(Through the Bible) Mark 12 — Chuck Smith

Mark 12: Jesus in the Temple

Mark's Gospel chapter 12. Now we remember that Jesus is in the temple. This is the day after he had cleansed it again. It is on Tuesday. It is his final week. Sunday he had made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on the donkey.

Monday he came in and cleansed the temple. Now Tuesday he returns to the temple with his disciples where immediately he is challenged by the religious leaders concerning the authority by which he has done these things.

The Parable of the Vineyard and Isaiah's Vineyard Song

Now he speaks to them in a parable. And he said there was a certain man that planted a vineyard and set a hedge about it and digged a place for the wine fat and built a tower and he let it out to husbandmen and went into a far country.

Now if you can hold your place there Mark and turn to Isaiah chapter 5. I think that you'll see how they were able to see exactly what Jesus was getting at. Verse 1 of Isaiah 5. Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard.

My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it. Gathered out the stones. He planted it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a wine press.

And he looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes. And now all inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah. Judge I pray you between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard than I have not done to it.

Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes did it bring forth wild grapes. And now go to I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge. It will be eaten up. I will break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down.

I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged. But there shall come up briars and thorns and I also will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant plant.

And he looked for judgment but behold there was oppression. He sought righteousness but there was a cry of those who were oppressed. So when Jesus said to these leaders. There was a certain man who planted a vineyard and set a hedge about it and dig the place for the wine fat and built the tower.

Their minds connected with Isaiah and he let it out to husband men went to a far country and at the season. Or the time when he should be reaping the benefits of that vineyard. He sent to the husband man a servant that he might receive from the husband man the fruit of the vineyard.

And they caught the servant and beat him and sent him away empty. So he sent unto them another servant. And they cast stones at him and wounded him in the head and sent him away shamefully mistreated.

So again he sent another and him they killed. And many others some of them they beat and others they killed. Having yet therefore one son his well beloved. He sent him also last unto them saying they will reverence my son.

But those husband men said among themselves this is the heir. Come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the Lord of the vineyard do?

The parable is very obvious. It is against the religious leaders the husband men whom the Lord had set over the vineyard. The nation of Israel. And the Lord sent to them the prophets his servants. But the prophets were mistreated.

They were beaten. They were stoned. Many of them were killed. Finally the Lord said I will send my only son or my well beloved son. And so Jesus separates himself in a total different capacity from the servants the prophets that have been sent.

Finally the son has come. And the religious leaders have determined to get rid of him. In order that they might somehow take possession of the vineyard. The question. What will the Lord of the vineyard do?

Of course God is the Lord of the vineyard. He will come and destroy the husband men. And will give the vineyard unto others. And so here we see as last week when Jesus cursed the fig tree and it withered and died.

Because it failed to bring forth fruit. The nation of Israel had failed to fulfill the purposes for which God had established them as a special people unto the Lord. They failed to bring forth that fruit that God was desiring the nation to produce.

So what will the Lord do? He will take away the privileges the opportunities. And he will give them to others. And so we see the door opened to the Gentiles and Jesus here is prophesying and predicting.

That God is going to do his work not among the Jews in this age. But more among the Gentiles. And thus we see the work of God's spirit in a powerful way among those Gentile believers in Jesus Christ. And then the Lord quoted to them the Psalm 118.

The Rejected Stone Becomes the Cornerstone

Which is a Psalm that was predicting the triumphant entry of the Messiah. And have you not read this scripture? The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.

This particular Psalm 118. The stone set of not by the builders or rejected by the builders becoming the head cornerstone. Is a often quoted Psalm in the New Testament. Peter quoted it when he was talking to the religious leaders in the fourth chapter of Acts.

Paul quotes it in his epistle to the Romans and also his epistle to the Ephesians. Jesus here makes reference to it. Obviously it is a reference to Jesus the stone. Now you remember that there was that prophecy in Daniel.

Of the stone that would come not cut with hands. Striking the image in its feet and growing up into a mountain covering the earth. The stone being Jesus Christ. Rejected by the builders. The religious leaders.

