Let's turn back to Luke chapter
19. While you're turning there, Albert
Kelly is recovering well and should be released from the hospital
sometime this week. Actually, Carolyn sent me a picture
of him smiling from the hospital bed, and it looked really good.
He'll be recuperating in Florida, and his address is in the foyer
if you'd like to send him a card. I've entitled the message for
this morning, overthrowing the tables. This is where the Lord went into
the temple. There were money changers who
were exchanging foreign currency for the shekel of the sanctuary
so the people could use that, making a small profit. There
were men selling animals for sacrifices to make it more convenient
to worship. And it seemed to be a good thing,
they thought. And the Lord came in and overthrew
those tables and he drove out the men who were selling sacrifices
saying, my house shall be called a house of prayer and you have
made it a den of thieves. Now this is a passage that's
well known. It's in all four gospels, one
time early in his ministry and the end of his ministry. driving
the money changers out. As a matter of fact, in John
chapter two, we read where he took a whip. He made a whip. Did he hit those people? I believe
he did. I believe he did. Now, what these men were doing
was trying to make things easier. That seems like a noble thing
to do. Now, the way I would like to
introduce this message is to begin with the story of Jeroboam. Now, Jeroboam was the man that
God made king after Solomon fell. He became king of the northern
tribes. And Jeroboam is the measuring
stick of a bad king. 17 times in the Old Testament
we read of the sin of Jeroboam. If a king was a bad king, he
was measured up to Jeroboam. He either sinned or did not sin
after the sin of Jeroboam. Now, at the end of Solomon's
life, his heart was turned away to many women and many gods. You can read about that in 1
Kings 11. I think that's very interesting.
The most wise man to ever live proves to us that man at his
best state is altogether vanity. Such was Solomon. And God said
to Solomon, because you've done this, I'm going to take the kingdom
away from you. Look in first Kings chapter 11
verse 31. This is where it was told Jeroboam
that he would be given the kingdom. It's going to be taken away from
Solomon. First Kings 11, 31, this was the prophet speaking.
And he said to Jeroboam, take thee ten pieces for thus saith
the Lord, the God of Israel. Behold, I will rend the kingdom
out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to thee.
Now that is because of Solomon's sin. Now Jeroboam at the time
was Solomon's main assistant. The scripture says he was a mighty
man of valor and an industrious man. He was a very powerful man.
And when Solomon heard that God was going to take his kingdom
away from him and give it to Jeroboam, he tried to have Jeroboam
murdered. And Jeroboam fled to Egypt. And he was there until the death
of Solomon. And he came back. And when he
came back, Solomon's son, Rehoboam, was king. And Rehoboam was ruler
over everything at this time. And he told Israel he was going
to make it harder on them than his daddy did. Solomon made it
hard on you, I'm going to make it harder. And so they revolted,
and when Jeroboam came back, they made Jeroboam king. So Jeroboam
was king of the 10 tribes, and Rehoboam was king of Judah and
Benjamin. Now, something happened with
Jeroboam. Even after God had made this
promise to him, if you would listen to me, you're going to
be king. Look what happened here. Here's the sin of Jeroboam. Turn
to 1 Kings 12, beginning in verse 25. Then Jeroboam built the second,
built Shechem in Mount Ephraim and dwelt therein 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 up to sacrifice in the house of the Lord of Jerusalem,
then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their
Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they shall kill
me and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Now he reasons.
Every male in Israel was commanded to go to Jerusalem. for the Passover. Every year, everybody was to
make that journey, and they were all to bring the shekel of the
sanctuary. Everybody was to give the same.
If a rich man had millions of dollars, and there was a poor
man who had nothing, they still were to give the exact, precise,
same thing. Okay? This technical It happens. It happens. One of these days
it's going to happen to me. I'm going to be up here preaching.
I'm going to have my phone in my pocket and boom, boom. So, where was I? Jeroboam knew that everybody
in his province, the ten tribes that he was now king over, would
have to go to Jerusalem to offer up a sacrifice on the Passover
and to give the shekel of the sanctuary. You can read about
the shekel of the sanctuary in Exodus chapter 30, and I think
this is glorious. If you were rich or if you were poor, everybody
gave the same thing, the atonement money. It was called the atonement
money. the shekel of the sanctuary. If you're a millionaire, if you
were poverty-stricken, you still had to give the same thing. And
that's a reminder to us that everybody has their sins atoned
for the same way. Christ. Christ only. Nothing
else. There's only one thing that's
acceptable, the work of Christ. And everyone was to go to Jerusalem.
