Blessings and Cursings

How would you describe your worship of God?

Is it authentic or is it phony? Is it real or is it based on ritualism? In the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, something tragic happens. Israel, as they're coming to the temple to worship God, are bringing polluted food and maimed animals. Instead of giving God their very best, they bring the worst. They bring that which they cannot use themselves and present that in seeming worship. And the Lord says, I'm quoting from Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. The Lord is saying it would be better that in fact we close the doors of the temple, that you don't come to the temple to worship rather than giving your very worst. Spiritual activity, but no spiritual reality. In the last book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation, there's another tragic scene. There is a church in a place called Laodicea, and it's very active. There's a lot going on in the church, but the tragedy is that the Lord Jesus is outside the church. And John, in his revelation from the Lord, gives this picture of Jesus outside the church, knocking at the door.

He says, I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot, so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Religious activity without spiritual reality. What about you?

What about us? Could it be that we are involved, as it were, in a kind of religious ritualism without spiritual reality? Could it be that we are orthodox in our faith, but have no love for God, no passion for God? Could it be that we've got a lot of emotionalism without authentic worship?

Externally very impressive, internally hollow. Jesus spoke of those in his days who honored God with their lips, but their heart was far from Him. Is that true of us?

Is that true of you? You come, and you were singing. Perhaps you were even singing in the choir. You're singing there up in the balcony, and you've got a good voice, and you're enjoying the songs, and you, what you're saying is good, but your heart is far away from God.

Leaves we're going to learn, but no fruit. Let's open our Bibles to the first Gospel, Matthew chapter 21. We're going consecutively through Matthew, and today we come to the 21st chapter. It's going to record what we call Palm Sunday.

The children were singing Hosanna. That's the passage. And first we're going to look at verses 1-11 and learn this. I want each one of us to receive Jesus as Savior and King and be eternally blessed. We're going to learn this morning about the blessings of God, but also the cursing of God.

We're going to learn about authentic worship and also phony, hypocritical, in fact, corrupt worship. You want to be blessed by God? Here is how it begins, by receiving Jesus as Savior and King, personally. Matthew chapter 21 verse 1. 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 were 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. This is the time of the Passover and Jesus enters Jerusalem. We have seen in the past that Jesus is on a journey with His disciples going to Jerusalem and now they enter Jerusalem and He comes riding on a donkey. Now Jesus had predicted that He's going to be condemned to death in Jerusalem. Chapter 20 verse 18, He says to His disciples, see we're going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes and they will condemn Him to death. He knows as He enters Jerusalem on this donkey that He's going to die. The crucifixion is only days away. This donkey and colt are prepared for the occasion, the Lord needs them.

And something wonderful happens as Matthew, who loves to quote from the Old Testament, five hundred years before this event took place, an Old Testament prophet, a man called Zechariah had prophesied that when the Messiah comes, He comes on a donkey. Do you want to read that prophecy? It's found in the book of Zechariah and some of you are saying I have no idea where Zechariah is.

I'm going to make it easy for you. You're in Matthew, go back, one book is Malachi. Go back one book, it's Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 9. One of the wonderful things about the Bible is that prophecies come true.

So here's this prophet five hundred years before the event saying something is going to happen. Here it is, Zechariah 9 verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you.

Righteous and having salvation is He. Notice this, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the fall of a donkey. Is the Bible true?

Of course it's true. Prophecy is fulfilled. And now as we look back at Matthew 21, Matthew says as Jesus is entering on a donkey, He said this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.

We've just read it. The prophet Zechariah saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold your King is coming to you. How is He going to come? Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the fall of a beast of burden.

What an event. The King is coming. Jesus comes as the Messiah, as the King, offering salvation to His people. It's been calculated at this time of the Passover in Jerusalem, there's about a hundred and eighty thousand people.

The place is absolutely packed. The crowd, as they go to Passover, they're looking for national salvation. And notice what they shout in verse 9, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna to the son of David. Hosanna is a Hebrew word. It's found in Psalm 118 verses 25 and 26, and it's a term of joyful praise.

It means save us, God save us, Hosanna in the highest. And as Jesus enters into Jerusalem, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, He comes as Savior. He comes as their King. Oh, the excited crowd are looking for a political conqueror to overthrow the Romans. Remember that at this time, Israel is under the heel of Rome. Rome is a 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, that He's the King, and He's come to deliver them from a bondage far greater than Rome's. Perhaps someone is thinking, a king? I mean, what kind of king and kingdom is this? A king is coming on a borrowed donkey? Where are His armies?

