July 3, 2018 Show with Marcus A. McKnight III, Esq. on “Why the Pharisees Hated Jesus Christ”

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one

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Our host, Chris Arnson.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the

planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this third day

of July 2018, and I'm so delighted to have back in the

studio a dear friend of mine who's also not only a brother in Christ but my

attorney here locally in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

I'm speaking of none other than Marcus A. McKnight III, attorney at law,

known commonly to his friends around here as Mike McKnight, which is why he asked me to call him Marcus,

and he is the majority

shareholder of the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, law firm of Irwin and McKnight PC.

He is the recipient of an undergraduate degree in 1974 from Drew University of

Madison, New Jersey, cum laude with specialized honors in economics

and a jurist doctor in 1977 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Cumberland County Bar Association.

He's an active member in the Carlisle Rotary Club, past president of both the Cumberland County Bar

Association and Carlisle Rotary Club, member of the West Shore Evangelical Free Church in

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, a function speaker for the Christian Businessmen's Connection,

which is known as CBMC.

He's also a former elder of the church where I am currently a member, Grace Baptist Church of Carlisle,

Pennsylvania.

And today we are addressing the theme, Why the Pharisees Hated Jesus Christ, and it's my honor and

privilege to welcome you back into the studio of Iron Trump and Zion Radio,.

Marcus Mike McKnight.

It's my pleasure to be here, and the topic sounds harsh, it's not meant to be, but it's

reality and we'll talk about it.

Great.

If anybody would like to join us on the air with.

A question of your own, our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

Please give us your first name, at least your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside

the USA.

Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

Before we go into the subject at hand, Mike, why don't you let our listeners know something

more about your law firm if they have not heard you as a guest on this program before.

I want you to let them know exactly what it is your law firm does, because there are obviously

different kinds of law firms that.

Specialize in different things, so if you could let us know.

Well, we have a broad practice.

We are basically problem solvers, and the problems we seek to solve

involve estate work.

We handle a number of estates.

We do estate planning.

I think if I think of my work today, I did some estate planning, talked about

some issues involving family issues, so family law is part of what we do.

I'm also a solicitor for some townships in a borough.

My son helps out with that work.

I'm also a solicitor for the Council of Governments, the Western Council of Governments here in this county.

A number of governments have gotten together, and I really appreciate intercooperation between governments and different

people, groups.

It's important to me that we do our best to make the best advantage of time by

cooperating with each other as we can and making the work light

for issues that are sometimes troublesome but can be usually resolved if, one, it's

blessed by the Lord in what you're doing.

And quite frankly, I've been with a firm.

I was hired in 1977, so I've been with a firm.

This is my 41st year with the firm, and it's been a real pleasure, and the Lord

has helped whatever we've done that's blessed people.

It's been the Lord's help in doing it.

Well, praise God.

And it must be a challenge very often to be

an attorney and be a Christian, and can you let our

listeners know, because I'm sure a lot of folks are curious, how one maintains

a commitment to the faith and a commitment to integrity

in the midst of being a part of a career that many people,

unfortunately, view with great suspicion, as I'm sure you already know full well.

Well, the challenge, of course, is to maintain what you believe and what your faith

requires of you on a consistent basis, and I've found

that the greatest blessing comes when you tell the truth under difficult circumstances.

And this past Sunday, I spoke in a small church on

the international lesson that dealt with forgiveness, and the issue there was, how often do I accept

forgiveness, or do I offer forgiveness for somebody who's wronged me?

And Peter thought he was being wise by going at seven times, but the

Lord said, no, no, 490 times is required, or seven times 70.

And the point is that when you are confessional in terms of when you've

harmed someone or done something wrong, in our current society, it is so rare to hear someone say, you

know, I blew it, I could have done a better job, or I've offended you, I am sorry, would you please

forgive me?

Those last words you rarely hear.

You rarely hear someone say, please forgive me in a public setting or in a private setting, and

it's something our society could be greatly blessed.

By in these difficult times.

Amen.

Just because of the fact that this will be in the minds of folks, I want to kind of get this put

aside so we can get to the heart of our discussion today.

But a lot of people in conversation when you're having fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ,

especially if they are involved in some kind of legal problem, a lawsuit, some

Christians take the position that you must never ever sue a brother or sister in

Christ.

Others believe that there are certain circumstances where this is acceptable.

Some would say that it is acceptable after you've exhausted every other resource by going through

the leaders of the church, the elders of perhaps both parties or multiple parties,.

But what is your response to that kind of a thing?

Well, I think Christ was absolutely correct when he said that it's

wise not to get the law involved in

solving problems when you can solve it by being generous yourself to the other side.

So, turning the other cheek is the fundamental situation and saying, look, how

important is this really?

But there are cases in which there's life or liberty involved in which you

have to take a stand or you have to take a position which you know is right,

and often I use things like mediation to get people together who are

far apart.

I've been very pleased and very successful with mediations now through my career and I'm doing that

more and more.

Sometimes you have to file a notice of a suit.

It's not really a lawsuit until you file a complaint, but the preliminary in Pennsylvania is you can file a notice of a

suit to let people know there's a claim out there so that you don't run afoul of time

issues and those you can work on to resolve before you actually have to accuse someone

of wrongdoing.

So, there are various ways that you can do things short of taking someone before a fact finder

and demanding a result.

But, for example, custody cases are always, I call them the most difficult cases I deal with

where you're dealing with children and how much time each parent spends with them.

In our current age, they can be some of the most difficult and heart -wrenching

and bitter confrontations you have, but the Lord is helpful in trying to give us

the wisdom to provide the information needed for many people to resolve these things.

Yes, and of course a blanket rule that you can never sue a brother or sister

in Christ can be a lot more problematic than it sounds because you

have multitudes of people who are not really your brothers and sisters in Christ who are claiming to be.

And labels are easily bandied around out in this society, but again you do it carefully and you do it only

after you've used every other avenue you can think of to resolve the matter.

Great.

Well, we have an issue today, a very fascinating and crucial issue

in regard to the biblical account of why Jesus Christ

eventually was nailed to a cross and perished on

Golgotha, also known as Calvary, and he did so to

bring praise, honor, and glory to the Father and to redeem his people from their

sins and to unite a righteous God with

wicked men.

And he did so perfectly, and he did so not only at the orchestration of his own

father, but he did so willingly, he voluntarily laid down his life.

No man or men on the face of the earth were able to change the fate of Jesus

Christ.

They did not have the power of his life and death in their hands as they assumed.

But at the same time, God used and uses wicked

men very often to bring about his purposes, and some of these wicked men

that he used were the Pharisees, the leaders of the people of Israel, the

very people from whom Jesus came, and their hatred for

him is a crucial part of the story.

And basically, let me ask you the very theme of our program today, which is in the

form of a question, why did the Pharisees hate Jesus Christ?

And perhaps you could even start, who were the Pharisees?

For our listeners who might be new.

Believers, or they may not even be Christians at all.

Well, the Pharisees were those given authority over the temple worship,

along with the scribes.

They were the ones who, in a sense, made

practical doctrine, laws that the people had to follow.

And at the time of Jesus, not only was there one government in the Roman world, but the

Pharisees were at the height of their power in the sense that they were making rules by which the people had

to live, and they had to sort of earn their righteousness.

And if they didn't follow the rules of the Pharisees, they were considered unworthy of

being followers of true Jews who were following God's purposes.

