today. The message name is Two
Lessons of Judgment. Two Lessons of Judgment. And
in that portion I had Brother Neal read, we saw two remarkable
events in our Lord's life. And both of them have lessons
for we as believers. Both of them have lessons for
we as believers. We who are resting and trusting in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they're remarkable events.
One may say, well, why are they remarkable? Well, they're both
displays of the wrath and judgment of Almighty God. And yet, we will see, in the
first example, mercy. Mercy in there as well. And our
Lord, in his wrath and judgment, never forgets mercy. Never forgets
mercy for his people. those who are in Christ. And
judgment is God's strange work. Therefore, our Lord's work, His
works primarily display the love, mercy, and the goodness of God
towards sinners. But judgment is truly as much
of a work of God as the redemption that we have in Christ. Christ came to redeem his people,
right? To save us from our sins. And
where did the judgment of God do us fall? As I mentioned in
Sunday school, it fell on Christ. It still must be satisfied, right?
It has to be. And God's judgment is sure. Scripture declares, he shall
not fail nor be discouraged till you have set judgment in the
earth and the isles wait for his law. And again, usually we
see him displaying works of mercy and grace, our Savior, miracles
of mercy. But here we see him displaying
wrath and judgment. And always remember, our Lord
never sinned. So the wrath is a righteous wrath,
and the anger is a righteous anger. There's no sin in what
our Lord does here. Now, when we get angry, we're
full of sin, aren't we? And so our anger gets the best
of us a lot of the times, doesn't it? I'm not going to say some
of the times, a lot of the times. But see, the Lord is perfect. And again, what he displays here
is righteous anger, no sin. And in driving the money changers
out of the temple, And in cursing the fruitless fig tree, the Lord
shows His willingness and His power to execute judgment. Who will be the great judge at
the great white judgment throne? It will be none other than the
Lord Jesus Christ. Every man, woman, and child will
stand before the Lord, whoever lived. And God will separate
the sheep from the goats, won't He? He will. And that'll be Christ
that we'll all be facing. We'll look at that later on,
near the end of the message. That's the good news for God's
people. Oh, it's wonderful. But look at how in the midst
of wrath, our Lord remembers mercy. Look at verse 14 of Matthew
21, 14. In the midst of wrath, in the midst of righteous anger being displayed,
mercy is there. Look what it says. And the blind
and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. Mercy
in the midst of wrath. Can we not say that's what happened
to us? So many people perish out of
this world with no knowledge of Christ, not being born again,
and yet here we are. In the midst of that, we've received
mercy. We've received mercy. J.C. Ryle says of these two passages
here, that both were exceedingly figurative and typical. Beneath
the surface of each lie lessons of solemn instruction. Solemn
instruction for us. Let's look at the first event,
which is the cleansing of the temple. We'll read verses 12
to 17. And Jesus went into the temple
of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple
and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats
of them that sold doves. And said unto them, it is written,
my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have
made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came
to him in the temple. Right in the middle of this,
look at this. And he healed them. Oh, I love that. It's wonderful. Mercy amongst wrath. When the
chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he
did, and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna
to the Son of David, they were so displeased. And said unto
him, Hearest thou what these say? Do you hear what these children
are saying? That's what they're saying to
him. Do you hear what they're saying? They're saying, Hosanna. They're saying,
Hosanna to the son of David. They're saying, you're the Messiah.
Because remember, that's the title of the Messiah. We found
out that last week, didn't we? Oh my. And they're sore displeased. And then Jesus quotes scripture
to them. And Jesus saith unto them, Yea,
have ye never read out of the mouth of braves and sucklings
thou hast perfected praise? And he just leaves them. I love
how our Lord does it. He just says something and just
walks away from them all. Because it says, and he left
them. Think on that. He's not going to sit there and
argue with them, is he? No. And he left them. And he went
out of the city into Bethany and he lodged there. And some
say that Bethany there was he was going to lodge with Lazarus
and his sisters. Let us consider who it is who's
entering into the temple. This is no mere man entering
into the temple, is it? This is the one who's entering
into this temple is the very one who this temple is made to
worship. He's Elohim in the flesh. He's
the one who was a pillar of fire by night for the Israelites and
a cloud by the day. He's Jehovah Jireh, the Lord
shall provide, isn't he? He's Jehovah Raphi, the Lord
that healeth. This is who's entering into the
temple. The very one who the temple is
made to worship is entering in there. The very one who gave the law
to Moses is now entering into the temple. The King of Kings and the Lord
of Lords. The very one who all those sacrifices
that were done in that temple typified, is walking right into
that temple. God's Passover lamb. The one who was soon to give
his life, right? Five days later, who was going
to die on the cross, is a substitute of God's people.
