The Binding Glare of Religion

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.

So I want to tell you about a time where I was blinded to a reality.

I was blinded to reality and it affected the way I lived.

When I was younger, maybe third grade or so, someone around that age, I got into an argument with my mom.

We got into an exchange, if you will.

It was not uncommon.

I was a hard-headed child.

I liked to push buttons.

I knew which buttons to push.

Some of you have kids like that.

Some of you were kids like that.

But I was pushing my mom's buttons that day.

And so we got into an exchange, and the exchange ended in one of those parental final moments where the parent says, go to your room, and don't you come out until you have something to apologize for.

Right?

So that's that's one of those final moments where the kid has nothing to say, so what did I do?

I went to my room.

But guess what I did when I got to my room?

Duffel bag, socks, underwear, toothbrush, and I'm loading up that duffel bag because, by golly, I'm gonna I'm gonna show my mom that I'm serious.

So I take that duffel bag and then I march right out to the front door.

I open the front door, step on the front porch, close the front door, and there I sat, hoping, thinking, that that drove my point home.

That in that moment my mom was actually gonna turn around and repent.

That my mom was gonna come to me and say, Oh son, forgive me, I went too far.

But when I realized that my mom was looking at the people and I heard her laughing behind the door, I realized I had not yet gone far enough.

So I picked up that bag and I start walking down the street.

And if I'm walking down, I've got four houses to the end of the block, and I get to the end of the block, I'm looking back.

You know, mom's gonna come after me soon, surely she's gonna come after.

Nobody's coming after me.

A little further, so I start rounding the block.

I'm just going around the block, you know.

I'm starting to wonder at this point.

Am I gonna drive home the point that I want to drive home?

So I get around the block and I start rounding it back to my street.

And I start to get this sinking feeling.

It's kind of like when you go on a roller coaster and you're you're going up at that first hill and you got a couple clicks left.

Click, click, click, and you know, in a minute you're gonna stop hearing those clicks, and your stomach starts to sink a little bit because you know what's coming.

Yet that's what I started to experience because I realize there's not really gonna be a situation here where I'm gonna be the one being apologized to.

There's no way that I'm gonna get out of this without apologizing.

But but as I continue to walk, I held on a little hope, and I find myself talking myself up, building myself up for that moment of confrontation.

I mean, after all, who was my mom for her to talk to me that way?

Who was she to disrupt my life?

Who was she to take away that which I wanted to be comforted with the way that I wanted to live?

Who was she and who gave her such authority?

Well, now looking back, you know how the story ends.

I don't have to finish that one.

Um, but looking back, I realized what was going on in that moment.

I had become blinded to the identity of my mother.

I had become blinded because I wanted to live a certain way.

I wanted things to go my way.

And in that moment, I became blinded to the identity of the person who stood before me.

I mean, after all, who gave her the authority?

Well, she's my mom.

That's God ordained authority.

In fact, her authority rested on her very identity as my mother.

But I was blinded to that reality, and so I missed that identity.

And we too can be blinded to the reality.

See, we can be blinded by religion and miss the Savior.

We can be blinded by religion, our traditions, our preferences, the way we like to do things, and we come so blinded that we then miss the Savior.

We miss the truth of God that He wants to penetrate our hearts with.

We miss the revealing of the Savior because we're focused on that which we want to obtain.

And so we're in Mark chapter 11 today, and if you need a Bible, there should be one on the end of your row, and you can go to page 848.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

We're in Mark chapter 11, and we're gonna see there's three groups of men who they too were blinded to the reality, to the identity of the Savior because of their own religion.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

And as a result, they miss the Savior.

So in Mark chapter 11, we're gonna be in verses 27 through 33.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 11, verses 27 through 33 in the blue Bibles, that's page 848.

Mark 11:27–33

And so what we have here is two days prior to this, on a Sunday, we see this man who over the last three years, much hype has been built up about this man.

He's performed signs, he's performed miracles, he's healed people, and everyone had been bringing their sick to him, and they wanted to see who was this man, Jesus, that everyone was talking about.

And so over these three years that he was ministering in that region and the regions surrounding him, much hype had built up, so much so to that now he's at the Sunday of his last week of life.

