We're in Mark chapter 11, verse
15. 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
money changers and the seats of them that sold offs. 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. And the scribes and chief priests
heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared
him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. And
when the even was come, he went out of the city. And in the morning,
as they passed by, they saw 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 away. And Jesus answering,
saith unto him, have faith in God. For verily I say unto you,
that whosoever shall say unto 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. Therefore I say unto
you, that whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when you
stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any, that
your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your
trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither
will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. And they come again to Jerusalem,
and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the
chief priests and the scribes and the elders, saying to him,
by what authority dost thou these things? And who gave thee this
authority to do these things? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me,
and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism
of John, was it from heaven or of men? Answer me. And they reasoned
with themselves, saying, if we shall say from heaven, he will
say, why then did you not believe him? But if we shall say of men,
they feared the people, for all men counted John, that he was
a prophet indeed. And they answered and said unto
Jesus, we cannot tell. And Jesus answering, saith unto
them, neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. Now we see this occasion when
the Lord came to the temple in Jerusalem. This was not the first
time that this same scenario had played out. Because if you
go to the Gospel of John, you find that at the very beginning
of the Lord's ministry that he went into the temple and he overthrew
the money changers at the same time. And at that time, the scripture
says that he had a scourge in his hand. And he went through,
it does not tell us that here, but that, and perhaps he did,
it is not recorded, but it does specifically record the fact
that when he went into Jerusalem in the book of John, that he
went in there with a scourge in his hand. Now the amazing
thing to me in both of these accounts is the servile exhibition of men to
the wrath of God displayed. Now, most of the time, if just
a random man went into a marketplace like this, whether it was in
the temple or anywhere, and he just went in there tearing things
up and whipping and beating people, there would be some kind of reaction
against him. Some people would probably rise
up and they would you know, come against him. They try to prevent
them doing this, but we see that like, like dogs before their
master, they were speechless. They couldn't do anything. Just
like when the Lord stood in the boat and the raging storm was
around them and he said, peace be still and the winds and the
waves ceased. and everything was calm. And
the Lord demonstrates His deity, demonstrates His power over all
flesh according to the good pleasure of His will, He does. And no
man can say anything or do anything about it. No man can come against
Him. Everyone had to set back. And so it is that men need to
need this lesson drummed into their mind that it is impossible
to overturn the will of God. It's impossible that any man
should ever oppose the way of God with success. Now, of course,
we do know that men oppose the way of God by nature. Every one
of us was born in opposition to the will of God. Everyone
of us will go that way, apart from the grace of God to restrain
us. We'll go to the point of destroying ourselves. Nothing
keeps you back this very moment from destruction, from the pit
of destruction, or from self-destruction, except the mercy of Almighty
God. The only thing. I mean, you know, a man can't
boast of being able to keep himself back from sin. because every
man will love and embrace sin with all that's within him, apart
from the grace of God restraining him. And so we see the Lord in
His power as He overturned the tables of the money changers
and those that bought and sold doves for sacrifice. Now see,
they were, in some ways, they were, these people, they had
it in their mind that they were enhancing the ability of people
to worship God because they had these, selling these doves for
the offering in the temple. And so that seemed like a good
thing. You know and quite often we see men merchandise various
items to the people of God as though these things were to enhance
the people of God. Now I'm not saying that you know
if a man prints a book or whatever he doesn't have the right to
try to regain some of his you know, money back that he
put out in the book, but the Lord has not given to the people
of God to go about and make merchandise of the gospel. We're not to enrich
ourselves with the gospel. Now, that's a lesson that's widely
disregarded in this day and time, as we see the money changers
on every hand. And in fact, in the vast majority
of Christendom today, money is one of the most vital parts of
it. In fact, there's many that'll stand and tell you, you know,
got to have money in order to do the things of God. Well, I'm
here to tell you that God is able to send forth men into the
world to declare the gospel without one thin dime from anybody. He does not need your money. He does not stand in a place
where as you hear these weeping preachers on TV, oh, if you don't
send us your money today, we're gonna have to go off there. Well,
go off there. I mean, you know, go off there. I mean, God's able to provide
without you weeping and begging and carrying on about it. I mean
the Lord will provide such things as He determines to provide. And so we see, the Lord rebuking
them, He said, My house shall be called of all nations the
house of prayer. But He said, You have made it
a den of thieves. And the scribes and the chief
priests sought how they might destroy him because they feared
him. They said, man, this fellow here,
he's not like everybody else. Something's different about him.
