Alright, good morning. Our text
will be in Mark 11. Mark 11, and we'll be looking
at verses 12 through 24 this morning. Mark 11, 12 through
24. Now our Lord in this text, In the beginning of the text,
we're reminded of his humanity, that he's a man. He's seen, he
reveals to us that he's hungry. He makes it known to us that
he's hungry, and that confirms to us, it makes known to us that
he knows the feeling and the infirmities of our flesh. He understands that, he knows
our heart, he knows what we experience here and the weakness of this
flesh, yet he is without sin. And so our hope, our hope is
one of faith. We look to the Lord in faith. It's not for an outward show,
as we'll see with this view of the fig tree with leaves upon
it. It's not for just an outward
show, because the Lord curses that tree, even though it looked
like a fruitful tree. It had the appearance of being
a fruitful tree. When he got up there, it had
no fruit and he cursed it. And so the Lord then takes his
disciples, after they heard him pronounce that curse against
the tree, he then takes them back to the temple. and there
shows them again what dead false religion looks like. It's flourishing
in its operation, looks good, it's hustling and bustling and
everybody's around it doing their thing, but it had no fruit unto
the praise, honor, and glory of God. So the believer, what
we'll see this morning, that the believer is made a child
of God by the operation of God, by his spirit doing a work in
his people so that he removes that dead cold heart that's natural
to this flesh And He gives His Spirit, making us alive to the
things of God by His revelation, by His power to give light and
life and liberty to sinners. To make them to know what God
has done for them, and so that it's God who circumcises the
heart. It's not an outward cutting in
the flesh, it's of the heart. And he does that work in the
heart whereby his spirit and his glory and life we worship
God and we rest in him. Our title is A Desirable Heart. A Desirable Heart. And the first
thing that we'll look at is Christ Knows. Christ Knows. And then
we'll look at this leafy religion of the fig tree, and then we'll
see this going through the motions. All right, so Christ knows. Now,
the night before they had been in Jerusalem, but they went back
to Bethany, and Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem. And
now it's the next day, and they're walking back to Jerusalem. And on their way, verse 12, we
read, When they were come from Bethany, he, Christ, was hungry. Christ was hungry. And that reminds
us, it makes known to us, Christ hungered as a man. He hungered
as a man. Now before we really get started,
I want to ask, why did Christ come in the flesh? Why did Christ
come in the flesh? You know, He is fully divine. He is God. He is the Son of God
and He is one with the Father. Christ is the Son of God. He would say in verse 17 of Mark
11, 17, He asked, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all
nations the house of prayer? My house. my house. He was speaking
with the authority and the power as God, as the Son of God, my
house. Alright, that's what he says.
And so Christ is the Lord of his house. He's the one that
builds his church. He builds his house. I want you
to turn over to Hebrews 3, and put a marker there because we'll
look at a few scriptures later in Hebrews 2 and in Hebrews 4.
We'll go to Hebrews 3, verse 6, and we'll read from there
to verse 8. Hebrews 3.6 But Christ, as a
Son over His own house, whose house we are, or whose house
are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
Firm unto the end, what is the believer's hope? That God will
receive us and accept us in perfect righteousness. That we will stand
before God perfectly righteous and whole before Him. Now, only
in Christ, only in Christ Jesus are believers made righteous
and whole, perfectly whole and righteous to stand before a holy
God, faultless before his throne, as it says in Revelation, faultless
before his throne by Christ. Wherefore, he says, verse 7,
as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear his voice, heart
and not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation,
in the wilderness." Where Christ's house, He's building the house,
hear Him. In hope, we hear Him. He makes
us to hear Him and to look to Him in hope, trusting Him. And this passage this morning
that we're looking at, if one can hear it, if we can hear what's
being said, there's not a one of us that would be able to do
anything but hang our head in shame because none of us keeps
it perfectly. We're all guilty of what we see
here in this passage. And it's only by the grace and
mercy of God that we have hope and stand before Him and hope
trusting Him. So this is why Christ came in
the flesh. This is why Christ came in the
flesh. We ask that question. Why did
Christ come in the flesh? Because none of us is perfect.
None of us can keep the law perfectly. None of us can keep our hearts
and our minds and our thoughts stayed upon God. Only He can
do that. Only He can work that perfect
peace in us. So that's why He came in the
flesh to make us righteous, and by His power and His Spirit,
He forms that hope that we have in Christ. He's the one who forms
that hope in our hearts. He makes us to look to Him. Alright,
so we read here that He was hungry. He was hungry. And think about
that, brethren. He was hungry for you. For you that believe and for
you that hear Him, He was hungry for you. It says as well that When he
went into Samaria, for that woman there in Samaria, when he went
there it says that he was wearied, wearied with his journey. And
when he came to Jacob's well, he rested there on that well
being wearied with his journey. He came in the flesh. When his
good friend Lazarus died, what do we read of Christ? He wept,
just like his sisters were weeping before the tomb, Christ wept.