Jeroboam reasoned, when these people go to Jerusalem, their
heart's going to be turned back to Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and
they're going to kill me. Now he said all these things
in his heart, even though God promised you're going to be fine
as long as you follow me. Yet he reasons in his heart and
says, this is bad. I need to do something about
this. So let's go and read him. Verse 28. Whereupon the king took counsel
and made two calves of gold and said unto them, it's too much
for you to go up to Jerusalem. It costs too much money. It's
too inconvenient. I'm going to make things easier
for you. I'm going to make things more convenient for you. It kind
of sounds to me like the average seeker-friendly church. We're
making things more easy, more convenient. We're packaging the
gospel in a way that's easier to accept. He said, this is just
too much for you to go all the way to Jerusalem. Here's what
we're going to do. Whereupon the king took counsel. and made
two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for
you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold, thy gods, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one
in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became
a sin for the people, went to worship before the one, even
unto Dan. And they made 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 to feast
in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the
feast that's in Judah. And he offered upon the altar,
so did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made.
And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had
made, So he offered upon the altar which he'd made in Bethel
the fifteenth 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. He made a new Passover, and offered
upon the altar burnt incense. Now you see what he did? He thought,
I'm going to get in trouble if they go to Jerusalem. And remember,
Jerusalem was the only place where the Passover was to be
observed. And remember when Solomon said, when you're in trouble,
you pray toward Jerusalem. You look to Jerusalem. This implies
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one place
of God's acceptance, Christ. That's why Jerusalem was the
only acceptable place. But Jeroboam made it to where
there's three places are okay. Three places. You can go here,
you can go, I'm going to make it more convenient for you. A religion
of convenience. And this is called the sin of
Jeroboam. God hates this way of thinking. Now that is precisely what was
going on in the temple. Would you turn with me to John
chapter 2? This is very early in the Lord's
public ministry. His public ministry began with
this taking place. 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 sitting. And when he had made
a scourge of small cords, he made a whip He drove them all
out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen, and poured out
the changers' money, and overthrew the tables, and said unto them
that sold doves, take these things hence. Make not my father's house
a house of merchandise, a house of buying and selling. And his
disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up. Now I'm not real sure that I
remember ever hearing anybody preach on the Lord driving people
out of the temple. You sure aren't going to hear
that from your average religious institution, will you? I mean, can you imagine
many of these so-called churches dealing with this subject? They
wouldn't do it. They wouldn't touch it. But here our Lord sees
these people who were making religion more convenient and
worship more accessible and easy. There were people coming from
a long way away. They didn't have the shekel of
the sanctuary. And they said, well, here's what
we'll do. We'll take their foreign currency. We'll give them the
shekel of the sanctuary for their foreign currency with a small
profit, of course. We do have operating expenses. And it's very difficult for them
to bring cattle and sheep from these foreign lands. We'll just
make it to where they can just come on their own without having
to mess with this. And we can sell them their sacrifices
with a small profit, of course. But what we're doing, we're making
true worship easier and more accessible and more convenient. That's exactly what Jeroboam
did. And the Lord went in there with
a whip. with a whip. Can you imagine
how those people must have felt when he did this? Who do you
think you are? We're trying to make things better
for people and you come in with a whip and drive us out? Who do you think you are? And
then they summarized what was taking place, then the disciples
remembered after he was risen. They remembered this event, and
they remembered this statement, the zeal of thy house. Look with
me in verse 17, John chapter 2. And his disciples remembered
that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me
up. Now zeal, zeal, zeal for God's
glory. is what caused the Lord to do
this. A love for his father would not
allow him to tolerate this. Now, this world hates intolerance. Let me repeat that and I want
you to think about it. This world hates intolerance. God is either absolutely in control
or he has no control. And there's no in between. The
two thoughts can't be blended. God is either absolutely sovereign
or he's not sovereign at all. are either dead in sins, absolutely
unable to do anything to save themselves. That means if God
leaves you to yourself and doesn't intervene and do something for
you, you won't be saved. You'll go to hell. Men are either
dead in sins or men have some ability to save themselves. There's no in between. There's
no middle ground. God either elected who would
be saved before time began or he didn't. It's an either or. Now, if he
did choose who would be saved, those who don't preach this don't
preach the gospel. If he didn't, those who say he
did are liars and they misrepresent God. There is no middle ground. There's no room for toleration.
