In this sermon, Pastor Babij examines Jesus’ cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem and His subsequent teaching as recorded in Mark’s gospel. Pastor Babij explains how Jesus, with His clearing the temple, exposed the Jews’ empty devotion to God. Pastor Babij then discusses how mere religious formality can be a damning danger today also and how Jesus taught His disciples to protect against such hypocrisy.
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okay let’s take our bibles this morning turn to mark chapter 11 and continue on through this great gospel of jesus christ mark chapter 11.
this morning we’re going to be looking at verses 15 through 25 15 through 26 but so let’s look at that let’s pray father this morning as we meet before you again lord it’s a privilege to be able to have the word of god in our hands it’s a privilege to be able to have our ears hear it our minds think on it and lord to be able to do it in still in a land that is fairly safe so lord i thank you for those who are here today i pray that you would open their eyes to see i pray that you would challenge their hearts and i pray lord that you would each give us a desire to examine ourselves to see where we are where we’re where we are at with you lord so we can honestly pray to you and we can honestly confess our sin so lord you will you could be faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us of all our unrighteousness so now lord open this text to us this morning it helps us to understand in christ’s name amen so in this passage of scripture let me just go back from last time i we were in the gospel of mark remember jesus is coming into jerusalem riding on a donkey he comes in as the king of israel the crowd that is gathering not only coming out of jerusalem but coming with him into jerusalem thinks that jesus is going to be a conqueror and topple over the roman government uh and so the crowd really had a mistaken understanding of jesus the messiah his mission and even when the crowd uh cried out hosanna and a hosanna really meant save now they actually had a misplaced understanding and a misplaced joy because they really wanted god to break in and save his people now that the messiah had come so the cro the crowd actually sought the protection of a king would come to conquer israel’s enemies so they did not see this is what the crowd did not see and this is what where satan blinds people is that they did not see that the cross must take place first before there can be salvation before there can be uh joy in the lord see jesus did not come the first time to purge israel a foreign domination but actually he came to purge his people from their sin so the crowd did not see that the sorrow that surrounded the cross they did not see that jesus sacrificial death on the cross would purchase the release from bondage of those many sinners who would believe in him from then till now and even after us and so jesus triumph would come from his death on the cross and his resurrection so in verse number 11 of mark chapter 11 jesus entered jerusalem and came into the temple and after looking around at everything all right so this is what’s going on here entry into the city took place on i said last time sunday afternoon uh when jesus got into the city he went to the temple to look around and he notes abuses that have crept in to the temple and remember the temple is the place where god met uh his people on earth where they were to bring their sacrifices and they were to worship him and pray to him they were to do that at the temple now that later on that sunday afternoon jesus and his disciples headed back to bethany to get some rest and it says in verse number 11 and he left for bethany with the 12 since it was already late uh and then remember i don’t want you to forget this keep in mind that one the last one third of mark’s gospel is the last seven days of jesus passion all right so that’s what’s taking place here from chapter 11 to chapter 16. it’s it’s really talking about seven days and right this setting is in the springtime so it’s uh march april in in that time frame and so now it’s monday and jesus and his disciples are making their way back to jerusalem and we know that early in the morning uh they took off jesus left bethany without having anything to eat and so it says in verse number 12 on the next day when they had left bethany he became hungry and so here mark is not missing any opportunities to give uh really to give the human picture of jesus he definitely was hungry like anybody else would be hungry and his hunger though laid the groundwork for the message last week and the story that was going to be told and from that story of the fig tree and what we’re going to look at today is that there are two warnings that we all need to seriously consider in order to evaluate our present condition all right and so so the review a review of last time is important the lord curses the fig tree in verse number 13.
