Today on the Verdict with Pastor John Monroe. Israel is under the heel of Rome. Rome is the superpower, and they want to be liberated from Rome. And they have a misunderstanding of the identity and the mission of Jesus. They do not realize that Jesus is the Christ, and He's come to deliver them from a bondage far greater than Rome's.
Welcome to the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. No matter how good you try to be, the only way any of us can truly please God is through authentic faith.
So, what separates true faith from empty religious activity? That's exactly what we're discussing today as we dig deeper into the Gospel of Matthew.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe with part two of a message titled "Blessings and Cursings." In the book of Malachi in the Old Testament, we read that ancient Israel was offering polluted food and lame animals in worship to God. Instead of giving their best to God, they give the worst. It would be like us about to throw out an old jacket that we had no use for, and then giving it to a missionary, and expecting to be praised by God for an act of worship. This is obnoxious to God. The Pharisees at the time of Jesus honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.
Today we see Jesus going into the temple. There, there's a lot of activity, but no authentic fruit. Jesus condemns this ritualistic religion and this hypocrisy. Let's learn more about worshiping in a way which truly honors God and blesses others. Matthew chapter twenty-one, verse one.
Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village in front of you." And immediately you'll find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, "The Lord needs them," and He will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble." And mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the fall of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him. And that followed him was shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!" And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" And the crowd said, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee." Now I know this verse twelve. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, "It is written, 'My house,' notice that." Is the house of God? My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant, and they said to him, "Do you hear what they are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes, have you never read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise?" And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again." And the fig tree withered at once.
Now, there's a strange thing.
Someone says, "Why would the Lord put a curse on the fig tree?" The fig tree is a picture. It's a picture of the spiritual condition of Israel: leaves, but no fruit; externally impressive, but internally hollow. Rather than the temple being a center for worship and prayer, the temple is a place of religious ritualism, of business, yes, of exploitation. And Jesus says, "The temple is my house; it's to be a place of worship. It's not a place for making money." Jesus condemns the greed.
Do you notice what he did in verse twelve? He drove them out. That must have been an amazing scene. Ah, but the cursing of the fig tree is an illustration to the nation and a symbol of the coming. Judgment on the temple.
This was serious. False worship, phony worship, using the name of Christ for our own advantage is something which God always condemns. And here, the cursing of the fig tree was a precursor of coming judgment on Israel. You say, really, really, yes. Luke tells us.
Turn over to Luke chapter nineteen. Let's read Luke's account. He gives us the triumphal entry, and then he gives us his commentary. Luke chapter nineteen, verse forty. We have the scene of what we call the triumphal entry.
Verse eight thirty eight, Luke nineteen thirty eight, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out." Don't you love that? And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you even you had known on this day the things that were made for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time." Of your visitation, words of condemnation, judgment is coming.
Israel has rejected their king. The temple, instead of being a place of prayer, has become a den of robbers, and God's judgment is coming. Did you say? Did that ever happen? Yes, it did.
If you know your history, in A.D. seventy. Just a few years after the words were said, in A.D. seventy, Titus, the son of Vespasian, the Roman emperor, with his Roman army, comes into Israel, and he destroys that magnificent temple, so that one stone is not left on another, and is devastated. And God's judgment comes on Jerusalem, the nation of Israel.
Is scattered to the four winds. This is what God thinks of religious activity without spiritual reality. This is what God thinks of religious pretense. This is what God thinks of hypocrisy. This is what God thinks of those who reject the Son, of those who do not bow to the King.
And since that event, since the first century to this day. Israel has not had a temple. The Jewish nation to this day do not have a temple. We who believe in a future for Israel, as we do, believe that a temple will be built in the future. But at the moment, what's on the Temple Mount?
Some of you have been there. I've been there many times. What's on the Temple Mount? The Muslim Dome of the Rock. There it is.