So it was a very works -oriented structure that they had

built.

And the heart of the matter is that when Christ came, from the beginning, the

Pharisees had no reason or no use to

look for him, honor him, or do anything with him, because they did not need a Savior.

They were the powers that be, and quite frankly, in our day and age, we would call them powers,

people who had acquired power, and their whole concept was, how do we retain it throughout

the ages?

Because for the good of the Jewish people, they felt they were the end -all

of religious practice in that nation and for Jews throughout the world, and that's what they.

Expected to maintain.

Now, of course, when you say that they did not need a Savior, you are saying,.

In their minds.

In their minds, and I wanted to really start there with the whole concept

of the Messiah was born, and they were told that he had been born,

and they showed no interest, and you find that in the Gospel of Matthew.

Can I go there at this point?

Is that all right?

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Okay.

In the Gospel of Matthew, it's well known, of course, that from the east, there was a group

of men who were called Magi, or wise men, and they arrived, I think, with great fanfare in

Jerusalem.

Now, it says in Matthew 2, verse 1, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of

Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,

saying, Where is he who has been born, king of the Jews?

For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him.

So they didn't come to Jerusalem and say, Has he been born yet?

They came saying, This Messiah has been born.

Where was he born?

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, and assembling all the chief priests and

the scribes of the people, he inquired of them, Where was Christ to be born?

And they told him, In Bethlehem of Judea.

And so it's written, and of course it says, And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, are by no means least among

the rulers of Judah.

From you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

So they correctly said, The Messiah has been born in Bethlehem, which is just a few miles from

Jerusalem.

And here's the telling factor.

The wise men went on in search of finding this Jesus and found him in Bethlehem.

No scribes, Pharisees, or rulers followed their example.

Nobody looked for him.

And I contend the reason they didn't look for him is because they didn't want to, they didn't need to,

they didn't think they had any reason to honor this so -called Messiah,

who in a sense was nothing more than an annoyance to them.

He was not someone they were looking for, although there were exceptions in the midst of many of

them.

In the midst of some of them, there were people who were looking for this Messiah among the people.

Some of them were in positions of authority, but as a whole, the chief priests

and the rulers that were informing Herod knew exactly where he was to be born

and said, We have no need to visit him.

Yeah, and you had even common shepherds before the wise men visiting him actually at the manger,

whereas the wise men would later visit him at Joseph's home when he was a little boy,

but you don't have any attempt at visiting and

giving honor to this child even though they seem to technically and factually know that this is

what was occurring, that there was a Savior born, a Messiah born.

And so you had Magi from the East who set out on a journey without a destination.

They didn't know where they'd end up coming to Jerusalem, finding out where he was born, and they

kept going until they found him.

But no one in powers of influence in Jerusalem followed their example or

sought him out.

And instead, perhaps after Herod killed all the infants in Bethlehem, when they found out, when

Herod found out that his secret was somehow known, the secret was he wanted to

destroy this Messiah, the Pharisees and chief priests obviously seeing that action

said, Well, that was probably a good move that we didn't support and look for this child because Herod would have been ticked off with us.

Now, this is speculation.

It's not scriptural, but I'm telling you from an attorney's point of view, this makes a lot of sense

that you had a group of people who didn't need to find this Messiah and you had people

from afar who were being led by the Holy Spirit to actually look for the Messiah and they did find him.

So you, I think it's inescapable to form the opinion knowing this,

that these Pharisees, these specific Pharisees who would ultimately cry out for

his death, these were not truly

regenerate children of Abraham.

These were not people who truly were looking for the

promised Messiah, that their prophets and that their fathers in the faith

had predicted would come in their Hebrew scriptures.

The main focus of the religion of the people of Israel,

waiting for this Messiah and yet knowing that this is where

Jesus was born when he was born.

And even later, knowing that he was performing miracles.

And even later than that, being really faced with

the irrefutable evidence that he raised from the dead, it seems that these dead

-hearted men were only concerned about their futures, their power,

their authority, and they hated the fact that someone was eclipsing that.

It's interesting that when, and again, Jesus

was raised Jewish.

There's no question about the fact that he was not, that he was raised Jewish.

His parents were very careful.

And in Luke chapter two, we have this account of them bringing the young

child to be dedicated at the temple and they brought him and there was a man there

called Simeon who acknowledged he had been hoping for the Messiah.

They were offering a sacrifice, the parents were, on behalf of Jesus.

I guess it's akin to the way some people dedicate children when they're infants.

Now, there was a man in Jerusalem from Luke chapter two, verse 25.

There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

He was righteous and devout.

One in the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he'd seen the Lord Christ.

And he came in spirit into the temple and when the parents brought the child to do him according to the custom

of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your

servant depart in peace according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation and you've prepared in the presence of all the peoples a light for the

revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your people Israel.

And his father and mother marveled at what he said about him.

And then Simeon, interestingly enough, blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is

appointed for the fall and the rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed

and a sword will pierce through your own soul also.

So that through him, many hearts may be revealed.

I love God's word because from an attorney's point of view, it's so intricate, it's so

detailed, and it's so it fits together so well.

I'm a puzzle solver, I'm a problem solver.

And when you see prophets not only accurately describing that Jesus

would be born in the Savior of his people, but that he would be opposed.

And they said this hundreds of years before the opposition was made evident.

But here you have Simeon saying, here's the Savior.

And this man will cause many to rise and fall in Israel, which is exactly

what you see carried out when his ministry began.

By the way, if anybody has not yet heard it, I strongly urge you to go to YouTube

and look up Michael Card's breathtaking song called Simeon's Song.

It's also known as Now That I've Held Him in My Arms, which is a line that is repeated throughout

the song.

But that's an aside that if you want to really be blessed after the show is over, look

that up on YouTube, Simeon's Song by Michael Card.

But we are going to our first break right now.

And if anybody would like to join us, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

And please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA.

And please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

Don't go away, God willing, we'll be right back with Marcus Mike McKnight and more on our theme,

Why the Pharisees Hated Jesus.

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a pastor.

Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnzen, if you just tuned us in.

Our guest today for the full two hours is Marcus A. McKnight III, also known as

Mike McKnight, attorney at law, and he is also a former elder of the church where

I'm a member, Grace Baptist Church of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and he is a frequent speaker

for the Christian Businessmen's Association, also known as, I'm sorry, the Christian

Businessmen's Connection, I'm sorry, which is known as CBMC, and if you could tell us a little

bit more about that group and how you got connected with them before we move on with more on our subject, Why the Pharisees Hated

Jesus Christ.

Well, it's a group of men that's really worldwide at this point that are seeking to promote the

gospel in the business community.

It's not meant to supplant the church, it's meant to supplement the church and get the word out in settings

that would be comfortable as an entry level for people coming into the church

itself.

And I was first asked to speak by someone at a CBMC event, and I wouldn't do

that until I found out what the local organization was about and what their purposes were.

But I've always been an advocate of the gospel any way you can.

I believe in the doctrines of grace, but the Lord in his Holy Spirit has never

actually identified to me those that are going to be saved versus those who

are not going to be saved.

So I have to assume that the Lord wants us to bring the gospel to every

person we meet and see in ways that are effective and are meaningful.

And quite frankly, I find many opportunities in problem solving

in my law office to actually do that, because quite frankly,

God's word tells us that our lives are centered around him.

