I give honor to our God who is worthy of all praise and I magnify him who has bought me with the price and freed me from the pit full of emptiness and wrath and the fire that burned in it. I'm glad to say I'm saved this morning, not by works but by faith in him who called. I'm grateful for God's mercies that privileged me to be with you, brothers and sisters, at the beginning of this year, not quite the first Sunday of the year, but close. And I'm thankful for the opportunity to be able to renew fellowship this side of the glory. As Bill greeted me, he said, I haven't seen you since last year. And I'm glad to see y'all again this year. We're thankful for God's mercies. Pray for North Carolina. They've had snow, and they're going crazy, I think. Not exactly, but a lot. Churches are closed this morning. I talked with Terry, and with the cold weather, the refreeze, I think a lot of them chose not to try to do what they would normally do this morning. So the pastor of the church that my sons Stacey and Stephen and Samuel attend, he was going to be live streaming a message from his home. And so Terry and the family, I think, are going to tune in. She tried to find some church that would be open this morning, but there were none. So you'll pray for North Carolina as they're in that. And I think probably Virginia might be the same way, the way the storm tracked up along the coast. I guess it was, in many respects, a classic Nor'easter. But we're thankful for the privilege to be with you. I drove on up ahead early. Yes, Jane? Just three. Terry was hoping for more and they were calling for more, but the low that was off the coast pressed inward, inland more, and as a result, there was a little more rain than snow there. So she regretted that. She was looking forward to being snowed in, I believe, but it didn't happen. But in any event, we're thankful I drove up early on Friday to try to beat the storm. And so the Lord was gracious to me in that regard. I want to invite you to turn with me this morning to Mark chapter 12, please. In your Bibles, the gospel according to Mark, the 12th chapter. And I'd like to read a rather long passage in your hearing and to look together with you at that passage. I've realized because of the fact that it's lengthy, we're not going to have time to in any way expound exhaustively each portion. But I do want us to look together in an extended portion from Mark chapter 12. I want us to begin our reading in verse 13. And I want us to read through to verse 37. By way of a title, I would give you this, eternal questions, eternal questions. Let's begin reading there in the gospel according to Mark chapter 12 at verse 13. And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true and carest for no man, for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Shall we give or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it, and he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him. Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her and died, neither left he any seed. And the third likewise, and the seven had her and left no seed. Last of all, the woman died also. In the resurrection, therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, do ye not therefore err because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven. and is touching the dead that they rise. Have ye not read in the book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Ye therefore do greatly err. And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, master, thou hast said the truth. For there is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbors himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst or dared ask him any question. And Jesus answered and said while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ our Messiah is the son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord, and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. May our God today add his blessing, his stamp and seal to his written in red word, his inspired and preserved word. May we together call on our God again to ask him to do that for us. Father, we bow before you in the name, the worthy name of our Savior, whose teaching we read here in the words you inspired Mark to pen of old. Father, thank you for giving us your word of truth. Father, how utterly lost we'd be if we did not have your word. Thank you for your self-revelation, your self-disclosure. Father, thank you for a word of truth, a word of light in a world of darkness and falsehood. Thank you, Father, that thy word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Please now, Father, honor your son and honor your word. And may you make us, Father, more like Christ. And Father, if there's one here who's not trusted, the Lord Jesus, may you today speak to that heart graciously. For Christ's sake and in His name we pray, amen. Well, again, by way of a title, I give you eternal questions. And I do so because I believe that in measure, as we look at what happens here in Mark 12, the record we are given, we have questions that are of eternal significance. A lot of questions that are asked in the world don't carry that kind of weight. They're not freighted with eternal worth. We grow up asking questions. When a child's young, child will ask why a lot. I remember hearing, you know, when they're in those two-year-old years, two-year-old, three-year-old years, and they're asking a