I enjoyed looking at this this
morning, the first seven verses or so. I want to begin reading here in
verse 7, and let's read a few more of these verses together.
Maybe read down just through verse 26. Mark chapter 11. And
let's begin reading in verse 7. The Lord has sent His apostles.
disciples out. We saw that this morning. They
brought this colt. Verse 7, They brought the colt
to Jesus, and cast their garments on him, and he sat upon him. And many spread their garments
in the way, and others cut down branches off the trees, and strove
them in the way. And they that went before, and
they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And Jesus entered into Jerusalem
unto the temple. And when he had looked round
about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went
out unto Bethany with the twelve. And on the morrow, when they
were come from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree
afar off having leaves, he came, if haply, if perhaps, he might
find anything thereon. And when he came to it, he found
nothing but leaves. For the time of figs was not
yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of
thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. And
they came to Jerusalem, and Jesus went into the temple, and began
to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew
the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold
us. And would not suffer that any
man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying
unto them, It is written, My house shall be called of all
nations the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of
thieves. And the scribes and chief priests
heard it and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared
him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine. And
when evening was come, he went out of the city. And in the morning
as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance,
said unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou curseth
is withered away. And Jesus answering said unto
them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That
whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and
be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart,
but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come
to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto
you, What things soever you desire when you pray, believe, that
you shall receive them, and you shall have them. And when you
stand, pray, and forgive, if you have ought against any, that
your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your
trespasses. But if you will not forgive,
neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses."
Now this is one of the incidents in the Bible that all four Gospels
record Matthew records it in the 21st chapter of Matthew,
Luke 19, and John 12. But all four of these Gospels
have just a little bit different take on it and shed a little
bit different light on it. So I thought it would be profitable
for me to try to speak something to that for just a minute in
the beginning of this message. All four Gospels affirm to us
that all of these people, those who were coming behind the Lord
and those who were going before Him, were singing praises unto
the Lord as He was riding in Jerusalem on this donkey. Matthew
says this, they were saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And if you do some research on
that, some background, that is taken from Psalms 118 and verses
25 and 26. Often when these people were
praising the Lord, they were quoting certain portions of Scripture,
especially from the Psalms. And Psalms 118-25 says this,
Save us now, we beseech thee, O Lord. And our translators tell us that
that is simply Hosanna. Hosanna. When they said Hosanna,
this is what they were saying. Save us now, we beseech thee,
O Lord. And then the rest of that verse
said, O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Matthew in his
account They quote two more scriptures, two portions of scripture. I
thought this was interesting. In Matthew's account, he said,
all of this was done that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken of in the prophet. And then he quotes a portion
of Isaiah chapter 62, and it says this, Tell ye the daughter
of Zion, behold thy king cometh. That was Matthew's translation
of it. That was a portion of what Isaiah said, but listen
how Isaiah says it. I love it when the Old Testament
quotes a verse, put a verse in there, and then the New Testament,
they often paraphrase it. Both of them are true, but when
you compare it, you always learn something from it. They said
in Matthew, when they were praising him, Tell you the daughter of
Zion, behold thy king cometh. But Isaiah really said, tell
you the daughter of Zion, behold, thy salvation cometh. So that's
what they were saying. Save us, Lord, save us. Behold,
our salvation cometh. Then Matthew quotes the second
portion of that verse in Zechariah 9.9. Thy King cometh unto thee,
he is lowly and riding upon that ash. Now that's Matthew's account.
And then Mark says basically the same thing. He says, Hosanna,
blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. But he
adds something that Matthew didn't say. Blessed be the kingdom of
our father David that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna
to the Lord in the highest. You often see these people, when
they're coming to the Lord or needing His help, they often
holler, have mercy upon me, thou son of David. And they knew that
God had sworn to David of the fruit of His body, He would raise
up Christ to sit on His throne. So this is the greater David.