And quite frankly, there are many ways in which you can focus people's attention on Christ as

ways to better deal with the trials that they're facing in this life.

PAUL So in other words, you haven't purchased those spectacles that you can wear where you can see who the elect are, who

the reprobate are?

ROBERT Actually, when you study God's word, you can see that time and time again, we're warned that

we're unable to see those that the Lord thinks are most precious soul -wise.

And often there are people who are not at the top of society.

In fact, they're at the lower levels of society, and the Lord loves them greatly.

And we have to love them also.

We have to love the people the Lord loves.

And the Lord loves scores and scores of people that the world has written off.

PAUL Amen.

And those spectacles to see the elect, which I call electicles,

they don't even exist, obviously.

But you know, it's funny that Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and I'm paraphrasing because I don't have the quote right in front of me, but

he said that even if the elect had a yellow stripe painted

on their backs, he would still preach the gospel to those that didn't have the yellow stripe.

ROBERT I love the fact that we're now the day before July the 4th, and these last three

days, because I've studied the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg a lot,

each day I wake up and I say, now this is what's going to happen at the Battle of Gettysburg this day.

And quite frankly, the thing that gives me comfort is, despite the fact that so many lives were lost during the

Civil War, just prior to it, north and south, there were great revivals that took place.

So you had many people on both sides fighting for their cause, but they were also

believers, knowing that even if they failed in the sense that their lives were taken,

they would be with the Lord in heaven.

So that gives me great comfort as I think of the terrible battles that were fought and the destruction.

But ultimately, that leaders on both sides at the end of the war came to

understand that this was an important event that

God ordained and that, quite frankly, was necessary to have people

freed from slavery, and that's what it took.

And quite frankly, we're still working through the process of fully

dealing with those issues in our society.

Chris.

Well, I want to remind our listeners, our email address is chrizarnsen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N

at gmail .com.

And we have Bebe in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, who asks, were not some of the Pharisees men who were

being drawn by God who were not like those that hated Christ?

Peter.

Oh, absolutely.

And some showed great courage at the end, you know, when Christ

was being under his greatest pressure.

Ironically, the disciples led, and many of them

hid.

Peter, who didn't flee, then denied Christ three times.

But those, there were other men who stepped up and provided a tomb at great cost,

at great risk to themselves, because the Pharisees would have wished that

he would have been cast away and forgotten, his body would have been tossed aside and forgotten.

But in fact, there was a tomb, and once they found out he was in a tomb, the Pharisees demanded the Romans put Roman

soldiers around the tomb to guard a tomb, which is unheard of in any society except

perhaps the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington that's guarded around the clock by soldiers.

But these were meant to actually keep people out and keep Jesus in.

And they failed miserably in that task because of

God's bringing the angel who released Jesus, who Jesus rose from the grave.

It's amazing to see how that all came to be.

John.

Thank you, B .B.

We have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, who says that, I know that you had already

spoken about the fact that the Pharisees had no interest in even the child

Jesus in the manger, but weren't many of the Jews not believing in Jesus because he is not the

Messiah they expected?

B .B.

Expectations has a lot to do with it.

But quite frankly, large groups of people were increasingly drawn to him because of his

graciousness, because of his teaching, because of his love for all levels of society.

But the one thing that, and we'll look at in a minute, is when it came to the Pharisees,

he was not going to bandy with them and he was not going to try to accommodate their teachings.

He was absolutely opposed to all they were teaching and doing to the people.

And we'll see that in a sense the war begins between them in Matthew

chapter 15.

And we'll look at that in a second because it's a passage that I taught on several weeks ago that I had not really

seen before.

I hope that if we look at that, you'll see the basis of the conflict between the

Pharisees and between Jesus.

And when it came to them criticizing him and him returning the criticism in spades with them,

you'll see how far apart they were in terms of knowing God.

R .B.

Praise God.

Why don't you move on to that passage then?

Following along in your scriptures, if you go to Matthew 15, you find this amazing

exchange between the Pharisees.

Now Jesus had been very busy around the Sea of Galilee.

John the Baptist, according to Matthew, had just been

beheaded.

So there was lots of stuff going on.

But we find in verse 1, the Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and

said, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders, for

they do not wash their hands when they eat?

Now isn't this pretty incredible that a delegation comes down from Jerusalem and says,

Your disciples are not really Jewish because they don't wash their hands before they eat.

Now Jesus' response is even more incredible.

He answers them and he says, Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your

tradition?

For God commanded, Honor your father and your mother, and whosoever reviles father

or mother must surely die.

But you say, If anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me is given to God,

he need not honor his father.

So for the sake of your tradition, you have made the word of God, you have made

void the word of God.

You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people

honors me with their lips, but with their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the

commandments of men.

Now the battle is joined.

And you look at this passage and say, What in the world is going on between these two?

What's really going on is the Pharisees were teaching that any proper Jew

had to wash their hands before meals because they'd been polluted by Gentile influence.

And this was not something in the Hebrew Scriptures.

This was a rabbinical custom, right?

This was something they made up.

They basically said, Look, we're surrounded by Romans, we're surrounded by their money, we're surrounded by their influences.

You have to purify yourself of any contact with non -Jewish people by washing your

hands before you take any meal.

So you have to remind yourself.

In modern days, of course, we say grace, but the Jewish required them to wash their hands to

wash away any Gentile influences.

And Jesus responds then to the people and teaches them what proper Gentile

relations should be like.

But it's amazing to see that they would go all this way to come criticize his disciples

for having dealings with Gentiles.

So it's an important issue to Jesus.

And he then talks to the people when he says to them in verse 10, he says, he calls the

people to him and says to them, Hear and understand.

It is not what goes on to the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of his mouth that defiles a person.

And then interestingly enough, the disciples come to him and say, Do you know the Pharisees were offended

when they heard this saying?

And he answered, Every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be rooted up.

Let them alone, for they are blind guides.

And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.

But Peter said to him, Explain this parable to us.

And he said, Don't you understand?

Do you not see that whatever goes in the mouth passes through the stomach and is expelled?

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

But these are what defile a person.

But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.

So he's basically saying we've got issues in this land that come from the heart.

And it's true in our society this day.

I see so many problems that occur first by thinking about them, by dwelling on them.

Things like pornography and other issues that come up.

Sexual immorality comes out of those thoughts that one has entertained and done it

because society says, Hey, it doesn't hurt anybody if you entertain these thoughts.

Well, Jesus makes very plain to the people that the thoughts of your mind come from the heart and they can

defile you and cause you to create great sin.

And he is very careful to teach the people appropriately.

The washing of the hands has no meaning when it comes to spiritual meaning with God.

Yeah, we have a lot of people today, not only Jewish people, but we

have many professedly Christian people, people who would be considered a part

of Christendom.

Who have carried on traditions that have no place in the inspired Word of

God or the God -breathed words, the inerrant words of scripture.

And it's amazing how often people have such a tenacious

clinging to things that they think are God -honoring or they even think are

part of the scriptures when they're nowhere to be found.

And you will have people, whether it be Roman Catholics, bowing to

idols and having all kinds of superstition, or you have people

amongst the evangelicals even, who will look at you with horror if your

church does not practice what has become known as the altar call, even though nothing like the altar call

is ever displayed in the pages of scripture.

So we have to be very careful, don't we, about adopting something that

is a part of our tradition, but we elevate it to the same level, if not even unconsciously to a

superior level, over what God's breathed truths are.

