The Lord Silences His Critics (3) February 9, 2025

Paul’s Prayer for the Ephesians and the Love of God

Mentioned in chapter one that he continually prayed for them that the Lord would give them an understanding that they were the objects of his eternal love that they were saved by his grace. And here in Ephesians 3 Paul mentions that he another basis or aspect of his praying for them that they would come to truly understand and comprehend the love of God that God has for his people.

May the Lord help us to perceive understand embrace and rejoice in the infinite love of God. He loves you in Christ just as much as he loves his son an eternal everlasting love.

Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians 3. For this reason I Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you how the mystery was made known to me by revelation.

As I have written briefly when you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. Through the gospel of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given me by the working of his power to me though I am the very least of all the saints.

This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

This was according to the eternal purpose that he had realized in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I suffered for you which is your glory.

For this reason I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

That you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

That you may be filled with all the fullness of God now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly father. We thank you for this passage and we thank you for this prayer of Paul for its instruction. And lord we too pray that we would know the height and the depth and the breadth of the love of God.

That we would have a clear understanding of your character of your work of all the things lord that you have accomplished. We pray lord that this understanding would result in our obedience and our submission to you.

We pray lord that everything we do might be to your glory. So help us now lord as we open up your word and it is proclaimed we pray that we would hear the truth. We pray that the spirit would teach us the truth.

And we pray that in the spirit's power we would apply it to our lives. Thank you lord in Jesus name. Amen. Of course that God's infinite love for us is because of.

The fact that he chose us in Christ he sees us in union with his son. And because the father loves his son with an infinite love he therefore loves us with that same infinite love. It's not because you and I are lovely it's because he is loving but through his work of grace of course he's gonna he's gonna make us lovely more lovely until we stand in the righteousness of Christ on that final day in glorified bodies all right.

Christ’s Sufferings and the Call to Consider Him

We are presently working through Luke chapter 20 and we read of our lord Jesus in the oh in the first. Well in the majority of this chapter silencing his critics. Different sects of Judaism came to Jesus in Jerusalem during the last week of his earthly ministry.

This is in his passion week more toward the beginning of the week. And of course they are attempting to discredit him before the people and charge him with sedition uh to bring before the Roman authorities.

But Jesus wisely and skillfully foiled their schemes and discredited them in the eyes of the people. And today we read of our lord responding to some who hope to ensnare him and thought they had devised a trap in which he could not avoid condemning himself either by the Roman authorities or the Jewish people.

We'll find ourselves encouraged and strengthened in our own conflict with unbelievers if we take these matters to heart regarding the sufferings of our lord this is one of the ways for peace and strength for suffering Christians.

We read in Hebrews 12 that we are to consider our lord Jesus in his sufferings since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses he's describing all those people of faith in Hebrews 11 we've got all these witnesses in the old testament that testify what faith is.

Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And how are we to be running looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame.

Jesus despised the shame of the cross and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. But it was the joy that he anticipated would be secured by his death is what enabled him to endure that hardship or that difficulty.

And therefore verse three consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. And to use modern language of course so that you not be depressed is what the writer is saying.

And so what is the corrective or preventive for depression spiritual depression. You consider Christ in his sufferings and how he looked through those sufferings and what God was going to accomplish through those sufferings the redemption of his people.

And this gave him joy and it gave him strength and the will to endure. Some Christians are very weary or faint-hearted because they've not resorted to this means of grace to consider carefully the way in which our Lord dealt with those who withstood him.

And again here in Luke chapter 20 we have set forward how the Lord dealt with people who challenged him. Now in our consideration last time of the passage of Luke 20 19 through 26 we examined how Jesus dealt with challenge to his to his authority.

But here in these verses verses 20 through 26 we witnessed the Lord avoiding entrapment respecting the authority of Caesar. And so we read now in Luke 20 20 verse through verse 26 so they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be righteous that they might seize on his words in order to deliver him to the power and authority of the governor that would be Pontius Pilate.

Then they asked him saying teacher we know that you say and teach rightly and you do not show personal favoritism but teach the way of God. In truth is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not. But he perceived their craftiness and said to them why do you test me.

Show me a denarius whose image and inscription does it have. And they answered and said Caesars. And he said to them render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are gods.

But they could not catch him in his words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at his answer and kept silence. He quieted them again. So round two goes to the Lord Jesus again. And he'll continue to do that through more verses of chapter 20 as we'll see in coming weeks.

