Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 497. 497. When I can read my title clear
to mansions in the skies I'll bid farewell to every fear and
wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping
eyes I'll bid farewell to every fear And wipe my weeping eyes Should earth against my soul
engage, fiery darts be hurled, then I can smile at Satan's rage
and face a frowning world. And face a frowning world And
face a frowning world And I can smile at Satan's rage And face
a frowning world Let cares like a wild deluge come and storms
of sorrow flow. May I but safely reach my home,
my God, my heaven, my all. My God, my heaven, my all My
God, my heaven, my all May I but safely reach my home My God,
my heaven, my all There shall I bathe my weary soul In seas
of heavenly rest, And not a wave of trouble Roll across my peaceful
breast. Across my peaceful breast. Across my peaceful breast. And not a wave of trouble roll
across my peaceful breast. Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
361. 361. ? Sweet hour of prayer ? Sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of
care and beats me at my father's throne. Make all my wants and
wishes know. In seasons of distress and grief,
my soul has often found relief. And all escaped the tears by thy return. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. Thy wings shall my petition bear
To him whose truth and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bliss,
And seep, seep its way, see his face, Believe his word and trust
his grace. I'll cast on him my every care. and wait for the sweet hour of
prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. May I thy consolation share,
Till from Lapiscus' lofty height I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll draw
and bright. lasting prize and shout while
passing through the air farewell, farewell sweet hour of prayer
While I'm so used to introducing our speakers and preachers, I'm
going to go ahead and introduce this one. Our pastor's back with
us this morning. This is Brother Donnie Bell. I think there might be a couple
people who have not met you before. But just in case anybody's forgot. That's a good welcome. We're
glad to have you. Start with me to Mark chapter
11. Pick up where I left off. I know you had heard some really
good preaching. I've listened to all of them,
except a couple. And I was blessed by Fred Evans'
message. And Larry Chris, and we got to
watch Cody. We didn't get to watch the rest
of them, just had to listen. But we was blessed, and I'm grateful
to be back. But before we read the scriptures,
I want to mention a couple of prayer requests that was mentioned
to me. Daryl and Joyce need prayer.
He had a little accident the other day and hurt his knees,
so we want to remember him and Joyce. Eleanor's got a nephew
that's in the hospital in bad shape and needs prayer, so let's
remember them. But I'm going to start in verse
12 and read down to verse 18 and comment on a few things.
And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was
hungry. And seeing a fig tree afar off
having leaves, he came, if happily he might find anything thereon.
And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for the time
of figs was not yet. And our Lord answered and said
unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And
his disciples heard it. And down in verse 20 it says,
And in the morning as they passed by, they saw that the fig tree
dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance
saith unto him, Master, behold the fig tree which thou cursed
is withered. Now back over in verse 15, and
this is where I'm going to preach from, And they come to Jerusalem,
and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that
sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the
moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and
would not suffer or allow that any man should carry any vessel
through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them,
Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the
house of prayer? But ye have made it a den of
thieves. And the scribes and chief priests
heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared
him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine. our blessed, great, glorious
God of heaven and earth, the one true God, the God that's
sovereign, immutable, holy, righteous, just, gracious, and merciful,
blessed forever and ever. Amen. Lord, we are so privileged,
so blessed to be able together to worship you. to read your
blessed word together with people that want to hear what you have
to say, that they're here because they want to find out what God
has to say about Himself, and what our Lord Jesus has to say
about Himself, and what the Bible has to say about ourselves, and
how this salvation is by grace and only salvations of the Lord,
God, I thank you for your great mercies in providing preachers
for the last three weeks. I thank you for every one of
my dear brethren. Thank you for my brethren that's
preaching today. God be with them. Lord, bless
them. And Lord, I pray that you'd bless the gospel here today and
cause it to run well. And Lord, please remember those
that we mentioned. We pray for our dear brother
and sister. I pray for Eleanor's nephew and for others among us
that need prayer, that they may have weakness of body, may have
depression of mind, may be in despair, may be sick in some
other way. But Lord, we know that you're
able in sovereign mercy to meet the needs of every soul, every
home, every heart, every soul. And Lord Jesus, we pray that
you'd have mercy Upon our nation, have mercy. Upon our leaders,
have mercy, O God, in the state we're in. Save us, Lord, and
we shall be saved. Turn us and we shall be turned.
