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Ridgecrest Baptist Church is located in Dothan, AL and exists to Reach the lost, Build the believer, and Connect people of God to the mission and purpose of God.
Bibles, if you will, and open up to Mark's Gospel, chapter 12.
We'll get to our text in just a moment, but today I want to continue our series.
It's been a while.
We've been on a break through this Easter season, but we're in a series entitled The Story of Jesus.
It's a survey through Mark's Gospel, really, and I want us to look at today this matter of how deceptive religion can be.
You know, we hear frequently these days that religion is on the decline in the world.
That's just not true.
Now, for the past decade, the posters tell us that Christianity has been on the decline, in the U.S.
at least.
But recently, they've revealed that the decline has actually leveled out and that there are some indications that Christianity may actually be gaining new momentum.
But let's not confuse Christianity with a rank-and-file religion.
Religion has always been, will always be, that people are religious about many things, and sometimes it is confused, their religion of the world is confused with the faith of the Scriptures, and they are not the same thing.
Our culture is extremely religious, but it's not extremely Christian.
How do we know that?
Well, we know that because if it were so, the culture around us would be far more God-focused and far more biblical in behavior and attitude.
Vance Havner said many years ago, he said, the devil is not fighting religion.
He's too smart for that.
He is instead producing a counterfeit Christianity that is so much like the real one that even good Christians are afraid to speak out against it.
Well, that's always been the case.
It was the case in the time of Jesus when he was here, and it still is today.
And that's why Jesus called the religious leaders of his days whitewashed tombs and a brood of vipers.
They were masquerading.
They were false.
Their religion was a facade, and there was no substance to what they were teaching and the expectations they placed upon people.
They really masqueraded behind religion, and they did so in particular, as we're going to see today, in order to trap Jesus and to undermine the truth.
You see, they feared Jesus.
They feared Jesus because he was the truth.
Jesus was then, and he still is today, and that's why Jesus is not always favorable in our world.
And in the passage you'll see today, they tried several different ways to trap Jesus.
And yet they could not.
And what I want us to do today is I want us to look at these three traps.
All three of them failed, but the enemy continues to use them to this day against you and I. Now, I'm going to do something different, something that we don't generally do.
Normally when it comes time to read the Scripture, I have you stand and we honor God's Word that way.
By the way, that has a biblical tradition.
the book of Ezra, and some other places where the people would stand.
Literally, they would stand sometimes all day long as the scriptures were read to them.
I'm not going to make you even listen all day long, okay?
But we're not going to stand today because what I want to do, the passage is lengthy.
And here's what I want to do.
I want us to read a section that relates to the point that I'm going to reveal to you this morning about these three
traps, all right?
So we'll keep our seats, but keep your Bibles open as we look at three traps, three religious traps that were used to try to undermine Jesus, to try to undermine the truth, and how that applies to you and I today.
The first trap we see is found in verses 13 to 17.
It is the trap of political arrogance.
political arrogance.
Now when I talk about political in this context, I'm not talking about elections.
The word political relates to the people, polis.
It's a compound word, the way of the people.
And you'll see, I think it'll make sense as we look at this whole idea of the political arrogance was a trap they used to try to undermine Jesus.
Now
We observe this in verses 13 and following, so follow along with me as we read.
It says in verse 13, "...and they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians," notice it says, "...to trap him in his talk.
And they came and said to him, Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
Should we pay them or should we not?
But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, Why put me to the test?
Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.
And they brought one and he said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this?
And they said to him, Caesar's.
And Jesus said to them, Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.
And they marveled.
The first trap that they tried to use, and this was all intentional.
What you're going to see happen played out in the verses that we look at today was all intentional.
It was intentional by the religious leaders of the day.
They wanted to catch Jesus.
They wanted to undermine him.
And there was a reason for that, as I'll show you in just a few moments.
Not only did he speak the truth, but it's also because of the fear they had of the people.
So the trap begins here.
In verses 13 through 17, the Pharisees, and notice they add the Herodians.
Now, these were strange bedfellows, the Pharisees and the Herodians.
Generally speaking, they didn't get along with each other.
They didn't like each other.