When Rome comes as a conqueror, they come with all of their pomp and their splendor and their armies and their horses demonstrating their power. But of course Jesus had talked about the Kingdom of Heaven. Oh, the crowd, Matthew says, is stirred up.

But notice what they say in answer to the question, who is this one? Oh, He's the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. They don't see the Savior, they don't see the King, and they certainly don't understand that their King, that their Messiah has come to die on a cross. I know this verse 12, and Jesus entered the temple.

Can you picture it? He comes on a donkey and He comes, He's the Messiah. The long-promised Messiah, the King, not only the King of Jews but the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And He enters the temple, which is the very center of the spiritual worship and life of the nation.

But there's no welcome. You catch the irony, the sadness, the utter tragedy of it all. There, the Lord of glory, the King of Kings, the Messiah stands in the very center of Israel's faith and religious activity, and there's plenty going on.

It's a very busy place. And there, in that temple, He stands and the very religious leaders oppose Him. They reject Him, and in fact they're plotting His death. He's the Savior, He's the King, and He's rejected. He comes to His own and His own receive Him, not another of the disciples say.

How about you? It's all too possible, isn't it, to come to the house of the Lord, this Lord's day, as we are. To come for worship, to hear God speak to us through His Word, but to totally miss it. To be involved in religion, to be involved in church, perhaps even to serve in the church, but to miss the Savior. I have to remind all of us that at the very heart of the Christian faith is this.

It's not ritualism. It's not even serving the Lord. It is knowing Jesus Christ personally, as your Savior, as your King. And I have to ask you, perhaps you've sittin' on these pews for many months, perhaps many years, and you're involved in church, and you're involved as it were in religion, but you do not know Jesus Christ.

I know that, because some of you have been humbled enough to tell me that you've come here and you've sat for a long time, and then something wonderful happened. That God in His grace opened your eyes to understand that you have missed Jesus Christ, and you do not have a person relationship with Him. Oh, you're very proud of your church heritage. You're very proud of what you have done, and all of that has its place, but you've missed the very heart of it, which is this, to know Jesus Christ.

That's what it means to be a Christian, not to go through some ritual, not just to join a church, although that's wonderful and we have people being part of Calvary this morning, but at the heart of it is a personal relationship with Christ, is to know Christ. The crowd are shouting, Hosanna, save us! I have to ask you, are you saved? Have you opened your heart to Christ?

Have you, as it were, said, Hosanna, come and save me? Save me, heal me from my sin, forgive my sin, as you kneel before the King, and acknowledge that you are a sinful person, and the only hope of salvation is to bow at the feet of the cross and cry to Christ to come and save you. Can I say, please, please, don't miss the blessing, which begins by receiving Christ personally as your Savior and Lord. Now, let's move on to verses 19 through 20, where we'll see that religious activity without spiritual reality is condemned by God.

Think of this. People involved in religious activity, people involved, as it were, in New Testament terms in the church, but there is no reality and that is condemned by God. Blessing begins as I receive Christ personally.

For all I have is activity without spiritual reality, I'm condemned by God. Verses 19 through, sorry, verses 12 through 19. Jesus entered a temple, think of this, and drove out all who sold and bought in a 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, what is that? It's the house of God.

My house shall be called the 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're 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? Was he doing that out of anger? Was he doing that out of spite? He comes to get some figs from a tree and there's no figs on the tree and so in a fit of anger, he puts a curse on the fig tree.

Is that what's happening? Does it sound like something Jesus would do? Jesus never uses his power in a self-interest way or in a way of pique.

Absolutely not. No, the cursing of the fig tree is a dramatic, acted out parable of the judgment of God on Israel. The cursing of the fig tree is a prophetic sign that judgment is coming and is given as a warning to Israel.

No, he didn't act out of anger. The cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple go together. Now let's think of this. This fig tree has leaves but it's got no fruit. Before the main season for figs, there are small green pre-figs. They're small, they're edible, they're not particularly palatable, but these pre-figs appear before the leaves. So, this is Passover time, around March and April, a tree has leaves but no pre-figs.

And if that's the case, it's going to be barren for the entire season. Leaves on a fig tree this season was normally a sign that there was fruit, there were figs, but not on this tree. The leaves are visible, you go to the tree expecting figs, but when you come closer, you see in fact, there's a lot of leaves but there's no fruit.