The Evil Men Who Sent Spies to Trap Jesus

Well let's first consider the evil men who came to Jesus and verses. Actually it should be verse 20. We read in verse 20. So they watched him sent spies who pretended to be righteous that they might seize on his words in order to deliver him to the power and authority of the governor.

Now what is the subject of verse 20. Because it ends with just the pronoun they well the subject should be regarded as the same men of verse 19 the verse before the teachers of the law. In other words scribes and the chief priests.

They were the ones who watched him and sent spies who pretended to be righteous. And so perhaps they should be regarded as a representative group however of the Sanhedrin the Jewish council ruling council.

Interestingly in Matthew's account of this event another group of Jewish leaders is said to have been complicit and present in this plot with his scribes and chief priests. And so we read in Matthew 15 and 16 Matthew's parallel account.

Then the Pharisees went. Pharisees are not mentioned specifically in Luke at this point and plotted how they might entangle him in his talk. They sent to him their disciples with the Herodians. There is a group that is not mentioned very frequently in the gospels saying teacher we know that you are true and teach the way of God and truth.

Nor do you care about anyone for you do not regard the person of men. The Herodians were a relatively small group of people. It was primarily a political party a Jewish political party who lived in or close to Jerusalem.

They were supportive and benefited from King Herod's rule over the Jewish people. King Herod of course was not fully Jewish. He was half Edomian and so the Jewish people did not like Herod whatsoever.

And yet these Herodians appreciated and profited and supported King Herod in his rule and they also profited. The Herodians profited from Roman rule and so they were not well liked by the Jewish populace.

And so they would have favored taxes to Caesar for this was the major source of their income. The Herodians the Pharisees and the disciples of the Pharisees would have been opposed to the tax. And so here you have two groups of people that don't get along with one another.

They really hate one another watched him and devised a plot together that would appear to be a foolproof way to entangle him in his words. And so here we have these two opposing parties who normally had little to do with each other conspiring together to entrap our lord.

And so just like King Herod the half Jewish the Edomian king was also hostile toward Pilate and Pilate the Roman governor was hostile toward him. They got together and became friends over the whole matter of arresting and trying and crucifying Jesus.

The desires and designs of these evil men had been intent on condemning Jesus and so Luke opens the verse with the words. So they watched him. These words follow what they had failed to achieve in their earlier attempts to condemn Jesus again.

We read in verse 19 of their earlier frustrated effort the chief priest and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him. But they feared the people for they knew he had spoken this parable against them the parable of the husband.

And so having been unable to lay hands on him out of fear of the people they divide they had to devise another means to defeat him. We read they sent spies who pretended to be righteous. We do not know how long before this event these hypocrites had been among Jesus's disciples.

But perhaps since Jesus's arrival to the environs of the city of the plot which the Jews devised it was said by one commentator of Luke's gospel who died handful of years ago. However much the Jewish leaders desired to take Jesus without delay and to cause him to be done to death he still had too great a hold on the multitude.

They were afraid of the people in impotent rage especially after he had so clearly exposed their murderous intentions through the parable of the husbandman they tried to devise all manner of plans to bring him into disfavor with the multitude or in conflict with the Roman authorities.

After their previous defeats they now evidently act with great caution and subtle cunning. This appears from the fact that instead of again sending official members of the Sanhedrin to him they send a small group of their disciples to try and entangle Jesus in his speech these younger men.

Now that's an assumption on his part probably a right assumption. These younger men could more easily pretend to be seriously seeking for an answer to the question which they had to put. What our Lord had to contend with was not unique to him or his situation but rather this is a common ploy of the devil as it were as Matthew Henry wrote.

Note it's no new thing for bad men to feign themselves. Just men pretend to be just men pretend to be Christians and to cover the most wicked projects with the most spacious implausible pretenses. The devil can transform himself into an angel of light and a pharisee appear in the garb and speak the language of a disciple of Christ.

Ministers are concerned to stand upon their guard against some that feign themselves to be just men Christians and to be wise as serpents when they are in the midst of a generation of vipers and scorpions.

A spy must go in disguise and so they must feign or pretend to be righteous. The apostle Paul had to be on guard against evil men who would come in a stealth manner among the people of God to deceive and harm them even as they desired and aimed at attempting to promote errant thinking and practice among the churches.

