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Sermon Notes: http://notes.cornerstonesj.org
Offense Defense
our retreat, and we heard some awesome teaching, truth of Scripture, and good fellowship, and lots of good food, right?
Good food. Yeah. And then I guess the women, you had your covered dish then
Sunday afternoon. I haven't heard how that went, but it's awesome to get back together with the
Saints and to be in fellowship. I'm going to have us this morning turn to Psalm 34, verses 1 to 3, as we settle our hearts down and as we focus on the
Lord. Psalm 34, beginning at verse 1, I will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth. We are, we are changed at the point of salvation.
As many as receive him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, and Corinthians tells us that we are a new creation.
Old things are passed away. We have a relationship with God that the world cannot understand.
In fact, I think, Jeff, you're going to be talking about the difference between how believers perceive reality and we know reality, and it says that my praise shall continually be on my lips.
His, my praise to the Lord. That's who we are seven days a week. While we're here this morning, while we're here in fellowship, it's a special time, and I pray that our hearts would be there.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord. There are, there are things that God has done in our lives, and there are things that he equips us, and it's good to celebrate those things that God gives us the opportunity to do, but our boast, our boast is in the
Lord, because everything that we do is for him and from him. The humble hear it and rejoice.
Let us magnify the Lord. Let us exalt his name together.
Let's bow our head for a moment and turn our hearts to the Lord. I will bless the
Lord at all times. Father, I pray my heart to be stilled from the things of the day and the week, turning my heart to you.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together in all things this morning, in our time of worship, and in song, in hearing the testimonies of your goodness, and in hearing the word as Pastor Jeff preaches us.
Let us exalt his name together. Amen. On the side over here, this, this pile just keeps growing of boxes.
God has really, really done a work here. I heard a count, and after I heard the count,
I saw more boxes. The count I heard was over 360 boxes, and I think that pile just keeps growing.
So let's praise God, and we're going to praise over this in a minute, but let's praise God, and I don't often do this because I think it's not right to necessarily give praise to individuals, but we should recognize,
I think, the amazing work that Cornelia has done in encouraging us, so praising
God for that. I want you to check your schedules this week.
Our normal week is maybe going to be modified. Thanksgiving is this week a great opportunity to have our hearts focused on God, but I'm going to bet that if it was a scheduled week for the
Meijer Care Group on Thursday, they're probably not meeting on Thursday with Thanksgiving. I only say check with your group leaders for the
Women's Studies, the Men's Studies, the small groups, just to make sure that what you think is going on is actually going on this week, but I will say that prayer will be tonight at 6 o 'clock.
Come out and join us 6 o 'clock for a time of prayer, and I will say that the Isaiah study will be on Wednesday at noon, so go ahead and come for this, and Kimberly has put together a special ministry on Thursday.
I think she's having a lunch, a dinner, for those who maybe don't have anywhere else to go, so I believe it's noon here at the church, and so all are invited.
I think letting her know how many are coming would be good, but all are invited. As you came in, down into the hall on your right -hand side, as you leave on your left -hand side, at the end of the hall there's a bulletin board, and it has been populated with some very current and recent and relevant information on our missionaries.
If you want to know who our missionaries are, you want to know what's going on, that board is now updated.
Louise Reynolds has taken on the challenge and is communicating with our missionaries, bringing us the information so that we know who they are, what the prayer requests are.
She'll actually be up here next Sunday talking about one of our missionaries, but I encourage you to go ahead and look at that board.
As she gets information, she's putting it up there. There's pictures so you can see who they are, where they're located, what's going on with their ministry, so I encourage you on that.
They're not standing up here yet because, I guess, first service they said that was too long of a period of time to stand, but we got a youth movement going on.
We have a lot of younger people being part of our worship team. That's exciting, and it's exciting to see their hearts willing to stand up to be part of it.
Now let's turn our hearts to the Lord. Dear Father, we're going to be understanding, perceiving, and thinking about the plight of the unborn in danger from the wickedness and the evil that our country and our culture is bringing forth.
We pray for these unborn because they are wonderfully and beautifully made in your image. We pray that they would experience the joy of birth and of being held by their mother and by their father and the joy eventually of turning to you in faith.
But for now, Lord, there is a risk, and so we pray for the Love Life ministry.
We pray for the Options ministry, which we'll hear about this morning. These opportunities to speak truth into the lives of these women and men who are about to make a decision.
We pray, Lord, for their hearts to be turned to you. We pray for these unborn.
Father, we do pray for those in our fellowship in time of physical need. Specifically, this morning we do pray for Loretta as she continues through treatments for the cancer.
We pray, Lord, that your hand as a great physician would heal her body. And for those who are still in consolation having lost loved ones, we know,
Lord, that these individuals are at home in glory with the Lord, but we do suffer the loss.
