I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. I'm reading from Luke chapter
19. I've entitled this message, Overthrowing the Tables. We read beginning in verse 45
of Luke chapter 19, and he 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 you 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 for all the people were very attentive to
hear him. Now this was the Lord's last
week upon the earth. This is when he was in Jerusalem
and he knew within just a few days he would be crucified. And at this time he went into
the temple and started looking at the tables with the money
changers where they would exchange foreign currency, the tabernacle
shekel, the shekel of, it's the half shekel of the tabernacle
or the sanctuary, I'm sorry. And it was what every Israelite
had to give when they came to Jerusalem for the Passover, whether
they were rich or whether they were poor, they had to give this
atonement money. And in giving the atonement money,
these people came up with this brilliant idea Well, we'll have
the atonement money waiting. And so when they come here, we'll
exchange it for their foreign currency for a small profit,
of course, and we'll make some money out of it. And there were
other people who were selling sacrificial animals, thinking
we can make this more convenient for them, more easy for them.
They can come straight to the temple, buy their sacrificial
animal. They won't have to go through the difficulty of bringing
one in. And of course, we'll make a small
profit on it. And the Lord came in and in anger drove them out,
overthrowing their tables. And I believe this act is what
caused the religious leaders to get together and say, we're
putting him out of business. This is it. We will not tolerate
this any longer. The cleansing of the temple,
the throwing over of tables. Now, I would like to begin this
message with the story of Jeroboam in the Old Testament, and I think
that this will give us some understanding as to why the Lord reacted the
way he did. Jeroboam is the measuring stick
of bad kings. Throughout the history of the
kings, we read whether a king did or did not do after the sin
of Jeroboam. And the sin of Jeroboam is what
was going on when the Lord came in to cleanse the temple. Now
at the end of Solomon's life, David's son, the wisest man to
ever live, his heart was turned by many women. And he turned
to their gods. And I know he ended up, he was
saved because the Lord said he was, but he died in infamy. It
was shameful how he died and he's an example to us that man
at his best state, his best state, Solomon is man at his best state.
The wisest man to ever live is at his altogether vanity. Now what the Lord did because
of Solomon's sin was He was going to make Jeroboam, who was Solomon's
assistant, king over the ten tribes of Israel. And Solomon
would remain king over Judah. And God told Jeroboam he was
going to do this. And when Solomon heard about
it, he sought to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam fled to Egypt, and
he was there until Solomon died. And when Solomon died, his son
Rehoboam became king over Israel in his stead. So Jeroboam returns
back, and he comes to Rehoboam, and he said, now your father
made it hard on us. If you make it easier on us, we'll serve
you. And Rehoboam's reply was, I'm going to make it harder than
ever. So the 10 tribes of Israel revolted from Rehoboam, and they
had Jeroboam as their king, just like God said would take place.
punishment of what Solomon had done. Now something happened
during this time, let me read in 1 Kings chapter 12 beginning
in verse 25. 1 Kings 12, 25, Then Jeroboam built Shechem and
Mount Ephraim, and dwelt there, and went out from thence, and
built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart,
Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. If this
people go to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem,
then shall the heart of this people turn again to their Lord,
even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they shall kill me and go
again to Rehoboam, king of Judah." Now, the fact of the matter is
every Israelite was called upon to go to Jerusalem for the Passover
to present their shekel of the sanctuary, the atonement money
that everybody was to give. If you were rich, you gave the
same. If you were poor, you gave the same. This represents the
atonement of Christ. And they were to bring their
sacrifice. And all of these people under Jeroboam were going to
be returning to Israel where Rehoboam was, the king and the
temple. And that's the only place they
were allowed to offer up sacrifice. So here's what Jeroboam did.
Here's the sin of Jeroboam. Whereupon the king took counsel
and made two calves of gold and said unto them, It's too much
for you to go to Jerusalem. It's too inconvenient. It's too
costly. You can make a lot shorter trip
if you do this. Hold thy gods, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he said, The one
in Bethel, and the other in Dan, two different cities, other than
Jerusalem. And this thing became sin, for the people went to worship
before the one, even unto Dan. And he made in a house of high
places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were
not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast
in the eighth month, a new feast, not ordered by the Lord. He added
something. on the 15th day of the month,
like unto the feast that's in Judah." It was like the Passover,
but it wasn't the Passover, a different day. He offered upon the altar,
so did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he'd made.