He knew what it was to feel sorrow, and pain, and hurt, and to empathize
with his brethren, and to feel that, he really felt that. And
when he was on the cross, bearing the sins of his people, what
did he say? Knowing that all things were
accomplished, he said, I thirst, I thirst. And he did that for
you, brethren. He hungered, he wept, he was
weary with his journey, he thirsted for you. He came in the flesh
to bear your sorrow, to bear your infirmities and iniquities,
and to put away your sin, that you might know him. He did that
for you, brethren. So, He knows our weaknesses.
He's no stranger to sorrow. He's a just Savior. He's the
perfect Savior that we need. And He knows our weaknesses and
our infirmities so that for our sins, He suffered, He bled, He
died. He was buried in a tomb for you
who believe, who hear His voice and know, Lord, I'm the sinner.
I cannot save myself. Look over in Hebrews 2. Hebrews
2.14. We read, Therefore, as much them
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver
them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage, and for verily he took not on him the nature of
angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in
all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor, to care for, to tend to our need, them that are tempted."
So why did Christ come in the flesh? He came to make us righteous,
to deliver us from the deadness of our works, the empty vein
religion that all we knew and could do, he came to put away
our sin and to make us righteous, to stand before God. He reconciled
us as our surety. He paid the price as the Lamb
of God to put away the sin of his people. And all who come
to God without Christ And what they're coming in is their own
works. Whether you think that's how
you're coming or not, those who come before God, not in Christ,
not looking to His blood, not trusting in Him, they're saying,
I'm coming to God in my own works. And I'm going to stand before
God on His throne, trusting that my works will speak well for
me in that day. just as he curses that fig tree
in our text which we'll see momentarily we shall die and perish in hell
under the the curse of the law under the wrath of god separated
from him because we thought his blood's just a light thing we
don't we don't really think much of that i'll come in my own works
and i'll trust what i can do instead all right so all without
christ have no fruit they may look good they may put on a good
show like this fig tree but they have no fruit, and Christ pronounces
his curse on them. So let's look at that, what we
are by nature, this leafy religion at best. So Christ, he was hungry,
and it says in verse 13, Mark 11, 13, 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. It was not
yet. And Jesus answered and said unto
it, no man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. He cursed
it. And his disciples, they heard
it. Now the key to this is it's twofold
here. First, we read that the time
of figs was not yet. The time of figs was not yet.
And Christ tells us, he makes it plain to us, ye must be born
again. We will never bear fruit until
the glory and praise of God, except we be born again of his
spirit. That's the only way we're going
to bear fruit. You must be born again. It's got to be a spiritual
work that God does for his people, because we don't do it. We don't
earn it and work it. All right? And then the second
thing is, it says that Christ, seeing a fig tree far off, having
leaves, he came. So this tree was doing a lot
to call attention to itself. It's out there waving around
with all these big leaves and it looks like a good fruitful
tree. And all the other fig trees were
around it and they were just beginning to bud. They're just
pushing out their branches and their little buds are popping.
But this thing has leaves, full-on leaves. And so it made a good
rush to make a good show that it's a good mature tree. bearing
much fruit. And it looked like a mature tree. It looked like it was further
along than all the others. It had leaves pushed out and
it looked really good, but it had no fruit. And what this tree
does, it pictures several things that we can see in it. First
of all, it's a picture of apostate Judaism. It's a picture of apostate
Judaism, right? The Jews, in that day, the Jews
had a lot of leaves, a lot going on for them. They had their ceremony,
they had their doctrine and their teaching, they had their fancy
robes and they looked good with all their ceremonies. They had
a lot of robes. They even had history and tradition
on their side. They had all that backing them
up. They had great reputations among the people. They had a
lot of leaves, and they called attention to themselves with
all the leaves that they were dressed in. They looked good,
but they had no fruit. Because the problem is they had
no faith, so that like those Jews that came out of Egypt in
the Exodus, where we read in Hebrews 4-2, It says the word
preached did not profit them. Why? Because it was not mixed
with faith in them that heard it. So that means all their works
were not done in faith, but they were done in the flesh. Just
an outward fleshly work. And Romans 8 tells us they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. we will not please God by
the works of this flesh and Christ would say to them in Matthew
