Now in Matthew chapter 21, we're
gonna talk about a parable that was actually, it's kinda like
what I call a living parable, where Christ actually came upon
with his disciples a barren fig tree. And it was a real fig tree,
and the situation, we'll get to that in just a moment. He
used it to teach a lesson, so I call it a living parable. And
the barren fig tree is an emblem of the nation Israel lost in
their sins and under the curse of God, not knowing the truth,
not receiving the truth, blind, deaf, spiritually, and all of
that. And it starts out, the lesson
starts out in verse 12, where it's talking about Christ coming
into Jerusalem. Look at verse 12. It says, and
Jesus went into the temple of God. Now that's the first major
element that we need to look at in this story. In this historical
record is what it is. It's not just a tale, you know,
this is actual happening, Christ coming into Jerusalem. And he's
preparing for all the things that he came to this world to
do, and that is to be arrested, to be accused, to suffer, and
to bleed, and to die for the sins of his people given to him
by the father before the foundation of the world. And this is all
preparation for this. And he went into the temple of
God. And it says, and he cast out
all then that sold and bought in the temple, the merchants,
and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats
of them that sold doves." Now what's significant about this?
Well this is the time of the Passover. So you've got the temple
and you've got the Passover. Two of the most beautiful types
and pictures of Christ and His church, how God saves sinners
by the blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know about the Passover. You can read about the Passover
in Exodus 12 where God instituted that feast for the Hebrew children
through Moses. and you remember all that he
told about how each household had to get a lamb of the first
year because that pictured Christ the Lamb of God cut down in the
prime of life. He was 33, 33 and a half years
old when he died as the as the lamb. that was purposed to be
slain before the foundation of the world, had to be a lamb without
blemish, without spot, and what does that speak of? His purity. Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ
is impeccable. What does that mean? That means
he cannot there was no possibility for him to sin at all, to commit
sin, to have a sinful thought and this is why we're adamant
about this because if he was not a lamb without blemish and
without spot he would not have been qualified to be our substitute
to die for our sins. And so we need to understand
that these people that today are talking about how Christ
became contaminated with our sins or that he was actually
made a sinner, they're lying and they're lying to themselves.
That's a false gospel, a false Christ. Christ did not sin, he
was never contaminated with our sins, yet he was actually, according
to 2 Corinthians 5, 21 and other passages, he was actually made
sin. In what sense? He was made to
be our sin offering. He was made, our sins were imputed,
charged, accounted to him, the debt of our sins. And just in
the same way, we're accounted, charged, imputed with his righteousness,
which is the merits of his obedience unto death. Well, the Passover,
it typified all that. And you remember what God said.
They were to slay the lamb, roast the meat, and eat it with their
clothes on, being ready to leave, because they're being led out
of the captivity. That's what Christ did for us.
And remember, they were to put the blood over the door and over
the sides of the door. And remember what God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. That's a beautiful picture. Now, here's the point. Here is
the Passover. But generally, the people of
Israel did not realize what the Passover was all about. They
didn't realize it was about Christ, the Lamb of God, who would be
slain for the sins of his people. And yet they were participating
in this religious ritual. And here they are at the temple.
And the temple is a beautiful picture of Christ and his church.
You know all about the temple. You know about the outer court,
where there was the brazen altar, the altar of sacrifice. Then
you had the inner court, which was the court of the priest,
where you had the table of showbread, and the candlestick, and all
of that. The wash basin, I'll get it out. And then you had the very, inner
court, the holy of holies, where you had the Ark of the Covenant
and the mercy seat, where the high priest went in once a year,
sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice off the brazen altar, the blood
of the lamb or the goat. And that was a picture of Christ,
our Savior, our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. But they didn't
see it. Generally, there were a few.