This is the son of David. Remember when the Lord asked
the Pharisees one time, what do you think of Christ? Whose
son is He? And they said, He's the son of
David. Well, that's who He was. He came out of David's lineage,
David's loin. And then the Lord said, if He's
David's son, why did David call Him Lord? You don't call your
son Lord, do you? And they couldn't answer that
question, but you can answer that, can't you? He's David's
son, but he's David's Lord. He was long before David. He's
David's son according to the flesh, but he's David's Lord. He's the King of Israel. And
Luke gives his account like this. He quotes Psalms 118 and 26. He leaves out verse 25 and he
says this, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And then he adds something. He
says, Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And John, he
quotes both of these Psalms 118 and 25 and 26 like Matthew did,
but he adds something. He mentions something that even
makes this passage more appealing. He said, When Jesus had found
an ass, he set thereon, as it is written, and he quotes Zechariah
9. Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold,
thy King cometh, setting on an ass the foal of an ass." So this
crowd that was going before, were coming after, were shouting
all these different praises to the Lord. And if you go through
here in the Old Testament and the New Testament and put them
all together as I did, you come out with something like this.
Now this is my prayer phrase of all of this, and since most
people have prayer phrases, I'm going to take the liberty to
do that too. And here's what basically it says. They were
following the Lord, looking back at Him on His donkey and saying,
Save us now, we beseech Thee, Lord Jesus, Thou Son of David,
our salvation. that comes in the name of the
Lord, O Lord Jesus, we beseech Thee, send prosperity, save us
now, O Lord. There is peace in heaven and
there is glory in the highest. Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord, and blessed be the kingdom of our father
David that cometh in the name of the Lord. Save us, O Lord,
we beseech Thee. We praise Thee in the highest. Now that's some of the things
that they were saying to the Lord Jesus as He rode in on this
little donkey. And here's the answer. Here's
the answer. to all of their praises and their
prayers and supplications. We beseech Thee, O Lord. And
it comes from Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9. And John quotes
it. And this is the way he quotes it. Fear not, O daughter of Zion. Behold, thy King cometh unto
thee. John changes it just a little
bit. He says, Fear not. Now here's
what Zechariah says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto
thee! He is just and having salvation,
lowly riding upon thine ass. Zechariah says this. Don't fear. Rejoice. He is just and having
salvation. Now why do I emphasize that?
Because there's something important in that little phrase. He is
just and having salvation. Don't be afraid. Why? Because
he meets God's need. He is just and he has salvation. If he'd have said he's merciful
and he has salvation, then we would have said, what about justice?
But he's just, so he meets God's need, doesn't he? God cannot
justify us and forgive us merely on the basis of love and mercy
at the expense of justice. So Zacharias says rejoice and
John says don't be afraid. Why? Because he meets God's need. He's just and having salvation. And then he says don't fear but
rejoice. He is lowly and having salvation. And what does he mean by that?
He meets our need. He meets our needs. He meets
God's need because He satisfies God's justice, God's law. And God can look upon Him and
receive us. And you and I can approach unto
Him, not just because He's just, but because He's lowly. He's
meek and lowly. I was up talking to Gil the other
day. Bless his heart, he's got so
weak. He'll probably last a couple of more days. They say his kidneys
are shut down. But I was talking to him the
other day, and he mentioned about a message that I preached. It
really, really encouraged me. He said, I remember you telling
me that we can't approach them to great men. They won't let
us into their presence. They're too important and we're
nothing. But he said, I remember you telling me, Jesus Christ
is meek and lowly in His heart. And therefore, we can come unto
Him. Because He's that way. That's
what John says here. Don't be afraid, you poor daughters
of Zion. You can approach unto this King.
