R.A. Torrey explores the interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadducees, emphasizing their attempts to entrap Him with questions about the resurrection and the greatest commandment. He highlights how Jesus skillfully counters their inquiries, revealing their ignorance of Scripture and the power of God. The sermon culminates in Christ's profound question about His identity, challenging the religious leaders to recognize Him as both David's son and Lord. Torrey underscores the importance of understanding who Christ is and the implications of His divine authority. Ultimately, the sermon calls believers to love God wholeheartedly and to acknowledge Jesus as Lord.

(Compare Mark 12:18–37; Luke 20:20–44) DISCOVERY OF THE FACTS 1. The Sadducees’ Question, vv. 23–33 Who already on this day had been seeking to entrap Jesus (vv. 15, v. 16)? Who now seek to entrap Him? Who were the Sadducees? (v. 23; compare Acts 23:8.) Were they a powerful party in the Jewish church in the time of Christ? (Acts 4:1, 2, 5, 17.) What question did they put to the Saviour? What was the object of the question? Did the question perplex Jesus at all? What did He tell them they were doing (v. 29)? What did He say was the source of their error (v. 29)? How much error comes from ignorance of, or unbelief in, the Scriptures? (Compare Luke 24:25–27, 44–46; 2 Tim. 3:13–16.) How much error comes from ignorance of the power of God? By what statement about the resurrection life did Jesus sweep away all their sophistry? What two things does v. 30 teach us about our life after the resurrection? Of what particular scripture had the Sadducees been ignorant? (vv. 31, 32; compare Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37.) How did the passage cited prove the resurrection? What was the effect of Jesus’ answer upon the multitude? 2. The Pharisees’ Question, vv. 34–40 With whom had Jesus been discussing up to this point? What had been the result of the discussion between Jesus and the Sadducees? What had been the purpose of both Pharisees and Herodians in asking Jesus questions? (Compare Luke 20:20.) What had been the purpose of the Sadducees? What had been the outcome in each case (35)? Who was the present questioner? What was his purpose? (Compare Mark 12:32–34.) Was he an honest seeker after light? How did he show his good sense in his quest after light. What was his question (36)? Was this question a proper one? Are some matters of the law weightier than others? (Matt. 23:23.) Will one who really loves God seek to know and do only the weightier duties? What will he seek to know and do? What kind of an answer did Jesus give to this man’s question? Did Jesus treat all questions in this way? (Compare Luke 13:23, 24; John 21:21, 22; Acts 1:6, 7.) What determined Jesus’ treatment of a question? What was Jesus’ answer? Which commandment did He say this was (38)? Whose rights are the supreme rights? How do the rights of the whole human race put together compare with the rights of God? Why are the rights of God superior to those of the whole human race? Is this one of the Ten Commandments? What is its relation to the Ten Commandments? (Deut. 6:4, 5.) If this is the first and great commandment, what is the first and great sin? How many of us have broken it? How then do we stand before God? Upon what kind of moralities alone do we differ one from another? What does it mean practically, to love God with all the heart, with all the soul and with all the mind? Is this commandment intended to save us? What is the purpose of this commandment? What is its relation to salvation? How is life obtained? (Ro. 6:23, R. V.) What is God’s first and only commandment under the Gospel? (1 John 3:23.) How can we learn to thus love God? (1 John 4:19.) What is the second commandment? What does it mean to love one’s neighbor as one’s self? How many of us have kept this commandment? How long will we continue to break it? After we are born again, will we love our neighbors as ourselves? (1 John 3:16, 17; John 13:34; Phil. 2:3.) While the law says:“This do and thou shalt live,” what does the Gospel say? In the Gospel, does obedience come before life, or life before obedience? What is the relation of these two commandments to man’s whole duty? 3. Christ’s Question, vv. 41–46 What had these Pharisees been doing? (vv. 17, 35.) What had been the purpose of these questions? What had been the result of the questions? What change in the program did Jesus introduce at this point? Did He take them separately and defeat them or put the whole company to confusion at once? Why was He able to route the whole company single-handed? (Is. 8:9, 10.) What was the question Jesus asked them? Is that question an important one? How much depends on our thinking the right thing about Christ? (1 John 5:5; John 20:31; Heb. 10:28, 29.) How can we get right thoughts about Christ? (John 5:39; John 16:13, 14; 1 Cor. 12:3; 1 John 5:1.) Did the question seem to the Pharisees a very hard one to answer? Was it as easy as they thought? What was their answer? Was that answer true? (c. 1:1; 21:9; Is. 11:1–4; John 7:41, 42; Acts 13:22, 23.) Was it the whole truth (Ro. 1:3, 4; Matt. 16:16, 17; John 6:69; Matt. 14:33; John 1:49.) As “the Son of David” what was Christ? As “the Son of God” what was He? (Ro. 9:5; Heb. 1:8.) What second question did Jesus propound to the Pharisees? Was this as easy a question for them to answer as the first one had seemed? What was His purpose in asking it? From what portion of the Old Testament was the quotation taken upon which the question was founded? (Ps. 110:1.) Of whom did Jesus say these words in Ps. 110 were spoken? Is it essential to the argument here used by Jesus that these words should