There's always a remnant, you know, down through Israel's history,
where the majority of the people were ignorant of the true gospel
and the spiritual aspects of all these things that God gave
them, there was always a remnant according to the election of
grace. You remember Isaiah, he made the statement, he said,
if the Lord had not left us a small seed, a remnant, we'd be just
like Sodom and Gomorrah. That is, the whole nation would
have perished. But here's the point. They had
turned the temple of God Instead of a house of worship, a house
of prayer, a picture of Christ and his church, the Passover
and the Lamb of God, they had turned all of that into sinful,
self-righteous, ugly religion and made it a den of thieves
and merchants to make money. It's what they were about. And
these, in verse 12, he talks about the money changers and
those who sold and bought dust. They were people, you know, During
the Passover there were different people coming from far away to
worship at the temple and they had different kinds of money
like they'll have coins with Caesar's picture on them or a
false god and that's what the money changers were for. They
changed that money into the coins that they would accept and they
made a big profit. That's what it was all about.
You know that's what it's all about, making money. And then those
who sold doves, they were selling those for people who didn't have
a sacrifice to sacrifice. And so Jewish law, I put in your
lesson here, Jewish law required a temple tax and they would come
in and they would change their money and they'd buy doves and
all of that. And again, they made it a house,
a den of thieves. They were there to make money.
They weren't there to worship. They weren't there to pray. They weren't
there to glorify God. And that's, you know, religion
is, you know, false preachers, you know. They turn religion
into a money making machine. You've seen that. And it's just,
there's no difference here. But they don't know God. They
don't know Christ. And so he overthrew the tables
of the money changers. and the seats of them that sold
doves. He drove them out of the temple. You know, he'd done that
once before, it's recorded in John chapter two. This is not
the only time he'd done that. So, but he told them, he says,
he said in verse 13, now look at it. He says, and he said unto
them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer.
That's a house of worship. That's what we're here to do
this morning. We're here to worship God, to lift up Christ, to preach
the gospel, the good news of salvation by his grace. But he
says, you've made it a den of thieves, a money-making operation. And so they were blind, and they
were deaf to the truth. Now, connect that with what we're
going to see later on about the barren fig tree. There it is. It's kind of like what Christ
said to the Pharisees. Outwardly, you appear righteous. You're here at this temple, and
it's a beautiful building. You come in with your sacrifices
and all that. Outwardly, it appears righteous
unto men, but inwardly, it's dead. It's barren. No spiritual life, no truth,
no grace. And isn't that the case with
a lot of so-called churches today? You go in and there's big crowds
and the beautiful buildings, lots of money, all of that, but
no gospel. And that's tragic. It's a tragic
situation. And you tell people the truth
about it, they think you're crazy. Oh, this has got to be something
that God's impressed with. Well, Christ said God's not impressed
with it at all. Well, the next thing that happens
here, look what happens in verse 14. It says, and the blind and
the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. Now, why
do you think that was just put there, you know, just as a side
blurb? No, it's an illustration, another
miracle or other miracles that show what sinners need spiritually. Because they didn't know the
reality of what that temple meant, the dwelling place of God, which
is Christ, he tabernacled among us. Because they didn't know
the reality of the Passover and what that meant concerning the
salvation of sinners, they were blind, they were lame, they thought
they were in the truth, but they weren't. They thought they were
walking with God, but they weren't. So here comes blind and lame
sinners and he heals them. Well, that's what we need spiritually.
You know, we're all by nature spiritually blind. And that's
why Christ told Nicodemus and told us, you must be born again
or you cannot see the kingdom of God. We're all spiritually
lame. We can't walk with God until
God brings us to himself by his power and grace in Christ, and
then we walk with God. So, here's this temple, here's
the Passover, showing how Christ, crucified, risen from the dead,
is the way a holy God meets with sinners, and how sinners come
near to God. acceptance, no thanksgiving,
communion, or worship of God except through Christ and based
upon the merits of his work as our surety, our substitute, redeemer,
and as our life giver so that we might see the things of God,
the glory of God in Christ. So he alone is the way to the
Father. So That miracle there points
us not only to His deity, which is true, but it also points us
to what we need in order to be saved. We need the power of God
to raise us from the dead spiritually and give us eyes to see, ears
to hear, legs, spiritual legs to walk on. Like Enoch, he walked
with God. Well, you can't walk with God
without Christ. He's got to be our Savior. Well, look at verse
15. It says, when the chief priest and scribes, now you know the
chief priests, they're the ones who control the temple. Scribes
were the interpreters of the law. When they saw the wonderful
things that Christ did and the children crying in the temple
and saying, Hosanna, you remember when he came into Jerusalem,
they cried Hosanna, which means Lord save us. And he says, they
cried saying, Hosanna to the son of David. In other words,
they looked upon him as the Messiah. But now remember what I said
in the last lesson, their Messiah was different than God's Messiah.