But of all that's said and done today, bring glory to yourself
through our Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel. For his glory,
amen, amen. Let's all stand together and
sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Assemble yourselves and honor
the king. He sits on the throne. His triumphs now sing. King Jesus, who died to atone
for our sin, Came forth from the tomb, and He liveth again. The Lamb from above The battle
has won. He died and arose. The work is all done. He took on himself all our debt
to repay. The sins of his people away. He liveth again, we praise
the great King. O terrible death, Where now is
thy sting? The Lord sits in glory, My mighty
to save, Victorious, his conquest, O'er sin and the grave. He conquered the tomb and liveth
above All praise to his name, all power and love Be seated. Well, this is something I haven't
done in a while, is preach. I preached to myself and heard some good preaching,
but I want to deal with our Lord cleansing the temple. He is angry. He is angry over through tables,
tables that had piles of money on them. He overthrew them, poured
the money out. Very upset with these people. And you know, our Lord has many,
many attributes, and anger is one of them. Anger is one of
them. In fact, the Bible says that
God's angry with the wicked every day. And here He is, He's really
angry, but He's angry with religion. He's angry with a bunch of Pharisees. He's angry with people that took
the house of God and turned it into a house of merchandise,
a place to make money and to count greed and covetousness,
which is what they was. Now, it says there, you know,
remember the last time we talked about this, when our Lord was
talking about the barren fig tree, He was talking about Israel
not having any fruit, and then we dealt with us as believers
having fruit. and he cursed it in Israel, and
this is one of the reasons why. And they come to Jerusalem, Jesus
went into the temple, verse 15, and began to cast out them that
sold and bought in the temple. That d be like us setting up
a table in here and making money off of people in here. And I
tell you what, it overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and
the seats of them that sold doves. You know, a dove was very, very
cheap. Doves and sparrows was the cheapest
sacrifice you could have, and they was offering sacrifice,
selling sacrifices there in the temple when people come in to
offer sacrifices. But they were getting three or
four times the price of a dove than what they could have got
them anywhere else. So these people, and then would not allow,
in verse 16, would not allow that any man should carry any
vessel. Don't want you carrying nothing, nothing through the
temple. And he taught them, saying unto
them, It is written, My house shall be called of all nations
the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. Now
this takes place on a Monday, and the coming Friday Four days
later, our Lord Jesus Christ is going to be crucified on Friday.
They're going to take Him, they're going to pick Him up on Thursday
night, mistreat Him all night long, and take Him out and crucify
Him at nine o'clock on Friday morning. So this, our Lord, is
just a heartbeat away from going to the cross. And the people,
you know, They weren't there to worship in this temple, but
they were there for personal gain. They were there to make
money. They were there because they
had in the court outside, they sold and bought things, sold
doves, sold sacrifices. And you know, people come from
all over the world to come to Jerusalem and they had all kinds
of different money. and they had money changers there.
If you come from someplace way off that you had to have your
money changed into Hebrew currency, into the silver or into the shekel,
they would have the money to change it into a shekel. Have
money, you know, when you go overseas you've got to take American
money and you've got to change it for the pound or euro or whatever
it is, and that's why they have money changers. And that's what
they did, they had money changers, people come there with different
kinds of money, and they would sit there and change it, and
of course they ALWAYS made money when they changed it. Oh, listen,
I'll give you, your dollar's worth a dollar, I'm going to
give you 90 cents for it. So they made money every time
they changed money. These folks are there for one
reason and one reason only, to make money, and they set up that
temple there, and they set up all those tables there, and they
had the sacrifices in there, they had doves in there, they
had different things in there, and they done all these things,
and then look what he says, and when they got there, Jesus began
to cast out. Here they are, they're in the
temple, They re in the temple. This is the same place when Peter
and John went up to the temple to pray, and the poor man was
sitting there begging, and he said, Silver and gold, I ain
t got any of that. These folks had plenty of silver
and gold. But Peter and John said, We got no silver, we ain
t got no gold, but I tell you what, we do have. We got the
Lord Jesus Christ. Get up and walk, get up and walk. And oh, my, And so our Lord Jesus
Christ, and then down there it says that He would not suffer. And you know, He overthrew the
tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold
up, very angry, turning over tables. You think about folks
getting angry enough to turn over a table. And this is the
Lord Jesus Christ doing this. It's not one of the prophets. This is Christ Himself doing
this. And He wouldn t allow anybody,
don t you dare come through here carrying anything, any vessel
through here. I don t want you to bring anything
in this building here. I don t want you to bring anything
through here. And this is the reason He taught. And He taught
them, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be
called of all nations the house of prayer? Now, where did He
get that at? Look in Isaiah 56 and verse 7. Where'd our Lord get that at?
Isaiah 56, look at it with me, and down in verse 7. And they were using the temple
here as a shortcut for people to be able to come and worship.
You know, you don't have to go out here and try to find sacrifices
and buy sacrifices. We got everything right here
that you'll need. You don't need to go any place
else. We've got it made here just as convenient for you as
we possibly can. We've made religion convenient
for you. We've made it easy for you. You
don't have to go look for a sacrifice. You don't have to go find somebody
with a sacrifice. You don't have to go out and
catch doves. We got everything you need right here. And we'll
meet the whole man right here. And look what he said here in
Isaiah 56 and 7. Even them will I bring to my
holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted
upon mine altar, for mine house shall be called a house of prayer
for all people, even for you and me." But I tell you, they
use this temple here, the court of the temple, as a shortcut.
But let me tell you something, there's no shortcuts in the gospel.
We ain't gonna make no shortcuts in the gospel. No, no, we can't
make any shortcuts. And he called it a house of prayer. But now I want you to turn with
me to John 2. And I'm gonna show you what happened
three years before this. In John 2. Our Lord done this
once before. In John 2. And our Lord did this
before. John chapter 2 and look down
here in verse 12, And after this he went down to
Capernaum, that's where our Master lived, he and his mother and
his brethren, his disciples, and they continued there not
many days. And the Jews' Passover was at
hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those
that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money
sitting. And when he had made a scourge
of small cords, he drove them out of the temple, and the sheep,
and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew
the tables, and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things
hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise, and his
disciples remember that it was written, the zeal of thine house
hath eaten me up. You know, when he went into the
temple, you know what he called it? In verse 16 here, he called
it my father's house. He said, this is my father's
house. This belongs to my father. And you know, the temple and
the tabernacle was every place that God said, I'll meet you.
This is where I'll meet you. And I tell you, Moses and Solomon,
they even called the temple in the tabernacle the Father s House,
and our Lord said, This is My Father s House. When He talked
about His Father, He s talking about God Almighty. He s talking
about the Father that He left the bosom of and came into this
world. And I tell you what, He come
down here, and look what He says there in verse He said in verse
16, He said, Take these things, take these, verse 16, and take
these things hence, take them out of here, take them out of
here, get these things out of here. And oh, my, make not my
father's house a house of merchandise. And what's the result of his
doing this? He take him, it says here in
verse 15 he made a scourge he got a bunch
of small cords and he Twisted them things together and he got
it and made him he made him himself while he was there He made these
things and he started whipping these people and made us gorgeous
small stores and he started driving them folks out of there can you
imagine him coming through there with a whip and driving people
out get out of here get out of here you know what this is my
father's house you're turning into a den of thieves you're
making merchandise out of this people These people don't mean
nothing to you. God don't mean nothing to you.
The worship of God don't mean nothing to you. And he took a
whip and said, drive them out of there. Drive them out of there. And oh my, and the crowd began
to scatter before him. And this was no mere man here. The terror of God fell upon this
people. And oh, this brings out a side
of our Lord's character that essentially is ignored. And our
Lord is gentle, He s compassionate, He s full of grace, and He s
full of mercy, and He s full of truth, but this is not all
He is. God is light as well as love. God is holy as well as love. God is righteous as well as gracious. God is holy as well as merciful. Hebrews said this, Paul said
in the book of Hebrews, it's a fearful, fearful thing to fall
into the hands of God. Huh? Oh, people, people don't understand
how holy God is. What an awful thing it is to
fall into the hands of a holy God. You're not going to fall
into the hands of a God of love when this thing's all wind up.
You're not going to fall into a hand of a God of grace. Either
you're already SAVED by the grace of God, you're going to be SAVED
by grace, or you're going to fall into the hands of a fearful
God, a God of LIGHT, a God of HOLINESS, a God of RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Oh my, well, listen, TODAY, TODAY is the day of salvation! DON'T
YOU DARE WAIT! DON'T YOU DARE WAIT! OH MY, LISTEN,
THESE FOLKS WAITED, AND WAITED, THEY KNEW, THEY KNEW WHAT THE
BIBLE SAID, AND THEY TOOK THE TEMPLE OF GOD, AND OH MY, AND
NOW THEY FLED BEFORE HIM. SO YOU IMAGINE WHAT THE JUDGMENT
DAY'S GONNA BE, THE JUDGMENT DAY'S GONNA BE, ALL THIS STUFF
THAT HAPPENED OVER IN ALL THESE states and things, and I'm sorry,
it grieves me, and we try to help as much as we possibly can
and do everything we can to help these poor people, finances or
any other way we can, but I'll tell you something, if you think
that's bad, and it is, it's awful, but you think what it is to fall
into the hands of God. If all He got to do is take some
rain, some rain and destroy people, take some wind and destroy people,
You imagine what it's gonna be like for Him by His own self
and His own hand and His own judgment to fall upon people. Rocks fall on us. Why? Hide us from the face. Of who? The wrath. Of what? The Lamb? You mean the Lamb has
wrath? Amen, He does. That's what it
says. And oh my, what a rebuke of the
state of religion and the desecration of the house of prayer. You know, entertainments take
the place of worship. The worship of Christ is unknown
to most people now. These people were full of avarice,
greed, covetousness, and oh my, And they make, he said, you turned
my father's house into a house of merchandise. House of merchandise. You know what Peter said? He
said, you've made men's souls merchandise. That's all souls
is to a lot of churches and a lot of people. It's just merchandise. We got a budget, $2 million.
You're the only one that's got it. Our God ain't got no hands but
your hands, no feet but your feet. He can't help you if you don't
help Him. He's helpless without you. And
in all, listen, they got to let everybody know how many conversions
you have, how many people you win to the Lord, how much is
your budget, how much money you making. And I've heard preachers say,
and I've seen it with my own eyes, they pass a Colonel Sanders
bucket around, passin' him around, said, I don't wanna hear no change
poppin' in that thing. I wanna hear money. I don't wanna
hear no change droppin'. I don't wanna hear no money rattlin'
in the bottom of it. And that's all people are to
most folks, is just a merchandise, just a merchandise. There's numbers
to count, heads to count. And I tell you what God does
to people who count heads. People ask me all the time, how
many people go to where you preach at? I say, I don't know. You
just have to count. I don't know. And I don't care.
Sometimes it's a lot of people. Sometimes it's not many. It's
according to what service you're in. But oh, I know this. I know this, that people, they
want to count heads. And when David counted heads
one time, he wanted to find out how many people he was king over. I want to know how many people's
king I'm king over. I want to count everybody. Joab
said, don't. His general said, don't do that.
Don't do that, David. Well, he sent out and done it.
And you know what happened to him? God judged him. He said, They're MY people! I
COUNT MY PEOPLE! I KNOW WHO MY PEOPLE ARE! The
foundation of the Lord stands assured, the Lord knows them
that are HIS! And when David counted them,
God said, I'm going to give you three options. Either you can
fight your enemies, or three days of famine, or three days
of plague. I forget what the other one is,
and David said, Lord, I'm in your hands, you make the decision. That's what counting numbers
will get you. Politicians, they can count them
all they want to, I don't care about them. Take a camera, oh
what a crowd, what a crowd. But oh my. That's what these
fellas done. They made merchandise of men's
souls. That's all you are to me is a
merchandise. You're something for me to brag
about. You're something for me to count
heads about. You're something for me to pay
my wages. You're something for me to make
me wealthy. You're something that just makes
me have a big house and makes me have all kinds of things that
you can't have because I'm the preacher. Oh my, let me tell you something.
Then, you know, the Jews, and here's another thing, you know,
I'll tell you what, our Lord Jesus Christ, here they come,
and they called, look back up here in verse 13. Here it's called, he said, they
called it the Jews' Passover was at hand, the Jews' Passover,
the Jews' Passover. You know, there's another thing
about, they turned into a house of, It's not the Jews Passover. It's the Lord's Passover. Ain't
that what God said? He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Who provided the blood? God did.
Look with me over here in Exodus chapter 12. I'm gonna show you
a couple of things here about the Passover, if I can. I know
y'all know this, but it won't hurt us to look at it again.