I think some modern Christian writers have pointed out to us that sometimes

even going through your own self -made traditions, for example, you say, well, I

need to read for five minutes in my Bible or ten minutes in my Bible and pray for 20

minutes or something every morning, and if I don't do that, horrible things will happen to me.

No, no, the Lord doesn't say, I want your heart because I'll bless you with wonderful

things.

He's saying, do this because you love me, you want to spend time with me.

I find all the time people say, well, I have a really good relationship with so -and -so, but

we never talk.

How is that possible?

And so when it comes to prayer and their prayer life and deciding that they want to be

greatly blessed by God, they don't take the time to really engage in heartfelt

prayer, wrestling with the Lord about issues and asking for issues.

I was only 13 when I came to Christ and I began to

wrestle with the Lord every night in my private devotions after we had family devotions in our

family.

But I took issues that for a teenager were big deals and laid them

before the Lord night after night, and over time I can see how he blessed me, even

in time bringing a girl into my life who I was able to witness to and she became

my steady girlfriend and then we got engaged.

And after in 1974, we got married and we've been married 44 years.

And she is a prayer warrior for me.

She spends time praying for me, my cases every day.

And she's such a value to me.

Well, praise God, you definitely have a countenance of a happy and blessed man.

I think most people who know you, brother, would not say that you are a mope.

It always looks like he's depressed or angry here.

Certainly seem to be at peace and filled with joy.

And you are to be commended for the way that you speak so highly of your wife.

In fact, if anybody wants to hear Marcus's testimony of his salvation, you can find it at

ironsharpensironradio .com in the archive of the podcast.

It also is labeled as past shows or past programs.

Go to ironsharpensironradio .com.

And if you type in McKnight, M as in Michael C, K -N -I -G -H -T, all of

the interviews we've had with Marcus Mike McKnight will show up, will pop up there.

And you can look for the very first one that has his testimony.

Going back to a question that was asked by one of our listeners,

uh, there was an expectation going back to what you even just said

about the washing of the hands ritual.

The Jews had developed rabbinical customs and traditions that they

elevated to be on par, if not superior to the God breathed

teachings of the Hebrew scriptures.

And one of the, or among those things were even their expectation of who

the Messiah would be that they were waiting for.

And you definitely had multitudes of Jews who were

expecting a political hero, a warrior for the cause of Israel who would

overthrow the Romans that were uh, persecuting and

enslaving them.

And, and, you know, that they would once again have a ruling authority,

uh, in Israel.

But this is not really what God had intended the Messiah to be ever.

Am I right?

You're absolutely right.

And it's obvious that, um, Jesus, his main purpose was

to reconcile man and God.

And we can see from the Pharisees that they were so far from what God wanted.

And that is the hearts of the people.

The same thing he wanted, um, for the fall in the garden, uh, the same thing he sought

when he blessed Israel as a nation, um, gave them the 10 commandments, gave them the prophets.

And yet the people could not give their hearts wholeheartedly to God.

I was stunned by, when you read the passage of how the greatest leader that,

uh, Israel had, Moses, freed the slaves from Egypt

when Egypt economically couldn't afford to get rid of the slaves, but they, through

God's providences were forced to relent and free the slaves.

They were, when they followed after they were destroyed, um, by God, uh, when the

waters covered them over, um, the Egyptians.

So the Israelites came at last to the promised land and they rebelled against Moses and God

when they heard about the giants and they heard about the trials that would face them if they, they went into their

promised land and they wanted to kill Moses and return to Egypt.

That's how far they were disconnected from God.

Well, the disconnect is large here at the time of Jesus ministry.

And we'll see that in a moment when we talk about what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing.

Well, if you could pick up right, right there, uh, and then we'll, uh, in about, uh, five minutes, we

have to go to a break, but why don't you at least start us off with that topic?

Jesus answered them after he criticized the disciples for not washing their hands.

He turned around and said, why do you break the commandments of God for the sake of your tradition?

And here's what he was talking about.

As in our age, people are living past retirement

or they're becoming infeable because of health issues, disease, injury, or what have you.

So when a man in Jesus time couldn't work any longer, he became destitute.

His only solution, since there was no retirement fund, since there was no social security, he had to go to his

children or his grandchildren and seek their help or be taken in by them so that they could

exist economically.

Likewise, if when a widow lost her husband, who was the breadwinner of the family, she

likewise could not support herself unless she went to her children or grandchildren.

And this was the way it was.

But the Pharisees, the Pharisees, the leaders of the religious community,

when their parents came to them saying, we can't work any longer, we have needs, the Pharisees

would say, sorry, parents, we have promised our means and our

wealth to God.

We can't help you.

Go away.

We have nothing for you.

Now, the reality was they didn't give any of their wealth to God.

They didn't donate anything to the temple or to temple worship.

They simply continued to use their wealth as their own.

But because they said they made a promise, even if they never carried it out, even if they never in their

wills willed it to the Lord, they felt they were secure in saying, well, we made this promise

and our promise to God is more important than taking care of our parents.

And Jesus says quite accurately and clearly, you are violating the fifth commandment.

And after the law was given through Moses to the people in a chapter or two

later, he says quite clearly, if you dishonor your parents, you should be stoned.

Jesus is saying this is so abhorrent to God, this lack of taking care of your parents,

that he absolutely condemned them and said, you guys are totally off base.

This was a man -made rule that you've made to get yourself out of caring for parents.

And I know that my generation has been in the trenches, helping

their parents as best they can through the complicated legal system that we have in our country that

takes care of the elderly.

It's not easy to do.

And sometimes those illnesses like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's are very difficult

to watch your parents go through.

But at least we have some system to help them.

And, you know, it's interesting in the early church, one of the great ministries of the early church was

widows, widows of Gentiles, of Jewish people.

And quite frankly, they were doing a job that nobody else, government wasn't doing and the

Pharisees weren't doing.

But the early church said, we'll take this on.

We're going to care and honor our parents by caring for them.

And that was a major ministry of the early church.

Well, we're going to our midway break right now.

This is our longer than normal break.

It's our 12 minute break that Grace Life Radio 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida requires

of us because they air their own commercials and public service announcements during this break.

So please be patient with us and use this time not only to write down information provided by our advertisers, because

the more you patronize our advertisers, the more likely Iron Trump and Zion Radio will remain on the

air because our advertisers will be able to continue advertising, but also write down questions for

our guests today.

Marcus Mike McKnight, the third attorney at law on the issue of why

the Pharisees hated Jesus.

Our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

Don't go away.

God willing, we will be right back after these messages with more of Marcus Mike McKnight, the third.

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Before we return to our guest, Marcus Mike McKnight III, and our discussion on why

the Pharisees hated Jesus Christ, we just have some important announcements to make.

First of all, tomorrow, 4th of July, it's going to be a live program, not a rerun.

We are going to be, God willing, interviewing the very well -known and beloved Morris

Roberts.

Morris Roberts, who is not only an author, an international conference speaker,

and emeritus minister in the Free Church of Scotland continuing denomination, but

Morris is also very well -known for his connection with Banner of Truth.

Everybody, I believe, who knows and loves the Banner of Truth will recognize the name Morris Roberts.

He was the editor of the Banner of Truth magazine from 1988 to 2003, and is the

author of the Banner of Truth Trust's publications, The Thought of God, The Christian's High

Calling, Great God of Wonders, Can We Know God? and Finding Peace with God,

Justification Explained.

