So open with us this morning in our series on Matthew, Matthew chapter 12. And we took a little hiatus from Matthew for a while, but we are back, and have been back for a couple of weeks now, so I'll ask you to open to chapter 12. I'm going to read the first eight verses to you this morning. My comments will be based on that text. So if you found Matthew, let's recognize here that he writes, at that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And his disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. But he said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry? he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. Or have you not read of the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place, there is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. Father, we praise you for your word and ask you to bless us with a deep understanding of it this morning, Father. Amen. I have said many times that I don't think there could ever be such a thing as Christianity without the church. If you've ever noticed the Apostle Paul as he went about the continents preaching the word, that he didn't just preach to individuals, he actually established churches in the places that he went. Most of the major cities of the Roman Empire at the time, Rome, Ephesus, places like Corinth, Thessalonica, other places. Even the island of Crete he talks about to Pastor Titus, if you will. He writes to churches. Paul is concerned with the proliferation of the churches of God in the land, and the food, the fuel for the proliferation of the churches of God in the land is the Word of God. And so he teaches us rightly the doctrines of God, because some of us have mistaken the true meaning of things, and that's what this passage is about. The Sabbath, I have said, how would worship continue in the land apart from the Sabbath? There has to be a keeping of the Lord's day for people to come together on God's schedule, one day in seven, and to worship Him rightly. And so this is a passage where Jesus confronts some of the misapplication of these ordinances of God, one of, of course, Sabbath-keeping. So we read in verses 1 and 2 that at that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, not an uncommon thing to do. There were grain fields all over Galilee at the time, and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And so friends, anyone who knows anything about Jewish culture and tradition knows that the seventh day of the week was the Lord's Sabbath. That was the day when work ceased. It was God's example to us after creation. We know very famously when he spoke to Moses on the mountaintop and gave him the 10 commandments, the first three commandments began with thou shalt not, and the fourth commandment about the Sabbath was remember the Sabbath. In other words, it was a creation ordinance already in existence well before the time of Moses, and they were to recall it and remember it and keep it. in an orderly and honoring way to God. And so it was God's example to us at the time of creation. It was his command to his covenant people after their deliverance to keep that day holy. It is a perpetual sign to the world that they who celebrate and enjoy the Lord's promise of rest are his true covenant people it is a sign to the world I want to tell you something in my experience quite a number of years ago in fact it was before I was married and we've been married for forty years Karen and I so it was a while back and I was living in Westchester County in New York I was a sales rep and I had a sales territory of Manhattan in the boroughs and part of Connecticut And so I lived in Westchester County, and it is primarily, in fact, it's overwhelmingly a Hasidic Jewish area. And on Saturday, rather on Friday evening, because for the Jews the Sabbath is Saturday, but for the Jews Saturday begins on Friday. And so on Friday evening, The Jews would come out. The lights would go out. The cars would be stopped. Everything would cease in the area. And they would come out in their traditional regalia, their garb, their big beaver pelt hats and all of the other things you've seen the Hasidic people, perhaps in Brooklyn if you've ever had any reason to be in New York City for any business or pleasure. It's very easy to run into these people and their culture, and they came out on Friday and they walked to synagogue. Everyone had a local synagogue that you could get to by foot, and it was essential, and no one used any equipment. There were no TVs or radios or Walkmans. Back then Walkmans were around. There was none of these things, and they went to synagogue, and all this to say The only reason I bring this up is that it is a witness to the world that some people keep a day holy to the Lord. And so in the first century, this was not even up for discussion. And so we read from the law of God, therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. Something about the Sabbath God wants to continue throughout the time of man on earth. And he said, it is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth. And on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed. God rested and was refreshed. And