Judgment is Falling

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. For your presence this morning and for your faithful commitment to gather with the Lord's people every Sunday.

Every Sunday it's such an honor to be able to come into this place built specifically for the worship of God.

And I'm so thankful every Sunday for our committed members who love to serve and love to give, who love to sing and study and love to open our Bibles and ask the Lord to teach us by the Holy Spirit through His Word.

You are such a great blessing and encouragement to my own soul. Just a couple of quick thoughts. You can be finding Mark chapter 11.

I want to remind you of just a couple of things. One is our church. Many of us are reading through the Bible this year. And we have a reading plan that many of us are using.

And if you are doing that with us, let me just encourage you to press on. We have made it about five weeks, close to six weeks now. And I want to encourage you to remain committed, remain faithful to the study and the reading of God's Word.

I want to also say if you're not doing that with us, and you're still wishing you had something that every day was organized for you to know what to read in God's Word, it's not too late to jump in.

The fact that it's the middle of February and you might be tempted to think, well, I have to jump in. I've missed a little bit. Just jump in with us. If you've not been able to be with us reading so far, just jump in.

And we've got handouts at the Ministry Connection. Our reading plan is online on our church website. And I would love to encourage you, even if you've not done any of it yet, just jump in today.

Just pick up February. Start with day 11. And jump in and read the rest of the year with us. I want to also just remind you, if you're new with us, every day there's 25 readings a month.

Each day I'm recording about a 12 or 15-minute teaching video just walking us through what we've read, looking at some observations from the chapters, looking at some application from every day's reading.

And I put that out there each morning. That's on my personal Facebook page. You can follow that video. We also put that on our church website. Wherever you get podcasts, it's also through the Bible.

You can get that podcast. It's got those each day. And just be aware, if that would be an encouragement to you, to think about the reading. If your family is going through that together, you can use that as a part of your family devotion time.

And watch or listen to those daily teaching videos. And help your family have some discussion and conversation about what you've read. But if that would be a help for you, I want to just remind you about that.

It's not the kind of thing where you either jump in January 1st or you just forget it for 12 months. All right? Jump in with us today. And one of the great things is when you do that, you know what you're reading that day you wake up.

You don't have to wonder about it. You don't have to try to find what you're going to study. It's laid out for you. And you can have an organized time in the Word each day. Also, I want to remind our ladies that are here, and this is for children, teenagers, and our adults, that our next Ladies' Night of Theology is one week from this Tuesday.

It will be on Tuesday, February 20th from 630 to 830. We meet here in the sanctuary. That's open for any lady of any age.

We typically have 400 or so ladies from our church and other churches who come and join us. And so, I want to encourage you ladies, if you've never been, put that on your calendar.

Make plans to join us one week from this Tuesday. We start right at 630. We go for two hours and just study through different elements of systematic theology.

We have a great time and just want to encourage you to come if you've never been. I would also love to encourage you to invite friends of yours to come who may enjoy an evening dedicated to just the deep study of God's Word.

It's one of the things the Lord has blessed among us. And as the Lord allows us to be an encouragement to our own ladies and ladies of other congregations to help them strengthen their own church, we're excited to be able to do that.

So, make note of that one week from Tuesday. I would love to see many of you here that evening if you're able to. We are in our study through the Gospel of Mark in chapter 11.

We began last week what we know as the Passion Week. It's that last week in the life of Jesus leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection.

We looked last week in verses 1 to 11 at the triumphal entry. Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem. We are now just a few days away from His crucifixion.

And the text that we looked at last week told us in verse 11 that He entered Jerusalem and He went into the temple and that He looked around at everything.

It's really quite an eerie statement. The place of worship, the home of their worship was there at the temple and it should have been a place of great worship and holiness and sobriety.

And instead, it had become an absolute disaster. And Jesus goes to the temple and He looks around and He just takes it in.

He looks at the heartless, godless, so-called worship taking place. He looks at the thievery. We'll look at that in a few moments in detail that's taking place.

He looks at the spiritual leaders and shepherds who are supposed to be leading and serving and guiding the people instead that are now taking advantage of the people.

And He takes it all in. It was late and so He's going to look at the scene. He's going to retreat for the evening to sleep knowing He is going to soon come back to the temple and He will deal with all that is taking place.

