Jesus Questions the Scribes

The Immediate Setting: Jesus Silences His Interrogators

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, February 28th, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 All of Jerusalem is in a state of unusual excitement and very heightened expectation. Multitudes have been flocking into the city from far and near in preparation for the great annual Passover feast. On the first day of that Passover week, the general excitement and agitation of the crowds was heightened when the teacher from Nazareth, the miracle worker, the prophet out of Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth, entered the city on a donkey with throngs going before him and coming behind him, crying out,

1:04 David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jesus then intensifies some of the electricity among the crowds that are particularly found in the temple area, when during the following days he spends the majority of his waking hours in the temple in constant acts of teaching, preaching, discussion, and even, performing miracles of healing. Now it is on the third day of that week that he engages in a ministry comprised primarily of responding to various groups of interrogators from among the Jews. Interrogators who, for the most part, are determined to force our Lord to make statements which they could use as at least plausible reasons to make statements which they could use as at least plausible reasons to make statements which they could use as at least plausible reasons either to bring direct action to bear against them himself or as an excuse to hand him over to the Gentile powers. However, as we have seen in our studies of Mark chapter 12,

2:22 as one group after another comes with difficult questions, each group finds that he or they are no match for Jesus of Nazareth. Four specific issues were raised and thoroughly refuted. The Sanhedrin sent its representative group with the question of Jesus' authority. The Pharisees and the Herodians came with their question about the tribute money.

2:55 The Sadducees came with their question about, about the resurrection. And then the scribes sent a doctor of the law to question the Lord Jesus about the first or the great commandment. Now the result of our Lord's masterful responses to these who came with their questions was such that Mark tells us in verse 34, no man after that was daring to ask him any question. There was fulfilled that day in the area of the temple the little jingle, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

3:40 If then you don't succeed, quit before you prove yourself to be a fool. Well, they tried and tried and tried and tried again. But in four instances they were so thoroughly refuted that they figured if we keep this, we will be the ones utterly discredited in the sight of the multitudes. And the very thing we were seeking to do to Jesus, that is discredit him, to wean the crowds from him, we are only increasing his credibility as he refutes us and thereby causes the crowds to be even more attached to him as our text today indicates in its closing statements that the great multitudes, we're hearing him gladly.

4:33 Having received and sent away all of the questioners utterly silenced, now the Lord Jesus becomes the aggressor. He begins by asking questions of those who stand about him.

Jesus's Haggadah Question and Its Purpose

4:51 And he enters into a form of questioning which would have been very much known to the people of that day. It was, called a Haggadah question. It was a question that was common among the rabbis in which two apparently contradictory statements of scripture were brought forward in a question with a view to bringing about a resolution between those two apparently contradictory statements. You see, the truth lay not in one statement, or the other, but in the manner in which the two statements were reasonably reconciled. It would be like someone holding up a coin with the imprint of a bird on one side and the head of a well-known figure on the other, and someone were to say that coin is the bird coin. Someone else were to say that coin is the famous man coin. Two apparently contradictory statements, but the truth lies in the fact that it is both.

6:04 It is just a matter of what side of the coin you are viewing. Now, in the two paragraphs that are before us this morning, one of which we shall expound and apply, it is evident that the Lord Jesus does two things. In the paragraph bounded by verses 35 and 37, by addressing this form of Haggadah question, to the scribes, the Pharisees, among whom were the scribes, our Lord seeks to discredit them as interpreters of the Scriptures. For by pressing upon them Scriptures which they acknowledge to be divinely inspired, He utterly shuts their mouths. And then having discredited them as interpreters of Scripture, He then goes on in the next paragraph, verses 38 to 40, openly to discredit them as spiritual leaders and teachers by underscoring their ungodly conduct. So our Lord is no longer the passive receiver of questions. He now becomes the aggressive one who proposes questions and then follows the proposal of questions with an authoritative, public exposure of the sham,

7:34 the hypocrisy, the ungodliness of the religious leaders, and that right in their own backyard in the very temple courts. Well, with that general introduction before us, let us come to the text this morning and note, first of all, as we think our way through the text, the immediate setting of the questions raised by the Lord Jesus. What was the immediate setting in which the Lord Jesus raised His questions? Well, in the parallel passage in Matthew chapter 22 and verse 41, we read these very helpful words.

8:19 Matthew chapter 22 and verse 41. Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus, asked them a question, saying, What think ye of the Christ? Whose son is he? So Matthew tells us it was while the Pharisees were gathered together.

