Yes, from the web, we of course welcome everyone here in God's house. And just by a little ministration here, we don't pass the hat or the plate, I guess I should say. We do have a little box out there in the hallway as the Lord leads you. If you'd like to leave a gift either offering in that box, feel free to do so. And let me think, is there anything else? We're going to all have a meal together today. Normally, on the first Sunday of the month, we have a Love's Feast, and we'll partake of our communion at that time, breaking the bread together and, of course, then serving the wine after our meal and fellowship. So we look forward to that, and all are invited to remain and partake in that. Well, sure. And next Sunday, Sunday School will be having a visiting group from Crestview, a recovery program. They'll be sharing their ministry during next week's Sunday School talk. Wonderful, wonderful. Well, again, good to see everybody out. And for those that are wondering where my wife and granddaughter are, they will be here shortly. We were scrambling this morning, and this is a two-car Sunday. Yes, sir? And tonight and tomorrow night, I think Dr. White will be speaking at Trinity there. At Trinity. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Well, without further ado, as we normally do, We lift up our service in prayer. And so let's do so and lift up our Lord and the message we're about to receive. As we read in Psalms 66, 1 and 2 and 3, make a joyful sound to God and all the earth. Sing out the honor of his name. Make his praises glorious. Say to God, how awesome are your works. We'll be doing that throughout the service today, and let's begin by singing our choral call to worship, Were You There, number 260 in the red hymnal, number 260. I was listening to Marian Anderson. There's a name drop if anybody wants to look it up, and her singing spirituals. So I said, I think we've got that one in our hymn book. I think we'll try that one this time. were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Are you there when they pierced him in the side? Were you there when they pierced him in the side? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they were sitting on the side? Look for a different verse 5 at the chorus this time. Were you there when they rose up from the dead? Were you there when He rose up from the dead? Sometimes I feel like shouting glory, glory, glory. Were you there when he rose from the dead? Amen. So if you remain standing, Pastor Boone will give the invocation. Let's call on God and ask His blessing on our worship today. O Father, You who received Your beloved Son into Your presence, having raised Him from the dead, receive us in Him now. and bless us that the Spirit who brings glory to the Son will work in our hearts to love Him with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength and so to issue forth from the heart worship that is pleasing to you because it is centered in Him and on Him. Help us, blessed Holy Spirit, And bless, Lord, your worship in every place today where men sincerely call upon your name. And we thank you for your good work. We call on you, Father, again, in the blessed name of your Son, Jesus. Amen. Let's go ahead now and open the Red Hymnal once again, and we're going to sing when I survey the wondrous cross, number 252, the Red Hymnal, 252. So, I'm going to play it now. There lay the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died. My richness gained, I count the loss, And for contentment all my pride. oh is The mission's history, sorrow and love of nature higher than the presence of his soul. Love so amazing and so divine, deepens my soul, my heart, my mind. We're now going to turn to our statement of faith this morning and if you'll pull out your blue Psalter there and We're going to turn to the golden pages And with this morning, we'll be reading selection number 6 and selection number 20 They're in the front of that blue Psalter number 6 out of that Matthew 1 verse 21 through 23 believing in God's word and confessing it together. And you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. So all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, which is translated God with us. Turning now again to selection number 20 out of revelations. We'll be reading chapter 7 verse 12 again all together You may be seated we'll now sing psalm number 110 in the Blue Salter there, and for the benefit of our guests, the background here, Pastor Cain has put many of the psalms to music to help facilitate our remembrance of them. So we're going to sing this morning psalm number 110 in the Blue Salter. So, yeah, if you go to the, like, the middle of the book and whatever psalm you see there, then if it's less, if it's a lower number than Psalm 110, then you keep turning. If it's higher than Psalm 110, then you turn it back. We don't have all the psalms, but anybody have a pretty easy idea? Sit at my right hand till I set you free. 4 The Lord had your right hand, such as kings do today of his wrath. Let all God's people say, Amen. very quick Psalm 31, 14, the psalmist says, But I trusted in you, Yahweh, I said, You are my God. It's a very simple but quite a profound confession, isn't it? You are my God. Whatever are counted as gods among men, we count the true God as our God. And so let's come before him and, as Jesus said, pray in this manner. So we will follow his outline that he gave us when he said that. Let's pray. O Father, we thank you, you, the one who have birthed a nation and continues to birth a spiritual nation of priests before you. because of the priests that we have sung about here in Psalm 110 and so we ask O God that You will hear our prayer teach us to intercede But we thank you that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered and so what we lack in our prayer and in our understanding and in our feeling we know the Spirit prays on our behalf and And so we thank you. Spirit, also tutor us, teach us to pray. Fill us with wisdom, fill us with your word so that we will be answering back according to what is written. For we know that this is God's voice. And so, Father, we ask from your throne in heaven, hear us. And we follow Solomon's advice where he says, God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. Lord, we pray then that we will choose our words wisely again by the strength and help of your Spirit to say what needs to be said. Lord, we ask then, first of all, that your name be set apart, be treated holy and sanctified. Teach us, then, your name, and we know, as the psalmist has said, you have magnified your word above all your name. All the ways that you are made known, and everything points to you, but your word is chief, and your words are living and powerful, and if they are in us, and we are alive through them, then you are working in us, O God. We pray then that we will have faith to receive all that you are saying, not to deflect anything because of the pain of conviction, but rather even to invite it. And so we pray that your name will be set apart in all of the earth, and we long for that day when the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the seas. We pray then, O God, that your kingdom will come, that you will cause it to come by your great power. Come, Lord Jesus. And until, Lord, your arrival to claim what is yours, we pray that the kingdom of God, which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, will advance in us, in your people. That, Lord, you will grant us that we will not let anything take the peace of Christ away, that we will, as Paul told us, to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. And then, Lord, as King, teach us your law, teach us your commands, and to love your commands, so that your will will be done here on earth, as your angels do your will in heaven. that they hear your voice and they go forth with strength. So, Lord, grant us to hear the word that will be laid upon us and within us to also go forth to do what we hear. Lord, then bless, Lord, your servant, James White, to speak with all boldness today, to reach your people in your name. We pray, as Paul told Timothy, for all peoples and those that are in authority over them, so that we, your church, may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all reverence and sobriety. And we pray, Lord, do not deliver us into the hands of those who hate you. And we pray for our brothers and sisters who are in prison today. You have told us, Lord, to remember them as though we were there chained up with them. And so, Lord, we do pause to think upon them right now. Lord, we know that we have brothers and sisters that are dying every day, and because they would not deny the name of Christ, we pray, O God, that we might count the cost, what it is worth even to mention the name of Christ among those whom we know do not believe, that we will not be ashamed of Jesus or his words. And we pray then, O God, Lord of the harvest, send workers into the harvest fields of the souls of man. Bless those who have gone forth. Bless those that we are privileged to help as a church, as individuals. Lord God, continue to raise up and send forth those who hear the need, who hear where The fields are wide unto harvest, and there are harvesters needed. Lord, send us forth and grant us, Lord, that we will walk in wisdom toward those who are outside the faith, redeeming the time, our speech always in grace, seasoned with salt, so that we will know how to answer each one. Lord God, we pray among the nations, we pray for the peoples of your Old Covenant who continue to hold to the Old Covenant. and who do not hear the old covenant and its witness of Christ and the new covenant that has been established. And we pray then, Lord, how long until that promised time that the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and you lift the blindness of the Jewish people. Lord, but we think of ourselves then, and as Paul told in thinking of them, to fear that if the natural olive branch was cut off, how much more we who are wild olive branches by nature will be cut off if we don't believe. And so, Lord, work in us a godly fear and revive your church, that we will be afraid to misrepresent you, afraid to speak wrongly concerning you, and afraid to live in a way that dishonors you, that this godly fear, Lord, may motivate us. Lord, again, convict us by your word so that you may also correct us and realign us with your ways. Lord, we pray now, asking that you will bless our families, that you will bless us to be husbands who love their wives, as Christ loves the Church. Wives who submit to their husbands, as the Church is to Christ. Children who obey their parents in the Lord, for this is right. And parents, Lord, who consecrate their children in the mouth of your Word. Lord, then hear our prayer for our daily needs. Give us this day the bread of subsistence. Tear for us our portion of bread. Grant us, Lord, then self-control by your Spirit with food and drink and all things in this earth to hold them lightly as it were. and not to return to idolatry in our hearts, but we do thank you that we may receive as those who have been richly blessed, for we have, and we pray that we would therefore be generous that you would receive the sacrifice of help for the needy. We pray, O God, that you will receive, Lord, our acknowledgements of your lordship and ownership of all things, that you would receive the tithes, the offerings. Lord, we pray that you would grant us recuperation of soul day by day, and sleep, and restful sleep. We pray that you would grant us healing, Lord. We remember Buddy Phillips. We pray, Lord, for Dave Lessard. We pray for Miriam Woodyard, O God. Lord, we pray for my mom. Pray for Sue Green. We pray, O God, for Mickey Polk. Lord, for Dawn Cowden, continue to strengthen him. Lord, we pray for Ashley. Bless her, Lord, and her pregnancy, her and the baby. Lord, we pray for Addison Moore, that you would heal her of her eating disability. Lord, we ask that you would bless Spencer Tosey, as he goes into field training for this week, give him safety. We pray for Julie Lessard for healing from COVID and that you will protect David during this time. Lord, we do pray for the salvation of our lost loved ones. And Lord, we pray for your blessing on Mickey Schneider's family and the loss of Amy. Lord, we pray for Will Platt and his recovery from cancer. And Lord, bless the Anderson families with salvation and sanctification. We pray, O God, that you would bless Chris Hatton to find godly Christian companionship. Lord, bless Linda Tabor with continued healing from pancreatic cancer. And we pray, Lord, for the release of the Americans and the Afghans that are held hostage, O God. Lord, hear our prayers and whatever we have not enumerated before you here, we pray, O God, that we will, that we will obey your command to be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanks to make our requests known to you. And then, Lord, we count on you to give us that incomprehensible peace that will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Forgive us where we have rather worried, where we have been frustrated and angry and not submitted to your providences. O God, we pray that you would forgive us of all of our sins. We know only the blood of Christ can cleanse us. Teach us to confess then, O God, to say what you say about sin and to know it of ourselves. And then as those who are freely forgiven, that we would freely forgive, we hear the warning of our Lord that if we do not forgive men their deviations, neither will our Father forgive ours. And so, Lord, in this and every way, we pray, do not lead us into temptation. Rather, search us out, O God. We know that you will not invent any temptation in us, but where there is a desire pulling at us, and as the psalmist said, if I gazed at iniquity in my heart, the Master would not have heard. And so, show us, Lord, where we are perhaps entrapped in something today, O God. And we pray for the Lord Jesus to do His work, for He is Savior, He is Deliverer, as we have confessed in this word. Lord Jesus, deliver us from evil, from our own evil. We know the evil one, Satan, has nothing with which he can pull us down apart from our own evil within ourselves. Therefore, deliver us by showing us that evil. that we may turn from it. Again, thank you for the advantageous place we are in, that the Word is going to be preached, and the Word is profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction and realignment, and for instruction in righteousness, schooling us in staying in what we hear. Lord, you love your people. Lord, we love you. We ask that you will speak to us from your word, asking it in Jesus' name. Amen. And now, Mr. James White. We usually have a scripture reading here, but he's going to read and do it, I think, right the way that old Paul told Timothy there when he said, till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to teaching. And so I think that's probably the way it's supposed to go, to start reading and start exhorting and teaching. So, praise God. Got to find a place here. There's a lot of stuff up here. All right. Well, it's good to be with you here somewhere in Florida, wherever I am. I think it's Valparaiso. I drove down yesterday from Atlanta. I am still upset with Google as to how it arranged that particular trip. I am learning that Google will put you through all sorts of places that you should never go with a RV. And