You getting the point? The fig tree is a picture. It's a picture of the spiritual condition of Israel.

Leaves but no fruit. In the temple, there's noise, there's activity, there's ritual, there's emotion, but there's nothing for God. Externally impressive but internally hollow. Could that be true of a church?

Yes, yes. Externally impressive but internally hollow. The temple built by Herod was a magnificent structure. There was the large court of the Gentiles, the court of the women for the women, the court for Jewish men, and of course the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God. That God had ordained that His name, His temple was to be built in Jerusalem.

It's the very centre of the world, isn't it? And there it stood, the magnificent temple, dominating the skyline of Jerusalem and the surrounding area. Very, very impressive but at the time of Jesus, the fig tree and the temple were the same.

Leaves promising fruit but none. Religious activity without spiritual reality. Rather than the temple being a centre for worship and prayer, the temple is a place of religious ritualism, of business, yes, of exploitation. For example, the time of the Passover, people had to offer a lamb, and the lamb had to pass the inspection of the priests for a charge. Many people brought animals themselves or bought animals from the temple as these animals were certified as acceptable. And the high priestly family, as it were, had a corner on the market and they exploited the people, including the poor people. Once a year, a shackle tax, a half shackle of silver had to be paid. So in the temple there's money changers. They're doing this in the court of the Gentiles to facilitate the changing of money but they're doing that, of course, at a cost.

I do that. Last time when I'm flying to Scotland for the death of my mother, I go to the exchange in the Charlotte airport. I give them so many dollars and I get so many British pounds. And I think, well, you've kept quite a bit for yourself here. What's the exchange rate?

They were doing it. Nothing wrong with exchanging the money, a lot doing it, to use that which is going for worship to line your own pocket. And the temple is like the fig tree.

It looks very, very good from afar. But when you get close, you realize it's mere leaves, empty religion. A lot of excitement, a lot of activity, but no authentic worship.

Devoid of spiritual power and life. And Jesus says, the temple is my house. It's to be a place of worship. It's to be a place of prayer for all of the nations.

It's not a place for making money. And did you notice the leaders were indignant at the children? The children, I think this is wonderful. The children are crying out, in the temple, Hosanna to the Son of David. These little children get it, but the powerful religious establishment don't get what the children are singing. It's not wonderful to hear children sing Hosanna. And I've discovered that children, and you know this if you're a parent, you know this if you're a Sunday school teacher, if you're a teacher, that children, often very little children, they can grasp the spiritual truth, can't they? One that sometimes we adults kind of stumble over, but a child with the purity of faith often get the point, don't they? And these little children did.

They are singing. And they're applying an Old Testament quotation to Jesus, the Son of David. That's insight. But here, in the temple, although the little children get it right, Jesus the Messiah, the King, the Son of David stands and He's rejected by the very center of their worship.

Plenty of leaves, but no fruit. Now notice what Jesus does. Jesus condemns the ritualistic religion, He condemns the hypocrisy, and He condemns the greed. Do you notice what He did in verse 12? He drove them out.

That must have been an amazing scene. The poor, who could only afford pigeons, even the poor are being exploited by these men. And they had turned, says Jesus, my house into a den of robbers. Think of it.

What an indictment. Israel is looking for a Messiah to drive out the Gentiles, the Romans. The Messiah comes and He drives them out. He drives out the exploiters and the hypocrites and those who are using the name of the Lord and religion to make money and to further their power base. Condemned by Jesus. Can I quote from a Scottish theologian, is that allowed here?

James Stewart. Here's a powerful quote from him. He says, He, Jesus, was the meekest and lowliest of all the sons of man, yet He spoke of coming in the clouds of heaven with the glory of God. He was so austere that evil spirits and demons cried out in terror at His coming, yet He was so genial and winsome and approachable that the children loved to play with Him and the little ones nestled in His arms. No one was half so compassionate to sinners, yet no one ever spoke such red-hot, scorching words about sin.

A bruise read, He would not break. His whole life was love, yet on one occasion He demanded of the Pharisees how they ever expected to escape the damnation of hell. He was a servant of all, washing the disciples' feet, yet masterfully He strode into the temple, and the hucksters and money changers fell over one another to get away from the mad rush and the fire they saw blazing in His eyes. That's the majestic Christ. The meekest, the humblest of men, yet condemns the hypocrites and those who practice phony religion. 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 19. Let's read Luke's account. He gives us the triumphal entry, and then He gives us His commentary. Luke chapter 19, verse 40.