And I bet you when they saw Him coming on that little old donkey,
they thought, yes, I can approach unto Him. I can. This is the
mighty God and He's just. But look at Him. He's meek and
lowly in His heart. Oh, don't you feel like you can
just go to Him no matter what situation you're in? I mean,
you can just pour your heart out to Him and tell Him all your
troubles and problems and sins and your failures. Why? Because He's like He is. Well,
if He'd have come riding in on that big stud horse, we wouldn't
have approached Him to Him. We couldn't get close to Him
with that big pranching stud running around and jumping. But
on a little donkey, the Savior of sinners coming to me. Oh, ye that labour in our heavy
laden. He meets God's need and He meets
our needs. Therefore, we can not only rejoice,
but we don't have to fear. Something else here in verse
11. You'll notice this in verse 11. When you compare it to verse
15, In verse 11 he says he entered into Jerusalem and he went into
the temple and he looked around and then he left. And it was
the next day in verse 15 that he comes back to Jerusalem and
he cleanses the temple. Now why didn't he go ahead and
cleanse the temple when he walked into it that afternoon? And you
can imagine how it looked as he looked around. He saw these
thieves. He saw them in there with the
cattle and the birds, selling them, all the money changers
set up. He saw all of that, and it grieved his heart. How do
we know that? Because he loved this house,
didn't he? He said, this is a house of prayer in all nations. But
you know, he looked around, he saw all of that, and instead
of acting in haste, as we say, he left there and went to Beth,
and then spent the night and come back the next day before
he cleansed this temple. Now what can you and I learn
from this? I tell you what, we can learn to be patient and long-suffering
just like our Lord was. None of us here are as jealous
for the truth in God's glory as He was. But look how long-suffering
He was. Look how patient that He was.
I tell you, if we start looking around us, you ain't going to
convince me that there aren't some things in this congregation
that's wrong. And you ain't going to convince
nobody here. There's not everything in my house and everything in
your house is not perfect, is it? All of us see things wrong. But if we go to try to straighten
everything out that we see wrong, we're going to create one big
mess, aren't we not? There's an old saying that says
something like, don't put off to Lamar what you can do today.
Well, there's another that ought to be a good saying, too. Don't
do today what you need to put off to tomorrow after you've
prayed about it. If we go to straighten everything
out, well, we may do it, but we'll make a bigger mess in trying
to straighten it. And we've seen people like that,
haven't we? They get so full of zeal, everything
they see wrong and the least thing they see wrong, that needs
to be straightened out. Well, what happens? They get
everybody in trouble. It's better, isn't it, to have
the patience and the long-suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you what, there's a lot
of spouses, men and women, husband and wife, that have said things
hastily and did things hastily. They'd give anything if they'd
have said, man, I wish I'd have waited till tomorrow and prayed
about that. A lot of things children have
said to the parents. Parents said to the children,
and did, they wish, I would have prayed about that. Why didn't
I wait? Why wasn't I patient and more
long-suffering? Brothers and sisters, it's better
to be long-suffering, isn't it? Let something go undone until
you've prayed about it. If our Master did that, how much
more should you and I do that? or something else here in verses
12 through verse 14, I thought was interesting about this passage,
and that was this fig tree on the morrow in verse 12. He
came from Bethany and was hungry. Boy, he was a man, wasn't he?
He was a real man. I mean, he hungered. He was hungry. And he could have
turned stones to bread and ate them. But He laid that aside,
did He not? He laid that glory aside and
took upon Him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of man,
and hungered and thirsted and grew weary, just like you do
and like I do, tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without
sin. And He came and He saw this fig
tree afar off, and it had leaves on it. And He came as perhaps
He might find something on it, and He didn't. He found nothing
but leaves. And he said there in verse 14,
ìDonít let any man eat fruit of thee from hereafter forever.î
He cursed this tree. I never will forget, and if this
wasnít so serious, it would be amusing, but I have chuckled
about it before. We used to get the Muncie newspaper,
and there used to be a ministry. It may still be in Muncie. It
was called the Fig Tree Ministry. I just can't keep them laughing
when I used to read that, the fig tree ministry. Kay Whitehead
was their pastor. And I thought, boy, there's two
things against them, two strikes there. Kay Whitehead was their
pastor. Have they never read, I suffer
not a woman to teach or to usher authority over the man? It's
not lawful, according to God's Word, for a woman to be a preacher,
is it? For her to be a pastor, she should never be that. She's
got her place, and bless God for her. And how many souls have
been won through the testimony of a woman? She's a great help,
and she's not under the man in that sense until it comes to
the pulpit and public preaching. But fig tree ministries. You wonder, you just wonder,
do these people read the Bible? When Adam had sin, And he found
out he was naked. Do you remember he made those
leaves and covered himself? Do you remember what kind of
tree that was? It was a fig tree. When the Lord Jesus told us about
that parable in Luke 13 about the tree that was planted in
the vineyard, and it bore no fruit, and the owner said, pluck
it up, it's just covering the ground. What kind of tree was
that? Fig tree. And the only tree that
we know of in all the Bible that the Lord cursed was a fig tree. And why in the world would you
name your ministry, would you put on your bill, fig tree ministry? I just couldn't, I can't understand
that. It's amazing to me. I thought I'd throw that in. Here in verse 20, Boy, look at this in verse 20.
