The lesson this morning is found
in the final six verses of Mark chapter 11. I titled the lesson Christ and
the Antichrist. I purposely skipped over our
Lord's actions This was not something that he
normally did. Only on two occasions that I
know of, it could have been more, but only two were recorded, where
he was angry and took action against the enemies of God, and
this was one of them. I purposely skipped over our
Lord's actions in the temple, because I wanted them tied in
with the lesson today. Back in Mark 11, 15 through 18,
it records our Lord going into the temple at Jerusalem and casting
out them who bought and sold within. I've seen pictures that were representative
of the temple, what the temple should have been and with all
the measurements and everything and you can go online and you
can look around and you can You can find things similar to what
that temple must have been. But I just can't imagine when
our Lord walked in and that place was just filled. It looked like
a flea market. It had tables and people sitting there charging
money to change money because these Jews were scattered all
around and had different currency and they came in. And then another
thing, I think if I'm right, it had to be the currency of
the temple. It had to be a certain type of, had to be exchanged into this
money. But at any rate, they were doing this inside the temple.
It'd just be like if you come in here this morning and there
was tables all over the place and there were people back there
selling doves and there were people exchanging money and selling
them, just like last week when the guy come in and he's tapping
people on the shoulder while I was preaching and saying, hey,
we're going to have a singing down the road. Y'all need to
come. There was no consideration for
what this temple was all about. There was no consideration of
it whatsoever. When our Lord came in, and nobody
was doing anything about it. None of the people were doing
anything about it. The high priest weren't doing anything about
it. They were perfectly OK with it. And all of these things. were going on. So the Lord cast
them out and several of the writers said this is as great a miracle
what he did within this temple as raising the dead or cleansing
the lepers or anything else that he did. He wasn't a man to to fight and go shoulder to shoulder
with people and this type of thing. He was a preacher, a preacher
of righteousness. And he was gentle unto all men. But here it says that he cast
them out. And I can just picture him, these
guys didn't go out willingly. He'd come over and say, get out,
and they just sat there and looked at him. And he said, I said,
get out. And he got a hold of them. And
he cast them out. In the book of John, it says
he plaited some small cords together. And he made a whip. He made a
scourge from these things. And he whipped them out the door
with a scourge. But at any rate, here in our
text, it said he cast them out who bought and sold within. He
overturned the tables of the money changers. He just, man,
just flipped them upside down. So you can just about picture
what's going on here. Man, there's money going all
over the floor, and the tables are upside down, and he's leading
these men to the door and casting them out. And I can just imagine
the people just standing there with their mouth open. And his
disciples are just standing there in awe of what they're seeing.
Nobody expected him to do these things. And he forbid anybody to even
carry a vessel through the temple. And the reason is because the
temple at Jerusalem was typical of the church. The church, according
to 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15, the house of God. That's his church. We're built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom you're builted together for a habitation of God through
the Spirit. The house of God, what is the
house of God? Somebody said, well, we're gonna
go down to the house of God. No, you're not. No, you're not. The house of
God is the assembled saints. We're two or more assembled together. That's his house. That's God's
house. It's not a building, it's not
a structure. It's a living body. the body
of Christ, he said, which is his church. And do not let your
ideas of the temple of God or the house of God attach any kind
of superstitious nonsense or connections to any structure
anywhere at any time. The only connection between this
temple at Jerusalem and the house of God is that it was permitted
by God to be built as representative of the spiritual house of God. We're told plainly in Hebrews
9, 9 that all these things, the tabernacle, the temple, the priesthood,
the sacrifices, he goes all through that list in Hebrews chapter
9, and he said these were a figure for the time then present. They stood as things that were
typical of those things which should come, they were figures
Shadows of good things to come. But even these shadows, the unbelieving
Jews had made a mockery out of it. Just an absolute mockery
out of it. They had turned the house of
prayer, according to our Lord's words, into a den of thieves. Now, Is there a spiritual application
to this? Yes, in 2 Peter 2 and verse 3,
the Holy Ghost tells us that through covetousness shall they,
these men who creep in unawares, these people who come with another
doctrine, they creep in unawares, and they through covetousness
shall with feigned words make merchandise of you. They'll turn
you into merchandise. They were not God's servants,
they were Satan's ministers, and their burden was not men's
souls, but a bag of gold. That's what they were after.