Be with them as the direct comfort into their hearts. Lord, for our hearts,
I seek that we would be reliant on you, hopeful in you, thankful for all that you've given to us, fully surrendered to you, to the blood on the cross, to your grace.
Lord, as Pastor Jeff will be coming to us and speaking to us about truths that are distorted, we pray,
Lord, that you would touch his heart and that you would open the eyes of our hearts to this message.
We pray in Jesus' name. We have a guest visitor with us this morning,
Chuck Swanson. He's with Options Pregnancy Center. As you came in, you may have noticed a big truck in the opening of our, you go, what?
Well, what this is, is an opportunity, it's a ministry that Chuck and individuals with him have down here in South Jersey.
It's called Options Pregnancy Center. It's ministering to those unborn children. It's ministering to those women who are trying to decide and giving them the truth so that their decision would be honoring to God.
Chuck was a pastor for many years, stepped down briefly, but now I understand you're back pastoring a church down the shore.
He had a career in pharmaceuticals and he's been with Options Pregnancy Center for two and a half years.
Chuck, it is an honor to have you with us. Please come share with us. Thanks.
Good morning. How are you? I'm so grateful to be in a pro -life church this morning.
You are one and I'm so grateful. I really appreciate your pastor's leadership in the pro -life arena.
So many things going on and we need to be bold for the Lord and you are doing that and I'm so grateful.
It's great to see so many. I've seen a number of old friends this morning. Hello. I attended fellowship for a long time and I'm seeing a lot of friends from fellowship today.
I'm a member of an eFree Church like you are here. I go to Joy Community Fellowship in Haddon Heights and I know my pastor and Jeff have some fellowship together.
So I'm grateful for your allowing us to be here. Thank you for letting us park the mobile unit out in the parking lot this morning.
Please take a moment to go through it on your way out. You'll see it's a reason for rejoicing and show gratitude to the
Lord for that. So let me just share. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Options for Women.
We have offices in Cherry Hill, which is our primary location, and in Trenton now, which is very exciting.
And just recently we've taken over the Hope Pregnancy Centers of Ocean City and North Cape May.
So we have a very very busy, vibrant ministry. So far this year we have received 3 ,000 calls for help from men and women who are struggling with making a choice about the pregnancy that they're experiencing.
So we hope to have a great impact with them. Just to give you a little history, the ministry started actually in 1985.
It was the outgrowth of a church in Audubon that prayed about having some impact in what was beginning to happen with Roe v.
Wade, and they decided to open a pregnancy center in Haddon Heights. We moved to Audubon after a few years, and then in 2003 we moved to Cherry Hill for two reasons.
One was to be more centrally located, where people could get to us a little bit more easily, have transportation and so on, but also to be near what's called the
Cherry Hill Women's Center. Many of you go there and pray. I understand it is just three blocks away from our office.
It is an abortion center in the heart of Cherry Hill where they do 10 ,000 abortions a year.
That's just about two or three miles from here, friends. So we wanted to have a presence.
We wanted to be in the neighborhood, and so Options has had our presence there since 2003.
And now we are four centers instead of just one, and God is using all kinds of things to bless the ministry.
I have to tell you, it's the support of churches like you that makes our ministry possible, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here and share the ministry.
We're busy meeting clients, and we're working to help them to make a choice for life. As you know, it's so easy to make the opposite choice, just to, as they say, to terminate the life of the child, to be rid of the problem.
But God has given us an opportunity to meet literally thousands of moms every year and have influence with them and to share the truth of the gospel with them.
So we're grateful that you are willing to hear about the ministry this morning and maybe even help us in a way.
So as I said, our ministry is to help women and families to make a choice for life. It's so easy just to say, let's get rid of the baby.
But we know that for many, the circumstances of life drive them to think about using that option.
Maybe they have lifestyle choices that they have to consider. Maybe finances are a problem.
Maybe family or partner pressures are pushing them toward having an abortion.
Well, options will stand in the gap and try to take the crisis out of the crisis pregnancy so that women and their partners can make a choice to keep a baby, to give it an opportunity for life, to understand the value that they and the baby have before an almighty
God. So we provide things like pregnancy testing, Bible -based counseling, and one of the people in our earlier services has been
Patty Klepacki, has been a counselor in our counselor rooms, face -to -face with our clients for years, ministering to them, sharing the hope of the gospel with each and every one of our clients that comes in.
So we do Bible -based counseling. We provide ultrasounds. And by the way, once a new mom sees that ultrasound, 95 % of our clients decide to keep their babies.
So praise God for that. Beyond that, we provide for their physical needs.
If they need housing, we can find housing. If they're food insecure, we can do that. If they just need educational opportunities, things to help them to grow as individuals, we can help them.