And the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried
up from its roots. Now, you know who this fig tree
represented, first of all? It was the whole house of Israel.
You study Luke's account of this, the parable, or Luke's account,
parallel passage, there in Luke 19, the Lord Jesus He came into
the city. He was up on the hill still and
he looked out over the city. And the Bible says he wept over
it and said, Jerusalem, how often I'd have taken you under my wings
as a chicken does her brood and you would not. Now your house
is left unto you desolate. And then he looks over and he
sees this fig tree. And it's full of leaves but it
has no fruit on it. And he curses it and it's dried
up to the roots. And you know who that is? That's
Israel. after the flesh. There is no life in that place
anymore, is there? It used to be if you wanted to
know about God, who He was and how He saved, you would go from
Ethiopia to Jerusalem or from Rome to Jerusalem. No more. No more. That place is as dry
and dead as this fig tree when the Lord cursed it. And if the
Lord don't graft them in again into Jesus Christ, all they're
ever going to be fit for is just to be gathered and burned. Just
like Hitler did back in World War II, God's going to do to
them at the end if He don't save them. It represents dry, barren,
dead Israel after the flesh. All of us should take heed to
make sure We're not fruitless. That's the second lesson we learn
from this. It's not enough to profess the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's not enough to know His doctrine
and speak of it. If we don't have the fruits of
the Spirit, we're none of His. And we can't fake these things,
can we? We can't fake them. Because He looks on the heart. He knows. Christ knows all things,
and all things are naked and open in His eyes. He searches
and tries the hearts, and He judges according to every man's
work. And if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His, and he does not have the fruit
of the Spirit. And look how far reaching this
curse was. You and I may have thought that
when He cursed this tree, that It would have just continued
until it got old and died. That the leaves would have been
so beautiful, there just wouldn't have been any figs on it. We
didn't know then how far reaching this curse was. But when He cursed
it, how far reaching was that? Was it just to the tree being
barren? No, it reached into the roots,
didn't it? When Christ cursed the barren
fig tree, it reached into the very roots of that tree. John the Baptist said it like
this, the axe is laid unto the root of the tree. He didn't say
the axe was going to chop off the limbs. He didn't say the
axe is going to chop the tree down. He said the axe is laid
unto the root of the tree. I tell you, these warnings, brothers
and sisters, all of us need to take heed to these warnings that
Christ issues. These woes that we sometimes
read in the Because when He comes looking for fruit, He doesn't
look like you and I look. We look at somebody and we see
these beautiful leaves. We see the pretty shape of the
tree. We say, my, what a fine professor
old Bruce is. Look how he preaches. Look how
he studies. But you know something, when
the Lord comes, He pulls back the leaves. He doesn't look for
beautiful leaves or the shape of the tree. He looks for fruit. He looks for fruit. And when
He comes and He finds none on it, here's the dreadful thing,
that He has before said, cursed, cursed. And then what happens? Dries up. Dries up. He cuts them off. That barren
fig tree in Luke 13 that was planted in this person's vineyard,
He said three years. I come looking for fruit on this
tree." Three years. He said, it's just covering the
ground. Cut it down. Cut it down. And the only thing
that saved that tree was the Lord Jesus said, let me dig about
it. Let me fertilize it and see if
it will bring forth fruit. If it does, well. If not, well,
cut it down. Well, there's instructions there
for us, isn't there? That if we have not the Spirit
of Christ, if we don't have the fruit of the Spirit of love and
joy and peace and faith and goodness and long-suffering and patience
and so on, then He knows it. He knows it because He's the
searcher of the heart. And once He cuts it off, it's
gone forever. Well, I tell you, sometimes these
passages like this They're searching to my heart and I imagine they
