 We're going to be looking today at Luke chapter 19 verses 45 through 48. The final cleansing is what I've chosen to entire this installment in our study here in the book of Luke. And so beginning in Luke chapter 19 at verse 45, reading to verse 48. Luke writes, he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, it is written, my house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And he was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy him and were unable to do anything for all the people were very attentive to hear him. So as we set this up, let's remember what we've been studying here in the gospel of Luke. Jesus entered into the city of Bethany. He entered into the city of Bethany on a Sunday night and he spent the night in that city. According to Mark chapter 11 verse 11, Jesus had gone into Jerusalem, into the temple. When he looked around at all things as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12. Now Bethany is just a few miles southeast of the city of Jerusalem. So as we pick up this story right now, it's actually Monday and Jesus is returning to the city of Jerusalem. Mark tells us in Mark 11, 12, the next day he came out from Bethany. And then in chapter 11 verse 15 of Mark, it says they came to Jerusalem and Jesus went into the temple. And so that's what's taking place. This is a Monday. Jesus had entered into the city of Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. He walked into the temple area. He surveyed it and as he did so, he left because the hour was late. He went just a few miles southeast to a small city, a village really called Bethany. Spent the night there. Next morning, gets up, it is now Monday and he goes into the temple once again. Now this temple, as we've looked at it in Scripture, was the center of Jewish religious life. The temple is the center of the worship of the nation of Israel. It's the place where the Jewish believer would meet with their God. Now under Moses, the nation of Israel met in a portable tent. It was called the Tabernacle. It wasn't permanent at all. It was simply a portable tent of meeting because the people of Israel, the children of Israel, the nation had yet to enter into a promised land so there was no permanent structure. When God was given them orders concerning worship of him in the book of Exodus in chapter 30 verse 6, he said, put the altar in front of the curtain that is before the ark of the testimony, before the atonement cover that is over the testimony where he says, I will meet with you. And so the Tabernacle, which later on when it was constructed became the temple, was a place where God would meet with the children of Israel. In the history of Israel, David had a son, King David had a son. His son's name was Solomon. And Solomon built the temple in order that it might be a permanent place of worship and he did so in the city of Jerusalem. And when he finally finished the construction of that temple, he prayed and as he prayed, this is what he prayed. It's recorded in 1 Kings chapter 8 verses 28 and 29. He's praying to the Lord God and he says, 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 so as he's praying, he says, Lord, and he reminds him, you said that you would be there with us. You said, my name shall be there. And then according to 1 Kings chapter 9 verse 3, God's answer came to Solomon and 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. And so the temple was the center of religious life in the nation of Israel. It is where Israel would meet with their God. It was at the temple that they would make their sacrifice. It was at the temple that they would pray that they would worship him. And now Jesus is entering into this temple and as he enters into the temple he has one intention and that is he's about to cleanse it. Now he's not just physically going to cleanse the temple. He's cleansing it from spiritual pollution. This isn't the first time that he does this. This is actually the second time recorded in the New Testament that Jesus cleansed the temple. It's recorded in John chapter 2 verses 13 through 17 that he in the beginning of his ministry actually had gone into the temple and had originally cleansed it. In John 2, 13 through 17, John writes, the Passover of the Jews was at hand. Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business. When he had made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers money and overturned the tables. And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. Then his disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house has consumed me. So he had done this at the beginning of his ministry. Why does he have to do it at the conclusion of his ministry? Well it's because hardness and habits of sin are not necessarily cleansed the first time they're dealt with because God sometimes has to come back and repeat the action. He does it in our lives. He does it in mine. Just because I'm convicted, repent, turn away from something doesn't mean that later on. Two, three, five years later I might not begin flirting with that sin again. And so he's going to come back and cleanse and come back and cleanse and continue doing so. And that's a good picture here of how God continues to work to bring purity into a person's life. He did