The King and His Authority

Well, take your Bibles this morning and open them to Luke chapter 19.

! Luke 19 and our text for this morning is the same as the text for last Sunday.! I said we would spend a couple of Sundays on the Sunday, and it is a passage, of course, that goes from chapter 19 on into chapter 20.

So our text starts with verse 45 of chapter 19 and runs through to verse 8, chapter 20. So let me go ahead and read the passage again.

Then he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, It is written, My house is a house of prayer.

You have made it a den of thieves. And he was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy him and were unable to do anything, for all the people were very attentive to hear him.

Now, it happened on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted him and spoke to him, saying, Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things?

Or who is he who gave you this authority? But he answered and said to them, I also will ask you one thing, and answer me. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, If we say from heaven, he will say, Why then did you not believe him? But if we say from men, all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.

So they answered that they did not know where it was from. Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Interesting passage. I said last Sunday that we can look at this particular passage from two slightly different angles, different kind of perspectives.

That is, there are two things, at least two things, or maybe I should say two primary things, that this particular passage is revealing about Jesus.

Now last Sunday, looking at the passage from a particular vantage point, we noticed and discovered that, discovered what Jesus cares about most.

That's what we talked about last week. And what does Jesus care about most? True worship. True worship. That was our subject last Sunday, as we looked at this passage from that particular angle.

That's what's revealed here in the passage, revealed about Jesus. What Jesus cares about most. True worship. Now this morning, we want to look at the passage from another vantage point, and discover why, basically why, we should care about what Jesus cares about most.

And that is, the passage reveals that Jesus is God's true king. And therefore, he has all authority. That's our subject this morning.

That's the perspective that this passage gives us, concerning Jesus. And by the way, not just this passage, but if we are really paying attention, as we read throughout the Gospels, whether it's Luke, or maybe Matthew, Mark, John, as we read through the Gospels, we see this revealed over and over again.

The authority of Jesus. That's our subject for this morning, out of this passage. Now to begin with, I want us to kind of set the stage. I think it's important for us to get the chronology right, and kind of take a look at what Jesus is doing each day.

All right? He has drawn to the end, to the time of the end of his ministry, here on earth. Now he's coming again, so he's not finished with earth, okay? Praise the Lord, he's coming again.

But, at his first coming, and his ministry on this earth, that's coming to an end. Very, very shortly. As a matter of fact, just in a matter of a few days.

And so his Galilean ministry is finished. We looked at those portions of the Gospel of Luke, that describe his Galilean ministry. His Judean ministry is also ending.

It has ended effectively. And so Jesus has now entered the last week of his life, at his first coming. And so he's made the trip from Jericho, about 17 miles at the most from Jerusalem.

And after a brief few days in Bethany, he then makes his way on to Jerusalem. All right, so it is Saturday, time period, A.D. 30.

All right? Some might dispute that, but you can look it up and figure it out yourself. A.D. 30. And Jesus arrives in the area of Jerusalem.

All right? It's Saturday. And on Saturday, though Luke does not include this in his narration, he spends the night in Bethany, spends a few days in Bethany, with his beloved friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

And then on Sunday, the word now has spread throughout the region, in Jerusalem, around Jerusalem, in the cities and villages near that area of Israel.

So news has spread. And so the crowds are beginning to form. Now, many people are there already because of the Passover. It is Passover week. But they're beginning to kind of form around Bethany and all along the road leading on into Jerusalem.

In fact, the Bible even tells us if we kind of put all of the various gospel accounts together, the Bible tells us that many even came to the house there in Bethany to see Jesus.

And to see Lazarus, whom he had raised. On Monday, Jesus rides into Jerusalem, to Jerusalem on the back of the foal of a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9.

Now the size of the crowd has intensified. It could be as many as 100,000 people or more have all gathered around there.

Down each side of the road leading in to the eastern gate of the city. And remember, they're throwing down their coats and they're throwing down palm branches.

And as Jesus rides into the city and they're hailing Jesus as the King. The King who has come in the name of the Lord. In fulfillment of Psalm 118 verse 26, by the way.

And so this huge kind of entourage or parade ends just inside the eastern gate at the very gate of the temple.