The one side can't tolerate the other side. Christ either actually
saved when he died. He actually completed the salvation
of everybody he died for or what he did didn't do anything for
anybody. It just makes salvation available. But what's important
is what you do with him. It's either or. God's grace is either It either
saves or it doesn't. It's either irresistible or it
can be resisted. God's people either are preserved
by God's grace or they can fall away and perish. You see these,
what I'm talking about here is there's no in between. There's
no toleration. Now somebody says, that may be
true. You may believe that, but do
not imply or say that somebody that does not believe that is
not saved. Don't say something like that.
You need to be tolerant of other people's beliefs and other people's
positions. Don't say because somebody doesn't preach that
he doesn't preach the gospel. You need to be tolerant. I'm
sure they were thinking the same thing about Christ at this time
when he took that whip and drove those people out of the temple.
How self-righteous. Who do you think you are doing
something like that? And this was at the very beginning
of his ministry. Now three years later, this was
the straw that broke the camel's back. He did this again three
years later, and this was just a couple of days before his death,
when he came into the temple and drove the money changers
out once again. Now, he'd had numerous murder
attempts against him. Turn to Luke chapter four. This
was at the beginning of his public ministry. Verse 16. And he came to Nazareth,
Luke 4, 16, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.
And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me. to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he
gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of
all that were in the synagogue were fastened on him And he began
to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your
ears. And all bearing witness and wondered
at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said,
is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, you will
surely say unto me, this proverb, physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever
we've heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in
his own country. But I'll tell you the truth.
Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, with great famine was
throughout all the land, but unto none of them was Elias sent,
save unto Sareptar, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow. Now, interesting. He could have said, God is sovereign,
and they would have said, amen. But he gave an illustration.
There are a lot of widows in Israel, and God passed every
one of them by and made himself known to a Gentile. And that's
what's taking place here. God's passing you by. Go on reading,
verse 26. Verse 27, And many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and none of them
were cleansed, save a Naaman the Syrian, a Gentile. And all
they in the synagogue, when they had heard these things, were
filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city,
and led him into the brow of the hill whereon their city was
built, that they might cast him down headlong. They were going
to put him to death. But he passing through the midst of them went
his way. Now, I believe that this event
of him casting these people out of the temple brought all the
religious leaders together, united in their desire to destroy him
and put him to death. Now, turn to Matthew's account
in Matthew chapter 21, verse 12. Matthew 21, 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 money changers, 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, previously
in the first of the Lord's coming in the temple, at the first of
his public ministry, he said, make not my father's house a
house of merchandise. But here he gets stronger. He's
stronger here than he was the first time. He says, notice,
he says, and I love this. He said, in them it is written,
my house shall be called the house of prayer. Notice, he didn't
say my father's house. He said my house. My house, this
is my house. My house shall be called the
house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves, a place
to buy and sell and make a profit. You made it a place of works.
Now let's consider, this is the main thing I want us to think
about. My house is a house of prayer. My house is a house of prayer. Do you know that most people
have never prayed? Now they might have gone through
the motions of something that they call prayer. You remember
the Pharisee in the temple. He stood and prayed, the scripture
says, thus with himself. He thought he was praying, but
he wasn't. Listen to the words of his prayer.
God, I thank thee. He gave God the credit. I thank
thee that I'm not as other men are. His religion was a religion
of comparing himself to somebody else. I've said this before, I don't
see any difference between saying that and saying, there go I,
but for the grace of God. You're comparing yourself to
somebody else. We've all said that, but that's comparing myself
to somebody else. At least I'm not like that. I
know it's by grace, but I'm not like that. Oh, is that so? Is
that so? Are you by grace better than
that person? I thank thee that I'm not as
other men are. Well, listen to this. When, after
Paul, was knocked off his high horse. And God is sending Ananias
to Paul. He says, behold, he prayeth. He never had before. Oh, he'd
gone through the motion many times, but now he prays. A house of prayer. Now, most people's prayers are
not prayers at all. They are bargaining with God,
negotiating with God. If you do this, I'll do that. If you do this, I'll quit doing
that. Oh, if you'll forgive this sin,
I'll never commit it again. If you have mercy on me, I'll
start doing better. I'll start doing my best. I'll
stop this sin and I'll start giving more and I'll start praying
more and I'll start trying to be more holy and more obedient.
