May we just look to God for a
moment of prayer together as we turn to
his word.
Lord Jesus, we can ask for nothing less
than a fresh glimpse of thy lovely face
and a word from thy heart of love
that shall speak to us today and send
us out from this place to be different
just because we've met with thee.
Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
Speak just now some message to meet my
need which thou only dost know.
Speak now through thy holy word and make
me see some wonderful truth thou hast to
show to me.
For Jesus' sake.
Amen.
Will you please turn in your New Testament
this morning to the Gospel of Mark and
part of the twelfth chapter, the Gospel of
Mark, chapter 12.
As I am sure most of you know,
the four Gospels present a different aspect of
the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus
Christ and here especially Mark presents him to
us as the perfect servant of Jehovah.
It is not my intention or purpose that
these studies should be exhaustive but I want
to uplift the one of whom Paul writes
in his letter to the Philippian church and
says in the second chapter concerning the Lord
Jesus that he thought it not robbery to
be equal with God but made himself of
no reputation and took upon him the form
of a servant and was made in the
likeness of men and being found in fashion
as a man he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death even the death of the
cross.
And it is our purpose that we should
catch a fresh glimpse of our Lord Jesus
in these weeks as we study some aspects
of this Gospel record and so in doing
discover some new purpose for our lives as
his followers.
The Gospel of Mark you may recall begins
with these words, the beginning of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ the Son of God and
almost at its conclusion in the fifteenth chapter
and the thirty-ninth verse we have the
testimony of the Roman centurion who said that
he saw our Lord hanging upon the cross,
truly this man was the Son of God.
And in between these two verses there is
the key verse to the whole Gospel, the
tenth chapter and verse forty-five where Jesus
says of himself even the Son of Man
is come not to be ministered unto but
to minister and to give his life a
ransom for many.
The Son became the servant that he might
be the Saviour.
Now because of the season of the year,
this time of Lent, I am commencing with
four studies from this Gospel taken from records
that occurred during the closing week of our
Lord's earthly life.
The portion of Scripture which is our study
and for our consideration this morning covers events
which took place on the Tuesday of Passion
Week.
Sunday, the Palm Sunday, the events of which
are recorded in the previous chapter, Sunday was
the day of acclamation.
But not everybody who acclaims Christ follows or
accepts Christ.
It's always easier to shout than to obey.
The Monday was the day of authority, the
day when as our Lord passed between Bethany
and Jerusalem he saw the fig tree without
fruit and condemned it and it withered away.
The day when he went into his temple
and took a whip and drove out the
money changers and overturned the tables of those
who were there making gain out of their
religion.
Oh the wrath of the Lamb of God.
But the Tuesday was the day of conflict,
the day when Jesus faced his enemies and
a barrage of questions.
First of all there was a subtle combination
between the Pharisee and the Herodian with their
question of unbelief recorded for us in verses
13 to 17 of Mark chapter 12.
Then there came the Sadducees with their question
of skepticism recorded for us in verses 18
through 27.
And then there's the question of the scribe
with his question of obligation recorded for us
in verses 28 through 34.
And the following all of this you have
the statement in the 34th verse, no man
after that durst answer him any question.
All his enemies were silenced.
And then he turns upon them and asks
them a question in verse 35 to which
they could give no reply.
It was a day of fierce conflict.
It was a day if I read between
the lines of intense loneliness.
It was a day of keen disappointment.
Could it be that this was all that
his ministry had accomplished and this was only
the success?
Ah no.
For though on the one scale he found
nothing but rebuke and rejection, on the other
he saw the travail of his soul and
was satisfied in the life of one poor
lonely widow woman who gave all that she
had.
And with that lovely story told by Mark
in his typical straight incisive manner in about
70 words, the chapter concludes.
This then is the summary of that which
we are about to consider for a few
moments.
Alas we shall not have time to do
more than merely give it a consideration.
