Opposition to Jesus and His Church | Mark 12 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] mark chapter 12 verses 13 to 27. i'm gonna highlight three different groups in these verses that i'll ask you to just circle in your bibles and here we go verse 13. then they sent to him to jesus some of the pharisees circle that group and the herodians circle that group to catch him in his words and when they had come they said to him teacher we know that you are true and care about no one for you do not regard the person of men in other words it isn't that he doesn't care they're basically they're buttering him up but the truth is that they're just saying you don't show favoritism but you teach the way of god in truth so here's their question is it lawful to pay taxes to caesar or not shall we pay or shall we not pay but he knowing their hypocrisy said to them why do you test me bring me a denarius that i may see it and so they brought it and he said to them whose image and inscription is this and they said to him caesars and jesus answered and said to them render to caesar the things that are caesar's and to god the things that are god's and they marveled at him verse 18. then some sadducees circle that who say there is no resurrection came to him now notice that they don't even believe that there's life after death how sad you see it's true i mean that's very sad and so they asked him saying verse 19 teacher moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies and leaves his wife behind and leaves no children his brothers should take his wife and raise up offspring for her verse 20. now they come up with this hypothetical situation look at this now there were let's say that there were seven brothers the first took a wife and dying he left no offspring and the second brother took her and he died nor did he leave any offspring and the third likewise and so the seven had her and left no offspring last of all the woman died also therefore in the resurrection when they rise whose wife will she be for all seven had her as wife notice they don't even believe in the resurrection but they're saying well in the resurrection whose wife will she be so they're asking a question that they don't even believe in and verse 24 jesus answered and said to them are you not therefore mistaken because you do not know the scriptures nor the power of god for when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven but concerning the dead that they rise have you not read in the book of moses in the burning bush passage how god spoke to him saying i am the god of abraham the god of isaac and the god of jacob he is not the god of the dead but the god of the living you were therefore greatly mistaken let's pause here and pray lord on this memorial day weekend we thank you for our freedoms that we have been granted lord physical freedoms natural freedoms on earth because so many people have laid down their lives to sacrifice for our freedom and we think of you lord how you laid down your life to secure eternal freedom for us the freedom from sin and death and the joy of being with you forever so lord we're thankful for freedom and we pray you'll use this time in your word to strengthen our hearts today we love you and we praise you together in jesus name and everybody said amen well as you noticed with me as we read through this passage and i highlighted these three groups there were three groups that held religious and political sway over people in jesus day and here those groups are named pharisees in verse 13 the herodians in verse 13 and the sadducees in verse 19. now these three groups were not often in agreement about things but one thing they did unite around and that was their opposition to jesus and as i was studying through this passage and looking again at these groups these different groups i realized that the same three types of groups are working today to undermine the ministry of jesus and his true church and sadly the truth is these types of groups often operate within our own ranks now i don't mean within our own ranks as in the ranks of cornerstone chapel specifically although we should not think ourselves immune to this but i mean the ranks of christianity in general and if we are to affect change in our culture the kind of change that comes from representing christ and representing him well then we must be aware of these three different types of influences in our world in the church today and reject their religious philosophical and ideological views which are often based by the way on the principles of this world rather than on the principles of christ in fact this is a very thing that paul would warn us about in colossians chapter 2 verse 8 when he would say see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on christ you see there is a lot of human influence that has crept into the church that has not only infiltrated the church but dominated the church and again when i say church i don't mean specifically cornerstone although we can be just as vulnerable as anybody else to these creeping influences if we're not careful but i'm talking about in general being on our guard against these kind of things because they are still at work today paul even warned the ephesian elders when he met with them and militis in acts chapter 20 verses 30 to 31 he said even from your own number in other words even from among your own ranks men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them so be on your guard and so as we look at this passage today i don't want to look at it for the substance of the conversation here and the fact of the matter is the pharisees herodians and sadducees weren't even sincere in their conversation questioning jesus they were just