And Morris is also, or was, I should say, moderator of his denomination,

the Free Church in Scotland, continuing until, not

that long ago, he was moderator until his denomination's General Assembly

until 2007.

And he has been a lecturer in Greek and New Testament at the Free Church Seminary

since 2002.

We're going to be discussing his new booklet, How Do I Develop Heavenly -Mindedness and Spiritual

Conversation?

That is a publication of Reformation Heritage Books.

So I hope that you tune in tomorrow for our interview with Morris Roberts, and we are giving

away free copies of this booklet to those who submit questions, at least the first five people who

submit questions to Reverend Morris Roberts during the broadcast.

Mark your calendars so you don't forget about tomorrow's show.

Then, coming up this Friday, July 6th,

I am hosting my very first Manhattan event for Iron Trap and Zion Radio in

cooperation with New Covenant Church, New York City, a new church plant in Manhattan

who is also a new sponsor of Iron Trap and Zion Radio, New Covenant Church in New York City.

We are having a free New York City seminar featuring guest speaker Dr. Tony Costa, author and

professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary.

It's this Friday, July 6th, 6 .30 to 10 p .m.

It's going to be held at the historic First Baptist Church of New York City on

265 West 79th Street and Broadway in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

The messages that Dr. Tony Costa will be delivering include defending

the faith in a postmodern society, the dangers of cultural Marxism's

impact on society and the church, and then he will have a Q &A session with the audience.

For those of you who are pastors, if you want to be in attendance that afternoon at 12

for a small gathering over lunch with Dr. Costa, you can email me

and ask questions about that, which is a much smaller gathering at a different location.

But the major event, as I just said, at 6 .30 p .m. is at the First Baptist Church

of New York City on 79th Street and Broadway in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

For more details, you can send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

You can even call me at 631 -291 -7002.

631 -291 -7002.

That same day, and far enough away that I would dare even announce it,

my friend Pastor Jason Wallace and my other dear friend Dr. James R. White of

Alpha Omega Ministries are involved in an event out in Magna, Utah

at Christ Presbyterian Church of Magna, Utah, which is a suburb of Salt Lake City.

They are having a conference out there.

To kick off the conference this Friday, July 6th at 7 p .m., Dr.

James R. White will be debating a Mormon named Alma Allred.

On the theme is the LDS Church, the Latter -day Saints Church, the only true and

living church upon the face of the earth.

And if you'd like more information about that and the conference that will follow on Saturday and Sunday,

you can go to GospelUtah .org.

That's the website of the Christ Presbyterian Church

in Magna, Utah.

That is GospelUtah .org, GospelUtah .org, and Utah

is spelled out.

It's not an abbreviation.

And then, coming up not long after that, in August, the 2nd through the 4th,

my friends at the Fellowship Conference New England are having their annual event at Deering Center Community

Church in Portland, Maine.

And the speakers at that event include Pastor Tim Conway, Pastor Mac Tomlinson, Pastor

Jesse Barrington, and Pastor Nate Pikowitz.

For more details on this conference, go to FellowshipConferenceNewEngland .com,

FellowshipConferenceNewEngland .com.

Then my friends at the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals in November are going to be having their annual Quaker Town

Conference on Reform Theology.

That's November 9th and the 10th at the Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Quaker Town,

Pennsylvania.

The theme this year is the glory of the cross.

The speakers include David Garner, Ray Ortlund, Richard Phillips, Timothy Gibson, and Carlton Nguyen.

For more details, go to AllianceNet .org, AllianceNet .org.

Click on events and then scroll down to Quaker Town Conference on Reform Theology.

I will have an exhibitor's booth there, so please greet me during a break at the

exhibitor's booth if you are in attendance at the Quaker Town Conference on Reform Theology.

Then coming up in January of 2019, the long -awaited and highly

anticipated G3 Conference, one of my favorite things to attend.

This will be my third G3 Conference where I am manning an exhibitor's booth at the

Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, Georgia, which is a suburb of Atlanta.

There are expected to be over 4 ,000 people to come to the G3 Conference, which

stands for Grace, Gospel, and Glory, in case you're wondering.

I hope that you join me there not only as an attender, but I hope many of you join me there as an

exhibitor there.

You can man your own exhibition booth or exhibitor's booth by registering for that at g3conference .com,

g3conference .com.

The dates for the G3 Conference are Thursday, January 17th, through Saturday, January 19th.

They will have an exclusively Spanish -speaking version of the conference on Wednesday, January

16th.

But as far as the English -speaking conference is concerned, they have,

as always, a really incredible lineup of speakers,

very impressive.

This is the longest roster of speakers that they have at the G3 Conference that I've ever seen in a conference.

Paul Washer, John Piper, Stephen J. Lawson, Vodie Baucom, Mark Dever, Conrad Mbewe, who I believe

is the most powerful preacher on the planet Earth, of Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa.

He's also the Chancellor of African Christian University.

Tim Challies, Phil Johnson, the Executive Director of Grace to You, the ministry of John MacArthur.

Todd Friel of Wretched TV and Wretched Radio, Stephen J. Nichols, who is the President of

Reformation Bible College, the college founded by R .C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries, and more.

If you'd like to join me there, go to g3conference .com, g3conference .com.

And please mention to the folks at the G3 Conference that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen

on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Now, last but not least, is the least favorite portion of the show.

Not only for me, but probably for you too.

That's where I have to beg you for money.

I never wanted to make public appeals for donations, but my advertisers who spend hard -earned money

keeping this show on the air have pled with me and urged me for a long time to make public appeals.

So I am finally doing that.

And I've been doing so for months out of respect for them and also out of the urgent need that we have for donors

and advertisers to help us remain on the air.

And I thank all of you who have bailed us out of a very scary situation where

our regular small but steady stream of donations that are coming in.

When I say small, I don't mean that each donation was small because we had some very, very large donations.

But we were accustomed to a steady stream of donations that had

completely for a month or more dried up and we weren't hearing from anybody.

But then out of the blue, by God's mercy, we had a bunch of you come to the rescue with your

donations and also advertisements, advertising campaigns.

I want to thank the New Covenant Church in New York City for being our new advertiser on Iron Trip and Sign Radio who will

be starting soon.

I want to thank the IRBS Theological Seminary in Mansfield, Texas for signing an annual

contract with us.

I want to thank BatteryDepot .com and Linbrook Baptist Church and the publishers of the New

American Standard Bible for renewing their advertising contracts.

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Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

And Marcus, if you could just pick up where you left off before we take any listener questions for you.

Well, you see, the battle's been joined over two issues.

One issue is the Pharisees have totally disregarded God's law by not taking care of their

parents.

And the means they used was a rule they made themselves that they somehow felt

comfortable in passing and neglecting their own parents.

The other issue, though, was purifying the Jewish people, keeping them pure from Gentile

influences.

And Jesus has a lot to say about that.

And in Matthew 15, he continues, Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district

of Tyre and Sidon.

And by the way, that's a very Gentile area.

So Jesus deliberately went into Gentile areas.

And here's what happened.

Behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying.

Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David.

My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.

Now, in our society, we can understand that when our children are suffering, we are very distressed

when they're ill, when they're sick, when they're having issues.

And this was an issue that no human could touch in terms of healing.

So you can see how desperate this woman is.

But Jesus didn't answer her a word.