There's the Temple Mount. That's the very place where Solomon's temple was built, the very place where Herod's temple was built, and to this day, there is no temple. And as Jesus is speaking to this nation here in Matthew chapter twenty-one, time is running out for Israel. God's judgment. Has been passed.
You see, is God a God like that? Yes, He is. See, I think we've got a false view of Jesus. I think we've got a false view of God. I think many of us want a kind of God like a a grandfather who's gone kind of senile, who approves of everything we do.
A kind of Santa Claus. That's not the God of the Bible, and that's not the Jesus of the Bible. He goes and he pronounces a curse on that fig tree to illustrate that unless Israel repented, unless they repented and received the kingdom of heaven, judgment is coming, and judgment is coming on you and me if you do not bow to the Savior. You say, "Well, one day I'm going to get right with God." Time is running out for you. You don't know how much time you have.
None of us here know how much time we have to live, but we do know that one day we will stand before God. Today is a day of grace, a day when the Savior comes and says, "Come to me, and I'll give you rest." But implicit, central to the gospel message, is this. If you continue to reject Christ, if you put it off, judgment is coming.
So here's my question to you: You say, "Well, John, I a number of years ago I prayed the sinner's prayer." Well, let me ask you. I'm asking you a penetrating question: Is there any spiritual fruit in your life? Is there evidence in your life? That you are a follower of Jesus Christ, not just activities. I'm asking you: Is your heart right with God?
It's so easy to pretend to be spiritual, isn't it? If you're brought up in a Christian home, as I am, you can say the right words, you can do the right action, you can pray a certain way, you can sing a certain way, all of that. Can be done without knowing Christ and without the fruit of the Spirit. That is condemned by God.
Now you say, "What does spiritual reality look like?" Well, there is two examples as we bring this to a close. Two essential attributes if you are an authentic follower of Christ. And they're given here, in verses twenty through twenty-seven. Blessings flow. We've talked about God's curses.
Blessings flow from having faith in God and submitting to God's authority. Two essential qualities for the authentic believer: our life is characterized by faith. And submission, obedience to the word of God. First of all, faith in God is the way of blessing. Verse twenty: When the disciples saw, they marvelled, saying, "How did the fig tree off wither at once?" And Jesus answered truly, "I say to you, if you have faith." And do not doubt; you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to the mountain, "Be taken up and thrown into the sea," it will happen.
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith. Faith in God is the way of blessing. Religious activity without a living faith in God is like leaves without fruit. No spiritual reality is shown by faith in God. Our trust is in God.
Church activities, rituals, can all be done without faith. But without a living faith, a personal living faith in Jesus Christ, you'll never please God. For without faith, says the Bible, it's impossible to please God. You want to be blessed by God. I do.
This is it: to have faith in God, to trust God.
Now, notice our faith in God is for God's will to be done, not ours. James says in James four, you know, you you you don't have because you don't ask. Faith asks, asking you'll receive, seeking you'll find, knocking it shall be opened to you. But James also says, "Don't ask God just for your own passions, your own self indulgence." That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a prayer which is seeking to do God's will.
This is a prayer of faith, isn't it? God is sovereign; the power. To move a mountain is not in me. It's not in you. It's in God, isn't it?
Our faith is not in ourselves. It's not really in one another. The faith is in God. What are you trusting God for? You ever had this terrible situation in your life, and you ask God for His will to be done?
Many of you have experienced it. Have you the prayer of faith? Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. Don't doubt. Have faith in God.
Seek to do His will. You're the problem in your marriage. God's will is that your marriage would reflect the beauty of Jesus Christ.
So when you're praying, that is God's will. You're praying. As you seek to communicate the gospel to a neighbor, to someone at work, that's God's will that we share the gospel. Trust God. Step out in faith.
Trust God for the impossible. Don't doubt. Faith is the way of God's blessing. That's fruit, isn't it? There's another example here of fruit in our lives.
And this is naturally difficult for us. It is submitting to God's authority. Do you like to submit to authority? I don't. I like to do my own thing.