There's no greater crime than to sell out a man's soul for
financial gain. to use the worship of God to
promote some business venture on their part. They used their
imagination. They said, hey, there's money
to be made down there. And for this cause, the righteous
anger of our Lord was kindled, and he made a scourge, and he
drove them out of the temple. He said, my house, it's written,
my house. And make no mistake about it,
it's his house. And he tells us plainly, right
there, that it is. And that it was written before
time. It was written, my house shall be a house of prayer. And
the function of the house of God and its business alone is
prayer, worship, the singing of praise to our God and the
preaching of the gospel, period. It's not a house of entertainment,
not a house of merchandise. In our text this morning is our
Lord again came into the temple and this time he was met with
the chief priest and the scribes and the elders. Many of the old
writers say And it does that sometimes when it says Jews,
it's not talking about Jews in general, just any Jew, it's talking
about the Sanhedrin, the high council of the Jews. They were the hierarchy of the
Jewish religion. And so what do I mean by that?
I mean they set the standards. That's what I mean by that. There's
churches around who have committees. They set the standards. Whatever they decide, that's
the way it is. Their way or the highway. These
men set the standards and they watched over things and they
exercised judgment over all the affairs of their religion. The
reason they were chosen or appointed is to look for the Messiah. They were trained, these were
not ignorant men, they were educated men. And they said what was permitted
and what wasn't permitted. And they saw the Lord come in
there without any word to them whatsoever. He just totally ignored
them, just like they wasn't even there. And he walked into that
temple, cast out, flipped over tables, did everything that he
did without so much as a buy your leave to these men, the
high council of Israel. And they were just standing there
watching him. And they were angry. And they came to the Lord and
they demanded of him. By what authority do you do these
things? Who gave you permission to come
in here and do these things? What things? Well, it wasn't
just what he did in the temple, but they were talking about teaching
without their approval. Exercising judgment within the
temple without their permission. allowing the people to praise
him as the promised Messiah and King of David when he rode in
on the wild ass's coat into Jerusalem. Teaching contrary to their traditional
knowledge and doctrine and totally ignoring their positions and
their titles and their appointments. Now I want you to picture this
if you can. This was a people that were respected accepted by most as the true
servants of Jehovah. Chief priest who would one day
maybe be the high priest of Israel. They were all sons of Levi. Pharisees,
highly regarded by men, educated, doctors of the law, clean as
a houndstooth in their life. And they were elders of the people.
appointees over the synagogues, kind of like pastors today in
churches. But see them again in the reality
of what was taking place. See them as they really were. They were imposters. They were
phonies. They were deceived men. They
were Satan's pawns. Satan uses men. The most powerful
influence that Satan has on this world is religion. It's not the
bars. It's not man's fallen nature.
It's religion. That's where he does his work,
in religion. They were not anti-works. They
taught good works. They demanded good works. They
weren't anti-religious. They come to see and land to
make one proselyte like unto themselves. They weren't anti-God. They believed in their God. They
promoted Him. Or what were they? They were
anti-Christ. Jesus of Nazareth didn't fit
their religion, not in any degree. This is how they judged him.
They didn't look at the scriptures to see what God's testimony about
his son was, just those things that fit their religion. It's
like, here's my religion, now I'm gonna take these pieces out
of the Bible, and if they don't fit, I'm just gonna throw them
aside, because they can't be right, because they don't fit
my religion. That's not the test. The test is the testimony of
God. They didn't even consider the
testimony of God. They just considered their own
ideas and their own traditional knowledge. He didn't fit their religion
in any way. His person didn't fit. They thought
there was gonna be another one like Moses, this individual.
