighteousness? It is this, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Why do people reject my Christ? Why have we had people come in this chapel, hear the preaching, and walk out of this chapel and never come back? Because they understand very well that the gospel message requires repentance. It replies, forsaking your life of sin. And people love darkness rather than light. Men do not want to come into the light lest their deeds be exposed. I've said before, criminals don't walk into police stations. Sinners don't happily strut into the presence of God and hear his gospel. And so the only way sinners can live at peace in their sin is if they suppress what they know is true. The reason Dawkins and Attenborough and all these very intelligent people who are far more intellectually superior than me, the reason they are constantly writing books and doing interviews just to tell everyone that God doesn't exist. I'm like, if God doesn't exist, why are you so bothered? Why are you writing and trying to persuade everyone else that he doesn't exist? It's because you are fighting against what is true and you know it. And so every time the conscience speaks, every time the knowledge of God is confronting you, you've got to push it back down. I've got to write another book and just sear my own conscience and sear other people's consciences. Unbelief is irrational. People say that Christians are irrational. No. A Christian is someone who started to think for the very first time, and I say that only by the grace of God. You remember the demoniac, the man in the Gadarenes who was possessed by many demons, and he used to live among the tombs, and he used to harm himself, and he used to break chains when people hit a sort of a supernatural strength because of the demons that were in him, and they used to chain him up, and they couldn't restrain him, and he'd break free again. It says that when the Lord delivered him, Such a lovely text. He sat at the feet of Jesus in his right mind. To be a Christian is not to stop using your mind, it's to start using your mind. I remember when the Lord awakened me and the Lord gave me a new heart and he called me to be born again and I went out into even nature itself and I just thought how blind I was. There's a glory in every bush, and in every plant, and in every sunset, and in every mountain, and in all of it. God is everywhere, and in every wave, and you just see the Lord. And then you put David Attenborough on, who's telling you that all of this made itself, and you're looking at the complexity to the oceans, and that there's even depths to the oceans we've not yet explored that contain all sorts of life. And you're like, God is unfathomable. His glory is revealed in all things. What did Paul say to Timothy? God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. A renewed mind. You know, in my experience as a pastor, and I say this even among the church actually, with a few exceptions, but most of the time when I have faced, praise the Lord, not here yet, but when I have faced serious opposition to doctrine or teaching, I can think of occasions when it got pretty toxic. Never once did someone bring a Bible with me and reason from the scriptures as to why I was saying what's wrong. They were just angry about what I'd said. It was because they felt challenged. I remember preaching once on the woman being the weaker vessel. And the woman come up to me, how dare you say that the woman's a weaker vessel? I said, Peter said the woman's a weaker vessel. What's wrong? Do you just forgotten that bit in the Bible? Do you just not want it to be there? Oh, I believe it's there, but we have to interpret it in light of what? Well, you know, in light of things we now know about men and women. This woman was a feminist, by the way. an extreme feminist and she didn't want to embrace the implications of the Bible's teaching for Christian womanhood and the Christian mother and the Christian wife. Here Jesus exposes then the root issue behind their question and it is willful ignorance. I do not see because I do not want to see. I do not hear because I do not want to hear. So often you think of when the rich young ruler came to Christ and said, good teacher, what must I do to inherit salvation? Jesus says, well, you know the commandments. You shall not murder, you shall not covet, you shall not commit adultery. All these things I've kept from my youth. Jesus says, one thing you lack, and he said he looked at him with compassion, so he really sought this man's soul. One thing you lack, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and then come and follow me. What had Jesus done there? He exposed the love of money in this man's heart, that that was his idol, that was his God, that's what he lived for, that's what he served. And it says the man went away sad. Interestingly he didn't walk away from Christ because he thought Christ was wrong. He walked away from Christ because he couldn't entertain or embrace the implications of Christ's call which is to forsake all and follow him. When we hear sermons And remember, I am capable of erring. I'm not a perfect preacher. You know that anyway. You're definitely not perfect. But you need to be good Bereans. You need to search the scriptures to see if what I'm saying is true. You don't take what I say as gospel. But at the same time, we must beware of also that lack of reverence for the pulpit, which basically, when what is preached is the word of God, It comes with the authority, not of the one who is preaching it, but the one who gave the message. And that is Jesus Christ. People often think, I would believe if Christ preached these things in person. He is preaching these things. What did Paul say? We beseech you, Corinthians, as though God were making his appeal through us. Be reconciled to God. And so every time the Lord is speaking to you and he's demanding massive changes, you have to understand who it is that is speaking to you. And it's the one who seeks the good of your soul. The one who loves sinners. The one who saves the unworthy. And the one, here's the point, when he calls for us to obey him and to respond to his gospel call and to obey his commandments, he gives what he commands. None of the responses of the gospel, none of the responses that he calls for, we can do in our own strength. Call on the Lord. Well, who will call on the Lord but those whom God works in their heart? that the immovable miracle is, he gives what he requires. He works in us a willingness to call on the Lord. It's an amazing thing, isn't it? And then to live for him, he gives that desire to make those changes in our