But one of the characteristics of the true believer is submission. First of all, submission to the King. He's my Lord. I submit to you, Lord. I seek to do your will.
It starts there, doesn't it? But we learn submission, submission to a police officer, submission to a teacher, submission to an employer, instead of imposing our own will. This is the characteristic of the Christian, and it begins by submission to the authority of the Word of God. Verse twenty three, when he entered the temple. The chief priests and the elders and the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, "By what authority are you doing these things?
Who gave you this authority? I mean, here you are, you are teaching, and you've driven out the money changers and so on. I mean, by what authority are you doing these things?" Here is the master teacher. Jesus answered them. I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.
If you answer this question, I'm going to ask yours. The baptism of John, from where did it come from? From heaven or from man? They discussed among themselves, saying, "If we say from heaven, he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'" But if we say from man, we're afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.
So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things." Masterly. Religious activity without humbly submitting to God's authority is like leaves without fruit. Here, here are verse twenty three: the chief priests and the elders. The chief priests are from the high priestly family. The elders are members of the leading families in Israel.
They're the leaders of the synagogue. They're the religious elite, as it were. And the chief priests and the scribes and the elders comprise the Sanhedrin, seventy-one rulers of the nation. The Sanhedrin has authority over all religious matters. These men are very concerned about authority, and they even have some authority over political matters.
These are very, very important people, and they're very disturbed by Jesus. And they come and they want to know the nature and source of Jesus' authority. On what basis is he behaving in such an outrageous way in the temple? What are his credentials? Who is this man?
What authority are you doing these things? They should, of course, have known the answer to their own questions. Jesus' authority is clearly demonstrated. Did you notice what happened in verse fourteen? The blind and the lame, as he drives out the money changers, who comes to him?
The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. No chief priest, no elder can heal the blind or the lame. Didn't they see the Lord in action? And they had heard the little children saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David." They knew the spiritual significance of that. They knew their Bibles, ah, but their hearts are hardened, and they hear, but they do not hear.
And for those who refuse to submit to the authority of God, there is no further word. Jesus doesn't answer their question. They miss the blessing. And they will receive divine condemnation. See this authority.
There's no higher authority than God's word. This is our authority. If you reject the word of God, if you think you know better, if you base your life on your own experiences, on the culture, on your feelings, ultimately God's judgment will come on you. What does God want? A humble and a contrite heart.
Have you noticed how angry our society is? Do you notice how disrespectful we are to one another in our society? That's not the way of Christ, is it? Followers of Jesus are characterized by humble submission to the Word of God. There is a humility.
There is a gentleness. That is the way of blessing. What is the fruit that God wants from us? Trust and obey. Put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whatever the circumstances, on the mountaintop and in the valley, I'm going to trust God. I'm going to commit my way to the Lord. Trust and. Obey God speaks to you in His Word. Humble yourself and obey God.
Well, how is it with you? Religion or reality? Pretense or sincerity? Submission or rebellion? Blessings begin by receiving Jesus as your Savior, and if you don't receive Christ, The very judgment of God will come on you.
I'm saying to you, put your trust in Christ each day, submit to His word, and there will be fruit for God and blessing to others. Help us, our Father, to do that. We do pray. We often get caught up in our society, caught up in our own egos, caught up in the routine, even of church. May you reveal through your Spirit the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to seek and to save the lost.
May some persons today have their eyes opened, and that they'll receive Christ, and that all of us will trust Him and love Him with all of our hearts and humbly follow Him. We ask it in Christ's name, Amen. This is the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever.
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Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? As you look back over the last couple of months or so of your life, have you been worshiping God? We know that without faith, it is impossible to please God.
So, can you think of areas of your life where you have been specifically trusting God, truly living by faith? How are you depending on God each day? God is not only pleased when we walk by faith; He's also pleased when we obey His word, trust, and obey. That's a life of worship. That's a life which pleases God.
Thanks for joining us today on the Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