The very doors of the temple. And it's late in the evening and so Jesus then returns to Bethany for the night and that's how Monday ends. All right, so then on Tuesday morning Jesus returns to Jerusalem and to the temple and goes into the temple.

But now his mood has dramatically changed from the past few days because now he's angry. Clearly. Angry. Now he's not sinning in his anger.

Okay. He's angry. Angry at what he sees. I really think that he got a glimpse of it as he came to the temple gates the night before.

And so that determined what he was going to do the next morning. But he's angry at what he sees. There are merchants there inside the court of the Gentiles in a place that is supposed to be a place of worship and teaching and reverence in preparation for worship.

But he sees merchants there and they're selling their goods at exorbitant prices fleecing the people and he sees the money changers there exchanging money exchanging currency at unfair rates profiteering on worship.

Most of that money a lot of that money is going right into the pockets of Annas the former high priest and also Caiaphas the current high priest and many of the chief priests going into their pockets.

They're profiteering. So Israel's worship clearly has become corrupt. And it has become the worst kind of hypocrisy.

And Jesus cleans house. I know we've studied all this ground already. And we're very familiar pretty familiar with the story. He purges the temple. He cleanses the temple.

And He makes it once again a house of prayer. He said, My house is to be a house of prayer. Meaning, it's to be a house of worship. And so He restores His house back to a house of true worship.

Verse 47, He was teaching daily in the temple. Chapter 20, verse 1, He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel. See, that is, He restored the heart of worship in the temple of God, of Israel.

In the house of God. Which is, by the way, the word of God. That's the heart of worship. The preaching of the gospel. Ewing glitzo is the word that is put here in the text.

And it means all things, He was teaching all things that pertain to the good news of redemption. Which, by the way, includes everything in this book. That's what He was teaching.

He restored worship to the house of God. True worship. So that's what we talked about last week. And so, Jesus' actions there in the temple, what He did there, revealed to us that true worship is what Jesus cares about most.

And so, our worship is to be about Him, not about us. Our worship or the substance of our worship must be His word.

And not our word. And so, Jesus cleanses the temple on Tuesday. And this so angers the Jewish leadership that they are determined more than ever to do away with this guy, to destroy him.

And that's how corrupt Israel's worship had become. That's how far Israel had fallen away from God and the true worship of God.

Now, we started reading, when we start reading in chapter 20, Luke has brought us to Wednesday. Now it's Wednesday. And where is Jesus?

He's back in the temple. Back in the temple again. And what a different place it now was. It had become. No dishonest money changers.

No corrupt merchants there because Jesus had driven them all out. Instead, what do we have? It's replaced with the teaching of God's word. Jesus is teaching God's word.

And Jesus is explaining the gospel. He had restored the truth to the temple. He purged it of its liars and fates and frauds and he had purged it of all of the hypocrites.

And it was time for some truth in God's house. And Jesus restored it. It was time for God's true teacher, God's true word, God's true gospel to be restored in God's house.

Jesus becoming the center of attention as it should be. Not only then, the house of the day. And so, Jesus teaches all day on Wednesday and he teaches on Thursday as well.

chapter 21 verse 38. Early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him. And on Friday what? He's arrested, tried, and crucified.

In fact, while the Passover lambs, on Friday while the Passover lambs are being scrutinized and examined by the priests so that they could be worthy sacrifices on the Passover, while that's taking place, guess what?

God's lamb is slain. Is slain. So what happens here on Tuesday and Wednesday is very significant. Very significant and we don't want to miss it.

And we have in our story here what I believe is an amazing display of the authority of Jesus.

His authority. So authority is our subject. authority is a big deal. We can't escape it. It's everywhere. We live in it.

We understand it. All of us are both given some authority and all of us are placed under authority. We're usually placed under more authority than the authority we have and that's just the experience of all of us and we understand authority.

Now we may not like it especially when we're under it but we understand it. We understand the issue of authority. We live with it every day.

We confront it every day. We show it with the authority we have and we submit to it in those authorities that are over us.

We understand the issue of authority. But and this is the significance of the text. When you start talking about Jesus authority becomes something quite different.