23 verse 38 he said behold your house is left unto you desolate
and he left them he cursed them and left them never to return
to the religion of Judaism ever again. That's not how he deals
with his people. He ever dealt with them in Christ. And they were to be looking to
Christ, but they weren't looking to Christ. It was just an outward,
dead-letter faith for the majority of them. All right, so then we
see that the picture is apostate Judaism. And then another thing
that we see is it pictures the apostate church, every apostate
church in our day and throughout all the history, right? These
churches, they profess themselves to be the church of God, right? And they put on a good show and
they have ceremonies and they read from the Bible and they
speak of doctrine and once in a while they even speak of the
Lord Jesus Christ, right? So they do all that and it's,
Their confidence is in their organized religion, in their
works, in what they're doing, and they're trusting to those
things. They're trusting in their orthodoxy,
and in their canons and catechisms, and what they say, and their
traditions, just like the Jews. And they're just as dead as the
Jews. They have a show of leaves. They look pretty, but inside
they're just full of dead men's bones and have nothing. Paul
said to Titus 1.16, he said, they profess that they know God,
but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient and
unto every good work. reprobate, reprobate. And that's
what the apostate church is. And then we see here another
picture of religious hypocrisy, religious hypocrisy. And every
one of us in the flesh knows what hypocrisy is. If we're honest,
we know because we've We witness it in our own hearts and in our
own flesh and we ourselves are hypocrites except God teach us
and convince us and lead us from looking to this flesh and trusting
in this flesh and looking alone to Christ. You know, many do
have a knowledge of sound doctrine. They hold to and know true things
concerning salvation. They know that sinners are depraved
and unable to save themselves. They know that it's by election
and God choosing a people and putting them in Christ and that
Christ came to shed his blood for those people and that no
man can Resist the Holy Spirit and can turn him away but the
Holy Spirit will have his way with his people and they know
that the saints shall persevere because it's not their work but
the work of God and yet all it is is just the head knowledge.
It's just the head knowledge and there's no love or thought
for the Lord Jesus Christ and There's many that join themselves
to the church and are faithful to go to the church, and they
know the ordinances. They know that upon believing
and confessing Christ, sinners are baptized, and they know that
when we take the Lord's Supper, the bread and the wine, there's
no grace being transferred there. We're just doing what the Lord
said in faith, remembering Him till He comes. Just remembering
Him till He comes. But they have no love for Christ.
They have no desire to serve Him or to sacrifice anything
of themselves because They trust to just their religion that they've
done enough and it should be good enough. And the Lord says
in Revelation 3, 1, we read when John wrote unto the angel of
the church in Sardis, right? He's writing to the pastor in
Sardis there. And he said, these things saith
he that hath the seven spirits of God. God knows the heart. He sees all things, the seven
spirits and the seven stars. He said, I know thy works, that
thou hast the name that thou livest, and art dead. So, men and women could be perfect
in their baptism, they could be perfect in their ceremonies,
they could be perfect in their knowledge of doctrine and what
they do they can appear perfect outwardly and yet be dead on
the inside because they don't look to Christ. They're not resting
in Christ alone, they're resting in their works. And so without
Christ these may be We may possess a lot of leaves and look really
good on the outside, but be dead and barren of any fruit. And
our leaves will provide no more secure covering for us when we
stand before God than Adam and Eve's fig leaves that they sewed
together covered their nakedness before God. They still were naked. It did not cover their nakedness,
their fig leaf religion. And so that's what we see here. God sees our nakedness and he
said, even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but
within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. And those that
die in that self-righteous or die deceived, deceiving themselves,
trusting their own knowledge, trusting their works and what
they do when they die, being deceived and therefore bring
themselves under the curse of the law and be cursed of Christ. So the Lord tells us to repent. Repent of your dead works. Don't
look to your dead works. Don't trust in them. Trust in
Christ. And if God is in it, if he gives
you that ear to hear, yeah, my works, are dead and I'm trusting
in those things, then may he give you the heart and the faith
to turn and believe him and look to him to flee those things. And because Christ said that
curse, no man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever and his disciples
heard it. And that's a pronunciation. He's
declaring that none of us in the flesh will ever bear fruit.