are yours too. The thing about it, sometimes
you can preach this to barren professors and they don't even
hear it. It's God's little children that get upset and say, oh my
goodness, I don't have a bit of fruit. But be that as it may. Here in verses 15 and verse 16,
this is the second time the Lord had cleansed this very same temple. He came to Jerusalem in verse
15. And he went into the temple and cast out those that bought
and sold in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers,
the seats of them that sold offs. And he wouldn't suffer that any
man should carry any vessel through the temple. Boy, I tell you, if this stuff
was going on in our Lord's day, you and I shouldn't be too discouraged
and despair about what's going on in our day. He came to Jerusalem
several times. He cleansed this temple, and
here it is about three years later or so, and He's having
to do it again. And if this takes place in His
day, don't you think it can take place in our day? It can. But this temple, this second
time here, the first time in John chapter 2, He tells them,
He throws these money changers out and drives the oxen out,
and He says, You've made My Father's house, a house of merchandise. And here He says you have made
it a den of thieves. And He drives them out and cleanses
the temple. And this shows us the importance of this temple.
You and I have no idea because we were not a Jew and we were
not living in the Old Testament. But boy, the temple to them was
valuable. They loved it and rightfully
so because it was a place of God's presence. It is a place
that God dwells. You remember when Solomon built
it, and he offered all those sacrifices, and the Shekinah
glory of God came and filled this temple? And God said, This
is My house. This is where I'll dwell. And
that's why the Lord Jesus was so zealous for it, to defend
it and to cleanse it. But it's got some spiritual lessons
in it too, hasn't it, this temple? You know, first of all, what
this temple signifies? This was the Son of God in His
humanity. Christ incarnate. That was this
temple. In the old temple that they built,
the Shekinah glory of God came down and they saw the glory of
God in that temple. Sometimes it was a cloud, sometimes
it was fire, but it was the glory of God in that temple. Where
do we see the glory of God now? Is it not in Christ? The Word
was made flesh and tabernacled among us? He's God's temple. God is in Him. And in heaven,
it's said that the temple of God is seen there. Who is that? That's Christ, isn't it? Christ
is the temple of God. In His body dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead. But it's more than that even.
It's the church. It's each individual member of
the church. You are the temple of God. Now, that's amazing, ain't it? Paul said, Be careful. Be careful
with your temples, these bodies, because these bodies are the
temple of the Holy Ghost. You find that in II Corinthians
chapter 6 and verse 16. Listen to this. What agreement
hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the
living God, as He has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them,
and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore,
come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing. I will receive you, and will
be a father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters." And
now listen to this, Therefore, having these promises, dearly
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh
and spirit. Perfect in the holiness and the
fear of the Lord. You're the temple. You're the
temple of the Holy Ghost. You're God's temple. And just
as the Lord cleansed this temple, Paul said, Cleanse your temple.
Keep your temple holy. Keep it separate from this world.
Come out from among the idolaters. And so on. Another reason this
temple was so important, the reason the Lord Jesus cleansed
it, He tells us here, and right here is probably just as much
important as anything. My house shall be called the
house of prayer of all nations. Whatever they did during that
temple, offering those sacrifices, that was so important. But you
know the most important thing that took place in this temple
was prayer. Heart, prayer, heart, worship
to God. When it was first built and dedicated,
Solomon built this huge pulpit and he got up on his knees and
spread out his hand and prayed a prayer to the Lord. And they worshipped. They worshipped.