lot why, just as an adult look back at them and say, why not? And watch them have that dumb, puzzled look, you know. I guess that's kind of cruel, though. I never did it with our six, you know. But a lot of questions that are asked aren't worth asking. They not only have no eternal significance, they don't have any temporal significance, really. I understand that in the medieval period, a lot of the theologians entertained all manner of questions. One of them was, how many angels can stand on the head of a pin? Can you imagine wanting to think about that philosophically or theologically? It's just an empty question. It's vapid. There's nothing really that's clear. But here as we find our Lord Jesus being approached by various groups within Judaism, there are questions that are asked that lead to very eternal, significant issues. I want us to think about that. Finally, the last question which our Lord Himself asked. So with that in view, let's just consider these things together. And if you will, I'd ask you, first of all, in verses 13 through 17 of Mark, chapter 12, to notice with me a question of design, a question of design. It's interesting how that design comes out in the teaching of our Lord, but let's think it through a moment, and then as we do, maybe we can see that. You could think of this as a question about dignity as well, because it speaks in some measure of of a question of image. Let's look at it again. Verse 13. And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true and cares for no man. For thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Shall we give or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him." Here is our Lord Jesus' approach by two groups. And those groups are groups that would have been at the opposite ends of the spectrum within Judaism. On the one hand, the Pharisees, their very name, I understand, comes from a word that means to separate. and they were the separated ones. They were the ones who sought to remove themselves from the evils, not only of Rome and of the Roman culture around them within Palestine, but they also even separated themselves from those they called in Hebrew, the Amharits, the people of the land. That is the common people who weren't up on their super spiritual, super pious level. They were the Pharisees, but here, Sometimes you hear the term strange bedfellas. Here they're mixed with strange bedfellas for the Herodians were the Jewish faction that were fully in sync with Rome. They had no real problem with Roman culture. They supported the reign of Herod. They were those who found themselves very much at the other side of things from the Pharisees, and yet they're aligned together as they come to bring this question to Jesus. One thing that's interesting about people, whatever their stripe, no matter how diverse they may be from one another, they're agreed about one thing, they hate Jesus. That's just the bottom line. Lord willing, God, I'll be heading for India. As Pastor Paul mentioned, I thank you for your prayers and I desire them. I covet them genuinely. As we go around an area I've never been in, never been in Asia. And the Lord willing, we're going halfway around the world and leaving the family behind for an extended period. So I desire your prayers and earnestly ask them of you. But as I think about it right now, India has a Hindu president and he's trying to somehow lift the standard against Christianity and the gospel within India. And you know there are other groups within India, Sikhs and Muslims and just other factions within India. But one Buddhist, one thing they're all agreed on is they really have no place, no love for Jesus Christ. Herodians, Pharisees, it doesn't matter, Sadducees later in the text, they just don't care about Jesus. And these people are trying to attract Him. They want to somehow catch Him in His words so that they can have something they can hold up to Rome with or hold up to the common people with. So they've got an issue that really should hang Jesus. It's the issue of taxes. For if he's a good Jew, he's going to say there's no way you can support that corrupt government of Caesar. And if he says that, he can't be a good Roman so they can go to the procurator and point out the fact that he's fomenting rebellion. But there's something interesting about the Lord Jesus. He doesn't play by our rules. You want to paint him in a corner, and he'll knock the house down. He's not going to be tamed. I love that about him, because that's the nature of our God. He's a God you can't put in a box. Folk want to do that with him. Folk want to make him fit. But brothers and sisters, you just can't make him fit in your box. He'll tear it to pieces. He'll burn the box. He's that kind of God. And so Jesus, instead of answering their question, he asked them. show me a penny. Now what does that mean when he says show me a penny? Well it means that they have to produce the money to show that they're using the currency of Rome. So they pull out the coinage of a denarius. The King James says penny. It's said to be what would be basically the day's wage of an unskilled laborer at the time. Now I don't know exactly what we would call that today. If you want to say eight times the present Present minimum wage, what is that, $15 now? No. That's a joke, excuse me. That's what some wanted to be right. That was free, no extra charge. The denarius would have been an