And what happens on this Sunday is he starts to march into Jerusalem with his disciples, and he rides on the back of a cult.

And as he's a baby donkey, as he's riding on the back of this cult, people are laying down palm branches before him, they're laying down their cloaks before him, and they're shouting, Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest.

Why?

Because they knew who this man was.

Because they knew that here marched on the back of a cult the king of Israel, the Messiah, the promised one who is to reign and who will bring salvation and redemption.

They knew.

So that was Sunday.

On Monday, Jesus took his disciples into the city as was his custom each day this week.

And on Monday, he goes and he peruses the temple, the place of worship.

In fact, the place in Jerusalem where he will one day return and sit on the throne and rule in the kingdom.

He goes and he peruses, but what he finds, he finds people setting up money changing tables so you can exchange your money for the right currency in case you forgot your sacrifice for the for the festival you're showing up for.

And those the prices of those sacrifices were really hiked up.

It was inflated.

And then he sees over here, he sees people selling these sacrifices, but they're not the right sacrifices.

And what he saw was people making a profit in the house of the Lord.

And so he began to turn tables over and he began to drive people out, and he set these sacrifices free, the doves and the animals, and he really stirred things up.

Because zeal for his father's house consumed him.

As the scriptures in the Old Testament said.

That was Monday.

Our passage in Mark chapter 11 takes place on Tuesday, the third day, after he has ridden in on a donkey, after he has caused quite a ruckus in the temple.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

And let's pick up in Mark chapter 11, verse 27 through 33.

Mark 11:27–33

So they came again to Jerusalem.

And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him and began saying to him, By what authority are you doing these things?

Or who gave you this authority to do these things?

So Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question, and you answer me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?

Answer me.

Now they began to reason among themselves, saying, If we say from heaven, then he will say, Then why did you not believe him?

But shall we say from men?

They were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet.

Answering Jesus, they said, We do not know.

And Jesus said to them, Nor will I tell you then by what authority I do these things.

So here you've got three groups of men: chief priests, scribes, and the elders.

These are very important men in Israel.

Your chief priests, these were the people who were already in the line of the priesthood, the Levites, and they were people who were in line.

The chief priests were in line to potentially be the high priest.

So, for instance, we have the Catholic Church, and we have the cardinals, you know, the guys that wear red.

And those are the men who one day, when the Pope dies or when the Pope needs to be replaced, they're in line to potentially be the next Pope.

Similar with the chief priests.

These are the guys who are in line to be the next high priest.

The high priest was the one who ruled over all of Israel as far as the religious ceremonies go, and he's the one who would do the sacrifices on the Day of Atonement on behalf of the nation.

So very important people here.

In addition to them, you had the scribes.

The scribes were the people who were experts in the law of Moses, experts in the Old Testament.

These are the men who spent their time and their days studying the scriptures so that they can then go and teach the Old Testament scriptures so that the people of Israel would know how to live, how to conduct themselves.

And they should have been very familiar with the prophecies of the Old Testament that foretold of a coming Messiah, a coming king.

And then you have the elders.

And the elders are people who are from the heads of the households or the heads of the tribes.

So if you remember Israel has twelve tribes and each tribe has head families at this point.

Well, the elders came from those head families.

So again, in an eastern culture, not as not as prominent in our Western culture, but in an eastern culture, your elders are exalted.

Your elders are revered.

And so these were men from the head of the tribes.

So you've got these three groups.

Now, these three groups sat together on a council, a governing council called the Sanhedrin.

This was the council who oversaw both the everyday legal side of the nation of Israel as well as the religious side.

These were the ruling body of Israel.

So when these men walked by with their gowns on, with the bales that they might be wearing, these men were revered.

In fact, you might step aside as these guys walked by.

Young children might aspire to be one of these guys.

These were the leaders of Israel.

And as such, these were the teachers of Israel.

These were the men who should have known and should have been looking for the coming Messiah.

These were the men who they should have been the ones to recognize on Sunday when you've got this man who much hype has been building up about, who's been performing signs and miracles, healing people, bringing sight back to the blind and making the lame walk.