We look to the Lord Jesus Christ. We reach out. we beg him for
mercy. And he's the one who gives us
that desire and heart to beg him for mercy. Alright, now Christ
having that word ringing in their ears. No man's going to eat a
fruit from thee. That word still, they're hearing
it in their ears and then Christ leads them into Jerusalem and
they go to the temple. And there now he shows them what
this dead letter religion looks like. What that dead empty faith
looks like. Look at verse 15. Mark 11, 15
through 17. It says, 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 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. So Christ now on this day, he
returns with his disciples. He was there the previous day
and Matthew recorded that he had already thrown these guys
out but it's the next day and Christ isn't around so they come
gathering back up and setting up all their things again. He
goes in there again and drives them out and this time he gets
even more serious and he says I don't even want to see you
carrying a vessel from one end of the auditorium to the other. No, you're not doing it. You're
not just going to use this as a thoroughfare just to get from
point A to point B. Alright, so what do we learn
from this? Because we're not selling doves
and beasts and cattle for sacrificing and things like that. What do
we learn from this? Well, what we are to see and
to know is that our faith, our hope, it's a matter of the heart. It really is a matter of the
heart. There's not these hard and fast
rules that men would probably like to have so they know and
can just check off and say, alright, that's done, I did what I was
supposed to do there. But it's a matter of faith. Christ
said, ye must be born again. We must be born again. It's got
to be by the Spirit living in us and teaching us and guiding
us and causing us to continue in our hope ever looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ and not my own works. As we saw before in
Hebrews 4.2 it said, for unto us was the gospel preached as
well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. So as the
Lord teaches us, as he grows us In His grace, under the Gospel,
as He assembles us, as you were praying, brother, as a local
assembly, He's teaching us. He is growing us, and He's settling
us, and He's maturing us, and He's teaching us things that
we are to know and to hear. but it's got to be with faith
and he's the one that gives that faith and don't ever forget that
it's by faith. We don't just do do do and have
no knowledge that anything we do, if it is profitable, if it
is profitable unto men, it's by the grace and to his glory
and his honor and that's why we do them. Christ said in John
4 24, God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. It's got to be by His Spirit.
This flesh can put on a good show. It can bear many leaves,
but it can never bear that fruit of righteousness in the Lord
Jesus Christ. So without life, without that
spiritual regeneration, we know what our worship will be. It'll
be external. It'll be of the flesh. It'll
just be carnal. It'll be dried up like those
roots of that fig tree got dried up afterwards. It'll be dead
and fruitless and therefore ultimately cursed. It'll just be cursed,
cursed work. All right? And so, you know,
I was thinking about it and we know, he went to the temple and
we know that the building that we meet in, the building itself
is nothing. All right? It's not the building
that's holy. We're holy because the Lord has
assembled us. He assembles his people. He brings
his people to come and to worship his name because he's worthy
of honor and praise. It glorifies him. And so he puts
it in our heart. He calls us and draws us to come
and to worship him. And we gather to worship him
in spirit and in truth. That's what we're praying. That's
what we're seeking. Lord, gather us together in spirit and in
truth. And so we don't take the worship
of God lightly. None of us, we're all learning
this isn't a light and a casual thing. The Lord's gathered us.
The Lord's gathered us. And we don't always think of
it in those terms. I can't stand here and say that
my heart has been right all the time before this. And I'm just
telling you, I know. And the Lord knows because he
knows the weakness and the infirmity of our flesh, yet he himself
is without sin. And we saw the other week how
Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 3.15 when he said that, Thou
mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house
of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth. What, the building they were
meeting in? No, but the assembled body, the assembled body of Christ. He gathered them and he's revealed
to them the truth concerning himself, concerning salvation,
concerning our need of his salvation because we cannot save ourselves. So we are the body of Christ. And Paul wrote to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 3.16 when he said, know ye not that ye are
the temple of God? and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you. The Spirit of God dwells in our
bodies, each of our bodies individually. And so in our bodies we seek
to honor and glorify the Lord with our body, but especially
when we come together, the Lord is in our midst. And don't ever
forget that the Lord is in our midst. Just as he was there in
that temple, he's in our midst right now. He's in our midst
now. He says in Matthew 18, 20, Matthew
18, 20, if you need to see with your own eyes, then go there.
But that's where he said, for where two or three are gathered
in my name, there I am in the midst of them. I'm in the midst
of you, he says. I'm there among you. And so we're
reminded the Lord has gathered us, and if he's gathered us,
he's in our midst, right? He's in our midst. So when we
come together, you know, as a church, we don't just come seeking to
do our own will and as we please, but rather we remember you're
the Lord. The Lord is the Lord, and he's
the king, and he is God, and he sees all. He knows us. He
sees what we are and who we are and He's brought us together
and so when we come together we depend upon His Spirit, ever
depending upon His Spirit. Even if we don't think about
it, we need to be dependent on His Spirit and thank the Lord
for His grace and mercy which is long-suffering to us because
how often would we or have we offered strange fire and not
been consumed and burned up like Aaron's two sons were. So, we
trust in the grace of the Lord. Now, Mark 11, 17. It says that
he taught them, 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. Now, is that just for the Jews?