8:45 Mark tells us, verse 35 of Mark 12, And Jesus answered and said, As He was teaching in the temple, how say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David? Bring together, the witness of Matthew and of Mark, and the immediate context becomes clear. After Jesus has so refuted and publicly shamed the four different questioners who approached Him, apparently they slinked away into the crowd, and Jesus went right on teaching in the temple, speaking the truth of God to the hungry-hearted multitudes who were in the temple. And in the midst of this ongoing teaching in the temple, for an imperfect tense is used in the verb taught, speaking of past but continuous action, as He was carrying on His teaching ministry, either a caucus of the Pharisees came to Him, or in moving from one place in the temple court to another, our Lord came upon, a caucus of these Pharisees, among whom would be these expert doctors of the law, called lawyers, called scribes.

10:11 And I like to think that it was rather the latter situation, that in their frustration, having come to the Lord, thinking that as He put the Sadducees to flight, and in doing so agreed with them, that perhaps they could now put Him to flight, having been just, shamed in the person of one of their representatives, who, when He was done, even showed some sympathy to Jesus, so that He was not far from the kingdom. One can imagine the Pharisees gathering together in a frenzied little caucus. Where do we go now? What do we do now?

10:48 We've set out our best guns, and He has foiled them, and has shamed us. And I like to picture them in the midst of their frustration, having their little caucus, and as Jesus is moving to different places, and parts of the temple court to teach and to preach, He comes upon a group of these Pharisees, including their scribes. And in that setting, He's going to ask a question that has to do with the identity of the Messiah, particularly His identity as the Son of David. Now remember the immediate context.

11:29 How did He come into Jerusalem, three days before? He came in a self-arranged framework in which His identity as Messiah, Son of David, was openly proclaimed. He came riding upon a donkey, even as Zechariah had promised. He encouraged the shouts of messianic acclamation from the 118th Psalm, Hosanna in the highest, blessed, is He that comes in the name of the Lord.

12:05 Blessed be the kingdom of our Father David. And when the next day the little children were continuing to chant that chorus, these Pharisees were agitated, and they came and said, Don't you hear what these children are saying? They are giving you messianic acclamation and recognition. They are calling you Son of David.

12:27 That title belongs to Messiah alone. Shut them up. And Jesus, His answer was, if they should be stilled, even the stones would cry out. And so this whole matter of Messiah as David's Son has been brought to the foreground of the general thinking of those who were in the temple area at that particular season.

12:53 And this caused great disturbance among the Pharisees. Not that Messiah would be Son of David. On that they were agreed. But that Jesus of Nazareth should claim to be the Messiah and David's Son.

13:08 This they could not. This they would not receive. Now with that as the setting, with that climate as the air that is being breathed, this tension, this agitation, this sense of shame on the part of the Pharisees who have been routed by the simple responses of our Lord, no sophistry, no technical, no great logical connections, so evident, so patent that common people are delighted to hear the Lord routing these people with His simple, straightforward answers. Now it's in that immediate setting that the questions are raised by Jesus. Now then consider, in the second place, the basic substance and meaning of the questions raised by Jesus. The basic substance and meaning of the questions raised by Jesus. And on that occasion, He raised three questions.

The First Question: Whose Son is the Christ?

14:15 Two of them are here in Mark, but we are dependent upon Matthew's more lengthy account for the third. So I want you to turn back to Matthew,

14:25 chapter 22, and verse 41. Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, they were gathered together Jesus asked them a question saying, What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is He? They say unto Him, Of David.

14:52 So our Lord's first question is very clear. He is drawing out the Pharisees to confess openly what everyone knew they believed, but He wants them to articulate it in His hearing, and in the hearing of the multitudes who gather about them. What do you think of the Christ? When the Messiah, the Christ, one and the same thing, when the Messiah, when the Anointed One, when the Christ appears, whose son will He be?

15:29 Of whose line will He come? What will be His royal pedigree? This is the question which our Lord asks. And they answer as succinctly as possible.

15:43 You'll notice the words, the Son, are in italics in the old ASV and probably in the authorized version. They are not there in the original. They answer very tersely of David.

15:56 You get the feeling? Here the Lord now takes the initiative and asks them the question that every little school kid would know. It's like coming to a proud, strutting Ph.D.

16:08 and saying, Sir, would you ask me a question, please? What is the first letter in the alphabet? A.

16:16 You get the feeling of it. What think ye of the Christ? Whose son is He? And they don't even make a complete statement why He is, of course, the Son of David.

16:26 Whose son is He? Of David. Every Jew knows that. You insulting us?