Quite different. And why is that? Well because in Matthew 28 18 Jesus said all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

All authority. That's something different. That's not something that any of us have seen here in our lives.

We've never had it. We don't know anybody who has it. We certainly have heard about and read about those who have claimed to have it over the years. But this kind of authority is something totally different.

All authority. All. In John chapter 17 verse 2 Jesus is praying. That's his famous prayer to the Father. And he prays you speaking to the Father.

He says you have given me authority over all flesh. That is all mankind. All authority.

You see Jesus has a type of authority that you and I know nothing about personally. He has absolute unilateral authority to do whatever he wills to whomever he wills and whenever he wills.

Do you have a problem with that? Before you say no just remember that we're all sinners. We have a problem with his supreme authority or we wouldn't sin.

But beyond that a lot of people have a problem with this that he has all authority unilateral authority that he can do whatever he wills to whomever he wills whenever he wills.

They have a big problem with that. And the Greek New Testament there are two words that are typically translated authority sometimes translated with the word power in our English Bibles.

First there is the word that you've heard before dunamis usually translated power but has the idea of authority and really it just simply means the power to do something.

The power to do something. Just this basic meaning dunamis. We get our word dynamite or dynamic. The power to do something. Second there is the word exousia.

Exousia and this is the word that we have in our text. In fact it appears three times here in the passage and it just simply means the right to do something. The power to do something dunamis.

the right to do something. And you'll find both of these words used interchangeably and used often in the New Testament in describing the authority of Jesus Christ.

Or God's authority. And so to have all authority to have all power and all the right rights to do everything and anything one wills to do that's Jesus.

That's Jesus. There's no limit to his power. No limit to his rights as God the Son. He has both the right to do what he wills and he has the power to carry it out without any problem, without any limit.

The only qualification that we might say Jesus has or applies to Jesus' authority is that everything he does must be in perfect harmony with the will of the Father and it always was and always is.

Now, of course, what we're talking about here is sovereignty. Sovereignty. And you know, it's interesting that with Jesus, the words authority and sovereignty are synonyms.

only with Jesus is that true. And when you're talking about authority when it comes to Jesus, you're talking about his sovereignty and his sovereignty is this authority. They go together, there's no difference between the two.

And so here's what we want to see in the text. That's all this kind of introduction and ground work. Here's what we want to see in the text in relation to the authority of Christ. What we want to see here and can see here and I hope you will see is that no one can withstand the sovereign authority of Jesus.

No one can. And let me just show you in this passage that truth, that reality. And the examples that we have, and there are three of them, the examples here are really very subtle.

We might think that there could be more profound ways to reveal this, but these are very subtle. very subtle, and yet still at the same time very profound.

When we just kind of take it all in, there are three things. Three things. The first example of Jesus' sovereign authority comes in his cleansing of the temple.

We talked a little bit about this last week. It's kind of barely mentioned. It's an example of his authority, his cleansing of the temple. And so number one, if you are writing down the outline, Jesus purged their sanctimonious worship of God, and they could not restrain.

They could not restrain. And it's such an amazing example of his authority. You see, on Tuesday morning, Jesus storms into the temple, and with violence, drove out those who bought and sold in it.

That's what verse 45 says, chapter 19. When we look at a parallel passage in Matthew, Matthew chapter 21 and verse 12, Matthew gives us a little bit more information, and he said he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats.

He overturned the seats of those who sold does. I'm just thinking they're probably still sitting in those seats. Can you imagine? Can you picture this?

the temple area, this area where this was going on, the court of the Gentiles, quite a large area. And so they're just all over, and we can just imagine Jesus coming in and running around, and turning over the tables, and the money is going everywhere, and up with the chairs, and just going very violently, and just throwing them all out of there.

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine him doing that and visualizing that? Now remember, he did this once before. I mentioned this last week.

He did this once before at the beginning of his ministry. In fact, it says in Scripture that he made a whip, and he threw all the buyers and the sellers out of the temple.

But notice who tried to stop him? No one. Isn't that interesting?

No one did. Who gave him the authority to do such a thing in the temple? No one.

No one did. He didn't go to the chief priest and get some kind of authorization to do this. He didn't go to the scribes, the teachers, the lawyers of the day.