Well, today that time has come. He goes back. Verse 12 says, On the following day when they came from Bethany, He was hungry.

And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if He could find anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

And He said to it, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And His disciples heard it. And they came to Jerusalem.

And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

And He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And He was teaching them and saying to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?

But you have made the den of robbers. And the chief priests and the scribes heard it And were seeking a way to destroy Him.

For they feared Him. Because all the crowd was astonished at His teaching. And when evening came, they went out of the city.

And as they passed by in the morning, They saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to Him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered.

There are really two scenes that take place that we look at this morning. One is with the fig tree. And the other is in the temple.

So we'll look at the text this morning with two main headings. First, the picture of judgment. The picture of judgment.

We see that here in verses 12 to 14. The story begins here in verse 12. On the following day, Jesus has ridden in triumphantly on what we know is that triumphal entry.

He ran to Jerusalem, looked around the temple, went back to spend the night. It's now that following day. And it says that He was hungry.

Just a picture of His true humanity. Jesus Christ is truly God. He is truly man. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if He could find anything on it.

Now, this story of Jesus cursing the fig tree is often confusing and often misunderstood. Let me see if I can help you understand because this is a very important picture that takes place here.

Fig trees are everywhere in this part of the world. They could be as high as 20 feet. You read about Him in the Old Testament in the land, in the book of Numbers, in the book of Deuteronomy.

Nathaniel is sitting under the shade of a fig tree in the New Testament. So, Jesus is hungry. He sees a fig tree. And so, He wants to go and get something to eat.

But the verse tells us that when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. Just a little bit of background here.

The winter crop of the fig trees would ripen in May or June for their figs. Summer figs would ripen a little bit later in August and September.

As this takes place, it's April. So, you don't have figs on the tree yet. And they shouldn't be there yet. It's still a couple of months away from where you would find the fully ripened figs on the tree.

So, what is going on? And why is Jesus so upset at this fig tree? And what is the significance? Why would it be included? This is a very important part of the life of Jesus.

He's had His triumphal entry. He's about to cleanse the temple. You're soon going to hear His final teaching to His apostles. You're going to have His trials. You're going to have His arrest.

You're going to have His crucifixion. And you're going to have His resurrection all in the next several days. Why this seemingly strange inclusion of a fig tree?

Well, one of the things we know is that while they would ripen about two months after this time period, in February, what you would have on the fig trees in that land would be this small outcropping of fruit that would begin to appear on the tree.

It was called a pagim. It was edible. It was just a small knob of the fig fruit. And it would appear it should have been there.

Further, these baby buds on the tree would typically appear before the leaves. These small little buds would appear.

Then the leaves would appear. And then the fully ripened figs would appear. It wasn't time yet for the fully ripened fruit. But there should have been something there.

The pagim should have been there. We know that not only because of the calendar, but because the text tells us all the leaves were there. And if the leaves were there, the pagim should have been there.

Jesus uses this tree as a picture of something greater.

Verse 14, he said to it, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. He curses the fig tree. We know that he does that because in verse 21, they're passing by and Peter says, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered.

So the next time they pass back by the tree, Peter makes note of that tree. It had the leaves. And after Jesus cursed that fig tree, the leaves have all withered.

Now, what is this a picture of? This is very important to understand. In the Old Testament, Israel at times is described as a fig tree.

The purpose of the nation of Israel was they should have been displaying fruit of genuine worship. Instead, what Jesus has seen the day before when he went to the temple is he saw a group of people at the temple with all outer appearance, but no genuine fruit.

Like the fig tree, the people at the temple had lots of decoration. The fig tree had all kinds of leaves on it.

From a distance, the fig tree looked healthy. It looked like it was doing what it was supposed to do. If you stepped back and just looked at the tree, what you saw was a lot of outer appearance.

But upon closer examination, while you had the outer appearance, you had no fruit. Jesus uses that as a picture of the nation of Israel.

He had gone to the temple, and from a distance, you had the people gathered there at the temple. You had the people talking. You had the religious leaders present.

You had people preparing for sacrifice. From a distance, everything looked healthy. But upon closer inspection, the people at the temple, the nation, had no spiritual fruit.