But I am praying and I hope that
every one of us is here today eagerly
expecting God to speak and with a heart
that is set free from the distractions and
cares of the life that we live and
of the pressures of these days, even the
pressures of Christian work and that our eyes
may be turned upon him.
Oh that this church might be still and
know that he is God.
Let me ask you to notice then for
a few moments, my dear listener, our Lord
silencing his enemies.
First of all in verses 13 through 17
and I am counting upon you having your
Bible with you because I cannot possibly take
time to read these verses and I am
hoping that those who listen have access to
their New Testament.
Notice in these verses the attack of the
Pharisees.
As a matter of fact it began, it
began on this particular day, this Tuesday of
Passion Week in the 28th verse of the
previous chapter, when they gathered together in the
temple and said to him, now on what
authority doest thou these things?
They had been greatly disturbed by his action
in the temple, by his cleansing power and
by his boldness in sweeping out all that
was discreditable and distasteful.
They were afraid to do anything about it
themselves because of his popularity at that moment
with the crowd.
And you recall the counter question of our
Lord, which you have recorded in the closing
verses of the 11th chapter.
You want to know by what authority I
do this?
Then let me ask you another question.
The baptism of John, was this from heaven
or was it from men?
And they thought a bit and said, well
now if we say it was from heaven,
he will say, well why didn't you believe
him?
If we say it was from men, well
we're afraid of the people because they all
knew that John was a prophet and so
they could answer him nothing.
But they weren't content with their silence and
now, now you have in these few verses
a subtle coalition between the Herodian and the
Pharisee.
Perhaps it's hardly necessary for me to remind
you that the Pharisees were those who rejected
the rule of Rome, resented it.
The Herodians were those who had accepted it
and these two were bitterly opposed to each
other and yet here they find themselves united
in an attack upon our Lord.
That is not the first time that that
has happened, not the last time that that
has happened either.
You find it a little later in the
story between Herod and Pilate.
You find it all through history that people
who have had bitter, bitter animosity between each
other will line up to attack the cause
of Jesus Christ.
Will you notice their motive?
Verse 13, they sought to catch him with
their words.
Will you notice their flattery in verse 14?
Master, we know that thou art true and
carest for no man.
Thou regardest not the person of men but
teachest the way of truth in God.
The way of God in truth.
Is it lawful, was their question, to give
tribute to Caesar or no?
Now that's a very cunning question.
If the Lord says, yes it is lawful,
then immediately this Pharisee acclaimed the fact that
he could never be the Messiah of the
Jew if he agrees to Roman authority.
If he says no, it is not lawful,
then the Herodians will arrest him for treason.
So apparently he is caught in the horns
of a dilemma.
You notice his answer in the 15th verse?
He asked for the coin to be given
to him.
Matthew tells us he asked for the tribute
money.
That was, may I say it reverently, a
masterstroke of strategy.
He didn't ask for a Jewish coin, he
asked for a Roman coin.
And they gave it to him, these Jewish
people.
And they said to him now, he said
to them, now whose image and superscription is
this?
And they said Caesar's.
All right, you're using Caesar's coinage.
You're having the benefit, though you might not
think it, of Caesar's oversight and rule.
Therefore render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar's and unto God the things that are
God's.
In other words, as a Christian, you have
a duty to the state, no matter who
may be in authority.
You have a loyalty, but you have a
higher obligation to Jesus Christ, the Son of
God.
And so Jesus faces these Pharisees and these
Herodians, this coalition, this subtle coalition, and by
a masterly answer silences them.
And Matthew tells us that they went away.
They're immediately followed by an attack upon him
from the Sadducee, the sceptic, the arrogant, self
-sufficient, clever pagan.
And he comes, they come with their sceptical
question, which you find recorded in verses 19
through 27, a question that was hardly a
delicate one.
And they said to him, Master, there's a
woman and she's married, and she died.
Rather, her husband died.
So she marries his brother, then he dies.