He didn't go to the Sanhedrin, that was the ruling body of the day and certainly of the temple. He didn't go to the high priest. He didn't go to the top man and get approval. He didn't ask anyone for permission.

He didn't need anyone's permission. You understand? And you know, this was an epic assault upon the leadership of Israel.

Epic. And really, it is the culmination of a three year long assault upon the leadership of Israel and assault upon their hypocrisy.

Now think about it. Jesus attacked the leaders of Israel. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, the chief priests, the scribes, all of the leaders of Israel.

He attacked them on every level. You just have to go back through all the gospel accounts. You'll see him doing this over and over and over again. He attacked their theology, their whole concept of moralism and legalism.

He attacked their stewardship, the giving of their tithes and offerings, you know, to bring the praise of man to themselves. He attacked their religious activities like prayer and fasting that was all a sham just for show.

He attacked their worship. Talked about that last week. It was all a sham. It was fake. It was corrupt. And Jesus had been attacking them on every single level all throughout his three year ministry.

He did it during his Galilean ministry. He did it during his Judean ministry. And now he has the unmitigated God to come on their own turf, into their own domain and purge it of their corruption.

And then to openly, verbally, expose their hypocrisy. the gall. And they can't stop him.

That's what we need to see. They couldn't stop him. They couldn't at all. Jesus purged their sanctimonious worship of God, their hypocritical worship of God, and they could not restrain him, could not do it.

What an example of the absolute unilateral irresistible authority, sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, Jesus preached the saving word of God, and they could not resist him. They could not resist him.

After Jesus cleansed out the temple, it stayed cleansed for a while, for a week, perhaps until after Jesus was crucified and buried and so forth, stayed clean.

And as I've already pointed out, Jesus replaced the corrupt worship with the preaching of God's word. The heart of true worship. He restored into God's house the heart of true worship.

Chapter 19, verse 47, again, trying to be redundant, but want us to get this squarely in our minds. It says he was teaching daily in the temple, those few days that he had before his crucifixion.

Teaching daily in the temple. In the temple. That is, in the same place where just the day before, the bazaar of Annas, the high priest, was conducting its corrupt business.

In that same place. Now he's teaching. In chapter 20, verse 1, he taught the people in the temple to preach the gospel. In chapter 20, in verse 37, and in the daytime, he was teaching in the temple.

Teaching, teaching, teaching, preaching the gospel all throughout those few days. And here's the amazing thing. Chapter 19, verse 47, the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy him.

And notice this, they were unable to do anything. That's amazing. They couldn't stop him.

They couldn't stop him. Why not? The temple was their domain. That was their domain. I mean, you couldn't teach in the temple unless you had some prior approval from the Sanhedrin.

That was the rule. Jesus had no teaching credentials. He had no official ordination. He had no prior approval.

No bachelor degree. No master degree. No PhD. From any accredited school. He didn't have any of those things, but Jesus did not need any approval.

That's the point. He didn't need any approval from some higher authority. There was no higher authority. Remember how the people responded to Jesus in Matthew 7 29?

If you don't, let me remind you. Matthew records that the people were astonished at his teaching. This is earlier on in his ministry. But I think it's indicative of how the people responded to his teaching all throughout his ministry.

ministry. They were astonished. Amazed. And Matthew goes on to say, for he taught them, now listen to this, he taught them as one having authority.

Having authority and not as the scribes. This was something new to them. They had never seen this before. They weren't used to their teachers speaking with their own authority.

They were used to their teachers, their scribes and priests and so forth, quoting some other notable authority. That's what they were used to.

Their authority came from someone else. But Jesus spoke on his own authority. He is his own authority. So, they're thinking what right does he have to come in here and teach with his own authority?

What right does he have? He has had no trusted mentor in his life. None that we would recognize. He has never been tutored by any notable rabbi.

He has no accredited degree or credentials from any theological school, any rabbinical school. He doesn't have any of that.

He taught and preached the saving word of God and they could not resist him. Now, to be sure, they tried. They certainly tried.

You know, all the time Jesus was teaching. I mean, we can find this out in the next few chapters, 20 and 21, which gives us the account of his teaching, but also other things.

things. And so, all throughout the time of his teaching, the Jewish leaderships were questioning, scrutinizing, confronting him, asking questions that might trip him up, discredit him, and whatever.