so with the temple. Now as I said he had arrived on Sunday in the city of Jerusalem. He spent the night in the city of Bethany. No doubt thinking about what he had seen. He comes back the next morning. There he is in what is called the outer court or the court of the Gentiles. And as he's there he can see in this area that booths have been set up for the purchase of sacrificial animals. There are tables that have been set up for those who exchanged money. Because shekels were the only coins permitted for money offerings or purchase of sacrificial animals, a foreigner who would come in bringing their foreign currency would have to have it exchanged there in order that they might purchase a sacrificial animal. And so they had the money changers there. So obviously corruption had crept in. There were high exchange rates that were now being charged and they were defrauding the pilgrims who were coming in to worship the Lord. As he goes in he sees that there are people there selling oxen, they're selling sheep, doves, oil, salt, all of this for the Passover festival. It's now like a marketplace, like an open air market. Some of us have gone to these where you go in and they do have the animals in pens and it smells and it's noisy. And that's what the temple is like in that outer court. It stinks, it's noisy. It's not the kind of place that you can come in and have a quiet time of teaching and meditation because it's now being desecrated. It's being profaned and pilgrims are being defrauded. There's a prophet that's being made off of the sincere pilgrims who came to celebrate the feast. Now what was it that they were doing to make a prophet off of these pilgrims? Well, remember they needed to have offerings. And so what happened is they set up concession stand fees and they charged the people when they would come in with their animals to have the animals inspected. What they would do is they would walk in with a sheep or a proper animal for sacrifice, a dove or whatever. As they brought it in, they had the inspectors there who would look at them and often would say, I'm sorry, but this animal is defective, it's not proper, it cannot be used as an offering to God. You see, the Bible tells us in Leviticus in the Old Testament, chapter 22 verses 21 and 22, 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 the warts or festering or running sores. Do not place any of these on the altar as an offering made to the Lord by fire. And so they would look at these animals and they'd say, oh, this has a running sore, this thing is just not perfect and so they would take it, they would re-pin it, and then they would sell them an animal at an exaggerated cost as they were declaring the animals unfit. And what they would do is they would charge them more and rip them off. Sometimes the pilgrim would pay up to ten times the value of the animal. You can imagine with the thousands of pilgrims who were there how much money was being made as they were being ripped off. Not only would they come in there and have to buy a sacrificial animal, but at that time also the Jews would come in to pay what they called the Temple Maintenance Tax. Do you see that in the book of Exodus in chapter 30 verse 13? And so foreign currency was regarded as being unclean, so you would have to take your dollar and exchange it for shekels, but they would charge you something like 25% for the exchange. So the result was again an incredible amount of profit. Now the former high priest Anas was the one who was making the profit. This was actually at the time of Christ called the Anas's Bazaar. And so he was making a tremendous amount of money off of the ripping off the crowd, ripping off of the religious sentiments of the pilgrims and all, and that's what Jesus is upset about. And so as the Lord Jesus Christ walks in, notice verse 45, notice how it says he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it. His immediate response was to once again drive them out. He drove them out of the place. He drove all of them out who were buying and selling in that temple. Not only that, but Mark tells us in chapter 11 verse 16 that he would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. And what he does is he begins to exercise absolute authority, absolute control over that area, over the temple, and he begins to speak to them. And as he does, so verse 46, he says, it is written, my house is a house of prayer. You have made it a den of thieves. You got to angry. The temple is not to be desecrated like this. Now, when Mark speaks of the same event in Mark chapter 11 verse 17, he says, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. That's the full scripture. That's found in the book of Isaiah chapter 56 verse 7. My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. You see, when you went to the temple, it actually had four courts. It was divided into four courts. You had what is called the outer court. You had the second court, the court of the women, the third court, the court of the men, the fourth court, the court of the priests. The outer court was a court of the men. It was also referred to as the court of the Gentiles. It was the outer court. The outer court area is where all of this is taking place, and it's the one place that a Jewish