And yet in reality it is the chief cornerstone. There is an interesting story of the building of Solomon's temple. The stone was all quarried away from the temple. And was brought to the temple site. And then set one upon another.

So perfectly were these stones hewn. And so well designed that they did not need mortar for them. But they just would interlock and would lie flat. And in fact these stones you can't even put a knife blade between them.

They are hewn so perfectly. And so each stone was quarried. And then smoothed in the area of the quarry. Which is actually on the north side of the city of Jerusalem. And then it was brought to the temple site.

And each stone was marked for its place. And set into the building. And as the story goes. A stone was sent from the quarry. And the fellows who were doing the building. Didn't understand where it went.

It seemed like it didn't fit in the natural progression of the building. And so they didn't know what to do with it. And they just tossed it aside. And of course in the years as they were building the temple.

Finally they came to the completion of the building. But the chief cornerstone was missing. And according to the story. They sent to the quarry for the chief cornerstone. We want to complete the building have its dedication.

We need the chief cornerstone. And the foreman checked his records. And said it's already been sent. And they said we don't have it. And he said well we've already sent it to you. And someone remembered that stone that was tossed over.

And now the bushes had grown up and over it. And they dug the thing out and sure enough. The stone that was rejected by the builders. Was in reality the chief cornerstone of the building. And thus this psalm.

But yet tremendous prophetic significance. The stone that was said of not by the builders. Has become the chief cornerstone. This is the work of the Lord. It's marvelous in our eyes. And so Jesus quotes this very familiar psalm.

Psalm 118 to them. A psalm by which he is. Asserting that he is indeed. That stone. The Messiah. And so they sought to lay hold on him. He had directed the parable against them. And they recognized that.

And they wanted to lay hold on him. But they feared the people. For they knew. That he had spoken the parable against them. And so they left him and went their way. And then they sent unto him. Certain of the Pharisees and the Herodians.

Jesus and the Tribute to Caesar

To catch him in his words. And when they were come. They said unto him. Master. We know that you are true. And you don't care for man. And you don't regard the person of men. But you teach the way of God in truth.

Quite an acknowledgement. True it was flattery to try to throw him off guard. And then they. Offered their question. Which was designed to entrap him. Is it lawful. To give tribute to Caesar. Or not. Judah.

Was a Roman province. As a Roman province. The. Governor was directly appointed by Rome. And the Roman government excised taxes from them. That were paid directly to the Roman government. And there were three basic taxes.

First of all. You were taxed. On the land that you had. And you had to give. One tenth. Of your crop. To the government. That is your grains. And all from the field. You had to give. One fifth. Of the fruit.

That which grew from the trees. That were there on the land. Secondly. There was a straight across the board. Five percent. Income tax. And then thirdly. You had to pay each year. A denarius. To the government.

Just. For the right of existing. This was a tax upon everyone. A denarius. Because you lived. And so. The Jews. Hated this taxation. They did not really recognize. The Roman authority over them. And this question.

Then was a very clever question. Designed to entrap Jesus. For. No matter how he answers. He's a loser. If he answers. It is. Lawful. To pay. The taxes. To Caesar. Then. All of these Jews. That hate these taxes.

So much. Will turn away. And not listen to him again. If he says. It is not lawful. To pay the taxes. To Caesar. Then they'll run right down. And report on him. And have him arrested. As a. Leader of sedition.

So. They felt. That the question. Was one. From which he could not escape. Very cleverly. Designed question. Probably took him. Quite a long time. To figure that one out. Shall we give. Or shall we not give.

But he knowing. Their cunningness. Said unto them. Why. Are you trying. To tempt me. Bring me a denarius. That I may see it. Now this was. The denarius. That. They had to pay. For existing. And of course it had.

The current. Roman emperor. Who at this time. Was Titus. There on the. Caesar. They were all called. Caesar. But this was. Titus. And the. His little. Image upon it. Interesting to me. That Jesus. Didn't carry.

A coin. He asked. For one. And he held. It up. And he said. Whose is this. Image or. Superscription. And. It would have. The picture. And under it. The. Superscription. Pontifus. Maximus. Who is this.