And if we don't get control of this situation pretty soon, he's
gonna turn everybody against us. See, that's what they feared
was their power. Now, you know, unfortunately,
and I'll throw this in, Our government system, we have men often coming
around telling us how much they love the country and all they
want to do all these things. But reality is that what they
primarily want is power. They want to be in places of
power. And you see this played out,
it gets played out on both sides of the aisle. And I thank the
Lord. for this past election, not that
it turned out like I wanted it to. You know, I wish it had turned
out another way, but I thank the Lord it turned out just like
it did. Because I believe it will cause God's people to realize
that our help is not in the governments of this world. You know, if vain
is the help of man, it don't make a difference who's in places
of power, they're not gonna help you one bit. What you need can
only be supplied by the Lord of Glory and He will provide
according to the good plan of His will. And so may we not be
either up or down about such things as this because the King's
heart is in the hand of the Lord to turn it with His every will.
So, praise God that He brings all things to pass according
to the good pleasure of His will. But these gentlemen, they didn't
believe that. They said, we've got to do something
about this. We can't go with this. And when even was come,
the Lord left, and he came by the fig tree that was dried up
by the roots. Now remember, the Lord cursed
the fig tree. He said, no more fruit grow on you. Well, whenever
they got to it, Peter said, well, Lord, this fig tree has died,
as if he didn't think that was gonna happen. I mean, the Lord
cursed it. What can become of something
when the Lord curses it? It cannot continue. And so it is. And then the Lord
gave a lesson here. Now this is a difficult passage
of scripture if one approaches it without an understanding of
the purpose of God and the work of the Spirit of God in the sons
of God. And he said to them, that whosoever
shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and cast into
the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe
that those things which he saith come to pass, he shall have whatsoever
he saith. And so the flesh and the religious
flesh of man takes what the Lord said here, whatsoever things
ye desire, when you pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye
shall have them. Now the flesh says, wow, that's
good there. Man, this is like, we've got
like a vending machine up in heaven. And so whatever we want,
we can have. We just gotta have enough faith.
to do it. I mean, that's how men think.
That's what's being preached by and large in churches today
is, buddy, if you'll just get enough faith and you'll just
believe strong enough, you can just get anything you want. From
a Cadillac to a good health or whatever it is that you want.
I'm sure that the Lord was not teaching that. I'm sure that the Lord was teaching
me in what faith is. He said, if you shall not doubt
in your heart. Now I don't know of but one who's
ever come on earth who could fulfill such a thing as this. You see, when the Lord speaks
about having faith, He doesn't do so so that men will say, man,
we gotta have faith. He does it so that men will come
to the place of looking at themselves and say, Lord, we don't have
any faith. Like that man that came to the Lord, he said, Lord,
I believe, but help thou mine unbelief. Don't ever think that
you've come to the Lord and you've believed without doubting. Because
your heart is caught up in thinking that you can do something to
start with. Even thinking that you can come
and pray strong enough to the Lord shows that you don't have
faith. You don't know what it is. Oh, that the Lord might give
it to us. Whatsoever things you desire, the Lord does say He'll
give you the desires of your heart. And He does, does He not? I mean, what is the thing that
the children of God want more than anything else? I thought
about it as we sang there a moment ago, and we sang that song, Lord,
Let Me Serve You. I mean, what does a child of
God desire more than anything else in all the world is to be
able to serve God, to do the Lord's will, to walk in His way. I mean, is that not the thing
that burns within our heart? Do we not want that? Do we not
want to keep His Word? Do we not want it to be precious
to our soul? I mean, is that not what is within
us by the work of the Spirit of God? I believe it is. And
He said, so everything you desire when you pray, believe that you
receive them and ye shall have them. Because you see, we believe
the one who is the provider. He is our faith. It's not our
faith to come to Him and say, Lord, look what we've got. But
Lord, you alone can help us. See, when the Lord gives a man