unskilled laborer's daily wage. But he says, show me a denarius. Now, when he did that, he was getting those who asked the question, and I hope it was a Pharisee who pulled it out, not a Herodian. But he was getting them to in effect say, this is currency that we are using. It's not only current with Rome, it's current with us. And we have that wage, we have that money, we have that coinage of Rome, and we're using it. They pull and reach into their script in their robe or something and pull it out. And then Jesus, he still doesn't answer the question. He says, whose image is on this. Now, first of all, he addresses the fact that he knew they were, although they hand him a bouquet, we know you're a teacher come from God, and we know that no man, you know, so forth, you teach the way of God and truth, you don't care for any man. He looks through that and says, you hypocrites, why do you tempt me? Show me a penny. And then he says, as they produce it, whose is this image and superscription on this penny? And they have to answer Caesar's. And then, since they said that, Jesus tells them, then you render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But then he adds this important additional statement. You render to God what is God's. Now, what's interesting to me is it seems the pivot for that statement of our Lord is built around the matter of image. You've got a coin, and coins bear an image. Well, whose image is on there? George Washington on this quarter. But the very fact that it was minted wherever, Philadelphia, Denver, it doesn't, the very fact that it was minted with the picture of one of our national leaders means that it's the currency of the United States. And so the lesson for us is, render, since you're using that coinage that bears that image, you render to the government of the United States what the government of the United States deserves. But oh, there's another issue about image here. And that is, the man who's handed the coin to Jesus, whose image does he bear? You see, there's something more than just the matter of the denarius here. There's something about the man who's handed the denarius. Does he have an image stamped on him as well? No, I tell you, we do. You and I, though that image has been broken and marred by sin, every one of us are image bearers of the living God. He made us! And I realize that question theologically is discussed, but James, in James chapter three, says about our tongue, therewith bless we God, and therewith curse we men who are made in the image of God. So there's an ongoing character to that image, even though sin is it. Every baby that's born, and may I add every baby that's aborted, is an image bearer. And to kill that baby is to show what you think of the living God. That's something we see in our land that shows something we need to cry out against in our land. But brothers and sisters, I tell you, this matter of image is important. There's a question of design or a question of dignity. You see, in our lives, We use a coinage that shows that there's some kind of allegiance that's due to human government and human authority. And God validates that in Romans 13. But oh, there's a greater allegiance. There's a greater design by the fact that we who use that currency, we're image bearers ourselves. And what does the one who stamped us with his image deserve? You see, there's a dignity that marks man because of God's design. And we see it so well, brothers and sisters, in Genesis 1, don't we? For as we read in Genesis 1 about those six successive days of creation, we read of God making the light and then God separating the waters, the land appearing, and then God making vegetative life. And that's made how? After its kind. And then God makes the fowl, after he makes the lights, he makes the fowl, the birds, and the water creatures, and how are they made? After their kind. And then he makes the land animals on day six, and how are they made? After their kind but then God says in Genesis 1 26 and God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fowls of the air and the fish of the sea over the land animals You and I aren't made after our kind We're made in his image That's what makes man distinctive. That's what makes man contrary to what so many say is to a dog having as much value as a human or other forms of animal life. No, it's not so. Why? Because we're image bearers of God. And as Jesus said, render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Whatever's got his stamp, then using his currency, whatever allegiance and loyalties do there in design, you render that. But don't forget whose image you bear. Don't forget who wrote his name on you. And I like what the black preacher, S.M. Lockridge, said. S.M. Lockridge, I've told you about him before, I believe. Shadrach Meshach Lockridge, S.M. He said his mom didn't give him the last name because she didn't want a bad negro, a bednego, some of you caught that right. But S. M. Lockridge said this about the Lordship of Christ. He said, he didn't write his name on every cloud, but every cloud says he's Lord. He didn't write his name on every blade of grass, but every blade of grass says he's Lord. He didn't write his name on earth, but oh, he did. Because the desire that marks us shows God's signature. Whatever men may say, contrary. Whatever they may say about evolution, about randomness, slime plus time still equals time. Slime, excuse me. Time won't change slime. But God's creative hand made us. And there's a matter of design here. Let's move on, though, because from there we can really find in those following verses, verses 18 through 27, something else that ties with our image-bearing, and that is a question of destiny. If you notice, please, we'll read again the words. Allow me that. Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection. And they ask him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her and died, neither left he any seed. And the third likewise, and the seven had her and left no seed. Last of all, the woman died also, duh. That was free, no extra charge. In the resurrection, therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the seven had her. And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven, and is touching the dead that they rise. Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living, ye therefore, do greatly err. Now here we have another group within Judaism in Palestine in the day of our Lord. Not the Herodians, not the Pharisees, but the Sadducees. They believed there was no resurrection. Dr. Luke and Acts will tell us they confessed neither angel nor spirit nor resurrection. It's interesting though that they've got a question about the resurrection. Now obviously the purpose of the question is to make the resurrection look ridiculous. But all our Lord does is make these who deny the resurrection look ridiculous. And here we have a question of destiny. I think because of the fact that these sadducees had forgotten the one whose image they bore, they had failed to see the reality of human destiny extends beyond this life. There's more to life than this life. There is indeed an eternity to come. Now they start out with what they believe we could call, I guess philosophically, a reductio ad absurdum, a reduction to the absurd. Basically, they're reducing the issue of the resurrection to this absurd question about a man who had six brothers and in accordance with the Levirate marriage that God had mandated in the Law of Moses, that if a brother died and he didn't have a child, then His brother after him would take that wife, and for his brother, he would produce a son. Well, of course, in this reductio absurdum, they basically trace out these seven brothers, all of them having the wife, none of them having a child, and she dies. You know, I really, that's why I put duh after that, and last of all, the woman, not also. Can you imagine that? Seven brothers, no doubt she died. That'd be tough, I'm sure, but she dies, and what happens? Well, whose will she be in the resurrection? I guess they figured, well, if she had a child, then obviously she belonged to that man in the resurrection. But Jesus doesn't answer that on their terms. Again, He's not going to fit into the box that people want to paint, whether it's religion or irreligion. And Jesus answers by telling them, first of all, they err because they don't know the Scriptures nor the power of God. In some respect, the Sadducees would have been very much like the liberals of our day. They claim to believe the Word, but they denied angel, they denied spirit, they denied resurrection. And some say about the Sadducees, they only accepted the first five books of Moses. That's been contested, but in any event, some claim that about them. Only the law. So Jesus tells them they err because they don't know the scripture of the power of God. In the resurrection, he says, they neither marry nor given in marriage because there's the angels of God. Well, he's answering the resurrection by appealing to angels. They don't believe in either of them. But then he gets them on their dead to rights, if you will. He says, have you not read, touching the fact that the dead rise, have you not read, when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, he said, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Now, Dr. Luke adds the footnote in his copy of this that when Jesus said that, he said, for all live unto him. In other words, the idea is God's relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not end at death. He didn't say, I was the God of Abraham. I was the God of Isaac. He says, I am. Why? Because in the spirit, they still lived to him. What the Sadducees denied, God affirmed in Exodus 3. I am their God. But because of the fact of humanity being God's image bearer, how? Body, soul, and spirit. Because of that reality, man is not going to be a soulless creature alone for all eternity. God's purpose is ultimately that man will be raised. Now for those who are saved, That resurrection will be a resurrection of glory. For those who are lost, that resurrection, a resurrection nevertheless, will be a resurrection unto damnation. Eternal punishment, not in hell, that is the present, intermediate state, but the lake of fire, what our Lord Jesus calls Gehenna, in which man will be, body, soul, and spirit, judged for his sin. Now that's a question of destiny. Because man is God's image bearer, man's existence is marked by an internal character. because we bear the image and superscription of the living God, then it doesn't mean death is the end. And you know, people have some crazy ideas about death. I remember Brother Riesinger used to mention how one time he was looking for a card with his wife in a drugstore or some other store where they sold cards, greeting cards and other cards, and