If you do this, I'll do that. Now that's what's called bargaining
with God. That's not prayer. God is not,
he doesn't negotiate. He doesn't bargain. That is not
Prayer. That is a religion of personal
gain. Just like these fellas in the
temple selling the shekel of the sanctuary. Selling sacrifices. They were making profit. They
were making gain out of this. That is not prayer. That's a
religion of personal gain and it's offensive to God. Prayer. Now remember he said my house
should be called a house of prayer. Prayer is asking God to do for
you what you cannot possibly do for yourself and that you
don't even have the potential to do for yourself. Now that's
what prayer is. Have you ever prayed? Have you ever prayed? And when you pray, You're not
trying to pay him to do things for you. You're not making resolutions. You're praying before an absolutely
sovereign God. You see, true prayer is worship. It's worshiping God for who he
is. It's not dictating to him what to do. You're asking him
for things, but you're not telling him what to do. Here is prayer. Now here's real prayer. You wonder
what prayer is? Behold, a leper came and worshipped him. He worshipped him for who he
was. Now this has got to be settled
first. In true prayer, this is what's got to be settled first.
Worship. You only worship an absolute
sovereign whose will must be done. You're in his hands, he's
not in yours, and whatever he does is right, and you worship
him for who he is. And until that issue is settled,
forget prayer. Worship. Behold, there came a
leper and worshiped him. saying, Lord, oh, he acknowledged
the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ. Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean. I can't make myself clean. You
don't have to make me clean. You're the Lord. But if you will,
You know, he didn't have any doubt about the Lord's ability
to do it, did he? If you will, you can make me clean. Now that's worship. That's prayer. He said, my house shall be called
the house of prayer. It's people who can't do anything
for themselves, asking the Lord to do for them which they cannot
do for themselves. Here's prayer. Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. Now, when you pray for mercy,
you're saying, I'm guilty. I'm guilty as charged. I've got
nothing to bring to the table. Have mercy on me. Here's prayer. Lord, he whom
thou lovest, is sick. I'm not telling you what to do.
I wouldn't presume to do that. But he whom thou lovest is sick. Here's prayer. Lord, my servant lieth home sick of the palsy
Grievously tormented. He didn't tell him what to do. He
just left it there. And the Lord said, I will come
and heal him. And the Lord said, and the man
said, Lord, I'm not worthy to come under your roof. I'm not worthy to have you come
with me. I understand something about
authority. I have servants. I say unto this one, go, and
he goes. To another, come, and he comes. Another, do this, he
does it. I know who you are. All you have
to do is speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. Lord, speak the word only. That's
prayer. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with a devil. He answered her, not a word. But she kept 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 for everybody. You know what she said then? Then
came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, now here's prayer.
Here's prayer. You want to know what prayer
is? Lord, help me. Help me. I can't help myself.
Nobody can do anything for me. Lord, help me. And he said, it's not me. It's
not me to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And
she said, that's the truth, Lord. Actually, if ever I heard the
truth, that's it. I know I'm a dog, but I'm your dog, oh Lord. I'm not asking for a place sitting,
but I'd be awful grateful for any of the crumbs of your mercy
that might come my way, because the dogs eat the crumbs that
fall from the master's table. I'm a dog, but I'm your dog,
and I'm looking for your crumbs. And you know how the Lord replied?
He said, woman, great is thy faith. Here's my favorite prayer. Peter is walking on the water. Then he takes his eyes off the
master and looks at the wind boisterous. And he begins to
sink. And he cries out, Lord, save
me. And that is prayer. Lord, save me. His house is called the house
of prayer. And they had made it a den of
thieves. Now, prayer is asking God for
mercy. Prayer is asking God for grace. Prayer is asking God for forgiveness. is asking God for a new heart. Lord, I need a new heart to believe. I need a new heart to repent. I need a new heart to love. My heart is no good. I need a
new heart. Prayer is asking God for grace,
for obedience. It's asking him to do for you
what you cannot do for yourself and don't even have the potential
to do. My house. I love the way the Lord said
that. My house shall be called the house of prayer, and you
have made it a den of thieves. Now, prayer is petitioning the
sovereign. True prayer is true worship. You can only worship a sovereign. Do you believe that? You can only worship an absolute
sovereign. Now Mark's account says, he suffered
no man to carry a vessel through the temple. Now what this is
referring to is the courtyard of the temple. It was, as I can
best read by hearing the descriptions of it, the courtyard was 600
feet wide, two football fields, and there was a lot going on
in this courtyard. That's where these money changers had set
up their tables so when you entered into the temple, you could buy
the shekel and you could buy the animal sacrifice for the
Passover, and there was all kinds of clamor and noise going on,
and people would use The courtyard, I mean, instead of going all
the way around, they made a shortcut through it to get to somewhere
else. Now, what's the point? There are no shortcuts or bypasses
in the gospel. They were using the temple courtyard
as a shortcut to get somewhere else. There are no shortcuts
in the gospel. I'm to believe all he says and nothing but what he says.