if you remember, he sat back, he looked at his creation, and he saw that it was good. But it ain't good anymore. But we're getting back to it. And so the word comes to us. in the New Testament, the word sabaton. It's a Greek transliteration. You know what I mean by transliteration? Well, Hebrew and Aramaic have a different alphabet than the Greeks, so they take the same word that's pronounced sabaton in Hebrew, and in this case in Aramaic, and they exchange Greek letters that sound like those letters, so they say abaton. We do the same thing with agape. Right? We do the same thing. It's really alpha, gamma, alpha, pi, eta, and we turn it into A-G-A-P-E. That's a transliteration. They say agape, we say agape. You follow me? And so we read. from the lexicon that the root means to cease. That's what the sabaton means. It means to stop, to cease. And that's primarily all that it means. The doubled B, we read from the lexicon, has an intensive force implying a complete cessation. The idea is not that of relaxation or refreshment, but cessation from activity. The lexicon goes on to say that the observation of the seventh day of the week and joined upon Israel was a sign between God and his earthly people based upon the fact that after the six days of creative operations, he rested. And so he gave us this holy example of the seven-day schedule. Wouldn't you know, Rome in Jesus' time had an eight-day week. And so did the Beatles, by the way, in a very famous song. I know you were thinking it. That's why I said it. And if I were to add one more descriptive from the lexicon, it would be this. The lexicon said, the regulations were developed and systematized to such an extent that they became a burden upon the people. And in parentheses, it says, who otherwise rejoiced and took advantage of the rest provided. And Sabbath became a byword for absurd extravagance. In other words, they added so many human regulations to it, people began to resist it. People began to forget what was actually required of them. Well, Jesus is here to remind us. So also anyone who's been paying attention to Christian culture and tradition knows that the observance of the Sabbath day called the Lord's Day is also celebrated by Christians on the first day of the week since the resurrection of Christ. Now that's actually a thorny history because The seventh-day Sabbath did continue in some Christian circles until the time of Constantine in the fourth century, but I'm not here to talk about that today. John demonstrated in the book of Revelation, still in the first century, that the Lord delights to appear to his people on the first day of the week, already referred to in that time as the Lord's day. And so John writes in the book of Revelation, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice. Remember Jesus said, with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. So he heard that loud voice, and John had heard that once before. in John chapter 11. He said it sounded like a trumpet, and it said, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the firstborn over all creation. So they also have observed that the customs that the Lord expects us with regard or expects of us with regard to that day have been controversial points of contention since the resurrection itself. Friends, Reformed churches have argued about what we have to do on the Sabbath for so long, I tell you it's tiring. Different church affiliates adhere to different traditions from one another, sometimes with vehement condemnation of one group's tradition as being wrong and unacceptable, while the tradition of another group is right and acceptable in our high esteem. I'd like us to observe one thing, though, from this passage, that the fact of the Sabbath is not in question. It isn't do we keep a Sabbath or don't we keep a Sabbath, but it's rather how do we keep it. Everyone involved in this particular argument of Matthew chapter 12 agrees that there is a Sabbath and God has ordained it. All right? What's up for debate here, it seems, is what things are acceptable to him on that day. Jesus' argument from the text is not that there is no Sabbath, he's not saying that, or that it's some loose regulation that any man's guess or any man's preference to observe. Rather, he points to traditions which are right and honorable to God. So the fact of a weekly Sabbath requirement is not in question, at least not in this passage, That's a given by both parties in the controversy. The text is concerned with just how it is to be practiced. And of course, both parties in the controversy appeal to God as their final judge. We all like to have God on our side. Even the unbeliever loves to quote Jesus, usually wrongly and out of context, but love to have him on their side. I'll interject at this point that the Pharisees have a point with regard to the so-called letter of the law. Jesus, the self-proclaimed Lord of the Sabbath, is more concerned with the spirit of the law. He's more concerned with substance and authenticity of worship. The Pharisees are more concerned with the outward show of worship. And Jesus, I think, makes that very clear. So Jesus is concerned with