You see, the Herodians were loyal to Herod and Rome.
They were unscrupulous.
They were wicked.
And they were far more interested in political alliances than
And they weren't the least bit interested in religion.
Then on the other hand, you had the Pharisees.
And they were intensely religious.
They were just the opposite of the Herodians.
So the Herodians were focused purely on political power.
and alliances.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, were devoted purely to religious power, religious posture, control.
They wanted to control their peers.
And where the Herodians tried to control the people with the Roman authority, the Pharisees tried to control the people with the religious law.
And both were trying to control the people, and both of them wanted the people in submission.
But the problem was that Jesus spoke the truth, and the people were following Jesus, and that was a threat to both the Herodians and the Pharisees and their power base.
The irony of all of this is that it was their hatred of Jesus that caused them to come together with each other.
They hated each other, but they hated Jesus more.
And they felt like they could help each other out.
It was an ancient form of what we today call political correctness.
And by the way, political correctness isn't new.
And in the world we live in, it has become kind of the go-to for much of the secular culture.
It's the way the secular culture often defends the absurd.
Today's PC culture and its deluded truth is often characterized by a Greek word, stupid.
For example, instead of saying, I'm lazy...
Political correctness says I'm motivationally deficient.
Instead of saying I'm fat, PC language says I'm simply horizontally challenged.
Instead of saying I'm short, PC language says I'm vertically challenged.
Instead of saying I'm wrong, PC culture today says I have my own truth.
Instead of saying, I'm ignorant, they say, I'm knowledge impaired.
Instead of saying, I lied, they say, I just misspoke.
But listen, folks, truth is truth.
And Jesus is the truth today, just like he was then.
And the truth always threatens PC.
It always threatens the culture.
that doesn't want truth.
And the tactics that we see used here by the enemy have always been used to try to confuse the truth.
If you've got space, write these down.
What were the tactics that they used?
Well, they used a political congregation.
Did you notice the passage says there, and they sent to him some.
It wasn't just a Pharisee and a Herodian.
They sent a congregation of people there to challenge Jesus.
Who were these people that were sent?
They were those who were like-minded.
They were those who agreed.
They were all in for the cultural thinker.
And so they attempted, these Herodians, these Pharisees, we'll bring a crowd, we'll bring a mob here to try to intimidate Jesus, to try to stack the deck against him.
Today, if you speak the truth, if you live the truth, or you stand for the truth, the culture will often try to use the media and the mob to pressure and protest you.
In fact, they'll use it to try to intimidate you.
The enemy wants to intimidate you and to cause you to believe that you're just out of touch with the age.
They'll tell you.
We've heard this.
They'll tell you that, well, you're just on the wrong side of history, as if you would be embarrassed to say, I disagree with where culture is going.
You're on the wrong side of history.
You've just accepted the wrong stuff, or you're just unkind, or you're out of touch with the mainstream 21st century thinking, which, by the way, just as a footnote, 21st mainstream
mainstream thinking tends to be whatever they decide it is.
One of my Greek professors many years ago, he said to our class, I remember the day I was sitting there, and he said, boys, I want to tell you something.
We had just parsed a passage in the Greek, which was the things that we had to do in that course.
And we were surprised by what the Greeks said versus what we thought the Greeks said.
And then he said this to us.
He said, boys, it's just like that in the world.
He said, the fact is, remember, right is right if the whole world is wrong.
And wrong is still wrong if everybody's doing it.
There are some things that are just true, period.
They used a political congregation to intimidate Jesus.
Maybe this, he'll see the mob, he'll see the crowd, he'll hear us, and he'll understand that we're all headed this way, you're not.
But another tactic that the enemy used then and uses today is the tactic of political affirmation.
There was a political congregation that they used, but listen to the political affirmation that we read about.
It said, did you notice how they approached Jesus?
They said, teacher, we know that you are true and do not care.
Teacher.
They approached him with affirmation and commendation.
Teacher, we know how you are, that you speak truth.
They were flattering him.
Why were they doing that?
Look at verse 12.
They were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them, and so they left him and went away.
They were trying to find a reason to arrest him, but they feared the people, so they knew their approach when they got to him had to be one of commendation teacher.