if you notice seeing at a distance of fig tree and leaf he went to see it if perhaps he would find anything on it and of course remember the fig tree appeared to have signs of fruit on it and so jesus saw the fish fig tree in full leaf which meant possible fruit and remember in this in the sin the springtime at this part of the world this particular fruit tree also produce what they would call in hebrew pagum which is really unripe figs but they’re actually edible you can eat them if there’s full leaves on the tree then you could you can say okay there’s probably something on there i can eat and so the fig tree uh as the jesus got closer to it and examined it he only found leaves and no fruit at all in verse 13 when he came to it that’s what it says he he only found he found nothing on it all at all but leaves and so jesus uh didn’t even find a little immature fruit on it uh he only found uh he found no fruit at all just the leafy fig tree which gave a promise of fruit in order to satisfy hunger but when he gets there it turns out to be just deceptive unfruitful unable to grab uh gratify appetite so what does jesus do he curses in verse number 14 he curses the fig tree and um now we learned from last time that uh you really can’t doubt for a moment that there’s a prophetic and a spiritual lesson to be gleaned from the whole transaction going on here with jesus and so these verses should bring to our attention the first warning which i went over last week and that’s the warning of the great danger of unfruitfulness uh in one’s christian life in someone’s who claims to believe be a believer but has no fruit they just have a lot of leaves uh but they have no fruit now of course prophetically this lesson is about israel israel israel being under god’s condemnation that all of their history was a preparation for the coming of the chosen one and so israel’s teachers should have borne much fruit in preparing the nation to receive the messiah but of course their whole promise uh ended up being tragically unfulfilled because israel was not bearing any fruit for the laying the foundation for the messiah so you see israel from a distance had the promise of fruit which should have borne the most evidence when messiah came into the world providing spiritual nutrition not only for the nation of israel but for the world all the gentile gentile nations that surrounded them and that had contact with them but at close examination there is only a lot of leaves there’s nothing to satisfy spiritual hunger there’s nothing nutritious and valuable to lead anyone to any kind of meaningful relationship with god the curse is on those who claim to be something else who give the appearance of some level of maturity but have no fruit at all those who are barren of all fruits of the spirit having a profession of faith but just full of leafy branches yet without any kind of evidence that there is real life there so there is a warning against an empty profession of christianity accompanied by sound doctrine and holy living that’s called in scripture hypocrisy that you’re just living out something but your heart’s not engaged and i said last time that there must be spiritual fruit in your hearts and of course in the practice of our daily lives if we are going to be convicted and accused of being a real christian the way you get accused of that is by someone seeing your fruit and so i asked the question last time what kind of fruit should i look for well we saw that once a person is born again into god’s kingdom then once they’re born again and the spirit of god lives in them then they’re going to bear fruit that the spirit of god is is actually producing in their life the first thing we saw from john 15 that there’s going to be the fruit of being abiding in christ where jesus says i am the vine you are the branches he abides in me and i in him he bears much fruit but apart from me you can do nothing and then also there’s a manifestation of spiritual fruit of course we know that from galatians the fruit of the spirit is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control against such things there is no law and now those who belong to christ jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires if we live by the spirit let us also walk by the spirit so part of that is looking for the fruit of our words our words are important how we speak the fruit of our actions the fruit of our righteousness the fruit of the fear of the lord the fruit of the love of scripture and continuing to abide in the scripture and in the word of god and then also the fruit of sanctified imagination that our minds our very minds are sanctified by the spirit of god that we would actually think on the right things not the things the flesh wants us to think on or the world wants us to think on or satan wants us to think on but actually what god wants us to think on all right now is that a battle you better believe it’s a battle we are fighting for that every day in fact there’s a passage of scripture in second corinthians that says though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of god and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of christ that’s what we’re doing that’s the fight that we have in our own imagination that we are fighting the fight so we continue to think on the things that we ought to think on and not on other things that would just lead us and drive us into sin also we have to look for the fruit of increased faith the fruit of prayer the fruit of forgiveness the fruit of service and good works burying the bible says fruit in every good work increasing in the knowledge of god in the fruit of souls having the desire to want to take the gospel to those who don’t know it to be saved so see that is the the really something we can measure in our life we can take that the word of god and measure ourselves to see where are we at how conformed are we to the will of god to the character of christ all right to our christian confession to our profession how do we measure up is the really the thing that we ought to be looking at in our life and so that’s where i left you last week and so today sandaged in between cursing the fig tree and the withering fig tree there has found the messianic king jesus clearing the temple in which we pick up the second warning to seriously consider in order to evaluate our present spiritual condition so if you have your bibles let’s continue on in mark chapter 11 verse number 15 and we see here the lord actually i call it uh you’ll you see maybe in the title of the lord cleansing the temple i think it’s more of the lord clearing the temple uh he’s clearing something out he’s clearing out all the obstacles that the nation has have placed there and he’s getting them out of there yes i guess it could be a house cleaning um but what are the lord’s actions in verse 15 and 16 before i read that i want to let you know that this is