He said. Caesar. So he flipped. The coin back. And said. Give it. Caesars. Give it. To Caesar. But give. To God. The things. That belong. To God. Now. In. Reality. These. Coins. Were. All. Considered. To be. Caesars.

The governments. The people. Were able. To use them. But in. Reality. They considered. That it. Was all. The governments. Even as. Your money. All. Says. Federal. Reserve. Note. Or whatever. It's really. The governments. Loaning.

You. This medium. Of exchange. Are. Letting. You. Use. This medium. Of exchange. So. Jesus. Thoroughly. Escape. The trap. That they were. Setting. For him. And. They marvel. That in. Then. There came to him. Some of the Sadducees.

The Sadducees and the Resurrection

Now. The Sadducees. Were. The priest. For the most. The high priest. At this time. Was always. The Sadducee. They were. The materialist. They were not. Really. Spiritual men. At all. But the materialist.

But they. Again. Control. Of the whole. Religious. System. And. They did not. Believe in. Spirits. They did not. Believe in. Angels. They did not. Believe in. The resurrection. From the dead. So. They said. Master. Moses. Wrote unto us. Of a man's brother. Die.

And he leaves. His wife. Behind him. And leaves. No children. His brother. Should take. His wife. And raise up. Seed. For his. Brother. Now. This was. A part. Of the mosaic. Law. It is given. To us. There in. Deuteronomy. And. It's. A very. Interesting. Law. And the purpose. Of course. Was that. The family. Name. Not. Die. In. Israel. Basically. The law. Is. Is. Like. This. If. You. Married. A woman. And. Before. You. Could have. Children. When. Died. It. Was. Your. Brother's. Responsibility. To. Marry. Her. And. The. First. Son. That. Was. Born. Would. Be. Named. After. You. So. That. Your. Name. Would. Not. Die. In. Now. Say. Your. Younger. Brother. Doesn't. Want. To. Marry. Her. She. Says. Hey. Hey. No. I. Don't. Want. Anything. To. Do. That. When. She. Gave. My. Brother. Such. Bad. Time. No. Way. You. Know. Not. Gonna. Stick. Me. With. That. One. Then. They. Would. Come. To. The. Gate. Of. The. City. Where. Judgment. Was. Always. Made. Read. Them. In. The. Gates. Of. The. City. That's. Where. They. Always. Made. The. Judgment. The. Elders. Of. The. City. Would. Be. There. In. The. Gates. To. Judgment. So. Would. Come. To. The. Gate. Of. The. City. Before. The. Judges. The. Elders. There. And. The. Fellow. Would. Say. My. Brother. Died. Didn't. Have. Kids. And. I. Don't. Want. To. Marry. Her. And. He'd. Take. Off. His. Sandal. And. Hand. It. To. Her. It. Sort. Of. Like. Saying. Hey. Woman. You're. An. Dirty. Shoe. As. Far. As. I'm. Concerned. No. Way. And. She. Would. Spit. In. His. Face. And. He. Would. Be. Released. From. The. Obligation. Of. Marrying. Her. But. He. Was. Called. The. Man. From. Whom. The. Shoe. Was. Loosed. In. Israel. He. Got. That. Title. After. That. It. Was. Sort. Of. A. Dirty. Title. In. Other. Words. He. Wouldn't. Fulfill. Family. Obligation. And. That. Was. A. Very. Important. Thing. Them. Now. In. The. Book. Of. Genesis. And. This. Goes. Back. Before. The. Law. Actually. Book. Of. Genesis. We. Find. The. Case. Of. Judah. The. Son. Of. Jacob. And. His. Son. Married. This. Gal. Tamar. And. He. Died. Not. Having. Any. Children. So. Tamar's. Brother. Took. Her. To. Wife. And. He. Died. Not. Having. Any. Children. And. So. The. Other. Brother. Was. Supposed. To. Marry. Her. But. Judah. Said. Well. No. No. I'm. Worried