These are the men who you would expect to immediately say, Wow, something is going on here.

We need to investigate this man because he might be the one we've been waiting for.

And yet these are the men who did not recognize it.

Now, so here's what we see coming on.

We see them, Jesus and his disciples are coming into the temple, so these men start to approach them.

Now, before we get too carried away, these men certainly have the authority to go and question this man.

Again, these were the leaders of Israel.

These were the people who were protecting the flock and making sure that the people are living in accordance with the law.

So these men certainly had the authority to approach this man and say, Who gave you the authority to do this?

What authority are you doing this by?

Certainly these men had that right to do that.

But Mark tells us that their motive was not innocent.

If you'll look up with me to verse 18.

Look with me at verse 18.

After he had overturned the tables, Mark tells us in verse 18 the chief priests and the scribes, two of the men from our group of three, heard this and began seeking how to destroy him.

For they were afraid of him, for the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.

So Mark tells us, he gives us some insight.

These men's motives in approaching Jesus are certainly not innocent.

But look why they are threatened by Jesus.

It's not an innocent motive.

It says they were fearful of the people, because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.

Other places in the Gospels were told that Jesus taught with authority, not like the scribes did.

See, when the scribes would stand up and teach, they would quote other people.

They would quote commentaries.

It'd be like me standing up here and saying to you that John Walvert says this, Charles Ryrie says that, you know, Charles Stanley says this.

The authority rests on those people instead of the scripture, then.

That's how the scribes typically taught.

But when Jesus taught, he taught with an authority of his own, not quoting others' opinions, others' commentaries.

He taught with authority, and people recognized that.

And so these leaders of Israel saw that Jesus had earned the affection of the people.

And they were threatened.

Perhaps they were jealous.

Perhaps they were envious.

And I want to stop for a minute and throw on a caution to those of us who are leaders at Grand Parkway.

Whether we're teachers or we're leaders in other capacities, whether we teach a Bible study, a community group, we lead a community group, we teach a midweek study, or we teach the children, or we teach, we preach, or whatever the case may be.

For those of us who are in teaching positions, we need to be careful, one, that we don't cater to the affection of people.

Okay, because that happens.

Everybody has their pet teacher.

Everybody has their preference of teachers, and that's okay, but we need to make sure that if we find ourselves on the other side, not having the affection of people, that we don't act in jealousy, that we don't act in envy.

But further, we also need to be careful that we don't exalt and uphold our own preferences, our our own pet doctrines that we like to hammer home or that we like to hit home on, and that we don't exalt that above the Savior and above the Scripture.

Uh, so that we end up exalting ourselves through those doctrines and we miss the truth of God.

Uh by exalting things that uh that are less important, things that um we may think the Bible is clear on, but the Bible may not be so clear on.

But yet we speak with such certainty on them as if they are absolutely clear, and if you believe otherwise, you're wrong.

Those types of things we as teachers, as leaders, we need to be careful about exalting, so much so that we miss the truth of God from penetrating our hearts because we rather uphold something that may not be biblical, that may not be Christian, or doctrines, or traditions, things like that.

So we at Grand Parkway, we need to be careful about that.

We can learn from these religious leaders.

So here, second day, Tuesday, I'm sorry, third day, Tuesday, Jesus is entering the temple.

The disciples are behind him.

Can you feel that tension?

Can you can you feel the disciples' anxiety as they were with Jesus on the day he walked in on Sunday?

He was with them on the on the day he cleared the temple, and now they're going back again the day after he cleared the temple.

Can you feel that anxiety?

Maybe they're whispering, What are we doing?

We're gonna get killed.

Is he crazy?

I mean, after all, they had already questioned him on that.

But here they go into the temple, into Jerusalem the second day, and here comes this conniving, this brood of vipers, these religious leaders.

And they approach Jesus and they say to him, Look with me again, verse 27.

As he is walking into the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, they came to him and began saying, By what authority are you doing these things?

Or who gave you the authority to do these things?

Two questions, but it's really asking the same thing.

What is the source of your authority?

Who gave you the right to come over and change and and turn over those tables to cause disruption?