That's the first thing that took place. And when that was left, When the house of God, when the
temple was left as a house of prayer, you know something? Nothing
else mattered. Nothing else mattered. And ain't
it the same way today, brothers and sisters? Whatever else we
do, if we don't have a heart, a heart of prayer and worship
to God, nothing else matters about what goes on in the temple,
does it? There may be rooms in the temple
that need to be cleansed, but the sanctuary itself, if
it's a house of prayer, the work will go on. There may be things in this old body
that we need to bring under subjection, but boy, if the heart is praying
to the Lord. If the heart is seeking the Lord,
the work will go on. But if the sanctuary, if the
holy place, if the heart has become the house of merchandise
and the den of thieves and prayer is lost, then what needs to happen? A
thorough cleansing that only the Lord Jesus Christ can accomplish
Himself. Verses 21, we'll just go a little
bit further and we'll quit. Look in verse 21. And Peter called
it to remember and said unto him, Master, behold the fig tree
which thou cursest is withered away. And Jesus answered and
said unto him, Have faith in God. I love that, don't you?
And the word simply means have a strong confidence in God. in the being of God as He is
revealed in the Word of God. Have a strong confidence and
trust in the Son of God, in the Word of God, in the Gospel of
God, in the promises of God, in the faithfulness of God. Have faith in God. Brethren, cast not away your
confidence which hath great recompense of reward. Hold your confidence
steadfast in God. That's what the Master said.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith in Him without wavering,
for He is faithful. That promised. God is too strong
to fail, is He not? So exercise, live upon faith
in Him who cannot fail. And I tell you, He's too wise
to err. Let your confidence be in Him. And He can't lie, can He? He's
not man, but He should lie. Everything He said, believe it. Put your confidence in Him. Have
faith in God. I love that. I'd just like to
think upon that. If I had one thing to leave with you this
evening, one thought to send you home with, it would be verse
22. the words of Christ. Have faith in God. Go home with that upon your heart
and keep it there all week and see how much difference that
will make in your daily life. You know the problems that we
have and I ain't going into it but you know the problems we
have. We have faith in ourselves. We have faith in our faithfulness.
We have faith in our strength and that's what gets us done.
Look out of ourselves and have faith in Verse 23, Verily I say unto you,
that whosoever shall say in this mountain, Be removed, and cast
into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe
that those things which he said shall come to pass, and whatsoever
he asketh, he shall have whatsoever he asketh. Now, I am just dead
certain He is not speaking here about literal things. And the
reason I say that, we've got 2,000 years now to look back.
I've never seen a mountain. I've never heard of a mountain
flying through the air and landing out in the sea. Have you? So
he must not have been looking at Mount Olives and saying, if
you'll say to this mountain, be plucked up. He must not have
been speaking literally. But there must be some spiritual
lessons learned from this, and what are they? Well, here's a
few. By faith, a mountain of sin and guilt can be removed
from the conscience and cast into the sea, can it not? That's
a mountain I'm concerned about. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him All that believe are
justified. Being justified by faith, justified
from all things, faith can remove the guilt that's like a mountain
and cast it into the sea of God's forgiveness. The heart is purified
by faith, so faith can remove a mountain of heart pollution.
He purifies the heart by faith. It's faith that overcometh the
world. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Christ? That's something I'm concerned
about walking up to and looking at and speaking to and the world
of trouble and trials and heartaches is moved out of my way. You're
concerned about that, aren't you? And the shield of faith
quenches the fiery darts of the wicked one. Somebody said this,
it's by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself
for us that we live our lives. It's by faith we are crucified
with Him and dead to sin and face our mountain of problems
and go through mountains of fiery trials and flooded rivers simply
by faith in the Son of God. We face one mountain after another,
don't we? And we say, Remove. And it's gone. It's gone. And he says here in verse 24,
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when
you pray, believe that you shall receive them, and you shall have
them. And I think we have to add to this, and I think that's
why the Lord gives it in other places, if it's His will. John
said, If we ask anything according to His will, we know He hears
us. We have the competence that He
sure does. But you know, there was different times that His
apostles asked things and they never got it because it wasn't
His will. Paul had a thorn in the flesh.