. About. Tea. That. Gal. Fixes. You. Know. And. You. Know. Two. Sons. Died. And. He. Said. I. Don't. Want. To. This. Is. My. Last. Son. I. Don't. Want. To. Lose. Me. Too. Young. Wait. A. While. You. Know. Before. Let. Him. Marry. You. And. The. Story. Of. Tamar. Interesting. Story. In. Genesis. She. Put. On. Clothes. Of. A. Prostitute. And. Sat. In. The. Way. When. Judah. Was. Coming. By. The. Old. Man. How. Much. You. Charge. In. On. So. She. Gave. The. He. Said. I. Don't. Have. It. With. Me. But. Here. You. Know. I'll. Take. Take. My. Ring. And. This. Is. Where. We. Get. The. Idea. Of. Giving. A. Ring. It's. Pledge. To. Guarantee. That. I'm. Going. To. Keep. The. Covenant. I. Make. I. Promise. You. You. Know. I'll. Pay. You. With. This. Little. And. Of. Is. I'm. Going. To. Keep. The. Promise. I'll. Send. The. Goat. And. When. The. Goat. Comes. She. Then. He. She. Gives. The. Ring. Back. Well. He. Went. In. Unto. You. See. She. Felt. That. She. Is. Getting. Cheated. Because. He. Didn't. Give. The. Third. Son. And. So. She. Was. All. Veiled. In. Everything. Else. And. So. He. And. Then. Went. On. Down. And. He. Said. To. His. Herdman. Hey. Take. A. Goat. Back. To. The. Prostitute. That's. Back. There. In. That. Corner. You. And. Get. My. Ring. Back. And. So. The. Guy. Came. Back. With. A. Goat. And. He. Looked. Around. And. He. Said. To. The. Fellows. Around. There. Hey. Where's. Prostitute. Hangs. Out. This. Corner. So. He. Came. Back. To. Choose. A. Man. I. Couldn't. Find. It. Said. There's. No. Prostitute. Around. There. So. Later. On. Word. Came. Judah. Tamar. Is. Pregnant. He. Said. Have. Her. Stone. To. Death. So. Tamar. Came. In. And. She. Said. By. The. Man. Who. Owns. This. Ring. I'm. Pregnant. Judah. Of. Course. Had. It. You. Know. What. Could. He. Do. So. The. Interesting. Thing. To. Me. As. That. As. The. Lineage. Of. Christ. Is. Traced. Back. It. Is. Traces. Back. That. Interesting. That. God. Would. Bring. His. Son. Through. This. Lineage. He. Was. Able. To. Identify. With. Another. Case. Of. It. In. The. Old Testament. It. In. Book. Of. Ruth. Elimelech. With. His. Wife. Naomi. Sold. Their. Parcel. And. Move. With. Their. Two. Sons. Malone. And. Chile. Own. Over. To. Moab. And. Elimelech. Died. And. Two. Sons. Died. And. There. Were. No. Children. So. The. Name. Was. About. Ready. To. Die. Naomi. Of. Course. Came. Back. With. Ruth. And. Later. On. Boaz. Who. Brother. To. Elimelech. Married. Ruth. And. Raised. Up. He. Became. The. What. They. Call. The. Goel. The. The. Family. Redeemer. He's. The. One. That. Redeemed. The. Family. Name. By. Having. A. Child. Through. Ruth. Whose. Name. Was. Obed. Whose. Son's. Name. Was. Jesse.

Whose. Son's. Name. Was. David. And. In. Tracing. The. Lineage. Of the. Lineage. Christ. It. Goes. Back. Through. Ruth. And. Boaz. So. This. Idea. Of. A. Kinsmen. Redeemer. Is. Tied. Into the lineage. Of Jesus.

Which. I think. Is. Significant. Because. That's. That's what he came to be. He became a man that he might be kin to us, but his purpose was to redeem us. Man couldn't redeem himself. And so he became a man that he might become our kinsman redeemer, and in two places in his lineage, that particular Jewish law was kept, fulfilled.

So here, the Sadducees, they go an extra step. They create a hypothetical case where there were seven brothers and the first took a wife and he died without any children. So the second took her and died without any children.