See, what they're wanting to know is you've disrupted my life.

You've disrupted the way things operate here.

We all have become comfortable with the way things operate.

We are okay with this temple being used this way.

We know how to live in this environment, we know how to live with these traditions.

Who gave you the right to come and mess up our life and to make us uncomfortable?

Who gave you the right to come and do this?

So, yes, they certainly had the right to ask him, but we have seen that their motives are not innocent.

So the question they're asking is, what's the source of your authority?

What is the source of your authority?

The reason they have to ask that question is because they're blinded by their religion.

They're blinded by their tradition.

You see, the scribes and the fair and the chief priests and the elders, they were the teachers of Israel.

But it's some of their very teachings that Jesus actually came down the hardest on in the gospels and called them the traditions of men.

You see, because what was happening was they were no longer teaching the scriptures, but in an in a perhaps innocent effort to not break the law, what they did was they separated themselves so far from the law by building this hedge, this fence around the law.

So where the law said, do not reap, they didn't want to even come close to reaping, so they they clarified what reaping meant, and they made things like walking through a field and rubbing some grain between your hands, reaping.

Or where the law said, don't dig on the Sabbath, so that they didn't come close to digging.

Uh what they defined as digging was moving, displacing dirt, so that if you were to drag a chair on the Sabbath and the dirt moved, you were guilty of working on the Sabbath because you dug.

You see, they had built this fence around the law, again, perhaps innocent because they didn't want to break the law, but what they did was then they were uplifting and upholding and exalting what had become tradition.

So much so that they couldn't even recognize their king who stood before them.

And we too, we too can be blinded by our tradition, by religion, and miss the Savior.

We can be blinded to the Savior within the church.

Did you notice where the action of the story takes place in verse 27?

They came again to Jerusalem as he was walking in the temple.

This confrontation takes place in the temple.

The temple is the Jewish place of worship.

It's the place where they came to worship Yahweh, it's the place where they came on the festivals to do sacrifices, it's the place where they should have been looking for their coming Messiah.

It's the place where they should have been worshiping the God who was sending their king for redemption.

It was their place of worship.

And we too, we too can become blinded to the Savior in our place of worship, whether that's here or somewhere else.

We can become blinded within the church.

And here's what that can look like.

Um, what happens is we start to teach things and we uphold them as truth, but maybe they're not truth.

Maybe they're tradition, or it's what my preacher always taught me, or it's uh the way I would prefer things to go.

It's uh it's the type of songs we sing.

I would prefer that we have different types of songs.

Um, it's the the way those songs are sung.

I prefer we sing them differently, or where's our organ?

Uh, you know, for a minute there I thought we were gonna be old school Baptists today because I started to see some of you guys starting to fan.

You know?

You know, we could have gone back to the uh the tradition of the Baptists and we could have been fanning.

But we start to uphold things that make us comfortable.

Things that we've always known, things that we know how to operate.

Um if we operate in our preferences, if we operate in that which we've always known, then we're comfortable and my life is not disrupted.

See, when we start to uphold those things and we call that truth, or we call that Christianity, then we're we're at risk of blinding ourselves to the Savior.

Because we're at risk of upholding those things so much so that we don't recognize the truth of God when it's waiting to penetrate our hearts, because instead we're focused on our preference that was not being done, or the tradition that was not being done, or something being done differently.

You see, we start to uphold things.

Um, we start to boast in our religiosity, in our spirituality.

I get up at 4 a.m.

in the morning, I'm tired, brother.

But I get on my knees and I fight before I even have my coffee, and I pray for an hour every day.

Well, that's good.

But if we start to boast in that, I had my quiet time for an hour today, man.

The Lord was thick, his presence was so there.

But we start to boast, you know, religious boasting.

Um, you know, spiritual disciplines are great, but they're not to be boasted about.

They're to mature us and to grow us, but the moment we're boasting in them, we've got the wrong focus.

We start to boast in the way we manage our money.

You have to do it the way I do it.

If you're not doing it the Dave Ramsay way, and I'm not trying to knock Thomas or you guys, I like Dave Ramsey, I'm cool with Dave Ramsey.