To redeem them from their sins is walking into the temple. And
what does he find, what is the condition that he finds his father's
temple in? Well, he walks in there and he
finds them changing money in there, buying and selling in
the temple. The temple's being disgraced by trading and buying. The Jewish religion of this day
is totally out of order. He sees merchants who've come
with bullocks, sheep, goats, and pigeons, and selling them
right in the midst of the court of the temple. It's like the
place that turned into a market, beloved. And the money changers there,
what they did was they changed foreign currency into shekels,
which was the offering to be offered in the temples. And they probably changed other
money too. Probably money from the Israelite's currency to foreign
currencies if someone was traveling. They were money changers. They
didn't care. All they wanted to do is make a little money
off of a changing currency. Look at verse 12. And Jesus went
into the temple of God. God incarnated in the flesh.
The Word made flesh enters into the temple of God. And he cast out all them that
sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the
money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves. They'd
made his father's house a house of merchandise. And notice, there's
no resistance. There's no resistance, beloved.
He entered into the place where he was to be worshipped, where
God was to be worshipped, right? And his holy righteous anger
was aroused and he reacted in wrath. And again, this is righteous
anger. There's no sin in it at all.
Because he's perfect. See, people forget that God is
a God of wrath as much as he's a God of mercy. God's a God of judgment as much
as he's the God of all grace. God's the God of comfort. But he's also righteous. And his judgments are sure, aren't
they? They're sure. Let's read verses 12 and 13 together. And Jesus went into the temple
of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple.
They made it, again, a place of merchandise. Dan of thieves
he's going to tell us here. And over through the tables of
the money changers. Can you imagine he's going up there and they
got coins on him and he's just flinging those tables up. And
those coins are flying everywhere. But notice in the text there's
no resistance to him. He's God. There is no resistance to him. Over through the tables of the
money changers and the seats of them that sold doves. And said unto them, it is written,
my house shall be called, look at that, my house shall be called
the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. See here, God takes the place
of worship very seriously, doesn't he? And again, the money changers
didn't even, as far as we know, they didn't even attempt to pick
up their money, they just took it off. And he scattered it, didn't he?
There was no resistance to our great king. None at all. You know why? They knew he was
right. Those Jews knew he was right. Man, they knew he was right. Because all that was being done
there by those folks was all for gain. and it was being done
in the very temple of God. They dishonored the temple of
God, didn't they? And then his words rang in their
ears as he quoted Isaiah, my house shall be called the house
of prayer, but you've made it a den of thieves. And this is a striking type of
what he will do when he comes again. He will purify his visible
church, beloved, just as he purified the temple. He will cleanse it
from everything that defiles and works iniquity, especially
those rich preachers who have told God's people that if they
give, they receive back triple fold. They ain't getting away
with nothing, beloved. Those religious hucksters aren't
getting away with nothing. They don't preach the gospel
of God's grace. They don't preach salvation in Christ alone. All
they want to do is have people line their pockets. But I'll
tell you, judgment day is coming for them. It's coming. They're not going to escape.
God will cleanse the church. He'll purify his visible church
as he purified the temple. It cleanses from everything that
defiles and works iniquity. My. Think of how many preachers
are lying on God today. Think of how many preachers out
there saying, God's done all he can do, now the rest is up
to you. That's nothing but a lie from the pit of hell. I'll tell you what, when Christ saved his people,
he saved them by the shedding of his precious blood, and God
will get every one of his sheep. We're proof of that, aren't we?
We were resisting the Lord, weren't we, when he found us. We were
running from the Lord when he found us. He made us willing
in the day of His power. Praise His mighty name. He regenerated
us. We're born again by the power
of His Spirit, aren't we? The Holy Spirit of God. He made
us willing. We weren't willing before. I
wasn't willing before the Lord saved me. And I'm sure it's the
same for you. But I thank God He made me willing.
Because I never would have come to Him if He didn't make me willing.