its deeper spiritual significance. To the Pharisees, friends, plucking is reaping and rubbing was threshing. So they were therefore working, a profane thing to do on the Sabbath, you see. You might remember that In our series on Matthew, Jesus came, we had his genealogy, and we're going to look into that a bit today because Jesus is going to invoke David, who is of course his predecessor by many generations. He's also going to invoke the temple and he's going to invoke the priesthood in this debate. But when he came, he came with authority. He spoke on the mountain, the great sermon on the mount, and he took each of the things that everyone in Judaism thought they understood. They thought they understood what it meant to not murder. And Jesus said, no, you've missed the point. It isn't just the act of murder. It's the... It's the thought life that led up to that. It's a murderous desire in your heart. It's a hatred. He did the same with adultery. He changed the rules. It wasn't just... you know, illicit relations between a married man and a married woman. It was, or any woman for that matter, it was the lust that brought us to that point. He did it with a number of things. He gave us the deeper meaning. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, but he's also the Lord of the Law. And so, he gives us a higher understanding of things, well he's actually doing that here. He's taking that same authority as Lord of the Sabbath to demonstrate before an audience, usually Jesus is on display when he comes into these little debates with his detractors. But the law of God can either be a terrible burden, friends, it can be a yoke hard to bear, or it can be a delight to those who find the value of obedience as a love offering to God. John said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments, he said of Christ. It's as if the saints are contending that they are content to spend the day in the presence of God and his people. That's what the Sabbath was intended for, to spend the day in the presence of God and his people. Consider the psalmist David on this point. David saying this, with my whole heart I have sought you. Let me not wander from your commandments. Friends, I thought of that. This was very convicting to me as I looked this up and I reproduced this in your notes this morning. With my whole heart, I sought you. And I wonder if I had ever sought God with my whole heart, with the possible exceptions of when I was in real trouble. And I challenge you with that this morning. Seek God with your whole heart. You know, I was reading, as you know, I read World Magazine, it comes out, I don't know, it's bi-monthly now or something, but Andrea Sue Peterson is an opinion writer for World Magazine, and she was writing about the meaning of Christianity and the power of revival. She's suggesting there might be revival in the land at this time. And she was at a gathering with a bunch of religious people and pastors and missionaries. And she asked one missionary, in one sentence, define Christianity. And he said, Christianity is the tendency to lose Christ. And I thought, well, that's an odd way of speaking about Christianity. Not saying that every Christian has a tendency to lose Christ, but Christianity in general, if you look at the ancient traditions, the ancient denominations, they have all fallen away from some of the basic tenets of our understanding. The tendency to lose Christ is what he sees in Christianity. So we have to have someone to come back and rejuvenate that. The whole Reformation was about that. We lost Christ because we lost the written word of Christ. We didn't have it in our languages. In fact, they hung people from the gallows and burned people at the stake for translating it into other languages. The tendency to lose Christ comes first by losing the teachings of Christ. And you lose the teachings of Christ if you don't have the written word of Christ. And so the law of God can either be a terrible burden, a yoke hard to bear, or it can be a delight. It's up to us how we approach the Lord's Day and our spiritual lives in general. So he said, with my whole heart I've sought you, oh let me not wander from your commandments. He only says that because we have such a tendency to wander from his commandments. And so a man, a spiritual man, a prophet of God, a great king, right? Self-examining, writing a song for them to praise God with, is noting the tendency in man to fall away from the teachings of God. And he said, I sought you. Let me not wander from your commandments, your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. Another very convicting thing, particularly with a man so wealthy as David. I will meditate on your precepts, he said. and contemplate your ways. Friends, that's what we're doing right now. We're meditating on his precepts and we're contemplating his ways. But let's do the next thing. Let's delight ourselves in his statutes. It's not a burden, it's a delight. I will not forget your word. Let's commit to keeping it before our eyes, to writing it on our doorposts and lentils, although maybe not literally. to keeping it embroidered on the hems of our