But what I'm cautioning us against is Dave Ramsey or Crown Ministries or Primarica or whatever the company you use or the program you use, when we start saying and inflicting on others, you have to do it this way.

This is the way that the Bible says that we do it.

When the Bible may not necessarily be so clear on all the points that we think it is, that's when we start inflicting these religious preferences on one another.

Or we boast in the way that we raise our kids.

Ouch, because I have two kids.

One's a baby, she's three months old, the other's almost three.

And I tell you, I know this temptation.

I mean, uh, we have our preference in the way we raise our kids, you have your preference in the way you raise our kids, but we're first-time parents or or we're new parents, and some of you who are older parents, you're going, yes, I remember that phase.

But we start to think that the way I raise my kids is the way you have to raise your kids.

And if you're not raising your kids the same way that I'm raising my kids, well, you're less of a Christian than I am.

Or you'll get there, you'll mature.

But we do that, and what we start to do is then we inflict that on other people and say, you have to do this, this way.

And we uphold it as truth.

And what happens is we become so blind, trying to uphold that truth, that we miss the truth of God that's trying to penetrate our hearts.

You see, because while I'm all for structure and I'm all for raising kids a certain way, and I'm all for managing your money and being a good steward, I think that is biblical.

Um, if we're not careful, we become blinded by those things.

And instead, we miss the grace of God working.

Because when we inflict on people a standard which is not biblical, but then we judge them by that standard, we are operating in legalism.

We are operating in law, and we're not allowing people to grow in grace.

See, because the reality is when it comes to kids, you and I both know it doesn't matter if you invest in and have them memorizing verses from the day they're two years old all the way up, if the Lord's grace is not upon them, they may or may not become a believer.

And yet the person next door who's who's a drug addict and never pays attention to their kids, and the kids just run free throughout the neighborhood and cause havoc, if the grace of the Lord is upon him, then he may become a believer.

It's the grace of the Lord, I've seen it.

And you've seen it.

So we can become blind in the church.

Um we can become blind even though we should know better.

You see, uh, it doesn't, it doesn't matter if we're a Bible study teacher, if we're a Bible college professor, if we're a seminary student, if we're a preacher, a pastor, a teacher, no amount of knowledge of the Bible can fix the authority problem we have if we're blinded by religion.

You see, because just studying more and knowing more about this, if we are intent on upholding our religion, our traditions of men, our preferences, no amount of knowledge from the Bible is going to fix that because it's not a head issue, it's a heart issue.

So we can become blinded even though we should know better.

We can become blinded because we're more politically minded than we are spiritually minded.

Right?

So we start to listen to talk radio in the mornings on the way in the work, or we we look to certain newscasters or news programs to tell us what we should believe about the government and what we should believe about views, and we get to the point where we even start to say this particular view, this particular party is the biblical party, that this particular party is the Christian party, and we start up holding that as truth.

And we start up holding political-mindedness instead of spiritual mindedness, because we start to say, well, what is what does Jesus know anyway about the government?

I mean, he's just a guy who's a prophet, who that he did some miracles in the Bible, and actually he's good with my religious life.

I mean, I will submit to him in my religious life when I'm at church, but he doesn't know anything about politics.

I mean, never mind the fact that he's gonna return one day and rule with an iron scepter and sit on a throne and he's gonna let justice reign.

Never mind that he's gonna be the king of a kingdom.

He doesn't know anything about politics.

So why should I submit myself to his authority?

Why should I look to the truth of God to understand something?

And so we uphold that and we become blinded.

And then finally we become blinded because we may just want to be hypocritical.

It could be as simple as that.

We would be blinded by hypocrisy because out of the left side of our mouth we decide to praise the Lord, but on the right side we don't.

See, we can become blinded to the Savior in the midst of the church.

So we pick up our story, and Jesus has a question to answer, does he not?

So that tension is left hanging in the air.

You can hear the crowds silent as they wait to see.

Is this the moment?

Is how is Jesus going to get out of this?

Is this the moment that he's finally going to reveal his identity as the Messiah?