trying to bring up hypotheticals in order to somehow malign him or discredit him or trap him in his words they weren't interested in a real answer and so we're not going to look at the substance of the conversation today what we're going to look at is the spirit behind these three groups because there's a modern version of pharisees herodians and sadducees even today and this is what we have to be warned about lest this modern version creeps into our lives or into our church and so the first one we're going to look at is the group of the pharisees now note with me that the pharisees were known as strict separatists religious legalists and proud moralists and so if we are not careful we can allow a pharisaical spirit to creep into our lives which is not glorifying to god and is certainly off-putting to other people because a pharisaical spirit basically is an attitude in which one starts to feel a little morally superior to other people and starts to look down his or her nose at their less than righteous lives that don't quite measure up to yours and the problem with that attitude when we look down our noses at other people and we feel this kind of religious piety is that it opens the door to two ugly twin sins okay pride and hypocrisy when you start thinking of yourself as better than other people which we're not you open the door to pride and hypocrisy in your own life we see this with the pharisees jesus addressed both of those things among the pharisees in fact there's a story in luke 18 you don't need to turn there but jesus was drawing on this parable talking about these two guys who went up to the temple to pray one was a pharisee and one was a tax collector and he says there in luke 18 when the when the pharisees started to pray there in the temple court area he prayed god i thank you that i am not like other men this is right out of luke 18 11. not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector i fast twice a week i give tithes of all that i possess and jesus goes on to the story and he says in the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying god be merciful to me a sinner and jesus as i tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted and so he's calling out the pride of the pharisees going around saying they're better than everybody else thank you god i'm not like these other people and we have to be on our guard against this kind of thing because in our passionate plea to take back our culture and to stand for what is right and true we must not think of ourselves as better than anybody else we have to stay humble in all of this because we're in the same need of grace as the next person the difference is that we just know how much we need grace because we know how much we've been forgiven from other people who don't know the forgiveness of jesus don't quite know how much they need is grace but we're all in desperate need of it so if it's not pride that creeps into our lives through a fair sacral spirit it's hypocrisy it's hypocrisy because the moment you don't live up to your own high moral standard you will be labeled a hypocrite in fact in matthew 23 3 jesus said about the pharisees he said this do not do what they do for they do not practice what they preach i mean that's the basic definition of a hypocrite someone who doesn't practice what he preaches seven times in matthew chapter 23 alone does jesus use the word hypocrite to describe the pharisees and we have to get this because people are watching people are watching and the moment we don't live up to our own standards they will pounce on us like a lion on a wildebeest and they will use our failures as an excuse not only to shame us but to justify their own evil behavior and their own immoral agenda they'll be like well see that's a hypocrite over there you know look at what they're doing how they failed and so you know that's why i do what i do you know they're just a bunch of hypocrites don't give them fuel for the fire and also note that the pharisees were known as strict separatists which means that they would separate themselves from people who didn't share their same view or strict adherence to the law so they they were too good to associate with certain people in luke chapter seven there's this whole story about a pharisee named simon who invites jesus to dinner at his house jesus goes and as they're reclining at the table because it was typical in middle eastern style that you you know you recline you lay down you you you prop yourself up on one elbow you eat with the other hand but there's a center table that's low to the ground and everybody's reclining away from the table like spokes on a wheel and um there's this scene in luke 7 where this is what is happening jesus having dinner at simon the pharisee's house well the door no doubt is open or the windows to try to catch a whisper of a breeze and a prostitute comes by someone known in the town as a prostitute she walks in she starts weeping over jesus her tears are dripping all over his feet the bible says she takes her hair and she dries his feet from from her tears and then she takes an expensive alabaster flask of fragrant oil and she anoints the feet of jesus and she's just weeping there and anointing his feet and the bible says there in luke 7 that simon the pharisee it says he was thinking this in his heart he didn't say it but he was thinking this he was thinking if this man was really a prophet talking about jesus he would know what manner of woman is touching him that she is a sinner well the bible says jesus knowing his thoughts said simon i have something to say to you and simon said sayon that's king james say on tell me and jesus basically goes on to tell the scenario that basically says