And the third likewise, and all seven married her and died without any children. And finally the woman died. Now in the resurrection, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For all seven were married to her.

Now you see, they were creating a hypothetical case by which they were trying to show that the idea of the resurrection from the dead could only create a lot of problems. And here is a big problem. Because you can see seven guys now fighting over the one woman, for she had been married to all seven, but none of them had any children.

And they pictured this big confusion at the resurrection. Of course, there are others who have foreseen great problems with the resurrection. Say you have a kidney transplant, who gets the kidney in the resurrection?

Our bodies are made up of chemicals and when a person died out on the prairie and they dug a hole and buried him, the body decomposed into the various chemicals and the little prairie grass sent its roots down and fed off of the chemicals from the decomposed body.

And those chemicals were drawn up through the root and into the prairie grass and the prairie grass with the chemicals from somebody's body. And someone milked the cow and got the chemicals out of the milk and drank the milk and assimilated and it became a part of his body.

Now in the resurrection, what body will get these chemicals? These same difficulties that people have hypothecated all stem from the same ignorance that Jesus said, you fellows err because you don't know the scriptures and you don't know the power of God.

Your mistake lies in the fact that you don't know the scriptures. You're ignorant of the scriptures and that's where your problem is. For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven now as touching the dead that they rise.

Jesus is affirming the resurrection of the dead here. Have you not read in the book of Moses? Now the Sadducees being the materialist rejected all of the Old Testament except for the five books of Moses.

And they said, there is no place where immortality or resurrection is taught in the Pentateuch that all came along later with the prophets and all, but there's nothing in the Pentateuch. So Jesus takes them to the Pentateuch.

Have you not read in the book of Moses? How in the bush, when God spoke to Moses, he said unto him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Jesus said, he's not the God of the dead, but of the living and with their own book of Moses, he really cut them down.

The Greatest Commandment: Love God and Neighbor

Now there was a certain scribe that was there and he was watching this whole transaction, interchange of thoughts and ideas, and he was captivated by Jesus and his answers that he gave. When he heard them reasoning together, he perceived that Jesus was really coming up with some excellent answers.

And so he asked him an honest question. These first two questions were dishonest questions. A dishonest question is a question that is not looking for an answer. It's looking for an argument. An honest question seeks an answer.

I want to know, I ask a question that's honesty. I have a point. I want to prove. I want to get into an argument with you and show you you're wrong. I ask a question. I'm really not wanting your answer.

I don't care what you answer. Your answer is wrong and I'm going to prove it to you. And there's a lot of times that we are questioned by people and the questions are not sincere. They're not honest questions.

And one of the first things, and I can tell quite often by the question itself, whether it's an honest or dishonest question, when a person says, why don't you baptize people the moment they accept Jesus?

I know that's not an honest question. They really don't want to know why we don't take you right down to the beach tonight and baptize you if you've accepted the Lord here this evening. They don't want to really know that.

What they want to do is get in a big controversy with you because they do believe in baptismal regeneration. And should you die before next Saturday and your chance to get baptized, according to their theology, you'd be lost.

So emergency baptisms, you know, get them in the tank as quick as possible, you know, and dunk them. And so they ask that question and, and, you know, it's not an honest question. I really don't like to get into a controversy over the scripture.

The minute I can discern that a question is not an honest question, I'll quit talking. I mean, I, I'm not interested in getting in a dispute or an argument. The Bible says they that are ignorant, let them be ignorant still.

That could apply to me as well as the next fellow. This fellow has an honest question burning in his heart. It is a question that should concern every man who has become convinced of the existence of God.

You say you believe in God, hey, you can't rest there. You can't stop there. You see, if you believe that God does exist, then suddenly as you start to develop from that basic concept, God exists. You start going out from there and you've got to handle a lot of things.

I grew up in a very godly Christian home. I believed in Jesus Christ from day one. From the time I was 13 days old, I was carried to church, slept in the pews, grew up in a, you know, in the whole environment and atmosphere.