And so Paul encountered pressure from some to have the gentile convert Titus to be circumcised to become a Jewish proselyte instead of being saved through faith in Christ alone. And Paul wrote of this conflict and give note to who it was who were his opposers and challengers.

Yet not even Titus who was with me being a Greek was compelled to be circumcised. And this occurred why. Because of false brethren secretly brought in who came by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

And so what Jesus had to deal with in Luke 20 the apostle Paul had to deal with in the churches of Galatia. False brethren was a problem of which Paul had continual struggle throughout his ministry. On one occasion he wrote comparing and contrasting his own ministry with false apostles.

And when rehearsing the trials and burdens of his life he spoke of what he had suffered. Are they Hebrews. He's talking about these false apostles. So am I. Are they Israelites. So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham.

So am I. Are they ministers of Christ. I speak as a fool. I am more. And instead of bragging on his credentials that qualified him to teach he he bragged on his sufferings. They were the they were the badge of his authenticity.

I am more and labor is more abundant in stripes above measures in prisons more frequently and deaths often from the Jews. Five times I received 40 stripes minus one. His back must have been solid scar tissue.

Three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. And that's before the shipwreck of Acts chapter 26 and 27. Three times before then a night and day I've been in the deep in journeys often in perils of water and perils of robbers and perils of my own countrymen Jews and perils of the Gentiles.

And perils in the city and perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea and here it is in perils among false brethren. It was a common issue that he had to deal with in weariness and toil and sleeplessness often in hunger and thirst and fastings often in cold and nakedness and besides the other things what comes upon me daily.

My deep concern for all the churches. And so false brethren candidly are not always recognized as such by the people of God. I might just mention this on the side when I was first came to Christ 19 years of age started attending Calvary Baptist Church a little church in my northern California home of Fort Bragg and my best friend John would come with me.

We were drinking buddies and we were you know Beth both read tracts and whatnot. And I assumed that he had become a Christian when I did. And I remember one day coming to church with him and my pastor Floyd Anderson stood in front of John and asked him is Jesus Christ your Lord.

And it the way he did it. It kind of shocked me. It was so straightforward and confronting and I kind of felt sorry for John you know and almost kind of interrupt you know. But he kept doing that with John is Jesus Christ your Lord.

And after he asked that six or eight times John didn't answer him. And so I began to look up at John you know what's what's the problem here you know. Well it wasn't long and John stopped going to Bible studies with me and you know throughout his entire life that I know of he never became a Christian.

But he you know was a false brother and my my pastor had the wisdom and the courage to expose him as such. He was being faithful to him and it was instructive for me too frankly and not always do the people of God recognize false brethren and so it's incumbent upon ministers to perform closer inspection lest he who is but pretended to be righteous becomes accepted by others as though he were truly righteous.

That's one of the responsibilities of the pastor. These evil men numbered among the disciples had an evil design. They would attempt to bring condemnation upon Jesus before the Roman authorities. Luke described them that they might seize on his words in order to deliver him to the power and authority of the governor.

And so these men wrote one had the specific aim of persuading Jesus to say something incriminating which would form the basis of an accusation against him to the governor. To the Romans the questioners adopted the role of righteous men seeking an answer from Jesus which would be in conformity with Jewish ideas of righteousness but which would thus be contrary to Roman demands.

And the enemies of the gospel sometimes are subtle and they pretend to be righteous. I can probably think of three or four occasions in the last 20 years when I've been approached by someone in the community about possibly performing a wedding for them and I was able to discern or detect it was a homosexual wedding.

And they weren't forthright in you know in their presentation to me they were setting me up to make some kind of commitment and then probably have a reason to accuse us as a church and me as a pastor.

There are people that that are subtle. They're. They're not you know outwardly and openly antagonistic but they come to you in subtlety and they have evil designs. They're not concerned about Christ or Christ's people.

And so we should take to heart the subtle but possible serious danger that can be perpetrated on the brethren by false brethren. As J .C. Ryle cautioned his readers he that would not be often deceived in this wicked world must carefully remember these things.

We must exercise a wise caution as we travel through life and not play the part of the simple who believeth every word quotes Proverbs. We must not lightly put confidence in every new religious volunteer nor hastily take it for granted that all people are good who talk like good men.

Such caution at first sight might appear narrow-minded and uncharitable but the longer we live the more shall we find that it is needful. We should discover by experience that all is not gold that glitters and all are not true Christians who make a loud profession of Christianity.