We know that you don't care what other people think.
We know that you always speak the truth.
So they're flattering him.
They feared the people.
They used this flattery and this commendation to make it appear that they were just merely interested in his thoughts.
Just tell us kind of what you think.
You see, you and I have to understand something.
When the devil can't intimidate you, he'll just try another tactic.
He'll try to flatter you into error and sin.
And that's what they did.
They knew that force had not worked.
Intimidation obviously wasn't going to do it.
And so they changed their tactic to flatter him.
The devil will actually try and convince you that he agrees with you on some level.
We know that you speak the truth.
See, we agree about the truth.
That's what they were saying to him.
But there's a reason Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
So they used a political congregation first.
They used political affirmation second.
But third, they used political legislation.
Notice what it says.
They asked this question, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
So here's what they were doing.
They were using a combination of Hebrew law and Roman law.
They were going to try to use the law and see if they could manipulate him by backing him into a corner.
So they used both the Hebrew law and the Roman law and thought, we've got him in this because any way he answers will be the wrong answer.
Remember, the Romans, they lived for the authority of the empire.
The Pharisees lived for the authority of the religious crowd and the religious law.
And so if Jesus said, well, you can't exalt Caesar above God, they would say he's violating Roman law.
He's not a loyal Roman citizen.
And that's enough, by the way, in that day to get you arrested.
Did you know the Caesars on many occasions demanded worship of themselves like they were gods?
And so if Jesus said, well, God first, Rome second, he was violating Roman law and could be arrested.
On the other hand, if Jesus said, well, you know, as a Roman citizen, we are required to elevate Caesar above God, then guess what?
He had committed blasphemy against the Hebrew law.
And so they had conspired together.
This is why they got together.
They thought, we got him either way, whatever he answers.
Now, neither crowd would like it, right?
So however he answered.
Now, here's the point for you and I. The devil still does that.
He will exaggerate the meaning of the rules.
He'll try to convince you that he knows the truth and he knows what's best and what's right.
You see, they were certain that Jesus' answer to their question would be unacceptable either way.
They had him trapped.
They had him backed into a corner.
But they had a two-fold problem.
They had a problem because Jesus knows the intentions of the enemy.
Did then, still does.
And Jesus' answer did something.
It exposed their hypocrisy.
And it exposed what they were really up to.
So he knew the intentions of their heart going in.
He knew exactly what was going on.
He knew what they were doing.
He knows what the tactics of the enemy are.
Now, by the way, that ought to bring some comfort in your life because it helps you understand something.
There's nothing that you battle in the spiritual world that Jesus is not already aware of.
Jesus knows what the enemy is up to.
But they had another problem, and that was that Jesus not only knew the intentions of their heart, Jesus knows how to confound the enemy.
Here's an easier way to say it.
Jesus is just smarter than all of us.
He's just smarter.
And he knew what they were doing, and they thought we have outsmarted him, but not so.
his answer defied their ability to condemn him.
His answer defied everything that they had thought.
And by the way, that's why you and I must always ask not what does the culture think and what does the culture say, but instead what does Jesus think, what does Jesus say?
Remember this, listen, on its best day, on its best day, the politically correct culture that you live in is still primarily influenced by the prince and power of the air, the Bible says.
And sooner or later, the prince and power of the air is going to express hostility toward Jesus, toward Jesus' followers, and toward the kingdom of God.
sooner or later.
So you have to understand what's going on.
Jesus understood.
He understood it here.
Go back and look in Matthew 4 when Jesus was taken up on the Mount of Temptation and the devil began to attack.
Jesus understood what was going on and Jesus understood how misunderstood the devil was.
Jesus knows and Jesus knows the influence of the enemy and his tactics in our life.
So we see the first trap that was tried, and it was political arrogance.
But there's a second trap we see, and I want us to read about in verses 18 through 27, and it is the trap of theological ignorance.
Notice, if you will, follow along with me in verse 18.
And the Sadducees came to him.
Now remember, the Pharisees had come, and they struck out.
So now the Sadducees came.
They came to him, and Mark notes a bit about them in verse 18.
The Sadducees came to him who say that there is no resurrection.
