No Fruit

Matthew chapter 21. We'll begin with verse 12. 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 moneychangers and the seats of them that sold doves. It 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, and he healed them. And 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 sore displeased, it said unto him, Here is thou what these say. And Jesus saith unto them, Yes, yea, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has perfected praise?

He left them and went out of the city into Bethany, and he lodged there. 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, 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, When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away? Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If you have faith, and do not doubt, If you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also, if you shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done.

And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. Let's pray. Father, thank you for bringing us together this morning. Thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for your promised presence where two or three are gathered in your name. For without you, we can do nothing.

Bless us as we look into this text and find our Savior as we do all through your word. Him in power, sovereign power. Him in grace and mercy and healing the lame and the sick. Just the majesty of our Lord Jesus, Lord, and may his glory shine forth in the preaching of the gospel, shine into our hearts. Bless our children, Lord, as they learn of thee. Be gracious to them and have mercy on their souls. Thank you for all your many blessings. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now, we read sort of two passages of scripture.

You notice there's the scene where the Lord goes into the temple of God, and then there's the fig tree, and you would think we might look at those separately, but there's cause and effect in these two stories that I want us to see. And before we start, isn't it interesting that you see religion today, and there I guess all about numbers, aren't they?

It just seems kind of counterintuitive that the Lord would come into the temple of God and throw people out. You won't see religion doing that. They want everybody in. It doesn't matter whether they give a hoot about the Lord or not, no matter if they're living in open sin, as long as they give, as long as they got some money, the Lord said, you're out of here. That's unusual, isn't it? That's unusual.

And they hated him too, when he spoke and did wonderful things. And the text seems to imply that they knew that they were wonderful things, that when they saw that he did these wonderful things, they hated him for it. It's mutual. Religion and the Lord Jesus Christ, his most scathing words of rebuke and condemnation for the religious, and sinners who needed a savior. He was kind and gentle and long-suffering to them. But let's develop this original sort of theme that these two stories tell together, cause and effect. The religion of the Jews, now you think about these Jews, they were the people that of all people in this world had every advantage that should have brought them to worship the true God and his Christ.

The Gentiles didn't have any advantage. They were outside of the camp of Israel. Listen to Paul in Romans chapter three and verse one. What advantage then hath the Jew? He's talking about how the Jew and Gentiles are equally condemned under God. all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's in the same context of Romans 3. But he asked this question, what advantage then hath the Jew? If Jew and Gentile are both condemned under the law, they're both without any merit before God, they're both without righteousness, then what advantage had the Jew over the Gentile?

The Jews considered themselves the people of God, and they were, in a sense, the people of God under Old Testament covenant, which was a picture of God's electing grace, which we could preach five sermons on just that. Paul said in his letters that He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, who is born of Jewish heritage, but he's a Jew which is one inwardly. Those who have the faith that God gave Abraham, they are the seed of Abraham. They are the spiritual Jews of God.

So the Lord showed that in the Old Testament. But listen, what advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision? Well, you might say none, if we're all born under sin and there's no advantage. But Paul says, surprisingly, much every way. The Jews have much advantage. But what do you mean?

Chiefly, because unto them were committed the oracles of God. They had the word of God amongst them. The Gentiles didn't have that, by and large. They had the scriptures. They had Moses. They had the old covenant sacrifices. that the only purpose was to show forth Christ, to exalt Christ as the only way to God.

I've sinned, I need a sacrifice. And when that blood is shed by faith, remember in the New Testament, by faith Abel offered. a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Not just because it was a different type of sacrifice, but he did it by faith. And because his faith was in God's Lamb, he offered a lamb as God had prescribed. But he did it by faith in Christ.

Faith only has one object. Faith is not believing that God's going to do what you want him to do. Like religion likes to say, oh, if you just have faith, it'll, you know, name it and claim it. The Lord said in our text, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could move a mountain. You know what that teaches?

You don't have any faith to speak of. And I don't either. Have you moved a mountain lately? But you don't have a whole lot of faith. You talk about name it and claim it, and you don't even have the faith as a grain of mustard seed? Let's see you move a mountain and then talk about naming it and claiming it. No, faith is God. Faith is believing that God will do what He said He would do. Faith is believing God. It's not the power of positive thinking.