And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he'd
made. So he offered them upon the altar which he'd made in
Bethel, the 15th day of the eighth month, even the month which he
had devised of his own heart, and ordained a feast unto the
children of Israel, and he offered upon the altar burnt incense. Now, his sin was great. You see,
Jerusalem was the only place you could go to worship. The
temple was the only place you could offer sacrifice and bring
the atonement money. This represents we can only go
to Christ. There is only one way to God.
There are not two ways. There are not three ways. There's
only one way, Christ and Christ only. everybody that's in Heaven,
there will be one reason they're there, because of what Jesus
Christ did for them. You take Abraham, Moses, anybody
that's in Heaven, the only reason they're in Heaven is because
of what Christ did for them. And what Jeroboam was saying,
there are other ways. He loosened up. He made a place
in Dan and Bathsheba where you could go and offer up sacrifices. And he made different feast days.
He was doing this to make religion more easy, more convenient. Listen, anything that makes worship
more convenient is wrong. You can write that down. All
this reminds me of the seeker sensitive churches, the seeker
friendly churches where they try to package the Gospel to
make it more attractive to the natural man, that's the sin of
Jeroboam. And you can see that the sin
of Jeroboam is what is going on in the Temple. trying to make
religion easier and more accessible and more convenient. Now early
in the Lord's ministry in John chapter 2 at the very beginning
of His public ministry we read in verse 13 of John chapter 2,
And the Jews' Passover was at hand. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
and found in the temple those that sold oxen, and sheep, and
doves, and the changers of money, This is three years before the
final cleansing of the temple. And when he'd made a scourge
of small cords, he made a whip. He drove them all out of the
temple, the sheep, the oxen. He poured out the changers' money
and overthrew the tables and said to them that sold doves,
take these things hence. Make not my father's house a
house of merchandise. His disciples remembered that
it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Now what drove the Lord Jesus
to do this? I mean it is pretty severe. Can
you imagine somebody coming in and all of a sudden throwing
over the tables and beating people with a whip and running them
out? John tells us it was because of the zeal of his father's house. He would not tolerate this. Now, in the world in which we
lived, you can tolerate anything but intolerance. Nobody wants
intolerance. You can believe what you want,
but you've got to respect my way and you've got to leave me
be. And your way's good, my way's
good, I'm okay, you're okay. But this idea of being intolerant
is looked upon as harsh and bigoted and unloving. For instance, the
gospel message is a message that's intolerant of all other messages. God is intolerant. He says, I'm
a jealous God. He's intolerant of any worship
but the worship of himself. The gospel of grace, the gospel
of Christ, the gospel of God is intolerant of other gospels,
other views of the gospel. Paul said, I marvel that you're
so soon removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ
to another gospel, which is not another, but some would trouble
you and pervert the gospel of Christ. It's a perverted gospel
that many people believe. Do I love somebody? If I say,
well, I'm okay, you're okay, you believe your wrong gospel,
I believe mine will both end up in the same place. That's
not love. That's not love to men's souls.