especially under a lot of trees, you should not go under with an RV if you like to have your air conditioner left on top. Anyways, no damage, we're good, but it was a bit on the nerve-wracking side, so we're going to have to do some rearranging. On the way back, it's pretty much I-10 all the way back to where I live, so that's not really really an issue, but it is good to be with you. I mentioned to the passenger I walked in, you all have a pipe leak someplace, there's water falling out of the sky. You need to look to that, get a plumber on that as quick as possible. I am from Phoenix, Arizona, and so when it started coming down this morning, that was quite enjoyable. I think you got more rain in half an hour than we've gotten the past year, but that's how things are there. And so I was just up at the G3 conference. I'm sure that most of you are probably aware of that particular conference. We had, I think, 6,400 people at the conference this year. And I got a bear hug from Votie Balcom right before he spoke. And if you know Votie Balcom, that's a bear hug. That's a real one. And so it was good to see a lot of folks there. I am traveling. In 2019, I flew 165,000 miles. I ministered in Samara, Russia, in Johannesburg, South Africa. I spent about two and a half months in London. I managed to just escape at the end of 2019 from Melbourne, Australia, which if you know what's going on down there, you understand what I mean. I just barely managed to escape. It is such a shame. It's such a beautiful city. I had a debate with a young Muslim fellow down there. I was looking forward to doing more debates with him. I ran a 10K along the beach. Just beautiful, beautiful place. And in a matter of months, it was locked down and it's one of the most freedom starved places in the world right now. And so that was 2019 and my how things have changed. And so to get the opportunity to get back out and to see folks, I think my overseas ministry is pretty much done, to be honest with you. But I want to, while we still can, before they set up the border guards and start putting up the walls, funny if this group of people put up walls, isn't it? But we purchased an RV. I had never done an RV before in my life, so the learning curve has been great. But I must admit, I managed to back her in and get her set up in a very brief amount of time last night at the little RV park nearby. And so I'm getting better. I'm not going to be an expert to at least 20,000 miles, I would say, but at the rate I'm going, I'll get there by the middle of next year. So I would appreciate your prayers for safety while traveling. I see some wild stuff out there. Primarily on the part of certain truckers that think they're actually on the Indianapolis 500 Speedway. Especially when going through construction zones where your lanes are this wide, you've got six inches on each side, and they just go blowing by at 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. It's lots of fun. So, anyways, I still have a lot of speaking to do. I hope you'll come out tonight and tomorrow night, especially if you're interested in the Bible translation issue. I don't think there's any controversy about that here in the panhandle of Florida at all. That was meant to be funny. It's okay, I know. It's okay to respond. I do realize, of course, you're in the hotbed of these things, and so I think it's important to know where the Bible came from, how to defend it, what its history actually is, not strange stories made up by peoples whose last name rhyme with Tuckman. So, you might want to come out the next two nights for that. If you turn your Bibles, please, to Mark chapter 14. I was thinking, Pastor Cain wrote to me and asked if I would like to speak, and I said, sure, and what would you like to speak on? And I said, well, I'll be honest with you, I will have just spoken at G3, we did Q&As, And I said, what I enjoy doing is I've had the opportunity over the decades to teach Greek over and over again, teach Hebrew. And what I like to do and what people seem to enjoy is when I open up a text and I simply do a fresh live translation as I'm walking through it and then go back through and make application and exegesis. commenting on its history whatever else it might be and so I was thinking normally I'll do like a like John chapter 9 or something like that but I I have a real attraction to the gospel of Mark and I someday And maybe if I get disciplined enough while I'm traveling, I'll figure out how to do translation while driving. That would probably be a little bit distracted, but I've wanted for a long time to do a translation of the Gospel of Mark for Muslims. because I have a real burden for Muslims. I have debated Muslims in mosques in England, South Africa, places like that, and I still want to reach out to those folks, even if I'm not going to get an opportunity to travel to those places. And many of them have somewhat of a bias against the Gospel of John. They've been told that it's later, unreliable, so on and so forth, and they've accepted the idea that the Gospel of Mark was the first written. We do not know the order of the Gospels. If you go to the local Bible college, they're going to tell you that it was probably Mark, and then Matthew and Luke borrowed from Mark and changed stuff, and then John was just off on an island doing his own weird thing, and that's sadly how things are presented. The fact of the matter is, we don't know the order of the Gospels. And there are lots of issues that are raised when you start trying to figure that out and then interpret each gospel in light of a certain theory. But one of the things that's said is that Mark has the lowest view of Jesus and John has the highest view of Jesus. And my Muslim friends all believe that. They've been taught that. Shabir Ali, a fellow I've debated a number of times, has made that very popular amongst Muslims. And so I like to go to the Gospel of Mark because it has such a high view of Jesus. People just sometimes skip over it, or they're not aware of it, or whatever it might be. And as I was thinking about some of the texts in the Gospel of Mark that are truly amazing in what they witness concerning Christ, I thought about the trial of Jesus. And as I read through the text again, it struck me that there are actually a number of things that have tremendous ramifications and relevance to our own study. And I just realized it's very wise that I looked at my watch because your clock's dead, just so you know. Now that's very convenient because, you know, when you've got a guest preacher and he's trying to figure out how long you're supposed to go and the clock doesn't work, this is, man, I'm really doing well here. The thing's barely moved. Actually, it has barely moved because it's not really working. So hear that or no, that's not even close. Don't throw a guy a curve like that. You're going to be here all day long. I thought I was getting something done, but nothing has happened. It's very strange. Anyway, Gospel of Mark, there's so much in this text that we can make application to what's going on in our world today. So let's take a look, beginning at verse 55. Now that's Mark 14, the longest chapter. Uh, and of course it's because it is on the, uh, the arrest and betrayal arrest and the trial of Jesus. And so Jesus has been brought before the high priest and the Sanhedrin, and they are seeking to bring testimony against him. And so, uh, the high priests and all the Sanhedrin were seeking testimony against Jesus so they might put him to death, but they were not finding any. for many were testifying falsely against him, but this is fascinating, and their testimonies were not, and the term is equal. So some of your translations will say something like consistent, but I'll come back and comment on that, that they were not equal with one another. There's something there about how you determine what is truth. Truth and consistency, vastly important issues in our day, in our postmodern world, where truth and consistency is now something that is literally, in our day, being considered a bad thing. I've literally heard people view a meaningful epistemology, a meaningful understanding of knowledge, as an example of white supremacy. And I don't know about you, but when I get on a plane, I want an engineer that knows about truth and consistency, having built it and maintained it. And this whole world functions that way. So it's interesting that the terminology there is, but their testimonies were not equal, or they themselves, the testifiers, were not equal with one another. They were not consistent. And certain of these false testifiers, these false witnesses, stood up. And they were saying that we heard him saying that I will destroy this temple made with hands and by means of or during the course of three days will raise up or will build up another not made with hands. But even in this, their testimony was not, again, equal or consistent. And the high priest stood up in the midst, was standing and literally stood in the midst of them. And so he took a central place in the proceedings. And he asked Jesus, he was asking Jesus, do you have no answer? Do you not hear what these are testifying against you? But Jesus was silent and answered him nothing. Again, the high priest was asking him and saying to him, Are you the Christos? That is, of course, the Greek translation of the Hebrew term, Mashiach, the Anointed One, the Messiah. Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? And Jesus said, I am. And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Now, the chief priest tore his robes, he tore his clothing, the standard, this would be something that the Jewish people would do as a sign of tremendous grief or amazement at something like that. And so the chief priest tore his tunic, his clothes, and said, what further need do we have of witnesses? You heard the blasphemy. What do you judge? And it literally means to shine. So it was supposed to be the judgment of the judge shining light forth. It's rather ironic in this situation it's used in that way. What do you conclude? What do you judge? And they all judged him to be, they condemned him. It's a negative judgment. They condemned him to be worthy of death. And so here you have Mark's version if you want to read the parallels. And by the way, I would strongly encourage you. There are excellent printed or now, of course, all on our phones and computers and so on and so forth. parallels of the Gospels, where you put Matthew, Mark, and Luke in line with one another, the synoptic Gospels, and you can compare them as they tell similar stories. So, for example, in this case, the section that we just read through is paralleled in Matthew 26, 59-68, and in Luke 22, 66 to 71. And it is a very challenging study. I spent, if I recall correctly, it was seven or nine years teaching through the Synoptic Gospels at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church a couple of decades ago now, I think. And it really challenges you to listen carefully to what is being said. It's easy for our minds to harmonize things, but when they're right there on the page together, we can see the challenges that are sometimes ours in looking at the Synoptic Gospels and seeking to understand their testimony to the words of Christ. And if I recall, I will mention one such parallel in a few moments. Here we have Mark's version. It's interesting that Mark is the shortest of the Gospels. Mark doesn't give us a lot of the teachings of Jesus, but when Mark does focus in on an event in Jesus' life, he normally spends more time giving us details than Matthew or Luke does, which is interesting. This is very important when you're looking at some of the alleged contradictions between the Synoptic Gospels, is that the other Gospels will summarize, they'll telescope, they'll bring stuff together. You know the old telescopes where you pull it out like this and then push it back together. Well, sometimes, you know, if I wanted to relate to you, for example, the events so far on this trip, if we were sitting down over dinner and you had a special interest in how you travel the country in an RV, then I might give you lots of details about the places I've stopped, and the things that I've encountered, and the different kind of hookups that you'll run into, and some funny things I've encountered, like when I went up to Idaho, and my dear friend said, oh yeah, I've got an RV hookup in my house, and then I got there and found out that he had a 110 volt extension cord in the hose. That's not quite an RV hookup. And so now I ask very specifically, oh, so you mean minimum 30 amp 220, and then it's like, oh, you need that? Yeah, yeah, I do. So if we were sitting down at dinner and you had an interest, then I would give you a lot of details. But if we're standing at the back door, And I figure you're going to be there for the next 60 seconds. I'm going to telescope a lot of that stuff. I'm going to leave out a lot of details. Now, am I lying to you? No. It's just simply I recognize I only have a certain amount of time. I only have a certain amount of space if I was writing it down. And so the various Gospels, the Gospel writers had the freedom to determine how much detail they were going to go into. And it's interesting that when Mark goes into detail on something, he frequently goes into more detail. than the other Gospels, which cover much more territory than Mark did. But that's why you have the differences between them. And so here in the shortest Gospel, you have this discussion of what happens before the high priest. Now, of course, you know that biblically there's only supposed to be one high priest. But the Romans started messing with the system. The Sadducees had become involved politically with the Romans, and so some of the high priests would be removed by the Romans, and other people put in, and so you ended up with multiple high priests, which was a violation of God's law, but that was the situation that they they faced, and the Sanhedrin, and that's the exact word that's used in verse 55, Sanhedrin, that's the council of the Jewish leaders, they have decided to move. They have, of course, used Judas to betray the Lord, and so they have decided to move. Now is the time to move against this man who has been such a thorn in our side for so long. And we are concerned that this man is going to be doing and saying things that are going to upset the balance, the very delicate balance that we are trying to maintain with our Roman overlords. And of course, as you know, that balance is not going to last. And barely 40 years after these events, Jerusalem would be reduced to a smoking ruin by Titus and Roman legions. But they're trying to hold on, and what they are doing is they are seeking. The term in verse 55, they are seeking, they're looking for. It's the same term that's used in John chapter 6, when the men are seeking Jesus, and they row their boats across the lake. Which is interesting, they're the very men that Jesus identifies as unbelievers. You've seen me, but you do not believe. And yet they rode boats across the lake to find Jesus. They were seeking Him. Very same term that's used here in verse 55. The high priests are seeking against Jesus' testimony so they might put Him to death. But they weren't finding it. It's not that they weren't finding pseudo-martyrs. That's the term that's used in verse 56. Pseudo-witnesses. false witnesses, people who are willing to