Keep that in mind.
And they asked him a question saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
There were seven brothers.
The first took a wife, and when he died, left no offspring.
And the second took her and died, leaving no offspring.
And the third likewise, and the seven left no offspring.
Last of all, the woman also died.
In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be?
For the seven had her as a wife.
And Jesus said to them,
Is this not the reason you are wrong?
Because you know neither 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.
And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
He is not...
God of the dead, but of the living, you're quite wrong.
You see, the next trap that the devil tries to use against Jesus, and that is the one of theological ignorance.
Political arrogance, but theological ignorance now initiated by the Sadducees.
And by the way, theology is just the study of God.
And these guys, they were religious leaders.
They prided themselves on knowing all about God, right?
They prided themselves on knowing the Scriptures.
We don't have a lot of information about the Sadducees, to be honest.
We do know, however, from the writings of Jewish historian Josephus and some others that they were a theological sect at the same time as Jesus.
They were a group.
And they were small in number.
There weren't a lot of them.
But they exerted great influence.
They were very religious and very politically influential.
The Sadducees actually represented what we would call the urban, wealthy, sophisticated, up-and-coming class.
And they were centered in Jerusalem.
But when Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70, evidently so were the Sadducees because we have nothing...
about them beyond that particular time.
But during that era, they were very influential.
And one thing is certain, one thing is certain, like the Pharisees and the Herodians, they hated Jesus.
And they hated Jesus for much the same reasons as the Pharisees did.
And they were just as determined as the other two groups to take him down and take down all that he was teaching and what he stood for.
You see, the Sadducees claimed to hold firmly to the Scriptures.
And this is the great irony.
And I think it's the reason that Mark points out a flaw in their theology.
They were so proud of their theology, which was ironically noted the ignorance of what they believed about eternity.
They were so proud.
They had it.
They had it all down, but they displayed ignorance because they didn't believe in the resurrection or anything beyond the grave.
And so their trap for Jesus related to a hypothetical theological question.
And notice that they too flattered Jesus.
They too called him, hey, teacher.
Why?
For the same reasons.
They feared the people.
But their purpose, they weren't really there to learn from him.
They weren't calling him teacher or rabbi so that he would instruct them.
It was a trap with hostile intention.
And their question, you notice the question, okay, so these people are asking a hypothetical question based on a theology that they don't even believe.
much like the world you live in today, that'll create some kind of bizarre hypothetical theological position to try to disprove what they've already decided they don't want to believe.
Time out.
Let me just give you a little footnote here.
When people start creating hypothetical theological situations, tell them, I don't have time for that.
Give me something real.
Give me something.
But people that create hypotheticals usually create them because they don't have real.
And so in this particular case, they're saying, okay, so the law of Moses says that if a man marries and doesn't have children by his wife and he dies and his brothers to come along and his brothers then to marry her and protect her and also produce offspring.
And he says this happens over seven different brothers.
and no children.
So when they get to heaven, since she didn't have children with any of them, whose wife will she be?
I need to be careful right here.
Who wants her?
Look, I did my time.
I mean, we were married for a while.
I'm teasing, of course, about that.
But Jesus points something out to them.
He points out the absurdity of what they're talking about.
They've created something that isn't even theologically sound.
And this is coming from people who pride themselves in their theology.
But at the same time are ignorant to the resurrection and say there is no resurrection.
They taught there is no resurrection.
It's pointless beyond this life and beyond the grave.
And so Jesus points out the silliness of their hypothetical.
Now don't miss this because I think it is the point of application for us when we see this trap that they were trying to use.
They were trying to use a theological trap on Jesus so they created a false narrative to see if they could get him to say something that would trap him against the law, Deuteronomy chapter 25 verses 5 and 6.
But don't miss this because I think here's the point of application for us.
And it's this, that the devil loves to use theology
to try and mislead us.
He loves to use theology to try to mislead us.
The devil will gladly elevate, listen, religion and religious leaders if he can use them to lead you to theological death.
He will gladly elevate them.
He is the prince in power of this world.
And he will remember what he offered Jesus on the mountain.
He said, look at all these kingdoms.