person and a Gentile could actually come together in the worship of God. It's the only place where the nations could assemble in temple precincts. The other three courts, the women, the court of the men, the court of the priests, were restricted to Jews alone. The outer court, the court of the Gentiles, the outer court is a place where a Jew and a Gentile could actually worship together. The only place in the structure, and so that's where all of this is taking place. And so Jesus, as he's there, is upset because the area is filled with people profiteering from the religious faith of people, and as he sees this, he gets angry. The temple isn't a marketplace. It's his father's house. It's a place of worship. Now when you read this, how that Jesus did this, he began to drive out those who bought and sold in it. Do you guys remember, some of you are old enough too? Others, let me give you a brief history lesson. There was a guy who used to coach, I think it was Indiana. His name was Bobby Knight. Anybody remember that name, Bobby Knight? He's very famous because he used to pick up chairs and throw them across the court at referees and stuff. I mean, the guy was a monster. He'd get angry at a call, and he'd pick up a chair and throw it. He grabbed his players, and he was very violent. What is Jesus a spiritual Bobby Knight? Is that's what taking place here? That he's angry and he's all fleshly? Listen, I have had people who have seen this event and have spoken to me about it and said, well, Jesus meek and mild, loving, how could a meek, mild, loving, compassionate savior get so angry? They don't understand the concept of a righteous indignation. There is a time to have an indignation in your heart over injustice. There is a time, and it's proper when you hear of babies being murdered in the womb. The church ought to be indignant about that. The church ought to be angry about how that is looked at as being okay. I remember many years ago when Columbine occurred. All of us were old enough. Remember Columbine? I have a friend of mine who passed Calvary Chapel out there in Columbine, and he went and ministered when that took place, was ministering to so many people, members of his church, had kids who went to the high school. When that went down, my friend was out there ministering and did a lot of ministry amongst the shell-shocked community, the shell-shocked parents, and the thought that kids, some young high school kids could enter into a school and could just randomly take the lives of people, shock this nation, shocked us as a nation as it should have. I remember speaking to our congregation when that took place so many years ago, and I remember saying this to our congregation. I said, would you not think that the safest place for a child should be a classroom? Wouldn't you think that? That a child going to school ought to be safe, and wouldn't you think that the safest place for a child ought to be when you drop them off at school and they go in that they're going to be safe? And my congregation at that time nodded their head in agreement. Yes, you would think that's the safest place for a child. And I said, and that's where we as a nation are wrong, because if you kill a child in the womb, you will kill a child in a classroom. When you begin to diminish the value of life in the womb, what surprises you about somebody taking a gun and shooting a child in a classroom? Why should that surprise you? And yet we still remain surprised when we see the violence in the nation that we live in, the violence that we see as acceptable, that is even a sport, the violence that we see today that we say is okay. As a nation, we've got our values backwards. We really do. We get angry at the wrong things. We get angry at the wrong things. Or we get angry at one thing that it's right to be angry about and aren't angry about things that we ought to be angry about. I watch TV like you do, most of you, I'm sure, watch TV. And as I'm watching TV, they have words that are censored on just ordinary channels. They're censored. You'll see the words, their mouths moving, and then some other word comes out and you know they said something that was pretty nasty, shouldn't have said that. It's censored. It's interesting to me how you cannot say certain words, but you can, because they bleep it out. But you can say God's name in vain and nobody bleeps that out. That amazes me. Ethnic slurs are bleeped out. But taking the name of the Lord thy God in vain is not. Americans get angrier at ethnic slurs than they do over God's name being used improperly. I find that twisted. I think you've got to be angry about both. But what do we end up with? Well, no, you can say God's name. It's okay. But don't say this. We get angry over secondhand smoke. We ban commercials for cigarettes on TV. But we don't have any problem at all with a variety of other sins that are absolutely immoral. We just don't have a problem with that. I think there is a time, a right time, and no, I'm not saying let's go march. You know, I'm not going to be handing you placards and axes. Let's go destroy something. I'm not saying that if you want to. No, I'm not saying that. I'm not of that stripe. I do not go for that at all. I'm not into that in the least. What I'm saying, though, is