lie. They had lots of those folks. Pretty easy to find folks who lie if you promise them certain things. And that's a sad commentary on the human condition, but it remains a grave danger to us today. And so they found many of them, but as I mentioned when I read through it, the testifiers, and hence their testimony, were not consistent, they were not equal. And I wanted to comment upon that because we live, we've been living in a day, and now this has become, sadly, a part of public policy, educational policy. Well, if it's going to be part of educational policy for decades, it eventually will become part of public policy. And I think many of us ignored what we considered the wackos in the academy who were bringing postmodernism and a completely foreign understanding of truth and how we know truth and the importance of truth. We just sort of said, well, those are the weirdos over there. And most of the time, once people graduate from university and maybe once they've paid off their huge debts and have discovered how hard that was, they all grow up and they get out of that weird phase of being immature university students. Well, the problem is those immature university students are now in charge. And the result is what we are seeing. We are literally seeing a situation arising where you have people, the whole issue of who is a male and who is a female. The idea that 2 plus 2 equaling 4 is racist. This just complete destruction of common sense in our experience. We should have seen it coming. Uh, you can't allow that to not go unchallenged for so long, uh, and, and not expect that people are going to start acting on the basis of these things. And so we are, we are, there's a, I don't have it in front of me, but there, oh, I can pull it out, but there's an excellent quote that I would recommend to you by Theodore Dalrymple. Dalrymple studied the, um, the rhetoric of the Soviet Union. And most of you aren't old enough to remember. There's only, there might be, wow. Pastor Kane, how old are you, bro? I'm sorry, how old are you? 65. Okay, you're older than I am. You don't look older than I am. I don't like that. Okay, I look much older than you. You have far more hair and it's still dark. That's not fair. I don't like that. But you'll remember, we had exercises when I was in school where you'd get under your desk in case of a air raid or something along those lines. And we were, you know, I grew up during the Cold War and all of our weapons were aimed at the Soviet Union and every Olympic Games, you know, you had to beat the Ruskies or the East Germans because they wanted to beat you. And we just experienced that kind of a of a world and they were those people over there and they were out there and and that's just that's how I know when I first went to Ukraine and was amongst a whole group of people singing the same hymns we sing here but in Russian I couldn't help but just think how much the world had had changed we would have that kind of a that kind of freedom but The point being, we are now in a situation where what we assumed to be absolutely foundational truths to our society are gone. We still do things. I watched a little bit of the inauguration, and you have a man standing there putting his hand upon a Bible. I just have to wonder how many young people have any idea of the significance of that action. Do you know, by the way, where traditionally the Bible was opened to? Does anybody know? Deuteronomy 28 and 29, the blessings and cursings of the Old Covenant. And if you've read them, they are quite explicit. Why would, in a secular worldview, and that's what we're facing today, We are facing a thoroughly secular society where mankind is viewed as a cosmic accident. You have no transcendent meaning. There will be no day of judgment. And that is so completely different than the foundations upon which this culture was built, that the two cannot coexist for any lengthy period of time. And so there was a day when a man made in the image of God, placing his hand and taking an oath upon God's revelation, meant that this person believed that they needed to do what they were saying they would do because there was a day of judgment coming. And the reality of that day of judgment constricted their behavior. and gave you reason to believe that they would fulfill their oaths. Putting your hand upon something that's merely an ancient book, when you are nothing but a cosmic accident who, when you die, simply cease to exist and there is no judgment, is no basis for an oath and no basis for trusting anyone to do anything. So young people today look at what we used to do in the past and they don't understand. Why did people do the things they did? Why were people willing to make the sacrifices they did when that's not the case any longer? Well, it's because there was a worldview involved. And even here in the scripture, The idea of testifying being equal or consistent. You cannot define the word truth without using words related to the word consistency. And yet when you look at our young generation today, what is the only, what's the only consistency for them? Change. Change. I look back at my life, and when I was younger, you know what? Politics in the world were pretty much the same between 2nd and 3rd grade. Now, you expect everything to change. And I was... I forgot the Doll Ripple thing, sorry. When Doll Ripple studied how the Soviet Union... Soviet Union had a... and still does, it's still available in Russian, had a publication called Pravda. And Pravda means truth in Russian. And everybody in the Soviet Union knew that it was published in Pravda. It was not Pravda. If it was published there, it was untruth. You just knew it. And so the entire thought process of the communist regime was to force people to confess lies. So you'd have to put signs up in your businesses that said, you know, you're for the workers of the world, and all the rest of the stuff, when you knew what you were doing had nothing to do with the workers of the world. And you knew that the government was going to lie to you all the time about production, and that every year was better than the last, but you knew it was actually worse than the last. And they'd literally change the numbers. So if it was in Pravda, it was not Pravda, it was not truth. And so the only consistency was inconsistency and Dalrymple's whole point was that was purposeful. It was meant to break you down because people, servile people who lie all the time because they're told to lie are easier to control than people who insist upon speaking the truth. And I'm hearing people in my own society all the time going, these people on the left, they're such hypocrites. They say one thing and they do another. And they tell us we've got to do this and they don't do it. And they're just such hypocrites. And I go, yeah, it's purposeful. It is absolutely purposeful. It is meant to break you down. It is meant to break people down and to make them submissive and servile. And you simply can't Expect consistency from people who do not love truth. Remember the scary words that Paul used to describe those who refused to love the truth? What did God do to them justly? He caused them to love the lie. If you refuse to love the truth, God will cause you to love a lie. And when God's judgment comes upon a people, people will love lies. I don't know about you, but I see a whole lot of my fellow citizens who just seem to love lies today. They are absolutely passionate about them. Passion about them and they'll do anything to promote them. So these testimonies these testimonies these testifiers were not consistent but then there were some there were some who stood up and They remembered something Jesus had said that's fascinating. They didn't really Understand what he had said or why he had said it and it is interesting that this is what they would bring up in Jesus's trial and where what he was actually saying and had been saying throughout his ministry about why he had come and what he was, you know, he sets his face toward Jerusalem. It is necessary to go to Jerusalem. Remember, he and Peter, oh, the Lord never may be. Get behind me, Satan. Your mind of things of men, not of God. I must go to Jerusalem and this is what I must accomplish. And yet that's what comes up in the false testimony here in Mark is, you know, we heard him say that he would destroy this temple made with hands. Now, this temple that was staying in Jerusalem at this point in time had been under phases of construction for years and years and years. It was really, in this part of the world, one of the most magnificent structures that had been built at this point in time. It was very richly and lavishly adorned, and was still, in essence, still under some type of construction pretty much all the time, improvements and expansions and things like that. So, it had become symbolic of the nation. So to say you were going to destroy the temple was basically, in essence, a treasonous statement. It was a treasonous statement. And so they got part of it right. But isn't it fascinating that right there in verse 58, you have three days. They had gotten that part right, and that he would build another made without hands in three days. And the events that they are participating in, in the sovereignty of God, but unwittingly, they don't know what their role is, the events they're participating in would eventuate in the crucifixion of Christ, His burial, and His resurrection, and the creation of that temple of God made without hands. So they weren't wrong, they just didn't understand what the application was and thought that this might be something worth bringing condemnation. Would be the testimony that they bring but even in this their testimony was not again equal consistent truthful So obviously what happens is the the chief priest starts losing patience This is this is a show trial anyways He's probably very angry with the people who brought in these witnesses and and didn't school them well enough to get their testimonies straight, to make it look good when they go before the Roman authorities to be able to have a public execution, especially at a really challenging time there toward the period of Passover. And so the high priest gets impatient and he stands up and he tries to get Jesus to incriminate himself. Don't you hear what these people are saying against you? Do you have nothing to say in response? But Jesus remains silent and answers nothing. And so the chief priest now in Mark says is asking him and saying to him, are you the Christ? And I knew that in one of the synoptic gospels, it was a much stronger term. I looked it up and it's Matthew's version. When Matthew records this, he uses a very specific Greek term that is used in legal proceedings, where you abjure, you are placing somebody under a curse if they do not give an answer. So it isn't just simply to ask in a friendly manner, chitchat type of thing. It is, by my authority as high priest, I abjure you. I place you under a curse if you do not respond to me. And then he brings in the big gun. And why would I say it's the big gun? Well, you already have had a number of people at this time in church history. prior to this period, who have claimed messianic roles. They've caused people to follow them. This is the huge political bomb, given the relationship that the Sadducees and the Jewish hierarchy has to the Romans. A Messiah is going to be a person who leads a rebellion. a messiah, an anointed one. The Jews have been looking for the messiah for hundreds of years. There are all sorts of different understandings as to what the messiah is going to be, the role he's going to have. They're looking at the Old Testament prophecies, and they put some of it together right over here, but some of it wrong over there. They don't see how the fulfillment is going to take place. And this even plays out between John the Baptist and Jesus. Remember when John the Baptist sends some of his disciples to Jesus, are you the one we're looking for or is there someone else? And Jesus' response to pointing to certain of those passages are being fulfilled in his ministry. And so there was a certain level of confusion, but there were certainly many Jews who saw a very strongly militaristic very strongly militaristic fulfillment of the Messiah. And that's what they were looking for, and that's what the Jews were really scared of, who had authority, who had power, that did not want to see things change. And so he decides, let's go for it. We've already had him arrested, we've spent money for the false testimony, which didn't do us any good. Let's go for the big question. And so He says, Are you HaChristos? The Mashiach, the Messiah. Not a Messiah, but the Messiah. In fact, the Son of the Blessed One. So, Son of God, in its fullest sense. Now we know that there had been discussions of these things in John and other contexts, but here in a legal setting, abjuring, as Matthew puts it, putting Jesus under oath in essence, are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? Now Jesus' response in verse 62 requires us to be familiar with the Old Testament text in a way that certainly the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees would have been familiar with the Old Testament text. But many of us today are not, to be perfectly honest, because the response is so strong that there has to have been something that Jesus said that tapped into not only what the Hebrew Scriptures were saying, but what the expectation of the Jewish people were. So, let's look, and I didn't bring my Hebrew text, so I'll go with the, I don't know if any of you, do any of you know when, if I say Jeffrey Rice and Post-Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding? Both of these are Jeffrey Rice, I just want you to know. It's supposed to be very impressive. But Jeffrey is a, if you have a Bible you just love, this Bible, you know what I got in this Bible? What's called the block, the text, is a 1977 large print NASB that I bought in about 1978. And it wasn't in bad shape, I had taken good care of it. And as the pastor can testify, the older you get, the bigger the font needs to be. That's one of the reasons, frequently, I will use an iPad to preach from, because you can make the font so big, I can sit back there and still read it. But this is still very readable for me, and Jeffrey rebounded for me, and I can only highly recommend, if you have a Bible you just love, but the cover is just... has seen its better days and is leaving marks in your car as parts of it fall off. Jeffrey Rice really knows what he's doing. So he did this one for me and I found it providential that this morning, what did we sing? Well, we sang Pastor Kane's, I think that was your, are all of those yours? The Psalms, okay. Psalm 110. Psalm 110. And so if you look at Psalm 110, this is one of the most quoted texts of Scripture. As we like to say at Apologia Church, where I'm one of the pastors, it's God's favorite text of Scripture because he quotes it so often in the New Testament. And Psalm 110.1 is quoted a number of times. And then, of course, Psalm 110.4 is also quoted many times in the New Testament as well. So it's a very highly messianic passage. And I am reminded of what's the first thing Jesus does when he rises from the dead is with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And then with the 11, Judas being gone, he opens their minds to understand the scriptures and how from Moses through all