You see, what's interesting about the book of Mark is all down the book of Mark, uh, we have this theme that Jesus is trying to hide his identity as this the Messiah.

It's called the Messianic Secret.

It's not like the Da Vinci Code or anything like that.

It's just Jesus wants to keep it quiet until the right time.

And so this theme of the book of Mark, all the way through the end, you're asking yourself, is this the moment?

Is this the moment where Jesus is just going to come out and say, Blah! Here I am, behold me in all my glory.

I am the Messiah.

So they're silent.

And Jesus responds in verse 29, look with me there.

He says to them, I will ask you one question, and you answer me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?

Answer me.

And you hear the crowd just let out a little bit of breath.

They go, Oh.

Because they were tense.

Is Jesus going to be trapped?

But now they just let out a little breath?

Because now that tension was just flipped.

Talk about authority.

Here you've got these religious, revered leaders of Israel questioning this guy on what authority he's doing these things, and he just flips it right around them and says, I won't answer you until you answer me this.

Makes me think of the Batman, the riddler, riddle me this.

Right?

Alright, so the crowd is just standing there, and we see that Jesus is actually asking them a question that's gonna force them to wrestle with his identity.

See, he's not coming outright and saying, I'm the Messiah, I'm the one you're waiting on.

He's actually asking him a question that's gonna make them wrestle with his identity.

You see, because to wrestle with who John the Baptist was means you have to wrestle with who Jesus is.

You see, because the way Mark started out his gospel, if you'll hold your place here and just turn with me to Mark chapter 1, the very beginning of the gospel, if you if you see the way Mark opened his gospel, Mark understood this, and a lot of the people who were laying down their palm branches understood this.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 1 says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way.

And then the verse 3 starts a quote from Isaiah, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

And then he begins to talk about John the Baptist.

The Old Testament prophesied that before the Messiah would come, there would be this prophet who was like Elijah, who would be the Messiah's forerunner.

And when you saw this prophet pop up on the scene, you should be looking for the Messiah.

See, Mark got that.

That's how he started his gospel, and we see it all throughout the book of Mark, but Jesus is now asking these religious leaders to wrestle with that.

Who was John the Baptist?

And he says, was his baptism from heaven or from men?

So he's asking them a source question.

Is the source of John's baptism of heaven or is the source of men?

You see, they have to recognize, is John the Baptist the forerunner, the one sent by God, or is he just another prophet?

So Jesus forces them to wrestle with his identity.

And we find that religion blinds us to the identity of the Savior.

So the first thing we saw that religion blinds us to the authority of the Savior, but the second one is that religion blinds us to the identity of the Savior.

And so when we are unclear about the identity of the Savior, then we're unclear about his authority.

You see, these religious leaders, they were unclear to the identity of the Savior, so they weren't able to recognize his authority.

And today, if if you're unclear about who Jesus is, if you're unclear if you've not settled that in your mind, that Jesus is the Son of God, which does not mean he's the first created being by God.

It means he is of the very essence of God, that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity.

If you have not settled that in your mind, then you're still going to wrestle with what authority he has in your life, what authority he has in the church.

But perhaps you're blinded to that and you don't even realize it.

See, 2 Corinthians tells us that if someone is blinded to the identity of the Savior and the gospel of God, it is because the Prince of this world, the God of this world, which is Satan, has blinded them.

But if you've already placed your trust in Christ and you've already gotten that identity settled, but perhaps you've allowed yourself to become blinded by religion so that now you've lost sight of the identity of the Savior.

And so you don't allow him to have the authority that he should have in your life.

So questions like what does Jesus have to say about politics, you don't even think twice about it because you've perhaps blinded yourself to the reality that God does have something to say about politics, God does have something to say about money management, God does have something to say about raising children.

But perhaps because we become so blinded by our religion, by our preferences, by our traditions, we're failing to let the truth of God penetrate our hearts.

We're missing the Savior.

See, because uh religion blinds us to the identity of the Savior.

Um and until you get the identity of the Savior right, you won't grasp his authority.

Because it's only if Jesus is God that he has rightful authority in our lives.

It is only if Jesus is God that we should submit to him as one who has authority.

