Luke's Gospel, Chapter 20. We're going to be reading the first eight verses. Before I read these verses, let me just say, when the Apostle Paul wrote his letters, oftentimes it was with tears that he wrote. And I think that it would be a huge mistake to come into this room for a service like this and not think about the passion of the Lord and the tears that were in his eyes as he gave us these words. The passion of the Lord for us to understand his word is more than we could ever know. And it's so easy to come to a meeting like this and we start out and our attempt is to learn something of the sense of what is being said here. And we can be satisfied with just an academic knowledge of what is said. and not lay hold on the emotions of God. And that's a big mistake. This book is given to us with passion because the Lord loves us more than we could ever know. And he's given us these things to help us because we've got a problem. And most of the time, we do not know it. We've got a problem and do not know it. One of the reasons is because our hearts are deceived. We're deceived in our perception of ourselves, our perception of life as a whole. We're pretty much deceived about so much of life. So the Lord has given us these things to help us in that regard. Reading verse one, and let me say the title of this message tonight is the most dangerous people in the world. The most dangerous people in the world. And it came to pass that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders and spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? Or who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing, and answer me. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, if we shall say from heaven, he will say, why then believed he him not? But if we say of men, all the people will stone us, for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. And they answered that they could not tell whence it was. And Jesus said unto them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. So our first challenge here is to grasp something of the sense of what the Lord is seeking to tell us here. But we want to remember the passion of God. in our understanding of these things. These words right here. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father, we do ask tonight that you would bless us with an understanding of what you're saying here, that the message might reach our hearts and to understand that so often we know academically what's said here, but in the application of what is said, we practice a practical unbelief, a practical unbelief, because we do not live it. So I pray that you would help us to overcome this problem as we gather here tonight and consider the meaning of the passage. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. If you'll notice in a overall study of the Bible, you'll notice that the Lord does not focus a whole lot on what we consider to be the lowlifes of this world, the drunkards and the harlots, the thieves, He does address those things. But it's not the focus of so much of the message of the Bible. As a matter of fact, if you will consider carefully the Bible, you will discover that the focus of just about everything that he said was to leaders. spiritual leaders all throughout the Bible. It's important to note that. And one of the reasons is because if we can learn the relationship of man at his best state with God, man at his best state, we might consider carefully where we might stand in relation to people that we assume are close to God. Churchgoers, people that are faithful in going to church, people that are Bible teachers, people that are missionaries, people that live a moral life publicly and it's recognized by everybody who sees them. It's interesting that the focus of the message of the book is on those people. And that's important for us to think about. And with those thoughts, it leads us into why I decided to title this message, Who Are the Most Dangerous People in the World? And the answer is religious leaders. Religious leaders. I hope to some extent to prove this tonight and what we're going to look at. This is actually what the Bible teaches. It's people in religious circles. And so The first passage I want to read to you. You do not have to turn to this. If you'd like to, you can. But it's Isaiah chapter 9 verses 14 through 16. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush in one day, Now, with that, remember that Isaiah was a prophet that was raised up by God to warn the people, and especially the religious leadership, that they had completely misjudged their condition as they stood before God. They had no idea what peril awaited them because before too long the Babylonians were going to be raised up by God to go down and utterly destroy the people of Benjamin and Judah. He would set on fire the temple of God built by Solomon, burn it to the ground. And the religious leaders had no idea that this was the temperament of God toward them. It's very important to note that. It goes on to say, in defining who the head and the tail was, it says, the ancient and honorable, he is the head, the ancient and honorable in terms of the perception of the people. He's the head. But remember the Lord said, I will cut off from Israel head and tail." He was going to take their head right off. The ancient and honorable, he is the head. And the prophet that teacheth lies, he's the tail. This is the focus of the prophecy. And then he says, for the leaders of this people cause them to err. And they that are led of them are destroyed. That's important. It's a dangerous thing to be under the influence of somebody that assumes authority in the things of God, but doesn't know God. Doesn't understand the burden of the Lord. As a matter of fact, in Jeremiah chapter 23, the Lord addressed that very issue of the false pastors that walked around all the time talking about the burden of the Lord as though they were close to God and knew his burden. No they weren't. They weren't close to God and the Lord sent Jeremiah to tell them not to use that word. Do not use that word and the Lord's wrath was against the people and as Jeremiah preached no one believed him and their emotions were so hostile against him they put him in prison and would have killed him had God not restrained and so in Isaiah chapter 9 he tells us what I believe is a theme in the entire Bible For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed. In Matthew chapter 23, we find another passage that essentially teaches the same thing. And there are many passages that do this, I just picked out three. Matthew 23, verses 13 and verse 15. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves, neither subjugate them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you can pass sea and land to make one proselyte or one convert. And when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. That's some of the strongest language you'll read in the Bible. And Matthew chapter 23 is full of it, the whole chapter. Scalding language. And the focus of it is the religious leadership, the scribes and the Pharisees, the lawyers. In Luke's gospel, chapter 12, verses four and five, we read these words, But I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Fear him. So who are we to fear in the world? Is it the drunkards? Is it the publicans and harlots? Is it the ones that most anyone would look at as the lowlifes of this world? That's not God's perspective. He said, I'll tell you who you need to fear. you need to fear the Pharisees. This verse that I've just read in Luke chapter 12 about fearing certain people had to do with the Pharisees and the leaven of the Pharisees. The danger of religious leaders teaching untruths. Things that are not true. A misunderstanding of what the Bible is actually saying. I'm telling you the message from heaven. I've said this many times, it's a horrible message. It's a scary message. And as we've noted in other studies, It's not the purpose of this church just to get people to believe in God. Just believing in God doesn't cause people to sweat. But what does cause people to sweat is being wrong about your actual relationship with God. not knowing that you're on your way to hell. Not knowing that you're on your way to hell. If a person will pause long enough to think about what was just said, it'll make you sweat. Because the consequences of taking God's word lightly is enormous beyond anything we could ever comprehend. being lost forever without any hope, without any hope. Folks, it's so important for us to have tender hearts. It's so important for us to acknowledge the many things in life we do not know, the many things that we do not understand, and present ourselves before God teachable. We need to learn. We need to think. which is an epidemic problem in our world today. People do not think. And we need to think. And we especially need to think about what God has to say. And so in Luke chapter 20, as we get into the passage, we want to look at the verses. And we want to consider why religious leaders can be dangerous. And you'll notice that the subject, the way the Lord builds this thought around these eight verses is around the word authority. It has to do with authority. Very important to understand that word authority as it relates to what the Lord is talking about here in these eight verses. Let's read verses one and two. And it came to pass that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, the chief priests and scribes came upon him with the elders. So here's your religious leaders. And speaking to him saying, tell us, But what authority do us out of these things? Or who is he that gave thee this authority? And so the very first thing that we're confronted with here, as the Lord focuses on the most dangerous people in the world, it has to do with their comprehension of authority. Now, I'll tell you what. It's very possible that a person could come to Calvary Memorial Church all their life and think that they really understand the message of this chapter and prove every day that they do not understand it by the way they apply authority in their own life. That's what we need to think about tonight. What do we really know about this word, authority, in the practical application of it? Because you see, you might be able to define authority in excellent dictionary terms, but if we do not apply the meaning of the word in a practical way, as it's presented in this passage, then it's practical unbelief of the Word, as it might apply to us. It's practical unbelief. If we do not live it, it's practical unbelief of the meaning of the Word, as it might relate to you and me. It's kind of like practical atheism. James said, the devils believe and tremble. But what's missing in the life of the devils is the practical application of what they know. You don't have to convince the devils that there's a God. They know there's a God. The devils believe and tremble. But the failure is a practical atheism. In other words, if you believe there is a God, but you live every day as though there isn't a God, then what is the difference between being an atheist and being a professing believer in God, but you practically do not live as though you believe he's there? He that cometh to God must believe that he is. And that is a rewarder, he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. But do we diligently seek him? What does it mean to diligently seek the Lord? Can we examine ourselves and say that we do, that we diligently seek him? Where's the evidence of it? This is why Paul spoke so carefully about the need to examine ourselves. To examine ourselves. We need to do that. We need to be humble enough to examine ourselves and just allow the fact that we might be very deceived. Even as these Pharisees were and these elders that we read about here. The priest, the chief priest, the scribes came upon him with the elders. An elder is a person that is supposed to be a person who sees the big picture of life. In John's writing, in his first epistle, an elder is a father, a spiritual father, that has known him from the beginning. The whole idea is the scope of the understanding of a spiritual father. He sees the big picture of what the Bible teaches. And these that came were elders that should have known the big picture, but they didn't. And because they didn't, they were some of the most dangerous people on the face of the earth. And so authority is what's before us here and the need to understand this term. I think that a careful study of the Bible will reveal the fact that beginning in Genesis, this is where the theme begins, authority. Yea, hath God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. Yea, as God said. And so the temptation had to do with the subject of authority. Is God the authority? Oh listen, you can be the authority. For God knows that in the day you eat thereof, you shall be as God, discerning good and evil for yourself. You've got a