Yet as every teenager I think must do, I came to that place in my own growth and development and maturing where I had to create my own relationship with God and develop my own foundation and my own theology and my own building, you might say, of faith.

And as I was going through that period, being challenged intellectually by my studies, by my philosophy classes and biology classes and all, there was a short period of time when I was questioning everything and I began to question the existence of God.

And I wondered if I really believed that God did exist. Maybe there is something to atheism. Maybe it is all just something that has been conjured up by man. And I went through a couple of weeks of real misery as I was sort of in this place of floating and almost sinking as these thoughts were coming, maybe God doesn't exist and maybe it is just all, you know, man's concepts and ideas as he needs to believe in something.

And as I was going through this in my mind, I started to sink and then I thought, well, it is easier to believe that God exists than to not believe that he exists. As I looked at the world around me, the universe around me, it is much easier to believe in the existence of God than not to believe in the existence of God.

If you don't believe in the existence of God, then there are so many things that you've got to explain. The imponderables. How can you see? How can you hear? How can you walk? How can you feel? How can you remember?

How can you have all of these capacities just by random blind chance? And not to believe in God left too many unanswered questions. So I said, well, all right, I believe in God. You say, well, that's not much.

Well, if you're sinking, it's an awful lot. They let your foot hit on something solid. And I thought, well, yes, I believe in God. But wait a minute. I couldn't stop there. Just in the belief in God, I couldn't stop there.

If God then does exist. And I've come to that belief by the observation of creation around me and myself. And as I observe creation, I see the design and I see the purposes. I see the delicate balances in nature.

I see the oxygen, nitrogen cycles. I see the water, dry land proportions, two thirds to one third. All of these are by design, they must be because they are all necessary for man's existence. If God has a design and a purpose for all things, then he must have had a design and a purpose for me.

And if God has a purpose for me, then what is God's purpose for me? And that's at the point that this man was who came to Jesus. What is God's purpose for me? This is basically what is his question. What is the first commandment?

Really, what is the most important thing? First being in order, not what is the very first commandment God gave. The first commandment was don't eat the tree in the middle of the garden. But first in the order, that is the most important commandment of God.

What is it? And Jesus said, hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. He goes back to Deuteronomy and what is known as the Shema, the here. It is that portion that the Jews roll up in these little boxes that they tie on their wrists.

The boxes that they put on their foreheads. They all have this Shema in it. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. It used to be in their feast days when they would gather in the Temple Mount that they would start chanting this.

And it would build and build and build as they would chant together. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. It is interesting to me that even in this declaration, the Shema, the great commandment, the first, the primary commandment, that the word one, the Lord our God is one Lord.

The word one is the Hebrew word Akkad, which is a compound unity. There is another Hebrew word for one, Yaqid, which is an absolute unity. Now, I have four fingers, but I have one hand. Now in the one hand, there are the four fingers and the thumb.

So you have one hand, but in it is a compound unity. There are better examples of compound unity. You have one egg, but it's composed of a shell, a white and the yolk. Yet it's one egg, compound unity.

The two shall be one, speaking of marriage, Akkad, one. There's two, but they become one, the compound unity. So the Lord our God is Akkad, a compound unity, is one Lord. It is also interesting to me, and it's a baffler to the Jehovah Witnesses, that here and elsewhere in the New Testament, the name Yahweh is translated into the Greek, kurios, the title that was commonly given to Jesus Christ.

Now, if there is so much on the Jehovah's or Jehovah Witnesses, and there's so much to that name Jehovah, evidently Jesus and the New Testament writers didn't know that, because instead of translating the name Jehovah or Yahweh into Greek, they use the Greek word kurios, which is the Greek word for Lord, which is the title that was given to Jesus Christ.

And we read that God has given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is kurios, which is the translation from the Old Testament of Yahweh or Jehovah.

So, interesting problem that they have to wrestle with. Jesus is saying the primary thing, the most important, the basic thing, is that you must know the true and the living God. That's first, knowing the true and the living God.

But with so many religions, how can you know who is the true God? This was my next step as I was building my own faith and relationship with God. And so, I studied for a time, Muhammadism. I studied Buddhism and I began to make a serious study of the Bible.

