Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery--A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a redeemer.--Do you know what it means to say that it is by God's grace- It means that we did not contribute anything to our deliverance. It had to be by grace because we were too ruined to rescue ourselves.

What we have in chapter 12 is Jesus' follow up to this inquisition with a parable. The leaders who were opposing Jesus understood that this parable was about them, but instead of repenting, they only sought all the more to destroy Jesus the Son of God.

Q- What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell---A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under His wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever. --In our WSC sermon series, we've been looking at the effects of the fall. We need to face this, even though it is not a pleasant subject. Our misery is sent by God as a judgment for sin.

-By what authority-- This is actually a very important question. The language they use here suggests by what sort of authority-The second question flows from this--Who gave you this authority-- Jesus considered this an important enough question that He sharpens it and turns it back on them- The baptism of John-was it from heaven -God- or from men-

Imprecations are hard for us to accept- We feel sorry for the tree. We don't consider that it completely forsook the purpose for which it was created. We ought to be angry with sin. We ought to admire the power and justice of Jesus that shrivels up the apostate church like it shrivels up the fig tree-with a mere word.

See how Jesus now presents Himself as the Messiah. Remember, Messiah and Christ mean Anointed One. You can see that He initiates the whole event or His honorable entry to Jerusalem. The story opens with Him sending two of His disciples to fetch a donkey or a colt for Him as they draw near to Jerusalem.

Psalm 2 is a Psalm that warns us to revere God's Anointed King who will judge the nations.

Today we will continue our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark. We have come to Mark 10-46-52, the climax of all that Jesus has been teaching His disciples after they confessed Him to be the Messiah back in chapter 8. Over and over we have seen Him explaining to them what kind of Messiah He is. He is the not the Messiah of a great and noble nation, a righteous church, to which He comes to finally give them all the honours and rewards that they deserve. He is the Messiah of a people who, like everyone else, ate the forbidden fruit-sinners in desperate need of forgiveness and new life.