there's got to be a passion in our heart for the right kinds of things. And there should be something inside of us that, though it doesn't express itself through violent action, it should be something that is very strong in us so that we're willing to go to the mat for some things. So you're with three or four friends and they're saying things that are improper about the Lord, about Christianity in general, and we sit there quietly and say nothing. Well, they just constantly say things about the church, about the Bible, and we don't say a thing about it, because we just don't want to cause problems. Now, there are times that we need to say, excuse me. You know, you guys are my friends and I love you, but you've got it backwards. You know, we need to come out of the closet ourselves as Christians. We need to stand up and say, this is what I believe. This is what the Word of God says. Now, part of the reason we don't do that is because we're still learning what the Word of God says, and sometimes we're afraid. Sometimes we don't want to say the wrong kind of thing, but I learned a long time ago, if I'm quiet, my silence is in agreement with their position. There are times that I have to say, you know what, I don't agree with you. I don't want to necessarily get you angry at me, but to be honest with you, I disagree with what you're saying, and this is the reason why. I learned to do that when I was about 23 years old. I started learning actually earlier, 2021. I started learning to do that. I started doing it in classrooms at the age of 23 to professors. And I'd say, I disagree with that. This is what I believe as stupid as I felt and as stupid as they could make me look. I didn't want them to think that I was going to sit there not in agreement with everything they said just because they have a PhD and I don't, because I know one thing is true, and it's the Word of God. And what I decided was to begin to see what God valued because the things that he values, I want to value. The things that he doesn't value, then they're not worth valuing. It's just that simple to me, and that's what you do as you study the Word of God. Some things are valuable to God, and some things are not. Some things are enough to make him angry. And this is something that we see with the Lord Jesus Christ. He walks into the temple. It's the second time he's done this. And as he sees what's going on, he drives them out and he says, it is written, my house is a house of prayer. You have made it a den of thieves. It's a house of prayer for all nations. You see, one of the lowest things a person can do is to take advantage of somebody's religious faith. I find it interesting in political years and election years that we have in presidential elections. We have politicians who start talking about their Christian faith, their favorite books of the Bible, their favorite scriptures. They talk about being saved or born again, and they use it to their own profit. You know, what you are every other year is more important to me than what you're saying you are right now. I'd like to see a consistency in your walk with God when votes don't matter, when it's just between you and in your conscience in God. I'd like to see that. God's intention for the temple was for it to be a place of worship for him. And Jesus, as he's upset here, is actually combining two Old Testament scriptures. He's combining the book of Isaiah 56 verse 7, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. And Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 11, where the question is asked, has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers to you? And so Jesus sees his father being blasphemed. Jesus sees the temple being desecrated. It moves him to action, and he responds with a righteous anger towards those who are doing such a thing. As we read in John Psalm 69 verse 9, gives to us insight into what is driving him, zeal for your house has eaten me up. Those who should have known better were disillusioning the people. That's because religion sells well. There was a time in this church, and I don't know. Some of you perhaps were with me in the early days. I was a lot more open about things than I am now. And I would stand up and I would say things. I would name names, and I would warn my congregation over and over again, watch out for these people, they're charlatans. And I didn't have a problem saying that. I didn't have a problem saying that at all because they were. And they would do things. They would sell holy hankies and blessed water and all kinds of nonsense. And it used to just get me so upset. And I'd come out here and I'd bubble over in this pulpit and I'd say, watch out. Oh, did I ever get people upset? Because even Christians have their groupies and the groupies would get upset at me. How could you say that this is a profound brother? He's got deep things. You don't give us deep things. This guy gives us deep things and I heard it all. And the bottom line is, is it would bother me because they would say things that were just untrue scripturally. And the poor sheep, the gullible people were buying into it like the time that guy said, I'm going to say something to you that is going to go against your theology, but it's true because I know it's