he said he noticed. And he asked his wife, he said, Rose, have you ever seen A humorous sympathy card. You know, they got so many wacky, crazy, funny, humorous, and not so humorous, intended to be, kind of like my jokes, you know, cards. But no death cards like that. No sympathy cards as far, why? Because man still has something about death. I remember hearing E.V. Hill, the black preacher, they tell the story that he was preaching one time and he told about a man who wanted to be in Texas, wanted to be buried in his Cadillac. And so they set him in his Cadillac, his corpse, and they had a crane to dig a big hole so they could bury him in his Cadillac. And as they had the crane going to drop the Cadillac, with that man sitting at the wheel in the ground, one of the guys who was working the burial said, man, that's living. Man, that's living. A dead man being buried in a Cadillac, somebody looks at it and says, man, that's living. That's the foolishness of man right there. But the reality is, death does not end it. You can be buried in your Cadillac, won't change a thing. You're not gonna drive any pink highway or anything. If you're not saved, you're going to hell. And if you're not saved, hell's not the end. There'll be a moment of resurrection. The Bible doesn't call it a second resurrection in Revelation 20, though. It calls it a second death. First resurrection, chapter 20, second death. Why? Because those who were raised in that resurrection, the great white throne, are judged eternally to damnation, to the lake of fire. See, there's a question of destiny. As God's image bearers, we were made for eternity. That's why Ecclesiastes 3, God says, He's put eternity in our heart. It's there. Let's move on to another question there as we go to verse 28. And here we see a question of duty. And let me read for you verses 28 through 34 as we think about this third question that we see brought to our Lord Jesus. And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, well, master, thou hast said the truth, for there is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbors himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question." Here we see another issue that is brought up in this question, and that's the question of duty. Now the man who asked it, it appears from Matthew, asked it to tempt the Lord Jesus, but it seems that he's on his way to becoming a serious hearer. Because at the end of what he hears in Mark's gospel, Jesus tells him, you're not far from the kingdom of God. His question has to do with duty. His question has to do with, I could also add, debt. Because our duty becomes our debt. Out of the law, this man asks, what's the greatest commandment? Somebody said he asked probably so he could know which ones he could break with less severe penalty. I don't know that that's so. But in any event, he asked, what's the greatest commandment? And the Lord Jesus doesn't look to the Decalogue. He doesn't go to the Ten Commandments. Instead, He goes to Deuteronomy chapter 6, what the Hebrews called the Shema. Shema Yisrael. The Lord our God is one Lord. And in Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 and 5, you find these words recorded that Jesus said are the first and greatest commandment. Because we are God's image-bearer, because we are eternity-bound men and women, There is a duty that marks us above all God's creatures. And that duty is that you and I are called to love God with everything we are and everything we have. But there's a second one that accompanies that. Because our fellow human beings are also God's image bearers, you and I are called to love them as we love ourselves. And the man realizes the sensibility of Jesus' response as he says, Lord, you've answered rightly. You're right on, Lord. And here's something that's the kicker to me. Jesus says to the man, you're not far from the kingdom of God. That leads us into the last question, but I just want to say this. Who is this man who can look at another man and tell him, you're not far from the kingdom of God? He has to be more than man, doesn't he? He's God. We're going to see that in the final question. It's not asked by others, but asked by Jesus. And it seems he asked it at least two times, maybe three, as we put the narratives of the gospel together. But here's the issue. You and I, because we are image-bearers of the living God, whose image and superscription is on us, we're eternity-bound men and women. And what does that mean? We have a duty to love the one who is our maker. He's one God. He stated that. There's none other but Him. The man realized the truth of that. This scribe who asked the question, there's none other but Him. I'm headed, God willing, to India. There are millions of gods in Hinduism. I wouldn't know which one to love, even though I was to love Him with all my heart. But oh, there's not millions of gods. There's one God. And He's spoken to us in the Holy Scriptures. He's given us a revelation of Himself. He's disclosed who He is. And I have a responsibility to love Him with all I am, all my days. And I have to report to you sadly, I have not done that. None of us have. And I have not fulfilled the second either. I'm not loving my neighbors myself. Because of that, that duty involves every one of us in a debt. Because we are His image bearers who are His eternal creatures, we're going to rise one day. That means for every son and