the sec second temple cleansing the lord when he started his ministry cleansed the temple once this is at the end of his ministry remember the last seven days before he goes to the cross and he’s resurrected so now this is the second temple cleansing in the first cleansing jesus was challenged right away in this cleansing no one dared to confront him and challenge what he was doing see the lord’s actions cannot go unnoticed when he entered the temple and the reason why is that jesus conduct is quite striking jesus comes into the temple as a messianic king of justice now notice what it says in mark chapter 11 verse 15 and 16 it says then they came to jerusalem and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple see in this act jesus comes and wields divine authority as the son of man and acts and really an act that really vindicates his holiness and his justice and he really has not done this in his ministry up until this particular point see the scene took place in what is called in the temple area the stoa the royal stoa that is where the the money changers were located it was an open area it was the largest area in the temple area and it was called the court of the gentiles now that’s really important all right that’s really important about this particular text that these people decided to set up shop in right on the edge of the court of the gentiles now there was necessary two essential things for all worshipers coming to jerusalem and liv that lived in jerusalem now remember this is the passover so the first thing they needed was to secure an animal according to the old testament regulation of sacrifice everybody need to need to do this and even the gentiles who were connected to the nation of israel needed to do this all right they also needed to bring a sacrifice secondly many needed not all but many needed to get their money exchanged so that they can pay their tax when they came to jerusalem now all israelites from 20 years old had to pay attacks usually paid before passover happened so they would come to jerusalem for that purpose too in fact that’s found in exodus chapter 30. uh one passage says there in verse 14 everyone who is numbered from 20 years old and over shall give the contribution to the lord the rich shall not pay more than the poor shall shall nor pay less than half a shekel when they give the contribution to the lord to make atonement for yourselves you shall make atonement the atonement money from the sons of israel and shall give it to the service of the tent of meaning so there in scripture everybody knew that if you were 20 years old and older you had to do this this was this was a requirement so it was either paid in person or if you live too far away from jerusalem you had a relative uh attending the passover and that you would give it to them and they would hand it in for you so see these money changers everybody had to have jewish coins so if you had foreign coinage you had to come and get jewish coinage the shekel and uh a fee was charged by these money changers as high as they say 10 to 12 percent were making the exchange now for your information the temple authorities controlled this business venture which became a lucrative monopoly those who brought animals to the temple area and bought it in the temple area they were guaranteed that their animal would be an acceptable sacrifice if you bought an animal outside of jerusalem into jerusalem there’s a good possibility your animal would be rejected and you would in turn have to buy an animal there all right so they had the people over a barrel and so his actually historian josephus said in a.d 66 now of course this is years later uh not too many years later but in 1866 the the year the temple really was completed the temple wasn’t even completed at this point he recorded this that 600 lambs were sacrificed that passover that’s not including the doves and the other animals so it was an incredible time and he estimated that there were about two million seven hundred thousand celebrants uh that would come to jerusalem for the passover so it was truly truly a incredible event and there was plenty of opportunity to make money so then the court of the gentiles was turned into a common market a stockyard for animals bartering had really been the rule of the day and greed had ruled also noise and commotion the stint the stench that that filled the area from the animals the only place the gentiles could worship god was now taken over by all this of course also showing how israel viewed the gentiles they didn’t view them as important as a people that should be connected to them at all and so that’s all in the thing going on here in the text and so being spiritually fruitless does not mean though that there is no movement or there’s no appearance of life on the surface and that really is the truth spiritually just because somebody is bearing no fruit don’t mean they’re not active in the christian things or in religious things they could be very active in religious things and yet there is no fruit to show that they’re really truly a believer so what happens next well the lord has to give a rebuke and to the people that are doing this in verse 17 notice what it says and he says he began to teach and to say is it not written my house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations but you have made it a robbers then now jesus enforced by his authority a clearing of his father’s house until everything was quiet and orderly as it should be in the house of god for what purpose so people could be taught the word of god when you have all this commotion going on all this money making going on all this business going on all this noise going on no one could be taught anything so the lord brought everything to a place where he halted all their uh ventures that were going on there and he stopped it all because there was not only barrenness on the fig tree this very place the other nations were allowed to meet with god became polluted so this brings me to the second warning and the second warning is this there is great danger and religious formality there is great great danger in religious formality that what i mean by that is doing all the right things without your heart and mind engaged without realizing why you’re doing them you can go through the motions of religious things and give the appearance that you are definitely a christian or you are a child of god and yet there is this great great danger of religious formality see the leaves of religious formality can be often found in abundance in one’s life there may be a lot of activity and appearance of organization spirituality devotion even to god and yet after close and i mean close examination it is found to be just the trappings of formal religion and spiritual barrenness just going through the motions with no heart this is what the lord had the problem with in scripture the most this right