Ryle on Mark 11:27-33

Imported boundary: J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Mark from the Internet Archive DjVu OCR for the 1858 Robert Carter St. Mark volume. Title pages, preface, contents, running heads, page numbers, OCR boilerplate, and indexes are not mirrored. The source includes Ryle's printed Scripture text and exposition; this scan-derived text remains needs-verification.

Primary passage: Mark 11:27-33.

Source Text

27 And they come again to Jerusa- lem : and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the Chief Priests, and the Scribes, and the eld- ers, 28 And say unto him, By what au- thority doest thou these things ? and who gave thee this authority to do these things ? 29 And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things ? 30 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men ? answer me. 31 And they reasoned with them- selves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven ; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him ? 32 But if we shall say of men ; they feared the people : for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. 33 And they answered and said un- to Jesus, " We'cannot tell. And Jesus answering, saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Let us observe in these verses how much spiritual blind- ness may be in the hearts of those who hold high ecclesiastical office.

We see " the chief priests and scribes and elders" coming to our Lord Jesus, and raising difficulties and objections in the way of His work. These men, we know, were the accredited teachers and

The expression "when ye stand praying," in this passage, ought not to be overlooked. It is one of those forms of speech in the Bible, which ought to teach all Christians not to be dogmatical in laying down minute rules about the externals of religion, and especially about the precise manner, gesture, or posture in which a believer ought to pray. If a man is fully persuaded that he can hold closer communion with God, and pour out his heart more freely and with- out distraction, in the attitude of standing than in that of kneeling, I dare not tell him that he is wrong. The great point to insist on us is the absolute necessity of praying with the heart. The last words of Sir Walter Raleigh to his executioner on the scaffold are a beautiful illustration of the right view of the question : " Friend, it matters lit- tle how a man's head lies, if his heart be right in the sight of God." rulers of the Jewish Church. They were regarded by the Jews as the fountain and spring-head of religious knowledge. They were, most of them, regularly or- dained to the position they held, and could trace their orders by regular descent from Aaron. And yet we rind these very men, at the time when they ought to have been instructors of others, full of prejudice against the truth, and bitter enemies of the Messiah ! These things are written to show Christians that they must beware of depending too much on ordained men. They must not look up to ministers as Popes, or regard them as infallible. The orders of no church confer infalli- bility, whether they be Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Inde- pendent. Bishops, priests, and deacons, at their best, are only flesh and blood, and may err, both in doctrine and practice, as well as the chief priests and elders of the Jews. Their acts and teaching must always be tested by the word of God. They must be followed so far as they follow Scripture, and no further. There is only one Priest and Bishops of souls, who makes no mistakes. That one is

* The following remarks from Gerhard's commentary are worth reading : " The Church is not tied to those teachers who are in the regular succession, for they frequently err from the path of truth. In such cases the Church ought not to follow their errors, but to embrace the troth as set forth in the word. Thus, Aaron setting up the golden calf - Urijah the high priest, in the time of Ahaz, building a new al- tar- Pashur and the other priests in Jeremiah's time, all erred most grievously. And in this very passage, the priests sitting in Moses' seat reject the Messiah Himself, and impugn His authority. But if those who succeeded Aaron in the divinely-appointed priesthood of the Old Testament, could err, and, in fact, did occasionally err, how much more likely to err are the Popes of Rome, who cannot prove from God's word that the Pope's office has been instituted by Christ in the New Testament." the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him alone is no weakness, no failure, no shadow of infirmity.

Let us learn to lean more entirely on Him. Let us " call no man father on earth." (Matt, xxiii. 9.) So doing, we shall never be disappointed.