Their view of the Messiah was as a conquering king coming to
free them on earth from the Roman oppression and set up his kingdom
in Jerusalem and rule the world through them. That was their
idea of the Messiah. Now he is coming as a king, but
in his second coming. In his first coming, he came
as the suffering servant of Jehovah, the lamb, to suffer and to bleed
and to die and be raised again from the dead. But they cried,
Hosanna to the son of David, and the chief priest and the
scribes were sore displeased. They didn't want this. Now why
were they so against? I mean, here comes a man, he's
healing, given the blind eyes to see, he's healing the lame,
they can walk. He even raised the dead. Remember
Lazarus? Remember Jairus' daughter? Why
would they be displeased with that? It was because of his message,
his doctrine. Remember at the end of the Sermon
on the Mount, they were astonished at his doctrine? And what was
it about his doctrine that they hated? It wasn't their doctrine. And it exposed their doctrine
to be false doctrine. It exposed their hope of salvation
to be a false hope. It exposed their leadership as
the blind leading the blind, all falling into the ditch together. And you'll see more of that in
Matthew 23 because then he comes right out. And you know how he
goes right down the line about the Pharisees and the Sadducees
and the religious leaders. how they're nothing but leading
sinners to hell. I always think about that one
verse where he said, you're fervent in your evangelistic efforts,
encompassing sea and land to make a convert. And when you
do, you've made them twofold more the child of hell than you
are. Now you know that's got to displease them. The only way
it would not displease them is if the Lord gave them eyes to
see and ears to hear like he did Saul of Tarsus. So they were
sore displeased and look at verse 16. They said unto him, hearest thou
what they say? And Jesus saith unto them, yea,
have you not read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
thou hast perfected praise? You know, when I hear preachers
say that, or so-called biblical scholars, say that Christ never
claimed to be God or never claimed to be the Messiah, and I read
passages like this, I say, have you not read the Bible? He's
taking a passage out of one of the Psalms, Psalm 8 and verse
2, which is a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah who is
none other identified in the scriptures, Old Testament and
New, as God manifest in the flesh. And he said, well, this is what
they're saying about me. Haven't you read about this? And in Psalm
8 too, I quoted it here. I put the quote in your lesson.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained
strength. Now that part's not put in here,
because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy
and the avenger. What he's talking about, the
phrase perfected praise and all of that, it's the same as saying
they're calling with a strong voice. This is not some light
matter. And understand this too, and
this is sad, but the same ones who are crying hosanna to the
son of David later on, remember what they said later on? Crucify.
So when they saw that this Messiah was not the conquering king come
in riding on a white horse, but he came in riding on a donkey,
when they saw that he wasn't gonna conquer Rome and set up
his kingdom in Jerusalem and rule through them, they turned
on him. Look at verse 17. It says, and he left them and
went out of the city into Bethany, and he lodged there. He left
the chief priest and the scribes, and he went back to Bethany.