His disciples came and begged him, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us.

He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And that, by the way, is the doctrine of the Pharisees.

But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me.

And he answered, It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

She said, Yes, Lord.

Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

Then Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith.

Be it done for you as you desire.

And her daughter was instantly healed.

So a Gentile woman prayed to Jesus, and she was

wholeheartedly into that prayer.

She wanted it desperately.

She had no other means, no other way to go in terms of healing for her daughter.

And Jesus answered her prayer, making the point that I've come to minister to all people

who put their faith and heart in faith in me.

And so then look what Jesus did in verse 29.

He went out from there.

He walked beside the Sea of Galilee.

And he went up to the mountain and sat down there and great crowds.

Now, we don't know what great crowds are, except when it comes time to feed them, there were at least 4 ,000 men, plus

women, plus children.

Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and

many others, and put them at his feet, and he healed them.

Now, many people will give out things like autographs at gatherings.

There was one advertised in locally, a

new bottle of liquor, basically.

And lots of people came to the celebrity to have him sign their bottles.

But Jesus didn't give out autographs.

He healed people, and he healed them all.

So the crowd wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, the blind

seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel.

Jesus was making a real impact with the people in front of the Pharisees, who began following him

throughout the last year of his ministry.

It was one constant confrontation after another that last year.

And we'll talk in a minute about the final confrontation that resulted

in Jesus being condemned to the cross by the Pharisees.

Remember, this was not a Gentile thing.

This was not the Romans saying, this Jesus is a danger to us.

It was the opposite.

It was the Pharisees seeking a way to get rid of this Jesus, who was such a

problem for them, because he was so contrary to what they were teaching.

We have RJ in White Plains, New York, who wants to know why Jesus told the Pharisees they were of their father,

the devil.

The devil knows who God is.

And he seeks to destroy all the humans that he can, all the souls that he can

deceive and destroy.

And because the Pharisees were so disconnected from God, they had the trappings of

religion, but the religion was false.

Their teachings were false.

They were contrary to what God wanted.

And they were so false and so contrary that Jesus came to overthrow, just as

Simeon prophesied when he held that baby up years before.

He said, this man will cause many to rise and many to fall.

And Jesus was about to undermine

these man -made religion Pharisees.

He was ready to undermine them and crush them by his own work on the cross.

Yeah, and unfortunately, when you have people, evil, wicked,

anti -Semitic people, people who hate the Jews, they use these kinds of things to make themselves

somehow feel superior.

But we are all, until we are born again, we are all,

without the miracle and the mercy and grace of being adopted by God, we are all children of the devil

until we become children of God, until we become the

blood -bought, born -again disciples of Jesus, are we not?

Absolutely.

And that's what's so important.

When you love someone with all your heart, there is a special relationship.

And that's the relationship that Christ wants with those who put their faith in him.

And it takes the Holy Spirit to fulfill that relationship.

And the mercy is, and this is the amazing thing to me, when Jesus died on the cross

and rose again, there was no church.

There were followers, but there was no organized church.

But that came on the day of Pentecost, when by the Holy Spirit's help,

thousands of people came to put their faith in Christ by the preaching of these disciples,

who were untrained theologically, but were trained by the Holy Spirit to speak the truth.

And it's amazing to see how that church then grew and prospered, and then was dispersed by

trial by someone called Saul, who became Paul when he

met Jesus on the road to Damascus.

So it's amazing to see the major tormentor of the church switch

sides in the midst of all that.

Amen.

And rather than interrupt you mid -sentence, before you continue, I'm going to go to our final break, which is a

very brief break.

And now will be your last opportunity to send in a question to chrisarnson at gmail .com.

If you have a question for Marcus Mike McKnight III, and we are speaking,

if you just tuned us in on the question, why did the Pharisees hate Jesus

Christ?

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Well, we are now in the final half hour of our program with Marcus Mike McKnight III, attorney

at law.

We are discussing why the Pharisees hated Jesus Christ,

and we do have CJ from Lindenhurst, Long Island.

Where is CJ?

CJ from Lindenhurst, Long Island wants to know, why did the Sadducees and the Pharisees join together when

they hated each other so that they could be unified to be opposed to Christ?

It seems that this was a matter of convenience for them when they really, truly

despised each other.

And could you please give us more detail on who the Sadducees were?

Sorry.

The Sadducees were a group that had specific ideas.

They were teachers.

They were, I don't know if I'm being accurate, but it would be the seminary

branch of the Pharisees who...

They would be more liberal.

They didn't believe in the resurrection or angels.

That's correct.

And so, in a sense, they had one common fear, and that was loss of influence and power.

And so, Jesus, of course, was never surprised by these debates that

they walked into because he could read their minds.

He knew their hearts.

He was their creator, as a matter of fact, as being God's son and being part

of the creative act in the very beginning.

But I'm glad you asked the question because one of my favorite passages, because as a lawyer, I'm often

asked, all right, someone comes in with a problem.

What's the law?

How much trouble am I in?

And one of the problems of the church in Jesus' time, or the church, the Pharisees at Jesus'

time, was that they had no concept of God's righteousness.

They had totally cast that aside, didn't understand what the law really meant.

And so, we find in chapter 22 of Matthew, but when the Pharisees heard that

he had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees gathered together, one of them a lawyer,

this is why it's one of my favorite passages, asked them a question to attest him.

Teacher, he says, which is the great commandment in the law?

Now, here's the trap and here's what he was trying to do.

He wanted Jesus to pick one of the ten commandments so then they could turn to the people and say, look, he's

demeaned the other nine.

He's picked one over the others.

Jesus, of course, knew his motives, knew what he was thinking, and 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.

So, what Jesus is basically saying to the people in his time, when he was ministering,

and in our time, you think you are okay, you think you're righteous, well, here's what

you have to show God.

And by the way, you have a prosecutor before God on the Day of Judgment, Satan

himself, who's going to be accusing you of violating this law.

And here's all you have to prove, that you always put God first in your life, always.

You never, ever missed an opportunity to put him first in your life.

And you were never, ever selfish.

From the time you were an infant to the time you die, that you've never been selfish.

If you can prove those two things, you're righteous.

And here's the problem, of course.

We haven't missed the boat by a little bit.

We've missed it by a ton.

And if you can begin to think of your own life, and how many times you've been selfish, how many

times people have accused you of being selfish, how many times you've not helped the poor, how many times

you've walked away from someone who needed you.

When you've been upset with somebody because they think they haven't treated you properly.

When you put yourself first, when you've ignored God's claims on your life, time and

time again, then you understand you're in deep trouble.

And that's why there'll be wailing and gnashing of teeth on the Day of Judgment, because people will finally understand we have

missed the boat by a ton, and yet the judge on the Day of Judgment is Jesus.

And he will say to those who put their faith in him, my blood is sufficient, quiet prosecutor

Satan, I'm not going to hear from you about this one, because he's one of mine.

Come and share in my happiness for all that you've done for my sake.

And remember, Jesus said quite clearly, any man who during this lifetime acknowledges

him before men, he will acknowledge before God in heaven.

All our lives are discussed, there's nothing secretive about

God knowing all about us in our lives, and the Psalms clearly say that.

And which brings us finally to the last chapter of this, or the last

scene in this story, where the Pharisees are so upset with Jesus that they want to crucify him.

And what did Jesus do to cause this final showdown?