Lots of decoration. Lots of ceremony. Lots of symbolism. But no substance.

The fig tree that Jesus curses here is a picture of Israel. A tree bearing only fruitless religion.

That's the picture. All leaves. No fruit. All symbol. No substance.

It was a picture of having no genuine heart for God. So Jesus is on his way to the temple, and he uses this fig tree here as a lesson of the spiritual condition of the nation.

Like the tree, the nation is all leaves, no fruit. The appearance of God. The appearance of Godliness with no genuine heart of repentance.

Now there is a very important lesson for us this morning. Yes, God is a God of grace, but he also is a God that displays judgment.

And God, through the work of his son, has been exceedingly gracious to the nation, but his patience has run out.

And judgment is falling. Psalm 1826 says, with the purified, you show yourself pure, and with the crooked, you make yourself seem tortuous.

The question is, is it good news or bad news that Jesus has come to town? Well, it depends, right? If you're a genuine worshiper, what could be better?

What could be sweeter? For Bartimaeus, the blind man, when he heard Jesus was passing by, it was the greatest day of his life.

Because he believed in Christ. He had heard who Jesus was, and he trusted in him. And when Jesus passed by, Bartimaeus says, this is my day.

This is the greatest day of my life, because the Lord is passing by. But for those in the temple, those going through the motions, those going through religious routine with no genuine heart for repentance, the Lord shows himself in judgment.

And so the fig tree is a picture of judgment. That's number one. Number two, the place of judgment.

The fig tree was a picture of it, but the temple is the place of judgment. Now just a little bit of background here, because as Jesus enters the temple, you need to know a little bit of, of just the story behind the temple, so you can fully understand in context, why this land, this place mattered so much.

Abraham is called to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah. That's back in Genesis around 2000 BC. A little bit later, God gave Moses instructions how to build a tabernacle, this traveling tent.

It's around 1400 BC. It's where God would meet with his people, and he revealed his glory in the midst of the people. First Chronicles 21, David purchases Mount Moriah.

He wants to build God a permanent house, not just the traveling tabernacle, but a permanent house. David's not allowed to do that, the Bible says, because he's a man of blood, and so it's going to be Solomon who is going to build this permanent house, this first temple.

It's completed in 1 Kings 6, and now we have a place known as the temple there on Mount Moriah. About 300 years later, the Babylonians come to town under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar, and they're going to destroy Jerusalem and Judah and the temple, and the Jewish people are going to be taken out into exile, out of their land, over to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians are going to be defeated by the Medo-Persians. A Medo-Persian king named Cyrus decrees that the Jewish people can go back to their homeland, which they go back in three different waves.

When they go back, they begin to rebuild the temple, and then they stop. And about 16 years later, under the leadership of a prophet named Haggai, a prophet in your Old Testament, he calls the people to rebuild the temple.

He says, you have let the temple lie in ruins. This is the place of worship. This is the Lord's house, and you have stopped rebuilding the temple, and you've gone back, and you're rebuilding your own homes.

You're rebuilding your own businesses, but you're letting the house of the Lord lie desolate. So, in 520 BC, the people begin to rebuild the temple.

The older people are discouraged, though, because they know what the temple used to be like. And as they begin to rebuild it, they begin to talk about how the former temple was so glorious and so grand, how it was the pride of the nation, and there's no way they're going to be able to rebuild it and make it anything like it used to be.

Through the discouragement, they continue to build the temple, and in the year 516, the temple is completed. Fast forward a few centuries to the time of Jesus.

Herod takes that temple and begins to renovate it. He overhauls it. A majority of the work is completed in about a decade, but they continue to tinker with it all the way up until about 63 or 64 AD.

Then, in 70 AD, the temple is completely destroyed. Let's go back to the text here. Verse 15.

And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple. There's probably as many as a quarter of a million people that are there at the temple.

As many as two million Jewish people have come into town for Passover. You were to stay in the city, but so many people came in that lodging was a problem, and so they were spilling outside of the city into the surrounding cities.

It was basically a tent city for a season of time with so many people who have come into town. And Jesus goes to Jerusalem, and he entered the temple.

There's a reason why he went to the temple. Because this is his domain. This is his father's house. And you judge a people, you judge a nation by who they worship and how they worship.