this you know why she's crying and she's weeping you know why she loves me so much because whoever loves much is has been forgiven much who whoever loves little has been forgiven little the reason why she's so broken is because she's forgiven and she loves me and she knows how much i love her but see simon had this perspective as a pharisee we don't we don't associate with people who are not as righteous as we are this dirty sinful woman here you should know jesus better than to associate with her you should have recoiled from her no no no in fact of the matter is probably he was the first man this woman met who genuinely genuinely loved her so we can't be strict separatists you see we have to still be a part of building relationships with people who don't know jesus how else are they going to find out about jesus if we just become these separatists who don't engage with people and don't you know have some kind of relational connection with people then then the very people who need jesus will not see him demonstrated in our lives or hear about him through our stories and our testimonies so all of that to say that's the spirit of the pharisees number two you have the second group the herodians now we don't know much about the herodians in fact there's only three references in all of the bible to the herodians one reference in matthew two references in mark and this is one of them they were kind of a weird mixture they were part political and part religious as a sect with loyalty to king herod thus their name herodians they were very loyal to king herod partly political partly religious they were strongly favored hellenistic that is greek customs of the day they were pretty secular and they were pro-government so kind of an odd mixture here and because of the mixture of the the three g's they were about god government and greek culture that's what they were about and they had this mixture of those things and because of that when you when you think about a herodian spirit today this would be people today in the church raising the banner of social justice and seeing government as a solution to human ills about as much as god is and these would be the people who are also pro-government like yeah profouchi pro-mask mandate close the church go ahead it's okay we won't say anything that's ridiculous in addition they would champion whatever the latest socio-political causes even if they don't fully understand it or even if it may not align with biblical truth have you have you noticed people some people who are a part of you know these these modern cultural protests or demonstrate some of them don't even know why they're there they're they've just been caught up in in a a popular movement and if you ask some of them why are you doing this and can you describe to me what the cause is a lot of them don't have answers i don't know you know i just i saw a bunch of people you know clamoring about something and i just kind of joined in i mean what is that about so so see modern herodians the the fact is it's all it's it's it's more about whatever the popular thing is because see a modern herodian is more interested in being on the right side of history than on the right side of truth and there's a difference there sometimes those things line up and sometimes they don't but but to a modern herodian it's it's this pro-government pro-god this whole mixture of things and and wanting culture to really be prominent this hellenistic greek thing that they were a part of in the day and and and so they would rather be i want my name on something that talks about something historical then i then i want to be associated with something that is true you know because they would say that we're more enlightened today more woke than than what an old book says especially if the majority of people say that something is so then it must be true you know that that's kind of the mantra of the day well if a lot of people are saying that it must be true really and so therefore even in the church today with that kind of a spirit we we will apologize for our skin color even if if that's the popular thing to do we will acknowledge a multitude of identities if that's a popular thing to do we will say buzzwords like cisgender non-binary pansexual cis-hat gender fluid if that's the popular thing to do we will use catchy terms like reproductive rights instead of abortion and things like alternative lifestyle instead of aberrant lifestyle if that's the popular thing to do by the way remember hitler did the very same thing with words when he starved at children he called it putting them on a low-calorie diet and when he killed jews he called it cleansing the land and when it comes to all these pronouns that people want to be called based on their perceived identity we are not really loving people when we deny them reality in order to somehow make them feel better that's not love and have you noticed isn't it interesting that some of the same people who tout science as the gold standard deny science when it doesn't serve them you know it's all about it's all about science science science you know follow the science obey the science okay well let's talk a little science for just a moment is biology 101 i'm not the brightest light in the room but you know i i remember biology 101 women girls born xx chromosome plus matching genitals that kind of that's kind of gender identity right there guys have x y chromosomes they have genitals that correspond with that that's kind of self-identifying that's like biology 101. why don't we follow biology chromosomes genitalia kind of makes sense no no no don't don't follow science on that one oh don't follow what's in your head follow what's in your head on that follow