He performed his greatest miracle, and you find that in John chapter 11.

Do you want to go forward with that right now?

Yes, sure.

Okay.

In John chapter 11, we find this amazing account of Jesus gets word that one of

his dearest friends, Lazarus, is ill, and he comes in front of the disciples,

and the disciples are concerned because the Pharisees have ramped up their opposition so much that

they're threatening Jesus's life.

And instead of responding to this message that comes from Mary and Martha, the sisters of

Lazarus, Jesus waits and doesn't travel at all, he stays right where he is.

And after this, he says to his disciples, after waiting a few days after they got the message of this illness, he said,

let's go to Judea again.

The disciples said to him in chapter 8 of John 11, or in verse 8 of chapter 11,

Rabbi, the Jews are just now seeking to stone you, and you're going there again?

Jesus answered, aren't there 12 hours in the day?

If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of the world, but if anyone walks in the

night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.

After saying these things, he says to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken

him.

The disciples said, Lord, if he's only sleeping, he's going to recover.

But Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he meant he was asleep.

Then Jesus said plainly, Lazarus has died, and for your sake, I'm glad I was not

there so that you may believe, but let us go to him.

So Thomas called the twins, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him.

So at great risk, he leads his disciples back to Judea to do this, to

deal with the issue of Lazarus being dead.

Now, Lazarus has been dead four days, and here's the issue.

Mary and Martha both know that he had the power.

They had the faith to believe he had the power to heal Lazarus before he died.

But once he died, they thought it was over.

They thought death was the final death knell of any life in this world.

And yet Jesus comes and he says to each of them in their own way, I've

come here to do the Lord's will, to give God glory.

Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb.

It was a cave in verse 38, a stone laid against it.

Jesus said, take away the stone.

Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there'll be an odor for he's been dead four days.

Now I tell you, modern science is wonderful, but yet I

know of no place in the world where someone who's been dead, really dead for four days, has been

raised from the dead.

And Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you've heard me.

I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me.

When he said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.

The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bind with strips and his face wrapped with cloth.

And Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go.

Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he had done, believed in him.

But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

Now we'll pause for a second.

Objectively, I'll tell you what.

If someone in this day and age raised someone from the dead after being dead four days, don't you think it would be

on Facebook?

Don't you think it would be in the evening news?

There's all sorts of newsworthy things, but this would certainly go around the world in modern media

if something like this happened.

And you would think objectively, wouldn't the priests and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, wouldn't they

take up and listen and take notice of this?

And of course they would.

So many of the Jews, therefore, had come with Mary and seen him, believed in him, but some of them went to the

Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do?

For this man performs many signs.

If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our

place and our nation.

Now you see the heart of it.

It's what we said in the very beginning of this session today.

They were worried about their power and their influence, and that's why they hated him, and that's why he had to

die.

One of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that

it's better for you that one man should die for the people than the whole nation should perish.

He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus

would die for the nation and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God

who were scattered abroad.

From that day on, they made plans to put him to death.

Jesus, therefore, no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness

in a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with his disciples.

So the death warrant went out because Jesus had done his greatest miracle.

And here's the irony.

Jesus was the most popular man in the region.

No one could stop talking about it, as would be in our nation if he did it today.

And the point is that the most popular man in the world, in that region, was about to

be crucified on the cross.

And think about the players in this.

The disciples didn't want Jesus to die on the cross.

Satan didn't want him to die on the cross.

The Pharisees did want him to die on the cross.

You had God using the Pharisees to do his will.

What was God's will?

Jesus prayed about it in the, in fact, his whole ministry.

The great temptation was, don't do it.

Don't die for the sins of people like you and me.

But Jesus wanted to do his father's will, and he was willing to do it.

And the most powerful man on the planet at that time was Jesus.

He had angels at his disposal.

He could have asked them to come and intercede and judge these people who were trying to crucify him.

But he didn't.

And the amazing thing to me is he went to the cross and stayed on the cross.

Wow.

And he had all the power to get off the cross, and he was being taunted by the Pharisees.

Why don't you, if you're God, get off the cross?

He could have done it in an instant.

But to complete the father's will and to complete the sacrifice for his people, he stayed on the cross

and then was raised by God from the dead after three days in the grave.

So it's amazing to me to see how this all comes to fruition.

Why did, why did the Pharisees hate Jesus so much?

Because they were threatened and they wanted to maintain their power.

But God used them to do his will despite the opposition and temptation of

Satan to stop it all.

Um, Jesus obviously could have avoided it all by calling the angels or by simply,

um, um, he knew, he knew Judas had betrayed him, and yet he still went

forward and did his father's will.

Praise God.

Yes, uh, too many people get caught up into religious

sentimentalism when they think about the death of Christ.

And they view him purely as a victim of some kind where he was no victim of it all.

He voluntarily laid down his life.

This was a part of an eternal plan.

As you said, he could have stopped this at any moment.

He could have stopped it before he was even, uh, uh, whipped.

And, you know, he could have, he could have, uh, had an army of angels protect him at all times.

And yet he chose not to do that.

Uh, the Trinity was in complete harmony in this plan that he die

for the sins of his people.

And do you think you said before that, um, Satan did not want him to

die?

I mean, is, is Satan, even though he is, uh, he is above

men in his, his, uh, knowledge and insights and so on,

uh, being an angelic creation.

Uh, but at the same time, uh, it would seem strange to me.

It was, he was, it wasn't as Satan, some kind of a schizophrenic personality because

obviously if he knew that Jesus's death was going to rescue his people from their sins and from hell,

at the same time, he entered into Judas so that Judas would betray Jesus.

So there seems to be a conflict of interest here.

Well, to me, it's again, from an attorney's perspective, it's amazing to see

in the very beginning of his ministry, he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness.

And Satan tempted him, basically the whole purpose of it was to say, I can help you

in ways nobody else can.

And by the way, if you worship me, you can avoid the cross.

And Jesus said, be gone.

And was ministered to then by angels.

Then as the time came closer and closer for him to go to the cross, he

needed encouragement.

And where did he get encouragement?

On the Mount of Transfiguration.

Who came to encourage him?

Moses, who had been given the law and brought his people out of slavery.

He was there on the Mount of Transfiguration to say, Jesus, the law isn't sufficient.

People can't keep it.

People won't follow it.

And then you had Elijah.

Elijah, who had the greatest miracle up to Jesus's greatest miracle, whereby he had called

smart fire down from heaven to openly show God's power to answer his

prayer and consume on the mountainside.

When he commanded, when he asked God to do it, it was done.

All the people saw it.

They saw God's power.

They believed that God was powerful and that he was real.

And yet it wasn't sufficient to win the hearts of the people.

And when objectively the king and queen heard about it, Jezebel said, I'm going to

kill you, Elijah, and I'm coming after you.

And he fled depressed into the wilderness.

And God finally rescued him and said, hey, I know what I'm doing.

This is important.

There are still those who believe in me in this this this nation.

And here's what you need to do.

And he gave him things to do.

And he did it.

So Elijah and Moses encouraged Jesus.

And God's word says they talked about Jesus, what Jesus had to accomplish

to finish the race, to finish his job of going to the cross.

And they strengthened him and encouraged him there.

And only a few disciples saw that.

But that's what happened.

And then finally, in the garden, the final temptation of Jesus, Satan comes to him

again and says, there's got to be another way.

And he prayed to the father, if there's another way, show me the other way.

