Let's turn to Luke chapter 19. Luke 19, our text is the end of the chapter. The last four verses beginning in verse 45, and I'd like to read that. And Christ went into the temple. and began to cast out them that sold therein and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple, but the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him. and could not find what they might do. They didn't know how to destroy him, for all the people were very attentive to hear him. Now, all four of the Gospels contain some manner of our Lord clearing out, cleansing the temple, driving out, casting out the money changers and them that sold cattle and such.

All of them have it. You have Matthew and Mark, and they seem to be covering this exact same time. Luke puts it here, and therefore seems to align with them. And John records it in chapter two of the Gospel of John, speaking of probably the first time that our Lord came to Jerusalem during the time of Passover, and he did it.

I wouldn't be surprised if our Lord did this every year that he went there during the Passover. drove them out each time, and I'm sure it just stirred them up and angered them and made them angry, angry at him doing this, because at this time in the temple, religion was big business. Religion was big, big business. It made a lot of money. And the reality is religion is still today very, very big business.

At this time, at the time of Passover there, the law required that the Jews made a sacrifice to the Lord. It required them to purchase certain things for their being there during the time of Passover. Males had to give an atonement of a half shekel for their lives. They had to make an atonement for their lives. And so you have Israelites coming in to Jerusalem from all over the world, from different countries, wherever they had been scattered or settled in, and they're coming there with their nation's currency, and they have needs when they get there. And so as part of that convenient service, To help them in their religious endeavors, there were money changers that could convert their currency to a half shekel that the men needed for an atonement for their lives, and they had all the cattle and things necessary that were approved for the sacrifices that they could also purchase there. for a fee, of course, right?

There was fees and everything. And it was big, big business to have set up there in the temple. And it was made convenient. And this whole setup angers the Lord, because that's what the temple had become. It was just set up for convenience sake. It was set up to profit from these things. and rather than the people being there to worship God. That was just a backdrop thing. That was just a side note. This was about convenience and making money. This was about big time, big business religion.

And so our Lord goes in there and he drives them out. He cleanses the temple. And he flips over their tables. He casts them out. He rebukes them, saying, you've made this a den of thieves. This is a house of prayer. This is a house of worship. And you've destroyed that. And he would just drive them out.

When our Lord did that, however, it is speaking to us, it is ministering to us the Spirit. There's spiritual truths being taught to us in what is recorded for us in these Gospels here. And so I want to bring out some of these things in the various passages that cover what's going on here. Because what happened here is not just some past event.

Today, religion is still very, very big business. People make a great deal of money off of religion, not just in mega churches where they've made an art form of giving, right? It made it very easy and convenient for you and then tell you things to guilt you and make you feel like you need to do more, even going without so that the pastor can have more for himself. That's this big business. That's just religion. That's not good at all.

But even in addition to that, there's pilgrimages that people make all over the world. They have these holy sites that they set up that they attribute some special thing happening to so that people will travel there, spend their money to get there. They'll set up travel packages, set up things to buy, tokens and trinkets and whatever you need to make it a more Bountiful experience for you, there's someone there to make a dollar off of it. To make it convenient and to get something from you and just sucking out the truth of the gospel out of these things.

So that it's profitable only to your flesh. It does nothing for the new man created in God's people. But the reality is all those experiences, none of it can buy salvation. None of it can buy peace in a troubled sinner's heart. None of that can earn the favor and merit of God in doing those things, but people believe it does. They think that it is earning them some favor with God, and all of that diminishes Christ.

And if your confidence is, well, if I do this thing, if I make this trip or I give this money, then God will be pleased with me and he'll bless me. Well, you're trusting in that thing that you're doing rather than looking to Christ and asking him, Lord, please bless me. Please remember me. Please help me. We're to look to Christ, not the things that we can do in big business religion. It's a big, big difference there.

So first of all, Our Lord demonstrated in this, in driving them out, that He is God. When He went into the temple and He cast out the money changers, overturning their tables, disrupted their business, they were standing by, astonished. They didn't know what to do. They were held back and just astonished at what the Lord was doing here in their midst, because He is God.

He is God. They couldn't stop Him. And He was cleansing the temple. Matthew tells us that Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all of them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves. That's in Matthew 21 verse 12.

And so this tells us something of the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is he God come in the flesh, but he has authority on the earth just as he has authority in heaven. he can do whatsoever he pleases, and he's not pleased with the dead-letter religion that is formed and created and developed by man, by man's customs and traditions and what he likes to do.