And I know it's the same for you as God's people. That's why
we just marvel at the grace of God. And our Lord will not allow any
worshipper of money. These money changers were worshippers
of money, or lovers of gain. No, he cleansed them, didn't
he? These are three things that earthly riches can never do.
You know the three things that earthly riches can never do?
Now, I know we need money. We need money to survive. And
the Lord provides it, and we're thankful, aren't we? Some are
rich, some are poor, some are in between, right? But we seek
as believers to glorify God in the things that we have, don't
we? But here's three things that earthly riches can never do.
You know the first thing it can never do? It can't satisfy divine
justice. Money cannot satisfy divine justice. God's justice, it just can't.
The Lord don't need anything, does he? He owns the cattle on
a thousand hills. He says, for what shall profit
a man if he should gain the whole world, be as rich as Bill Gates,
but lose his own soul? And then the scripture says,
and what shall you give in exchange for your soul? There's nothing
we can give in exchange for our soul, right? No, we can't buy
our way into heaven. There's nothing we can do or
say or work that would satisfy God. So money can't satisfy the
justice of God, and also Earthly riches can never pacify divine
wrath. Again, he has everything. And
lastly, earthly riches can never quiet a guilty conscience. You
know what, you know what, you know what quiets a guilty
conscience? The blood of Jesus Christ. It
quiets a guilty conscience, doesn't it? Money can't quiet a guilty
conscience. Earthly riches can't silence
a guilty conscience. But I'll tell you what, the blood
of Christ can. It can silence. Tim James would say, it gags
the conscience. The blood of Christ gags the
conscience. Can't say anything. Oh my. It's wonderful. Forget all trespasses and sins. So even the ones we remember
in our minds and we pray that the Lord will forgive us, even
though we're forgiven, get bought and paid for by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are to judge ourselves,
aren't we? We are to make our election and calling sure, aren't
we? Search ourselves. Am I trusting Christ? Is He my
all in all? Do I have a pinprick of my own
works in there? Or am I wholly trusting in Christ
alone? That's what it means to make
your election in calling, Church, is to examine yourself. Examine
yourself, the Scripture says, see if you're in the faith, right? Is the faith that I have, does
it make Christ the sole object? Is He my everything? And I know
our faith is like this. I know that. Because we're feeble. Our faith is feeble. But remember,
he is strong. He doesn't change. He doesn't
change, beloved. I was talking to Gary Shepard
this week. I had a wonderful talk with Brother Gary. And he was bringing three things
up about the Lord that, or two things about the Lord that his
holiness never changes. Never. He's holy. And then the
fact that he never changes. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. His immutability. So, if that's
true, which it is, right? That means his love for us doesn't
change, does it? It's not based upon us. That means that his love for
us is in Christ, right? And that means if the judgment
due us fell on Christ, which it did, Because God's unchanging, it'll
never fall on us. See, he's holy, right? His holiness
has to be upheld, right? But his immutability gives us
such security, beloved. Because we change all the time,
he never changes. Remember he says, thou art mine
in the scriptures? That'll never change for God's
people. Oh, it's wonderful. I just get
so excited about this stuff. Oh my. It's wonderful. Malachi says this, but who may
abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he's like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's soap. So
the Lord cast out the worldly professor. There's two types
of people. In churches, there's possessors,
as A.W. Pinkie says, there's possessors,
people who have been born again by the Holy Spirit of God, and
there's professors. People who haven't been born
of the Holy Spirit of God, but claim to be Christians. And the Lord will cast out the
worldly professor of religion. That's what he's doing with the
temple folks. Oh, they had a form of godliness,
right? But denied the power thereof, didn't they? They were defiling
the Lord's temple. My oh my. But again, look at
the mercy that's shown. Look at verse four. I just love
this. Look at the verse 14. And a blind and the lame came
to him in the temple and he healed them. mercy amidst judgment. Oh, how the divinity of the Lord
Jesus Christ is brought forth in the midst of judgment, mercy
shown, as the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and
he healed them. My, is that not how we are in
our natural state? Are we not blind to the spiritual
things of God? And are we not lame from a fall?
Fallen Adam? Oh my. That's a picture of God's people,
isn't it? And what's it say? He healed them. He healed them. We're sinners by birth, nature,
and choice. And although we're still sinners
after the Lord saves us, we're safe sinners now, aren't we?