Look in Exodus 12 in verse, You know, here's the thing, they called it the LORD'S PASSOVER.
They turned the LORD'S PASSOVER into the JEW'S PASSOVER. And
you know Christ is our Passover, was sacrificed for us. And look
what He says, here's where life begins for us. This is where
new life begins in verse 2. This month shall be unto you
the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year
to you. Verse 2, what He said is, that's when our life begins,
when Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us, and we see
that and understand that. Our life begins with Christ being
sacrificed for us, and look what He goes on to say. And how are
we going to hear this? How are we going to find out
this? How are we going to understand this? Speak unto them! That s
what I m doing right now. I m speaking to you. What am
I telling you about? I m telling you about the Passover
and about Christ. They call it the Jews Passover.
And then down in verse 5 it says, Lamb shall be without blemish,
a male the firstborn, Oh, that's Christ, our perfect Lamb. This is the Lamb of God. This
is Christ, the perfect Lamb. This is Him, the Lamb without
spot, the Lamb without blemish. And oh my, and look what else
He goes on to say. And where's the blood gonna be?
The blood's gonna be on God's people's houses. Only on the
Lord's people's houses. Do you know where the blood was?
Only where the Lord's people were. Put it on the door, put
it on the door. Don't put it down where you can
walk on it. And that's what people do. They count the blood of the
covenant unholy thing and they walk on the blood of Christ.
The blood of Christ don't mean anything to people, but it's
got enough power in it to save everyone for whom he died and
no more or no less. And oh, look what he goes on
to say. And then He said in verse 8, You're going to eat this flesh,
you're going to eat this lamb, this lamb's got to have to be
eaten, and it's got to be roast with fire. Well, our Lord Jesus
Christ was roast with the fire of God's wrath, roast with the
fire of God's judgment, and look what He goes on to say, and eat
it with unleavened bread. Don't you, don't you bring nothing,
nothing in the gospel. Don't you bring nothing in this
thing that'll make the gospel not pure and not pure. Gospel's
gotta be pure. Christ's gotta be pure. Our religion's
gotta be a pure thing. And God's the only one that can
give that to us. And then bitter herbs, oh my! And I tell you what, God, when
He brings you to repentance, it gets pretty bitter. When He
brings you to the end of yourself, it's pretty bitter. When you
find out what you're like, it's pretty bitter to deal with, ain't
it? You find out all the lies and all the religion you had,
find out how awful it was, it gets pretty bitter. And oh my! And don't eat it raw, don't water
down the Gospel, don't water down Christ, and And then look
what he says there in verse 10, and don't let nothing of it remain
until the morning. You gotta have it all. Don't let Christ be without.
This is what it's telling us here. He said, don't wait, don't
wait, don't wait. And oh Lord, my Lord come in
there, and he come into this temple, and he came where Jehovah
was, and oh my, he became to prove these overthrew. Look what
it says there in verse, 15. He poured, and they show sheep
and oxen down there in verse 15 in chapter 2 of John 2. He poured out the changer's money. Back over in John 2. I'm sorry.
You should have went back over. Back where I started. I just,
you know, you may have to go someplace you're not supposed
to be. But back over here in John 2, look what he says in
verse 15. And he poured out the changer's money. So these fellas had a lot of
money. They was there for do nothing but to make money. And
what he done, he said, I'm gonna pour this out. You know what
I think about your money? Don't mean nothing, just throw
it, just turn it over, pour it out, pour it out, pour it out. You know why God does things
like this? He said, If I ask of you, could you supply my need? If God said, If I were asked
of you, if I was hungry, would I ask you to feed me? If God
was hungry, what would we feed Him? If God needed anything, What,
could we supply that need? If God needed, if he is blind,
could we give him sight? Oh my, that's what he said. He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
ask you. You know why I wouldn't ask you?
See all them cattle out there? See that one over on that farm
over yonder? See that one, that farm over yonder? See that one
way down there in Florence? Every cattle on every hill belongs
to me. Oh my, oh, our Lord Jesus Christ,
what a blessed, blessed man he is. And oh my, the temple, the
temple was a place of worship. And they had, they didn't have,
it's supposed to be a place of ceremonial purity. No leaven,
supposed to be no leaven in it, just like in the Passover, no
leaven. And this is the place where Jehovah was to be in their
midst. And here's Jehovah incarnate,
here's God incarnate. He's there at the temple. And
what met His eye when He went in there? The house of prayer. become a house of merchandise.