And the heart of their worship was the temple. So Jesus goes to the temple, living out the words of Psalm 69, 9, for zeal for your house has consumed me.

And what does Jesus find? The text says he began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

This is what we refer to as Jesus cleansing the temple. And this is the second time he's done this. In John 2, at the start of his ministry, he does this.

Three and a half years later, it happens again. Two specific things that Jesus observed that he's going to put a stop to.

One is what's referred to as the money changers. Let me walk you through what the money changers did. People would go to Jerusalem for three annual feasts.

In the spring, you went for Passover. In the summer, you went for the Feast of Weeks. In the fall, you would go for what was called the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of the Booths.

In addition, every Jewish male age 20 and older had to pay an annual temple tax. It was a half shekel at Passover, equivalent to about two days of working wage for them.

It supported the priest, and it supported all the work of the temple. Now, what you have to understand is at this time in history, there were a number of different currencies that were being used all out and around.

You had Greek, you had Roman currency, you had Tyrian, Syrian, Egyptian, all different kinds of currency that was used. Most of the money in the first century was Roman currency.

The Roman currency had an image of Caesar on it. This was highly offensive to the Jewish people. So, the rabbis said you could not use Roman currency in the temple.

You would exchange it for Jewish coins or for Tyrian coins. You had to exchange them. The money changers' role was to take your currency that was not allowed to be used in the temple, and they would exchange it for currency that was allowed to be used.

The problem was what they were doing is cheating the people. Instead of giving a fair exchange, currency for currency, they were giving you, so to speak, pennies on the dollar.

You had people who were running this whole event. And so, just to put it in our common day vernacular, suppose that you came to Mustang and you had to have U.S. currency, and so you had currency from another country, and instead of giving you a fair exchange, we would give you a quarter for 50 cents.

And you were being ripped off. But we're getting rich off of it. Well, that's what's happening at the temple. These money changers are taking your currency and exchanging it so that you could do business within the temple, but they're not giving you a fair exchange, not a fair return.

Annas, the former high priest, still the most influential religious man around, he is the one who's running this whole thing. This whole thing is known as the Bazaar of Annas.

He's getting filthy rich. Those underneath him are getting rich. You've got as many as two million people who have come into town.

There's all kinds of money exchanging going on. And if they're ripping off every single person, those at the top of the pyramid scheme are getting extremely wealthy.

That's one thing that Jesus observes. A second thing are the animals being sold for sacrifice. The way that would work is you were required to have animals to sacrifice.

Now, you could bring your own. There's a couple of problems with that. One is however far you're making the journey, you're having to make the journey with your animals. You've got to keep up with them, clean up after them, feed them, make sure they're okay.

That's one problem. It's very inconvenient. A second problem was there were inspectors that were set up there at the temple. And if you brought in your own animal for sacrifice, one of the inspectors would look it over because the animals for sacrifice had to be without blemish.

Now, you could guarantee that if you brought your own animal for sacrifice, that those inspectors were going to find something that they would say disqualifies it from being used for sacrifice.

And if they reject your animal, you're going to have to get a new animal. Now, it just so happens these same people have animals there that you can purchase for sacrifice.

They would sell livestock and all the materials needed there for the sacrifice at huge inflated prices. If you couldn't afford a lamb, the law provided that you could sacrifice a pigeon, which is what the text mentions.

So, the pigeons would have been sold specifically to the poor. But the pigeons were being sold for 15 times what they should have been.

To give you a sense of that, it would be like if somebody drove into town and inspectors were set up and they said you can't drive a car with gasoline purchased from out of town.

You have to purchase our gasoline. The good news is we have a gas station right here for you. But they were selling the pigeons for 15 times the price, which means a gallon of gasoline, to put it in that perspective, would be $45 a gallon.

So, you come into Mustang, our inspectors say, you can't use gasoline purchased from out of town, you've got to purchase our gasoline, go to this gas station, $45 a gallon.

That's what Jesus saw. This place that was supposed to be a place of worship and reverence has become a place of absolute thievery.

As many as 250,000 people at one time would be there in this court of the Gentiles. It's about 35 acres. Those who have been on our trips to Israel with us, we've been right up in that area.