But the Jews have much advantage every way. The most important one, of course, is that they had the Scriptures, because it's the Scriptures that are able, Paul taught Timothy, to make a sinner wise unto salvation. That's what this whole thing is about, salvation. God has a world because he has a people. And if you wanna know what God is doing in this world, he's saving his people, that's what he's doing. And when he's done with that, he wraps it up. And the sooner the better, as far as I'm concerned.

He had declared in chapter 2 of Romans, all through that, if you read it, he's declaring over and over that being a Jew gave you no advantage before God as far as righteousness before God. Your religious heritage means nothing to God. If anything, it's a disadvantage. Paul had to abandon his religious heritage. Philippians chapter two, he said, everything that I thought was gained to me in the effort of knowing God, it was all lost for Christ's sake. All of that was keeping me from the Savior, because I trusted my works and my heritage, my circumcision.

But they had all these outward advantages, the law of Moses to lead them. the prophets to speak God's word to them, the scriptures themselves. They had to sacrifice animals regularly to remind them. You know what we do now to remind us over and over and over that Christ is all? We have bread and wine on that table right there. The gospel is preached, of course. But would to God my messages were as clear and powerful as that message of the ordinance of the Lord's table, where he reminds us that all of this is about one thing, Christ and what he did for sinners, his body, his presence in this world, Christ, God with us, Emmanuel, God with us, and what he accomplished on Calvary, the wine, his precious blood that he shed for his people.

So, but the Jews had all those advantages that the Gentiles didn't have. Those who sin without the law, Paul wrote in Romans 2, will perish without the law. And those who sin, then that's Gentiles, they didn't have the law, the law didn't apply to them as far as God's revealing it to them. but those who sin without the law, the Gentiles will perish without the law.

And those who sin in the law, this is Romans 2.12, if you want to take notes, those who sin in the law shall be condemned by the law. So either way, you're condemned, you're guilty before God, you're full of sin.

And then later in chapter three, He says there's no difference between Jew and Gentile. They had their outward advantages, but in themselves, in and of themselves, there's no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But what he says there in 3, 1, and 2, that there was great advantage, there's no difference or advantage as far as righteousness before God is concerned, but there's the outward advantage of having God's word. And that makes the Jew even more accountable before God.

That's why he's calling that out there. He's saying, look at all the advantages. This is why the Lord, like in our text, he kept asking them, have you not read? You're of the heritage of people who have had the word of God since the beginning. and you claim to speak for God, you claim to be a representative of God, and you haven't read the scriptures? They're without excuse. Our Lord said in Luke 12, 48, unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.

And they were given all of the outward advantages of everything that revealed and set forth. They had the tabernacle The Lord Jesus came from glory and tabernacled among us. And that tabernacle in the Old Testament pictured him in every way outside badger skins. There was no beauty about the Savior that we should desire him, but he was the fullness of the Godhead in a body. On the inside was the glory of God, God himself.

And so he kept asking them, when they would ask him a question, they're trying to trip him up, and he'd say, haven't you read the Word of God? Because they had that advantage. God gave you his Word and you don't care to read it? That's not a message to them, that's a message to us. Look at the advantage we have. We have the full written Word of God, Old and New Testaments, all of which point straight to Christ from the very beginning.

The animal skins that Adam and Eve were covered with, blood was shed to cover their sin, their nakedness, their guilt, their shame. That animal was Christ. Noah's ark, Abel's lamb, serpent raised up in the wilderness. And the Lord Jesus said, even so, as the serpent was raised up in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. It's always been Christ from the start. There's not, we can call it Old Testament and New Testament, but it's one message. It's the Lord Jesus and his sacrifice for sins in redeeming his people.

You do err. How many times did he say to them, you do err, not knowing the scriptures. And these were the scriptural scholars. They knew the word of God from front to back. But he said unto them, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have life, but they are they which testify of me." The purpose of the scriptures is to point to Christ, to reveal Christ. And he said, you will not come to me that you might have life. And so their religion had become fruitless. He goes into the temple and he throws them out.