Is this just a word for the Jews and it has no part or meaning
for us today? Turn over to Matthew 23. Matthew
23 and go to verse 29 I'm going here because Again,
I was thinking through, well, what does this have to do with
me? You know, what does this have
to do with my brethren and the church here? And in Matthew 23,
29, Christ says unto them, He says, Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye build the tombs of the prophets,
and garnish the supplicars of the righteous, and say, If we
had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers
with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore he said,
Ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them
which killed the prophets. And I thought about that because
I didn't know really exactly why what they said, why what
they did or said made them children of those that killed the prophets.
And I thought, well, is it because they were decorating the sepulchers? Is that, you know, did that mean
that they, you know, is that just an inordinate, weird thing
that they were doing in decorating their tombs? Is that why he says
that? No. And then I thought, well, is
it because they called them their fathers? Is that why? There are children
of those that killed the prophets? No. It's because they were standing
there, tooting their own horn, saying, we would never have done
that. We wouldn't do that. I would never do such a thing.
And Christ said, out of your own mouth you judge yourselves,
because you now say, because you say, I don't have sin, I
would never. do that. He says you're exactly
like them that killed the prophets because they wouldn't hear the
prophets because they were so cocksure that they would know
the truth and they could never be deceived and they would never
do a sinful thing. So he said you do testify right
now that you are their children. and you would do the same and
you're going to do the same when they crucified Christ and his
apostles and those whom he sends. So that, so we see that we all
in our flesh, we're all guilty of sin. None of us can stand
here and say, I would never. Everything I do is perfect and
right and holy. You know, when we deny that we're
saying, Excuse me, I'm a Pharisee. I would never break the law.
I would never do that sin. I wouldn't do that. That's what
we're saying when we say we have no sin. So the word teaches us,
the Lord teaches us to gather together in sobriety to consider
what it is that we're being gathered to do and whom it is that we
seek. Listen here to Ecclesiastes 5.1. He says in Ecclesiastes
5.1, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and
be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. Now he's saying rather than doing
your duty, I've come, I've showed up, I'm doing my duty. That's
a good word for it. We're just doing our duty. He
says, you hear, you come to hear and consider why you're gathered,
that we are gathered to hear the word of the Lord. And he
said there in Ecclesiastes 5.1, for they consider not that they
do evil. and many people, right? I mean,
how often have we been guilty where, I'll tell you right now,
in my own shame, there's been times where I've come here as
your pastor and thought, did I even stop to pray and ask the
Lord? Am I just thinking of this now?
To pray, not only Lord, help me to deliver this message, and
Lord, please attend this message, but Lord, would you bless your
people and help them to hear it too? I'm guilty of it, I'm
guilty. That's not right as your pastor
to not be thinking of you and what you have need of from the
Lord. And so I'm reminded that how
am I coming here to the house of the Lord to hear his word? What am I being, what are we
gathering here to do? So we need the Holy Spirit. We
desperately need the Holy Spirit. because it's a heart work. It's
a heart work. It's something that we can't
whip up. I mean, we can put on a show
of it, but we need the Lord to do that work in our heart. And so we should ever be praying,
Lord, help me to hear. Lord, help me prepare my heart.
Cause me, Lord, to hear your word and let it be received of
me. Let me not harden my heart, as
in the day of provocation, when those Jews heard the same word
preached to them, but it did not profit them because they
didn't receive it with faith. They didn't, they had no faith
to hear it. It was just an external, outward
thing. So we don't want to be like that.
If it's true of them, why can't it be us? We see the Jews apostatized,
and there's apostate churches all about us, and we know hypocrisy.