faith, it can't be taken away from him. And then it says, and
when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any,
that your Father also in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
But if you don't forgive, neither will your Father which is in
heaven forgive your trespasses. Is that not what the Lord taught
His disciples when He taught them how to pray? He said, you
know, forgive us, O Lord, as we forgive others. Oh, you know,
a man can't come to the Lord with anger and hardness in his
heart and expect that he's going to be heard. because the Lord
said, if you don't forgive others, you can't be forgiven. Now, does
that mean then that because you go and forgive others, that that
makes you forgiven or vice versa? No, what it means is that the
Lord would teach us how much he has done for us. Because you
see, whenever we forgive others, if we're given grace to forgive
others, it's but a testimony, not to the grandness of our heart,
but to the mercy of God. Because you see, every time that
a man is enabled to forgive his brother, he demonstrates the
greater forgiveness that the Lord has made to him. Because
how else could we ever forgive somebody if the Lord didn't bring
that to us? Well, it's not in us to forgive,
is it? I mean, when somebody does something
to you, what's your first reaction? You want to do something back
to them. You know, you don't ever have to teach a child to
strike another child. In anger, you have to teach them
not to. Why? Because they're naturally
inclined towards it. Every man shows the work of the
law written in his heart. An eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth. You believe that, don't you? I mean, they're going
to get what's coming to them. Haven't you ever said that? Or
thought it, at least. Boy, I hope they get what's coming
to them. Somebody does something ill to
us and we don't like it. The Lord said, that's not what
he called us to be. He said, forgive one another.
Be compassionate to one another. Why? Because the Lord has been
compassionate to us. He's forgiven us. Oh, that we
might have a forgiving heart and spirit. And then they came
to Jerusalem as he was walking in the temple, and there came
to him chief priests and scribes and elders, and they said, by
what authority do you do these things? Now see, here again,
they recognized that he was a little different than anybody they'd
ever seen, because he had authority. When he spoke, the words that
he spoke carried with them power. And so it is, as the Lord is
pleased to send his gospel into the world, he's pleased to send
that word with power. And no man can overturn Him.
How shall they believe in whom they've not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? So you see, the Lord, when the
Lord sends his word, it's gonna accomplish the thing that he
sends it to do. Oh, we might be today moved by
the Lord to pray, oh Lord, send forth your word in the earth.
Because you see, when the Lord sends forth his word, then there
is authority that comes with that. Not of the person, but
of him who sends it. And the Lord, He came with authority. See, I don't have authority.
I can't command and something be done. I can command and nothing
happens. The Lord, however, when He says
something, it comes to pass. You can be sure of it. It's not
going to fail. That's what makes the prevalent
teaching today that the Lord's trying to do something. Have
you ever, you've said it, I've said it, the Lord's trying to
do this, or the Lord's trying to teach me something. Look,
the Lord is not trying to do anything. The Lord does what
He's gonna do. Now you may look at it and you
may see the unfolding of it in your life, but you can be sure
that when the Lord is teaching you something, you will learn
the lesson. It might be a lifelong teaching,
but he's bringing you to the place where he would have you
to be. And the main thing that he's teaching you is that you
don't have any power at all, but that he has all the power,
and that you need him. See, he doesn't need you. He
doesn't need us. Now, the Pharisees, they didn't
like that. They wanted to be the Lord to
you. Well, they wanted to kind of
share in this deal. I mean, I don't think they was
100% against the Lord and what he was doing. They just realized
that he wasn't in the sharing business. They realized that
he was gonna have all the glory. And it was gonna be put out to
pasture. And that's the part they didn't
like. See, religious men like religion. They like to go along
with it. They like to play the game. They
like to be set in the chief seats among the children of God. They
like to be exalted in places. And they like for people to look
up to them. And all that sort of stuff, that's just all in
the flesh. But what the Lord does, is He caused His only one
to be exalted. The church only has one head.