We have the scene of what we call the triumphal entry. Verse 38, Luke 19, 38, 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're 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. 70, just a few years after the words were said, in A.D. 70, Titus, the son of Esphasian, 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 21, time is running out for Israel. God's judgment has been passed. You say, is God a God like that?

Yes, He is. You 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 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, what evidence is there in your life that you're a follower of Christ? You say, well, I'm here today. That's good, I'm glad you're here today. As a pastor, I like people coming to church.

Keep coming. You say, well, let me just think about that. I'm asking you a penetrating question. Is there any spiritual fruit in your life?

See, the message of the gospel is that when you receive Christ truly as your Savior, it's a miracle. And the Holy Spirit comes and resides in us, and there is what is called the fruit of the Spirit. Love. Not just loving your little family, that's cute, that's nice. But loving others, loving your enemies, love. What about joy and peace? Is there evidence in your life that you are a follower of Jesus Christ?

Not just activities, not just the leaves. We sang about the very heart of worship. 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 non-Christ and without the fruit of the Spirit. That is condemned by God. Now you say, what does spiritual reality look like?

Well, there's 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 20 through 27. 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. There's a hymn in our hymn book, Trust and Obey. You know what? Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. That's it.

Let's read about it. First of all, faith in God is the way of blessing. Verse 20, when the disciples saw the marvels saying, how did the fig tree 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. If God is asking me that she wants to do something, and I'm not quite sure about it, she might say to me, John, trust me. I trust her. I know her. She's reliable. That pleases her, doesn't it?

If I say to her, I don't really trust you, that doesn't please her. When we have faith in God, when we put our trust in God, that pleases God. It begins by receiving Christ as an act of faith. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Lack of faith is like leaves without fruit.

It's worthless. James says faith apart from works is dead. This is a living faith. This is a faith which is demonstrated. And Jesus gives this amazing example. He says there's a faith, there's a trust in God that can move mountains. This mountain He says, verse 21, this mountain, it might be the Mount of Olives, it might be Mount Zion, a mountain. There's a faith that moves mountains.

It's proverbial of course. Now notice, our faith in God is for God's will to be done, not ours. James says in James 4, you know, you don't have because you don't ask. Faith asks. Ask and you'll receive. Seek and you'll find.

Knock and 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. Before the service, the elders and pastors, we met and we're praying over a certain ministry opportunity at Calvary here and we're praying in faith that God would make it very clear to us whether this is His will or not. We're not imposing our will on God and saying, God, we're going to do this and now we want you to bless us. No, that's not the way. The way is to say, God, we are seeking your will.

You're opening a door and we want to trust you. Ask in faith. See, with God all things are possible. The power to move mountains. You've got a mountain in your life that you'd like God to move. Life is hard sometimes, isn't it? As you know, this year has been very hard for my wife and myself. A mountain came into our lives that was threatening to overwhelm us.

What do we do? We ask God for strength. Help me today. Give me strength today.

Don't let me sink into the dark hole of depression or bereavement. I'm trusting you Lord, one step at a time. And God is answering that prayer.

Many of you are praying for us. 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 do you trust in God for? Have 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, haven't 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.

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 true, doesn't it? And tonight we have our thanksgiving service. Do come at six o'clock. I'm going to give you some, I'm going to have some mics and some of you are going to come and give thanks to God, not about how wonderful you are, but how wonderful God is as He's answered prayers to give thanksgiving. It's not wonderful. Prayer of faith. 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 23, 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're teaching and you've driven out the money changers and so on. I mean, by what authority are you doing these things?

Here's the master teacher. Jesus answered him, I also will tell you, 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 it 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.

This activity without humbly submitting to God's authority is like leaves without fruit. Here are verse 23, 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, 71 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 14? 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 priests, 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, but their hearts are hardened. And they hear, but they do not hear. Jesus has His own authority.

There is no higher authority. And notice He doesn't evade the question, but He asks a brilliant counter question. And if answered, you'll get the original question. If they admit it's John's baptism, why didn't you believe it? If you say John's baptism was from man, then the crowd would say, no, we know that John was a prophet. After all, John was the man who baptized Jesus.

John was the one who pointed to Jesus and said, there's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so for fear of the crowd, they do not answer. 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. We at Calvary Church, we look to God to lead us. We look to God's Word. 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 person, 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.