The language of Christianity is precisely that part of religion which a false Christian finds it most easy to attain the walk of a man's daily life and not the talk of his lips is the only safe test of his character.

Now Ryle was a bishop in the Church of England. I can't imagine what he had to deal with in his parish so-called as he tried to maintain that that role. I think we in a measure as Baptists are preserved from that kind of thing because we you know by definition look for evidences to regeneration in people's lives before admitting them to be numbered among the people of God.

Flattery, False Brethren, and the Danger of Manipulative Ministry

Well what was the specific ploy of these evil men these treacherous men. Well the the ploy was flattery. This is how they came to Jesus verse 21. Teacher we know that you say and teach rightly and you do not show personal favoritism but teach the way of God and truth.

And so what was the evil ploy of these imposter disciples. Well they would applaud our Lord and they actually mentioned three three things. They commended Jesus in three areas. First they declared that they knew what he said and what he taught was right.

Teacher we know that you say and teach rightly. They could not discredit Jesus for teaching falsehood or shading the truth for personal ends. And so they sought to employ flattery no doubt to lull him into lowering his suspicion and apprehension of them and they're approaching him but also subtly direct him to answer their questions so that it would condemn him before the Roman authorities.

These pretenders praised Jesus for things that were good and true. Teacher which was a respectable title. This is always a good way for a deceptive flatterer to begin false respect. It will cause him to remove his guard.

Teacher. We know that you speak and teach what is right. And of course again this is a good thing and it was a true statement on their part. Now whether or not they've truly believed it may be questionable.

But although this is a good thing with which to commend people it can also be used by evil men to lay a trap for them flattery. Flattery is the means by which many who have wrong desires and designs attempt to gain favor and counter resistance to them.

Flattery is praise that is insincere. They were not sincere in this generally designed to gain favor or to obtain something from someone. You get a lot of that through scams. You know email cell phone.

I have a category in my outlook scams and I've got I know dozens and dozens and dozens of emails that I get and they're getting sophisticated too. I got one the other day you know from eBay with all the logos and what.

Or no it wasn't eBay. It was PayPal. You know all the right logos and whatnot even had a PayPal. You know email note. Well we've just levied three hundred and thirty two dollars on your PayPal account.

Of course I went on my PayPal account. There was no such charge level levy. You know people are very deceptive and we have to be on our guard. And flattery is one of the means to our scam artists. Confidence men we used to call them right confidence men they flatter.

This is how they entrap people. The reason flattery is commonly successful is because it appeals to sinful the sinful proud heart who likes to be flattered and that resides in all of us as human beings.

It wasn't in the Lord Jesus so it wasn't going to get very far with him. We desire to be recognized congratulated honored for something. We are for something we do. But we're to recognize flattery and us to succumb to it.

Proverbs 20 verse 19 gives this word of instruction. Do not associate with one who flatters with his lips. And Proverbs 29 gives the warning. A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet like a net catching birds.

It was Naboth of Samaria who fell due to a form of flattery. Remember King Ahab desired to acquire the vineyard of Naboth for himself but Naboth refused to sell. Well sullen and rejected Ahab's wife Jezebel told him hey I'll secure that vineyard for you.

And so she planned a great feast to honor Naboth to which no no doubt Naboth joyfully attended. It was a setup wasn't it. And it was there in this supposed celebration of Naboth that false witnesses came forward declared that Naboth had blasphemed God and so the people in the party drug him out and of course stoned him.

Jezebel had gained his vineyard for her husband to initial flattery which masked her treachery. Flattery generally will easily and commonly trip up an undiscerning person. How we like to be flattered.

We like to be told that we're such good Christians and indeed such noble examples of what Christians should be. But flattery is a bad thing which God condemns. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things psalm 12. These enemies of our Lord use flattery to set the stage for the challenge which was to follow. But actually an enemy of the gospel can destroy us by flattery alone because flattery will lead us to exalt ourselves and that alone may will result in our fall.

An enemy of Christ could wreak a lot of havoc among the people of God simply by coming among us and telling us how good we are. For if that leads us to take our eyes off Christ and his grace that has produced any good in us we will most certainly fall pride goeth before the fall.

Now of course we do not condemn expressions of gratefulness and acknowledgments which are fitting and proper. Obviously the scriptures are filled with commendations for the faithfulness and goodness of his people.