It's Christ. You know, all of us are just
servants of His. Oh, that He might give us grace
this day to believe that, to know it, to understand it, and
say unto Him. They say unto Him. And this is
a glorious account. and demonstrates
again the deity of Christ. And they asked him, who gave
thee this authority to do these things? And then he put a question to
them. He said, well, I'll tell you what authority I do these
things, but first you've got to answer a question. They should
have known that this wasn't going to turn out good. Because it
showed me one place in the scripture where the Lord ever asked them
a question and it turned out to their benefit. It never did. Because every time they came
to him, they were confounded. And then there's one spot, I
forget what the pastor says, no man dares to ask him any more
questions. We better quit this. Every time
we ask a question, we go get worse off. We think we're gonna
trip him up and he trips us up. And so it is. that he said to
them, he asked them the question, and you know I marvel at the
wisdom, of course the Lord knows the hearts of men, he knows what
they're thinking, and he knows exactly how their mind works,
because he made their mind. And he knew what dilemma this
would be for them. He said the baptism of John,
was it from heaven or not? And they were fearful. They were
fearful of the people. And they were fearful that their
positions was going to be taken from them. And they answered,
and they said, well, we don't know. We cannot tell. Now, they could have told, couldn't
they? But they were fearful that the
people, see, they were fearful of the people. If they'd have
only feared God, they would have told them what they thought.
But they feared the people, and they said, well, we don't know.
They were politicians. So you can ask a politician a
question, and they can talk for 30 minutes and never tell you
what you asked them. And that's the same way with
these guys. We need to be straightforward. You know, if somebody asks us
a question, tell them the truth. Don't beat around the bush. That
doesn't make any difference again. Which side of the aisle are you
on? Just tell the truth. If it's good for you or if it's
bad for you, it doesn't make any difference. We cannot tell. And Jesus answering... See, He answered their question,
did He not? He answered them. He just didn't
answer them like they thought He was going to answer them.
See, they said, tell us. He says, I'm going to give you
my answer. And here it is. Neither will I tell you by what
authority I do these things. Because the Lord would not cast
his pearls before swine. You see, he was not trying to
win the Pharisees over. He was determined to show what
the Pharisees were by nature. Oh, You know, some might say,
well, that wasn't very fair, was it? Well, the Lord does things
according to His will. He hardens some, and He softens
the hearts of others, all according to the good pleasure of His will.
Oh, that we might not be those that
stand in opposition to Christ. Because I tell you, as He said,
that this is the stone which is set at naught of the builders.
And he said those that cast themselves upon this stone shall be broken. But he said those upon whom this
stone shall fall shall be ground to powder. Oh, that the Lord
might give us grace today to fall upon his mercy, to call
upon his name. He demonstrates to us what He
has done for sinners. As we look upon this bread and
this wine, the Lord's demonstrated that He would satisfy the claims
of God's justice against His people with His own blood. He would pour it out, that He
would give His body to be broken for us. Oh, that we might today
fall down and worship Him as we consider that, as we think
today on this bread and this wine that's set before us. Who should take of this? This bread is not set forth on
this table for a people who have their names on
a church roll. I never found any place in the
scripture where there was a church roll. There is a place where
the scripture says that The names of God's people are written in
heaven. The church of the firstborn. Oh, this table is for those whose
names are written in heaven. And how can they be known? Because
they look to Christ. They have no other hope. They
have no other expectation of righteousness than what is set
forth before them right here. the blood, the righteousness
of Christ. And so who is this table given
for? It's given for those who believe
in Jesus Christ, those who worship Him, those who desire to serve
Him. See, all those things go hand
in hand. A man can't say that he believes
in Christ and yet not have within his heart a desire to serve and
follow Him. That's what it is to be a Christian,
is to be a follower of Christ. And so we come today imperfect. We come today, this supper reminds
us of our sin because the Savior poured out His blood, not for
righteous men, but for sinners. But we come here because we believe
that He is our righteousness. And so those that believe that
Christ is their righteousness, that they have none of their
own, He says, come and dine. This is to take the supper worthily. Not worthy. Not a person in here
that's worthy to take this. But we can come worthily, and
that is recognizing that Christ and Christ alone is our righteousness,
that we have none else. Oh, that the Lord might give
us such a mind. Scripture says, and who should
not take it? Let me say that, because Paul
warned against taking this unworthily. What is it to take of this unworthily?
It's without a due consideration. of what it is that Christ has
done. To take it just because it's here, without any desire
to embrace what it represents. That is, to take it in damnation,
the scripture says, rests upon the head of those that do so.
Oh, that he might give us a mind today to seek him.