garments, to put it between our eyes, as they were commanded in those times. I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is within my heart." And I want you to know, even though the Pharisees at that time kept the Word of God before their eyes, they had these beautiful, ornate robes, and they were embroidered with broad lapels, if you will, and hems, with the Word of God written on it, and yet they missed the meaning of it. They even missed the purveyor of it. They even missed the Son of God when hundreds of prophecies were fulfilled in His coming. And they missed it all. So you can write it all over yourself, you can tattoo it on your forehead, you can put crosses and ink on your back and your shoulders, but you may still have the tendency to lose Christ. And that's what he's saying. So insofar as the law of God is concerned, the rightful practice of a godly observance of the Sabbath is not a superfluous subject. It is not a useless thing to talk about this. It involves our obedience to God. And it is an observance that suggests our love for God. It is a worthy subject for religious debate. It's a profound pathway to glorifying God and pleasing Him in the moment. So it behooves the saints of God to get it right. So let's tear apart the verse a little bit. Verse 1 says, His disciples were hungry. Is that important? Why did the disciples break the law of God in the estimation of the detractors of Christ, because they were hungry. They had an immediate physical need. They're walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath day, and they plucked the grain, rubbed it between their hands, and ate it. A little granola, I guess, a little trail mix, if you will. They were about the Lord's business. Friends, it's very likely that they missed their morning meal. It could be very likely that they missed a few meals working for Christ to turn the world upside down. It takes a little energy to turn the world upside down. And they were about the Lord's business. It's likely that that morning they missed their meal. So they took advantage of another lawful ordinance of God, which reads this way in Deuteronomy. It says, when you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle. In other words, you can't come in and start hacking away your neighbor's grain and say, well, I'm hungry. But you can do this. You can grab it and eat a portion for yourself. And that was in the law of God. great insight he had into human nature. They got these huge fields and they're open to the passerby to eat from them. And just before that verse it talks about vineyards the same way. You can eat the grapes but you can't fill a basket and run home and make wine or jam or whatever is your preference. Not allowed to do that. It's likely that they were taking advantage of that lawful ordinance. It's likely they did it all the time. It was part of the law. Everybody respected that law. But as to the actual regulation, the Pharisees may still have had a point because taking enough grain or grapes, for that matter, from your neighbor's fields is lawful. It is the Sabbath. Is the Sabbath an exception to the rule? You can take your neighbor's standing grain, but can you do it on the Sabbath? Now, why am I being so picky? Because they're being so picky! These people are eating the merest amount of grain, and they're being castigated for it by the religious leaders of the day. So, Jesus, you might have guessed, has a greater point than theirs. As proper reverence, it also comes with joy and rest and edification. It's not just about following the rule. Friends, somebody said 90% of life is showing up, and there's something to that, but not for Christians. It's not just about showing up. So don't call in next week and say, well, I'm not coming because you said it's not about showing up. This is what I get. This is what I get. No, you have to show up to make it work, but that's not the whole story. Come with a prepared heart. Honor God. Seek Him with your whole heart. Come here ready to receive His word. We try to shut down on Saturday night and make that be a preparation for Sunday morning. We always did that with the boys. And all three boys love the Lord and have their own traditions with the Lord. Although only one of my three sons is here, the other two still love the Lord. And so Jesus, as you might have guessed, had a greater point than the Pharisees that day. With the Sabbath requirements of the Law of Moses, the Sabbath of God never required fasting. You didn't have to come hungry. Being hungry was not a suffering thing you did before the Lord that made you reap the Word of God with greater power. There's nothing of that in the Law. The people of God have always eaten on the Sabbath. And in the manna years, remember the manna years when the manna fell from heaven, right? After they came in to the land of Canaan from across the Red Sea, and it lasted 40 years until the time of Joshua, when you'll read in Joshua, and the manna ceased. And I'm like, oh, I was reading all through this, I forgot they were still getting manna. Nobody said anything about it, and finally I find out for 40 years they're still eating the