Can Puny Man Outwit God? II
(Message delivered by Pastor at the RELC 10.30 am Service, May 23, 04)
Text: Matt. 22:34-46
In our previous sermon we showed how Jesus’ enemies the Pharisees tried to entangle Him in His talk by asking the question, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar?” They thought Jesus would fall into their trap. If Jesus said yes, He would be considered a traitor by the Jews who hated the Romans ruling over them. If He said no, He would offend the Romans.
Full of wisdom Jesus said, “Give me a coin. What does the coin show?” “The figure of Caesar” they stammered. Jesus replied, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” Can puny man outwit God?
In this week’s sermon here comes a lawyer with his question. Now this lawyer, it is said, had learned 613 laws, 248 positive and 365 negative. Surely Jesus is tempted with the question, he thought, “Which law is the greatest one?” Jesus replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
“But there is a second law inseparably linked to the first great commandment and that is, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” These two commandments are found in Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18. Jesus quoted these two verses clear from his mind without checking up the Scriptures that all the more silenced the lawyer. Can puny man outwit God?
In fact Jesus’ reply to the lawyer is a lesson on the logical progression of the X Commandments – the first V on God and the second V on man (according to the Jews) and all the ethical teachings are within the X Commandments. The Son of God, the fountain of truth, is the Teacher of teachers of theology. So you should learn new things from every sermon.
Now comes a sudden surprise from God to puny man.
“What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” asked Jesus.
The Pharisees answered, “The son of David.”
Jesus replied, “How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”
Jesus totally stumped the Pharisees who wanted to believe a human Messiah but not a divine Messiah. The divine Messiah is Jesus Himself. Can puny man outwit God?
And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
Jesus by silencing puny man that they will not henceforth try to entangle him in his talk has given them the right medicine to take. Not only puny man has failed totally to outwit God, we
have discovered how Jesus defeats His enemies the Pharisees by taking them in their own craftiness (Job 5:13; I Cor 3:19). By God’s leading we have discovered 22 times how our Lord has taken the Pharisees in their own craftiness.
Are there such elements in the Church today? Yes, they are the liberals and modernists. They do not believe in the fundamentals of our faith. They reject the Bible to be absolutely God’s Word, the Virgin Birth of Christ, His miracles, Blood Atonement for our salvation, Resurrection and Second Coming. God raised up a witness in USA in 1930s for Himself in the person of Dr J. Gresham Machen who declared modernism is not Christianity at all but another religion.
Today there has arisen in Life Church my two Assistant Pastors who say they have found mistakes in the Bible but these do not touch doctrine. This has brought our immediate rebuttal that God’s Word is always received by the church to be 100% perfect without any mistake. Impossible to compromise with unbelief that is why we have withdrawn to worship here. Jesus the Living Word of God defends the Bible the Written Word of God in the power that He created the universe, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away.” Three times He affirms these words in Matthew, Mark and Luke the synoptic Gospels. Can puny man outwit God?
Instead of trying to entangle Jesus in His talk, not believing that He is God’s Son but a mere man that is why His enemies try to outwit Him. We who are His blood bought children on the other hand love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength. We not only love Him but also His Word the Bible. The logic of faith make us believe the Bible
to be God’s immaculate Word 100% perfect, without any mistake. Jesus says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
The modernists ridicule the miracles in the Bible to be fairy tales. My English teacher a Methodist Bishop flouted the truth by laughing at Jonah. He said sarcastically, “If you believe that the big fish swallowed Jonah then you can also believe Jonah swallowed the big fish.”
Let us not only reject unbelievers for haughtily sniffing at God’s sacred word to be tainted with mistake and stand for a 100% perfect Bible but preach the saving grace of Jesus Christ the Living Word to those who are lost in sin and bound for hell. Amen.
THE GOSPEL OF LIFE:
Chapter II
John 2:17-25
The Disciples, the Jews and the Miracle-Believers
At this initial presentation of the Messiah to the Jewish people, we can see three types of audience. Let us take them in reverse order.
The Miracle-believers. These are many, the bulk of the crowd, easily moved by outward signs. These may be represented by the shallow, stony ground into which the good seed had fallen, which brought forth only temporary results. (Read the Parable of the Sower in Matt. 13:1-9). Though these who made up the crowds “believed in His Name when they saw the miracles which He did,” Jesus did not believe them. “He knew all men.” (v. 24). Our Lord has all divine discernment of every situation in life. To say that we believe is not enough. To what extent is our belief? Let us believe not only on our lips and in our heads, but in our hearts, yea, deep down into our inner most beings (our stomachs! if you read John 6).
The Jews. These are diehards who cling to the Jewish religion, refusing to accept anything beyond Moses. However, Jesus came not to do away Moses, but to fulfil. To make things difficult for our Lord, they ask for a sign. This is a mistake, for Christ does not give His credentials by working miracles at the behest of His inquirers.
But since they ask, He points to the one great final miracle that is Himself in His death and resurrection. This is the basis of the New Testament, of the Christian faith upon which the Jews must build in order to be saved. Since these who challenge our Lord do not deserve an answer, our Lord gives it to them cryptically, as He does in parables. Only he that hath an ear will hear. If you are a Jewish Reader, we have no better proof of Christ Jesus being the Messiah than His death and resurrection. What do you say to that?
The Disciples. These are they who truly believe unto salvation, who read their Old Testament with perception. “They followed the guidance of Scripture to understand Christ aright” And they knew their Scripture so well that they could recollect what it had predicted about the Messiah to come. Take note of the Verb “remembered” in v. 17 and v. 22. “and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.” Calvin concludes: “And indeed none will ever learn what Christ is, or the purpose of His actions and sufferings, save by the guiding and teaching of Scripture.”
Doesn’t this high statement on the Scripture justify the effort to produce this RPG Workbook?
Oath-Taking by FEBC Faculty and Board At the FEBC 29th Graduation Exercises, 9 May 2004