You go up the southern steps, the very steps Jesus would have walked, the very steps are there today. You go up the southern steps and you go on the other side there at the court of the Gentiles and it would have been this just sea of humanity where all of this is taking place.

As one man put it, it would be like if the, of a farm and the New York stock exchange merged into one place. That's a good picture to describe it.

If you've ever seen a picture of the New York stock exchange, all the noise, all the traffic, all the people, all the buying and selling and exchanging, all the chaos of that, add to that a farm with all the animals.

Everyone crammed into one very crowded place because of all the people who have come in and it's an absolute disaster. And so Jesus looked at the fig tree and said, this is a picture of the heart of the nation.

But the place of judgment is here at the temple. So back to verse 15, he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. Don't think in your mind of a very small confined place.

This is a very large place. this is acres and acres and acres and acres and acres and acres of land and people all surrounding the temple complex.

This is as many as a quarter of a million people who are in this area. If you go to an OU football game, it's 83,000 people. So it would be the equivalent of about three football stadiums full of people.

This is a mass of humanity with animals everywhere, with money changers everywhere, with buying and selling everywhere, with the sound and the noise of conversations and animals everywhere, and Jesus shuts it down.

This is a staggering display of authority. How could one person get in a place and speak up so much that a quarter of a million people just stop, and then all the people doing business just cease so much so that nobody is even able to walk from side to side.

He shut it all down. Why? Because the religious leaders, as one author put it, should have been praying for the people, and instead they were praying on the people.

Like the fig tree, all the leaves were there. All the leaves were there.

All the adornment was there. All the outer appearance was there. But no fruit. No heart.

No repentance. no true worship. In verse 17, he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.

Now make note, when Jesus says this, he's quoting from Isaiah 56 verse 7. In the Old Testament, 700 years ago, the prophet speaking for the Lord said, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the people.

So make note of three things. One, the temple is God's house. That's first and foremost. This is God's house. Second, the Jewish people were supposed to be a light to the nations.

God's salvation did not terminate with them. They were to be a light to the nations, but the people have a Jonah attitude. Remember Jonah in the Old Testament? Why did he not want to go to Nineveh?

Because he said, I knew that you were a God of mercy. I knew if I went and preached to these people that you would be merciful and that they would come to faith in you.

And Jonah did not want the foreign nation to come to faith. And what's happened in Jesus' day are the people of God have taken God's house and defamed it, and they have taken what was supposed to be a light to the nations, and they have ceased to shine the light, so much so that thirdly, the leaders were now considered as thieves in God's eyes.

eyes. When Jesus speaks, they're hearing Isaiah 56. They're also hearing Jeremiah 7, 11, that says, has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?

house. So, Jesus shows up, and he shuts the whole thing down. The people who were robbing the people by taking so much money and the money changing, he shuts it down.

Flips the tables over, drives them out. Takes the people who were selling animals for sacrifice, shuts it down.

Nobody can move, nobody can get through, he drives them out. And he leans on the Old Testament here because this is a word the people would know, and he reminds them of the words of Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7, and says, you've taken my father's house, and you've made it a den of thieves.

What is a den of thieves? A den of thieves is a place where robbers would gather together and they would feel safe because they're all thieves.

If in our city we had a group of four or five or six people who were all thieves and they were going to break in and steal, after they break in and steal from people's homes and businesses, they don't go spend the night at the parking lot of the police station.

Where do they go? They go to a house where it's only thieves that are there because anywhere else they would feel like they might get caught. So thieves go to a place of safety with other thieves and Jesus says, you've turned my father's house into a den of thieves, a place where robbers feel safe.

this is a staggering indictment because you would think thieves who were robbing God's people, the last place they would feel safe is at the temple.

Except that's what it's turned into. a fig tree with all the leaves and no fruit.

A place where people comfortable robbing from God find sanctuary.

And Jesus shuts it all down. now not only are those who are running this, not only are they humiliated, they're angry.

Because this is their chance to make money. money. I mean, just to keep it in our vernacular here, you don't get to sell fireworks and Mustang year round.

But two weeks before the fourth, a week before the fourth, the day of the fourth, it's money making time in Mustang.

and the nations come. And they don't pick up after themselves.

And every organization in the world has a trailer. And they're selling their stuff. And if you shut down selling fireworks in Mustang, there's no way to make that money up.