God gonna raise him up and use him to overturn the Roman government
and restore Israel to its former glory. They looked at somebody
gonna be a worldly king. They looked for another David,
another Elijah. They were looking for someone
like this. So his person didn't come up
to their standards at all. And his birth, my soul, he was
in absolute poverty. He was born in a barn and laid
in a manger. And his parents, my soul, he
was the son of a carpenter. His doctrine didn't fit, his
preaching didn't fit, his methods didn't fit, nothing fit their
religion. So these men rejected him altogether
and they were given over to strong delusion to believe a lie and
be damned for believing it. If you don't think the word of
God says that, you can read it over in 2 Thessalonians 2, 11
and 12. And so for our learning and for
our protection the Holy Ghost reveals to us three spiritual
evils present in those who don't know God but who think they do
and act on what they think is a true knowledge of God. The
first is spiritual ignorance. Ignorance. There was a time when
I thought I knew some things because everybody around me said
that I did. I told them what I'd heard all
my life, what I was convinced was the truth, what little bit
of scripture I'd read, bits and pieces of it seemed to match
up, and I thought I knew some things, and all those around
me thought I knew some things and assured me that these things
were true. Preacher, what'd you believe? I thought God loved
everybody. Huh? Wasn't there a time in your
life when you thought God loved everybody? Everybody says he
does. Everybody, ask anybody. They
all believe God loves everybody. He loved everybody. I thought
that was true. I acted on that. I prayed according
to that. I sang songs that were in conjunction
with that. I made such statements to others
along those lines. I believed it, and nearly everybody
I knew believed it. And every time I'd say it, especially
if I said it from the pulpit or teaching a Sunday school class,
amen, amen, amen. My friend, God's love is particular. It's pictured in a husband's
love for his wife. There's no way you can take a
husband's love for his wife and turn it into something universal.
You want to try that? Caleb, next time it's her birthday,
say, honey, I love you just like I do all the other women in the
world. See how that goes over. When you get that black eye,
you can get it patched up. It's stated as something from
which we cannot be separated. It's set before us as one of
the main reasons for our election in Christ, so that we can be
before him being loved. I thought God loved everybody,
but I learned it's just not so. I thought it was so, I was convinced
that it was so, I preached that it was so, but it wasn't so. Secondly, I thought Christ died
for everybody. I've been told that since I was
old enough to sit in a pew. I thought Christ died for every
man, every woman, every boy, every girl. Put away all their
sins. I'm not pointing out some vague
and unimportant doctrines here. I'm pointing out serious and
critical doctrines here. If you're wrong on this, you're
wrong all the way. Christ didn't die for the sins
of all mankind. If he did, then all men must
be justified by his resurrection. Because he said they were. He
was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. If the Lord loved the whole world
and died for every man, Then he sinned against God when he
refused to pray for the world. I pray not for the world, he
said, but I pray for those which thou hast given me. His death
constitutes redemption. We're justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. The scripture
said the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And then the scripture says this,
talking about the death of Christ, talking about God's eternal purpose
of grace for us and working everything all together in our favor and
for his glory. He said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. And
Christ, he died. I thought God loved everybody.
I thought Christ died for everybody. And thirdly, I thought it was
God's will to save everybody. That's just not so. You reckon
there's anything that God has willed that's not gonna come
to pass? If it does, he's not God. He doeth according to his will
in armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? It's not God's will to save every
man, woman, and child. It's his will to save a people
for his glory through the work of the person and work of his
Son. Christ said, I come to do my
Father's will which will is that of all which he hath given me
I should lose nothing but raise it up again at the last day.
That's the will of God. And I could go on and on and
on with things that I thought were so. I thought man had a
free will. And then I found out he was a
sinner, and hippies a sinner, and fallen from grace, and blind
and dead and all the other things that God describes him as. You,
Hathi Quicken, who were dead in trespasses and sins. A dead
man don't have a free will. I thought salvation was by chance
and circumstance. You could go on and on and on
with the thing. I was convinced of these things. But they just
weren't so. And there's an evil in spiritual
ignorance. Fallen men are ignorant of God.