And I'll put in your lesson here something I think is significant
when you think about this. Most would not receive Him. You remember in John one and
verse 11 says, He came unto His own and His own received Him
not. But others did receive Him. I put in here like Mary and Martha
and Lazarus, the disciples other than Judas, they willingly received
Him. Why? Because God made them willing
in the day of His power. And so how do you know, how does
a sinner who is by nature unwilling to receive Christ. How does he
become willing? Well, John 1, 12, and 13, it
says, they were born of God. They weren't born of blood. They
weren't born of the flesh. They weren't born of the will
of man. They were born of God. Again, you must be born again. And that's what we pray for people. May the Lord give you eyes to
see. May the Lord give us ears to hear. Well, look at verse
18. Now, I'm gonna close at verse 19, pick up at verse 20, Lord
willing, next week, to show some more things about this barren
fig tree. But look, it says in verse 18, now in the morning,
as he returned into the city, he hungered. Christ got hungry. That's a sinless infirmity of
the flesh that shows his sinless humanity. He hungered, he thirsted,
he wept, he hurt, all of that. it says in verse 19, when he
saw a fig tree by in the way he came to it and found nothing
there on but leaves only. Now that's strange, see, there's
no figs here, there's only leaves and if you read about that, you
know, we learned that the barren fig tree has the leaves, usually
a fig tree won't have leaves without having the figs. You
see what I'm saying? But here's a fig tree that has
the leaves, but no figs. And it says, they had leaves
only, which is strange. And it says, and said unto it,
he spoke to the fig tree, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward
forever. And presently the fig tree withered
away. Now we're gonna look at the disciples'
response to that, but let me just, later on, in the next lesson. But here he is, he stopped to
eat some figs. He knew there was no figs on
that tree, but he's making a point to the disciples, and that's
where this living parable comes in. For example, Mark tells us
in Mark 11, 13, that it wasn't the time of the season for figs.
And the Lord knew that when he stopped there, so there shouldn't
have been any leaves either. But the Lord said under the tree,
let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever, and presently the fig
tree withered away. Well, what does this barren fig
tree represent? It represents the nation Israel under the curse
of God. Now, that's why we are all by nature fallen in
Adam into the state of sin and death and depravity, and we must
be born again, as I said. The Bible says that cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on a tree. And so we look at this barren
fig tree, And we see the type in the picture of the nation
Israel in their blindness, in their deafness, and their spiritual
death. And that's what this represents,
national Israel under the curse of God. The people were ignorant
of God's way. They were ignorant of God's truth.
Paul tells us in Romans 9.31 through 10.3 that they were ignorant
of God's righteousness. And what was the proof of that?
They sought righteousness by the law, their works of the law. Remember he said that. And again,
as I've quoted in Galatians 3.10, cursed is everyone that continues
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. If you're trying to be saved or to be made righteous
or right with God based upon your law keeping, you have it
all to do. And if you mess up at one point,
you're cursed of God. That's what that means. And so
they rejected Christ, the only way of righteousness for sinners.
Romans 10, four says, Christ is the end, the finishing, the
fulfillment, the perfection of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believe it. But they rejected him. And just
like we saw in their view of the temple and their view of
the Passover, it was an outward form of religion like a fig tree
with leaves, looks okay, but no figs, no fruit. No accomplishment
there. Christ would tell their religious
leaders later, you appear that way, just like that fig tree,
but it's to no avail. Outwardly, outwardly, but within,
he says, you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity. And I'll put in
your lesson, this ought to remind us who are saved by God's grace
that were it not for Christ being made a curse for us, As it says
in Galatians 3 13, dying for our sins, establishing righteousness
for us, where would we be? We'd be cursed. And that cursing
there is forever. Remember what he said here. He
said, he said, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever.
And presently the fig tree withered away. That's what's going to
happen to the nation. Well, we do know. by God's grace
and thanks be to his power and goodness and grace, that there
was a remnant that God had called out of that nation, a remnant. Romans chapter 11 talks to us
about that, doesn't it? A remnant according to the election
of grace. And you know what? If we know
Christ, if we bear the What the figs represent, that's the fruit
of grace, the fruit of righteousness that we have in Christ by God's
grace. If we bear that fruit, we're part of that remnant. And
you know, somebody says, well, that sounds proud or whatever.
You know, do you think you're part of the chosen few? Well,
here's the thing about it. God's word speaks of the chosen
few. It speaks of it. And it tells
us who they are. And I know this, I wanna be one
of them, how about you? I don't wanna be the ones who
perish like the barren fig tree and wither away. So I'm gonna
search in the scriptures. Now it's God who put that within
me to do that. I didn't do that of my own free
will or my own goodness or power, I just look into it and I know
God has inspired me and motivated me to look into his word to see
who his people are and identify them and so that I can be assured
that I'm one of them by looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. So that's all to the praise of
the glory of God's grace. Okay.