daughter of Adam in our cells, the only resurrection we can be part of is the resurrection of damnation. There's no other. Because our debt, if we're eternal creatures, our debt is an eternal debt. I'm glad there's one more question in this group. Let's look at it, please. And I would present it to you as a question about deity. Verse 35, and Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, how say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit now on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth them Lord. And whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him laugh gladly. The Lord Jesus says this now as he's teaching the temple. Ask the scribes and Pharisees, what think ye of Christ? Now remember Christ is in the Greek New Testament, but a transliteration in our English Bibles of the word Christos, which means anointed one. It's a Greek translation of Messiah or Mashiach, anointed one. What do you think of Messiah? He's asking these people. What do you think of Messiah? Whose son is he? And I believe those Pharisees and scribes, because they had failed to realize the eternal questions we've talked about, because somehow they saw themselves in their law keeping and in their works righteousness, they saw themselves as getting a good grade. They didn't realize the kind of Messiah they needed. And so they answered when Jesus said in Matthew's gospel, and some say it's the watershed question of Matthew's gospel, alongside of Matthew 16, whom do men say that I am? Whom do you say that I am? What think you of Christ? Whose son is he? The pivotal issue in our Lord's question is sonship. We see it here. How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? How? You see, they answered son of David. That is, they thought only of Messiah as a human savior. Why? Because they'd never seen their own sin. They thought their works would stand them in God's presence, their works would get them into the kingdom. But Jesus had told Nicodemus already, except you be born again, you'll not enter the kingdom. Why? Because in our natural state, you and I aren't equipped to enter the kingdom. We're disqualified. And if there's a savior to come, He's got to be more than man. And what Jesus does, our Lord, the Master Teacher, the Master of Scripture, He is the Word and He puts His stamp on the written Word as the living Word. He goes back to Psalm 110 and He says, If Messiah is David's son, then how can David call Him Lord, saying, Psalm 1101, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. They couldn't answer it. And the common people heard him gladly. I think they saw Jesus eating up those Pharisees and they thought, get him Lord, sick him, sick him. You know? Because they've been saddled by those Pharisees so long with works and religion and do this, do that, do this, do that. And by the way, you get a lot of do this, do that religion. You simplify it, it's just doo-doo religion, okay? That was free, no extra charge. It's going on CD too, you know. But that's what Paul called his religion as a Pharisee, right? Dung. I count it but dung. Scubala, refuse. Because that's what works religion is. It's got a stench to it. It won't stand us right in God's presence. I need more than a man, Savior. And yet Messiah is the son of David, but whose son is he as well? Remember the pivotal question our Lord asked, whose son is he? He's son of David, yes, but that's in his humanity. In His deity as He became man, He's Son of God. And because He's Son of God, in humanity as the Son of David, He can be the Savior that we need. Let's think in terms of Psalm 110 though. Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. What does Psalm 110 celebrate? It speaks not only of Messiah and His person, it speaks of Messiah and His Word. In those words of Psalm 110 verse 4, that we read these words the Lord is born and will not repent thou art a priest what forever after the order of Melchizedek he's an eternal priest but the priests weren't eternal Aaron died and then Eliezer took his place and then Eliezer died and Phineas took his place and you can read the genealogy of first chronicles but this man's an eternal priest why He's God and man. And as God and man, He's able to be the eternal priest, that eternal people who are made in the image of an eternal God, who committed the violation of eternal duty. He's able to pay a price that you and I cannot pay. The debt of my duty? I'd be forever in the lake of fire pain because I could never finish paying it. It's that great a debt. It's that great a duty. But in His humanity, and this is what the theologians call the hypostatic union. That is, the union of the hypostases of the natures of deity and humanity. Who is that child laying in a manger in Bethlehem? Why, He's Emmanuel, God with us. Who is He? He's the mighty God, the everlasting Father. Hallelujah. In other words, Jesus Christ in perfect union, the person of Immanuel, has the nature of deity, the nature of humanity. And that means as He goes to the cross, He, the eternal God, is able to pay an eternal penalty. for people who will live eternally. Anselm said it so well, I think I've shared it with you before, but allow me to repeat it. Anselm of Canterbury, theologian of the medieval period, not all of them were just asking questions about angels and pens. Anselm asked a question in one of his books, Cur Deus Homo, why did God become man? And Anselm in