He said, Lord, remove this. Why wasn't it removed? He said
to you, if you ask, you're going to have it. It wasn't His will.
And sometimes they got pretty amiss in asking things. Lord,
let me sit on your right hand and my brother James sit on your
left hand. He said, you ain't going to have that. It's not
my will. You don't have such a thing.
But when we know His will, and we ask according to His will,
then we've got it. And there's nothing that can
hinder Him from giving it to us. And 25 and 26, we'll quit
on these. When you stand praying, well,
there's different postures in praying. You read in the Scriptures,
sometimes they stood praying, sometimes they knelt praying,
the Lord Jesus lay praying, the thief hung praying. There's all
kinds of different postures, but posture doesn't mean a thing,
does it? It doesn't mean a thing. When you stand praying, or sit
praying, or kneel praying, forgive. And if you have ought against
any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you
your trespasses. But if you will not forgive,
neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. Prayer is a searching thing,
ain't it? I know nothing apart from the Word of God that's more
searching than prayer. How many times have you been
praying and seeking the Lord and your sin come to your mind? That's what that publican was
doing in the temple. He was praying. And boy, his sin come to his
mind. And that's why he cried out, Father be merciful to me
a sinner. Sometimes when you're praying,
you remember what you've done to others. You've sinned against
someone else. A man who has no felt need of
making things right with those he has sinned against will not forgive those who have
sinned against him. Hard prayer will manifest faith
in God. Hard prayer will reveal broken
fellowship with a brother. If you have fellowship, if you
have faith in God, you know one of the ways you are going to
know. You are a praying person. You are a praying person. Have
faith in God. And then He goes right to you
and says, when you pray, when you pray. Faith will manifest. Prayer will manifest faith. And
as you begin to pray to the Lord, boy, you've got all of this stuff
that comes. You've sinned. Lord, forgive
me. Somebody sinned against you. What do you do? What do you do? I mean, they've sinned against
you. They've done you wrong. And here
you are praying. Are you going to harbor that
hard feelings? Are you going to forgive? I tell you what,
we may try to get around verse 26 here, but you can't get around
this verse. You may say, well, yeah, if, but, and. But you know
when the Lord says, if you don't forgive, your Father will not
forgive you. We can't get around that, can
we? And when we're here struggling, and we're upset, and we're grieved,
and we're sort of vengeful against somebody, I tell you, we just
got to stay there until the Lord breaks us and wrings it out of
us. until we from our heart say, Father, I forgive them. I forgive them. Prayer, boy,
I tell you, prayer is a very close, searching, intimate thing. I tell you about a man that came
to me one time and told me, he said, these ladies, he told me
their names, two ladies, he said, this is what they said about
you. Man, you talk about getting upset, I got upset. And I carried
that for probably, I don't know how many weeks. I carried that
for weeks. And he just kept eating at me,
eating at me, eating at me. I wasn't about to go to him.
I was so mad at him. And finally, I know exactly where I was sitting
in my utility room praying one morning. And that was on my mind
and I couldn't pray. And finally I said, Lord, I forgive
him. I forgive him. And you know, come to find out,
they didn't even say it. That fellow was lying to me.
He lied to me. I carried that all that time,
and He lied to me. But isn't it so much better?
And I'm just like you. I have to have grace to do it.
I can't do it either, and you can't either. Let somebody do
you wrong, and it hurts you. You may say, Oh, I forgive them.
But boy, your heart, in your heart, and you go to the Lord,
and you say, Lord, give me grace to forgive. And you forgive them. You absolutely forgive them.
You know something? You've not sinned near against
me like I've sinned against the Lord. Your sin is nothing towards
me as mine has been towards the Lord. And when I consider that,
can I not forgive? And when I consider the price
that was paid for my sin, the blood, the violence that it took
to put my sin away, can I not forgive those who have sinned
against me? Well, we can't, can't we? We
can't. We can't. I hope today's been
a blessing to you. It's been a blessing to me. It's
been a wonderful place to be, from the singing this morning
to all of our Bible study this morning with Brother Larry and
the messages. been so good and I appreciate