The Lord's healed us, hasn't he? Given us eyes to see Christ. Oh, it's ever the character of
our God that in wrath He remembers mercy. The blind and lame came
to Him in the temple and He healed them. That's our King. That's our King. Do not imagine
that our Savior is not merciful because He is just and true.
Beloved of God, listeners of this message, hear this, God
has no tolerance, no tolerance for a religious con man. He has
no tolerance for hucksters. But I'll tell you what, he is
full of compassion, full of compassion to poor needy sinners. He's full
of compassion to poor needy sinners. And never did anyone come to
him for mercy while he walked on this earth who did not obtain
the mercy sought. And you know what, he's not changed,
has he? All who come to him for mercy shall receive it. All who
come to Christ for mercy shall receive it. And the place of mercy is still
the temple of God, the divinely appointed place of worship, the
church and house of God. And marvel at the fact that we
once came into God's house blind and lame and helpless. And there, under the preaching
of the gospel, the Lord healed us, didn't he? He healed us. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll
tell you, when I was given hearing ears and seeing eyes to look
to Christ, and I know that I was a, I found out real quick that
I was a poor, helpless sinner. Was it so for you? I found out I was in desperate
need of Christ. I was a religious man. And I
found out all that religion I had couldn't help me at all. And then mercy was shown. I heard the words of grace in
the preaching of the gospel. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. I'll praise Him for the rest
of my life now. And then I get to praise Him in glory. So shall
you who are God's people. Isn't that wonderful? Undeserving,
aren't we? Absolutely undeserving. And if
one wants mercy, seek mercy in the only place where mercy is
found. And the only place where that mercy is found is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's nowhere else. The mercy
of God is not found anywhere else but in Christ. But in Christ
and Him alone. Now notice how the religious
hypocrites, in verse 15, notice how they react. And when the chief priests and
the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children
crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David,
they were sore displeased. That's how religious people act. That's how they act. and the
depths of depravity that's shown here. I was thinking about that
as I was reading that section. I was thinking, oh, the depths
of depravity that's shown here. But you know what came into mind
right after that? Don't forget the rock you were hearing from,
Wayne. That came in my mind right after I thought, oh, this is
depths of depravity, and right away, don't forget where you
came from, Wayne. you're hewn from the same rock
as all of them. You know why? Because we're all, our sons and
daughters of Adam, we all come into this world dead in trespasses
and sins. And I'm just a safe sinner right
now. And I praise God for his mercy and grace. So never forget the rock you
were hewn from. We were just as depraved as these people in
the text. when we were dead in trespasses and sins. But they
got upset, didn't they? They got upset at the wonderful
things that were happening here. Notice that? They got upset. God in their midst, Christ, had
just healed blind people and lame people, which we saw in
verse 14, and they were upset. And then they were even more
displeased that the children crying in the temple were saying,
Hosanna to the son of David. Remember what we found out what
that word means? Save me. So they're saying, save me, Messiah.
That's what they're saying in the Hebrew. Oh, my. And these religious hypocrites,
they are bent out of shape, aren't they? They are upset. And look how our Lord answers
them. Our King said, and said unto them, hearst thou what thou,
what thee saith? And then he quotes Isaiah, and
Jesus saith unto them, yea, have ye never read out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? And then he
just leaves them. He just leaves them sitting there.
You imagine they were thinking about that for a while, weren't
they? And you know something the Lord's done? I always notice
this with our Lord's answers. He always brings scripture to
the forefront. He answers the enemies, his enemies,
because they hate him. They want to kill him. He answers
his enemies with scripture. Even the devil, he answered the
devil with scripture, didn't he? When he tempted him. See,
that's how we should be, too. Somebody just comes up to you,
says something, answer him with scripture. There it is. I'm not going to
debate. I told you guys, I'm done debating
people now. I used to love getting into debates
and proving myself right. It was awful, awful. I don't
debate anymore. I talk to the guys across the
street. They ask me questions. I just give them scripture. There you
go. Either you're going to believe
it or you're not, right? And that way, when you think
about it, what you can say is, well, you claim to believe God,
but you don't believe what his word says. And that's what Norm
is. Norm actually helped me understand that more. Because when people
are denying the things in the word of God, they're not denying
what you say, they're denying what God says. That's a high
crime, isn't it? It's a high crime. And I know
we don't understand things sometimes, and we're ignorant of things.