the prophets they testified of him. And so when we see in Acts the sermons where these Old Testament pastors are being brought up, that's what Jesus taught them after His resurrection. We wish we could walk along with the two disciples and hear that conversation, but we still get to get part of it when we read the book of Acts, for example, or read the epistles. But here in Psalm 110, Yahweh says to my Adonai, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet. Yahweh will stretch forth thy strong scepter from Zion saying rule in the midst of thine enemies." And so here is a song specifically originally about the king and yet it has a fulfillment in the son of David. And remember Jesus uses this as a riddle. How can David's Lord the Messiah, how does David call him Lord when he's his descendant? Because you're supposed to look at your ancestors as having a higher position than you. Yet, here you have Yahweh says to my Lord, who is the Messiah, sit in my right hand until I make that enemy's footstool to my feet, and the Jews had no answer. They had no answer because they did not have a proper understanding of the grandeur and the exalted status of the person of Messiah, who he was going to be. But the point is that this is a text that speaks of the exaltation of the Messiah to the right hand of Yahweh, God the Father, and of course one of the key elements, one of the key proofs of the doctrine of the Trinity in the New Testament. is the fact that that word Yahweh, Yod-Heh-Wau-Heh in Hebrew, the Tetragrammaton, which sometimes renders Jehovah in English, that name is used of the Father as it is here. I mean, there's the distinction that is made between Father and Son here. Isaiah 53, Who lays our sins upon the Messiah? It's Yahweh. And yet, the Son is identified as Yahweh in a number of different places. John 12, 41. John tells us that the one that Isaiah saw and spoke about in Isaiah 6 was Jesus. And yet, if you ask Isaiah, who did you see? I saw Yahweh. Paul, quotes from Isaiah 45, 23, which is Yahweh speaking, applies it to Jesus in the Karmic Christian Philippians chapter 2. Peter, in that great text about apologetics, identifies Jesus as Yahweh by quoting from Isaiah 8. And so, it is a regular thing. The writer of the Hebrews does it in Hebrews 1, verses 10-12. He's quoting from Psalm 102, 25-27. So, over and over again, the New Testament writers identify Jesus as Yahweh, and of course, the Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of Yahweh, and hence the identification of the Holy Spirit with that Spirit in the Old Covenant. Likewise identifies him in the same way. And so this is one of the, in my opinion, one of the key elements of the demonstration of the doctrines of Trinity was the willingness of New Testament writers to do this. But notice, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for their feet. And then you have his stretching forth of his strong scepter. Rule in the midst of thine enemies. There is a power that is ascribed to the Messiah and seated at the right hand, being seated at the right hand of God. But then keep that one in mind and turn back to Daniel. And in Daniel chapter 7 you have this incredible vision. Daniel chapter 7 and so if you're looking for where the Fulfillment text is Daniel chapter 7 You have in beginning in verse becomes poetic in verse 9 and then 11 and 12 you have description in verse 13 it goes back into the poetic section where it says I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him and And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." Now it's interesting that the Hebrew term to worship, Ahav, can be rendered with two different Greek words. Frequently in the New Testament, you have the Greek word proskuneo, which means simply to bow down before, and when it's used in a religious context, it means religious worship. But the highest form of worship is latruo, and that's describing the worship in the temple, the temple worship. And when the Greek translation of Daniel 7 says that They might serve him. It is the highest form of worship that is described here being given to this son of man who comes to the ancient who is presented before the ancient of days. Now, when does that happen? Well, there's some discussion about that, but I believe this is at the Ascension. This is after Jesus has accomplished. This is what Paul is talking about in Philippians chapter 2, where he is highly exalted in Him and given in the names of every name, the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, heaven, earth, and under the earth, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the glory of God the Father. That's fulfillment of Isaiah 45, 23, and it's a fulfillment here of Daniel 7. Having accomplished what he has been sent to accomplish, he is rescinded before the Ancient of Days, and to him is given dominion. What does Jesus say when he's ascending in Matthew 28? All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth, therefore go. And so now with these two texts, Daniel 7 and Psalm 110 in mind, listen to Jesus' response. First of all when he says, I am, that's ego I mean. Ego, I me is the terminology that Jesus uses in John 8 24 8 58 13 19 18 5 through 6 Where for example when he when he says it in John 8 58 the Jews pick up stones to stone him in 18 5 to 6 when they come to arrest him he says ego I mean what happens to the soldiers they fall back upon the ground and So Jesus now some people say well, he's just using the emphatic form Yes, I am the Christ but I I take the Bible as a whole and see greater connections. I am and you will see the Son of Man Seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven he has taken a few words from Psalm 110 and specifically at the beginning in regards to being seated. And then he is literally woven them together because Son of Man is from Daniel 7. Seated is from Psalm 110. And then coming to clouds of heaven is back to Daniel 7. So he's showing us these are all speaking of the same event. Now it's interesting, I would just ask you to think about what does it mean to say to the Sanhedrin who are passing judgment upon him, you will see. You will see this take place. You will see the Son of Man seated in the heavenly place at the right hand of God and Seated to the place of power which is what the right hand is and coming with the clouds of heaven Now whatever we do How the Jews responded is not questionable is it You may try to find a way around this and my Unitarian friends frequently do try to find ways around this and by the way I made a mistake in coming here, and the pastor made a mistake too. He forgot to tell me when you normally get done. And normally what they do is exactly that. Whatever the Spirit leads, brother. That is the most dangerous response you can ever give. Because I want to know when you normally get done, because about five minutes after that, I start seeing at least somebody in the congregation doing this. And then they start doing this. Now the funny part is, most of us have digital watches. That doesn't mean anything anymore. When I was young, that meant your watch, you had to get it rewound again and it stopped or something like that. But it's always meant to be a, then the watch gets higher and higher. People start becoming charismatic and all sorts of stuff like that. So I'm gonna shoot for 1130. Does that sound about right? That sounds good? Okay, all right. Good. As you can see, I'm extremely formal and very, very stuffy in how I do this. Actually, I'm not. I'm much more of a teacher, and that's much more comfortable that way. Anyway, so, however you interpret Jesus's weaving together Daniel 7 and Psalm 110, you can't miss the response of the Jews. And if the Jews had completely