I'll give them to you if you'll fall down and worship me.
Now, he's been allowed to operate that way, and his day will come to an end and is fast approaching, I believe.
But listen to this.
The devil will elevate religion and religious leaders if it will advance the cause of false religion and false faiths.
and will lead people astray into theological death.
And the Scriptures warn us repeatedly about not being victimized by false doctrine and false teachers.
For example, Matthew 7, 15, Jesus said, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Jeremiah, when he was trying to lead the people and protect them and prevent them from going into bondage and captivity, would speak and proclaim the truth of God to them, and they would reject it, and they would say, we don't need to hear from you.
We have our own prophets, and they prophesy good things for us, so we've decided we're going to listen to the ones that say what we want them to say and say the things we've already decided to believe.
And against that, listen to what Jeremiah says.
Actually, he writes this in a number of different ways throughout the book.
But in chapter 14, verse 14, And the Lord said to me, he's giving this to the people.
The prophets are prophesying lies in my name.
I did not send them, nor did I command them to speak.
I didn't command them or speak to them.
They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divinations, and the deceit of their own minds.
He said, these people are coming to you.
They're masquerading.
They're teaching you things that aren't consistent.
I want to tell you, I don't have time, but there are those today in this culture that have great platforms of influence that are doing the very same thing.
And I'm amazed at how many Christians are saying, I like that.
That sounds good.
I'm going to swallow that.
Why?
Because it caters to what we want to believe, not what God says to believe.
God help us.
2 Timothy, Paul writes to young Timothy in chapter 4 and says, For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
He said, this is coming.
Folks, I'll tell you something.
We're there.
We have arrived there, and more to come.
Have you ever heard about the ant-death spiral?
Have you ever heard about the ant-death spiral?
I don't think they teach this at other churches or talk about it.
There was a fascinating article I came across from NPR.
which I'm not a big fan of, I need to tell you, but the article was interesting and it had nothing to do with NPR, but it describes a phenomena that is referred to as the ant death spiral.
And here's what the deal is.
There's a particular species of army ant that is utterly blind.
They're completely blind.
And so the way they get about is by sniffing trails left by the ants in front of them.
And so they, in turn, leave chemical trails of their own behind them.
So they follow the trail of the previous one.
They use their noses.
But as the article noted, the system works smoothly when everybody's going in a straight line, when everybody's heading in one direction.
But when the lead ants start to loop, bad things can happen.
You see, if the ant in front loops and intersects with its own trail, the whole crowd then turns in on itself, and everybody gets caught in an endless and vicious cycle.
Just keep going like this.
There's another natural phenomenon called the processionary caterpillar, which does much the same thing.
And if you hook them together, I don't know who tries these experiments, okay?
But they hook them together, these processionary caterpillars, and put them on a flower pot, as scientists did.
And they march around and around because they follow each other.
And they just go around until they're utterly exhausted or they die from malnutrition.
But at any rate, that's the story of this blind army ant that will just go in an endless circle if it gets headed that way, and it won't stop.
And so this researcher...
called it the death spiral.
The death spiral, because they will die unless something intersects or intervenes there.
You say, what's that all about?
Well, listen, listen carefully.
There's a theological death spiral that happens based on what you follow or who you follow.
And you may not know it, it may take a long time
but the death spiral will happen it's all about who you follow it's all about who you listen to it's all about what you listen to and so the devil he loves to use theology to mislead you to death but not only that the devil loves to use our ignorance of scripture to confuse us did you notice that Jesus confronts their ignorance of the scripture did you notice that when we read that section
He said, here's your problem.
You don't know the Scripture and you don't know the power of God.
He said, you don't know what the Scriptures really say.
You pride yourself in being people who know the Scripture.
They did.
The Sadducees did.
They thought they had it down.
They thought that they were scripturally literate.
But Jesus shows them that they not only did not know the Scripture, but the Scriptures they knew they distorted.
They abused, they misused.
There was an article in the Washington Stand this past fall.
A young lady named Sarah Holyday wrote about a recent report released by the American Bible Society in 2024.
They do this every so often, and it gives you, it's kind of the state of the Bible in America.
And so they released it back in December, this past December.