true. It happened to me. And then everybody gets quiet and he says, I cast a demon out of myself. And people hear that kind of thing. I cast a demon out of myself, he says. And I'm thinking, yeah, that goes against everything I believe, because it's wrong. How do you cast a demon out of yourself? You do. Look in the mirror and say, I mean, what did you do? I mean, and you didn't come out because he's still in you. He's a lion demon. You know, and I, you know, forgive me for this. You know, I've been out of the pulpit two weeks. I'm burning. These are the things that get to me. They really do, because that's the work of a hireling. That is not the work of a shepherd, you see. There are things that you ought to say, no, this is not right. This is not right. This is wrong. And Jesus is absolutely doing that. These people, religious leaders, were taken advantage of the religious faith of these innocent people. And it bothers me too, because I believe it's the heart of Christ. It bothers me too, to see people ripping off the poor saying, if you give me your dollar, God will give you 100. It bothers me to see that, to rip off the poor and to bless them, to give them false blessings, false promises. In 2 Peter in chapter 2, the apostle Peter writes, there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways, and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with stories they've made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, their destruction has not been sleeping. One TV preacher said that he was preaching, and he froze in one spot for like 24 hours and didn't move. People laughed and came back and he was still frozen in that spot. And then he was reanimated, and people buy that, and they give their money. They give their money to these people. Another preacher said he was preaching, and the Spirit of God was on him so intensely that he actually walked off the edge of the platform and hovered in the air without hitting the ground. Gravity was suspended, as the Spirit of God held him up, and all these poor gullible sheep are clapping and giving their offerings for an obvious madman, if he believes that. One guy told John MacArthur, every morning when I shave, Jesus stands next to me and we have a conversation. Do you believe that? And John MacArthur says, no I don't, but what scares me is I think you do. We have a reasonable faith, a reasonable faith. And when Jesus saw things that were improper, they were taking the temple, the place where you come to worship God, the place where you come, all nations are welcome to have this time of worship, and they're ripping them off, discouraging them. It caused Jesus great anger. He hates hypocrisy, and he cleans up, and he cleans up his own house first. In 1 Peter, in chapter 4 verse 17, the Apostle Peter said, 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? Now as the disciples watched Jesus cleansing the temple, they saw that it is proper to be righteously upset over certain things. Because the temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations. Meaning that faith in God is something that God desires all people to enjoy, not simply the nation of Israel. You see, early in Jesus' ministry, he had begun sending his disciples out to preach his message, and at first he told them, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He said that in Matthew chapter 10 verses 5 and 6, when he says these 12, Jesus sent out and commanded them saying, do not go into the way of the Gentiles, do not enter into a city of the Samaritans, go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And so originally as he was sending his men out, they were to restrict their message to the nation of Israel. But after Jesus' death and after his resurrection, they are now sent throughout the whole world. Go into the whole world, Jesus said, and preach the gospel. Make disciples, and that's a responsibility. Because God's intention is to save all who will place a saving faith in Him. That's why in Revelation chapter 5 verse 9, looking at the redeemed, it says they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals. You were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. God's desire is to reach us all. I thank God that the gospel of Jesus Christ went from Jerusalem into Judea into Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth, which means it came to us here in the United States. And we got a chance to know the God who loves us and gave a son for us. God's intent to be worshiped by all nations. And anything that disrupts that, he's angry about. On a practical level, as I was preparing this today and I started thinking about it just a little while ago, I thought about it again, and I realized that I could be a stumbling block too to people. And I don't think that the Lord Jesus would be pleased with me in the way that I can stumble people from having a faith in Him. It's been said that a professing Christian who lives an ungodly life is just as dangerous as a false prophet or a heretic. Because you're preaching a false message by living a message, living a life that undermines the power of the gospel message. Because the gospel message is one that says that God will transform your life. Isn't that what we tell people? If any man be in