We'll help them to understand things like breastfeeding, what it means to be a mom or a dad because so many of them have such poor role models, and maybe help them understand what the process of birth is going to be like as well.
But all in all, we know that Scripture tells us, really screams out, that we are made in the image of God.
We are made in His image, and He knows us even before we are created in our mother's womb.
And so we want to give every baby the chance for life. But at the same time, help the mom to understand the value that God has for her, and for her life, and for her eternity.
So we're hoping that our ministry has that effect. As John shared this morning, you probably saw as you drove in this morning, we have our brand new mobile unit that's standing ready to serve.
We're just waiting for a couple of pieces to fall into place, and then we will have that mobile unit out on the road through Central and Southern New Jersey, everywhere from New Brunswick all the way down to Cape May, ministering to women, going where they are so that they can see the hope of the gospel, and have some of their actual needs taken care of.
So we want to help you to see how that will help them. You just please take a minute and stop in, take a quick look through there.
But I have to ask you something this morning. We don't charge our clients a penny for what we do.
Since 1985 when we began, no one has ever gotten a bill for the services that we provide.
We've never taken an insurance card. We've never asked the government for money. So everything that we do is dependent on those people like you and others in churches around South Jersey that understand the value of helping women find their way in this world, and to hear the hope of the gospel.
So this morning, I'm going to ask for your help. I have my hat in my hand, and I would just hope that you would consider helping us.
On your way out this morning, we have baby bottles and envelopes by the front door.
Would you take one of those with you? Take a baby bottle, fill it with your spare change, and then bring it back here over the next few weeks so that we can provide for our moms.
We can help them find the hope of the gospel. Or maybe take an envelope in which you could just insert a little, you know, something, a paper, and send that back to our office.
It'll support our ministry. We would really appreciate your support and help. We know that God is in this.
But please, please pray about how God would would use you to help us to save lives as we are out in the world.
We know that there are women and families that are really struggling, but every gift helps us to provide not only the hope of help, but the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we are prayerful about your support this morning. Just hope that you can help us in any way that you can.
Thanks for inviting me, Pastor Jeff and John. Just really grateful for your time this morning. Thank you.
Our Lord, we do praise you and thank you for men like Chuck who are standing in the gap, for these unborn babies, wonderfully made by you, who are in danger, and for these women and for these men who are about to make terrible decisions, and men like Chuck and this
Options Pregnancy Center, standing in the gap. We pray, Lord, that you would empower them, that your love would be shining on to these people.
Father, we thank you for the message of hope that they give. We thank you for the spiritual guidance they give and for the practical, physical support that they give to them.
Lord, I pray that we would be responding in prayer and we were responding even financially, supporting them according to your lead.
We lift this ministry to you, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. I'm going to, thank you, sir.
Thank you. Pastor Jeff, if you would come over to me by these boxes. So we're going to pray for the boxes?
I'm going to sprinkle them with holy water. We're going to pray for the kids that are going to receive these boxes.
So, Father God, we thank you so much for what you've done here at this church with these almost 400 boxes that are going to go to the ends of the earth.
We pray for the children that receive these boxes, that their hearts would be lit up with joy. Lord God, that they would know that they are loved, and Lord, that they would experience your love through this gift.
Most of all, Lord, we pray that the gospel would go deep into the hearts of these children, that they would know
Christ, and how he died for them, and rose from the dead, that they would believe and be saved.
We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Praise the
Father, praise the Son, praise the
Spirit, three in one. God of glory, majesty, praise the
Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one. Praise forever to the King of kings.
To reveal the kingdom coming, and to reconcile the lost.
To redeem the whole creation, you did not despise the cross.
For even in your suffering, you fought to the other side.
Knowing this was our salvation, Jesus, for our sake you died.
Praise the Father, praise the
Son, praise the Spirit, three in one.
God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the
King of kings. And the morning that you rose, all of heaven held its breath.
Till that stone was moved for good, for the Lamb had conquered death.
And the dead rose from their tombs, and the angels stood in awe.
For the souls of all who'd come to the Father are restored.
And the Church of Christ was born, then the Spirit lit the flame.
Now this gospel truth of old shall not kneel, shall not faint.
By His blood and in His name, in His freedom
I am free. For the love of Jesus Christ, who has resurrected me.
King of kings. Praise forever to the
King of kings. Lord, we come before you this morning knowing that you are our
Lord and our King. The Lord of lords and the King of kings. We stand before you now,
Lord Jesus, humbly before your throne. Giving thanks to you in every circumstance, in everything that we do.
We are so thankful. Give thanks to the
Lord, our God and King. His love endures forever.
For He is good and He is above all things. His love endures forever.
Sing praise, sing praise.
His love endures forever. For the life that's been reborn.
His love endures forever. Sing praise, sing praise.
Forever God is faithful with us.