The holy place of worship become a den of thieves, a den of thieves. Here's light shining in darkness,
exposing, exposing the true nature of things. You know there was a, I'll preach
on this some Sunday night here pretty soon, there was a fellow
named Jeroboam. Now what Jeroboam did, is that
he built him an altar, and he hired some men of the lowest
type of men that they were to be priests. Then he set him up
an altar, and he set him up some idols. And this is what he told
folks. He said, You don't have to go
up to Jerusalem to worship. You know, we've got a priest
here, we've got an altar here, and we've got idols here. So you don't have to go down
there, and you know what it's called? The sin of Jeroboam. He made
religion convenient. He made religion easy. You don't have to put forth no
effort. You don't have to go anywhere.
Stay right here, and I've got everything you need. You need
a priest? I know he's a sorry fella, but listen, I made him
priest. That's what happened. They call
it the sin of Jeroboam. And that's one of the awfulest
sins in the Bible. It's called the sin of Jeroboam.
And oh my, the real motive for this people, this den of thieves,
was covetousness, boasters, idolaters. And they boasted that they weren't
idolaters. They said they only had one God,
but yet they turned the temple of God into idolatry. and become money changers, selling
sacrifices, and he called it the house of merchandise. This
is something I learned early, early on. I learned this early
on, and I tell you what, a man, a preacher that can be
bought with money can be sold for more money, and a church that depends on
the world to give it money and goes out here and has rummy sales
and pie sales and cookie sales and anything else they can do
to make money to bring into the Church, they re not of God. God,
Him, will provide for Himself and His preachers. He always
has and He always will. We're not gonna, listen, we don't
need the world. We don't need the world to provide
for us. God provided for you all the days of your life. Some
of you way up in your 80s now. And every one of you gonna go
home, go to a nice house, go get in a nice car to get there,
and you got some money, and you can eat what you want to eat,
you can go out and eat this afternoon if you want to, did the world
give that to you, or did God give it to you? Huh? We saying that, you know, the
Lord will provide. And He has, and all, but He took
that small scourge, poured out the tables of the money changers.
This proves to us and shows us the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he said there in verse 16,
here in Luke, John 2, and said unto them, take these things
hence, get them out of here. Take your doves, take your ox,
take your sheep, take your everything, take your money, take your tables,
take everything out of here. Get them out of this place. This
is my father's house, my father's house. Now, let's go back over
here to Mark 11. This is the second time our Lord's
done this, and He's doing it right before He goes to the cross.
Oh, my. And He went into the temple in
verse 15, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in
the temple, overthrew the table of the money changers, seats
of denim, and so on, and would allow anybody, anybody, anybody,
to carry anything through the temple. And he talked then to
them, saying, Is it not written, My house shall be called the
house of all nations, the house of prayer? You know, it's called
here the house of prayer. Let's deal with this thing called
the house of prayer. You know, prayer is one of the most blessed
things that God's given us. Oh, one of the most blessed things.
Sweet Eleanor asked me this morning, mentioned prayer for two people. Prayer requests. And when you ask somebody to
pray for you, you know, that's what y'all do. We sung that song,
Sweet Hour of Prayer. I'd love to pray for an hour,
but you know, most of our prayers are instantaneous. They're just
like that. We don't have to get all alone, get on our knees and
cry and cry and cry and cry. I wake up in the night and I
pray, and I know you do too. And when something comes across
your mind or some person comes across your mind, you just automatically
either give thanks for them or you pray for them. You pray for
them. And that's, John Bunyan said
this, I'd weather my words, my prayers be without words as being
without heart. And real prayer comes instantaneous,
it's spontaneous. You know, we want to have, we
have this public prayer, we worship together, and we pray publicly,
but we pray for one another. But anyway, house of prayer of
all nations. You know, let's talk about this
house of prayer. You know, Paul the apostle was
a praying man. He prayed all his life. He prayed
all his life but never said one prayer, never said one prayer. And then
when he was put in the dirt on the Damascus Road and he was
led into this place called Strait into Damascus. Scripture says,
you know, that he was blind, and Ananias, the Lord told Ananias,
said, Go over the street called Straight, and you ll find Saul
of Tarsus. Oh, Lord, I ain t going over
there. He s a mean man. He s an evil man. He said, Behold,
he prayeth. When God gets you down, you go
pray. God will put you in a position
where you ll And that's what he said, but
behold, he prayeth. He'd prayed all his life, but
God said, now he's prayin'. Now he's prayin'. And there's
the Pharisee. He went up to the temple, and
what does the scripture say? He prayed thus with himself. Men love to make long prayers
standing on the street corners. And here this Pharisee stood
in the temple and prayed thus with himself. And I thank thee,
O God, that I'm not like other people." You know what his prayer
life was? It was a prayer of religion. His prayer was a prayer of comparison. He compared himself to everybody
else. That's a bad thing to do. Don't
compare yourself with anybody else. If you do, if I compare
myself to anybody else, I always come up short. I come up short. But oh my, and
it was a prayer of comparison. I thank you, I'm not like that
fella, not like that fella, not like this other fella, not like
that other fella. And oh my, he wanted a God that he could
please, a God that would say, boy, you're a fine, fine fella. You're a fine man. You're living
really, really good. I'm just so happy about you.