We've all been there. I've told you how I reacted when I was
an Armenian and someone told me about election. I got all
bent out of shape and said, well, that's not fair. I didn't know
anything then. But now, election is one of my
favorite doctrines of the scripture. God chose me. I never would have
chosen. But he chose me in eternity in
Christ. That's just incredible. Something
we're never going to get over, beloved. Now let's read the next
section here. We're at verses 18 to 22. It says, now in the morning as
he returned into the city, he hungered. When he saw a fig tree
in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon, but leaves
only, and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward
forever, and presently the fig tree withered away. And when
his disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, how soon is the fig tree
withered away? He just commanded it, and it
withered right there before them. It shows you his power, doesn't
it? He's God, beloved. Remember, the waves obeyed him,
and the winds obey him. Everything obeys him. Look at
that. My. And when his disciples saw it,
they marveled, saying, How soon does the fig tree wither away?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
If ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which
is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto the
mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it
shall be done. and all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer,
believe and you shall receive. Now let's read here in verse
19. Our Lord comes upon this fig
tree. And let's read how our Lord's
curse upon this fig tree. And let's see what we see in
this verse. Look at verse 19. And when he saw the fig tree
in the way, He came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves
only, and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward
forever. And presently the fig tree withered
away. So he comes to this fig tree. It's got all kinds of leaves,
but there's absolutely no fruit. There's a lesson here for us,
beloved. Oh, it probably looked like a
beautiful fig tree, but no fruit at all, fruitless. It was obviously vibrant and
alive because the apostle said, look how quickly it withered
at his command. And this is without parallel
in our Lord's ministry. The only occasion when he causes
one of his creations to suffer in order to teach a spiritual
lesson, a spiritual truth. That withered fig tree there
preaches a sermon. Preach is a sermon, beloved.
We need to hear. A sermon that we need to hear
is that fig tree full of leaves but no fruit was a picture of
Jewish religion when our Lord was on this earth. Oh, it had
all the taperings, didn't it? As far as you look at it, it's
a fig tree. It's got all kinds of leaves.
It's beautiful. But there's no fruit at all on it. It had everything for an outward
show, didn't it? Outwardly, it looked like any
other fig tree. Full of leaves, but no fruit.
And what a picture of the Jewish religion when our Lord was on
this earth. It had all the taperings, didn't
it? Traditions, ceremonies, The priests all decked out, the
Pharisees in the mosque. No grace, no faith, no love,
no humility, no spirituality, no real holiness, no willingness
to receive Christ as Messiah. And also like the fig tree, this
religion was soon to wither away, wasn't it? Soon to be stripped of all its
outward religion. And soon to have its members
scattered all over. Because Jerusalem was to be destroyed. 70 A.D. it was. The temple was to be burned.
The daily sacrifices were to be taken away. And never was
a type so literally fulfilled. But we don't stop there, though.
We don't stop there, though. This also has to do with us,
as every fruitless branch of Christ's visible church is becoming
a withered fig, like the withered fig tree. Church profession without
holiness, confidence in councils, bishops, masses, ceremonies,
are the order of the day. Do this, do that is the order
of the day today, isn't it? That's the order of day in religion.
What you must do, not what Christ has done. And the old harlot of Babylon,
still what all religious people love, is in his leaves, beautiful leaves. Outward show. Huge churches, all this glitter
and glam. Bands up there playing away and
hundreds of people come in. All show, beloved. All show. They're like the fig
tree with no fruit. How do we know this? Well, we're
going to find out. You know, the Lord has a remnant.
He's always had a people, right? He's always had a people. We don't know who they are, but
He has a genuine church called the elect of God. And they worship the Lord Jesus
Christ. They love Him. And they bring forth unto Him,
but it's not of their own efforts. It's free of the Holy Spirit
of God. If you try to make yourself fruitful,
you're going to do this. Because remember what the scripture
says? It's the fruit of the spirit, isn't it? It's the Holy Spirit
working in us, conforming us to the image of Christ. When
I was in religion, I was always, I have to be more joyful. Wayne,
you've got to be more joyful, man. You have to be. Well, you know what? I just got
more miserable because I kept falling on my face. You know,
when I went to church and I heard the preacher say all this stuff
on Sunday morning, just practically stapling my head to the carpet.