If God does exist and God did create me for a purpose, then it would be necessary for God to reveal himself to man early in the history of man. And God would, of necessity, have to perpetuate that revelation to the present day.

So, I immediately rejected all of the religious systems of the past that have fallen by the wayside. I didn't bother to look into Greek mythology or Roman mythology or these other religions that have already, you know, are parts of the history of man but are not current today.

Because that would be an admission that God wasn't capable of keeping the revelation to the present time. And that God wasn't interested in man today. He was only interested in the early man and he doesn't care what happens to us today.

I also rejected all of these new religions that are coming out in recent years. These men who finally have received the true revelation of God. It's been hid from all men up until now. Until we're blessed by this prophet who has now the true understanding of God and it brings us this new light and a new way.

And I rejected all that because that immediately then dismisses all of those people that have been born and died up to the present time. It's as if God doesn't care about them or wasn't interested in them.

But suddenly God is now interested in man. I couldn't buy that. It had to be a revelation of God that began early in the history of man and was maintained to the present day. And that's why I chose the three that I did.

But as I studied, the more I studied, the more I became convinced that the Bible was indeed the revelation of God. And today I have no question, no qualms, no doubts. That it is indeed the revelation of God to man.

And it stands separate, apart, distinct, and in many cases in opposition to the religious systems of man. For the religious systems are man's attempt to reach out to God where Christianity is God's attempt to reach man.

In the religious system, man being good enough to be accepted by God. In Christianity, there's no way man can be good enough to be accepted by God. He has to just trust in the grace of God. There's no good work that you can do.

It is not by works of righteousness that we have done, but by his grace alone. So rather than a system of works that can bring you to God, it bypasses all that and says there's nothing you can do to be worthy of God.

You can only receive his grace, his love, his mercy that he extends to you through his son, Jesus Christ. God is reaching you. You can't reach him. And of course, as I read the Bible, I became fascinated with that prophetic aspect of the Bible, which the Bible itself declares is the building proof of its origin.

That the Bible originates with God. That you might know that I am God and there is none other like me. I'm going to tell you things before they happen so that when they happen, you will know that I am indeed the Lord.

Jesus said, I've told you these things before they come to pass so that when they come to pass, you might believe. And so that prophetic element that we can even up until the present time read and know that God has spoken of the very days in which we now exist and has prophesied in advance things that we see in the world around us.

The fact of the nation of Israel, whether or not the Arabs want to recognize that they are there. God's word said they would be there. The 10 nation European federation, the movement that you read about all the time towards electronic funds transfers and you're seeing the systems inaugurated in the stores.

When you go to these stores that are now using these scanning cash registers, God said, I've told you in advance. So that you might believe. And so that built in proof system. The most important thing for any man is to discover the true and the living God.

Hero, Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord. It's important that you know who God is. Secondly, you must come into a loving relationship with him and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.

Loving God as the Center of Life

The deepest area of your life, with all your soul, that conscious area of your life, within the mind and with all thy strength. Love God supremely. God must become the center of your existence, the center of your life.

And all men's lives revolve around some axis. There is that center to every man's life. And it is important that you look into yourself and find out what is the center of your life. Upon what does your life revolve?

What is the axis upon which your life is revolving? And with most people, it is self. For most people are living self-centered lives. But the Bible assures you that the self-centered life is destined for emptiness and frustration.

And the book of Ecclesiastes gives you a classic example of Solomon who lived the self-centered life, did everything for himself, and ended up with that plaintiff cry, vanity, vanity, or emptiness, emptiness.

Everything is empty and frustrating. He did it all. He had it all. But because it was centered around himself, it was unfulfilling. And he ended as a bitter cynic, as does that person who lives for himself.

When you get to the end of the road, you say it wasn't worth it. Life is a mistake, tragic mistake. It's a farce. There's no meaning. There's no purpose. I began as an accident. I go out as an accident.

And there's no reason. Oh, how empty, how futile. That's because you've got yourself at the center of your life. You need to get God at the center of your being. And that's what Jesus is saying is the most important.