And it tells us a lot about the corrupt heart of man. It shows us of just how how precarious our, it just shows how weak we are, what fools we are to think that the things that we do are what's making the difference with God. It might make a difference to people with mood lighting. and organs or nice pianos and the things that people do to create an atmosphere for people to feel like they're worshiping God. But those things are really distracting and taking us away from the worship of God in spirit and in truth.

They may put you into a meditative state or frame of mind in the flesh, But that's all it is. That's all those things are. And so what the Lord told the Jews on a number of occasions were things like, you by your traditions are making the word of God of none effect through your traditions. And we all have various traditions and we all have things that we do.

It's good to have a certain order and not to be disorderly, but we have no confidence in those things. And we don't say, well, if you do the order of hymns and the scripture reading in this way, then God will bless it. No, you could flip it all around.

We read the scriptures because we want to hear the word of the Lord. We worship him because we're rejoicing and thankful for what he's done. And we hear the word. And in hearing that word and how the Lord deals with our hearts in the quietness of our own hearts as we sit there, you worship the Lord. When he makes you to hear it, you're hearing what the Lord is saying, and he makes you to worship God in your heart, not as a show, no one knows what's going on, but the Lord knows what's going on in your heart, because he put it there, he works it.

He gives you a hope and a rejoicing in Christ, whom you hear preached. Turn over to Colossians chapter two, Colossians chapter two, and we'll look at verse six through 10 here. Paul says to us in verse 6, As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.

This doesn't mean is if you grew up in the church and you heard of Jesus, you went to a certain church when you were a little kid that your parents brought you to, it doesn't mean as you're facing troubles and difficulties in this world that you're supposed to go back to that. There's a lot of dead letter religion that we grew up under and heard many times in our lives.

He's not saying the way you first heard Christ, go back to that. That's not at all what he's saying there. What he is saying is, when the Lord opened your ear and came to you with power in the spirit, causing you to see that all your works are dead works, that you are a sinner, that Jesus is the Christ, the very salvation of God, when the spirit of God brought that word home to your heart, and showed you Christ, remember that, as you received him then in faith, so walk in him."

In that faith. So you might have gone to church for 50 years, or you might have never gone to church for 50 years. Whatever it is, And when the Lord came to you in power, remember that. Remember that power, the faith he gave you when he opened your ear, that's how you are to walk in him. In that same faith, in that hope of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's how we walk in him.

Rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Right? In other words, we abound it. In other words, we grow in these things. Peter tells us that we will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You're going to grow. And what that says is, it isn't that you just go back to that time And anything you've heard since then, you forget about. No, you're going to grow. When we hear Christ, when the Spirit comes in power, We are raised from the dead, and like Lazarus, we still have grave clothes on us. We have a lot of baggage. We have a lot of fleshly baggage. We have a lot of old, dead-letter religious baggage.

And the Lord, by his grace, begins to strip those grave clothes off of us. The things that have our feet bound and our hands bound and our faces are covered and our eyes are covered in darkness. but he just keeps wrapping those things off. Through the chastening, through teaching, through various trials and scourgings of those sons that he receives, he strips us of those things.

So you're gonna grow, you're going to abound in the Lord Jesus Christ. The point is here, is after we've heard the truth, how often do people get sucked into just a form of dead letter religion, and they just begin to go through the motions, and we're just going through what we always did, and you fall into traditions and customs and things like that. It isn't until the Lord comes in and cleans it out, which he does just through the faithful preaching of the gospel, that takes out of our hands those things that we begin to hope in and think, this is life, this is life, and he strips us of those things to see our need of Christ. And as we have need, when we forget and we become vain and puffed up in pride and arrogance, he'll strip us, he'll humble us, he'll bring us low, and when he brings us low, and we're at his feet crying out to him, then he comes and raises us up again in peace and joy in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so that's what Paul is speaking of here. We are to follow Christ. As you received him in faith, that's how you continue to walk in him, trusting him to strip you of dead letter religion that is so common to man. It's so common to man. We just saw this morning where the Jews are still in Egypt, and the Lord's gonna bring them out and establish them, and then here we are, many thousands of years later, and they've made big business out of religion. And it's possible with us too. It's all possible, we can all fall into that.

And so Paul says in Colossians 2.8, beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. And those rudiments of the world are the elements of the world.