lives. Beware of the little voice in your head that says, did God really say? Or does it have to be as decisive as that? But the last thing you see here in closing is Christ's judgement. So we've mentioned his patience, we've mentioned the way he just keeps seeking, keeps seeking, keeps seeking. But this question is the final straw. It is just unmasked, even to them, the root issue. And because they lied and said we do not know and Christ knows that they're lying, Jesus answered and said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. He still had more teaching to give. He wasn't saying what authority because he was afraid of them. In fact, when he stands before Pilate, and Pilate says to him, are you the Christ? He says, you say that I am. He affirms it. But here he doesn't. But here is a judicial warning. Here he's basically saying, I'm done speaking to you now. I'm not telling you these things anymore. I'm not going to answer your question. You know, there are some people who still have not turned to the Lord because their questions have not all been answered. Where has God promised in the Bible that he will answer every one of your questions? He answers the questions you need to have answered, and that is this. Why do I need to be saved? Because you're a sinner. Why do I need the cross? Because only a perfect sacrifice, only one who hasn't sinned, only one who is holy, only one who is a man and can represent you willingly, but also is God and therefore can pay an infinite price, only he can save you. That's ultimately all you need to know. And the marvel of the gospel is that Christ was placed under the authority you despise. Christ was placed under the very law that we have broken. And Christ was treated as a law broker. What was happening on the cross? Christ was experiencing on the cross the full force of a broken law. The curses of God's law, the divine vengeance of God. God made him who knew no sin sin for us. God made him who is godly die the death of the ungodly. He died as a treasonous man. And the good news, if we believe and we embrace his authority, We become citizens of a heavenly kingdom. We have heavenly status. And our worth and value is in this. We have heavenly help. We have the promise of guidance. We have a court of appeal. We have treasure in heaven. These are blessings that you can't put a price on. They're priceless blessings. But the warning here, if we reject the plainly obvious, there comes a point when God stops speaking to us. and he takes his word away. And I don't know when that happens. None of us know the threshold. I mean, that's even a warning to churches, isn't it? You know, when we see closed churches, we need to not think like the world does. The world doesn't understand what's going on. The world sees closed churches and goes, ha ha, Christianity is not true. Christianity is failing. Christianity is falling apart. Nope, not at all. It's actually the opposite. Christ is king and he's closed down that church. Christ is judging churches for their unbelief and their unbiblicalness and for sin in the churches and for unholiness in the churches and for lukewarmness in the church. We saw that last week. Even losing your first love, behold I will come quickly and remove the lampstand. And so, here is a warning. If you're under biblical ministry, searching ministry, are we responding to his word? It's one of the things I fear for the United Kingdom. Do you have this fear? You know, we need to actually, as Christians, start thinking with biblical eyes, what are you most afraid of? War with Russia? War with China? Islamic fundamentalism? I mean, all these things are legitimate fears to have, for sure, humanly speaking. But I'll tell you what terrifies me more than anything else is the removal of His word from our nation and giving over people to utter darkness, groping in the darkness, not understanding how lost they are. That is the greatest and most terrifying prospect for any one of us. And it's happening. It's happening. If you go to Cheltenham where Priyan's the pastor, there are people traveling over an hour to be at his church. Why are people traveling over an hour? Because there's no biblical churches in their area. You can go to Cornwall and there's one or two, at most three, biblical churches in the whole district of Cornwall. It's the same in Devon. And if you think of even our region of East Sussex, I mean you probably know more churches than I know of that have closed before I even arrived on the scene. But if you think, East Sussex used to be known as a Bible Belt, didn't it? I've actually heard people use that language, and I've spoke to people, oh, where are you a pastor? I'm a pastor in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Oh, that's a bit of a Bible Belt, isn't it? There's like four Reformed churches in Helsham, and there's three in Eastbourne, and there's all these chapels here in Mayfield, and this place, and that place, and that place, Withersfield, and so on, you go all around. I wonder, in five to 10 years, how many will be left? And again, it's not defeat. It might seem like that. But it's Christ saying, the people didn't want it in the area. One, so I'm gonna take it away. And maybe even God's people were unmoved by my word. They didn't feel the privilege of a biblical ministry. They didn't feel the privilege of having an open Bible. These are really sobering things. And yet, and yet, let's not leave on that note. He is speaking to us. He is knocking at the door. He is among us. He hasn't forsaken us. He's adding to our number. He's working in this church. And so we should be joyful and we should realise, well, why is he speaking to us? Why is he dealing with us? Because He desires to fellowship with us, to suffer with us, to have a relationship with us. And dear friends, we go out into that world, and I hope the very least, thinking about the authority of Christ, it will give you a spring in your step that when people look down on you for being a Christian and laugh at you, you know in whom you've believed. You know the one you've committed your soul to. You know that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to father. You are not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile. You are not ashamed of the scriptures, for they are the living, breathing word of God, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and body. The word of God is like a hammer. It is searching. And you go out into this world as sheep among wolves, which is a bit scary, isn't it? Except you're in the hands of the good shepherd who can deal with the wolves. This is good news, true prayer.