So, every time Jesus is teaching, and in between, maybe a lull in the action before he starts again, and I think we can imagine Jesus went to different places in the temple, different nooks and crannies, wherever crowds were, and he taught, and he taught, and in between those times, the Jewish leaders would come in, and they would question him, and scrutinize him, and try to trip him up.

And the result of their exam, their examination, the result of it, well, verse 26, look at it. they could not catch him in his words.

They marveled at his answers. And ultimately, listen to this, verse 40, they dared not question him anymore.

I love that. They gave up. What do you think they could do? Because he taught with authority, his own authority, and what could they do to dispute him, to trick him, to expose him as some heretic or blasphemer?

They could do nothing. Now, you know, it's not just the leaders who were unable to resist him, in the sense of stopping him, but actually those who were listening to his preaching also could not resist him.

In the sense of hearing. Chapter 19, verse 48 says, for all the people were very attentive to hear him. That's the authority of Jesus, teaching of the word of God.

They could not resist him. They hung on every word, glued to him as he spoke and taught with authority.

Now, you know, you might be thinking, well, actually the Jewish leadership did stop Jesus from teaching and preaching. Didn't he? Didn't they?

They had him crucified. Were you thinking that? Well, you know, even that is an example of the authority, the sovereign authority of Jesus.

He said, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down. And besides that, the cross didn't stop Jesus. The last 2,000 years proof of that.

The sovereign authority of Jesus Christ, King Jesus. First, he purged the sanctimonious worship of God and they could not restrain him.

And then he preached the saving word of God and they could not resist him. and finally he actually personified, in his very person, he personified the supreme wisdom of God and they could not receive him.

This is perhaps the greatest example of his sovereignty and perhaps the most disturbing aspect. They could not receive him. receive him. I said they could not.

They could not receive him. That's true, they would not. Right? They would not receive him. But now, they could not.

They could not. See, what happens next here in chapter 20 is sad. Very sad. It was even sad to Jesus.

What happens next has already, really already been explained in an earlier passage. Look back at chapter 19 verse 41.

Jesus is getting near to Jerusalem. He said, and as he drew near to Jerusalem, he saw the city. What did he do? He wept.

Uncontrollably, he wept. Saying, if you had known, even you especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, that is your salvation, you just know.

But, what comes next? Now, they are hidden from your eyes.

that is very sad. Very disturbing. And so, look how this plays out in chapter 20. All the supreme wisdom of God stands there in bodily form right before the chief priests and scribes and elders who are scrutinizing him.

And it is the wisdom of God, wisdom of God's redemptive plan, form before the foundation of the world. All of it is contained in that person of Jesus.

And what do these leaders do? Verse 1, they confronted him. The form, by the way, the form of the Greek word here conveys the attitude of hostility.

why I tried to read it that way while we were there. And I just kind of casually asking him a few questions. Just coming to him for a little clarification.

They're hostile. And so, verse 2, tell us, by what authority? I mean, you can hear their voices. They're angry.

By what authority are you doing these? Or, who is he who gave his father? They're asking, who do you think you are coming here and proposing to cleanse our temple?

Who do you think you are to come in here and teach and preach in our temple without our approval?

Who told you you could do these? Now, you know, this puts Jesus in a bit of a pickle. Or, so it might seem.

Because, you know, if he says, I'm doing these things by God's authority, then they would just accuse him of blasphemy and they would immediately haul him off to jail and try him and have him killed.

eventually they're going to do that, but it's not time yet. So, Jesus is not going to answer that way. I was just looking at this from a purely logical perspective.

You know, he's in a quandary here. I mean, has he answered this question? He can't say that he's doing this by God's authority. If he says, I'm doing these things by my own authority, which is true, then, to them, he would just be discrediting his ministry.

Discrediting it as false, what he would say. That's how they would take it. You've got to be very careful how you answer this question, because it could lead to your stoning, maybe, or death prematurely before the cross.

It could also just simply wipe away everything you've claimed throughout your ministry. He's got to be very careful, so Jesus responds with his own question. Very wise.