To the Son, His love endures forever.
And by the grace of God, we will carry on.
Forever God is faithful. For He is strong, strong forever.
Upon this season of Thanksgiving and as believers we know that every blessing that God has given us.
But especially in this time, it's amazing that we have such a different perspective on thankfulness.
It's not just family which is good. It's not just so thankful.
Salvation in Jesus. The only thing that we can do in response.
We're made to be worshippers. By singing praises to Him, we prove that our heart is overflowing with joy.
That God has provided a way for us. Let's sing together.
What can I do but praise you? When I see the beauty of a sunset's glory.
Amazing artistry across the evening sky.
When I feel the mystery of a distant galaxy.
It awes and humbles me to be loved by a
God so high. What can I do but thank you?
What can I do but give my life to you? Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. What can I do?
Every day make everything I do. Hallelujah.
Can I hear the story of a God of mercy?
Who shared humanity and suffered by our side.
Of a cross they nailed you to that could not hold you.
Now you're making all things new. By the power of your risen life.
What can I do but thank you? What can I do but give my life to you?
Hallelujah. What can
I do? Every day make everything I do. Hallelujah.
We are so thankful Lord Jesus. Let's sing that again.
What can I do? What can I do but thank you?
Hallelujah. What can I do but praise you?
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let's sing together one more time.
What can I do? Prayerfully in your heart. What can I do but thank you?
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Through our mothers,
Lord born into this world, every breath we take is a gift from you and we thank you.
We thank you especially for Christ Jesus, your son, who died the death that we deserve and rose on the third day.
And through faith now we have been given life, eternal life, to live forever with you.
Thank you, God. What can we do but say thank you? Lord, we pray that you would take our lives and use them for your glory.
Lord, we pray that this morning we would become more and more like your son. As we open this book and read about Jesus Christ, we pray that as we see him and behold his glory, we would become like him.
Sanctify us by this truth. Your word is truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In 2002, on the
Senate floor of the state of Illinois, a bill was brought which would protect the lives of babies born that survive an attempted abortion that failed.
And so the idea is the baby has survived the attempted abortion and now is alive there on the table.
And the Born Alive Act would ensure that the doctors would do anything possible to rescue that baby from death.
After all, the child is alive. But in 2002, on that Senate floor in Illinois, the
Senator stood up and argued against the
Born Alive Bill, saying in his exact words, an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion.
So the Senator argues that the baby should be left to die. In the days of the
Holocaust, in World War II, there was a pastor named Helmut Helich who stood against the horrors of what was happening.
He said once a man ceases to recognize the infinite value of the human soul, referring to the fact that all people are made in the image of God and therefore have dignity, they're human, they're made in the image of God.
He says then all he can recognize is that man is something to be used.
But then he will also have to go further and recognize that some men can no longer be utilized.
And he arrives at the concept that there are some lives that have no value at all. That explains the
Holocaust, not only of Jewish people in Germany, but of babies in the womb in this country.
Now such a monstrous view, as the Senator held in Illinois, is something frightening to behold that anybody would think like that.
But what's scarier still is that this culture of death, that someone with that kind of mindset, that a baby should be left to die, that this culture would turn and elect that then -Senator of Illinois to be the
President of the United States. His name was Barack Obama. A culture of death is interested in depopulation, sterilization, mutilation.
A culture of death in America today is not unlike what we saw in the first century, the
Roman Empire. The Greeks and the Romans, they believed not only in abortion but in infanticide, the killing of infants that were not useful to the empire.
The Church, of course, stood against these things with vigor because there are two competing worldviews, a culture of death and a culture of life.
And we Christians have a message of life, that every life ought to be protected because made in the image of God.
And moreover, Christ is the life, the way, the truth, and the life, the resurrection and the life, and he gives to those who believe in him the gift of eternal life.
We believe in Christ and so we believe in life. In the first century, Christians believed in life.
And in the second century, they wrote a document called the Didache. Anybody heard of the Didache? It's called the teaching.
It was an early Christian writing that taught on Christian ethics. Quoting from the
Didache, they write, Do not murder. Do not commit adultery.
Do not corrupt boys. And in our culture, the same issue as in the
Roman Empire has come about, the corruption of boys. Do not fornicate.
Do not steal. Do not practice magic. Do not go in for sorcery. Do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant.
In the culture of death in which we live, a prominent nuclear physicist named
Winston Duke recently said, A philosophy of reason will define a human being as life which demonstrates self -awareness, volition, and rationality.
Thus, it should be recognized that not all men are human. It would seem to be more inhumane to kill an adult chimpanzee than a newborn baby, since the chimpanzee has a greater mental awareness.
Church, do you realize that we are up against a culture of death?
From abortion to the rampant practice of homosexuality and promotion of homosexuality, which is absolutely contra -life.