here he hated this and that’s why when you read john the baptist malachi the last prophet ends with the hypocrisy of israel when john the baptist comes on the scene what does he bring up the apoc the hypocrisy of israel right they worship me with their mouth but their heart is far from me see god hates hates that and that’s why uh john the baptist said in his day when he prepared the groundwork for the coming of the messiah he said to the scribes and to the pharisees he said therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance and then he said this and don’t you dare say to yourselves we have abraham as our father we’re children of abraham therefore nothing can touch us we’re already in the kingdom of god we’re already in the family of god and john the baptist says no you’re not because already the ax is laid at the root of the tree therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire and he’s speaking to the leadership of israel and he says you guys are a bunch of hip-hop hypocrites you’re all that all you do is you talk a lot you do a lot but your heart is not engaged see that’s a religious formalist and remember this a religious formalist they’re deeply concerned about external things they’re deeply concerned about doing one two and three and usually in that order see they’re deeply concerned about the religious system they usually do not neglect their religious duty but they have no heart they do not come before the lord to express feelings of repentance and a deep sense of sin and of love for god they forget the meaning of the act of worship and the spirit in which it’s to be done jesus is looking for people who are going to be worshiping in spirit and in truth right that’s the kind of people he wants that’s the kind of people the father wants to worship in spirit and truth are of the utmost importance to the lord i would say that it’s right on the top of the list matter of fact the reason why you and i were saved if you are saved is to worship god we could not worship god until we became a believer and so once we become a believer and god’s spirit is in you there must be fruit it may be in mature but there it’s fruit there’s fruit there so see in other words repeated religious routine could be a very deadly thing if it’s not examined and i believe the scripture is asking us to examine ourselves you see their heart got cold and numb though they were unaware of their condition outwardly things seemed to be in order but inwardly things were not right and so jesus himself in the gospel of matthew says again to the scribes and pharisees woe to you you hypocrites so you too outwardly appear righteous to men but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness see the only place the gentiles could worship god was turned into a bazaar which defeated the very purpose of the temple for the gentiles now if you look again at verse number 17 i don’t want you to miss this look what it says there and he began to teach and say to them this is not written my house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations did you see that see the lord was never just for israel he was always for all the nations now israel was his chosen people but for what reason to take his message to the nations that was the job that he gave them but what did they do it says there in verse number but you have made it a robber’s den now consider this for a minute take your bibles and turn to isaiah chapter 56.
isaiah chapter 56 and we’re also going to look at jeremiah chapter 7 verse 9 through 15. now why am i turning to this passage of scripture because in this passage of scripture we get remember paul didn’t have uh and the the apostles did not have the new testament it wasn’t written yet they were preaching from the old testament so this very thought in verse 17 has to be in the old testament right well look what it says in in isaiah 56 and verse 6 and 7 notice the language there in verse number 6 of isaiah 56 also the foreigner who joins themselves to the lord to minister to him and to love the name of the lord to be his servants everyone who keeps from profaning the sabbath and holds fast my covenant now in verse number six you notice he’s talking to foreigners not israel not his people right he’s talking to those who have connected themselves to the nation of israel because they discovered who god really was verse 7 says this even those i will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar for my house will be called a house of prayer and then notice again for all the peoples so you see here that they are cluttering up the place that the all the rest of the nations could come and worship god with commerce and with making money and with all kinds of commotion and the lord is addressing this directly and he hates what they are doing that’s why such acts of turning over money tables and uh just clearing people out of that area why he’s trying to clear the place that worship is supposed to be taking place at so the temple being cleansed or cleared by jesus is a rebuke to israel that their largest court area the court of the gentiles was being desecrated by lucrative business making the court of the gentiles instead a den of robbers now that is a very very interesting phrase if the temple authorities had approved these ventures which they did then the temple court became a den now what is it then a den is a home it’s a safe place for it usually for animals right they have a den they go if they are afraid they run to the den right and what do they get the den they get security they get a place of safety they get a place of protection and jesus is saying to them listen you have mated able for these people that are doing all this commerce to come into my house and be protected as animals are protected in a den and i hate that see jesus will not have this gross violation of scripture and misuse of scripture said in regard to the temple he will not let this go because he says again in verse number 17 but don’t turn there uh you have made it a robber’s den now where does what’s happening here is this that the prophet jeremiah take your bibles and turn to jeremiah chapter seven the prophet jeremiah declared what god will do to his house if it became a den of robbers what what would he do with it he’ll he’ll destroy it he will destroy it like he destroyed sheol or excuse me shiloh uh it says in jeremiah seven look at verse number nine it says will you steal murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and offer sacrifices to bell and walk after other gods that you have not known and then notice verse 10 then come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name and say we are delivered that you may do all these things these abominations and then notice at verse 11 has this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your sight behold i even i have seen it declares the lord and then moved out of verse 14.