16:32 Are you going to be our teacher? Are you going to teach us the ABCs of Messianic hope? Of David. That's their answer.

16:40 So our Lord draws, from them, a public acknowledgment that they were all convinced that when Messiah would appear, He would appear with the pedigree of David's line. Now, why did they have this conviction? Well, for the simple reason that the Old Testament clearly asserted this fact again and again and again. I'm going to give you several references and then we're only going to look at two.

17:06 In 2 Samuel 7, 8-29, you have the fullest statement of this. Psalm 89, verses 3-9, another very full statement. Isaiah 9, verses 2-7, and then two pivotal passages in the prophecy of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 34, 23 and 24, and Ezekiel 37, 24.

17:32 But in the interest of brevity, let's just look at two of these passages that I've not mentioned, two additional passages, one in the Psalms and one in the prophecy. Psalm 132, and verse 11. Psalm 132, and verse 11.

17:56 And this is one of those psalms that the pilgrims would sing on their way up to the feasts at Jerusalem. Many of them would have sung this psalm as they made their way to Jerusalem at that particular Passover season so that continually, as their messianic hopes were raised, they were raised in turn in terms of verse 11. Jehovah hath sworn unto David in truth, he will not turn from it, of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. And here was Jehovah's unmistakable promise, his sworn oath to David, that of one of his progeny, God would raise up to sit upon the throne of David. Then in Jeremiah chapter 23, verses 5 and 6, we have an equally clear prophecy. Jeremiah chapter 23, verses 5 and 6.

19:06 Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute, justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name, whereby he shall be called Jehovah our righteousness. The salvation of Judah and Israel will come through that one who is raised up unto David as a righteous branch, and whose reign, will bring the promised execution of righteousness and of justice to Judah and to Israel. Now you see, the messianic hope that focused upon a son of David was the unmistakable deposit that God had given to his people in the Old Testament scriptures. So when the scribes answered our Lord, what think ye of the Christ? Who?

20:20 Whose son is he? And they say, of David. It was a conviction very clearly, very pervasively established in their hearts because there was such abundant testimony to it in the Old Testament scriptures. So anyone who made claim to be a messiah would have to prove his lineage from David.

20:48 And may I say by an aside, never be bored with the genealogy in Matthew 1 and in Luke's gospel. For it is in those genealogies that the credibility of our Lord's claim to messianic identity is established. For we are told in those genealogies that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed of the seed of David, both in his natural lineage and in terms of the line of David. That's the one of the kinds of people that have been in the line of David's dynasty.

The Second Question: How Does David Call Him Lord?

21:22 So that's question number one. Whose son is he? They answer, of David. Now that that confession has been made, the Lord follows up with a second question, and now we're back in Mark.

21:35 Mark's gospel, chapter 12. Now that they have just asserted this, our Lord then says, how say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? David. David himself said in the Holy Spirit, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. David himself calls him Lord. Now in this second question, our Lord asks these Pharisees and these scribes who have just affirmed their conviction and their understanding about the identity of Messiah, how say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? Now his question, as we shall see, is not this question, how is it that you say he must be a son of David? But it was a question asking them, how is it that you say he will be a son of David and that's the only sonship that he sustains? You see what our Lord

22:49 is going to do is not to show them that they were wrong in expecting Messiah to be a son of David. They were wrong in that they expected him to be only the son of David. Whereas the scripture says he is both the root and the offspring of David. He is both son of David and son of God. You see, their answer was complete. And in their messianic expectations, when they said, when Christ asked whose son is the Christ, and they say of David, that's the whole of their theology. Messiah will be a man, an exalted man, unusually endowed by the Spirit of God as man. He will do unusual, unusual things in the strength of Jehovah, God of the covenant. He will put down all their oppressors and all of their enemies. He will be worthy of great homage and respect. But he is

23:55 completely son of David. That was the entirety of their messianic theology about the question, whose son is he? But as we've already seen, Revelation 22, 16 says, no, the theology of the sonship of God is not the son of God. It is the son of God. It is the son of God.

24:13 of Messiah is broader than the answer, son of David. Revelation 22, 16 says he is both the root as well as the offspring of David. He is the one who was David's creator as well as David's son. Romans 1, 3 and 4 says he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, but he was declared to be son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. And you see, when Mark introduced his gospel, he said the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. But these scribes of the Pharisaic group, they had a theology of messianic identity that went no further than son of David. So what does our Lord do? Well, we see what our Lord is doing in this second question.

25:16 Let's look at it. Jesus, having elicited their full confession of messianic hope, now asked, how do the scribes say that he is son of David? That is, that the only relationship he bears to David is human lineage as a human being and no more. Then in a matter of minutes, he said, I am the son of David.

25:39 Then in a matter of minutes, he said, I am the son of David. Then in a matter of minutes, he said, I am the son of David. Then in a matter of minutes, he said, I am the son of David. Then in a matter of minutes, he said, I am the son of David.

25:39 When he says in a masterful stroke to expose the pitiful and wicked inadequacy of their teaching, he makes an assertion based on Psalm 110 and verse 1. David himself said in the Holy Spirit, and now he quotes from Psalm 110 verse 1, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. What's involved now in these words? of Jesus. Notice, it is David himself who wrote the psalm. And in the original, there is emphasis upon that. You have an extra pronoun. David, even David himself said. So if your theology is one that says Messiah will be son of David, then listen to David as he speaks about his son. David himself wrote or said in the Holy Spirit. So it is David himself

26:43 who spoke. It was David who spoke by divine inspiration. That is, he spoke in the realm of the peculiar but powerful operation of the Holy Spirit exerted upon the mind, upon the judgment, right down to the pen. The biblical writers, David in the Holy Spirit said. And what did he say? Well, he records an amazing pronouncement of Jehovah himself. Now look at it. The Lord, in the Hebrew, this would be that name that they did not speak. Yahweh said unto my Adonai. Yahweh said unto

27:32 my Adonai. My sovereign, my Lord. In other words, David in the realm of the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit by which the biblical writers were inspired, David is recording a pronouncement that Jehovah is making to someone whom David calls his sovereign. Now David was the ultimate sovereign. He was the ultimate sovereign. He was the ultimate sovereign.

28:04 He was the ultimate sovereign. He was the ultimate sovereign. He was the ultimate sovereign. He was the ultimate sovereign in Israel. He was Israel's king. Now how can David have an Adonai? How can David have a sovereign? He is the sovereign. And yet in the Spirit he said, I heard Jehovah say unto my Lord, you sit at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool.

28:37 I am your Lord. I have made my's feet your footstool. And he quotes their own Bible, from a Psalm with which they were very familiar, in a manner in which there is absolutely no question about the words of the text, or the obvious meaning of the text. Jehovah speaks a word to David's sovereign, that he will share his glory and his dominion. Literally sit at my rights. . . .

29:09 We've seen elsewhere in the book of Mark that that's an idiomatic expression, that the word hand is not there in the original. Sit at my rights, at my right parts, the place of honor and shared power and glory. And then Jehovah makes a promise to David's Adonai, to David's sovereign, you will sit at that place of honor and power until all of your enemies are made your footstool. Now, this leads Jesus to ask a third question.

The Third Question: How Can He Be Both Lord and Son?

29:42 And this was the zinger. Question number three.

29:47 David himself calls him Lord. Now, you see how our Lord is building arguments upon words? David, and again, you have the extra pronoun, David himself called this personage to whom Jehovah spoke, called him Lord. Recognized that there was a sovereign above himself.

30:10 He called this one to whom Jehovah spoke, his Lord. Now, Jesus says, whence is he his son?

30:26 Now, they had a problem.

30:29 Because all of their messianic expectations are bound up in their terse answer. What think ye of the Christ, whose son is he? Of David. David's son?

30:40 Nothing more, nothing less. He says, all right, I've got a problem for you. The very David whose son? Messiah is to be.

30:48 He was speaking in the Spirit, and he heard Jehovah say to someone whom David describes as his sovereign, sit at my right hand. So he had existence when David lived.

31:07 He was to have a throne of power and majesty. He was to be the subduer of all the enemies. Surely that was a messianic pronouncement, and they did not argue that point. So what he presses is this.

31:21 If the full theology of the identity of Messiah is bound up in the words, David's son, merely and only, how does David himself call this one, my Lord, my Adonai, my sovereign? How can he be both his sovereign and his son?

31:49 Well, there's only one way. He can be that, and that is if he's something more than a mere human son of David.

Immediate Reactions: Silence and Gladness

31:58 Now then, when Jesus is asked his three questions, what's the immediate reaction to the questions raised by Jesus? We've looked at the setting of the questions. We've looked at the three questions themselves, their substance. Now what was the immediate reaction?

32:14 Well, you have two reactions. First of all, the scribes and Pharisees, and then secondly, the multitudes in the temple. Of the scribes and the Pharisees, it says this. If you'll turn to Matthew's Gospel, 22, 45.

32:36 If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word.

32:49 You see, if Jesus' use of that psalm had not been a proper use according to the ordinary canons of interpretation, they would have answered, and said, Ah, but Jesus, David did not really speak in the 110th psalm. Well, that's not a psalm that was spoken in the Holy Spirit. Or your use of logic is...

33:11 Oh, no. Both his use of Scripture and his use of logic utterly shut their mouths. They did not dare answer him a word.

33:25 They did not dare answer him a word. What were they going to say? Were they going, Were they going to say the 110th psalm is not inspired? Then they would have brought the wrath of all their fellow Jews upon them.

33:38 Were they going to say, Well, that's not a Messianic psalm. They would have brought the wrath of all the official interpreters upon them, for they held it to be a Messianic psalm. They had only one of two alternatives. That was either to say, Oh, Jesus of Nazareth, our theology of the identity of Messiah has been pitifully and woefully narrow.

33:59 Please teach us who he is.

34:03 Could it be that the reason we've been resentful that you've come into the city just a few days ago amid shouts of Messianic identity? Could it be that our anger was rooted in our ignorance? Why, there's a passage we've heard many times. We've sung it in the anticipation of our feast and great celebrations, and yet you've asked us a simple question about a familiar passage.

34:27 We don't have an answer. Oh, Jesus of Nazareth, we are ignorant. We are utterly prejudiced in our handling of the Scriptures. Will you not teach?

34:38 That could have been a possible reaction. The only other reaction was to say, well, we can't answer him. We can't refute him. But don't confuse us with facts.

34:51 Our minds are made up. So they shut their mouths and sulked off more determined than ever to put him to death. Only one thing to do with somebody who, with quoting our Scriptures and asking, these simple questions, shuts us up, makes fools of us in front of all of our following, get rid of him!

35:17 And in a few days, that's what they'll do.

35:22 Their closed minds, the blind prejudice of their hearts, would not bring them to accept their ignorance. And so they shut up in sulking silence. But what about the vast multitudes in the temple? The immediate reaction, the reaction is described by Mark in these words.

35:45 And it's a very unfortunate translation. And frankly, sometime I'd like to track it down and figure why they ever translated it. In the Greek you have Hau polus ochlos. Hau is the article V.

35:59 Polus, the great ochlos crowd. So the great crowd, or great multitudes, were hearing him gladly. And that word gladly is the very word used of how happy, how prepared, listen to John the Baptist, heard him with pleasure. It's the word Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 12 twice when he says, Most gladly therefore will I glory in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

36:31 The great multitudes who were continually hearing him heard him with great delight, with pleasure, with gladness. It was something so refreshingly different about him. He didn't engage in all of this nit-picking detail about this little law and setting it against. They had heard the scribes and Pharisees with all of their traditions and man-made rules and regulations and artificial distinctions until they were ready to vomit it out.

37:05 Jesus said it was like binding heavy burdens upon men. And when these Jews sought to walk, with all that these scribes and Pharisees strapped upon them, they could hardly stand upright. And there was something so refreshing about the straightforward, simple, no-nonsense, authoritative handling of the word of God that the great masses in the temple were listening to him with pleasure and with delight. Well, that's the incident.

Application 1: Our Lord's View of His Own Identity

37:35 What then are we to learn from this incident in one of those last days of our lives? This last day of our Lord's ministry prior to the cross? Really, His last day of public ministry? Well, as time permits, I want to draw out several lines of application.

37:54 And the first is this. Note first of all from this passage the undeniable evidence of our Lord's view of His own identity. The undeniable evidence of our Lord's view of His own identity. identity. Now why do I emphasize this? For this simple reason. For a number of years now there have existed those who call themselves Christians. In the world of theology they're called liberal theologians who have concocted a theory that goes something like this. Now you Christians who worship Jesus as God, you may be sincere, but you are really mistaken. Because you see Jesus never claimed to be God. He had no self-consciousness of Godhood. What happened is this. His followers

38:46 became so attached to him and so enamored with him. And when the rumors spread abroad that he actually was raised from the dead, the longer he was away from them. And the more they thought of him, the higher and broader grew the great tree of their affection and estimation until finally the Christian community declared, creed that Jesus was God and elevated him to a place of deity, a place he never claimed and a place he never sought. Well, is that so? Well, you look at this passage. And if any passage undeniably declares our Lord's view, his consciousness of his own identity, this passage declares it. He says, what do you think of the Christ? Who? Whose son is he? They say, son of David. And he knows he is son of David. For when the crowds

39:48 were acknowledging him to be such on the way into Jerusalem in the triumphal entry, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. He didn't say, oh, no, no, no, no, stop all of that. Your enthusiasm is leaping beyond the bounds of reality. I'm not the son of David. I'm the son of David. I'm the son of David.

40:11 I'm just a humble rabbi out of that. Oh, no. As we saw, he engineered the very circumstances which would draw forth such acclamation that he was David's son. Now, what is he doing?

40:26 He's saying, I have firmly established in the circumstances of my entrance into Jerusalem that as the Christ, I am the son of David. But now I will establish in the hearing of all that I am not a son of David. I am the son of David. I am the son of David. I am the son of David.

40:41 I am the son of David. I am the son of David. I am the son of David. I am the son of David.

40:41 I am the son of David. I am the son of David. I am the son of David. I am the son of David. I am the son of David. I am the son of David. I am the son of David. I am David's son. I am David's Lord. I am the son of God.

40:48 Now, you see, he drew through that confession from his disciples prior to going to Jerusalem. Who do men think that I am? Who do you think that I am? Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah. Flesh and blood has not revealed it.

41:08 And what he revealed secretly to his own, he now is about to have. fultonly declared on the threshold of His crucifixion and His resurrection those great central redemptive acts. So there in the temple, in the hearing of the official teachers of the law, our Lord conscious of His identity as that very one to whom Jehovah had spoken, for He was the one to whom Jehovah had spoken and had said, Sit at my right hand until I make the enemies the footstool of your feet. It was David's Lord and our Lord to whom Jehovah spoke these words.

41:51 And our Lord, fully conscious of this, is now determined that that shall be known and declared. And isn't the context interesting? It's right after the scribe came asking the question, What is the first? The first commandment of the law, and Jesus answers from the Shema, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength.

42:21 And the scribe answered and said, Yes, that's true. God is one. There is none other beside Him. After that great confession of the singularity of God, our Lord is careful now to introduce the truth that God is not a pleasure, pure monism, that in the mystery of the Godhead there exists Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

42:48 And here our Lord, right in the temple, declares that He is not only David's Son, but David's Lord. And that use of this passage so embedded itself in the apostles who heard it, that in the rest of the New Testament, no fewer than, five or six times, this psalm is used in this way with peculiar reference to its fulfillment in the resurrection and ascension and heavenly session of our Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God the Father. Let me just list the references. I don't have time to read them.

43:29 Acts 2.34 and following, Hebrews 1.13, 1 Corinthians 15.25, Hebrews 10.13, and 1 Peter 3, and verse 22.

43:44 Now do you see the tremendous significance for the Lord's disciples and others who had eyes to see Him? You see what happens? They could not forget that in that day in the temple, in answer to the question, what think ye of the Christ, whose Son is He? That Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be that One to whom Jehovah spoke, saying, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.

44:13 And after the facts of His death and resurrection and the sending forth of the Spirit, and possibly even before that in the forty-day post-resurrection ministry of Jesus, they came to see how it all fit together, so that when Paul writes in Romans 1, he describes Him as seed of David according to the flesh, Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead. You see what God did to David? God let David, as it were, in prophetic foresight, sit down and see post-resurrection conversation between the Father and the Son. When the Son is about to welcome His crucified and now risen Lord up into heaven to sit Him at His own right hand, He says, Jehovah says to David, Sovereign, sit at my right hand. No wonder it says the prophetic writers searched what manner of time they were writing about. David heard and saw things in prophetic insight he couldn't figure out.

45:26 And our Lord was very conscious of His own identity. It's that One who deliberately now goes further into the very net of the Jewish, leaders, and finally into the hands of the Gentiles to be crucified and slain, not as a helpless victim, but as the triumphant messianic King. Yes, He will administer justice, righteousness, destroy the enemies of the people of God. And what are those enemies?

45:56 Not Roman soldiers, not Roman oppression, but sin and hell and death and the wrath of God. And He goes conquering and to conquer by way of Gethsemane, Gethsemane, Golgotha, Joseph's tomb, and His glorious resurrection. And our Messiah goes forth conquering and to conquer. Well, I must hasten to the second application.

Application 2: Our Lord's View of Holy Scriptures

46:20 Not only does the passage show us the undeniable evidence of our Lord's view of His own identity, but it sets forth our Lord's view of the Holy Scriptures. It sets forth our Lord's view of the Holy Scriptures. Look at the text. When Jesus is described, when Jesus is described in Psalm 110 in verse 1, notice His careful language.

46:45 He says that Psalm is the production of a man who lived in space-time history named David. David himself said, Scripture is the word of real men who lived at real points in real history and wrote with real pens and spoke with real tongues. Scripture is the word of men. And that's why we're not at all embarrassed that we see grammatical styles of the different writers.

47:19 We see definite artistic touches in one that are not found in another. Our Bibles are smothered with the fingerprints of David and Isaiah and Nehemiah and Peter and John. I shall never forget when I began to get...

47:39 enough grasp upon elementary Greek many years ago that I could read or try to read a page of 1 Peter and compare it with a page of 1 John. And I remember the thrill of saying, nobody would ever mix up John's writing with Peter's writing. Why, the evidence of Peter is all over his writing and the evidence of John all over his. It is the word of men.

48:07 And that's why we're not embarrassed when we've shown that in Matthew's account of an issue in Mark there are perspectives Matthew gives and Mark gives that are utterly different, but no contradiction. Why? Because that's the way men describe things. One describes it from the left side.

48:25 One describes it from the right side. It is the word of men. And all that is characteristic of human literature is there. But all Jesus said, David said, In!

48:38 The Holy Spirit! And he didn't say in the Holy Spirit plus his own limited cosmogonies, plus his own limited perspectives of Spirit. No, in the Holy Spirit. That is, David as a man was speaking.

48:56 David as a man was writing. But the Holy Spirit was the very envelopment of David's mind and thought and choice of words. David in the Spirit, in the realm of the Spirit who is the Holy One, who cannot lie, who cannot hurt, who cannot deceive. And it is that activity of the sovereign Spirit of the living Holy God of truth that secures for us an infallible truth in the Bible.

49:34 And any denial that God can so work upon sinful and fallible men, so that their writing is the writing of men, and yet it is utterly free of error and untruth, it is a horrible affront upon the sovereign power of God. And dear people, if you wonder why I speak so vehemently, there is a reason. There is a reason. I had to sit yesterday and bite my lip and say nothing, when a mere creature of the dust, claiming to be a lover of Christ, could say without embarrassment in answer to my question, do you believe there are factual errors in the Bible? And after waffling and I would not budge, I said I want a yes or no answer. Dared to say yes there are. The outhanded insult to the God of heaven

50:59 to take a view of Scripture that insults our blessed Lord. Jesus said Scripture cannot be broken. Thy word is truth. Heaven and earth may pass, but my word shall never pass.

51:17 There is a time to spoof error and to make it appear in all of its folly. And I came across something in Lenski, the Lutheran commentator. Yes, I do have time to read this. And he takes up the argument of some of the so-called critical writers, people who say the Bible is not in sight, or the Bible is not inspired, Jesus was a man of his times, etc.

51:42 This is what he says. If all this is denied, that is, that David spoke in connection with the Holy Spirit, and what he spoke was truth, if this is denied, the result is most disastrous. If David never wrote the Psalm, if David never heard Jehovah call this one son of his his Adonai, if David didn't write the Psalm, and David didn't hear Jehovah speak to one whom David calls his Adonai, his sovereign, if the Pharisees and all Judaism were mistaken on this point, and if Jesus as a child of his supposedly uncritical times was equally mistaken, then we have the sad spectacle of the great Jesus, by a mistake, proven to the Jews, who were caught in the same mistake, what the mistakes of both disprove instead of prove. But if only the scribes and the Jews were mistaken regarding the authorship of the Psalm, if Jesus knew better, then Jesus used the ignorance of the Jews for his own purpose. Then he sinks to the level of a tricky modern lawyer who capitalizes on the ignorance of his opponent in court. In either case, Jesus proves his deity by a false proof, once ignorantly, the other time consciously.

52:55 In other words, he proves his deity by disproving it. A mistaken Jesus or a tricky Jesus is not even the model for us which the liberals would make him. And I say Amen as well. Well, dear people, this matter of our view of Scripture comes down to this.

53:15 Do we embrace Jesus Christ as our prophet to teach us all things? Then we embrace him to teach us the nature of Scripture. And he says, Scripture is the word of men delivered in the superintendence of the Spirit to give us the infallible word of the living God. And if you want to receive Christ as prophet, priest, and king, you receive him with his view of the Bible or go to hell with your own Jesus, with a different view of the Bible.

Application 3: Proper Biblical Interpretation

53:45 You can no more get to heaven without Christ's Bible than you can without his cross. Don't forget it. And then the third application I would like to make quickly is this. In the third place, our Lord's example.

54:04 Note our Lord's example of the only proper way to understand the teaching of the Bible. What a marvelous example our Lord is of how to understand the teaching of the Bible. Here's this teaching. Whose son is the Messiah to be?

54:24 Well, the scribes and Pharisees searched out the Old Testament and they came up with these seven or eight explicit statements, the references I've quoted that say unequivocally, Messiah will be an heir of David's throne through David's bloodlines. But you see, having scoured the Bible and found those passages, they closed their Bibles and closed their minds and said, Messiah will be nothing more. And all Jesus needed to do was quote one messianic text that didn't fit their closed system of theology and he blasted the whole thing to smithereens. In so doing, our Lord is teaching us.

55:06 He's saying, look, the proper way to handle the Bible is to take the total witness of the Bible on any given subject. Who is Jesus Christ? He's true. We dare not deny that.

55:21 He was formed in a womb. He nursed at a mother's breast. He grew in wisdom and stature. He slept.

55:29 He was hungry. He was weary. He died. He was a man, true man, every-winter man.

55:39 But if I've come to those texts which teach that and then I close my system of theology on the identity of Jesus, I've heard greatly, because one text, one text will blast that closed system wide open. A text like this, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word...

56:02 Don't be careless in your study of the Bible. Dig into its riches. Ever keep a spirit open to the whole of the witness of the Word of God on every point of Christian doctrine. Who is Christ?

56:30 What did He do in His death? We're not embarrassed to say God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him...

56:41 There is a universalism in the death of Christ. Ah, but there is a particularism. I lay down my life for the sheep. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.

56:55 And therefore our theology of the death of Christ will neither be an indiscriminate, universalism that says He died with an intention to save all and died in precisely the same way for every fallen son of Adam. But there was no particular design or intention or involvement in His death. We say, no, there is a particularism taught in the Scriptures. Ah, but having embraced the particularism, we are not going to wish God had not written those verses that say, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

57:34 If any sinner in the whole world ever gets his sins taken away, it will be by that Lamb. And I can say to any and every sinner in the whole world, Behold the Lamb of God who will have no other go to Him. Now, you want a gospel broader than that? I wouldn't know what to do with it.

57:53 That one just about kills me and blows my fuses trying to preach it. We get our theology of the death of Christ, the work of the Spirit. But there is a resisting and a grieving of the Spirit. Stephen said, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you do resist the Holy Ghost's strife.

58:14 We're not embarrassed at those texts. But we also say there is the texts, are the texts that say, Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that comes I'll in no wise cast out. And then note briefly the illustration of the frightening possibility in our text that we may enjoy even the preaching of Jesus and never be brought to faith.

Application 4: The Danger of Merely 'Gladly Hearing'

58:48 The great crowds heard Him gladly. Oh, what a refreshing breath He was. And there was something in their humanity as image bearers of God that answered to the no-nonsense, bold and loving, straightforward, uncomplicated declarations of Jesus. And I'm convinced that's why biblical, Spirit-anointing preaching, unless God's given an age up to apostasy, will always have a hearing.

59:16 Man is an image bearer. There's something in him that draws him to the voice of God in Scripture when it's opened up simply and clearly without a lot of technical nonsense. But, oh, dear people, it is one thing to hear the Word of God gladly. It's another thing to embrace the Savior.

59:37 And be you sit here this morning as one who hears the Word gladly or as one who, having heard it gladly, has embraced its great focal point, even Jesus, the only Savior of sinners. My friend, listen, listen, listen. Many of these who heard Him gladly will one day find their necks under His feet from this very text. Sit at my right hand until I make the enemies the footstool of thy feet.

60:08 And, my friend, you're either His enemy or His friend, and you're not His friend if you'd just like to hear His Word gladly until you've embraced His person, repented of your sin, repented of your own righteousness, and fled to Christ alone for life and salvation. You're still an enemy. And this promise will be fulfilled. Jehovah has sworn to His Son that He'll sit in the place of messianic enthronement and power until every enemy is put beneath His feet, run to Him, become His friend, lest you be found part of that footstool.

Prayer of Response

60:44 Well, there's the passage. There are some of the lines of application. May God enable us to take them to heart and to respond in faith. Let us pray.

61:00 Our Father, we thank You for our Lord Jesus Christ, for His consummate skill in dealing with His enemies, when everything in them would have loved to have found some loophole, some flaw in His use of Scripture, to shame Him, to debate with Him. Oh, we thank You for the convincing way that He muzzled them. But, O Lord, we pray that You would muzzle us where there are objections of unbelief and pride. Lord, muzzle us, humble us, break us, and bring us believing and in submission to the feet of Your Son.

61:42 Bless the Word preached today. And may it bear abundant fruit now and throughout all of our earthly pilgrimage. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.