mind. You're a good person. You can decide what's right and what's wrong. You don't need God. I'm telling you that most people live that way every day. I'm telling you. If that's the way you live, you need to sweat. Need to sweat. Because to live that way is to be absolutely lost. And to be without God in the world. Just like these people right here. They were just as lost as they could be. on their way to hell. And the Lord said to them, you go out here in your religion to make a convert and when you make him, you make him twofold more the child of hell than you are. And that's what he said. They're the most dangerous people in the world, folks. I'm telling you something, if you're a professing Christian, you better live like it. The Lord looks at the practical application of it, not the head knowledge of it, but the heart living of it. And if it's not in your heart, in a way that converts you and changes you from the way you used to be to the way the Lord wants you to be, then you're missing it. We shouldn't be offended by these kinds of thoughts. I'm telling you that God weeps. I believe that if we could see the Lord tonight, if we could actually see his face, see his countenance, as we read the words that he wrote, we would see the tears in his eyes. This is huge in the mind of God. This is huge. And you see, it's the very first issue in the whole Bible when it comes to the human race, the issue of authority. And how do we understand that? Well, in the Garden of Eden, the conflict was between the authority of heaven and the authority of men. And I believe it's the basis for Henry Morris' book, A Long War Against God. And this is what it was, right here. This conflict over authority. Who's gonna decide what right and wrong is? Now let's look at verses three and four. And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing, and answer me. The baptism of John, Was it from heaven or of men? And so the Lord in his wisdom is showing us the simple contrast, the simple way of really understanding this huge term of authority, this huge subject that damns men's souls if they do not understand it. And he says it's as simple as the authority of heaven versus your authority. The authority you assume you have in terms of what is right and wrong in life. I'm going to tell you something. If you do not have a fear in your heart of being wrong in God's judgment, good question whether you're saved. You ought to sweat over that. Because you see, one of these days we're going to die. It's been said that this subject's being mentioned a lot in our church. Well, it ought to be. King David wanted to remember death often. He said, Lord, make me to know my men. and to measure my days what it is, that I might know how frail I am. Behold, every man at his best state is altogether vanity." Very important to think about dying because when you're dying, is our opinion going to compete with God's declaration of truth? Are we going to say or argue with God that we were right in the way we lived and the decisions we made, the choices we made in life? Are we going to argue with God, who is the judge of all the earth? Very important to understand that while we're living day by day. Because you see, your practical application of your understanding of authority on a daily basis is really a disclosure of your actual spiritual relationship with God. That's how we know. And that's what the Lord is teaching us here. And so in verses three and four, we see that there are only two possible sources when it comes to authority, and that is heaven, or God, or men. Authority is with men. In other words, I'm a person and I can know right and wrong. That was the reason for the fall of the entire human race, is the idea that man can know apart from God, without God. You know the Lord said in John 15 verse 5, without me you can do nothing. And that includes understand this subject right here. You can't understand the subject without God, without an understanding of who God is. And then in verse five, we read something that's tragic. It's actually a definition of humanism. Verse five, and they reasoned with themselves. They reasoned with themselves. You actually see this twice in this chapter, and you don't know how much I would love to teach you this whole chapter tonight, but I can't do that. But he gives a parable that further illustrates the importance of the first eight verses. And it had to do with this vineyard that had been planted, and the hatred of the caretakers of it, who wanted it to be their own, and not the rightful owner. And it says in verse 14, but when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. And that's what we actually are doing when we go through life exalting our own authority above the authority of God. It's the same thing as killing Him in our minds by ignoring Him. There are different ways to kill people. One way you kill people is just treat them as though they don't exist. And that's exactly what a lot of people do every day. They live as though God doesn't exist practically. What can we look at in our lives every day that is a practical illustration of the fact that we know that he exists? and that we should submit ourselves to his authority. What are the practical things that we can point to? As we examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith, that's what the Apostle Paul, you know, wrote the Corinthians about, and he warned them, he told them. He said, examine yourselves, prove your own selves that you're in Christ. that Christ is in you, except you be reprobates, void of judgment. There ought to be evidences that we can see in our own lives that prove that we love God. Can we say, well, I can prove that I love God because I go to church. Well, so did the Pharisees. So did the scribes. So did the lawyers. They went to church. They were very faithful about it. Everybody knew them. That's why they were viewed as spiritual leaders. They were. They were viewed as spiritual leaders. And the people had great respect for them. And their respect for them was causing them to be twofold more the children of hell than the Pharisees were. We better stop looking at men, better start looking at God and understand the tremendous importance of this book and thus saith the Lord. It's a wonderful thing when people come to a church and they listen to what's being said and even try to prove it wrong. with the word. I think that's a good thing. I'm not offended when people come up to me and say, I think