porridge that fell from the sky. But remember, the manna, you got a double portion the day before so you didn't have to gather it on the Sabbath. So did the Pharisees have a point that they were gathering on the Sabbath? I say still no. Still no. The people of God have always eaten on the Sabbath, but it seems the Pharisees are charging them with harvesting and gathering, which is clearly unlawful in the time. The use of a sickle or a gathering basket were not there. The work they did was the lawful work of raising a hand to a mouth in order to assuage hunger. That's all they did. That's not work. It was never considered work. They didn't eat the manna without raising it to their mouths, did they? It was a provision of God. And this, it seems, was Jesus' cue to present an ancient lawful precedent. And so he says in verse 3, have you not read? I love when he says to these scholars, have you not read? Have you not read? I have a situation in my family where someone's always corrected me, but that person has never read anything. And I'm like, shouldn't you? How does ignorance qualify you to be the fact checker for the rest of us? But that's what's going on here. Have you read what David did when he was hungry? He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests." In other words, David violated a principle of God's Word that is a clear violation. But he was not condemned for it. It was not a sin. And Jesus is presenting them why. First of all, what is this showbread? There were twelve loaves of bread always presented at the at the altar of God before the ark and this was the tabernacle not the temple the temple wasn't even built yet and they would have the twelve loaves and every week the priests would replace those loaves and put a new twelve loaves out and then they would consecrate them in other words they would set them apart with a holy ritual that these are to represent God's provision for Israel his provision forever. So these 12 loaves were on display, and only the priests who were consecrated could eat the 12 loaves. But David comes marching in sweaty from the field with all of his men, running from Saul still, right? David was not yet installed as king. And he said, give us five loaves. We're really hungry. And the priest gives him the five loaves, and he eats. Now, had they not consecrated them yet, that would have been fine. But they were the consecrated loaves, and Jesus is saying to them, how do you suppose David got away with this? Have you not read? And so the priest of Nob, that's the town or city where the tabernacle was at the time, Ahimelech is his name. He gave David and his men five fresh loaves of bread that had already been set apart for holy use. They ate it and were refreshed. And so according to Jesus, the disciples of Christ, taking similar privilege, ought to be granted the same holy exception to the Bible. I think that's pretty obvious. That much, right? But why did he bring up David? There might be something lost in the exchange. to us that was not lost to those Pharisees. We've seen that the disciples' hunger presents a holy privilege in the case with David, right? Is that acceptable? Nobody's saying amen or shaking their heads up and down, so I'm not sure. We've seen that the disciples' hunger presents a holy privilege, but the reference to David presents a royal privilege. He'd already been anointed king. He wasn't the de facto king. He wasn't in power yet. Right? Saul was still in power, the outgoing king, but David had royal privilege as the king as well. They ate it and were refreshed. And David, Jesus is presenting this as David's royal privilege. At that moment in time, when David ate the sacred bread, he was not the king of Israel, but Saul was. David presented that he was on a secret work for the king. He told the priest, I'm on a secret work from the king, that's all I can tell you or I'll have to kill you, he said. Something like that. He could not disclose to the priest any further details of that business. Go back and read it. He never mentioned the name of Saul, however, so the obfuscation was not a lie. David was the rightful king with the lawful privilege as the anointed of the Lord. If you remember, he would not kill Saul even though he had opportunity. He said, I will not touch God's anointed. David was very careful with the word of God. Most of the time. Jesus will speak of Jonah later in this chapter. He spoke of David here. He'll speak of Jonah later in the chapter. He'll talk about the Assyrians repenting at the presence of Jonah. Remember Jonah's one-line sermon? You know, repent or be destroyed. Something like that. And all the Assyrians take him serious and repent. And he says, a greater than Jonah is here. And we'll see this later in chapter 12. And then he said the queen of the south, the great queen of Sheba, came out to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And then he says what? A greater than Solomon is here. This is Jesus' a greater than David's point here. This is his a greater than David is here moment. It seems to me that this exchange is a veil way of saying that a greater than David is here. David did this and