And seven men have this woman, and there
are no children to any of these marriages.
Master, who's she going to belong to in
heaven?
You know, there's a self-confident, cynical tone
to a question like that.
But being wrong in their supposition about heaven,
they're wrong in their conclusions.
Their real problem was, their real attempt was
to trap the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, they didn't believe in the resurrection.
That's why my good friend Sidlow Baxter says,
that's why they were sad, you see.
They just didn't believe in a resurrection.
But their supposed cleverness, you see, is betrayed
by our Lord as being absolute ignorance.
And you notice his answer in the 24th
verse.
Do ye not therefore err, because ye know
not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
You think you're so clever.
Don't you know that there will be no
sex relationship in heaven?
That that will no longer exist?
There being no more death, there will be
no more need of marriage.
As Paul said in his lovely resurrection chapter,
we shall all be changed.
And oh my, what a change.
And he says, as touching the resurrection from
the in verse 26, this was their real
problem.
Don't you know that God said, I am
the God of Abraham?
And he said this to Moses, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob.
He's not the God of the dead, he's
the God of the living.
These people are not dead, they're alive.
Once a man is brought to believe, beloved,
in the immortality of the soul, he's got
no problem about believing in the resurrection of
the body.
God who long ago created man in his
own image, and that man became a living
soul dwelling in a mortal body.
It is not difficult for a man who
accepts the truth of the immortality of the
soul to believe in the resurrection of the
body, that Jesus our Lord, our God, our
Creator, without whom nothing is made that it
was made.
He who did it once will do it
again, and though it will be a different
body, yet it will be fashioned out of
this body.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality.
Ye do greatly err, for ye know not
the scripture, nor the power of God.
And so the Pharisee, with his question of
unbelief, is silent.
And the Sadducee, with his skeptical rationalism, is
also silent.
And then comes a scribe, in verse 28,
and this man comes and asks a question
of the Lord, and he says, Master, which
is the greatest of the commandments?
He's not asking which of the ten, as
we knew them and know them, are the
greatest.
Oh no.
He's asking this, which of the 613 precepts
that the Pharisees teach and the scribes teach,
which they've read into the Pentateuch, which of
these 613 precepts are vital?
It seems to me he would be saying
it's impossible to keep them all.
Which of them has priority?
In other words, what's the essential principle in
religion?
What's the thing that matters most?
That's a straightforward, sincere question.
It wasn't asked in animosity, and so the
Lord replies, quietly but firmly, and you notice
his answer.
It's in effect to say to him, just
this, the first of all the commandments is
here, 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, thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself.
There is none other commandment greater than these.
In other words, he's saying to this man
who comes with his honest question, the principle
behind every law that ever comes to us
from heaven is a principle of love.
A principle of love, and every sin is
a violation of that principle of love, and
all our being, all our personality, not just
a bit of it, but all of our
being must worship him and love him, and
if we fulfill this, then inevitably we will
love our neighbour.
And the word that our Lord uses for
love here is not the word which, well,
it's rather like our English word philanthropy, not
that kind of thing.
It's a word, agape, which is the word
agony, and which is exactly the same word
as is used in John 3, 16, that
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son.
And it's the same word in which the
apostle Paul says the love of God, the
agony of God, Romans 8, is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Now, says Jesus, that agony, that agape, that
passion, that concern, that adoration, that love is
to be sent back from our grateful, humble
hearts into heaven.
It's the same quality of love, and that's
the love that he gives us in order
that we might love him, and that we
might love each other, says the Lord to
this scribe, there's nothing greater than this.
And I think of the way that Christians
pick faults in each other, and I think
of the way that we explode in our
conversation to each other, and I think of
the way we're always looking for the thing
that's wrong, and never thanking God for what
we see of Jesus Christ.
And I wonder where we stand alongside this
scribe today who asked this sincere question, and
that scribe answered him intelligently, and he, and
Jesus, when he saw that his answer was
intelligent, Master, he said, thou hast heard the
truth, for there is but one God.