misunderstood what Jesus was saying, why didn't he say anything? My Unitarian friends, I call them friends because I can't call them my brothers, my Unitarian friends will stand on their heads to try to get around texts like this, and my Muslim friends as well, because it's just so obvious. How do they respond? The first thing the chief priest does is he tears his clothes. This is what you do in the presence of tremendous tragedy. Death, or in this case, what does he describe it as? Blasphemy. Blasphemy. They fully understand exactly what he just said. They know Daniel 7. They know Psalm 110. They know this Son of Man is given a kingdom and dominion and glory that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might worship Him, serve Him. How dare this one? And not only that, clearly, He's viewing the Messiah as the Son of the Blessed One in the divine sense. They fully understand it. And the chief priest knows as soon as those words came from Jesus's mouth We've got him We've got exactly what we're looking for Exactly what we're looking for. He just said it we all know it He tears his robes And he says what need do we have of further? Testifiers witnesses you've heard the blasphemy. What is your judgment? And they all, that's a sad phrase. It doesn't say the majority. They all. These were the men who had been put into place to represent the people of God. These were men who possessed the scriptures and held the scrolls. And when faced with the incarnate Son of God and hearing Him, expressing the fulfillment of the ancient scriptures in himself, say that they condemn him. It's the term of condemnation. They all condemned him to be worthy of death. What a tragic reality. And you cannot help but think about the fact that these events took place only a matter of years, 40 short years before the place in which they took place would be reduced to rubble, absolutely destroyed. And hundreds of thousands, if not millions of those people's children, and I can't help but think of, remember when Passion of the Christ came out, Mel Gibson's film. You remember the huge hue and cry, anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism. And they took out, because it was amazing, they actually had actors speaking in Aramaic. And then you had subtitles. And they had had the quotation from Matthew, his blood be upon us and our children. But before the film came out, they removed the subtitles, but they kept the Aramaic. So if you could understand at least enough Aramaic, they still said it, but they just didn't translate it because it was considered anti-Semitic. And yet, whose children died by the hundreds of thousands, if not over a million, when Titus and the Roman legions came into Jerusalem only 40 years later? Same ones. Same ones. Amazing thing to realize. And so here at Jesus's trial, he does not defend himself against false accusations. But when he is asked about his true identity by the high priest, his answer is to weave together Sadly, what would be considered in most modern seminaries and Bible colleges to be completely disconnected and irrelevant words. We wonder why preaching today does not point us to the beauty of how these texts go back and the play between the old and the new and the consistency and the beauty of it. It's because most of our people are being taught that you can't do that with the Bible. that there isn't that level of consistency and harmony all the way from Genesis to Revelation. Very often the people in the pew have significantly more spiritual common sense than what appears in many of our schools. But in just these few words, Jesus testifies of who He is. And I am so thankful that I've had the opportunity in my life to not only give testimony to these words, but to defend these words in so many different contexts against people from so many different perspectives that deny these truths. But I know one thing, that if these quotations are true, Jesus's claim to be Lord is not only just as relevant today, but in light of secularism, more relevant today. Let me close with explaining what I mean by that. The secular worldview I believe to be the greatest anti-Christian movement in history. At least the Romans were religious pagans. At least they had gods. They didn't have the idea that we were cosmic accidents. with absolutely no transcendent meaning whatsoever. When I think of everything good and positive that Jesus taught and stood for, secularism denies it. Think about it. Let's just use one example. Jesus said, from the beginning, the Creator made them male and female. Hmm. Aren't we trying to pass laws right now where if you say that you're You're a hater. You can lose your job. You can be sued. Just say what Jesus said. Foundational to any kind of civilization that will last for any period of time at all. And so when it says that in Psalm 110 that He is extending His scepter, rule amongst your enemies. Well, Christ has a lot of enemies right now in Western culture. And someone has to say, he is Lord. He rose from the dead. He has the final say as to male and female and marriage and sexuality and justice and everything else because he is Lord. And he is Lord, not just in heaven, he's Lord on earth as well. And he wasn't afraid to make that confession. knowing exactly what the response was going to be. Don't think Jesus is standing there going, Oh, I didn't mean to upset you. He knew exactly what the response was going to be. And yet he said those words, and they've been recorded for us. And the very least we can do, brothers and sisters, is to pray for the strength that when the challenge comes to us, We will say what Jesus said, not of ourselves, but of our Lord. Caesar is saying to us, bow, offer the pinch of incense, say Caesar is Lord. We can't. Because our Lord was the one prophesied in Psalm 110, Daniel 7. Those were long before his birth. He has fulfilled those prophecies. And He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let's pray together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we cannot help but at this time thank You, not only for Your Word and the preservation of it over time so we might have these words and we might consider these things, but likewise, the fact that At least to this point in time, we are able to gather in peace and to consider these truths. We know there are many who would like to see that end. And so we thank you for the gift of grace you've extended to us for so long and having such wonderful freedoms. And we we do pray that you would protect us from evil men and women who would seek to suppress the proclamation of your truth. I'm thankful for these who have gathered this day, for this church and this place, and so many faithful churches that are gathering right now all across this nation. Lord, I pray that those who bring the message will be bold. They will not fear the face of men. And Lord, you'd build your people up. You'd give us direction and understanding. Deepen our faith in the truth of your revelation and the glory of the gospel and our love for one another. We thank you for our Lord and Savior and his testimony before the high priest. And we ask that you would help us to remember and to seek to glorify that one, that exalted one who eternally existed with equality with the Father and yet did not consider that equality something to be grasped, but he humbled himself and went to the point of the cross, but now has been highly exalted and given the name which is above every name. Father, we ask that we would be good servants of His, that we would reflect His glory, His love, His mercy, that you would give us opportunity of testifying to these truths in this coming week. We thank you for this time. We pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen.