That Galilean from Nazareth! (Part B)

Their argument was not how best to get at the truth, but what they were huddling for was how can we answer this in an honest way. That never crossed their mind.

It was can we come up with something that is plausible and profitable to our lie. See, they were so dishonest they would lie without trying. It just came natural to them because they were not spiritual. Now, here's Pastor Rick with his study called, That Galilean from Nazareth, in Mark chapter 11.

You know, they're out of their spiritual mind. That's not what the Bible says. And you could say to them, fine, if you believe that, just understand, if you're trying to use the Bible to do it, you're wrong and a liar. And if you want to go to stand before Christ that way, lying about him, then you have at it, I'll have no part of that. But say it in a loving way with a smile.

Maybe they'll, they will, I mean, I was witnessing to people, I have been successful as a good cop, bad cop kind of philosophy. Some people are knuckleheads. You got to be tough with them. You have to say things like the stupidest thing I ever heard concerning Jesus Christ.

Where'd you pick that up? To get them to humble down a notch. And in others, you can never say, you don't ever want to say, you want to be very gentle with them.

You say, I understand, you know, there's so much junk out there to scoop up. Here's why I don't believe that. You have, that's called, you have the knowing to, this being led by the Spirit, not a cookie-cut testimony. I wish I could be more teddy bear-like in the pulpit, but the Bible does not allow it.

It's just too much stuff that goes right between the eyes, less of a teddy bear and more of a real tiger. When it comes to truth and dealing with human behavior, a behavior that is reluctant to submit to the truth. What makes a Christian a Christian is that we submit. Verse 30, Jesus continues, this is his question to them.

Here's where he puts them on defense. The baptism of John. Soon as they heard that, they said, oh, this is not going good. I thought he's going to ask something else. Was it from heaven or from men? Then he says to their faces in front of everyone, answer me.

Oh man, nobody's done this to these guys before. They didn't know what to do. Excuse me, I'm getting a phone call.

I'll be right back. There was no way out. So he does not give them the satisfaction of a direct answer. Instead of saying, it was, you know, when they asked, what authority?

My father. That would have been a direct response, but that's not the only response. It's not the only valid response.

They forfeited that too. It is sad when humans enjoy living in such a way in front of Jesus that Jesus doesn't like them. Are you shocked at that? You think people can do anything? He's going to say, I still like you. I mean, the atrocities that people do. I mean, come on. I mean, he could still love in a sense that he wants to see them saved from an eternal hell, but that love has an expiration date on it. If you are not a believer. There's a terminus.

It can expire. And that's why we're not playing around with the gospel. Otherwise, it'd be a joke. That's why people create those heresies and false teachings that, you know, in the end, everybody gets saved. So Christ died for nothing.

That was just saying. I mean, if everybody could just get saved like that, then God would have, the father would have been vicious and malicious, mean to let him go through that, and there was another way? And that's why Jesus said, if possible, take this cup. Well, it's not possible, my son.

If you want them saved, you're going to have to drink the cup. And he did. And he knew that. But he expressed it so we could know it too. Love can expire when it comes to God. God is not going to damn people to hell and love them at the same time.

The schizophrenic, we would say. These are realities. You can't escape them. You can if you pretend, but that would be another form of dishonesty. So his question is, did God send John the baptizer or not?

Just like that. And if they say yes, then he would say, then why did you oppose John? Why didn't you do something when his life was at risk?

Why did you look the other way? Now, John introduced water baptism to the Jews. Prior to John, there was, they had at the Temple Mount these mikvahs, these large baths.

And you could go in and you could immerse in it like a shallow pool, but enough water to be baptized in. But the Jews weren't baptizing. That was a purification act.

It was purification, symbolic, so they could take their offerings to God, expressing their need to be cleansed. But that wasn't repentance direct of their sin. John, when he introduced this, he intensified public confession. Not confession at home. Well, you know, he was out in the public.

You'd walk down into the water and everybody knew. You were saying, I am a sinner and I want to be right with God and there are things wrong about me. And if I'm going to be right with God, I'm going to have to start admitting that without him, I'm problematic. And so the first step of communion with God was this awakening. You know, we live in a generation with this poor grandma, you know, they're woke.

What is that? I'm woke right now. Later on, I'll be napping. But, and they get so sure, they get very insulted because they think they've come up with something new under the sun when they have not. Well, how about getting woke to your sin? You want to have a new level of awareness, a new age?

Then how about not the new age of Aquarius or some other screwball thing? You say, that's offensive. Well, you should be offended. If you swallow a lie from hell, you should be offended at yourself and then fix it. That's what Christ does. That's what the water baptism was all about. What if someone was, you know, what is he preaching, John?

He's saying, come into the water, admit that you're not right with God. I'm not going to do that. Why? Because I'm actually pretty good. That's why.

See, that's what was happening then and now. You know, the person who says, I'm really not a bad person. My cousin, when I was growing up, you know, his name was Bob and we named him. He was named that because when they put him in water, he would bop. No, I'm kidding. But anyway, growing up as silly, goofy teenagers that we were, I said, Bob, that's a pretty girl.

And he would say, yes, sitting next to what dog? And it was just this routine reply. And the point, the truth that was in that little silly, goofy thing was that it's relative. She's pretty related to what? Okay, you're a good person related to who? Because when it comes next to Christ, you're not.

No one is. It's a relative statement. So if you say, I'm a good person, what you might be compared to somebody who's not a good person.

But that's not the standard. The standard by which you would be judged is Christ. So when you get to have you say, are you a good person? I was. Okay, I'm going to go down the list and you tell me if you were as good as this person. Oh, there's only one name on the list. Christ Jesus.

Are you as good as him? And the contrast is so sharp, so drastic, if the answer is anything less, then you are a rank sinner. You are a violator of God's Word. Oh, there's basic Christianity.

But we're always looking for fresh ways to explain our faith to those who need to have it explained. And thus God has ordained preaching. Well, he says, answer me here in verse 30, putting again them on defense, humiliating them, infuriating them at the same time. Again, no one stood up to these boys as he is standing up to them. He had nothing to fear from them. And they saw that. They could yell, you think you don't fear us?

You wait and see what we got planned for you. He knew what they had planned for him. It was right there in Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions, chastised for our sins. His death was by permission. And not only that, it was a consent in harmony with the Godhead, the plan of salvation.

Verse 31, and they reasoned among themselves saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him? So this is now they're having their huddle. Their huddle is not going to get them out of this. They just, they should have just stayed home that day. They should have just left him alone. But they started this fight. And by their own obnoxious and deadly arrogance, and it was deadly, it was so severe they'd kill you if you cross lines with these people, that they got themselves into this problem.

It's a simple question. What did John ever do or say contrary to Moses and the prophets? And this baptizing that he was doing, where is the fault with it?

I'll return to that in a moment. Their argument was not how best to get at the truth, but what they were huddling for was how can we answer this in an honest way? That never crossed their mind. It was can we come up with something that is plausible and profitable to our lie? See that's how they were so dishonest they would lie without trying. It just came natural to them because they were not spiritual.

At least not the righteous side of spirituality. Verse 32, But if we say from men, they feared the people. For all count of John do have been a prophet. It's interesting how Mark says that.

In their huddle he says, but if from men, and just kind of leaves it. And then adds, because they feared people. They knew the Jews loved John and they would turn on his leadership.

They knew where their lines were. And that's why they became Machiavellian in their approach to retaining power and executing whatever dictates they found on their heart. And so if they rejected John as a prophet, they would have to face the people who would riot and they knew it and wouldn't do that. Now John, as I mentioned, was born into the priesthood. John the baptizer. He was bold and he was blunt. Just like Elijah the prophet and he's likened to Elijah. He had that kind of fire in him. When John preached, you did not object.

You finished the sermon with John. Yet, the Sanhedrin, they rejected him. Herod feared him. Herodias hated him. But the believers loved him.

He was everything a prophet should be. You could not look at John and say, yeah, but he lacks this. You know, okay, he didn't like the, you know, the whole camel skin level or belt and his diet was awful, but what does that have to do with prophecy? I mean, John let people know that he'd like to be alone by what he ate. He's like, hey, come on over for dinner.

No, no, let's get takeout. So anyway, this baptism that John introduced, no precedence for it in the Bible as said. Moses did not baptize.

Well, symbolically, yes, that was there when he led the people through the parted sea. Elijah and Elisha did not baptize. Naaman was not baptized. He was dunked. He dunked himself in the Jordan. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, the minor prophets, nothing about baptism as John introduced it.

So where did this come from? So when Christ says the baptism of John, where does it come from? They could not say, well, Elijah did it. Well, Isaiah, they had to say God or shut up. And that's what they would do, of course.

Well, even that was a flawed reaction that exposed them. And so this was a big question. Obviously, it was God. Christ does not argue with these people. He asked them a question. He does not argue with them. He did not seek to enlighten them. Well, let me tell you where, he didn't bother with that.

Where is it from? Because he knew they were dishonest, intellectually and spiritually. They had passed from mere unbelief into apostasy.

And when that happens, your chances of getting saved are almost nil looking at the scripture. To give you an example is Balaam. God sent a talking donkey to reach Balaam. And it didn't work.

You say, well, that's crazy. Well, what about Judas Iscariot? I think God sent Judas Iscariot more evidence than Balaam ever had. And still he became an apostate.

He fell away. God leaves the apostate to work out their own doom. And God records these incidents to say to us, don't you do it. This is not just mom telling a child, don't touch that whatever. You know, or else I'm going to spank you. This is more like, don't jump off that cliff.

Because once you jump, the consequences are unforgiving. And so he had little, if anything, to say to these people because there was nothing that could reach them. They had no grounds to reject John and every reason to receive him. But they turned up their noses and they refused him. Today we see people saying, well, if the universities don't tell if it's true, why should we believe it? There you go.

The spirit is alive and well. Of course, you have many that don't say that. They say, listen, universities are wonderful for learning certain skills and they just have the resources.

But they do not have control over the scripture. And that's the big disconnect. Our youth go to the universities and they give them everything. Instead of saying, wait, you can have, you can have my attention for the courses I'm paying for. You know, you're not giving me a freebie. We are paying you to educate me. And I've come here to learn about engineering and not about political whatever. All right, that was my little rant.

I could go on, I'd love to, but I'm not a political pundit. Nor do I want to be. So God is saying to these folks, how dare you not receive John and side with him. And if you move towards apostasy, and we've seen some recent ones, some recent authors and songwriters become apostates where they renounce Christianity publicly like they had to do that.

Why? OK, you stop believing in Christ. Why do we have to hear about it in a public forum? Because that's how Satan does. He sows his seeds, too. And the righteous just keep moving forward. Know this about apostasy. If I put it this way, why should God waste his time with someone who has heard the gospel and knows the truth and has then decided to reject it when there are others out there who haven't heard it and they need the truth? There are other people to be saved. There are other people to be made strong. This idea of I'm going to, you know, I'm going to leave the faith and the whole thing is going to fall apart.

I'm going to leave the church and the whole thing is going to go south as Satan talking. I remember when I worked in the world on a particular job, I was getting extra money, actually, myself and my partner. And there were some disgruntled ones in the crew that weren't getting that money. Well, they weren't doing the things we were doing.

Flying, we could fly and just not in the air. So they got disgruntled. One of them, the troublemaker of the group, got disgruntled and he said, what? Oh, they paid us for a day we didn't work. And so then they took the money back.

Sorry, it was a holiday. We shouldn't have paid you. And they got so upset. And he said, come on, man, we're out of here. And we just said, see ya. He thought he was just going to shut the job down and take everybody out.

And so what they did, they just took a few other guys and put them in their place and the job continued without a hiccup. And God is not any different. If I should say, you know what, I'm finished. I'm leaving this church as the pastor. God will say, fine, go, I'll just get another one. And we should know this, that we're not, you know, we are expendable if we choose to go that route. That should inspire you. It inspires me.

It makes me say, no way. No way am I going to make a mess and leave someone to come out and clean it up. And then I am rendered useless.

I think I'll just take my hits where I am. Mark, Matthew's Gospel, chapter 10, verse 14. And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. We need to tell folks sometimes, listen, you know, when God says, don't harden your heart. Today is the day of salvation.

You better take that seriously. Verse 33, so they answered and said to Jesus, we do not know. And Jesus answered and said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Man, this is just, this is just so foreign to them. They didn't know what to do.

What do you do? They can't arrest him. They're afraid of the people.

They're just flat-footed there. Even God cannot correct the will to refuse his truth. Jesus is standing right there and there was nothing he could do without violating righteousness.

And these were, again, otherwise intelligent people. And thus they are condemned by their own choices. Neither John nor Christ derived a speck of authority from these people. And neither do you as Christians in the world, not in the church building. There's a system given there. I have to say that because some Christians haven't figured that out. But when it comes to the world, they have no authority over your faith to tell you what you can believe or not.

But if they do create a condition like that, you have to understand the consequences. So if they say, if you speak Jesus within 50 feet of this courthouse, you're going to go to jail and you decide you're going to speak Jesus within 50 feet, then understand you're going to go to jail. That's all it means. But be wise as serpents, as harmless as doves. John's Gospel Chapter 8 records this. Now I'm almost finished. Here's what Jesus said about them earlier.

And this stuff got back to them. Jesus said of this group, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning. And does not stand in the truth. Because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources. For he is a liar and the father of.

It doesn't get any hotter than that. So you know, if you just have this one-sided view of the love of Christ, then you have to take those kind of verses out of your Bible. But you can't do it. Because it's all over the scripture. Paul, when he wrote his Galatian letter dealing with people who would come in back of what he did and try to undo it. He was brutal in what he said about what should happen to those folks. You want to push circumcision?

Well this is what you should do. And he was just, man, startling. Anyway, the Lord not yielding an inch. He knew that they would never admit John was a prophet of his beloved father. And to this day there are those who still refuse to answer his questions because they are intellectually dishonest. For example, they will stare at the evidence of creation and then scoff at it and come up with a theory. And then in time insist that the theory is no longer a theory when they have still no evidence. They do this. And people believe them. And they have a lot of power.

So nothing new under the sun. There is God's love for the sinner. And, for example, who would have chosen a Samaritan woman, a non-Jewish woman in the days of the Jews, who had a soiled past, no less than five husbands, who would have chosen her to be an evangelist? The whole village gets saved because of her. He doesn't go into the village and look, who's the nicest guy here?

He catches her at the well knowing what she's all about. And he uses her to save others. There is God's love for the sinner. But there is God's intolerance for the sinful. And when I say sinful, the way I'm using it right now means the one that is full of sin and really not going to let it empty any of it. Matthew chapter 13 verse 49, so it will be, at the end of the age, the angels will come forth, separate the wicked from the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for that group. God used those words to woke me, to wake me up to salvation. When I read those words looking for flaws in the scripture, it's like I do not want to weep or gnash my teeth. Because in this context, it was final and it is just something that the Holy Spirit just made me know.

Do you want this to happen to you? No. And I got saved right there. That Galilean from Nazareth is the Son of God from heaven. That's the authority. I'm from heaven. And they knew it. They knew his answer. And so the word is, get saved by him or be damned by him.

It's your call for those of you who have not made the choice. He is just getting warmed up. Next chapter, he's going to unload. And, you know, we have this, when we say he is an awesome God, it does not mean only that he is to be adored when you see him because he is so beautiful. It also means he has the keys of heaven and hell.

Therein is the fear of God, the reverence of God. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, like here on Cross Reference Radio.