you missed it on that one. Because you see, I want to get it right too. And I need all the help I can get in getting it right. I don't want to be wrong on this one. I listened when Pastor Kelly said, There are a lot of things that you can be wrong about. But you don't want to be wrong about this one. When he said those words, I would never forget them. I think about those words often. I'm so glad that I do. Because you see, I've got to die right by myself. And what you think of me has nothing to do with my eternal state. Nothing. And what I think of myself has nothing to do with my eternal state. But I tell you what has everything to do with it. It's how God thinks. It's not what you think your relationship to God is, it's what he knows it is. It's the only thing that matters in life. And so we see a terrible thing here. In verse 5, they reasoned with themselves. That is the definition of humanism. Their reasoning was not consistent with Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. They didn't reason with God. They didn't want to reason with God. They didn't have enough respect for Him to reason with Him. I'm telling you, it's important for each one of us. I remember something else Brother Kent said one time, he said, he said, it's no more my responsibility to study the Bible than it is yours. He said, you think that just because I'm the preacher, all you need to do is just come in here and hear what I say. Well, listen, Kent has a soul. He was concerned about his, eternal soul, his relationship with the Lord. But you have a soul too. And the only source available to the human mind that you can go to to find out what your soul's relationship is to God is right here in this book. And that's why I said it's no more my responsibility to study the Bible than it is yours. Listen, you've got a soul. How concerned are we for our soul? We need to go to this book, to the word of the Lord and learn how he thinks and learn carefully his definition of what it means to be saved. And not go through life deceived, satisfied with our definition of salvation as we understand it. I don't want to go through this life With how I feel about it, I wanna go through this life with God being my judge. And this is what the Psalmist David said. I think I'll turn to this, because I think it's Psalm, I think it's Psalm, yeah, Psalm 26. Here's what he says. The Psalmist David said, judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity." Now, he starts out by saying, Judge me, O Lord. His focus is on the Lord. And with that being the first thought, he says, In my perception of myself, for I have walked in mine integrity. And then he says, I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide And then he says, examine me, O Lord, and prove me. You see the difference between authority and David's understanding of authority when it came to judging himself as compared to God judging him? Folks, the most dangerous thing you will ever do in the course of your life is go through life being satisfied with your relationship with God. That's a dangerous thing. Safety is in letting the Lord Himself examine you. And He does it right here in His Word. He loves us. He wants us to understand it that way. Because we're not the judges of our eternal soul. He is! And it's good that we understand that. And so David says, examine me, O Lord. Well, it's good to start, as Paul said to the Corinthians. Examine yourselves to see whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves, how that Christ Jesus is in you, except you be reprobates. Well, it's good to start there. At least you're thinking about what you're doing and how you're thinking. But if you want to really get it right and enter into full assurance of salvation so that if death comes suddenly, unexpectedly, you get, you know, taken out of this life, you don't have to prepare anything because you're already prepared. And you've come to the Lord and you've let him examine you and judge you and prove to you by His Spirit, that you're a child of God, a son of God. That's where you get your eternal security. It comes from God. It doesn't come from you. It doesn't come from your opinion. It comes from the Word of God. And trust that one. Okay, so verses 5 and 6 present a dilemma. that the Pharisees find themselves in, and they reasoned with themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then believeth ye him not? But if we say of men, all the people will stone us, for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. And so He has spoken to them about the preaching of John, who represented the authority of heaven. And they were caught between a rock and a hard place here because they really didn't want to acknowledge the truth of either. Because if they acknowledged that John told the truth and authority is only from heaven, then we've got a problem. That demands conversion. And that's what they did not want to do. See, that's why people do not get saved, is they don't want to be changed. They don't want God telling them what to do in any area of life. People want to live the way they want to live. They want to judge their own life and their plans and that be the end of it. But there's a God in heaven that has written about the ways of men. There's a way, the same as writing to a man, but in there are the ways of death. This breaks God's heart to look down and see people that are of that mindset, that are trusting themselves and their own way and their own choices in life as though the blessing of God is on them. and so they were afraid to acknowledge that authority was from heaven. And if they rejected Christ and were critical of John, they feared the popular opinion of men, and they concluded If we say that authority is of men, all the people will stone us, for they'd be persuaded that John was a prophet. Well, the dilemma here is between these two alternatives, God or men, popular opinion. And so verse seven tells us, and they answered that they could not tell whence it was. They could not tell. Why did they come to that conclusion that they could not give an answer? When there are only two possibilities, authority is either with God or it is with men. And if it is with men, if authority is decided by men, if it's true that men decide what is right and what is wrong in life, then what need we of God? We don't need God. And that was exactly the temptation in the Garden of Eden. God knows, then there are, and you start deciding for yourself. He knows