And then the second spiritual evil I see here is spiritual
arrogance. Can you imagine? I know with every committee,
there's always three or four that are at the top. And I can
just picture these men running up to our Lord, and He's standing
there with that scared face. red in the face, overturning
tables, and they just run up to him and started demanding
things from him. By what authority do you do these
things? Can you imagine the arrogance
in that? Who are thou, old man, that replies
against God? Along with spiritual ignorance
comes spiritual arrogance. Here's a self-appointed high
council of men demanding explanations from the Son of God. What could
be more arrogant than that? And these men dared to challenge
the Son of God and question His authority on the sole premise
that their authority was greater than His. They couldn't refute his doctrines,
they couldn't deny his miracles, they couldn't answer his questions,
and they couldn't find a single sin to accuse him of. And yet their pride and envy
and jealousy and arrogance moved them to accuse him of being a
fraud. I can almost picture them in
a great number surrounding the Lord in their gaudy religious
dress. and demand him by what authority
he did the things he was doing. And the Lord said to him, he
answered him. And he said, I'm going to ask
you a question. And if you can answer it, I'll answer your question. And they asked him about John
the Baptist. all my soul. They couldn't answer it. Any way they would have answered
that question, it would have exposed their ignorance and lie. Now I'm going to tell you something.
There's nothing that a dishonest man won't do to promote themselves
or save face before the people. Nothing. They'll do or say anything. They couldn't answer our Lord's
questions, though it was a simple question. And their efforts were
not to put together, to start with, to seek the truth, but
to save face. That's what they were trying
to do. That's arrogance. That's what
that is, arrogance. Arrogance. Two or three times,
our Lord, they came up and just had a sure thing. They knew they
were just gonna tie him up and knock. And he'd ask them a question
like this, a little simple question, just leave them speechless. And then thirdly, I see here
the evil of spiritual dishonesty. Spiritual ignorance and spiritual
arrogance always produce spiritual dishonesty. Brother Don said
one time, those who are by their own willful unbelief prejudiced
against the truth of God in an attempt to justify themselves
before men will without hesitation lie and act dishonestly to their
own consciences. They'll lie against their own
conscience. And they'll do so in the name of honoring God.
And there's just nothing that a man like this won't do. Look
at verse 31 of our text. And they reasoned with themselves,
saying, if we shall say that he's from heaven, he'll say then,
why didn't you believe him? But if we shall say of man, Then
they feared the people, for all men counted John, that he was
a prophet indeed. So they told an obvious lie to
save face. They said, we cannot tell. We just don't know. And so the Lord said to their
demands, neither do I tell you by what authority I do these
things. Now my friend, this is the way
of antichrist. Spirit of Antichrist is against
Christ. He's contrary to it. He's contrary
to God and contrary to the will of God. And they had no authority
but their own. And here's something that we
all need to learn, me especially. Me especially. Only God can give
true authority to his servants. Caleb, you can't earn it? You
can't buy it. You can't go to school and get
it. Only God can give authority to his servants. And only God can enforce that
authority, and he does so by the power of God. They beat those apostles, and
they said, don't you preach in his name again. They said, we
cannot but tell the things we've both seen and heard. And they
went right on preaching. And men went right on believing.
And the authority of those priests and the authority of that Sanhedrin
that demanded from them these things didn't amount to a hill
of beans. That's God's authority. I can
sit and preach to men and women all day. I can't change them.
I can't do a thing for them. But God's authority through the
preaching of that gospel can break a man, leave him at the
feet of Christ, open his head to hear, do all of these things. That's God's authority. You can't
whip that up. You can't just grit your teeth
and have that. You can't get it through determination. God gives it. If he don't, you
don't have it. And I can't think of a scarier
thing. and trying to pastor a church
and preach to men with no authority from God. I just can't imagine. All right, thank you.