By definition, homosexual couples cannot what? Procreate.
Reproduce. All the way to the moment of death, where now the culture of death is advocating for euthanasia.
At the end of life. The culture of death runs squarely up against the message of life.
See, there are two different worlds, and in the Didache, it was called the path of life and the path of death.
The way of life versus the way of death. And these two forces are in opposition to one another.
We defend life with vigor. As they seek to destroy life.
But they are not content to remain outside the walls of the church. In fact, the offensive of the culture of death seeks to infiltrate churches to move us off the mark.
For we have made a stand and said, it is an absolute, absolute no -go in the killing of babies.
We will never accept it. We will always stand against it. And we will always vote against any politician who advocates for the killing of babies, no matter what.
And so what the left has done is that they've sought to infiltrate churches to move us off that mark.
Barack Obama had a faith advisor in 2012 whose name was Michael Ware. Michael Ware advised him in how to reach evangelicals to get us to be less dogmatic about this point.
And so they began to push a narrative through what they called the AND campaign, which was founded by Michael Ware and Justin Gibney, who writes for the
Gospel Coalition. Justin Gibney saying that if we do not accept social justice, then we, evangelical
Christians, are the heterodox ones. We've rejected orthodoxy, he says.
You see, the strategy of the left is to infiltrate evangelical churches by elevating this concern for, quote -unquote, social justice in order to move us off the mark in protecting life.
It's not just the AND campaign. They formed a research group called
Docent Research. And Tim Keller advocates for this group. One of the things that Docent Research does is seeks to write the sermons behind the scenes for prominent pastors.
But Michael Ware is behind the Docent group as well because Joy Harris, who works for Michael Ware, is also part of the
Docent Research group. And they have been behind the scenes writing the sermons for the president of the
Southern Baptist Convention, whose name is Ed Litton. Recently discovered for plagiarism, but what was worse than the plagiarism is the content of what he was plagiarizing, the social justice rhetoric which is being inserted into the evangelical church.
The left is on offense. And sadly, although we are on defense and we stand against these things, often we do not fight with the vigor that is necessary for a war.
Do you realize, Christian, that you are in a truth war? Which requires a wartime footing.
Requires a sword. And that sword is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Matthew 22.
Today we won't spend as much time verse by verse as we normally do. We're going to plow through the entire chapter just hearing what
Jesus did. Because we're trying to see the grand scope of the war that he's in.
Began last week as we studied Matthew 21. And we made application to mandates that the government seeks to issue over the people.
But just as Jesus went into the temple and cleared the temple, claiming ownership of the temple, so he owns every individual body on earth.
All authority has been given to him. And he claims right over our individual bodies, which we then steward for him, and no one has the right to come into the temple of God, which belongs to Jesus, and mandate that we inject anything into our bodies.
Talked about that last week. We move into 22, and we see that the struggle between Jesus and the
Pharisees and Sadducees on the other side of the truth war is a battle.
And it's intense. And Jesus is not the gentle Jesus, meek and mild, that we see pictured in the
Renaissance paintings of him, where he's depicted with a very soft face, and he's always holding a lamb, and he's always so gentle.
Yes, he's gentle towards the repentant sinner. He will forgive any sin, even the sin of abortion, and other forms of murder, and slander, and gossip, and sexual immorality.
He is gentle towards the wounded, and the smoldering wick he does not snuff out. The repentant one who comes in faith will find him to be meek and merciful, a high priest that understands and sympathizes with our weakness, and he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But the rebel sinner who opposes his throne and fights against his lordship will find him to be hard and bearing a sword.
So let's read on. He's now interacting with enemies of the cross, those from the culture of death who seek to murder.
And so we read about this. The first parable here we'll take from verses 1 to 14.
Again, Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
Again, he sent other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited. See, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered.
Everything's ready. Come to the wedding feast. So notice there it's an offer of salvation.
Come. All are welcome to come, no matter what you've done, how good, how bad you are. Come to the feast.
But the religious leaders, they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.
While the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
They killed the prophets sent to them, the culture of death. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
God's judgment that falls when it does is harsh and hard, an eternal flame. It says in verse 9,
Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.
Now this gospel is offered not just to the religious in Israel, but to the nations, to Irian Jaya, and the
Philippines, and Mexico, and the United States of America. Just go announcing this invitation. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad.
So the wedding hall was filled with guests. It's a beautiful picture of preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth.
We offer the gospel to all. It's a free offer. But when the king came in to look at the guests, notice a twist in the plot here.
He saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him,
Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Then the king said to the attendants, Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness.
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.
It's not enough to gather in the church and be ostensibly assembled with the righteous in the path of life.
For in fact, there are some who are from the path of death who are here among the assembly of the righteous.