it says therefore i will do to the house which is called by my name in which you trust to the place which i gave you and your fathers as i did to shiloh what do you do to shiloh well verse number 15 says i will cast you out of my sight as i have cast out all your brothers all the offspring of ephraim see in other words god is saying to them listen if this happens to my house this is what i will do well this is what’s happening to his house so what what do you expect him to do you do expect him to do exactly what scripture said and that’s what jesus is doing in the temple he’s clearing out the house and he’s casting people out of his sight because they have grossly manipulated what the temple ought to be so see god’s temple should have been a place which exemplified the riches of god’s grace and mercy to those who were coming to worship and pray all the nations were coming to worship and pray instead it became a place of commerce and business distorting for the visiting gentiles the nature of true religion and worship so jesus clears the temple because the nation of israel should have been bringing other nations to god instead they were driving them away from god of course the gospel of matthew picks this up and it says this in matthew 23 but woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from men you do not enter in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in see this is not only a condemnation of false baron and uh worship and religion but it is a prophecy of the temple destruction in 70 a.d the temple was destroyed and the sacrificial system was destroyed ever since then there has been no sacrificial system for israel and the reason why there has not been any sacrificial system for israel is because jesus became the last and ultimate sacrifice once jesus was sacrificed there was no need for a priesthood there was no need for a prophet there was no need for someone to die in the place of others once he did that so the word of god tells us that even when his disciples were around him and seeing all these things take place it tells us in matthew 24 and jesus came out from the temple and was going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him and he answered and said to them you do you not see all these things truly i say to you not one stone here shall be left upon another which will not be torn down and he was sitting on the mount of olives the disciples came to him privately and asking him tell us when will these things be and when will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age because they knew if the temple was destroyed that’s it that’s it israel is done and so this becomes the theme here in our text that jesus more pointedly said in the gospel of john listen destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up and of course he baffled everybody when he said that the jews therefore said to him you took it took 46 years to build this temple and you’ll raise it up in three days but he was speaking of the temple of his body when therefore he was raised from the dead the disciples remembered that he said this and they believed the scripture and the word which jesus has spoken so in other words jesus was speaking about the temple of his own body that once he sacrificed himself and fulfilled all the types and shadows of all the sacrificial systems system in the old testament then four he became the priest he became the sacrifice he became the prophet and he became the king in just this one act and he became the temple so when we worship we worship the lord jesus christ because his very body is the temple in which we worship god that we have access to god the father through jesus christ the son now in all that let’s go back to the gospel of mark and just conclude the way jesus did in mark chapter 11 notice verse number 18 because here’s the response of the israel’s leadership they would have to respond to this they could not not respond so when jesus did and and and said in the temple all these things it infuriated the religious leadership of israel they heard but they came to the opposite conclusion although it was an inevitable conclusion in other words spiritual blindness and spiritual barrenness is seen in their response to jesus notice in verse 18. it says this mark 11 18 the chief priests and the scribes heard this and began seeking how to destroy him for they were afraid of him for the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching say it’s time to come up in other words with a plan and a method to actually destroy jesus why well because this barren leadership of israel was afraid that if jesus continues to teach then the people will turn away from all other authorities including them and follow jesus alone that’s what will happen so we have to beware be aware of ourselves we have to be let’s be aware of giving god a mere formal service while our hearts are full of the world spiritual barrenness can be noticed when there is no longer faithful adherence to scripture when there is no increasing faith in god when the very gathering of believers have been manipulated and corrupted by other things beside what god wants the simple worship of him and when there’s no heart in worship no sincere prayer no fruit of forgiveness see he wants us to avoid these withered roots which bear no fruit in and the trappings of of formal religion uh and spiritual barrenness are things that he wants us to hedge against and how do we do that how do we hedge against the very fact that there is a possibility of spiritual fruit fruitlessness and against religious formality well i believe the lord gives his disciples a challenge because they were listening and the challenges is found in verse number two and verse number 22 and 23 of mark 11.