now I'm doing it with the same royal privilege that he took. And so a reasonable paraphrase of the passage from Samuel is that the prophesied descendant of David was as much if not more entitled to the same courtesy as David. Jesus was clearly, or should have been clearly, the one, the Messiah that was prophesied from antiquity. What's interesting in the exchange is the unspoken part, though. It's one of the great unspoken themes of Matthew's gospel that Jesus was never challenged as to his Davidic pedigree. Did you notice that? Matthew takes all those pains. Remember those weeks when we went through the genealogy and everybody loved the going back to the Old Testament and renewing all those great people and men of faith and all those stories in our minds. And Matthew took great pains to say, Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham, and no one challenged it. No one ever challenged that he was a son of David. The people declared it in the streets, proclaimed it at the triumphal entry, right? No one ever challenged his Davidic dynasty, if you will. Matthew clearly demonstrated Jesus' birth succession in the opening chapter of the book. That Jesus was the son of David the king was not in dispute. They didn't say, all right, you've pointed out David's privilege, but how does that give you privilege? You notice they didn't say that. It was assented to. They knew it was true. The census was proof that it was true, if you remember from the birth narratives of Luke. It was assented to. Note also, note this, neither were the miracles denied by the Pharisees. They attributed them to Beelzebub, but they didn't say that they didn't happen. In other words, Jesus came. He was clearly a son of David who did many signs and wonders, and nobody, even those who hated him with a passion, denied it. You may remember after the Lazarus incident, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered and said, what shall we do? For this man works many signs. The chief priests and the Pharisees admit, this man works many signs. If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him. Then what will we do? We'll have to start building churches. If it were even remotely possible for Herod, Antipas at the time, or anyone in the Herod clan, the whole dynasty, or the Pharisees, or the scribes, or the lawyers, to present evidence that Jesus' royal succession was a fraud, you can bet they would have presented it. It never was presented. Neither were the miracles denied. His opponents said that he did them by the power of Satan, but they didn't deny the fact of them. So it was obvious to everyone that day that the miracles had been done and witnessed to by many people, even his detractors. So even if Jesus' maternal line, you know, through Mary's line, Jesus is a descendant of David, and through Joseph's line, his legal father, he's a descendant of David, even if one of them failed, he would still be a son of David. You follow? The Lord God took pains to provide that Joseph also, the legal father of the Lord, was also of the line of David. This presents one of the greatest examples of God's meticulous provisions in the divine plans, down to the tiniest detail of history. So it's my suggestion this morning that that's why Jesus defended his actions by use of the incident of David and the showbread. David, a great king, took privilege. Jesus, a greater than David, also took privilege. And you notice he never asked them to agree with him. He just presented. It's that reference that leads legally to the most pivotal declaration in the passage, and that is that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. But a second precedent was to be put on display for all those who attended the synagogue on that Sabbath morn. And so the Lord contended in verse five, or have you not read? Is there something else you have not read? In the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless. What does he mean? Well, they do a lot of work. You know, we follow the Baptist Confession of 1689, and it clearly says no servile work is to be done on the Sabbath. You know, it's back, it's a Reformation ordinance that they're putting forth. But insofar as acceptable exceptions to the rule, it's for mercy. You know, Jesus healed on the Sabbath, right? And it's for holy work. and for necessity. You know, if your goat falls in the well, you all know the parable of that. And so Jesus, there were always exceptions to these things. So now he appeals to a holy exception. First he appeals to a royal exception because of his line of David. Now he appeals to a holy exception with regard to the precedent for priests. David broke the law and was not guilty and the priests break the law readily and are also not charged with a crime. Why does he do this? Because he's both king and priest. And though he's not of the priestly line of Levi, he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. You remember that strange character that comes out of nowhere called the King of Salem, King of Shalom in the Bible, and Abraham makes tithes to Melchizedek and no one really knows who he is, seems to have no human lineage, right? And the psalmist writes, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. And thus that's the God the Father speaking to God the Son. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. And then from the book of Hebrews, we read the same thing where he quotes from this, for the Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, was made like the Son of God and remains a priest continually. So Jesus is both king and priest and takes advantage of the privilege accorded to those two positions that he has in life. And so the Lord's legal argument is well taken from the annals of the law and the written word of God. He's the rightful king after the order of his father David, and he's the high priest after the order of Melchizedek. So he's both king and priest, and he will take the privilege afforded to both. And so we read, and yet I say to you in this place, there is one greater than the temple. But you've missed it. Just like they missed it in the temple that day, When he said, tear down this temple, and I will rebuild it in three days. But he spoke of the temple of his body. They always miss it, it seemed. And they missed it here. A greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, then he quotes the ancient prophet Hosea. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Now this is a point of sovereignty that I wanna make. It's a withholding of judgment for a higher cause. It's the prerogative of sovereignty. You notice presidents can pardon? Even if you're guilty, I mean, probably are. It's the power of sovereignty. That's what it's based on. That's based on, the power of the president is based on this power. The power of the king, if you will, to make lawful, to make exceptions. And because he makes them, they are therefore lawful. And so I want to present something, although I'm going to present it with a great measure of fear and trembling. There are always, or almost always, exceptions even to lawful holy ordinances. And Jesus is teaching the worshipers that day of these very things. There are exceptions. So go back and see for yourself that even the laws of sacrifice and the keeping of holy feasts come with practical exceptions. Now, don't use that as every excuse when you break the law of God. Well, you told us there were exceptions. I'm taking an exception. There are exceptions. For instance, a poor man is allowed a cheaper sacrifice if he can't afford a lamb. and so he's allowed to bring a dove or a young pigeon in place of a lamb, Leviticus 12.8. You may recall that the great king Hezekiah, when reinstituting Passover, got started a little too late and couldn't pull it off in the first month, so God let him do it in the second month. Time constraints. Practical realities, right? Even kings have to face time constraints and the fact that these priests couldn't get together in time. All right? And so There are many such examples of a regard for human frailty that God forgives. Friends, the disciples were hungry. And so Jesus defends his action by citing royal precedent, the privilege of kings, and by noting holy precedent, which is the privilege of priests. And his scholarship in both is undeniable. So the entire verse from Hosea reads like this, I desire mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than a burnt offering. In other words, the symbol is not the substance. I would rather have the substance without the symbol than the symbol without the substance. You see what he's teaching? Jesus makes reference to the quality of mercy over judgment. Spiritual authenticity, friends, trumps empty rituals. Elsewhere he will say the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Friends, the Sabbath is our slave. We're not slave to it. But it still exists for our good. It's a gift of God. You dare not say the Sabbath is a gift of God. I want nothing to do with it. You dare not say that with any of God's gifts. So the Sabbath, rightly celebrated, should become a joyous freedom, friends, a blessed privilege. It's a benefit to man and not a burden. So in the final analysis, there is higher law than the one the Pharisees quibble about in the text. Yet they remain blind to it, as many do. But one fact remains after all the legal squabbling is over, and that is that the disciples are guiltless. Why are they guiltless? Because they had privilege? No. They're guiltless because they're with Jesus. They're with the lawgiver. It's kind of like, this reminds me of the time when Moses' sister Miriam went up to the Lord and told on Moses for marrying someone he shouldn't have married. Now, whether that's true or not, we'll talk about in another series, all right? But she went and told on Moses, and what did Jesus say to her? He didn't say, well, I'm going to make sure he repents, and I'm going to punish him for that. Thank you for coming forward and telling on your brother. He didn't say that. He said, who are you to come to me with your brother's supposed sin? I speak to him face to face. I know him and his works. Don't you come to me and quibble about him. See, that's what the Pharisees are doing here. They are in the presence of the Lord of the Sabbath, friends, and it is not my problem