They lack one thing, the righteousness of Christ. The wedding garment, his active and passive obedience that he earned in his righteous life and in laying down his life on the cross, his passive obedience, is imputed to those of us who have faith in him.
So every person gathered who has the new birth, who has repented of sin and believed in him, is credited with Christ's righteousness.
That's your wedding garment. And that's your ticket to remain in the assembly.
You have that, you belong. But if you're only pretending, if you're only gathering in the church, but you don't believe, you're not born again, you don't have his righteousness, you ultimately will be thrown out where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Hard words from a soft savior, but good wounds from a friend.
Notice now the interaction that we left off with last week. The Pharisees and the
Sadducees on one side, Jesus on the other. He is speaking truth, he's speaking life, but they have war in their hearts, they have death in their bones.
It says in verses 15 and following, then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.
And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully.
And you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us then what you think.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus, aware of their malice, said,
Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? So much for gentle Jesus, meek and mild.
Show me the coin for the tax, and they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this?
They said, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Therefore render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. When they heard it, they marveled, and they left him and went away.
The first thing to watch out for in this truth war are dissemblers who masquerade as righteous.
Let's call them virtue signalers. You're aware of virtue signalers, right? Think our congressman from the
Third Congressional District in New Jersey, Andy Kim. When he picked up a few pieces of trash after the so -called insurrection, he went home and paraded what a righteous man he is.
Now, mind you, Andy Kim believes in the murder of babies in the womb. Kill him, says he.
And yet after his righteous act, he donated the blue suit that he was wearing on that day to the
Smithsonian Institute to virtue signal to the world the glory that is
Andy Kim. Gag me with a spoon. The Pharisees went, it says in verse 15, and plotted how to what?
Entangle him in his words. We learn in Psalm 55, verse 21, his speech is smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart.
His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Paul warns about false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
And no wonder, for even Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.
So look at Matthew 22. How do they put on a disguise? Well, smooth words.
Look at verse 16. Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully.
Do they believe that? Not at all. And you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you're not swayed by appearances.
They notice how bold Jesus is. He tells it like it is. And so the word in the Greek there is prosypone.
You don't look on the face. You don't look at external appearances. You're very forthright with your speech.
Isaiah 11 said about the Messiah that he will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears, but in righteousness he will judge the needy and with justice give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He doesn't look at appearances. He doesn't just go by the outward show. He's looking deep into the heart.
It says in verse 17, tell us then what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
What's going on here? Are they just curious about tax situations here? Is that what they're worried about?
No, the clue to what's happening is back in verse 16. Who did they send along with their disciples?
The Herodians, it says in my Bible. And the Herodians belong to Herod, beholden to Rome.
These are Rome's representatives. These are the ones who bear the sword. And if Jesus says, no, don't pay taxes to Caesar, guess what they're about to do?
The very thing at the end of chapter 21 that the Pharisees wanted to happen, the arresting of their enemy.
They have malice in their hearts. Now, the picture we have of our position in the truth war is that we must always be very gentle, meek, and mild.
Notice Jesus' answer to their malice. Verse 18, Jesus aware of their malice said, why put me to the test?
You hypocrites. You hypocrites. Offensive language from the gentle king.
But see, the word hypocrite comes from the Greek, hypocrites. It just means an actor, a dissembler, someone who puts on a face, someone who makes an external appearance.
And so they said, we realize that you're not that. And he turns around and says, you are that. You put on a show.
You're fake. You're as fake as the day is long. You're a hypocrite. Strong language.
And sometimes in this truth war, there is a place for Christians to speak strongly against the lies that lead to death and to the weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell.
So there we see it. Let's see it again with the second group. Verses 23 to 28.
Same day. This should be interesting. Sadducees came to him who say that there is no resurrection.
And they asked him a question saying, teacher, Moses said, if a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers among us, the first married and died. And having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.
So to the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died.
In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.
What a snobby professor. I just think of my professors in college, one in particular, that just loved to cast shade on the
Bible. And here they think they've really got it. Well, if he married seven on earth, then there can't be a resurrection of the dead, because how can he have seven wives in heaven?
It just doesn't make sense. This whole book is not to be taken so literally. Here is the picture of one who rejects the authority of God's word.
And the warrior in the truth war must be willing to take up the sword and say what this culture hates to hear the most.
OK, if I as a preacher say that I believe in Jesus, and I believe he rose from the dead, and he's the way, the truth, and the life, they will applaud.
Good for you. You have your religion. And let the Muslim have his, and let me have my opinion.
Everybody gets their own opinion. But don't anybody say that you are wrong.
That's the one thing you cannot say. You are wrong would imply that there is objective truth.
No, truth is privatized to the individual. Just don't say you're wrong, and you can hold whatever view you want to hold.