what's in my head you don't want to know what's in my head follow us in my head i have monkeys running bicycles smoking cigarettes in my head i i got crazy stuff in my head what are you talking about go with what's in your head demi lovato 28 year old singer songwriter came out recently saying that she was non-binary i'm reading this article like she's non-binary i got to go look that up i thought binary had something to do with books i i don't understand non-binary what nine bond non-binary is is that she doesn't identify as either female or male and she said that quote the patriarchy has been holding me back end quote so now i guess she's free from male oppression and now i know she was talking about joe jonas or who's just talking about but anyway she's like now i'm free to be me and this is how she describes herself listen to the quote on this quote over the past year and a half i've been doing some healing and self-reflective work and through this work i've had the revelation that i identify as non-binary with that said i'll be officially changing my pronouns to they slash them i feel that this best represents the fluidity i feel in my gender expression and allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person i both know i am and am still discovering end quote now i i read this i felt sorry for her and i have to be honest too it's it's so it it contradicts everything that is um reality to say i want you to use the pronouns they them when you refer to me i mean it's like i i have a hard time even putting the sentences together did you listen to did you listen to demi's song the other day man they can really sing that that doesn't even sound right somebody's like what do you mean they didn't she was it a duet was it was somebody no no it's just her i mean it was just they [Applause] and and you know honestly i i'm laughing at the insanity of it i'm not laughing at the people who who are struggling with all this i'm laughing at that we are are being told this is the new reality no it's not that's an unreality that you're living in and you know what is so tragic is that the medical community can't even help them anymore because this used to be called gender identity disorder and the dsm manual of statistical mental illnesses until 2013. and then some smart people got in the room together and said we're going to relabel this gender identity disorder to gender dysphoria and it's no longer a mental illness so therefore the people who struggle with this can't even get professional help because the medical community has abandoned them now of course we know that jesus is the great and ultimate healer and that he can bring wholeness to people who don't feel whole and for people on a similar journey like demi lovato who still who's in their own words i'm still trying to figure all this out okay we have an answer to to people who struggle with all sorts of issues because jesus is the ultimate reconciler and healer and savior and i pray that she finds him one day to know that amen and what is so sad is that instead of the church being a place of grace and truth where people can find healing and forgiveness through jesus many churches have capitulated to the culture on this in an effort to make people feel loved and accepted but let me tell you something if i have a terminal illness i don't want a doctor to lie to me i want a doctor to be truthful to me so that i can understand the course of treatment and the most loving course of treatment is to tell people the truth and to tell them in love so political correctness seems to be more important than biblical truthfulness this is the spirit of the herodians today last group the sadducees they were a religious sect they rejected certain theological truths like life after death heaven hell angels and demons they believed in unrestrained free will meaning god had no role in the personal lives of humans everyone was master of his or her own destiny and so when you when you look at the way the hero the rather the sadducees were in jesus day they didn't embrace really what their own scriptures talked about this is the equivalent today of a spirit in the church that embraces liberal theology and rejects certain doctrines and truths of scripture around the turn of the 20th century in america theologians and pastors started believing that god was well he was just kind of out of touch about some things and and that we are somehow more enlightened than god as time advances and thus the church over the last century or so has abandoned fundamental doctrines of the faith that are clearly spelled out in in scripture because uh some people who think they're more enlightened than god in the bible started looking at passages of scripture saying well that sounds intolerant and this passage over here seems out of the mainstream culture and so they started allowing the culture to shape the bible and the church rather than the church embracing the bible to shape the culture and there has never been a time more evident where that is happening than than now and here's how it started the influence of liberal theology really crept over here to america from european liberalism men like i'll put their pictures on the screen for you men like albert ritchell and adolf van haarnach two german theologians who believed that the bible is not true in its totality and so they started you know going around preaching this kind of thing and people would give them ear in america and they would start believing this kind of thing well yeah the bible you know maybe it's not all that true it's not all that reliable and then on top of it around the same time in 1922 a guy by the name of harry emerson fosdick and a sermon before the northern baptist convention