But if not, your will be done, father.

And there was no other way.

And that's the point that's so essential to us in this time, in this age.

You have to understand there is no other way except to put your faith in Christ, who shed

so much of his blood for our sake when he didn't have to.

He volunteered.

He did it.

He did it at the height of his power, at the height of his influence, when people were talking about him

and saying, this is a marvelous thing.

And even Pilate, when he judged him, found him to be innocent of any

Roman violation and still put him to death on the cross to please the Jews, the

Pharisees, these rulers who were so bent on maintaining their power and influence.

05 .20.

Yeah, my friend, Richie Saxon, who when I first met him years ago on Long Island, he was

a pastor at a messianic congregation called Beth Yeshua.

And he, when he was reading the passage where Pilate found

no fault in Jesus, he said it is as if, or was as if,

Pilate unknowingly was acting in the place of a rabbi stamping

Jesus kosher as a lamb for Passover by saying to all, I find no

fault in this man because obviously, as we know, the Passover lamb needed to be without spot or blemish,

had to be perfect.

And Pontius Pilate was in essence declaring that.

I want to just read a brief passage since you brought up the

raising of Lazarus earlier.

I don't know how many of our listeners are familiar with the great 19th century bishop

Anglican bishop J .C. Ryle.

But if you're not familiar with him, I urge you to find as many things that Ryle has written as you can

get your hands on and purchase them.

And Chapel Library has some things there that, some of which you can get for free or for practically

nothing.

They have a booklet that they publish called Sickness by J .C. Ryle, which is,

I believe, taken from his larger book, The Upper Room.

But the portion that I want to read is where J .C. Ryle writes,

He whom thou lovest is sick, from John chapter 11, 3.

The chapter from which this text is taken is well known to all Bible readers.

In lifelike description and touching interest, in sublime simplicity, there

is no writing in existence that will bear comparison with that chapter.

A narrative like this is, to my own mind, one of the great proofs of the inspiration

of Scripture.

When I read the story of Bethany, I feel there is something here which the infidel can

never account for.

There is nothing else but the finger of God.

The words which I specifically dwell on in this chapter are singularly affecting and

instructive.

The record, or they record, I should say, the message which Martha and Mary sent to

Jesus with their brother Lazarus was sick, when their brother Lazarus was

sick.

Lord behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.

That message was short and simple, yet almost every word is deeply

suggestive.

Mark the childlike faith of these holy women.

They turn to the Lord Jesus in their hour of need as the frightened infant turns to its mother,

or the compass needle turns to the pole.

They turn to him as their shepherd, their almighty friend, their brother born for

adversity.

Different as they were in natural temperament, the two sisters in this matter were entirely

agreed.

Christ's help was their first thought in the day of trouble.

Christ was the refuge to which they fled in the hour of need.

Blessed are all that do likewise.

Mark the simple humility of their language about Lazarus.

They call him he whom thou lovest.

They do not say he who loves thee, believes in thee, serves thee,

but he whom thou lovest.

Martha and Mary were deeply taught of God.

They had learned that Christ's love towards us and not our love towards Christ

is the true ground of expectation and the true foundation of hope.

I wanted to leave that to echo in our listeners' ears because

as they may be struggling, and in fact there are those who are not yet

truly born again who are being drawn, are struggling, that they could never live up

to what Christianity expects of them.

They can never be godly people in their minds, they think.

They can never repent and totally be transformed.

But of course, even though we are commanded to repent and believe, and we may think that this could

never happen, or those that we love will never repent, God has the power to

transform any of us, even the most chief of sinners like Paul.

Am I correct?

You are, you are.

And it reminds me of the fact that Mary, after the

resurrection of her brother Lazarus, who she loved, prepared a meal for Jesus,

invited many people to it, and in the midst of it presented him a gift.

And you know, many people provided Jesus with gifts when he had healed or done other things,

and there was a treasure, and the treasure was Judas.

And we see Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment in chapter 12 of

John, made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

The house was filled with a fragrance and perfume, but Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he

who was about to betray him, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and

given to the poor?

He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.

And having charge of the money back, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Jesus said, leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.

Mary got it before anybody else did that Jesus was preparing himself to die.

And she went and went out and anointed him in anticipation of the event itself.

It reminds me, remember, of the Magi who came and they supplied gifts

to this baby Jesus of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And his father had no need as a carpenter in little town of Bethlehem for those gifts.

He couldn't spend it.

He couldn't use it until he got word that Herod was coming to kill all

the infants, including Jesus, and he fled to Egypt where all those gifts were necessary

for his upkeep until he could return to Judea.

God provided the gift before the need.

Mary provided the gift before the need.

She anointed him before he went to the grave, before he went to the cross.

That's God's sovereignty.

I love it the way God puts these things together.

Amen.

Well, I want to make sure that our listeners have all of your contact information.

First of all, I know that your website is erwinmcknight .com.

That's I -R -W -I -N -MCKNIGHT, M -C -N -I -G

-H -T .com.

And Erwin, once again, it's spelled I -R -W -I -N.

That's the name of a partner in the law firm.

Erwinmcknight .com.

Do you have any other contact information that you care to give to our listeners?

No, I just wanted to point out that the men who hired me 40 years ago,

41 years ago, were Duke and Roger Erwin.

And as I worked for the firm, I said to myself,

because of what the Erwins did for me in hiring me out of law school, if I

ever became an owner of the business, I would make sure there was always an Erwin name

in it.

As long as I was involved, it would be before mine.

So that's why it's Erwin and McKnight.

There are no longer any Erwins with the firm, although Roger's Erwin is still practicing with another firm.

But I deeply appreciate what Roger and his brother Duke did for me.

And that's why the name of the firm is still Erwin and McKnight.

And do you want to share with our listeners your email address or anything like that?

My email address is mcknight, m -m -c -k -n -i -g -h -t

at erwinmcknight .com.

Great.

Well, I want to thank you once again, Marcus McKnight,

my dear friend for being on the program today.

And I look forward to more opportunities, not only to interview you, but also to share fellowship with you.

And I just thank God for the friend that you have been to me and the counsel you have given.

I want to thank everybody that listened today, especially those who took the time to write in questions.

I don't want you to forget that tomorrow, 4th of July, I have as my guest Morris Roberts

on the subject, how do I develop heavenly mindedness and spiritual conversation?

Please make sure you tune in to that program if you can and tell others about it as well.

Don't forget about my event in New York City this Friday, July 6th,

630 p .m. to 10 p .m. at the First Baptist Church of New York City on the corner of

79th and Broadway, where Dr. Tony Costa, the

professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary will be there in New York City, speaking

on defending the faith in a postmodern society and also the dangers of cultural Marxism's impact on

society and the church.

That once again is going to be held Friday, July 6th, 630 p .m. to 10 p .m. at the First Baptist Church of

New York City on the corner of 79th Street and Broadway in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

For more details, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com and you

can also call 631 -291 -7002, 631 -291 -7002.

Also, if you're a pastor and you'd like to join us that afternoon for lunch with Dr. Tony Costa,

it'll be absolutely free of charge and will be held at a different location.

And so if you want to email me or call me to find out where you can join us.

And that is actually, that meal is being paid for by our friends at batterydepot .com.

So I look forward to seeing many of you this Friday.

I look forward to hearing from many of you tomorrow with your questions for Morris Roberts.

And I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater savior than you are a

sinner.