And she writes about that.
She said, as they released their State of the Bible USA 2024 report, they indicate that almost 60% of Americans are completely disengaged from the Bible and its teaching.
And then she asks, so what's going on?
Well, she continues, judging by the state of the Bible in America today, there's a growing disregard for truth and a mockery of numerous biblical mandates.
We see it all around us, she writes, and this report only affirms it.
She goes on to state, and I quote, it stands to reason that it's no coincidence that the more people disassociate from Scripture...
the more discombobulated our society becomes.
Well, likewise, the more disengaged you and I are with Scripture, the more likely we are to be confused about what is right and what is wrong, about God's will for our life, about which system of belief is trustworthy.
But the remedy is not complicated.
The remedy is simple, and it is make sure you know the Scriptures correctly.
Why?
So that you can distinguish between Scripture truth and Scripture abuse.
That's why you have to know it.
See, they thought they knew it, the Sadducees, and they thought they... Can you imagine pulling the Scripture out on Jesus?
See, they didn't realize that the author was right there in front of them.
Let's tell you a couple of things about Scripture.
Jesus, can you imagine Jesus sitting there going, this ought to be interesting.
The author is standing there.
Okay, what you got?
It was just like when the devil tried to use Scripture against him.
Don't use Scripture against Jesus.
And so they thought they knew it.
They thought they had it down.
So we're going to test you.
And Jesus just disabused them.
Because he's the author of Scripture.
They thought they knew it.
Don't, listen, you need to learn the Scripture for yourself.
And then you'll be like the Bereans, the Bible said in the book of Acts.
You remember the Bereans?
It says these people were more noble than those at Thessalonica.
The Bereans were more noble than those at Thessalonica.
You know why it said?
It said because they searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were true.
And guess who they were checking out, class?
They were checking out the apostles.
Well, the apostles said this, but I'm going to check this out for myself.
Listen, that remedy still works today.
And so they thought they had it down.
The devil loves to trap us with a distorted view of Scripture.
Theological ignorance.
If you want to know why people get led astray into some things that sound good, the devil is a master of half-truth.
I'll show you something in just a second.
He's a master of half-truth.
He'll give you half the stuff, enough that sounds good, and maybe even halfway sounds like it's scriptural,
but the context will be wrong, the application will be wrong, the meaning will be wrong, or they'll only give you part of it to make you, and you'll go, oh, yeah, well, that, you know, he, I had a man years ago, let me tell you about a man years ago, and his son was marrying into a false religion.
And this man was a good, he was a deacon in my church.
And he came to me and he said, what do you think?
I said, I think this is a mistake.
And he said, well, why do you think it's a mistake?
I said, they don't believe at all what we believe.
He said, oh, he said, you know, I used to think that too.
But he said, I met with the mother and the father.
And he said, you know what?
They talked about Jesus.
I said, they do that.
He said, but they talked about God.
I said, they do that.
And he talked about how Jesus, they believed Jesus came into this world on a mission.
I said, yeah, but they also talk about how he failed the mission.
Did you know that?
Did they bring that subject up?
Well, I don't know, but they just seem like a wonderful Christian family.
I said, let me tell you the problem.
And here's the problem.
Listen to this.
Listen to this statement.
The problem with much of that out there today, and even in some Christian environments, is
is they use our vocabulary, but they don't use our dictionary.
Does that make sense?
They use our vocabulary, but they don't use our dictionary.
And so we have to be careful because the devil, he doesn't mind using language you're familiar with.
He just doesn't define it the same way.
Am I making sense?
There's one last trap I want you to see this morning.
And that's the trap of spiritual relevance.
Spiritual relevance.
Now this one, you've got to listen real careful here because I'm going to show you a little twist in this one.
But let's read verses 28 through 34.
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, seeing that Jesus answered them well, the scribe asked him, which commandment is the most important of all?
And Jesus answered, the most important is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
By the way, that's called the great Shema.
for Israel.
Verse 31, the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There's no other commandment greater than these.
And the scribe said to him, you're right, teacher.
You have truly said that he is one and there is no other besides him.
And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
And when Jesus saw that, he answered wisely.