It's now or never. When Jesus shuts it down and drives them out, those at the top of the pyramid say, you're taking my power and you're taking money out of my pockets.

And they won't settle for it. Verse 18, and the chief priest and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him.

He's got to die. He's got to go. They don't want to debate him. They don't want to listen to him.

They don't want a conversation. They want to destroy him. Ironically, look at the rest of verse 18.

They looked for a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

things. Whatever the people believed about Jesus, they could tell he has authority nobody else has. He has power unlike anybody else.

He can do what nobody else can do, and here are these religious leaders who fear him, and so astonished are the people at the authority and the power of Jesus, these religious leaders say, let's kill the man with all the authority.

It's a really foolish thing to do to try to set yourself against the power of the one with all the authority. And when evening came, they went out of the city.

The commotion settles. His words, his power has risen above the rest, and he took the picture of the fig tree to the place of the temple, and he said, this is my house.

This is my place. And all you robbers feel safe because you're a bunch of thieves, and I will show you who has the real authority.

in our day to day, you see something of this. On the one hand, it always blows my mind.

Almost every week this happens. It happened again yesterday. People will send me these clips of things that are happening in churches, the kinds of things that happen, the kind of foolishness and nonsense that takes place in churches, the kinds of things that supposed pastors are saying to the churches, the kinds of things that are taught and said in churches, and you just think to yourself, aren't you afraid the place is just going to explode?

Well, here's the truth. If you have a pastor who's comfortable taking God's glory for himself, he attracts a crowd who's comfortable taking God's glory for themselves, and now everybody's safe.

I can say what I want, I can do what I want, and you say to yourself, why doesn't anyone in that church speak up? Why doesn't anyone in the church say enough is enough? Here's why.

Because where there's a den of thieves, everybody's comfortable stealing what only belongs to God. Happens in our day today just like it happened in their day.

And you say, but they're religious, they're singing songs, and they read a Bible verse. So today. These are highly, deeply religious people.

All the leaves, no fruit. All the ceremony, no heart.

And Jesus says, there is a form of worship that I detest.

The worship of thieves. grace. And he shuts it down. Now, let me remind you that the day before, he was gracious.

But if you thought his patience was his indifference, patience, you just need to read the next paragraph.

The patience gave way to judgment. And my friends, in your own life, rest assured that it may be that you live your life, even though you're in church, you may live your life seeking to take what only belongs to God, seeking to have an outer appearance of godliness, but in your own heart, you're a million miles away from the Lord, and God has been patient.

You're still breathing. But do not take his patience as his indifference. One day, the grace will give way to judgment.

And God will deal severely with those who had the outer appearance, but no heart.

What do we take away for us today? You need to know that God is not fooled by religious activity when the heart is not sincere.

He is not fooled by that. And if you find yourself today in a place where your life has the outer appearance of worship, repentance, but no true heart of repentance, the bad news is the Lord will deal with that.

The good news is God in grace still forgives. God is the greatest thing you could do today is stop the fighting and stop the deception and say, God, you know my heart better than I do.

and I may have fooled those in my family, but I have not fooled you. And I'm asking you to forgive me.

and I want you to know that while Jesus shows his severity in cleansing the temple, in three days he will go to the cross as a payment for sinners.

So, which is Jesus? Is he gracious or does he deal severely? The answer is yes.

To those covered by his grace, he is all grace. To those who reject the gospel, to quote from Psalm 18, he is torturous.

So, the question I have for you today is, will you trust in your works to deceive him?

Or will you repent from your sin and fall on his mercy? Jesus forgives sinners.

sinners. But he is fooled by nobody. This day, turn from your sin.

This day, call upon the name of the Lord. This day, confess your own rebellion and seek the grace and the mercy of the only one who can save.

Jesus went to the temple because he has all authority. and one day, you will stand before him because the same is still true.

Do not meet the Lord face to face apart from having trusted in him for salvation.

Lord, we thank you today for your word. We receive it as strong as it is, as intense as it is, we are grateful for the warning.

And Lord, I pray that you would even this day awaken dead hearts and bring to them spiritual life.

I pray this day for any among us who may be all leaves and no fruit that they would repent and fall upon your grace as we thank you and praise you that you are still a God.

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