We know what that self-righteousness looks like. All right? And so
he says, then in verse 16, Mark 11, 16, It says also that he
would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through
the temple. He wouldn't suffer that any man
should carry any vessel through the temple. How do we carry vessels
through the temple? Is that saying Joe shouldn't
set up here? You know, that he shouldn't set
up wherever we're meeting? Is that what it's talking about or is
it something more? All right, and what it's saying
is are you here to serve the Lord, to hear what the Lord says
as He gathered us together, to hear His word, or are we just
doing, biding our time and just getting through doing what we
have to do in coming here because this is just part of our routine
now, right? And I was thinking, You know,
a good way to see this is, you know, let's say Joe and Joanne
invited me, Michelle, to a barbecue afterwards. You know, invited
the whole church to a barbecue to their house afterwards. And
I show up wearing my barbecue clothes. you'd be just and saying
boy you're really ready to get to this barbecue your mind is
set on the barbecue that's where you're going isn't it like you're
you're looking forward to that and you know what you'd be right
i'll be showing to you just blaring it out there you know where i'm
going my heart's on the barbecue i'm just getting the point a
that barbecue this here between just a speed bump. It's just
slowing me down, doing my time, doing what I gotta do, but if
that's where my heart is, that's where I want to be. And so, we
ought not to do that, you know, it wouldn't be right for me to
do that, to show up in my barbecue clothes and be like that because,
I mean, how often do you, brethren, you have family that come from
pretty strict backgrounds and you're hoping that when they
come and visit, they'll come with the services and sit and
listen, and I know that. And the last thing I want is
for them to be distracted and say, why is that clown up there
wearing, you know, his play clothes? Why is he, you know, doesn't
he take this thing seriously? So that's what's going through
my mind. I don't want to be a hindrance to the gospel. I want them to
hear, and if I have to wear a suit to do it, then so be it. I'll do that which I think is
right and appropriate. And so just as they look to me
though, they're also looking at you. And they look at what
you do, they listen to what you say, and they consider those
things. And so be mindful of that. We consider when we're coming,
it's not just a matter of carrying our vessel through the surface,
like we're just trying to get to point A. If I were to come
in my barbecue clothes, I'm basically just saying, I'm just passing
through with this vessel. I'm just coming through. and
trying to get to the other side, this is just a thoroughfare between
me and what's to come. So I'm just saying take the time
to consider why we're gathering, what we're gathering here. We
plan out our day, I've done it myself. I've planned out what
I'm going to do after services and all I'm saying is I'm convicted
to say, wait a minute, I don't even know if I'm going to roll
out of this parking lot alive and get very far down the road
before I die. So how about I come and hear the word of God and
hear what the Lord has to say to me. And so that's what the
Lord's saying is, where's your heart? Do you even think about
what you're doing and what we're gathered here together? The Lord's
in our midst. He's gathered us to hear his
word. that our hope and confidence
would be set upon Him and not reverted back to looking to ourselves
and our own works in the flesh, because just whipping through
and whipping out, that's just like what the Jews were doing
in their day. They're just there to do their
thing, whip in and whip out. I'll give you another example
because, you know, when You know, I didn't always wear a suit and
a tie, but I'll tell you why I do it. There's a number of
things. I can give you a number of stories
what the Lord has used to confirm to me and affirm to me and put
my heart on it. And one of them, I remember,
was one of my daughters, she was getting married and it was
a casual wedding. She thought it would be really
nice that her and her husband would be married wearing the
same outfit that they were wearing the day they met for the first
time. And so she, it was at a conference, it was at the Fort, at Danville,
And she was wearing a dress, thankfully, a nice little dress.
And he was wearing dark jeans and a t-shirt, a blue t-shirt,
if I remember correctly. And I showed up wearing a suit.
And my daughter said, Dad, it's a casual wedding. I want it to
be casual. I want you to show up casually like us. And I looked
her square in the eye and I said, honey, I said, I'm giving my
daughter away in marriage. I'm not going to give my daughter
away wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt. I said, you wear what you want,
but I'm not wearing, you know, to me it's a serious thing and
it's important to me. You know, I have another daughter
that's not even married yet and she decides to have a destination
wedding in Hawaii and her and her fiancé fly us out there,
pay for the tickets and fly us out there and it's on the beach.
God help me, I'll still show up in a suit because it means
something to me that I'm giving away my daughter and I'm just
going to wear blue jeans and a t-shirt. That's a serious thing
because you're leaving my house and you're going under the house
of another man and you're his wife now. You're going to honor
him and obey him and be with him, not me anymore. So it's
important. And then I'll give you another
one that really, it didn't stick with me right away, but I never
forget it. I went, there was one time we
had a dear friend. I think it may have been 15 years
ago. I'm not sure. I don't even know
if you were up yet. You and Clay were called up to
be our pastor. And a friend, his family died. His dad's siblings,
all six, died in one fiery car crash. All died. And so Michelle
and I were going up there. We wanted to show our support
and our care for him that his aunts and uncles had passed away.
And it was after work, and I was hot. I got home from work and
I was hot. It was a hot day. I think it
was July or August or something like that. And so I decided that
I'm going to take off my, I went to work in business casual most
days and I took off my long sleeve shirt, took off my t-shirt and
I put on a polo shirt. a nice polo shirt, and I went
to the funeral. And when I got there, I realized,
wow, I am way underdressed here. This wasn't right. My heart began
to hurt because I didn't think it was right for me to do what
I had done. And I went to him and I said, you know, I expressed
my condolences, and I was hurting. I was like, I'm sorry for this. And he was very kind, and he
said, oh brother, it's OK. I'm just so glad you came. I'm
so thankful for your support and that you came. I appreciate
you coming. And I appreciated what he said. I did appreciate
that. I thought it was very kind. very
forgiving and very kind and I appreciate it. But the reason why my heart
was smitten and why I say to you now in shame was because
I knew back home in my closet I had nice clothes. I could have
done better and I chose not to because I was more worried about
my comfort. and how I was, you know, I just
wanted to be comfortable and I didn't want to inconvenience
myself. And so that's why my heart was
smitten and why to this day it still bothers me because I knew
I could have done better. And so it's just that it's not our clothes. I know that. I know
that. And it sounds probably even contrary
to what we're looking at. Because no, it's not just an
external thing. It's a matter of the heart and
what the Lord does, what He works and how He teaches us and gives
us faith and hope in Him. So, you know, when we come, are
we just carrying our vessel through? Are we more interested in getting
to the other side? Or are we at least thinking Lord,
why am I here? Gather me here, Lord, in faith.