Verse 4, baptism of John. Let me ask you a question. I'll answer your question if you answer my question. Basically what he's saying. He asked the baptism of John, John the Baptist, was it from heaven or from men?

And by the way, when he says the baptism of John, he's really talking about John's ministry, the whole of his ministry. Is it from heaven, that is, from God, or is it from men?

So this puts them in a pickle. Doesn't it? And we know that because, you know, we can kind of visualize that they huddle for a little while and compare notes and say, well, what are we going to do?

How are we going to answer this question? You know, in verse 5, if we say from heaven that John's ministry was from God, he will say, then why didn't you believe him? Why didn't you believe him?

Believe him about what? Huh? About Jesus. About Jesus. About his true identity. John identified Jesus as the Messiah.

He declared openly, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Now, they could not bring themselves to believe that.

So, neither could they admit that John's ministry was from heaven because they're certainly not going to believe what John said. But on the other hand, if they say John's ministry is from men, then all the people will stone us.

That's what they said. Now, they were speaking hyperbole. People are not going to stone us. It may be like us saying, man, they'd just kill us, murder us. It's an exaggeration.

So, they can't do that. We'd fall out of favor with the people. For they are persuaded that John was a prophet, a true prophet. So, they can't say that.

And so, what do they say? We don't know. A bunch of cowards. noncommittal answer, we don't know.

And listen, what Jesus, here's the clincher, what Jesus says next, I want you to know, is a whole lot more than just an ingenious way to silence his opposition.

what Jesus says next is tantamount to sealing their judgment.

He says in verse eight, neither will I tell you by what authority I do this. I'm not going to tell you.

Listen, Jesus is truth incarnate. Jesus is the supreme wisdom of God, gospel, in bodily form.

And for three years, he revealed that truth about himself, he revealed it through many undeniable proofs.

His authority in preaching and teaching, his authority over creation, the created things, his authority in signs and wonders, healings and so forth, and his authority over Satan's realm.

Undeniable proofs. And so the Jews had been given all of that light, all the light they needed in order to believe and to be saved, and yet they rejected Jesus.

They would not believe. they would not believe. And so Jesus sealed their faith. He sealed their faith.

No more light will be given. No more light. I will not till it. By what authority I do these things? This is tragic.

Disturbing. The point is, they could not believe. They could not. See, listen, there's a limit to God's mercy and grace and salvation.

Oh, yes, there is. There's a limit to it. We have an example just prior to the flood. When God said in Genesis 6, 3, my spirit shall not strive with man forever.

Then he sent the flood. The judgment destroyed. you know, Romans 1, 21, I might just cap all this off.

You familiar with Romans 1, 21? Romans chapter 1, verse 21, where Paul is describing what has happened to many in the world.

I think he's describing what happened to these Jews. And it describes what has happened to many today. Sadly, disturbing. Romans 1, 21 says, although they knew God, they did know Him.

I mean, intellectually. In fact, I would say that everyone knows intellectually.

Even those who claim to be angels know God. You would have to be an absolute idiot that is without any capacity mentally to not know that there is a God.

Even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God. nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, their speculations, their thinking, their reasons.

Became futile in. That's certainly true of these Jews. I mean, they were thinkers. They were intelligent. They had it all worked out about how to worship God and all the things that must be done and so forth.

Futile in their thinking about their own salvation, their own security. Futile in their thinking. And their foolish hearts were dark.

Dark. Dark. can't receive the light anymore. Professing to be wise, they became fools.

That's one of the saddest passages in all of the Bible. It fits these Jewish leaders to a T.

They would not. And at some point, under the sovereign authority of God, it could be hidden.

As Jesus has no more to save. No more life. It also fits to a T many living in our world today.

God. That means we don't need to bother with them. That we can just turn off the light for them.

No, I don't mean that. You and I are not Jesus. We keep proclaiming the gospel. But it does fit so many together.

And I'm afraid to say, even some in the church, in the church, perhaps someone here today, I don't know.

And I don't have to know. I leave that up to the sovereignty and authority. God is Jesus Christ.

Leave that up to him. And I say to you, repent. Trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

The Lord is to you. always strive. Amen. Amen. Thank you.