Listen, the gospel of grace, the gospel of God electing a
people before time began, the gospel of Christ accomplishing
the salvation of everybody he died for when he said, it is
finished, The salvation of the elect was accomplished. The gospel
of God giving a new heart, God the Holy Spirit regenerating
and giving life to a man dead in sins through the gospel. That's
the only gospel. Anybody that doesn't preach that
does not preach the gospel. Don't say that. You can believe
your way, let somebody else believe their way. Well, that's being
unloving, and harsh, and intolerant. I'm sure that's what they said
about Christ for driving the money changers out, and making
the whip, and beating people, and getting them out. He's being
unloving, and harsh, and intolerant. No, it was the zeal of His Father's
house that caused Him to do this. Now, three years later Go back
to Luke. He did this at the beginning
of his ministry and now three years later in Luke chapter 19. And he went into the temple and
began to cast out them that sold therein and bought. He started
doing the very same thing. Now, this is when the scribes
and the Pharisees and the leaders of the people said, we're going
to put him out of business. We can't tolerate this. This
man's radical. He's not doing our nation any
good. He's making us look bad, we're
going to put Him out of business. They had no idea who He really
was, but this event was the catalyst of this. Let me read Matthew's
account, beginning in verse 14, or 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. and said unto them, It's written,
My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have
made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came
to him in the temple, and he healed them." Now, the same thing
that happened in John chapter 2 happened in Matthew three years
later, but this time the language is stronger. In John chapter
2, the Lord said, make not my father's house a house of merchandise. And in this one that's recorded
right before his death in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he said, you've
made my father's house, which is called a house of prayer,
a den of thieves. Not simply calling it a house
of merchandise. but making it a den of thieves,
a place to buy and sell. You've taken my father's house
and made it a place to buy and sell when it's truly called the
house of prayer. And this is what I want to spend
the rest of our time thinking about. The house of prayer. You've taken my house. My Father's
house, which is a house of prayer, and you've made it a den of thieves."
Prayer, a house of prayer. What is prayer? Do you realize
that most people have never prayed? They've gone through the motions
of something they've called prayer, bargaining with God, trying to
buy things off of Him, trying to get things from him and they've
called it prayer. Do you remember the Pharisee
in the temple? The scripture says he stood and
prayed thus with himself. Now he thought he was praying
to God, but the scripture says he prayed thus with himself.
God was not hearing this prayer. He was bargaining with God. He
was bragging to God about what he was like and what he had done.
This is not prayer. You know, the Apostle Paul, most
people think he was probably 40 years old when he was converted,
could have been, but the 40 years previous to his conversion, he
went through this thing he called prayer many times, but he never
prayed. Do you remember when God said
to Ananias regarding Paul, behold, he prayeth. He never has before. But he is now, behold, he prayeth."
Now, as I said, most people's prayers are not really prayers. They're bargaining with God.
God, if you'll do this, I'll do that. And if I stop doing
this, then you do that. It's bargaining with God. It's negotiating with God. It's
making promises to God. God, if you do this, I promise
I'll start doing that. If you'll just forgive me of
my sin, I will do this, I will do that, and I will stop doing
that. If you bring me into heaven, I will do this. If you get me
out of this trouble, I'll do that. I'll dedicate my life to
you, if you. You see, it's bargaining with
God. And nobody is praying that's
bargaining with God. That is not prayer. Prayer is asking God to do for
you what you cannot do for yourself, and don't even have the potential
to do for yourself. You're not trying to pay him
to do it for you. You make no resolutions as to
what you'll do if he does that. That's not prayer. No one's broken. No one knows who they are. No
one knows who God is when they come into his presence like that.
If you forgive me, I'll never commit that sin again. Oh, really?
That's a lie. How many times have you asked
for forgiveness of sins that you've committed over and over
and over again, and you make these promises? Now, in true
prayer, in true prayer, you don't have these resolutions as to
what you're going to do. You come before the living God
like the leper did. There came a leper and worshiped
him. And this leper had a miserable
life. Health was poor. He was an outcast
of society. And he could have had many things
about him that made him just feel so bad about himself and
his life. But the scripture says he came
and worshiped. True prayer is worship. You worship God for who He is. Now, at this time, the leper
didn't know if the Lord would cleanse him. He knew he was unclean,
and he came to the Lord like this, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean. Now, there's prayer. He came
to the Lord, the only one who could do anything for him, knowing
he couldn't do anything for himself. knowing that everything was up
to the Lord's sovereign will. You see, you'll only worship
a sovereign, one in whose hands you are, and he can do with you
whatever he's pleased to do and whatever he does is right, and
you really believe that. That leper came into his presence,
the scripture says, and worshiped him, saying, Lord, oh, he acknowledged
the lordship of Christ. You're the Lord, if you will. He didn't say, Lord, I will that
you make me clean. He wouldn't have done anything
so presumptuous as that. He didn't say, I've decided to
accept you as my personal savior and let you heal me. No. He said,
Lord, if you will. You can make me clean. Now, my dear friend, that is
prayer. And the scripture says, And Jesus
moved with compassion, reached forth his hand, and touched him,
saying, I will. powerful Word there is, Christ
saying, I will. Be thou clean. You see the Lord always responds
to true prayer. Now He doesn't respond to that
bargaining with Him. He doesn't even hear it. But
He responds to true prayer. You remember blind Bartimaeus?