declared that christianity did not need quote this is quoting right from his sermon in 1922 christianity did not need quote the intolerance of fundamentalists but rather the tolerance of diverse belief practiced by enlightened modernists end quote the translation is that we can't hold to absolute truth because we are enlightened and we know more than god does now i want you to take a look at those three guys behind me there they don't look very happy do they i mean they're going around saying oh you know the bible's not reliable and we need to be you know more modern and we're enlightened and more than god and that's what you get you get those faces there they look very depressed in fact i don't even i don't even want to look at them anymore it makes me sad but here's what began to happen at the same time that churches embrace liberal theology around the turn of the 20th century and so in the sanctuaries of many churches this liberal theology started going out at the same time a similar thing was happening in academia did you know that some of the ivy league schools that are very familiar to us were originally started as christian colleges and seminaries to train people to grow in their faith we're talking harvard yale princeton brown dartmouth columbia those are all colleges that were founded on christian principles to raise up people to be men and women who walked and talked and lived like jesus now what are they putting out so they started to abandon their own christian roots at the same time it was happening in the church it's happening in academia and the combination of the two between church and universities that are abandoning their christian heritage you have this liberal theology and liberal ideology creeping into the church and creeping into the colleges and universities did you know that 106 out of the 108 colleges that were first formed in america the first 108 colleges formed in america 106 of them were formed by christians and built upon christian principles but where are they now the result of this liberal theology and ideology over the years has now led to the accepted practice in many denominations and churches of things like denying the inerrancy inspiration infallibility and revel and relevancy of scripture tolerating sin under the banner of love rather than addressing sin under the banner of truth so that people can experience genuine forgiveness ordaining homosexuals performing same-sex marriages abandoning the pro-life position abdicating our role to be salt and light in the world in the culture and politics opting for social justice instead of biblical justice advocating a universalist view that all people will eventually be saved and that hell only exists on earth this is the spirit of the sadducees that's why the bible predicts that there will be an abandoning of the faith and a falling away from truth in the latter days before christ's return jesus said in matthew 24 10 at that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other and paul wrote to timothy in first timothy 4 1 the spirit clearly says that in latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons it's happening so there have always been and sadly will always be people and groups in opposition to jesus and to his true church sometimes that opposition from without sometimes that opposition from within the spirit of the pharisees the herodians and the sadducees is still alive and well and we must not allow any of it into our lives or into our church there is no place for religious piety like the pharisees for political correctness like the herodians or for liberal theology like the sadducees i close with this encouragement to us from hebrews chapter 10 verses 35-39 so do not throw away your confidence it will be richly rewarded you need to persevere so that when you have done the will of god you will receive what he has promised for in just a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay but my righteous one will live by faith and if he shrinks back i will not be pleased with him but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed but of those who believe and are saved amen amen lord we trust that we will not be those who shrink back and so would displease you but we would persevere we would continue to let our light so shine before men that they might see our good deeds and glorify our father which is in heaven we pray against any religious piety of the pharisees we pray against political correctness of the herodians against the liberal theology of the sadducees we pray lord that none of that would be in us or in our church and we pray wherever those things do exist that you would root it out and you would continue to use us lord to represent you in a world that needs you and we need your help to do that we want to be truthful but we want to be loving at the same time we want to be courageous and not afraid lord we want to be men and women and young people who stand on your word not rejecting it or twisting it to suit ourselves but people who hold up the truth that you would be honored lord glorified and that many people would come to know you we're living in a time that's so it's so crazy lord but at the same time people are hungry for the truth tell me the truth may we be a place that represents you well to that end and may you use us lord to touch the lives of people who need you we're thankful for your grace in our own lives keep us humble and use us for your glory that's our prayer in jesus name and everybody said amen amen god bless you all you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers

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Length: 32min 59sec (1979 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2021