Teach me, fill my heart with faith and hope in your spirit
that I might hear your word. And that's what I really want
us to focus on and consider, that. And he'll teach us and
he'll give it to us, you know. It is. It's an attitude. It's
a matter of the heart. And I know we can defile anything.
You could show up in a suit and a tie or a nice dress and defile
it and be filthy and polluted. And the same thing, though, right?
We term I think sometimes we turn, you know, I came, when
we called up Clay, I was coming out of Church of the Living Couch
too. You know, I was coming out off
the couch and, you know, the fact that I started wearing clothes
over my undergarments was a big step, you know, in coming to
church. So it was, you know, a good thing. And so, you know,
the Lord, He does that and it's a matter of the heart. Could
you imagine though of Christ If Christ, if he, you know, said,
you know, the Father said, go and save your brethren. And he
said, I'll go there, but I ain't going in the flesh. I'm not going
to go there hungering and thirsting, being weak. I want the body of
an angel so I can go through walls and fly and I don't have
to suffer pain and sorrow and hunger. No, he came because as
the Lamb of God, to be the perfect sacrifice for his people, He
took upon him the likeness of this sinful flesh. He came in
the flesh like Abraham and his children, those children of faith
whom he would give to his son. He came in that same flesh and
he suffered the hunger and the thirst and the weariness and
the weeping and the sorrow and the pain and the affliction of
the nails all that he suffered for us and so that's why. I just
figured if I won't show up to my own, I mean if you have a
destination wedding I might show up in cargo shorts because I'm
not giving away the girl to the guy you know so I might relax
them but You know, I don't care if they're having bikinis in
swim trunks. I'm not going to wear a scuba suit just at my
daughter's wedding. So if I know that for me, and
I won't now ever show up to a funeral without a suit. I mean, if we're
poor and bankrupt, I get it. Like, if our clothes are falling
off, we're just going to do the best we can do. But if I can, I know
if I don't show up like that and I don't show up like that
you know here like for me it's that's why I do it and that's
why I'm just telling you why I do it so you know because I
know what what you're coming out of and I I know and and and
you know we're more apt to say they did it I ain't doing it
But they read the Bible. Do we not read the Bible now?
They read the Bible. Believers are baptized when they
believe. Just because dead religion does it, does that mean that
we don't do it? No, we do it. So we do things. We do things. Just because dead
religion did it doesn't mean that we have to purposely not
do it. So if the Lord teaches you in
the heart, I'm not asking you to do anything just in the flesh
or willy-nilly, the Lord taught me. It began for me when Clay
came, it honestly began for me because I was standing up leading
the singing and my pastor wore a suit and a tie and so I just
got to thinking, well it's kind of odd that I don't at least
try to wear a suit. I didn't always wear a suit on
Thursday nights or anything, I would wear a tie usually and
sometimes I forgot. I forgot it, and then I was usually
reminded, where was my heart? How did I get out of the house
without that? Because I just got into the habit of doing it. So
again, for me, it was just, it made me think, where's my heart?