Jesus said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.
And after that, no one dared ask him any more questions.
This is a trap.
What is the trap here?
It's a trap of spiritual relevance.
This scribe came up and asked the question.
He was watching this conversation.
And it is some believe that he might have been subtly prompted by the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
You ask a question.
You're the scribe.
You ask him a question.
See if you can ask him something.
And so the trap started with the Pharisees.
It moved to the Sadducees.
And lastly, it involves the scribes.
These, again, were the three primary religious groups of the day.
The scribes are what we would call today's modern-day lawyers.
They were the experts in the law.
They were responsible to preserve it and to pass it on.
They were responsible to interpret it and to help define it and make it apply.
But there's a twist here.
Now, it's likely, again, that the Pharisees, Sadducees, prompted the scribe.
You ask him a question.
You've seen how he's answered.
And the scribe was impressed.
He was impressed with how Jesus had wisely answered.
their questions.
But here's the twist.
The scribe's question is sincere.
It's not hostile.
Different from the other two.
The other two tried to paint it under the veneer of we're just interested in what you have to say.
But there was hostility in their intention.
Not so with these scribes here.
They were sincere.
They weren't hostile.
And even though
They might have been influenced by the others.
The question was an honest question.
But once again, Jesus' answer blows everybody away.
It takes them by surprise.
And in this case, Jesus not only designates the great commandment, because that's the question, what's the great commandment?
But he also gives the second greatest commandment, even though the scribes had not asked for another.
They just said, what's the greatest one?
He said, here, well, I'll give you two.
Two for the price of one.
The first is the great commandment.
We call it the great commandment.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And then the other gospels repeat it.
And the second is likened to it.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
He gave them two.
And then he explains why.
Because after he gives them that second commandment,
Answer, he says, on these two rest all the laws and the prophets.
Have you ever wondered what that statement means?
Here's what Jesus was saying.
You want to know what the great king did?
That's a no-brainer.
Love God with all your heart.
And the second is love your neighbor as you love yourself.
And here's what Jesus was saying.
And if you get those two right, don't worry about the others.
They'll take care of themselves.
So if you get those two right, if you love God with all your heart, and you love your neighbor as you love yourself, the rest of them will take care of themselves.
On these two hang all the others.
And it makes sense, doesn't it?
So he gives them this explanation.
When the scribe receives Jesus' answer, he affirms it, and then Jesus says, you're not far from the kingdom.
You're not far away.
You're almost there.
You've almost got it.
And herein, and I want to close with this, but herein lies the potential trap of the enemy that I want you to see because when you first think, well, if this wasn't hostile and this was a legitimate question and he gets a legitimate answer and everything, what's the potential trap?
There is a trap lurking here.
Let me show you what the trap is.
The trap is that the devil wants you to debate
rather than obey the commands of God.
What's the great commandment?
We're scribes.
We're lawyers.
Let's discuss.
What is the great commandment?
What's the greatest of all of them?
And there were many of them.
The scribes, you see, were so consumed with preserving and discussing the law that obeying the word of God could easily be neglected.
You know, the devil will do that to you.
He'll cause you to debate it, to discuss it, to talk about it, to reflect upon it, but do nothing with it.
And to have all the right answers.
There are a lot of people that have all the right answers.
There are people in our churches that have got the right answers, but the right answers don't have them.
And the danger for us is that the devil doesn't mind you having answers as long as you don't do anything with them.
Having discussions about the Scripture for the sake of discussion is fine as far as the enemy is concerned, as far as the devil is concerned.
It's the application of Scripture that the devil hates and wants to prevent.
But I'll tell you this, not only does the devil want you to debate rather than obey the commandments of God, the devil is also happy to convince you that close is good enough.
Close is good enough.
Jesus told them, you are not far from the kingdom of God.
Jesus didn't say, you're in.
Jesus didn't say, you got the right answer.
Jesus said, you're not quite there yet, but you're close.
He may have gone, you're closer than the rest of this bunch.
You've heard the old saying, haven't you heard this?
Close, but no cigar.
You ever heard that statement?
You know what that means, don't you?
It means almost, but not quite enough.
That's really the story of this last trap.