He's not saying, everybody, we're going to have a, you know, what do they call it, like an attendance record or something. We're going to put it on the wall. Last week we only had a couple of hundred. Now we got 250 this week because we got, you know. He went in and threw people out.

Is anybody preaching that Christ and understanding why he did that? because it was godless, Christless religion. It was ceremonies and rituals and singing, oh how I love Jesus, instead of worshiping Christ for His love for sinners. It was coming down an aisle and getting saved, rather than crying unto the Lord Jesus Christ, if you will, you can save me. You're not gonna get saved. If you're gonna be saved, the Son of God's gonna have to do it in spite of you. Is that how he saved Saul of Tarsus?

The business of the temple of God was no longer to declare the word of God. He called it a den of thieves. Again, cause and effect, no gospel, no fruit. The Lord said, if a man abides not in me, he's cast forth and withered. The fig tree. You see why he did that right after they left the temple? No fruit. God had left the godless anti-Christ religion to their own devices, and so there was no worship. There was no abiding in Christ, and so there was no fruit. And he cursed that tree. There was only money changing and profiteering, and Christ drove them out.

He said, what? This is my house. This is my house. Is this his house? What is the Lord's house? He refers to Isaiah 56.6. When he said that, listen to it. Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, taketh hold of my covenant, even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar."

This is Old Covenant now, but what is that picture? What was the lamb? What was the sacrifice? What was the bloodshed? That's Christ. For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people, all kinds of people from every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue under heaven. But anti-Christ religion, you notice what he said? If you love me, if you're gonna serve me, if you're gonna keep my covenant, which then meant, of course, doing the things that the covenant required that pictured Christ. Now, the equivalent of keeping his covenant now is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

They had to have a sacrifice, so do you. But it's not an animal, it's not a picture anymore. Our sacrifice is God's Son. We look to Him, and He is our propitiation or our sin offering before God. Faith. A faith. That's keeping the covenant. Not your good works. Read Hebrews chapter 8. The reason there's a new covenant is because you, under the old covenant, did nothing but condemn you because it required you to be good. So the innocent blood, the sacrifice, Christ crucified the gospel that we preach now.

He said, my house will be called a house of prayer. Why prayer instead of preaching? Why prayer instead of gospel preaching? Because prayer, think about what prayer is, it's submission to God. It's abandoning every other hope and falling before God and saying, Lord, if you will, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Lord, hear my cry. It's hearts, it's souls gathering in his name, calling upon him.

Isn't that what happened in the publican and the Pharisee in Luke 18, 13, you remember that story? It'd be good to jot these down if you haven't read these. Luke 18, 13, read that portion of Luke 18 where the publican and a Pharisee stood in the temple. And the Pharisee bragged on himself like religion always does.

And the Republican said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. What was he doing? Praying. Preaching's not gonna do anybody any good unless somebody cries out to God. That's why it's called the house of prayer. Be propitious, that word mercy. Lord, be merciful to me. That word is propitious. It has to do with the sacrifice, the sin offering. He's saying, receive the sin offering on my behalf and bestow mercy upon me by his precious blood. He went into the house of prayer. What did he do? He prayed. All prayer is not public.

When we have prayer together, the cry of your heart unto God is what this is talking about. That may happen while I'm praying or one of the men are praying, or it may happen some other time when you're hearing the gospel of Christ in your heart. The need of your soul is the Savior. and whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you're hungry and thirsty after him, he said, I'll feed you. I'll feed you.

You've made it a den of thieves. If you have any perspective whatsoever on what passes for gospel ministry in this world, And you understand exactly why the Lord used those words, den of thieves. They play on your sympathies for money. We have to reach the dying multitude, or dying multitude, we have to reach the dying. They play on your greed for money. If you sow the seed, you'll reap bountifully. That's not giving, that's an investment. They'll play on your shame for money. Well, if God's people don't give, then who will? Who will? They'll even play on your fear. for money by preaching all works of grace.