Am I gathering here to sit before the Lord and to hear his word
or not? And so the Lord taught me, and
I'm just telling you, I'm not telling you to show up here next
week in a suit and tie or anything, I'm just telling you what the
Lord did for me. And I'm just using that as an
example as to just think, where am I? And if you wouldn't marry
your daughter off, you know, in street clothes or, you know,
go to a funeral. I won't go to a funeral. I never
want to do that again unless I absolutely had to. So that's
why I'm convicted of it, honestly. I'm just telling you with the
Lord how he dealt with me. All right. Now let's wrap this
up as I'm going along. So the Lord, he says, he was
quoting from Isaiah 56 verse 7. Isaiah 56 verse 7, and it
says there, even then will I bring to my holy mountain. My holy mountain. All right,
this is where they were in the temple there. It's the equivalent
of the holy mountain. He's saying he's gathering his
people to worship him in his holy mountain. and make them
joyful, he says, in my house of prayer, their burnt offerings
and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar." Right? So everything we bring forth,
it's only accepted upon Christ. It's only in Christ. We can bring
it into flesh, and it's cursed and will not be accepted, but
in Christ. It's accepted, thanks to Christ. Everything we do is
in Christ. And he says, for mine house shall
be called a house of prayer for all people. All people, meaning
this was probably in the Gentile court, where the Gentiles would
meet. And they're there, those proselytes,
they weren't allowed to go further, so they're there to pray. and
to seek the Lord as near as they're allowed to get. And so the Jews
just set up their shop there and they're just doing their
things and all their hustle and bustling. And so it wasn't like the Jews,
the Gentiles couldn't even really hear or concentrate. And Christ came not just for
the Jews, but for the Gentiles too. Thankfully, we know that
because we're all Gentiles here. And Mark, look at, go to verse
22 and 23. Mark 11, 22 and 23. You know, they were now leaving
Jerusalem and Peter stops and notices, whoa, that tree that
you cursed there, Lord, it's dried up from the roots. It's
just dried up. It's surely never going to produce
fruit again. And so I know that what I said,
I really wrestled with whether I should even use that example
or not, because I know You guys, you already have enough stuff
going through your head and now you're wrestling with all that,
like, what do I do now? And I'm saying it's a faith,
it's by prayer, and that's why I gave you my examples so that
at least you know what the Lord showed me and taught me in it,
alright? And Jesus, verse 22, Jesus answering,
say unto them, have faith. in God. Have faith in God. You trust the Lord. You have
faith in Him. You seek Him by faith, not just
doing this work in the flesh. It's not about the flesh and
external works. And don't just let your mind
settle on the clothes, but all things. When we gather, why are
we gathering? We come to here, and I can see
it. I see, you know, More and more
the Lord grows us and settles us and gives us that that heart
for that I'm not saying this to say I don't see that I do
see that and the Lord is very merciful and kind to us and so
He says have faith in God. That's how we're ever to come
to him having faith in God And he says this verse 23 for verily
I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain
What mountain? Not the holy mountain, but this
mountain of all our fleshly dead works religion that just clutters
my mind and my heart and just is a filthy thing in the way. He says, you'll say that this
mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and
shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those
things which he saith shall come to pass. he shall have whatsoever
he saith." So I would say, brethren, just you keep seeking the Lord.
Have faith in the Lord. You pray to him and look to him
because he's growing his church. He builds the house. He's done
all things for you. We see how He willingly came
in the weakness of this flesh to put away the sins of His people. He did that. And none of us,
as we're reminded, none of us keeps it perfectly. None of us
does this perfectly. We all get here from time to
time and realize, wow, I'm just brushing in here at the last
minute. We all do it. But thanks be to
God for His unspeakable gift. We're thankful for Christ who
covers all our sins and puts them away. And let me just say
what Paul wrote to Titus 115. Unto the pure all things are
pure. All things are pure. If your
heart's right, then you just trust the Lord and have faith
in him. If your heart's right and You're doing what is right
by what the Lord's shown you. You keep doing it. I'm not asking
you to do anything that the Lord doesn't teach you and show you.
But as the Lord teaches you and shows you, own heart in your
heart. Be willing and open to grow as the Lord teaches us.
But unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure."
Nothing's pure. But even their mind and conscience
is defiled. So, brethren, pray, always believe. And the Lord is here. He's put
his gospel church here. He's blessed you with the gospel. Be thankful and joyful and glad
in that. And as Christ said, have faith. in God. Trust Him. Trust Him.
I'm not saying this to stir you up or provoke your flesh or get
you all upset or worried or anything like that. Not at all. Not at
all. But this is the passage that we came to. And this is
what the Lord taught His disciples. Don't come to the house of God
in a careless manner. And we're not just carrying our
vessel through to the other side. We're here for a purpose, to
worship our God as one body assembled by the Holy Spirit of God in
Christ, and we thank Him for that. So all right, let's pray.
Our gracious Lord, we do thank You. And Father, Father, help
us. For Lord, we, in our flesh, defile
and corrupt and do everything wrong and with sin. But Lord,
You've worked in our hearts. You've given us a hunger and
a thirst for righteousness. And Lord, we don't ever want
to go back to dead, letter, empty, vain religion. But Lord, teach
us. We do want to honor you and to
come together in a right spirit, in a right heart, in a right
mind, knowing how that you sacrificed everything, Lord, how you left
glory and became poor, that in Christ we might be made rich
and have life in Him. And Lord, we are thankful for
that. We know that, Lord. We're thankful for your gift
of salvation. and your sacrifice and your blood
and putting away our sins. And so Lord, grow us as you will. Lead us and teach us and settle
us in the gospel. And Lord, we thank you. For it's
in Christ's name we pray and even have a heart for these things.
In his name we pray and give thanks. Amen.