and here’s the lord’s challenge the lord’s challenge is this the first thing there’s actually there’s three things he tells them number one bear the necessitary necessary characteristic of faith the woody says in verse 22 and jesus answered saying to them have faith in god sounds simple but it’s very true to what has been going on because they did not have faith in god and then verse 23 truly i say to you whoever says to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says is going to happen it will be granted him see in other words jesus is using hyperbole here all right and he is saying that real faith is absent of doubt and fear real faith knows the disciples source of all power which is god himself and so the disciples inner attitude should always be first trust trust in what god is doing even though you may not understand everything he’s doing at the moment trust him because of his character and then secondly in verse 24 bear the necessity the necessary characteristic of prayer it says this therefore verse 24 i say to you all things for which you pray and ask believe that you have received them and they will be granted to you now this is not just a blanket expression to pray for anything you want and god will give it to you no this is a prayer of the disciples action of faith in other words that how do you know you have faith as you pray to god all right you pray that means you pray according to god’s will you pray in harmony with god’s purposes that’s what real prayer is anyway right real prayer is praying in harmony with what god had already written in scripture it’s not just praying for any old thing it’s praying for especially things that are are just according to your passions and desires this is praying for god’s revealed will found in the word of god praying for what god’s already doing all right so it’s god’s will for you to pray for your own spiritual growth it’s god’s will for you to pray for your own growing knowledge of jesus christ it’s god’s will for you to pray that you would be steadfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the lord it’s god’s will for you to be sanctified by the word of god and sanctified in your relationship see it’s god’s will that you do that and how do you do that how do you show your faith by prayer but he he says one other thing to them in verse number 25 and 26 to bear the necessary characteristic of forgiveness all right now why is that you know why because the the nation of israel the leadership did not forgive people they didn’t even include the other nations and they weren’t forgiving at all they were very exclusive and of course when spiritual barrenness gets in and fruitlessness gets in and formal worship gets in then it all all the scripture goes south it’s just sidelined and so what does he say in verse 25 wherefore whenever you stand praying forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father who is in who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions but if you do not forgive neither will your father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions now if you notice verse 26 in brackets that means it’s not in the early manuscripts but it’s all it is recorded in the other gospels but it’s all said really in verse number 25.