have been spoken by David and of the Christ? An argument for what did Jesus build upon the Messianic application and Davidic authorship of these words? If then they were not written by David or do not refer to the Messiah, upon what did Jesus build an argument for His own Divinity? Of what then do these “higher critics” who deny the Davidic authorship of these words charge Jesus? Can anyone who is loyal to Jesus as the Christ and divine, believe that He either built an argument for His divinity upon a mistake or else deliberately deceived His opponents by using a verse to prove His divinity which He knew did not apply to Himself or was not by the author to whom for the sake of His argument He had ascribed it? If we must choose on so vital a point as this between the authority of Jesus or that of any modern scholar, no matter how devout a Christian he may be, which must we choose? Is this verse applied to Christ or ascribed to David anywhere else in the New Testament? (Acts 2:34, 35; compare Heb. 10:12, 13; 1 Cor. 15:25; Heb. 1:3, 13; 12:2.) How did David call Christ “Lord”? (Compare 1 Cor. 12:3.) What is meant by the words “in spirit”? (See R. V., and compare 2 Sam. 23:2; Mark 12:36; Acts 1:16; Heb. 3:7; 2 Peter 1:21.) When the Holy Ghost speaks through a man, whose words are those which are spoken? What is it that David called Christ? Is anyone else recorded as calling Him “my Lord”? (John 20:28; Phil. 3:8 Is it of any importance to call Him “Lord”? (Ro. 10:9 R. V.) What does the title “Lord” mean? To whom is the title usually applied in the Old Testament? To whom is it usually applied in the New Testament? What significant additions are sometimes made to the title when applied to Jesus in the New Testament? (Acts 10:36; 1 Cor. 2:8; compare Ps. 24:8–10.) Who will eventually be compelled to acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus? (Phil. 2:11.) What is the difference between simply calling Christ “Lord” and calling Him “my Lord”? Do you call Him “my Lord”? Is He really your Lord? What did Jehovah say to the Christ? What is indicated by His sitting at Jehovah’s right hand? (Heb. 10:12–14; Eph. 1:20–22.) Is it of any importance to us that He sits at Jehovah’s right hand? Heb. 8:1; Ro. 8:34; 1 John 2:1; Rev. 3:31.) Has Jehovah ever conferred such honor on any other being? (Heb. 1:13.) Why was this honor conferred upon Jesus Christ? (Phil. 2:6–9.) Until what time is the Christ to occupy this place of rest, power and majesty? When this hour for complete victory shall come what will He do? (Is. 63:1–6; Rev. 19:11–21; Ps. 2:8, 9.) What shall become of His enemies in that hour? (Ps. 2:8, 9; Luke 19:27; 2 Thess. 1:7–9; 2:8.) Having brought forward this verse, what question did Jesus put to them? Could any of them answer the question? What is the answer to this question: How could the Christ be at one and the same time David’s son and David’s Lord? (Ro. 1:3, 4; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 2:14; Phil. 2:6–8; Rev. 22:16.) What was the effect of this discomfiture of these Pharisees? (Compare Luke 13:17; 14:6.) Were these silenced Pharisees converted? If sinners will not allow Christ to be glorified in their conversion, how will He be glorified in them? CLASSIFICATION OF TEACHINGS 1. God His power, 29: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 32; the God of the living, 32; He spoke of Moses, 31; the supreme object of our love, 37. 2. Jesus Christ (1). His nature: Divine: son of God, 43, 44; Lord, 43–45. Human: son of David, 42. (2). His office: Lord, 43–45; King, 44. (3). His matchless skill: As a controversialist, 23–46; as a teacher, 23–46. (4). His reliance upon Old Testament scriptures, 29, 31, 32, 37–39, 43–45. (5). His exaltation and glory, 44; compare Eph. 1:20–23; Heb. 1:13. (6). His present rest in His finished work, 44; compare Heb. 10:11, 12. (7). His rule, 44. (8). His expectant waiting, 44. (9). His coming again, 44. (10). His victory, 44. (11). His enemies: They gathered together to confuse and entangle Him, 23–24, 34, 35, 41; He turned the tables upon them, in turn questioning His questioners, 41–46; He used the Scriptures to convince, confuse, instruct and silence them, 43, 44; put the whole company to rout and confusion by a single question, 41–46; permanently silences them, 46; Christ was glorified in the confusion of those who would not glorify Him by their conversion, 46; they shall be completely subjugated underneath His feet, 44. 3. The Holy Spirit Inspired David in writing the Psalms, 43, 44. 4. The Scriptures Final authority in settling all questions, 31, 32, 36–39, 43–45; ignorance of the Scriptures a source of error, 29; accepted and used by Jesus Christ as the Word of God and final source of authority, 29–32, 36–39, 43–45; its inspiration, 43; compare 2 Sam. 23:2; Mark 12:36; Acts 1:16; Heb. 3:7; 1 Peter 2:22; verbal accuracy; an argument can be legitimately built upon the use of a single word, 43, 44; power to silence enemies of Christ, 44–46. 5. The Resurrection of the Body Its certainty, 20–32. Its glory: (1). In the resurrection neither marry nor given in marriage, 30. (2). Are as the angels in heaven, 30. 6. Two Leading Commandments The first great commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind,” 37, 38; second commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” 38; the two commandments the sum of the law and the prophets, 40. 7. David Author of 110th Psalm, 43, 44; a prophet, 43–45; spoke by inspiration, 43; ancestor of the Christ, 42; called Jesus Christ, my Lord, 44; foresaw the Christ, 43, 44; foresaw the future glory of the coming Christ, 44; the complete subjugation of all Christ’s enemies, 44. 8. The Great Question What think ye of Christ?