that you'll be as wise as he is, knowing good and evil. You can know good and evil. You don't need God to tell you what's right and what's wrong. All you need is your opinion. You ought to sweat over that one. Dangerous way to live. Dangerous way to live. And so they did not want to acknowledge it. John's preaching was right that the only authority is from heaven because that would have meant they would have had to pay more attention to what he had to say. And that's true tonight. But they found themselves in a position where they could not tell because no one wants to be thought of as a self-appointed authority. who could care less what God thinks or what other people think. And so they chose to keep the curtain down on the stage of life as they performed. They didn't want to come out and let it be known exactly what they were like in their hearts when it came to this matter of authority. They wanted to continue to parade around as the representatives of God according to the tradition of men. Big mistake. God weeps over this. His tears are all over these words right here. Because it could very well be the case that there are people right here in this church tonight They're living exactly this way. With plenty of religion in the life, but very little truth. Very little truth. It's the way we live. It's the way we practically apply the things that we profess to believe that puts the difference between the genuinely saved and the genuinely lost. Verse 8, and Jesus said unto them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. Now this is what's called stalemate. I think of it as the accursed condition. If we had time to look at it, it'd be interesting to do so, but I'm just going to tell you. If we had the time to turn to Joshua chapter 6 and read verse 1, you would discover there something that I discovered many, many years ago when I was doing some Bible study in that section. And I read these words, none went out and none came in. I sat there and I thought about that. None went out. None came in. The people of God were on the outside. And their very life hung in the balance depending on their attitude toward the people of God outside those walls. But none of them would go out and they wouldn't let the children of Israel in They viewed the children of Israel, the true representatives of the true and living God, as enemies. They didn't want to hear what they had to say. They didn't want their God. They wanted their own concept of God. And so the accursed condition is when any human being will not go out to you as a witness. and will not let you as a witness come in to them. That shows it up. No hope for a person like that. When a person clams up and just shuts down and will not listen to the testimony of God, that's the accursed condition. No hope for a person like that. There's no remedy. And when the Lord said here in verse 8, And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you but what authority I do these things. That was their damnation right there. There was no remedy for them. No remedy. This is the accursed condition. So this passage illustrates the long war against God, to use the title of Henry Morris' book. Who decides what is good and what is evil? Many will mentally assent to what the Bible says, and many can quote it, just like the devils can quote the Bible. But they practically deny it. Which is all together the same as unbelief. If we do not live this, then what hope do we have now? One final thought is this. Let's bring this home. And let's examine ourselves. Have you found yourself trying to control the people around you lately? Disgusted with their choices in life? Have you got a way of thinking that is so different from the way other people think that your judgment of them is, man, they're just getting everything wrong. And you get bent out of shape over it. Get bent out of shape over it. Because they do not think the way you think. I'm going to tell you something. That is an earthly example, to a great extent, of your actual relationship to God when it comes to understanding the subject of authority. Because you know what kind of authority we have in reality? Zero. We have no authority when it comes to our relationship with God, and we have zero authority when it comes to the free will of man. None. None. Absolutely none. And so how do you approach people that do not think the way you think and do not behave the way you would like for them to behave? What do you do about it? Well, you do the same thing that the Lord did. If people close their ears, there's nothing you can do. If your relationship with people is like those at Jericho, where none went out and none came in, you just have to sort of accept that that's the situation. There's not a thing you can do about it. And one of the reasons we ought to understand there's nothing that we can do about it is because there's nothing God can do about it. God will not go beyond the liberty that he has given you to make choices in life and force you to make his, he'll never do it. The only way that you can, the only way the Lord can influence your authority and your behavior in this world is by him wooing us to himself Bringing us to our senses, like the prodigal son, he came to his senses. And he got to thinking about what he ought to do. And he made a good choice, finally. And he went to his father. But he volunteered to do it. You can't make the people around you do anything. God can't make you do. He can't make you go to heaven. He can't. And he won't. Because free will would not be free will if he did. That's why I say the most dangerous thing in life is the freedom to choose. You have the freedom to choose every day. It's the most dangerous thing known to man. is the liberty that we have, the freedom to choose. It'd be a wonderful thing to fear that, to fear the liberty that we have, enough that we seek counsel from God and counsel from people that know God, that really do know God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time we've had. I pray that you would be able to visit with us in a very personal way so that the things you've written would become a reality in our lives. We look to you, Lord, to bring this about. We cannot do this. We can't even control ourselves, let alone other people and what other people do. Just help us to believe the message, to believe the words that you've given us, and the great love that you have for us. This is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.