that book argues, that the insult that our sin had done to the glory of God, our rebellion against God, the insult it had furnished to the glory of God was such that it was eternal in character. And so Anselm came away with this proposition. God became a man because in order to pay for sin, the finite must suffer infinitely or the infinite must suffer finitely. Think about that. You and I, we're eternal creatures, but we're not infinite creatures. You and I are finite and limited creatures. In order for us to pay for sin, we must do what? Pay for it infinitely. That's why hell is eternal. But oh, if somehow an infinite being would come and pay a price, he could do it finitely. He would not have to suffer infinitely. And hallelujah, that's what he did at the cross. The God man, Emmanuel, David's son, but David's Lord. He paid a debt he did not owe. For you and I who owed a debt we could not pay. And the infinite suffered infinitely. Well, he did suffer infinitely, but he did it finitely. In other words, he paid that infinite penalty, but because he was an infinite He could paint in the space of those six or three hours on the cross. And he could cry at the end of his cross work, John 19, 30. It is finished. It is finished was his cry. Hallelujah. Lifted up was he to die. It is finished was his cry. Now in heaven, exalted high. Hallelujah, what a savior. And now you and I who know it, we can go on to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We'll fail. We can go on to love our neighbors, ourselves. We ought to. We'll fail. But we serve Him knowing that He paid a debt He did not owe. For us who owed a debt we could not pay. And here in these questions, we see the reality of why God became man. And I remind you that we're reading in Mark chapter 12 from the gospel according to Mark, the euangelion, the good news. And all of the gospels take us to what? The cross, the grave, the resurrection. Why? Because that's why God became man. And thank God, the infinite has suffered finitely. And I don't have to say nobody to rescue me. Nobody would dare because praise God. And of course, that song is just bringing out the highlight of that reality. That's what Christ has done. For he bought me with the price. He freed me from the pit. full of emptiness and wrath and the fire that burns it in. Yes, I'm saved by the blood of the Lamb. I've been saved by the power of the Lord. And I'm so glad. Why? I'm so glad that Christ took my place. Oh, brothers and sisters, let's go on and let's live out our duty. Do it in His honor, not because I'm working to get in, because I've already gotten in. Hallelujah. Because I've gotten in, I want to bring bouquets of glory to His name. Or as one of the old Puritans said, wagonloads of glory to His name. God grant it! But the only reason I can do that is because Jesus Christ, God's Son, became David's son. And he who was David's son, David recognized to be his Lord. Because of that, he's able to be the eternal priest that you and I sinners need. That priest forever, after a little mechizedek. Brother David, where's your priest now? He's at the right hand of the father. He's sitting where he's been invited to sit in Psalm 1101. Sitting at the father's right hand, Years ago, I heard the story about Richard Allen. He was the black pastor who started the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Mother Bethel down in Philadelphia is the original church that he started. Richard Allen was a freed slave. And he's like me. I'm a freed slave, you see. He was a freed slave. And when slaves were freed, they had what was given to them, the papers of manumission. And those papers of manumission showed that they were in fact free. They were liberated. They were no longer slaves. But Mr. Allen did not keep his papers of manumission with him. He kept his papers of manumission with his lawyer in his office in the city where he lived. Now, there were several times that Mr. Allen was apprehended as being an escaped slave. And whenever that happened, he would get word back to his lawyer who would bring his papers and show that he was freed. Why'd he do that? Well, you see, if he had those papers of manumission on his person, somebody could have torn them up and said, well, you're not free now, man. So he left them with his lawyer. Let me just make an application. This is free, no extra charge. I'm a freed slave, but I don't carry my papers of manumission with me. They're with my lawyer. You know where my lawyer is? He's in the right hand of God. He's my advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, as John puts it in 1 John 2.1. And he pleads our case, brothers and sisters. He's our king priest. He's our prophet priest and king and his eternal God. He paid that eternal penalty for us, eternal creatures, so that we can be eternally with him and we can live for eternity as well right now. with eternity's values in view. May we do that to the glory of God. Let's pray. Father, we ask you now to bless your Word and to magnify your Son. He is worthy. And Father, we thank you that because of what you've recorded for us in your Word, we can say we're saved by the blood of the Lamb. Father, I'm so glad And Lord, I pray that we might not only want to thank you, but we might want to live lives of thanksgiving, lives of thanks living to the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. Hear us, we pray in his worthy name. Amen.