I'm just so happy for you. And oh my, and there's prayers
that are not prayers. Oh, people that are not praying
to the Living God, whatever it is, whatever God it is, they're
not praying to. What they're doing, they're trying
to bargain with God, strike a deal with God. You do this for me,
and I'll do that for you. You do that for me, and I'll
do this for you. There's hardly anybody that gets
put in jail. Now listen to me now, and I've
seen this happen so many times. HARDLY ANYBODY GETS PUT IN JAIL
THAT DON'T GET JAILHOUSE RELIGION. THE FIRST THING PEOPLE DO, THEY
START SENDING BIBLE LESSONS IN THERE. AND I'VE PREACHED IN SOME
PRISONS. I'VE PREACHED IN SEVERAL PRISONS.
AND I'VE PREACHED IN SOME JAILS. AND I'VE PREACHED IN SOME MISSIONS. BUT I NEVER SEEN ANYBODY GET
WHERE IT LASTED. They get out of jail, and next
thing you know, they're right back where they left off. Listen, and that's about all
folks got. They got scared religion. When you get scared, oh, I need
Jesus. That's not praying. That's not
praying. You get me out of the mess I'm
in, and I'll promise you. Boy, don't make no promises to
God that you can't keep. Listen, I don't even make promises
to myself, because I've promised myself that I'd do certain things
and be certain ways, and I don't even keep promises to myself. Have y'all ever done that? They're trying to stack
a deal, and that's what this man was doing, striking a deal
with the Lord. Negotiating with God. I tell
you, God does not negotiate. He's not a negotiator. No, no. Unions can negotiate. No, people
can negotiate. But let me tell you something.
God don't negotiate with sinners. You know what prayer is? He called
a house of prayer. You know what prayer is? Asking
God to do for you what you cannot possibly do for yourself. PRAYER
IS ASKING GOD TO DO FOR YOU WHAT YOU CANNOT DO FOR YOURSELF. OH MY! AND IF YOU OFFER ANYTHING,
IF YOU OFFER ANYTHING TO GET SOMETHING IN RETURN, IT'S NOT
PRAYER. I'M GONNA SAY THAT AGAIN. IF
YOU OFFER ANYTHING TO GET SOMETHING IN RETURN, IT'S NOT PRAYER. And I'll tell you, that other
fellow went up to the temple to pray. Let me give you what
the Bible talks about prayer. Publican, he went up to the temple
to pray. Up to this temple, went up to
the temple to pray. I've got a bad heart right here.
Oh God, this is prayer. Oh God, be merciful to me. Be merciful to me. Be merciful
to me, the sinner. Oh my. Some lepers came down from a
mountain, and they worshiped Christ, and they said, Lord,
Lord, first word out of their mouth was Lord, if you will,
if you will, you can make me clean. If you will, if God will, things
will happen. Oh my, and I tell you, Bartimaeus
sat by the roadside and said, oh, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. That's all
I want is mercy. Mercy. And oh, and Lazarus, before he
died, They sent word to the Lord Jesus Christ. They sent a prayer
over there and said, Lord Jesus said, he whom thou lovest is
sick. You love him. I know you love
him. And he's sick. He's sick. He's sick. And Peter walking
on the water, he started to go down. Big old wave come up and
it scared him. He started to go down. reached
out a hand and said, Lord, save me. I perish. That's prayer. Well, you know
where you learn that at? Through the gospel being preached
to you. It's like the Passover, speak
unto them. And our Lord, he's speaking unto
these people. He taught these people. And oh
my, that's what true prayer, this is true prayer. Lord, save
me. Lord, save me. And boy, when you start praying
like this, when your heart goes out like this, there's some understanding
of the gospel. Prayer, they call it the house
of prayer. You know, prayer is asking God to freely
give you what you would not have unless he's pleased to give it.