To love him with all the heart, with
all the understanding, with all the soul, with
all the strength, and to love his neighbor
as himself is more than burnt offerings and
sacrifices.
And then Jesus saw, and he answered discreetly,
and he said, thou art not far from
the kingdom.
And that man looked right inside, and he
went right away.
The question of obligation was answered and silent.
Now do you notice this, friend?
Oh, I want you to get hold of
this as we go along this morning.
There's been this, this united, concerted approach and
attack upon Jesus from these quarters, first with
unbelief, second with skepticism, rationalism, third with a
question of obligation.
What is my duty?
What is my obligation?
And he has answered them all, and he
hasn't found the answer to them in any
of the people who ask them their questions,
and he's left alone in the temple.
I think they're still in the distance as
he turns upon them and asks them a
question to which they had no reply.
I think they were still there rebuked, rebuffed,
abashed, and as he stood there not having
won of them, without a friend alone on
this Tuesday of Passion Week, the effect of
his ministry merely to silence an argument, he
turns upon them and he says, what's your
idea about a Messiah?
Whose son is he?
And the answer, well of course we know
the answer to that one, David's son.
Very well, says Jesus, how is it then
that David called his son his Lord?
You are following me, aren't you?
In the reading of these verses, in verses
35 and 36, you notice that Christ is
quoting from the 110th Psalm.
He says that David wrote it, and he
wrote it by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, and that Psalm is specifically messianic in
its character.
It refers to the Messiah.
Modern scholarship denies all of that.
Either David was mistaken and Jesus was merely
human, either that, or David was inspired as
Jesus said he was inspired, and Christ is
not only the seed of David according to
the flesh, but the eternal Son of God,
and that's where I take my stand.
You think of the Messiah, says Jesus, as
coming from David's line, but he is also
David's Lord.
If you can account for that, he would
say to them, if you can account for
that, all your problems will be solved.
You've come to me with this problem of
belief.
By what authority do you these things?
Account for David's son being David's Lord.
Account from the one in the midst of
you being the Christ of God.
That'll scatter your unbelief.
It'll deal with your skepticism too about eternity,
about hereafter, about the resurrection, and it'll deal
with your obligation and your sense of what
is right and what is wrong, for here
standing in your very midst is the eternal
Son of God to whom you owe everything.
All your problems will be silenced if you
get right in your attitude and outlook toward
me, says Jesus.
I would just underline that principle, beloved listener,
this morning.
Your problems of unbelief, your problems of skepticism,
your problems of obligation will all be shattered
and settled finally when your heart is right
toward the eternal Son of God.
And they were silent to his question, and
he leaves them with a final devastating word
of warning, which you read in verses 38
to 40, against the hypocrisy of the scribe.
Their love, notice, notice it, their love of
popularity, their love of prominence, their love of
priority, their love of possessions, their pretended piety.
And he gives that warning against them and
then leaves them, Jesus Christ silencing his enemy.
But I come more to grips with this
in terms of life today when I ask
you to notice Jesus Christ seeking for his
friend.
I scarcely like to suggest it, but do
you know I am sure that our Lord
was desperately lonely at that moment.
Dare we try to enter into his mind
what had been the result of his ministry?
He didn't come to judge the world, it
was to save he came.
He wasn't interested in winning an argument, in
silencing the intellectual, in causing these people to
withdraw without an answer, that wasn't why he
came.
And he sat down in the precincts of
that temple and lingered and longed for some
fruit, something that would satisfy his heart.
And you notice that he sat down over
against the treasury, where there were 13 chests,
copper chests, called trumpets because of their shape.
Nine of them were for gifts, which might
be given instead of offerings, four of them
for the freewill offerings of the people.
And Mark tells us that he watched how
the people cast their money in.
And many that were there were casting in
not much in terms of quantity, but many
coins.