By the time I left there, I felt worse than when I went in. Right? And then by Sunday night, no
use waiting for Monday. By Sunday night, I'm like, I
already failed. So then you feel even worse.
But when I found out about salvation in Christ alone, by the finished
work of Christ alone, when God revealed his son to me, oh, what
peace floods into the soul. It's no more about what we do.
It's all about what Christ has done. And now we live a life
of hate and sin, don't we? Because we love the Savior. And
again, I said it last week, I'm gonna say it again. How do we
overcome sin? By the blood of the lamb, by the word of his
testimony. That's how we overcome sin. Not in our own strength. So the born again blood-washed
believer who's been humbled by God knows that God outside of
Christ is unknown. We don't know God outside of
Christ. We may have a God of our imagination
who we cooked up. But it's not the God of the Bible. And God outside of Christ is
incomprehensible. And God outside of Christ is
a wrathful God. God of judgment. God of judgment. And he's not accessible to the
sinner unless they're clothed in the righteousness of Christ,
which is the wedding garment. We're going to look at that next
week, Lord. Well, the wedding garment, the wedding garment
that we have on is the righteousness of Christ. You don't hardly even
hear about that anymore outside of outside of some churches.
They don't even talk about the righteousness of Christ. Well,
the only way we're going to be in the presence of God is the
righteousness of Christ, isn't it? That's the only way. But
see, people go about trying to establish their own righteousness,
and they can't do it. They think, well, if I'm a good
person, surely God will weigh me in the scales of justice,
and if I'm, if my good outweighs my bad, it don't work that way. Because we're all bad. We're
all sinners, aren't we? To the core. And the only way
we can stand in the presence of the gods is to be clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. And God puts that on us, beloved.
Remember the father, when the son, the prodigal son, he said,
bring him the best robe. You know what the best robe is?
The righteousness of Christ. That's the best robe. And it's
the father who puts it on him. Who put that on us, beloved?
Father put that on us. It's wonderful. Oh, it's absolutely
wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Scripture
says about the Israelites, well, because of unbelief, they were
broken off, and now standest by faith, be not high-minded,
but fear. Some might say, well, what about
individuals? What about individuals? That verse in Romans 11, 20 there
spoke of the nation of Israel. But you know, every fruitless
professor of religion, which are mere possessors, or professors,
A.W. Pink used to say there's two
people. There's professors and possessors. And a professor is
like that fig tree, beloved. No fruit. Oh, they have all the
taperings. They have all the, you might
have met some through the years. They have all the taperings.
And they look, and you think, yes, surely. But they're just fruitless professors. My. I'll tell you why. And so long
as a man is content or a woman is content with the mere leaves
of religion, and there's billions of people that are content with
that, isn't there? not just Catholicism and all
those other organized religions, but idol worshipers and everything. They're content with the fig
leaves of their religion. And there's no fruit, because
they're all man-based, beloved. There's no fruit. And if a man or a woman is content
with those mere leaves of religion, they're in a great danger. They're
in a great danger. If a man or woman is satisfied
with going to church or receiving the Lord's table and being called
a Christian, while their heart is not changed and their sins
are not forgiven, well, they're daily provoking God to cut them
off. And what happens to you? What happens after the Lord saves
us? We forsake certain things, don't we? We don't want to do
the things we used to do. And I know we're still sinners,
but now the love of Christ constrains us from sin, doesn't it? We don't want to go out and do
what we used to do. We're new creatures in Christ. Turn, if
you would, to Proverbs, chapter 29, and then put your finger
in Matthew, chapter 7, and then we'll go back to Matthew 25 after
that. Here's the picture of a religious
man or woman. Religious men or women are daily
provoking God to cut them off without remedy. Proverbs 29 verse
1, it says, he that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and
not without remedy. My oh my. Harden their heart
against the gospel. That's what them Pharisees were
doing, wasn't it? Harden themselves against Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is the
only sure proof that we're savingly united to Christ. Leaves only
is death. No fruit is death. Don't be mocked by the leaves
of the world. Here's an illustration for us. A pigeon was very thirsty. The pigeon was flying. He was
really thirsty. He saw a glass of water painted
on the sign board. Not realizing it was a pitcher,
he flew into it in full speed and broke a wing. And then he was hit and killed
by a bystander. And the leaves, the allurements
of this world are many and bring ruin on many souls. We may call
that pigeon silly, right? I can't tell you how many birds
crashed into my mom's windows after she cleaned them, thinking
they were going somewhere where they weren't going. Right? Pigeon was deceived by just a
picture. It's just a picture. But what will we say of those
who run after false allurements of this world and false promises
of workspace religion? They're just like that pigeon,
aren't they? They're going to crash. And if God doesn't have mercy
on them, they're going to perish. And they're going to perish in
their sins. Now look at this here in Matthew
chapter 7. Look at this. Here is the end of religious
professors. Those who do not possess Christ,
those who are not born again by the Holy Spirit of God, but
they profess to be believers. Look at this, and look what the
scripture says. Verse 21, Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many, not
a few, many, many religious people, many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? You ever think of
those word of faith people? Oh, just name it and claim it. No, it don't work that way, does
it? Are they false preachers? Think of that. Many shall say
unto me, Lord, Lord. And notice something that they're
doing in the next few verses here. They're going to tell God
what they did. See, God's people don't tell
God what he did for us, or don't tell God what we do for him.