Prayer is asking God to freely give you what you would not have
unless he's pleased to give it. Forgiveness? There is forgiveness with thee,
that thou mightest be as pure. Lord, would you be pleased to
give me forgiveness of my sin? My sin is so great, would you
forgive me of it? Mercy, oh Lord! Would you show me some mercy? I ain't got any grace. Where
am I gonna get it, Lord? I need grace. I want grace. I want grace. Oh my, I need a new heart. Where
am I gonna get that at? If He's pleased to give it to
you, you'll get it. He's the only one who can give
you a new heart. Nobody else can. You need faith? You ain't got it. Lord, would
you give me faith? Give me faith. Our Lord said, teach me, the
disciples said, teach us to pray. Do you need love? Oh, we all
need love. Oh, how desperately we need more
and more love. Oh, how our hearts need to have
more and more love. More compassion, show more grace. But oh, where we gonna get it
from? Only God can freely give it.
Oh, I need eyes to see, I need eyes to see. See Christ. See the word. See my need. See what prayer is. To see what
I need from God. And only God can. I need eyes
to see. Lord, give me eyes. Let me see. Oh, give me eyes. New eyes. Let
me see. And oh, Lord, give me ears. Give
me ears so I can hear the gospel. Give me ears so I can hear your
voice. Give me ears so I can hear your
word. Give me ears so I can understand
what you're saying. Give me ears. And oh, that's
what I'm saying. Prayer is asking God to freely
give you what you would not have unless he's pleased to give it.
And Lord, give me a heart to receive, receive what you give,
receive. But back over here in Mark chapter
11, look what he says. He taught them, saying unto them,
Is it not written, My house shall be called the house of all nations,
and the house of prayer? But this is what they did unto
it. You made it a den of thieves. You're a bunch of thieves. You
rob God of His glory. You rob people of their comfort.
You rob people of the truth. You steal God's glory. You steal Christ's blood. You
steal Christ's You steal Christ's honor, you steal Christ's glory,
you steal Christ's power, you steal the power of the blood
from Christ, you're a den of thieves, a den of thieves. He was angry, he's angry. And then look what it says in
verse 18, and I'm done. And the chief scribes and chief
priests heard what our Lord said and sought, this is exactly,
what these fellas that he did thought about him. We got to
put him out of business. We can't let him talk about us
like that. We can't let him treat us like
that. We can't let him describe us that way. We're not gonna
have him. We gotta destroy him. But look
what else it says there. But there was a people there
was astonished. that were astonished at his doctrine. And after all these years, I'm
still astonished at the doctrine of Christ. This is the doctrine
of Christ, cleaning the temple. And I tell you what, it just
suits me fine. If he wants to clean a clean
house, that's his business. Ain't that right? Amen, amen. our blessed, blessed Father in
heaven. Thank you, thank you, thank you
for meeting with us today. Thank you for your precious truth.
Thank you for allowing me to preach again this side of eternity,
deal with your word again this side of eternity. I thank you
for this dear, dear people that's so faithful, so loving, so kind,
so faithful, so Christ-honoring. God bless them. And Lord, again,
we pray for those that were asked prayer for. Please meet the needs
of our dear, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord, save
your people in this place. Oh, may the gospel put seed in
the heart, because if it's there, it'll bring forth fruit to your
glory. Bring glory to yourself through all of us for Christ's
sake. Amen and amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. and the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Now, we're gonna have lunch here
today. No service tonight. Ain't that
something I come back from three weeks gone? and I don't even
have to come and preach tonight. You'd think that I'd wanna stay
and preach. But listen, I've done plenty
of preaching in my life, so I got five boxes outlined back there,
so you know it's not like I don't do it. But listen, you stay and
eat dinner with us, and Lord willing, I'll see you Wednesday
night. See you Wednesday night.