And he watched not the amount, but the
devotion.
He knew that where your heart is, there
will your treasure go.
I know that's not a correct quotation, but
it's the implication of it.
I repeat it, you know the correct quotation.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart
be also, but I'm suggesting that the implication
is, where your heart is, there goes your
treasure.
And suddenly his attention is drawn to a
poor, lonely widow.
And she drops her offering into the chest
and goes her way.
Nobody speaks to her.
She speaks to nobody else.
If there had been a subscription list published
of the gifts of that day, hers would
have been among a whole host of them,
under five dollars, if we might use such
American currency in such a setting.
Donations that are anonymous.
But I want you to listen to what
the Lord Jesus said in verses 43 to
44.
She has given more than all.
They have given out of their superfluity.
She has given from her destitution.
She has given her whole livelihood.
And Jesus saw that moment, in that day
of loneliness, in that woman, the travail of
his soul.
Have you ever thought to yourself how intimately
connected this choice little story is, with all
that has preceded?
Listen.
The Lord has faced the question of unbelief
in the Pharisee, and there comes into the
temple this poor, lonely woman, and gives a
gift of faith, the token of her loyalty
to God.
She gave all her living.
In amidst all her poverty, amidst all the
loneliness of her life, it might be said
of her, as we read in the 11th
of Hebrews concerning others, she endured as seeing
those who are him who is invisible.
Hers was a gift of faith.
She gave like that.
He faced the question of skepticism of the
Sadducee, the question of the rich, the rationalism
of these people who didn't believe in the
afterlife.
But there came into that place a woman
who gave everything.
Why?
What made that poor soul wend her way
into that temple and give all that she
had?
Vision, that's all, vision, vision of eternity.
What a mighty argument against the philosophy of
life, which is content to live for material
things.
This poor soul has responded, has responded completely
to the vision of things that are not
seen, and she's given everything.
He has faced the question of obligation from
the scribe.
What is my chief, the chief commandment?
What is my obligation?
Thou should love the Lord with all thy
heart, thy neighbor as thyself.
Here's the gift of love, and she's the
poorest of the poor, but she's given all
she's got, and she's expressed her love to
God and to her neighbor.
Do you see this, that on the one
scale on that lonely Tuesday, on the one
scale you have all the hostility of the
Pharisee and the Sadducee and the scribe, all
massed against the Lord in these few days
before his crucifixion, all this overwhelming him, and
over against that on the other scale the
simple devotion of one poor lonely widow woman
in whose life all the requirements of the
law of God have been fulfilled, for she
has faith, and she has vision, and she
has love, and she's given everything.
The Lord Jesus seeks his friend, and I
have just a closing word in the last
two minutes to say that the same Lord
Jesus searches today for you.
That same Christ who stood alone in that
temple stands in Moody church today by his
spirit and confronts your life and mine.
Tell me, how are you facing him today?
Do you face him with the question of
unbelief?
By what authority doest thou these things?
Do you challenge his authority?
Do you face him with the question of
unbelief?
Do you face him with the question of
skepticism?
I'm not sure about the afterlife.
I don't know about the resurrection.
Do you face him like the Sadducee did?
Do you face him like the scribe?
And as Jesus said of him, thou art
not far from the kingdom, almost persuaded, but
lost.
Looking right into the kingdom, but withdrawing.
Has Jesus something to say to you and
to me, as he said to those people
about our love of popularity, and our love
of prominence, and our love of possessions, and
our love of pretended piety, all of which
keep us outside the kingdom, for they're all
false love.
God gave his only son.
What have you given him?
Oh, we sing in Francis Ridley Hathagill's hymn,
isn't there a verse which, talking about giving
our money, says, not a mite would I
withhold, and how true it is.
Many of us look round our purses for
the mites and fling them all in.
We don't hold them, but we keep a
lot more.
We give our little, and we keep our
much.
I pray that as you've listened today to
this simple exposition of this portion of scripture,
has the Lord silenced the question of unbelief?
Render unto Caesar the things that are unto
Caesar's, but remember your higher loyalty to God,
the things that are God's, and your silence.
Has he silenced your question of scepticism, your
supposed cleverness, and his saying to you, thou
dost greatly err, for thou knowest not the
scriptures, and thou knowest not the power of
God?
And has he silenced the question of obligation,
and says to you, thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, all
thy strength, all thy soul, all thy mind,
and thy neighbour in thyself?
And I wonder if in Moody Church today,
our dear Lord, looking down upon some heart
this morning, perhaps some lonely life, perhaps somebody
who's crept in here quite inconspicuous today, nobody
knows much about you, you're alone, just come
in to church, people don't know you too
well, just come in and out, and you
steal in quietly, and want to get out
quietly.
I wonder if Jesus has seen in you
today, my beloved friend, the travail of his
soul, and he's satisfied because he has got
from you today faith, and vision, and love,
which has brought you to lay all your
life at his feet.
Shall we bow together in prayer?
Take my love, my Lord I pour, at
thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only,
all for thee.
May we spend one moment in quiet prayer,
before we sing our closing hymn.
Just a moment's silence.
Jesus stands in our midst, not to silence
our arguments, but to win our love.
Has he done it?
Does he get from us today faith, vision,
love?
O Lord, today, may we not be like
the scribe who was not far from the
kingdom, but may we be like that dear
widow woman who gave her all.
And Lord Jesus, we would think of this
not primarily in terms of our money, but
primarily in terms of a life and a
heart that's laid at thy feet for thy
use.
We ask it for thy name and glory's
sake.
Amen.
Our closing hymn today is number 208.
208.
I want you to think about this hymn.
It's not a hymn we often sing.
It somehow has rather a doleful end to
it, but it need not be so.
Almost persuaded now to believe, almost persuaded Christ
to believe, to receive, seems now some soul
today to say, Go thy way.
Some more convenient day on thee I'll call.
Oh, may that not be your answer to
the Lord.
We're going to sing the hymn.
I trust we will sing it thoughtfully, prayerfully
in the light of what God has been
saying to us.
And I want to give the opportunity for
our visiting friends, or indeed for regular worshipers
of the congregation to whom God has been
speaking this morning to confess their faith in
Jesus Christ.
In these tremendous days in which we live,
we cannot be secret disciples.
We must acknowledge him as our Lord and
Savior.
We never, we never seek to embarrass anybody
in Moody Church, but we do seek to
be faithful to the proclamation of the word.
And I may be speaking to some today
who are almost convinced.
Jesus has been silencing your arguments, but he
wants more than that.
He wants to win your heart.
So I'm going to ask as we stand
to sing this hymn, if that's true of
you, arguments, silence, your heart utterly his, your
life at his disposal.
If that's the outcome of this morning worship,
I wonder if as we sing this hymn,
would you mind us coming and standing in
the front of the church?
And then I will lead in a prayer
of dedication prior to the benediction.
That will be all.
You will not be approached by anybody.
Nobody will speak to you unless you desire
for us so to do.
But I love to think that Jesus on
that day of Passion Week saw something of
the travail of his soul and was satisfied.
And I love to think that even today
Christ in our midst can see just the
same here at Moody Church.
God grant that it may be so.
We will sing this hymn together.
We'll stand to sing it.
Mr. Carbaugh will lead us.
And I'll be at the lower platform, and
I would like to welcome with the right
hand of fellowship those of you who are
dedicating your lives to the Lord Jesus Christ
this morning.
All the opposition and antagonism to him has
been crushed.
And today, faith, vision, love are yours.
God grant it for Jesus' sake.
Just push your way past any friend who
may be next to you or bring the
friend with you and just come and stand
for a public act of witness and dedication
at the conclusion of our service.
Hymn number 208.