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Now there's true
prayer. Not making some kind of, trying
to strike some kind of deal with God. If you do this for me, I'll
do that. No, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy on me. What about the man, scripture
says, the man who wouldn't come to Christ because he didn't feel
worthy. But he sent somebody else saying,
Lord, my servant, life at home, grievously sick of the palsy. He didn't even tell him what
to do. He just said, here's my case. And the Lord said, I'll
come and heal him. And the man said, Lord, I'm not
worthy for you to come under my roof. Now, I understand authority. I say to one, go, and he goes,
and another come, and he comes. I understand what authority is.
All you've got to do is speak the word only, and my servant
shall be healed. Now, that's prayer. What about
the Syrophoenician woman? Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. You know what the scripture says?
He didn't answer a word. He didn't respond. Did she give
up? No, she continued crying because
the disciples said, send her away, she cries after us. And
he said, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. I didn't come to save everybody. I didn't come to heal
everybody. Scripture says, then came she and worshiped him saying,
Lord, help me. Now that's prayer. Lord, help
me. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. I'm helpless. Would you help
me? You know, you've heard that saying,
God helps those who help themselves. No, he doesn't. He helps those
who can't help themselves. Just like this woman, there's
nothing she could do. And then the Lord replied to
her, it's not right to take the children's bread and cast it
to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the
crumbs that fall from the master's table. I may be a dog, but I'm
your dog, and I'm not looking for a place sitting, but I'd
be so ever so grateful for any crumbs of mercy you send my way. And he said, Woman, great is
thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. I believe my favorite prayer
is the prayer of Peter. when he's walking on the water,
sees the wind boisterous and the roaring waves, and he cries
out, Lord, save me. Now there's prayer. Lord, save
me. Prayer is asking God for grace. It's asking God for mercy. It's
asking God for forgiveness. It's asking God for a new heart.
It's asking God for faith. It's asking God for repentance.
It's asking God for love. It's asking God for grace. It's
asking God for grace for obedience. You're asking the Lord to do
for you what you can't do for yourself. You can't come up with
anything. And prayer is asking the Lord
to do that for you. And you don't even have the potential
to do any of these things you're asking for. You're asking the
Lord to do these things for you. It's petitioning the great sovereign
of the universe. True prayer is true worship. You don't pray and not worship
the Lord for who He is. Now Mark gives an account of
this that the other two don't give. It says, the blind and
the lame came to him. Now this is Matthew, I'm sorry,
Matthew's account, Matthew verse 14 of chapter 21. The blind and
the lame, those who could not see and those who could not walk. The blind and the lame came to
him. Well, how'd they come to him?
I reckon they had to be carried. But they came to Him. And the
scripture says, He healed them there. Now in the midst of all
this commotion where the Lord turned over the money changers'
tables and drove out those that sold oxen and doves saying, Take
these things out. You've made my father's house
a den of thieves. In the midst of all this going
on, there was blind people and there were lame people who came
to him, which represents the sinners who come to him. All
these religious hucksters are driven out. These people trying
to make a profit on religion are driven out. These people
who are supposing the gain is godliness are driven out. but
the blind and the lame, the sinners, come to Him. Those who are unable
to do anything for themselves. And the scripture says, He healed
them there. Now my dear friend, if you're
blind, if you can't see why God would ever have anything to do
with you, and if you're lame, you can't walk in God's commandments,
you're wicked, you're evil, you can't do anything but sin. If
you're blind and if you're lame, you come to Him. He'll receive
you and He'll heal you and He'll heal you by His precious blood.
He'll take away your sins and make you perfectly righteous
before God. Now what is the command of the
Gospel? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. If you trust who Christ is and
what He did as all that is needed to bring you into heaven. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard send your request to messages at todsroadgracechurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen.