 All right, let's begin reading here chapter 11 at verse 12, and we'll read to verse 19. We're going to get into our study, and I chose to entitle this, though it would be obvious it's time when Jesus cleanses the temple, but I prefer to look at a certain phrase that we're going to see, so I chose to entitle it, He taught them. So beginning at verse 12, reading to verse 19, Mark chapter 11, now the next day when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry, and seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, he went to see if perhaps he would find something on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response, Jesus said to it, let no one eat fruit from you ever again, and his disciples heard it. So they came to Jerusalem, then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And he would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. Then he taught them, saying to them, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him, or they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his teaching. When evening had come, he went out of the city. I'm going to do something here that's little different than what, as a matter of fact, very different from what I normally do. I'm going to give you some more information background as it relates to what's taking place here. And so you might want to relax a bit, because it's going to take a few minutes for me to do this. So we can get a context of what's taking place, and why this is so important. As we just read, Jesus entered into Jerusalem to the excited emotions of a great crowd of pilgrims. It was Passover week, and many had come to Jerusalem in order that they might celebrate this very special festival. When you read the Old Testament, you look at the Old Testament book of Leviticus in chapter 23. In Leviticus 23, well, Leviticus 23 contains a list of God's chosen feasts for the nation of Israel. The seven Jewish feasts is what they're referred to. And that included Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. So Passover, Passover is the celebration of the nation of Israel's release from Egyptian bondage. Genesis 38 tells us that Joseph, the son of Jacob, had been sold into slavery. Joseph's brothers hated him, and when given opportunity, they sold him to a group of people called the Midianites, while the Midianites in turn sold him to Potiphar, an Egyptian officer under the Egyptian Pharaoh. So God blessed Joseph while he was in Egypt, and ultimately he grew to great power and authority. Genesis 37 verse 2 says that Joseph was 17 when he was sold into slavery, but Genesis 41, 39 through 46 says he was 30 when he was released to be second only to Pharaoh. During that time, Joseph's father, Jacob, had moved his family to Egypt. He had 12 sons, and these 12 sons became the 12 tribes. And through them, Israel lived in Egypt for many years. Exodus 1240 says the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years. Well during their time in Egypt, the people grew in numbers and became a great threat to Egypt. Under a new Pharaoh, their lives became hard, and they began to cry out for help. Exodus 2 verse 23 says during that long period, the king of Egypt died, the Israelites groaned in their slavery, cried out, and they're cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. So God raised up a deliverer, a man by Moses. He was to deliver the people of Israel from their bondage. In order to bring deliverance, he sent 12 plagues on the Egyptians, and in doing so, he judged their false gods. Exodus 12 verse 12 says on that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn from people and animals. I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. So the plagues included turning water into blood, frogs, lice, swarms of flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, the killing of the firstborn children. The plague of water into blood was a judgment on a God called Hapi, who was the spirit of the now river, the lifeblood of Egypt. The plague of frogs was against the goddess Iket, the goddess of resurrection and emblem of fertility. The judgment of lice was against geb, the god who caused the soil to produce fruit. The swarms of flies was against uakit, the creator god with the head of a beetle. Livestock was against the petah, who was a bull, and hathor, who was a goddess of love and joy, and she was pictured as a cow. Boils was against Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess who created epidemics and ended them. Hail was against Newt, the sky goddess and her offspring of Cyrus, Hathor, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Locusts judged the gods of fertility and agriculture. Darkness was against Amenre, the chief deity, the sun god who gave warmth and light. Judgment against the firstborn was against Mishkanet, the goddess presiding over birth, as well as Pharaoh himself, who was left without an heir to the throne. So through Moses, God brought judgment on all the false gods, and he delivered his people. On the night that God struck down all the firstborn sons in Egypt, Passover was initiated. Every household was to select a year-old lamb without blemish. The head of the home slaughtered the lamb at twilight without breaking any bones, and the blood was applied to the tops of the door and to the door frame of the house. The lamb was then roasted and eaten, and those eating the meal were to be ready to travel. When the Lord saw the blood on the door and the door frame, he passed over the house. Exodus 12, 12 and 13 says, I will pass through the land of Egypt that night. I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So the households that were covered by the blood of that lamb were spared from judgment. Any home that did not have the blood of the lamb had their firstborn struck down. And as Christians, we recognize that Passover is a picture of salvation through Jesus Christ. You see, the Baptist called Jesus the lamb of God who take away the sin of the world. In 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7, Paul said, Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. And in 1 Peter 1 19, Peter spoke of Jesus as a lamb without blemish or defect. When John received the revelation, he described what he saw in heaven. Revelation 5 verse 6 says, between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. So Passover is freedom from bondage, deliverance to a promised land and trust in God. And Jesus is about to celebrate Passover, fulfilling the picture of the Passover lamb. It is he who delivers from bondage and we are saved by being covered by his blood. It's through his substitutionary death and faith in him that we've been delivered. Sin was dealt with through Jesus Christ. And by his blood, he covered our sin. And so this is what we're looking at. You see, at this time, Jesus is about to finish the task that he's been sent to accomplish. He's about to become the lamb that was slain to take away the sin of the world. And so as we begin, Jesus has entered Jerusalem. He's looked into the temple. It was already late in the day. So he left. He spent the night in a place called Bethany, a couple of miles just outside of Jerusalem. And so it says beginning in verse 12. The next day when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry. So on this day, Jesus is going to do two things and we'll look at those things. He curses a fruitless fig tree and he cleanses the Jewish temple. And these two works are actually working together to give us a single message. And so Jesus has risen early. He hasn't eaten breakfast while walking to Jerusalem. He sees a fig tree in the distance. He approaches it. It says in verse 13, seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, he went to see if perhaps he would find something on it. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves for it was not the season for figs. And so from a distance, it appeared to produce fruit. But in reality, it only had leaves. And upon close inspection, Mark makes it clear that the tree had leaves, but no fruit. Notice how Mark says, if perhaps he would find something, though it was not the season for figs. Hosea 9 verse 10 refers to what is called the early fruit of the fig tree. There was a possibility that it would have small, unripe figs that could be eaten. But when Jesus came, he found nothing but leaves. In other words, it had the appearance in promised fruit, but in fact, it wasn't producing any at all. So Jesus' response is recorded in verse 14. It says, let no one eat fruit from you ever again and his disciples heard it. So that's a picture. That's a picture of the judgment that is going to fall on the nation of Israel for rejecting Messiah. You see, by combining the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple, we get a picture. Even as a fig tree had a promise of hunger being satisfied, even so the temple made a promise to satisfy spiritual hunger, but both were barren. The temple was the center of Jewish worship, but it was filled with hypocrisy. The temple held a promise of spiritual satisfaction, but it couldn't keep the promise. This is something Jesus only Jesus himself can do. In Matthew 12 verse 6, he said, I say to you that in this place, there's one greater than the temple. And because that's true, Israel will receive judgment for rejecting Messiah. We'll see that picture next time we're together. So it goes on and it says in verse 15, they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. And he taught them, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves. The scribes and chief priests heard it, sought how they might destroy him, for they feared him because all the people were astonished at his teaching. When evening had come, he went out of the city. The temple, the temple is the place where people met with God. Now I'll give you a little more of a background. Under Moses, the nation of Israel had met with God in a tent. The tent was called a tabernacle. The tabernacle was not a permanent structure. The tabernacle was transportable. It was used from the crossing of the Red Sea until Solomon built a temple. It was used for 400 years. Because they had no way to meet with him, God had established a way for them to do so. What he did is he met with him in something called a tabernacle. In Exodus 30 verse 6, he said, Put the altar in front of the curtain that is before the Ark of Testimony, before the atonement covered that is over the testimony where I will meet with you. Solomon built the temple as a permanent structure in the city of Jerusalem. And in the dedication service of the temple, Solomon prayed this prayer. It's recorded in 1 Kings 8, 28 and 29. He prayed, Give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said my name shall be there, so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. And God answered Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings 9 verse 3. The Lord said to him, I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me. I have consecrated this temple which you have built by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. This is where Israel met with God. This is where Israel made sacrifice. This is where Israel worshipped him. This was a place that was consecrated to God, a place where his name was, a place where his eyes and heart remained. It was a place that had been desecrated by the people's unholy casual indifference and Jesus enters into the temple and he enters in with the intention of cleansing it once again. You see, this is the second time he cleanses the temple. He cleansed it at the beginning of his ministry and now closes his ministry in the same way. It's been said that hardness and habits of sin are not necessarily cleansed the first time they're dealt with. How many times does the Lord have to deal with us in certain things? Some habitual sins, some sin that we're in bondage to, a sin that we're holding fast to and the Lord keeps on convicting us and keeps on one finger at a time removing us from that one sin. The lessons are not always learned the first time they're given. And the hardness of our hearts and the habits of sin aren't necessarily cleansed the very first time. And so Jesus in the beginning of his ministry had entered in in John chapter two and it shows the first cleansing of the temple. And so in the beginning of his ministry, Jesus went in, dealt with this. But three years later he comes in a second time because his hardness had not been dealt with. And so Jesus had entered into Jerusalem. We'd already seen this, how he had entered and surveyed the temple. Then he went and spent the night in Bethany undoubtedly thinking of what he had seen. So once again he's in the temple. He's in a section that is called the court of the Gentiles. It was divided into four areas, four sections. There was the court of the Gentiles, court of the women, court of Israel and court of the priests. And so the Gentiles were allowed to enter into this one particular area. And that's where a lot of the rabbis would do their teaching. But it also had what is called Anas's Bazaar. And it's a place where they were selling sheep and doves. They were selling oil and salt for the Passover festival. Now this was to be a place of instruction. It was to be a place of quiet conversation, of prayer and worship. Instead it had become a marketplace. It was crowded. It was noisy. It was dirty. And it was smelly. Anybody who's ever been around livestock know that. You go into, you know, there's different places. I've been like even the Chino auction in certain times. We've gone there and if they have sheep or goats or whatever, you know, that section smells. And so that's what the temple area was like now. It was dirty. It was smelly. It was noisy. It was supposed to be a place where you had quiet conversation. It was supposed to be a place where the visiting rabbis would be seated and they would speak to students. There would be people who would walk up and rabbi would have conversation with them. That's what the temple area and the quarter the Gentiles was used for. But it was now being desecrated. It was now being profaned. Instead of being that place of worship and prayer, those who were arriving for Passover were actually being robbed. There was a prophet that was being made off of the sincere pilgrims who had come to celebrate the feast. How did this happen? How was it that you would come to a place of worship and actually get ripped off? Well, the religious leaders had found a way to make a financial profit. You see, in order to celebrate Passover, it was necessary to have an offering. It was necessary to have a lamb. Also, there were pilgrims who were coming to make various offerings like sin offerings or thank offerings. And so what had happened is concession stands had been set up and fees were charged and the priests had actually established inspectors. Now they did this to appear to be honoring the lies that related to acceptable offerings. Exodus 12.5 says your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. The lamb was to be without blemish, a year old male. And Leviticus 22, 21 and 22. It says, when anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering to the Lord to fulfill a special vow or as a free will offering, it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable. Do not offer to the Lord the blind, the injured or the maimed or anything with warts or festering. That sounds funny to me, I'm sorry. Or festering or running sores. Do not place any of those on the altar as an offering made to the Lord by fire. Don't give me an imperfect offering. Don't bring in something that you don't want. You've got a flock of sheep and one of them's puny and unhealthy. So just to get rid of it, you just give it to me. Don't do that. I want the best that you have is what the Lord was saying. You don't give to me something that you yourself don't want. You give to me something that matters to you, something that is your best, not your least. And don't bring these imperfect animals as sacrifices and think that I'm going to accept them. And so that was the way it was supposed to be. But what would happen is the inspectors would declare the animals unfit and they'd confiscate them. Since they needed an offering, they had to buy what would be called a pre-inspected animal. And the pilgrim would pay up to 10 times the value of that animal. And with the incredible crowds that would show up for Passover, there was an incredible profit being made at that time. A second thing about this is at that time they would pay what is called their temple tax. It was for the maintaining of the temple. Foreign currency was not accepted because it was unclean. And so if I brought in a foreign lives from Syria or as from some other place, and I brought in the coinage of that realm, I had to exchange it for Jewish shekels. But there was a 25% rate of exchange. And so I was being ripped off in both ways. And the one who was profiting the most was the former high priest, the man named Annas. Annas was a father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was a high priest that year. Annas was the one who was overseen in control of what was called Annas's bazaar. So Jesus walks in, notice verse 15. And he went into the temple and he began to drive them out. Psalm 5 verse 10 says it like this, pronounced them guilty, oh God, let them fall by their own counsels, cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you. And notice in verse 16, he would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. He stopped people from using the temple grounds as a shortcut. They would go through the temple grounds carrying their goods, and he stopped them from carrying these wares. He exercised absolute control over the temple. And then he began to speak in verse 17, and he taught them, saying to them, is it not written, my house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves. God intended the temple to be a place of worship. It was a place of instruction, and prayer is a place of worship for all. Isaiah 56.7 says, my house will be called the house of prayer for all nations. Instead of being such a place, it had become a place that dishonored him. Jeremiah 7 verse 11 says, has this house, which bears by name, become a den of robbers to you. Instead of worship, it had become a place of thievery and hypocrisy. And seeing that his father was blasphemed and his temple desecrated, it moved Jesus to action. And he responded. He responded with a righteous anger toward those who were doing such a thing. Psalm 69 verse nine says it like this, zeal for your house has eaten me up. What had happened is the people were being disillusioned. They were being disillusioned by those who should have known better. Coming to the temple should have been a deeply spiritual time. Making offerings, raising your voice in prayer and worship should be a blessing. And said, religious opportunists had taken advantage of them and had quenched the spirit. So I want to make that practical. The role of the pastor teacher is to equip the saints with God's word. And when the saints are equipped with God's word, they are being equipped for works of service and the ultimate reality of that being equipped is it produces joy. And God had said to the nation of Israel in Jeremiah 3.15, he had said, I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. I'm going to give you shepherds who know me. They're going to lead you with knowledge, not simply intellectual knowledge or book knowledge. They're going to have a knowledge that has been sorted into their life and it's given to them experience and so with knowledge of what is true and understanding of that because it's practically applied, these shepherds are going to minister to you and produce in you a joy in the things of God. You see a pastor teacher using New Testament terminology, a pastor teacher isn't somebody who's supposed to entertain. The church is not to be a place where people get away with sin. The church is not to be a place, it becomes a marketplace that smells all the way to heaven because there's so much ego and so much bad stuff going on. The church is supposed to be a place where the people coming are fed the word of God so that they can go out and live for Jesus Christ. And if there's anything that we need today, we need more pastors who are willing to teach the Bible rather than just talking to the people. That's the truth, we're living in a time, this is where I have to be careful. This is just where my heart has been for, next month we celebrate 41 years as a church. Next month, 41 years, I haven't changed. I was sharing with the guys last night that this has always been serious to me. You guys, my people, the fellowship here are visitors. You come expecting to receive a Bible study. That's what you come, I would hope that's what you come to church for, not entertainment of any sort, not to be giving you news updates but to be receiving God's word. So you can leave this place serving Jesus Christ. That's what you come to church for. Every time I look out, if I take the time in, I won't go too deeply into this but every time I look out at my congregation, I talk to people in between services and all, I hear a lot of pain. Yes, there's joy. Yeah, there are times that people will walk up and share with me how wonderful the Lord has been to them and the good blessings that God brings indeed and thank God for those things. But I hear a lot of pain. I hear a lot of pain. I've heard so many stories, so many broken hearts. It's just standing up there. I remember standing up in the front there and a lady walking up to me sharing with me that it was a Sunday and the lady shares with me that her husband had died that Friday. Two days later there she is standing here speaking to me and your heart is touched. And then the next person who came up said, and they don't know what the first person was sharing with me, the second comes up and says, Pastor, guess what? I asked my girlfriend to marry me. I'm gonna get married. And in two conversations, back to back, there's tears and there's joy. And I hear that all the time. You know, if I look out and I spend some time, I can look in, I can see one person over here or one person over there during my regular teaching and I'll remember their stories even as I teach. Part of the reason I don't look too closely is because I know so many stories and I'm very careful with that. There's a lot of joy but there's a lot of pain. A lot of pain. I could tell you story after story after story. And people don't understand that sometimes. They come to church and they think, oh, I should be getting this or I should be getting that. But it's the word of God that heals. He sent his word and he healed them. The scripture says it's the word of God that heals our broken hearts. That's what heals us. Gives us hope. It awakens our eyes to the God who loves us and makes us aware of the fact that we may be going through pain but that pain will be healed and God is still there no matter what we experience. So when I give the word of God, I have to be careful. I have to be careful to honor him by rightly dividing the word that I also as a pastor have to be careful to realize that I might have certain opinions or feeling strong about something but what we need is to know what the word of God has to say because in that word, you're instructed in that word, you receive life. In that word, you are healed. In that word that God gives to us, our lives are changed. And God said, I will give you shepherds and they will feed you with knowledge and understanding. I will give you shepherds who will divide my word. I will give you shepherds who will speak my word to you for the moment and if you listen carefully, you'll receive your answer. If you hear what the word of the Lord is saying, you'll walk out with hope. God is in control. No matter what it looks like, the devil is a liar but God has triumphed in Jesus Christ and we walk out with that knowledge and so it may be difficult but we can still make it, we will make it. You see false shepherds misrepresent God and false shepherds lead people astray. Jeremiah 23, 16 says it like this. This is what the Lord Almighty says, do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you. They fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds not from the mouth of the Lord. So God's method of presenting truth is through the teaching of His word and it's in this way that His people are safeguarded from error and it's in this way they can be blessed. Ephesians 4, verse 14 says that we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves blown here and there by every wind of teaching by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. So you're equipped for works of service. You see God loves His children and God will clean up His own house first and God deals with leaders but He also deals with the entire church. In 1 Peter 4, 17, it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God and if it begins with us what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? God loves us and God brings correction to us. The chastening of the Lord when we go through it through the word of God and the conviction it's for a moment but the fruit is for eternity. No chastening at that moment is pleasant but when God chastens us when He awakens us to areas of our life that He's not pleased with and we yield to Him though we may be spanked by the word and the spirit our life is turned around to do those things that pleases God and He pours His blessings out on us. That's how it works and the judgment comes upon God's children first. So many times I see this where believers are so mad at the world that they actually hate it. They hate the world. Well, we're to hate the world in the sense of its philosophies and the things that lead to judgment but we're not to hate the people. And sometimes I'm telling you I can do this and I'm sure there must be one or two who also can get frustrated with people in the world and because sometimes they can be very rude. Sometimes they can be very obnoxious sometimes very arrogant. And in my heart I'll say my goodness Lord let me, if you don't mind me I pray as David did smite them oh Lord break their teeth and they says no that's not the way it's supposed to work. Oh okay I'm sorry. I thought I was praying according to scripture but apparently not. We serve a good and loving God. We also serve a God who is holy. A God who doesn't take pleasure in sin. And when Jesus walked into the temple that second time and the smell and the chaos and the disruption, the lack of respect, the profaning of that which is holy he drove them out again. He was angry with a righteous indignation. My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. You have made it a den of thieves. You have brought into my father's house sin. You're profiting off of the religious faith of people. I was watching it was on one of the social networks a video of a young man I'll leave his name out of the conversation. But he got so excited as he was teaching his people about God in you that he raised his voice with a lot of passion and he said this, this is a quote he said I am God to the cheering of his congregation. I am God and I shake my head and I say you know exuberance is one thing but blasphemy is another. There's only one God and he's not it. And so when you have a preacher who is saying to you I am God and people are there the next week there's no discernment in the church. They're allowing deception to rule their lives rather than true. And when pastors like myself will say something that this is wrong there are always fan clubs that will get upset and will say how judgmental of you. And the only ones who ever say things like that are the ones who don't read their Bible. Because if you read your Bible you will know that what was said is true. Man is not God. Why would you support one who says he is? But people get angry because that's their pet. That's the person they like. That's the one who makes me feel good. No, Jesus could say the same thing today in many places. And that's why God says the one I will hear is the one who trembles at my word. The one who understands that my word is what sets people free. And that congregations, communities gathering together are not intended to be a holy kind of pep rally but are to be gathering together so that they might with sobriety live in a world that is 100% in opposition to them. Even as Paul spoke of it in that way, the days are evil, they are hostily opposed to you. And those of us who go into that marketplace those of us who go into the areas and talk to people and some of them get so angry and some of them are so set on their ways and we know what the abuse of the world can give to those who believe in Christ. We know those experiences. We've had them. I've had those for many years because of who I am. I've had conversations on planes with people who get mad at me simply because I'm a pastor. I've shared this before, but I was on a train, Marie and I were on a train. We were on our way to, we were in England. We were on our way into London. I was doing ministry in Scotland. I sat next to a lady, Marie sat across from me and the lady begins to tell me who she is. She's from like a Northeastern state, Maine or Massachusetts, I forget now. And I said, what are you doing here in England? And she says, oh, she says, I sing and the word was body, B-A-W-D-Y body, off color. She says, I sing off color tavern songs and that's what I do. And I said, oh, is that right? Didn't say a thing. Didn't say a thing to her about it. I said, oh, is that right? She goes, yeah, and she's laughing, you know, real friendly. And then I turn around and she says to me, what do you do? I said, I preach against, no, I didn't. I said, I said, I'm a pastor. That's all I said. I'm a pastor. And she looks at me and she literally, Marie can tell you, she was watching and was right across from her. She kind of grits her teeth at me. I hate it when people preach to me. I hadn't said a word, hadn't said a word. I just smiled at her. She goes, I hate it when people shove their gospel down my throat. And I said, but it's okay for you to shove yours down mine. And she says, when do I do that? I said, your philosophy is shove down my throat every time I watch TV, every time I turn on the radio, every time I see a billboard on a highway, every time I read a newspaper, your philosophy is shove down my throat 24 seven. And you're telling me that I'm shoving my philosophy down your throat. She didn't appreciate it, but that's a nice way to shut somebody up. Because they do that. They do that. Every time your commercials, your magazines, your music, your movies, your entire world is shoved down my throat constantly. And it's shoved down yours too. Watch a football game, watch a baseball game. Just this last week, you see the LA Dodgers, those who like the Dodgers, I know there's some unenlightened people in this room who don't, and then you look at this pride logo on the LA Dodgers pitching mound. Why? Why do I have to have that shoved down my throat? Just play ball, just play baseball. Just stop shoving your philosophy down my throat. But they do it constantly. So what are we gonna do? Am I gonna come up here on Sunday and make a whole sermon out of that? No, but I will point it out. That's what we live under. That's what Christians live under. And if this church became a place to just rally you against the world and the spirit of the age, rather than teaching you who Jesus Christ is and the joy of salvation and the power of the word and the power of the spirit, I wouldn't be doing a service to God. And that's why Jesus got frustrated. My father's house should be called a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves. You're profiting off of the people's religious sentiment. You're ripping them off. And this is not the way it's to be. The people are to be able to come into the court of the Gentiles. You and Gentile alike to hear the truth of who God is. But instead of doing that, you're disillusioning them and you're blaspheming. And when the men, his men saw this, it got them, it pumped them up to know what they were to do. But notice verse 18. It says, the scribes and chief priests heard it and saw how they might destroy him for they feared him because all the people were astonished by that, is teaching they don't appreciate hearing when they're wrong. We know that, they get upset when they're wrong. But they couldn't do anything. They wanted to destroy him, but they couldn't. You see, his popularity through his teaching and miracles had caused them to be agitated. His raising Lazarus from the dead had sent a shockwave through the people and many had come to see him because of what he had done. John 11 45 says, many of the Jews who had come to marry and seen the things Jesus did believed in him. And in John 12 18, for this reason, the people also met him because they heard that he had done this sign, the raising of Lazarus. So what kept them from attempting to take him? Well, this occurred the day after his triumphal entry. He was popular. The temple trade was unpopular and the people supported his action. His action spoke of his great authority. So no one would challenge him and it wasn't his time. They didn't take him because it wasn't his time. That would take place later in the week. And so verse 19, when evening had come, he went out of the city. He left and once again went to Bethany. Matthew 21 17 says he left him and went out to the city of Bethany where he spent the night. He left them, but he'll be coming back and we'll be watching what takes place when he comes back and how the continuation of this story falls into place the next time we come together. So let us remember one thing. When we gather as God's community, as believers in Jesus Christ, let us do it with the purpose of knowing his word because the day will come they will no longer endure healthy teaching but will heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears will turn aside from the truth and be turned unto fables, Paul said. In the last days, people will not want to hear the truth. They're gonna want their ears tickled with the things that they like. Let us not become that. Let us be people who go through the whole word of God so the word of God can go into us so that when we leave this place we can say to the Lord God, I wanna serve you. I don't wanna be one who merchandises you. I don't wanna be one who is distracted from you. I wanna remain in the center of your wording in your will. I wanna be that one that you're pleased with because that's what coming to fellowship is for, instruction in the word of God so that we might live for God when we leave these precincts. May God help us to really be people of the book, people in his word. Father, we ask that you would work in us.