The one thing you can't say is that you have not just the way, the truth, and the life, but that no one comes to the
Father but through him. So don't say you are wrong. That's just intolerant and bigoted.
OK, Jesus, did you hear that? Let's look at verse 29. But Jesus answered them, you are wrong.
Those three words couldn't be any more offensive to the culture back then, which did not have the objective standard of God any more than ours does.
They just had a pantheon of gods. Pick whichever one you want. Just don't say that yours is the only one.
Jesus said you are wrong, and why? Here's the point. Because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.
Brothers and sisters, we have one sword in this battle, and it is this book.
And what follows in Jesus's response is one of the strongest, highest articulations of the infallibility, the inerrancy, the authority of this book.
Because look what he says. In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
And as for the resurrection of the dead, OK, so he's just given new revelation. How are they to know what heaven is like?
Jesus is from there. He came down from heaven. He'll tell you what it's like. So he gives new revelation, but here's how he fights their claim.
He says, have you not read what was said to you by God?
What a statement of the authority of God's word. The graphe, what was written, have you not read what was said to you by God?
When God wrote this book and put it on a scroll, the words that are written carry the authority of God's speech to us now.
What he wrote back then is what he says to them in their hearing, the authority of God's word.
All scripture is God -breathed and is profitable for teaching and rebuking and training in righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Jesus said the scripture cannot be broken. When Jesus fought the devil in the wilderness again and again, he said, it is written.
Thus says the Lord. He holds this word beside his name, the word of God.
This book carries all authority, and this is our sword in the truth war.
Anything that I say from my own opinion is just opinion. But anything I say from this book is the very word of God.
And Jesus claimed that kind of authority in this truth war after saying, you are wrong.
And he makes a point. Back in Exodus 3, when Moses encountered God, God said,
I am the God of Abraham. In other words, not a dead man, but of the living
Abraham. And so he's not the God of the dead, but of the living. He refutes the
Sadducees, and they go away sad, you see. When the crowd heard it, sorry,
I'm going to move on from that one. When the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
Lastly, we must, in the truth war, fight those who mishandle the law of God.
Because so much of the struggle that we're in, in this culture, is a battle over ethics. Christian ethics versus unfounded, postmodern, quote unquote, ethics.
So let's read. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
Good intentions or bad intentions here? Bad intentions, same group. And forgive me, folks.
I can't help but picture Binger from the Rittenhouse trial when I hear about this lawyer.
I just picture the faux hawk and the little mustache and the wily questions and being surprised by the most ordinary things.
Oh, you had a sword, did you, Jesus, when you were arrested? Well, then you were asking to be killed because you had a sword.
So would the logic of Binger go? Anyway, this lawyer asked him a question. And he says, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
He said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. That's an amazing interaction.
Because what the lawyer thought he could do was trap Jesus with a really difficult question.
Tell us what commandment is the highest. Well, what are you going to do, put murder ahead of adultery or taking the
Lord's name in vain? And yet Jesus could synthesize the entire 39 books of the
Old Testament, choose one verse, Deuteronomy 6, 5, and say that this is the highest command, to love the
Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then go to Leviticus 19 and say that the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.
It just so happens that the two tables of the law, the first four commandments from Exodus 20 are vertical.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the next six are horizontal.
Love your neighbor as yourself. You love your neighbor, you won't commit adultery with his wife. You won't murder him.
You won't murder the baby. If you love, it's the highest and most royal law, because love summarizes the law vertically and horizontally.
So Jesus actually did that, which just blows their minds. And as we think about it, only God could have answered so well.
Beautiful answer. They were surprised. But the text doesn't end there, where we often do.
We do apologetics. We answer the critics. But rarely do we turn around and go on the offensive.
How has Jesus been dealing with these people so far? They bring him a question. He turns around and says, you hypocrite.
He becomes offensive. They try to trip him up. The Sadducees do.
He says, you are wrong, because you know not the Scripture nor the power of God. They throw a question that they think nobody could answer, and he just answers it and then says, now, while the
Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, what do you think about the
Christ, whose son is he? They said to him, son of David.
He said to them, how is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, the
Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I put your enemies under your feet.
An implicit reminder of where this war ends. If then
David calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
I love that. So he turns and uses
Psalm 110, which you all should know really well, because we just studied Hebrews. It's the thesis statement of Hebrews.
We've unpacked it thoroughly. Verse 4, we'll get to Melchizedekian priesthood. It is the statement of how the
Lord says to my Lord. So David says, Yahweh says to my Adonai, sit at my right hand.
And Jesus says, how does David call his future son his
Lord? Well, Christian, you have an easy answer to that, right? Jesus is
King of kings, Lord of lords, before David came into existence, he was at the right hand of the Father.
The world was made through him. He's always been. And yet through David's seed, he came into the world, born of a virgin, born under the law.