Otherwise, he is just a mere man.

But the testimony of the Bible says otherwise.

So the identity of the Savior is connected to his authority, much like in my story at the beginning, my mom's authority is based in her identity.

But until we have that figured out, until we remove the blinders of religion, we will fail to miss the truth of God and allow it to penetrate our lives and transform us.

So now these men have a question to answer.

So do you do you see them over there?

They're kind of huddled in a corner.

Perhaps they've got their arms around one another and saying, okay, so how do we answer this question?

Maybe one of them peeks back to look around and see what people are looking.

See the pressure's on them now.

And look with me at verse 31 as we look at the third scene of our story.

So these men began to reason among themselves.

And that word reason, it's a very, it means they carefully thought through.

They were weighing their options.

If we go A, then B will happen, followed by C.

But if we go this way, then this will happen, followed by this.

If we go this way, then they're carefully thinking through.

This is a very reasoned discussion they're having.

Verse 31, they began reasoning among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, then he's gonna say to them, Why didn't you believe them?

See, they're gonna be held accountable.

If we acknowledge that John is the forerunner of the Messiah, that his baptism was from heaven, then we have to answer to why we didn't believe John when he came on the scene saying, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

We're gonna have to wrestle with the fact that our very king stands before us and we're not acknowledging his authority.

That's not a good option.

So they go on and they say, Well, then shall we say from men?

And again, can you see one of them peek out?

See, they were afraid of the people.

That's what it says.

They they were afraid of the people.

For everyone thought that John was a real prophet.

So if they go with answer choice A, John's baptism is from God, then they have to be held accountable.

But if they go with answer choice B, no, he was just a man, it's just it's just sourced in man's authority, then they're certainly going to incite the crowds.

The people are gonna be upset with them, but we already saw that they were afraid of the people.

So answer choice B is not good.

So what do they do?

With an exam that has answer choices A and B, they take choice C.

They plead the fifth.

They say, we don't know.

They plead ignorance.

And Jesus says in verse 33, we don't know, and Jesus said to them, Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Ignorance is never an option when it comes to choosing the Savior.

You either choose him or you don't.

You either deny him or you accept him.

Ignorance is never an option.

But these men made it an option.

These men, because they were blinded by their religion, they didn't want to be held accountable to God.

That's why they said if we say from heaven, then he's gonna ask us why didn't we believe, John?

Do we ever get blinded by our religion?

We get we get blinded by our preferences, by our church tradition, by the way we've always done things, um, that we don't even want to acknowledge that we may be wrong.

We don't want to acknowledge that we may not have this thing figured out because then we may have to confess that we were wrong, we might be living in sin, we would be held accountable.

Don't let religion blind you because you don't want to be held accountable.

Second reason they denied the Savior was because they were fearful of people.

Do we ever, again, in our religion, upholding our religion, and and understand when I say religion, I'm not talking about a broad sense that all faiths are religion?

I'm talking about religion in a narrow sense in which it is man's attempt to reach God, it's man's attempt to satisfy God, it's man's attempt to earn credit before God, it's man's attempt to say that I am righteous apart from what God has done.

Do we ever in our religion fail to acknowledge the Savior?

Because we're fearful of people.

See, because religion can blind us that way.

Don't let religion blind you and then miss the Savior.

Don't let religion blind you and then miss the truth of God that's waiting to penetrate your heart.

That's waiting to transform you.

Whether that's transform you unto salvation because you've never yet placed your trust in the Savior, Jesus, who is God, or whether that is to transform you in the process of sanctification, where you are constantly being made more and more like the Savior until that day when it is complete and he comes back and we are glorified, we receive these new bodies, we are resurrected.

Don't let religion blind you so that you miss the Savior.

See, my my mom, um, when I told you that story at the beginning, I had an authority problem.

But my authority problem was based in me missing her identity because I was blinded, because I wanted to live with certain preferences in certain ways.

And because I was blinded, I missed her authority and I missed her identity.

And these men, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, they too were blinded by their preferences, by their traditions, by their religion.

And they missed the Satan.

They missed the revelation of God that stood right before them.

Don't let religion blind you and miss the Satan.