God's Plans vs. Man's: Which Prevails?

In this part of the sermon: Martin meticulously explains the Jewish calendar and the significance of 'after two days' referring to the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, likely Tuesday evening of…

The movie 'Fiddler on the Roof' is used to illustrate Jewish custom of reckoning the beginning of a day with sundown, helping to understand the timing of the Passover.

If you've never read the account of this, you will find it in Exodus 12, 1 through Exodus 13 and verse 16. It was celebrated on the fourteenth day of Nisan, which would overlap our months of March and April, the first month of the Jewish religious year, and it continued into the early hours of the fifteenth day. It began on the fourteenth and moved into the early hours of the fifteenth day of Nisan. The Passover lamb was slain on the afternoon of the fourteenth, but was eaten after sundown, which according to Jewish reckoning, was the beginning of the fifteenth day. Those of you who have seen ...

10:26 - 11:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin meticulously explains the Jewish calendar and the significance of 'after two days' referring to the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, likely Tuesday evening of…

The response of a renowned mountain climber asked 'why climb the Matterhorn?' ('because it is there') is used to justify careful exposition of Scripture: 'because it is there' and part of God's revelation.

Now because Matthew tells us in the parallel passage that these things occurred after Jesus had finished all of the words recorded in the Olivet Discourse and the subsequent parables, which we know was on Tuesday of the Passion Week, these events, most likely occurred on Tuesday evening. So that gives you, I trust, a little feel of the precise time in which the events recorded here actually took place. Now you say, why in the world be bothered with such details? Why should Mark be concerned to give the precise time of the events to follow? So what? Well I might answer like someone who was a re...

15:13 - 16:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Well guile is deceit and treachery raised to their highest imaginable human heights or I should say sunk to their lowest imaginable human depths. It is venom veiled in velvet. It is poison deliberately hidden in one's fa…

Guile is described as 'venom veiled in velvet' and 'poison deliberately hidden in one's favorite candy bar' to vividly explain the deceitful and treacherous nature of the religious leaders' plot.

Well guile is deceit and treachery raised to their highest imaginable human heights or I should say sunk to their lowest imaginable human depths. It is venom veiled in velvet. It is poison deliberately hidden in one's favorite candy bar. And they are determined to find a sneaky subtle devil like plan to take him and to kill him.

34:18 - 34:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Hell hath no fury like a woman spurned that's not true has no like the fury of form betrayed by religious leaders who are determined to have their gowns and their collars and their rituals but who refuse to see Christ fo…

The secret meeting of the Sanhedrin to plot Jesus's murder is compared to mafia leaders gathering in a hideout to plot a 'hit' on an upright judge, highlighting the moral grotesqueness of their decadent religion.

for the future deliverance of Messiah who would deliver them from their greater enemies of sin and of death where are they not gathered in a prayer meeting but huddled in the house of God in Caiaphas in an unofficial meeting of the Sanhedrin and the only parallel that came to my mind was some of those secret meetings of the mafia leaders that some of us had lived long enough to see reported in the news when they gathered in a hideout in the Catskills to plot a hit upon some upright judge who exposed their crimes for what they were and here the company of the chief priests become like a gatheri...

42:56 - 44:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't mess with a God like that; if you're going to pick a fight, pick a fight with someone with whom you got a fighting chance to come off at least even.

A 137-pound junior welterweight daring to fight Mike Tyson is used to illustrate the foolishness of an unconverted person trying to 'mess with God,' emphasizing God's overwhelming power.

in the sham trial of the Son of God the mystery of the agony of those dark hours when the heavens were shrouded in inky black darkness and the soul of the Son of God plunged into a darkness deeper still that in all of this a sovereign God is working out his plan for the salvation of his people and I say therefore in closing to you who are unconverted don't mess with a God like that if you're going to pick a fight pick a fight with someone with whom you got a fighting chance to come off at least even what would you think of some 137 pound junior welterweight that dared to get into the ring with...

57:26 - 58:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't mess with a God like that; if you're going to pick a fight, pick a fight with someone with whom you got a fighting chance to come off at least even.

God's reaction to the plotting of kings and rulers (from Psalm 2) is described as 'having a belly laugh,' picturing His holy disdain and certainty that His plans will prevail.

you know what God was doing? God was having a belly laugh yes it says the kings and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed and while they're having their secret mafia meeting God's sitting if I may use the picture of Psalm 2 it's picture X language God's looking down at their meeting and God's chuckling he says oh so you're going to frustrate my plans ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha God laughs the surest way to demean your enemy is to laugh at him my friend don't you mess with a God who laughs at all of your intentions to escape his claim who with holy has a belly laugh a...

58:53 - 60:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Get beyond reading God's heart by how many cookies and candy bars you find in your top drawer; read the heart of God in his word, his oath, his covenant.

The analogy of finding cookies and candy bars in a top drawer is used to represent superficial ways believers might try to read God's heart, urging them instead to read His heart in His Word and covenant promises.

that's reality even when his face seems turned his heart is to be read in his word not in your ability to discern his providence and if there's any lesson stamped on the face of this section of the gospel narrative it is that word of comfort for the father had pledged behold my servant whom I uphold and I though it looked as though all the upholding grace of the father was removed in these chapters that we're about to expound he was never more upheld than when he appeared least upheld he was upheld for his most mighty in the semblance of being utterly abandoned in the midst of that work child ...

67:31 - 68:57 Read in full sermon