or his problem that they don't know it. I just praise God that we know it. How many times in the written word does the Lord set aside the laws of nature to show his love and to make his power known in the interest of his beloved? Every time he healed, he broke a law of nature. Jesus is a great lawbreaker because he's above the law. Every time he healed, he broke a law of nature. Every time he spoke, he spoke reality into existence, right? Go and be healed. Jesus said with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. If he forgot to say Lazarus, every dead person in the world would have come forth. Thank God there was only one Lazarus. He made the sun stand still for the sake of Joshua and his servants to have more time to vanquish their enemies. He made a path through the Red Sea so his beloved could escape the wrath of their enemies. He brought down the walls of a great city to bolster the reputation of his own precious people in the sight of infidels and idolaters. It says later on, 40 years later, it said in Jericho, their hearts melted when they remembered what was said about God parting the sea for these people. He laid a whole army to waste. If memory serves, it was 185,000 Assyrians, all dead on the plains around Jerusalem in a single night. Not a single stroke of sword or spear were thrust. It is right and good to offer explanations for the righteous acts of God that may seem confusing to onlookers. But friends, what do we do every time we pray for a miracle? God, I know what's coming. I know where this disease is going. I know where this great debt is going because of my stupid transactions. I may have even done something unconscionable or illegal. But I'm repenting, Lord, and I want you to get me out of trouble even though I don't deserve it. We're asking him to break laws on our behalf every time we ask for a miracle. When he breaks laws over here, we would appoint to it. In the final analysis, friends, detractors only need to know that God does what he does for purposes of his own. Sometimes he defends and explains his actions. Other times he does not. He tells us, don't answer a fool according to his folly. For it's the prerogative of God himself to decide what and where he will explain his motives to unbelievers. He doesn't always explain why. Right? When he said, tear down this temple and in three days it'll be rebuilt, he didn't tell them, oh, by the way, that's just a symbol, I'm the temple. I speak in figuratively. He didn't explain it. John revealed it later. It was only his mercy that caused him to explain his actions or his motives before the detractors at the temple that day. For there was one greater than the temple there. So as every act of mercy is a breaking of the law. Friends, it goes without saying, that's the definition of mercy. Mercy is what you didn't deserve. Justice is what you did deserve. His every act of mercy is the breaking of the law. For the law requires justice, but the Lord comes with healing in his wings. As with the woman caught in adultery, she deserved death, but received life. Holy exception is for the sake of love, or rather, for the sake of love is the essential lesson of the gospel. Holy exception. That's the lesson of the gospel. That's what justification means. It's a holy exception. He chose you for this privilege. And we're told by Paul, before the foundation of the world. And so the apostle writes of such things and he says, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not, for he says to Moses, I'll have mercy on whomever I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whomever I'll have compassion. So it's not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, it's all of God who shows mercy. In other words, I didn't have to explain to you about David, and about Bimelech the priest, or Himelech the priest. I didn't have to explain that to you. I don't have to explain anything to you because I'm greater than the whole debate. a greater than David is here, a greater than Solomon and Jonah is here, a greater than the temple is here, and I'm the Lord of the Sabbath, so don't tell me what it means. It's kind of like the father who says, just do it, and doesn't explain why. Right? What's up? Because I said so. Right. Thank you. That slipped my mind. My father said that all the time. Because I said so. It was a bad memory, so I blocked it out. When the Lord is challenged, he may answer you the way he answered Job. He may say, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? That's how I feel sometimes. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? I don't know, Lord, but I'm glad you had me in mind somewhere in your eternal plan. When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, where were you? Or he may answer, as Paul indicates, he might say, who are you, O man, to reply against God? Father, in Jesus' name, make these teachings close to our heart, that we might be built up and edified by them, and that you might be glorified in heaven by the proclamation of these holy principles this morning by your servant and these people in your presence. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.