But realize that people with wrong motives may use this means to deceive and destroy. Paul declared that the Lord's gifted men to his churches were to teach their people so that they should no longer be children tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

See the people don't recognize them overtly as false teachers. Well a second expression of flattery of these wicked devising men was their assertion teacher. We know that you say teach rightly and here it is.

And you do not show personal favoritism. This too is a good thing. The Lord could always be counted on to speak clearly and truthfully and consistently wherever he was. And it would be good if all of us had this trait.

Perhaps here are some of us I suspect who can agree with anybody on anything at any time in any place and never have any qualms about it. Some Christians are just too compliant with what goes on around them.

I wonder. I wonder whether or not some people do not slip into their Christian language to me because they recognize me as a pastor. I know that happens and they speak to me in an entirely different manner than then they thought.

If then if they thought otherwise and I can I could recount some specific experiences numerous occasions over the years the immediate change in the nature and content of conversation when they learn I'm a pastor.

It's amazing the transformation of subject vocabulary tone of words that occurs in a moment's time. And I've even had people Christians I can remember professing Christian who was talking to me with Christian talk pastor talk.

And somehow we got off on time. I think it was talking about either the fights or baseball and he forgot he was talking to the pastor and he launched off into this language that was really really perverse.

And then it and then he remembered who he was talking to and was felt utterly ashamed clearly his normal way of speaking was masked while he was talking to me. But then it came out Jesus spoke the truth to whomever was before him.

He was night like some who seek to appease or please in order to gain followers for themselves. The Apostle Paul would later be characterized in the same way that he showed no favoritism towards some people rather than to others.

And so Paul wrote the following of his own ministry. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame not walking in craftiness or handling the Word of God deceitfully. There are people that can handle the Word of God deceitfully to take advantage of people but by manifestation manifestation of the truth commanding ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God we should all purpose not to show partiality to persons but be true to everybody about the fact that we are Christians that Christ is our Lord and that we're purposing to order our lives according to God's law.

Again this is a good thing they commended Jesus for. But these men who came to Jesus did so with false motives. And here's another pertinent point in these days for the last 40 years or so 50 years perhaps there's a significant segment of our evangelical church leaders who've embraced a ministry which advocates that church leaders must do exactly what these deceptive men were doing before Jesus.

What do I mean by that. Well they advocate that to be a successful pastor in today's culture you must show partiality to the people you're teaching. You're to identify what the people are looking for and desire to hear.

And then you were to shape the content and deliver your teaching accordingly Joel Osteen for example in this way you will influence them to good ends. This is the false philosophy of ministry. This seems to me to be disingenuous patronizing and manipulative.

The marketing of Christianity has come to age and just as commercial marketers know how to package and offer product so they can hardly resist. So you can hardly resist buying it. So church practitioners now have a Christian message which appeals to virtually anyone and everyone.

But it's generally a message with no cross no self-denial no repentance from sin no obedience to Christ the Lord. Beware and be attentive to what you read and what you hear. Beware of people who tell you what you want to hear.

And you know we've always said you know hopefully we have the attitude and desire you know pastor don't tell me what I want to hear. Tell me what I need to hear. Those oftentimes are two different things.

The warning of 2nd Peter 2 is a good warning. For today there will be false prophets among the people even as there were that that is that is a written wrong. It should say there were no this is right.

There were also false among the people that's the Old Testament Israel. Even as there will be false teachers among you that's in the churches who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves with destruction.

And then verse 2 many will follow their destructive ways. Many in the churches will be deceived by these false teachers because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed by covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words.

He's talking about people in the leaders in the church who manipulate control people. But they their motivations wrong. They're not honest for a long time their judgments not been idle. Their destruction does not slumber.

Paul wrote of the honesty with which he came to the scriptures in order to expound them to the people. We have renounced the hidden things of shame not walking and crafting and handling the Word of God deceitfully picking and choosing what we think the people will want to hear and receive.

But avoiding those things that we know will cause a reaction and rejection. That kind of thing he said I didn't do that but by manifestation of the truth commanding ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

You know Lord give us the truth and nothing but the truth whether we like it or not. Lord reveal your word to us. And then a third commendation of these men what they said to Jesus is recorded. Teacher we know that you say and teach rightly.

You do not show personal favoritism but teach the way of God in truth. Flattery. These again were insincere and treacherous men as one wrote everything said by them of Jesus in this hypocritical flattering manner was true.