We don't tell people what we do for God. We tell people what
God's done for us. There's a big difference, isn't
there? There's a huge difference. Look at this. Many will say to
me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not, here we go, have we not
prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and
in thy name done many wonderful works, holy to all these wonderful
works. We had a huge session with thousands
of people that came, and rock bands and all this stuff, and
oh, we just said it was so glorious for you, Lord. Fig tree without fruit. Fig tree
without fruit. Look what we've done. And who's
the emphasis on? Them, right? Now note our Lord's
response. And then while I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. So the very things that they
said they were doing for God was actually iniquity in the
eyes of the Lord. And see that word new? In the Greek, that's ginoska.
You've heard me mention this before. It brings forth the intimacy
between a husband and wife. He never knew them intimately.
What did I mention this morning at Sunday school? He knows the
very hairs of our head, doesn't he? He knows us intimately. He ginoskas us in the Greek. He never knew the, now he knew
them because he created them, but what he's saying is you're
not my people. Even though they're claiming they did all these things
in his name. He says, I didn't know you. And look at, look at
that charge. Ye that work iniquity. Works
based preachers that get up and say God's done all he can do
or just walk this aisle and pray this prayer, bow your head and
do this, do, do, do, do, do. depart from me ye that work iniquity. Salvation's by grace alone, in
Christ alone. There's no other hope. There's
no other. Now let's turn to Matthew 25.
When we look at that, we're gonna get depressed if we see that.
That's a chilling portion of God's word right there, I'll
tell you what. That's a humbling portion of
God's word. Now look at this. Now remember,
as I said, they were proclaiming what they did, right? Oh, we
did this, we prophesized in your name, we cast out devils, we've
done many wonderful works. We, we, we, did, did, did. Okay,
look at this. Matthew 25, we're gonna look
at verses 31 to 40. Look at this. When the son of
man shall come in his glory. Now here's the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, the final judge is Christ. God's given all judgment to the
son. He's going to execute all judgment. And we're going to
have a little glimpse here. When the Son of Man shall come in
His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon
the throne of His glory, King of kings and Lord of lords. And those folks that said, I
don't believe in Him, they'd be trembling, aren't they? And before Him shall be gathered
all nations, or every single person that ever lived. gathered
before him. All nations, and he shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from goats. And he shall set the sheep, where?
On his right hand, eh? On his right hand. Where is he
right now? He's on the right hand of the Father, isn't he?
Set all his sheep on the right hand, and then he sets all the
goats on the left hand. Now who's made them to differ?
They're all humans, right? Who's the one who's making them
to differ in those two groups? It's God, right? God's setting
them on one side and God's setting sheep on one side and the goats
on the other. Who makes us to differ in this world? God, right? Oh, this is amazing. Look at
this. This is just incredible. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto them in his right hand, come ye. Now look at this declaration.
Oh, I just love this. Listen to every born-again, blood-washed
saint of God is going to hear this declaration. Come, ye blessed of my Father. Just let's sit right there. Blessed
of the Father. And here at the kingdom, look
at this, prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Remember, he doesn't change, right? So if you're one of the
ones that kingdom was set up for, right? You're going to be one of the
ones there. It was all done before we were
ever even around. Look at that. Now look at this.