And so he's the descendant of David. He is the offspring of David, but he's also the root of David.
So we know the answer to that on this side of revelation from God's word, but they had no clue what that meant.
And neither does anybody else in this culture. No one else can answer that question.
So get it ready on your lips for the next time you're having a conversation about these kinds of things.
You see at the end of this passage that Jesus has refuted his enemies.
He's won the truth war. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
And so we leave this passage this morning better equipped to fight the way he did.
Christian, don't always assume a defensive posture. There are times to go forth aggressively, even if it means you offend everyone.
Are you afraid of man? Are you worried about how people will regard you if you tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Christians, we need to get over our fear of man. Don't be worried about offending people because they will be offended.
It's not you that offends them. It's the Christ for whom we stand. And this sword that we have is to be used.
And so as we go today, how do we go on offense? We don't need to take up a sword, but what did
Jesus say to Peter in the garden? By the way, he was packing, wasn't he? Peter had a sword, but Jesus said, no, sheathe that sword.
He sent him out to preach to the ends of the earth. When you leave this place, realize that you are in a truth war.
Go on offense. They're after our children. They like to corrupt boys, as the
Didache warns about. They're after our children. I'll tell you what
I'm going to do. I just joined the YMCA. And as I was signing up, the
Muslim lady asked me a question, what do you do for a living? I'm a pastor. Oh, really?
Why are you a pastor? Let me tell you about that. And right away, I'm sharing the gospel with her and she's interested and engaged.
I'm going to give her Faith is Not Blind, my book about how to come to faith. I'm going to leave one on the table there because they have a table book and I saw the shack is sitting there.
So if that nonsense is going to sit on the table, I'm going to put my books there. My goal is that in the next year, that whole gym is going to hear about Jesus.
And I would encourage you to join the YMCA on Centerton Road and you can join me in this mission.
It's actually quite a bit cheaper than some other gyms of similar equipment. So things of that nature, we go on offense.
Let me close. Consider these words.
And this morning, we were talking and hearing about pro -life, the work to rescue babies.
We need to defend the lives of the innocent. Who said these words? See if you can mark the author before I tell you.
Never, never will we desist till we extinguish every trace of this bloody traffic of which our posterity, looking back to the history from those enlightened times, will scarce believe that it had been suffered to exist so long.
A disgrace and dishonor to this country. Sounds like a warrior like Chuck in the fight against abortion.
But it's not. These words are from William Wilberforce and he was referring to slavery.
A few hundred years later, we look back and we think how did the Christians of that day tolerate slavery?
And William Wilberforce said, we will not tolerate it, and we tolerate it, we will fight it until it's extinguished, every trace of this bloody sacrifice.
So it is in the war for life. Defending the life of the innocent so that generations that follow ours, should the
Lord tarry, will know that we fought. We defended life.
Not only that, we went and won the hearts of men and women at the gyms and at the workplaces and in the schools, in our neighborhoods, knocking on doors or just walking the dogs so you have a chance to talk to somebody in the neighborhood.
Going out on offense the way Jesus was. And when we get into a truth war and we have to defend the truth, we are willing to say, hypocrite, call it for what it is, you are wrong.
And uphold this book without apology, in Jesus' name, amen. Let's pray.
Awesome. So Father God, we thank you for your word. It is truth. We pray Lord that you would remove from us any fear of man.
That we would not be worried about offending. But rather our concern would be with pleasing you.
God, lift from our shoulders the desire to be liked by everyone. Because you promised us that in this world we will be hated.
And if they hated you, they will hate us for your sake. So let us not fear man.
Let us go forth boldly on offense, carrying the sword of the spirit. Strengthen us for this work.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's sing. Our father everlasting, the all -creating one,
God almighty. Through your
Holy Spirit, conceiving Christ the
Son, Jesus our Savior. I believe in God the
Father. I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the
Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again.
For I believe in the name of Jesus. Our judge and our defender, suffered and crucified.
Forgiveness is in you. Descended into darkness, you rose in glorious light.
Forever seated high. I believe in God the
For I believe in the name of Jesus. I believe.
I believe in you.
I believe you rose again.
I believe that Jesus Christ is
Lord. I believe in God the
For I believe in the name of Jesus. I believe in life eternal.
I believe in the virgin birth. I believe in the saints communion and in your holy church.
I believe in the resurrection when Jesus comes again.
For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus.
And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Amen.
As you go in peace, we thank God for these gifts. Let's keep being the kind of church that just gives and gives and gives.
Grab one of those baby bottles. Fill it with change. Throw in some bills if you like.
Send a check. Support options. Okay? And before you leave, at least peek into that ultrasound unit out there in the parking lot.
It is an amazing thing. What a tool to think that when these kids in the womb are seen by their mothers, the mother will not do the unthinkable.