There's no adding to or taking away things of the gospel. And
Mark's account says people were astonished at his doctrine. You know, the people were really
actually impressed with this at this time. Now they would
later be over, I think maybe many of these same people would
be crying out because of the influence of the chief priests
and scribes crucifying him. But the people were hanging on
his words when they saw him treat the religious big shots of that
day this way. They saw him kick them out and
they loved it. They were attentive, and this
is what caused the Pharisees to be so upset, and this is what
caused them to unite together. This was the last act that said,
we've got to get this guy out of business. He has no right
to do this. We need to put him away. And
this is what unified all their efforts in killing him. This
is the event that ended up leading to his crucifixion. And he knew
that he would be crucified within just a few days, but the chief
priest got together and said, this is it. We will not tolerate
this anymore. Look once again in Matthew chapter
21 of Matthew's account, 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 money changers 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 look at this, um, add on here of, um, Matthew. I'm so happy for this verse. And the blind and the lame came
to him in the temple, and he healed them. Now not only
do we have The Lord kicking out these money changers, and these
men trying to make a profit, and these men trying to make
a shortcut. Oh, the Lord, same thing as the
sin of Jeroboam, making things more convenient. He kicked out
these people. But in the midst of all this,
we have this special demographic who comes to Him, the blind and
the lame. The blind. What's a blind man? He's somebody who cannot see. He cannot see why God would ever
have mercy on him. He can't see why God would ever
have favor toward him. He can't see. He can't find one
reason why God would look in favor his way. He doesn't argue
with the Gospel. He doesn't find fault with God's
absolute sovereignty and salvation. He really can't see. Why would
He ever look my way, mercy? He can't see. They're lame. They can't walk. They can't walk. They'd like to, but they can't.
They're unable to walk. Unable to walk in God's commandments. Unable to come to Christ. They're
lame. They can't move. They're lame. What's the scripture say? The
blind and the lame came to him. The blind were led to him by
grace. The lame were carried to him
by grace. And you know what the scripture
says? He healed them. If you're blind, That's a good
place to be. You know, the Lord said in John
chapter nine, for judgment, am I coming to this world that they
would see not might see and that they would see might be made
blind. Now, if you can see why God would
save you, I mean, after all, I've done this and I've done
that. I've turned my life around. I can see why it saved me. You've
been blinded. If you can't find one reason
in yourself as to why he would look down in mercy upon you, he's healed you. If you're able to get to him,
you can walk. Not a good place to be. But if
you're lame, he's healed you. Says he healed
him. He healed him. How did he heal
him? Through his own self. Bear our
sins in his own body on the tree. By whose stripes you are healed. Now, if you're blind, and you
can't see why he would save you, let me tell you why he will.
Simply because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. No other
reason is needed. If you're lame, let me tell you
why he'll save you. Simply because of the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all that is needed. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not freely give
us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? Listen to this answer. It's Christ
that died. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. I think it's amazing at this
time of judgment, driving out the money changers. They ought
to have been driven out, shouldn't they? Driven out, excuse me. But the blind and the lame came
to him. and he healed them. Let's pray
together. Lord, how we admire how we admire thy son. And Lord, he is the house of
prayer And Lord, we come in his name, praying that you would
do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves, that you would
make us righteous before thee, that you would put away our sin,
that you would give us faith, that you would give us repentance,
that you would give us love to yourself, that you would give
us a new heart, new eyes to see, new ears to hear. Lord, take
your word and bless it for your glory and for our good. In Christ's
name we pray.