They know what they're doing. It's big business. Why are we here this morning, though? Well, everybody knows every penny that comes in and out of this church. It's not about money. You know that. It's just clear to see. We maintain this building. This church has for many years now graciously supported myself and my family.

But why are we here? Why do we do this? Why have we built this? Why has God done this? Is this God's house? Is this place a temple of God? Well, I'll tell you this plain out. I'm absolutely, with all my heart, convinced that it is or I wouldn't be here. There's a lot of things to do in this world, aren't there? But we're doing this. Why? Because we love the Savior. He loved us and he's caused us to love him back. We need him. We know that everything is in His hand, that mercy and love, grace, provision, comfort, peace. He's the Prince of Peace. Do you need peace? Do you need comfort in this world? Do you need forgiveness? You don't find it in this room. but it'll be bestowed by the Savior who promised, where two or three gather in my name, I'm right there. I'm right there in the middle of you. But think of this also this way.

Didn't our Lord say in 1 Corinthians 3.16, know ye not that you are the temple of God?

Exact words used in our text, he went into the temple of God. Don't you know that you're the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Now clearly, you don't defile the temple of God by sinning, because if that was true, we would all have defiled the temple of God and been destroyed. But to defile the temple of God, what is the temple of God?

It's a house of prayer. It's a house where we read there, or was it in Zechariah? It's a house where people love Isaiah 56. Where people love, they join themselves to the Lord. Have you joined your soul unto the Lord Jesus Christ? and to love the name of the Lord. Not just the name Jesus, the way it sounds, it's beautiful, but the name of the Lord is His character. It's His sovereignty and His almighty omnipotence. It's His mercy and love. It's His justice. It's all that He is, is encompassed in His name. Do you love His name?

That's what it's talking about, defiling the temple of God, because the Lord used that very scripture when he drove them out of his temple. They didn't love the Lord, they loved money, they loved mammon. You can only serve one of two, God or mammon. Which one were they serving? Making the Lord's house a den of thieves. That's what you call defiling the temple of God.

By His grace, I believe we've come here to honor Him. The Lord has given me the great honor, but also the very fearful responsibility to see that that's what it is, to see that that's what happens here. To honor the Lord Jesus Christ and honor what he did for his people, the work of atonement, the successful, effectual atonement of his people on Calvary, as they did, as they offered those sacrifices by faith in him and the old covenant. At the table, as we mentioned, you do show the Lord's death. Isn't that what he said? What did we do at the table? You do show the Lord's death till he come. We're going to keep doing that.

He didn't say how often, he said, but as often as you do it, show forth Christ crucified until he comes back, until he comes back. May that be the purpose of our preaching, to show forth Christ in his death, in his death that he accomplished for his people. Come here to pray, to cast our souls before him. We come here asking, asking you'll receive. We want the preaching of the gospel, the singing, everything to be that which shows forth the Lord's death until he come. To pray for wisdom, pray for grace, for usefulness in his ministry, pray for our children and grandchildren and other loved ones who don't know him. Simple worship obeying our Lord's commission to go and preach.

And we do so here in this community. You and I have come. Here and we will go from here someday. And the world will take little notice of that. But God has done this here. And our prayer is. And when better men than me come along after me, this will be a lighthouse for many, many years to come.

Remember what Peter said, I think it meet that as long as I'm in this body to remind you of these things, the gospel context, and to make sure that when I'm gone, you're reminded of the gospel. He's going to do everything in his power to make sure that when the Lord took him home, the gospel was continued to be preached. And I guess we'll look at the next part of the text when we come back.

But when the Lord had finished cleaning house, the blind and the lame came to him. I guess maybe they saw these anti-Christ, haughty, lording it over people, self-righteous religious reprobates, if I'm reading this text correctly. He cursed them. And we deserve being cursed too, but he was made a curse for us. That's why we're not cursed. Because we're just like him. We're just like him. We have the same corrupt heart. Don't ever think we don't. If the Lord ever let us go for one second, this place would be a circus. Then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple And he healed them. Is that what happens here? Oh, I pray the Lord would do that here.

No Fruit

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