so so in other words the disciples attitude in prayer is to have a forgiving attitude why is that because god has a forgiving attitude towards his people who worship him in spirit and in truth so forgiving power cannot flow into our lives if we refuse to forgive others so you ought to forgive you and i ought to forgive because god’s forgiven me and you right that’s that’s the bottom line why do you why should you forgive anybody who sinned against you because god’s forgiven you if you’re a believer right and god forgives you if you bring your confession to him he forgives you of all your sin and unrighteousness so see these things are the things that the lord gives his disciples to hedge against the two warnings of spiritual fruitlessness and religious formality if you want to grow in the lord grow in faith in your faith in god continue in prayer especially prayer that is in harmony with god’s will and then practice forgiveness towards others do these things and you will hedge against those other things where does some of this show up today i think it shows up when you don’t recognize that your heart has grown cold and you don’t admit it right you have to admit it sometimes you we do grow cold for whatever reasons right sometimes continuing in or going on in the sin makes us numb cold it could be that we have a bitterness in our heart towards somebody which has made us stop growing we’re not forgiving we’re not praying we’re not doing the very things he just says here and so what would we expect anything less than feeling like we’re distant from god and that we’re not close to god anymore if these things aren’t evident in our life all the time it could show up though also in not preparing our heart for worship we we come to church but what do we come to church with all kinds of baggage we drag the whole week the whole month the whole year into into church into when we meet together for worship instead of getting those things taken care of on a saturday or during the week so when you come to the gathering of believers we’re ready to worship we’re not i have fallen asleep we’re not thinking about you know going somewhere after church we’re not do you think that pleases the lord when we come like that we that doesn’t please the lord at all whatsoever the lord hates those kind of things he doesn’t want those kind of things in our life and believe me we don’t get me wrong we have plenty of baggage that happens during the week we all do right i mean like you know you’re dysfunctional i’m dysfunctional so what’s the problem right we all have problems we have we all have issues but we have to learn what to do with those issues we can’t be dragging them in where clouds are are blind to worship god to be engaged in it so our minds grow so our souls grow so we become strong in the lord in these days we need strong believers so it could show up when we don’t prepare ourselves for worshiping god it could show up also for just becoming laxadaisical in our in spiritual things we take for granted that we have the word of god on our shelf we take for granted that we can actually get in our car and drive to church and and worship uh the lord and hear the word of god we take for granted of those things we should never ever take for granted of those things and if there’s any kind of lackadaisical attitude about spiritual things that needs to be addressed and repented of for your own spiritual health and safety it needs to be and for what reason because the lord hates that kind of stuff he he hates when you just go through the motions he hates when your heart is not engaged he hates when you’re faking it he hates that so so so in other words this passage of scripture is very very where the rubber meets the road right we’re coming to the lord’s table this morning for what reason to examine ourselves to see how we’re doing right if we have any raw anybody anything wrong with other people we have bitterness in our heart unforgiving spirit we need to get that right right we should get that right before we come so we can come cannot let these things fester in our heart and become cancerous so those are the things that the lord wants us to be well aware of all his disciples to be well aware of now this is all happening before the cross he’s telling his disciples and getting them ready for not only the cross but afterwards that these are going to be realities in your life that you have to deal with the lord’s not going to rescue us from all trouble he’s not going to rescue us from all circumstances he’s not going to do that he’s going to teach us in those circumstances and so we have to have the biblical principles and we have to have the relationship with god that is growing and bearing fruit and is not spiritually barren and is not just formality but is a real relationship and you know what you believe you know why you believe it and if no one else believes it and follows you you’re still gonna do it right that’s the kind of people we need today we always needed those kind of people we’re all we’re always going to need those kind of people but i sense and i see that’s not always the case with christians today there’s too much we’re too comfortable there’s many things that contribute to us falling into these traps i think all the upbeat christianity you know what christianity is not always upbeat all right the songs are not always joyful right there’s much sorrow and suffering in the christian life all right so we can’t just say you know god we’ve got to be positive we’re always going to be upbeat we always got to be no we but i say this that we can always be joyful in the lord and peaceful in the lord even if things around us don’t look that way because the lord’s working in our heart with the peace that can’t be taken away but the joy that can’t be taken away right so that’s there that’s there so you can live your christian life with joy and peace and everything around you can look like it’s a mess but that’s all right right you be concerned about your own heart and you take care of that and the lord takes care of all the rest so grow in faith in god continue in prayer especially prayer that is in harmony with god’s will and then practice forgiveness towards each other these will help you hedge against the two warnings of spiritual fruitlessness and religious foreign formality let’s pray and then i’ll just mention the lord’s table let’s pray lord thank you again lord your word is so exacting it is like a scalpel lord it does cut to the thoughts and intents of our heart and lord because it does that and because it exposes us for who we are or it helps to be honest with ourself to come to you this morning and just identify some of those things that are in our own life and i pray that we would repent of them we would put them to death we would put on righteousness and we would go on to live and serve you to follow you all the days of our life and lord as we come to the lord’s table this morning i pray that you would prepare our hearts even for this event in which you have commanded in scripture for we know lord the lord’s table is a sign of those continuing to belong to god’s people when we come faithfully with understanding with the reason why we come then lord we know that we are people that are ready to receive the elements of the bread that represent your body and the cup that represents the blood that you shed on the cross of calvary to wash away all our sin so i pray lord today would be the day that we examine ourselves properly and we make ourselves ready to take partake of the lord’s table and i ask this in your name amen