The scribe had the right information, but there was no indication that he had made the right application.
And I think, as I've studied through this text, I think that this last trap may be the most insidious trap of all.
Why?
Because this scribe was so close.
I mean, to have an interest as this scribe did, to know the Scriptures as the scribe did, to have the right answer as the scribe did, but to not quite follow Christ is tragic.
Close.
He was close.
Do you know the devil is fine with close?
He's fine with close.
He is fine with you being close as long as you're not in.
It may be the most insidious trap of all.
Well, I've always gone to church.
I've gone to church all my life.
Close.
You know, I got baptized years ago.
Close.
You know, I've got five Bibles at my house.
I don't know anything in them.
Close.
I believe that Jesus died on the cross.
I believe that Jesus died on the cross.
Close.
I believe in heaven and I believe in hell.
Close.
You get it?
Close.
But not necessarily in heaven.
It's not what you know, it's how you respond to what you know that makes the difference.
James writes and says, you believe in God?
Good.
The devils believe and tremble.
The demons believe and tremble.
Close.
Here.
But not here.
These scribes were close.
Close.
And you know what?
I got to thinking, we don't ever hear any more about these scribes.
Remember after AD 70, they essentially, as a unit, they disappeared.
Maybe he went away and said, I got to do something about that.
But there's no indication that he did.
He probably went off with the rest of the scribes and thought, well, that was an interesting conversation.
And yeah, wow, he said you were close.
To whatever it is that he's teaching.
You're close.
Yeah, I'm closer than you guys.
But friend, listen.
It's a trap.
And it is a trap that will take you all the way to hell.
Close.
But not in.
But friend, I tell you this more, it doesn't have to be.
You don't have to be a victim of
of any of these traps because of the victor who conquered the enemy.
All you have to do is say, I'm not going to just live with the information.
I'm going to operate on the application of the truth.
Will you pray with me?
Father, Lord, we're all subject to be victimized by these traps.
We thank you for the lessons that Jesus teaches us so that we can have victory over the enemy.
And we know we can because you've already assured us and because you live inside of us.
But Father, for those who do not know you, I pray today that they will recognize that close isn't enough and that they will surrender their life to you.
That they'll move from just what they know, like the scribes, into who they know.
That they'll put their trust in you.
They'll call upon you.
As you've said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Whoever confesses with their mouth and believes in their heart will be saved.
And so, Father, I pray for those today who are watching, listening by radio, live stream, television, however it may be in this live audience that needs to put their trust in you.
Let this day be that day that they call on you.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, I'm so glad that you have tuned in to the broadcast today.
I hope you've been encouraged by God's word.
Sure has been a joy to share it with you.
And even now, people at Ridgecrest are making decisions for Christ.
Perhaps as you've watched this broadcast, you've recognized the need for your own decision for Christ.
The prompting of the Spirit has caused you to recognize that you need Christ as your Savior.
And the good news is you can receive Him right where you are.
The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Right where you are, you can call on Him.
Say something like this from your heart to Him.
Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me.
I know I'm a sinner.
And I know that you came into this world and died on the cross for my sins.
And right now, I invite you to come into my life.
Forgive me and be my savior.
I can assure you if you'll call on him, based on what God has already told us in the Bible, that he'll hear that prayer and he'll answer that.
And he wants to begin this new journey
in your life with you, transforming you into His image.
We'd love to help you with that decision as well.
You'll see a QR code on your screen, and if you would scan that, or you'll see contact information, or if you'll contact us about your decision today, we'd love to help you take next steps.
There are no strings attached, no fees involved.
We'd just like to help you begin that journey with Christ.
You may be watching this broadcast today and say, I need a church family to belong to.
I already know Christ as my savior and I'd like to be a part of the Ridgecrest family.
Also, if you will scan that QR code, that'll take you to a location and we'll be able to help you make those kinds of decisions like becoming a member here or if you've never been scripturally baptized, those kinds of things.
So contact us through that QR code or through the contact information on the screen.
Well, again, it's been a joy to have you with us today.
And I hope you've been encouraged by God's word.
Whatever decision we can help you with, by all means, contact us.
May the Lord bless you.