Let us observe, in the second place, how envy and unbe- lief make ?nen throiu discredit on the commission of those who work for God. These chief priests and elders could not deny the reality of our Lord's miracles of mercy. They could not say that His teaching was contrary to Holy Scripture, or that His life was sinful. What then did they do ? They attacked His claim to attention, and demanded His authority - " By what authority doest thou these things ? and who gave thee this authority "* There can be no doubt whatever that, as a general principle, all who undertake to teach others, should be

* Brentius has some sensible remarks on the unreasonableness of the chief priests and Pharisees, who would neither keep the temple from the encroachment of the buyers and sellers, nor let others do it for them. They would neither exercise the lawful authority which was in their hands, nor allow of our Lord exercising it for them. He shows the similarity of their conduct to that of the Greek and Eo- man churches, and to that of a foolish head of a family, who neither corrects his children himself, nor likes any one to correct them for him. And he concludes by saying, "

Let us learn that every one should do his own duty, or else yield up his place to another. Let us not be like the dog in the manger, who would neither eat the hay himself, nor yet allow the ox to eat it." The history of the church of Christ contains only too much of the dog in the manger ! Minis- ters and teachers have often neglected the souls of their people shame- fully, and yet found fault with any one who has tried to do good, and haughtily demanded his authority ! The reflections of the Roman Catholic writer, Quesnel, on this sub- ject, are remarkable : " Those who find themselves vanquished by truth, generally endeavor to reject authority. There are no persons more forward to demand of others a reason for their actions, than those who think they may do every thing themselves without control" regularly appointed to the work. St. Paul himself de- clares that this was the case with our Lord, in the matter of the priestly office : " No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." (Heb. v. 4.) And even now, when the office of the sac- rificing priest no longer exists, the words of the twenty- third Article of the Church of England are wise and scriptural : " It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same." But it is one thing to maintain the lawfulness of an outward call to minister in sacred things, and quite another to assert that it is the one thing needful, without which no work for God can be done. This is the point on which the Jews evidently erred in the time of our Lord's earthly ministry, and on which many have unhappily followed them down to the present day.

Let us beware of this narrow spirit, and specially in these last ages of the world. Unquestionably we must not undervalue order and discipline in the church. It is just as valuable there as it is in an army. But we must not suppose that God is absolutely tied to the use of ordained men.

We must not forget that there may be an inward call of the Holy Ghost without any out- ward call of man, no less than an outward call of man without any inward call of the Holy Ghost. The first question after all is this : " Is a man for Christ, or against Him ? What does he teach ? How does he live ? Is he doing good " If questions like these can be answered satisfactorily, let us thank God and be content. We 245 must remember that a physician is useless, however high his degree and diploma, if he cannot cure diseases, and a soldier useless, however well dressed and drilled, if he will not face the enemy in the day of battle. The best doctor is the man who can cure, and the best soldier the man who can fight.

Let us observe, in the last place, ivhat dishonesty and equivocation unbelievers may be led into by prejudice against the truth. The chief priests and elders dared not answer our Lord's question about John's Baptism. They dared not say, it was " of men," because they feared the people. They dared not confess that it was " of heaven," because they saw our Lord would say, " Why did ye not believe him ? He testified plainly of me." What then did they do ? They told a direct lie. They said, " We cannot tell." It is a melancholy fact, that dishonesty like this is far from being uncommon among unconverted people. There are thousands who evade appeals to their conscience by answers which are not true. When pressed to attend to their souls, they say things which they know are not correct. They love the world and their own way, and like our Lord's enemies are determined not to give them up, but like them also are ashamed to say the truth. And so they answer exhortations to repentance and decision by false excuses. One man pretends that he "cannot understand" the doctrines of the Gospel. Another assures us that he really " tries" to serve God, but makes no progress. A third declares that he has every wish to serve Christ, but " has no time." All these are often nothing better than miserable equivocations. As a general rule, they are as worthless as the chief priest's answer, " We cannot tell." The plain truth is that we ought to be very slow to give credit to the unconverted man's professed reasons for not serving Christ.

We may be tolerably sure that when he says " I cannot/' the real meaning of his heart is " I will not." A really honest spirit in religious matters is a mighty blessing. Once let a man be willing to live up to his light, and act up to his knowledge, and he will soon know of the doctrine of Christ, and come out from the world. (John vii. 17.) The ruin of thou- sands is simply this, that they deal dishonestly with their own souls. They allege pretended difficulties as the cause of their not serving Christ, while in reality they " love darkness rather than light," and have no honest desire to change. (John iii. 19.)