For I was hungry, and you gave me meat. I want to preface this
with one thing. Remember when we were looking
at Paul's conversion? And the Lord said, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? Well, who was Paul persecuting?
The body of Christ, right? So remember, he's the head and
we're the body. When we're reading these things that he says you
do, remember, we do it unto each other. Look at this. And we don't do it for a reward.
We just do it because we love God's people. For I was hungry
and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed
me. I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, When saw we thee hungered, and fed
thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? Now look at the opposite
of the folks in Matthew chapter 7 we saw, right? Which said this,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works, proclaiming what they did, right? And look at the saints
of God here. Then shall the righteous answer
him, Lord, when saw we thee hungry? When? I don't know what you're
talking about. And fed thee, or thirsty, and
gave thee drink. When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee
in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or
in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and
say unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, insomuch as ye
have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye
have done it unto me. What a difference. False religiousness, professing
what they've done for Christ, and God's people saying, when
did we do these things, Lord? He tells them, when you've done
it unto the least of my brethren, you've done it unto me. Because
see, we're the body of Christ, aren't we? He's the head, and
we're the body. Oh, it's amazing. And again,
now, who made these two groups differ, the sheep and the goats?
Mentioned in Matthew 25, 33, well, we know only the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the only one. He's the one who separated them,
didn't he? You see, he knows who his sheep are. He knows whose
vessels of honor and who are vessels of dishonor. But by nature,
we're all sinners, aren't we? By nature, we're all deserving
of God's wrath. We came into this world dead
in trespasses and sins, just like anybody else. But little
do we know, at our birth and as we grow older, when we're
still dead in sins, that the Lord Jesus Christ died for us
2,000 years ago. I had no clue that the Lord died
for me 2,000 years ago. When I was a little tyke running
around up in Canada, I had no idea. Had no idea in my teen
years. Had no idea in my 20s. Lord saved
me by his grace in my 30s. And I knew a little bit then.
I still don't know very much, but I'm learning still. Right? We can all say that. But we're
learning more and more how merciful our God is, aren't we? And when
that time of love comes, the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself
to his people through the preaching of the word. That's why it's
so important for us to preach the gospel of salvation in and
through Christ alone. And we, by God-given faith, after
we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, we believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we? We willingly flee to him.
He becomes our refuge, our city of refuge. He becomes our stronghold. He's our redeemer. He's our emancipator, isn't he? Because we were chained in sins.
And he set us free, didn't he? Oh my. And we find out quickly that
we're poor, needy, helpless sinners. And what happens? We become shut
up to Christ. We become shut up to him. We
can't go anywhere else. My brother used to own Angus
cows. And when he was going to do some work on them, he had
them herded into this section. I don't, brother Neil might know
what it is. There's a section that they go into and the gate behind
shuts. And then, you know, they do whatever
they need to do to them. And that's how we are. We get,
we get hemmed right up into that chute and right into there and
into Christ. We can't go anywhere else. Can't
we? when the Holy Spirit's drawn us to Christ, we have nowhere
else to go. Nowhere else to go. And then we find out that the
Lord Jesus Christ has fully and perfectly obtained eternal salvation
for us by the shedding of his precious, precious blood. And
that our salvation is not dependent upon what we do, but all dependent
upon what Christ has done for us. And it's amazing, isn't it? It's amazing to think that God
can take a rebel, by heart and mind and soul, and turn him into
a trophy, or her, into a trophy of His grace. And only God can
do that. Only God. Think of that when
we take communion. Only God can do that. He's the only one. He's
the only one. And think of this, too, as we
look there. God's perfect Passover lamb. He entered into that temple,
didn't he? But he, on his mind, had what
he had to do five days from then, too, hasn't he? He's going to
be dying on that cross, giving his life for we who are believers. And remember, it was his love
for us that drove him to do that. And remember, it's immutable
love. It doesn't change. So that love that drove him to
go to Crowley's Cross for us is how he feels about us still
even today. Wonder of wonders. Christ died
for sinners. Praise his mighty name. Heavenly
Father, we thank you again for allowing us to be here. allowing
us to fellowship under thy word. We pray that we would take the
things that we heard today and that we would think upon them.