Those are just religious baggage. Those are the things that people do, thinking, well, God says I gotta do this, so I just get up and I just do it this way, and I've always done it this way, and so this is how God is pleased, and this is how I make special blessings for me in this life, or get extra blessings in heaven when I die and go to heaven. Nonsense, no. Those are just rudiments. Those are not salvation. Christ is salvation. And so he says, don't beware of those things, for in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Him that came into the temple and cleared out the money changers and the sellers of animals and such that were set up there, he drives those things away. And that's just what we would, if the Lord led us, we would just add in traditions, and we would just trust in those things and think, this is life. and not look to Christ. But ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.

As an example, I don't want to be too specific, but some people that have visited here at times have expressed how much they appreciate the music, because it's old hymns. There's nothing fancy about doing the little ditties and little choruses, and they don't like the rock beats and things like that. And in new music, they like the old hymns. I do too. I don't want to see big bands and horns and trumpets blowing and stuff like that. I'm uncomfortable with that stuff. But I like just singing the hymns.

But what happens is then people come in and then they start trusting in that music. And they say, well, now everybody's got to start on the same note. And if you don't start on the same note, it's not that good. So what are you saying, we're not worshiping the Lord? Are you saying that if we're not good singers, that we can't all harmonize with each other, that we're not worshiping the Lord? Well, no. All right, no, of course not.

In other words, it's a heart issue, and how easy we get taken off of wanting to perfect things and get everything right, and then we start poo-pooing and shooing this thing and saying that's no good, and you get your eyes off of Christ. And we need Christ. And it just shows how we need Christ, because we all can do those same forms and get caught up in religion, with expectations and think, well, they got to do this, and you got to do that. By the grace of God, he causes us to stumble so that we don't go too far in that, that we get corrected and kept on Christ. That's his grace that keeps us ever looking to Christ. Otherwise, we just get taken up with, well, this is the way you do it. This is how you got to run your family, and this is how you got to run the church, and this is how you got to do it.

And before you know it, Christ isn't even there. It's all gone. By the Lord's grace, he'll keep us from that vain philosophy and vain trusts that are after the rudiments of this world and not after Christ. Then the second lesson that we see here in our Lord driving these men out of the temple, flipping their tables, throwing over their seats, getting them out of there. The second thing it shows us is that it is a heart religion. It's related to what we just said. It's a heart religion.

And it's not according to form, the outward form that we often get so taken up with. And I've been in immaculate buildings, dark buildings, and stained glasses, and steeples, and bells, and stations of the cross, and candles over here, and swinging incense, and robes, and stuff like that.

It's all to appeal to the senses, but it's not worshiping the Lord. It's just an outward form of religion And to what? To try and affect a spiritual work in you, something that only God can do. I think some people that have designed certain church buildings have even said it's meant to create this spiritual awe in you and make you feel like you're near to the Lord.

And that's not salvation. That's man's traditions, that's man's customs, but that's not salvation. Matthew, Mark, and John, all three of them, Luke doesn't, but all Matthew, Mark, and John all make specific reference to our Lord overthrown the seats of them that sold doves, that sold doves, and told them, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.

In other words, there's a robbing going on. There's a robbing of God's glory going on there. You are robbing that which is the Lord's. You're thieves and taking from him. You see, the law allowed for the poor who couldn't afford a lamb, for example, but they had just enough that they could get a couple of doves. And that would be acceptable under the law to make that offering and that sacrifice. I can't help but notice that this whole passage here, whether you're reading it in Luke 19, Matthew 21, I think it's Mark 11, and John chapter 2, whatever ones you're reading there, it's all this pretense, this pretend, this hypocrisy, this outward form of masquerading as true religion. It's trying to look like it's good, true religion, but it's just dead and empty. There's no heart. There's no life in it. It's just dead and empty.

And again, it highlights doves. Well, when Christ was baptized, what are we told? That the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. It looked like a dove that lighted upon him or abode, stayed, rested upon him. And the Holy Spirit speaks to the new birth that Christ gives us, to us being made new creatures. The scriptures say that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. And so the Lord gives his Holy Spirit, the gift of his Holy Spirit to his people, whereby we are made new creatures. Religion says, well, do this, or don't do that. And Paul spoke to that. He said, in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, this work of religion, nor uncircumcision availeth anything, but a new creature.

And so religion is trying to to take you down a path that makes it look like you're a new creature. Because you follow these things. You do these traditions and these customs of men. And so they're trying to make it appear like you were born again. If you have the Holy Spirit of God, which is the gift of Christ, whereby you believe Christ, whereby you have faith in him, then you are born again of the incorruptible seed of Christ.

That's why you bear those fruits, because you are born again of the incorruptible seed of Christ. You're not getting yourself saved. You're not keeping yourself saved. You're not making it so that God can save you. You believe because you have been saved. Because you have been given the Spirit of God.

Our Lord said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. And so if by the flesh, by the buildings, and the mood music, and the mood lighting, and the certain show that people do in religion, if that's your hope, that's just of the flesh. And all it ever amounts to is the flesh. But if it's of God, it's of the spirit, and it bears fruit of the spirit in God's people. seen by God, not necessarily seen or understood by man.

And so this is why the Lord tells us he must be born again. Otherwise, we have confidence in the flesh. And so he delivers us from that. And so I just can't help but see, when he highlights the dove there, that religion is just trying to put on a show that makes it look like you're born of the Spirit. And all you are is a whitewashed supplicant full of dead men's bones, unless God is gracious and merciful to you and delivers us from that. And then we worship him in spirit and in truth.

And so if we're not born again, then the business of religion becomes sufficient for the counterfeit, for the hypocrite. If we're not born again, then we're happy to go through the steps And we're happy to just do what the traditions and the customs are. And it's dead.

Just like these Jews here in our Lord's day, they were happy to traffic in religion and to just make big business out of it and to make it just a thing of convenience and the way that it was. And so that's why our Lord came in there and overturned it, to shake us out of that dead letter form of religion. And when he did it, driving them out of the temple, he revealed something of his true temple, that it's not in outward things. The temple of our Lord is his body, and his body is the gathering of believers who are assembled together, not to get something, but assembled together to worship God. to hear God and to rejoice in what he's done.

We come because we're not finding comfort in the rudimentary things of this world. There's plenty of places we could go to make it easy. You guys come over an hour away, some of you. There's lots of places between here and there. But we're not just looking for religion and the outward things of religion.

We're drawn to the Lord to have his spirit minister to us because we need him. We know we're not giving anything to God. We're here because we need to hear from the Lord. We desire Christ to hear him exalted because he ministers the spirit unto us. He sets our eyes and our hearts right again, knowing that it's all of Him. It's all of His grace. And He's worthy, because as I mentioned earlier, as He's ministering and sowing the Spirit to you, He's blessing your heart. And in blessing your heart, you're blessing the Lord. You're giving God thanks for what He's doing and revealing Himself to you. He does that. When, or in the Gospel of John, it records also, in chapter two, it records the cleaning of the house in his temple.

And when he drove them out, we're told that the Jews said unto him, what sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? In other words, what authority do you have to drive us out and to flip our tables over and make a mess of this place? Who are you to do this? And our Lord said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

But he spake of the temple of his body. When the disciples heard that, they didn't understand it until the Lord was raised again from the dead. And he gave them his spirit and opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, how that we're one with the Lord.

And that's a picture. We are the temple. We are the body of the Lord. We are his temple in whom the Lord dwells. We don't go, it's not in this building that he dwells. He dwells in your hearts by faith. He dwells in you by His Spirit, and He reveals Himself to you so that we're one with the Lord. His death is our death. His burial is our burial. His resurrection is our resurrection. His inheritance is our inheritance. were born again and made members of his body by his spirit."

And Mark, Mark tells us that our Lord would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple, right? Because still in religion, people are just passing through, just passing through, going through the things of religion to do, thinking that this is salvation and the Lord would not We would not receive it because we are made new creatures in Christ. If any man be in Christ Jesus, all things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. We're made new creatures in him. Matthew tells us that after these things, the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. And that's what I was saying, I got a little ahead of myself, but that's what the body does.

We come to worship, we come to hear of the Lord. We know we're not giving anything to the Lord. It is, I'll tell you this, it is an encouragement to see you. I love seeing you here, it blesses my heart, and we bless one another in the fellowship that we have with one another. But we know we're not adding to the Lord, we're not giving to him, rather we're here because he blesses us.

He's filling us. He's teaching us. He's instructing us. He's filling our hearts with joy and gladness, with which we then go out and are thankful. He's filling up our sacks. He's filling us up with good things and joyful things. And so it isn't that God needs us to worship him. He's not saying, oh, if you would just believe in me, I could do so many things. No, we're not adding to the Lord. The Lord is adding to us. He's blessing us. We're here rejoicing in what He does for us.

And so the Lord delights to give light and sight to the blind. You that have nothing, it pleases Him to give you a sight of Christ. You that are lame and can do nothing for the Lord, it pleases him to heal you, to give you strength, that you may walk in faith, serving the Lord, rejoicing in him. And Luke tells us that he taught daily in the temple after he drove them out, so that the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, because our Lord unbeknownst to us, was working all things to bring him to the cross, that he might sacrifice himself unto the Father for his people, to make an atonement for his people as our substitute and surety.

All those things were being worked out. even though we didn't even know it. And that's what our Lord is doing. He's working all these things together for our good, even though we don't know or understand or see what He's doing, but we know He's doing it. And He's doing what is good and right and needs to be done. And all these things point to our sovereign God and Savior, who has all things in His hand, all things in control. And we may rest and rejoice in Him, knowing that He does. In closing this passage then, let me just emphasize that our Lord, what he was accomplishing there, he was accomplishing in the hearts of his people.

He was establishing his glory and his power in the hearts of his people to know that he's salvation, not the outward things that we do. Because we can all play hypocrites, but if we be in Christ, we have his spirit and we rejoice in him. And he, by his power and grace, he exposes the religious customs. He exposes the traditions that we get caught up in and makes us to see that getting caught up in that is but dung.

It's just fleshly dung. It doesn't profit or help. It's just garbage. It's nonsense. It cannot save. And we see how he does it in such a manner so as to shake the things of the flesh, to tear them down so that the gentlemen and the ladies are offended by what our Lord did. Just the things he said, calling them out in their vain hopes of the flesh. Don't have any confidence in this flesh. I don't have any confidence in my flesh.

What the Lord shows us is that in spite of us, He blesses his people. He keeps his people. He teaches us. He's very gracious. He's very patient. He's very long-suffering with his people. And even though we don't deserve it, he blesses us and gives us good things, feeds us with this gospel repeatedly, working repentance in our hearts, keeping us stayed upon Christ.

And Mark tells us the leaders who heard that who hated him. And there are people, when they hear the gospel, hate it because it gives all glory to Christ. When you preach the gospel in churches, there's battles that take place in the hearts of men because the Lord exposes the things that we're trusting in that his people would find their all in Christ. And so he takes that which is garbage, is fleshly, and removes it. He drives it out through the preaching of the gospel, through the preaching of the gospel.

He does it and he does this and we saw there, Mark tells us that the people were astonished with his doctrine. They were astonished by these things. The Jews that were there were astonished by these things because he exposes the dead letter religion constantly that we would trust him. He strips the the death napkin and the things that are part of the burial of dead men, he removes those things that we might see and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so he's showing us, don't put any confidence in your keeping of the law. Don't put any confidence in what you do or don't do. Seek the Lord that you walk and follow him in faith. and that you are pleasing to Him as it pleases Him, that He works that in us. Trust Him to do it. Seek Him to do it. But don't look to religion to affect those things in you, because they won't.

And then the second thing is that our Lord makes us alive from the dead. He gives us a new birth, and He conforms us to the image of Christ, and He stamps out the image of the world in us, and Adam in us, and he forms Christ in our hearts, making us new creatures. David understood that, Lord, you're chastening me because you desire truth in the inward parts. And it isn't there by nature. It isn't there by default. You've got to put that truth there. And you work it in us.

And David was made content with it. And our Lord confirmed it when he came and said, the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship God, shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, because that's what he desires. That you have truth in the inward parts, that you not be putting on a show for others to see, but that you're here because you love the Lord and you need the Lord. You need his grace. You need his blessing there. And so when God is exalted, man is put in the dust where he belongs, but God is raised up in the heart to bless you, to bless you and to keep you.

And then the third thing here, is the gospel we preach shall be Christ crucified, the full, free, sovereign grace of God revealed unto us in the Lord Jesus Christ, who saves sinners from beginning to end. It's all of Christ. And we're told the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. And so we want to preach Christ because lying to men, making them feel good by a practice of certain religious things, that's not salvation. Preaching Christ will rock people, it'll upset people, ruffle feathers, but there is no other salvation. There is no other hope but the Lord Jesus Christ. And so by His grace, that's what we're called to do. That's what you're supporting, is the gospel. You're supporting the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by his grace, that's what we'll keep preaching. And that's right where we'll stay.

And he's ministering that grace to you, brethren, because we see, I don't have it. You don't have it. We don't have it in ourselves. But the Lord is able. And it's a house of prayer so that we're constantly praying, Lord, Abba, Father, be merciful to us. Remember your people. Keep us, Lord. Help us. Bless your people. It's a house of prayer. And when you're stayed on Him, that's where it's going to stay, a house of prayer rather than pretension and games and hypocrisy. So the Lord blessed that word.