Christ he's what? A new creature. All things are what? Passed away. Behold, all things are become new. So I say to people, and I do, you can have a new life in Christ, but I live as if I'm in the old life. And I'm undermining the power of the gospel in my living presentation of it. Because the gospel is presented not just with words, but with works also. Words and works going together. The actions and the attitudes, the beliefs and the behaviors. The gospel transforms lives. No, we're not perfect. No, we're not going to be perfect this side of heaven. But we should be better than we were yesterday. I should be better than I was last year. I should be better today than I was 34 years ago. I should be moving closer to the things of the Lord. If I'm in the word, if I'm in prayer, if I'm walking in fellowship, if I'm sharing my faith, those basic things, if I do that on a daily basis, I guarantee you my life changes. It changes. It changes. But a lot of us, unfortunately, we go two days with the Lord, then we backslide for five. Then we walk two or three more days, and then we backslide for two weeks. Then we walk with him for three weeks because we're really upset at what we've been, and then we backslide again for another week. And that's our life. Two steps forward, one step back. Two steps forward, one step back, and we constantly do that. Well, God, in his word says, He can give me a new life, but I need to say, Lord, then give me that new life. And that's why I wake up every morning and say the same basic thing, God, I need your help today. I need your help today. Because without your help, I'm not going to make it. God, I need your help today because I don't want to be a misrepresentation of the gospel. And I can be a stumbling block, and I realize that. And so God wants us to worship Him. That temple there was a place of prayer, but because of the merchandising of religious faith, it had become a den of thieves. Now in verse 47 it says, He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him and were unable to do anything, for all the people were very attentive to hear Him. So as Jesus was teaching, He would teach there during the day, then He would return possibly to Bethany, perhaps to the garden there in Gethsemane. He'd rest and then He'd come back and He'd continue ministry. As this is taking place, the chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the people were seeking to destroy Him because His action of cleansing the temple infuriated the leadership of Israel. And that's because it brought delight, their hypocrisy, and greed, and they were outraged because it had been exposed. Malachi in chapter 3 verses 1 and 2 says, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me, then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple. The messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty. But He goes on to say, But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. And so when the Lord Jesus came, He exposed these things. And not everybody likes having their sin revealed. Not everybody appreciates it. You know, somebody may come and tell you in love and confront you in love and say to you, You know, I just want to tell you as a brother, you know, I'm concerned about this. And you might smile at them and say, Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. But in your heart, you might be saying, Die, dog, die. You know, how dare you speak to me in such a tone? How dare you? We don't, we don't, we don't, I don't like being told I'm wrong. Who does? Who does? One of the things though that is wise is to listen to correction. The wise man listens to correction. It's a fool that won't listen to a rebuke. If you listen to correction, your wiser still, Proverbs tells us. And that's true. Is it easy? No. What's it require? Humility? Hunger? God, I want to know you. You know, when Marie corrects me, and indeed she does, when she corrects me, don't like it. But you know, she's got such a quality of life, my wife. She's such a good person. And she loves me. I know she's right. I know she's right. Because she's taken the chance of getting me upset. And she knows that I don't like correction any more than anybody else does. But when she does correct me, I listen because she sees something that maybe I'm just not seeing right now. And so I'm a wise man if I listen to her. I'm a wise man. And I'll be wiser still if I do what I know is true. But not everybody wants to be corrected. These people certainly didn't like it. Jesus went in, ruined their business, did it a second time. He'd done it three years earlier. He does it again. They're upset and they want him dead. Their anger is so great, they begin to seek ways to destroy him. Now they've already desired to do that and have done so for a long time. They've been desiring to kill him for some time. But at this moment, they're not going to move because of the people's admiration of him. Jesus had just entered into the city of Jerusalem to the thunderous approval of the people. They had been crying out to him, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord that had just happened. And so they don't want to do anything. They're unable to do anything because the people, according to verse 48, are very attentive to hear him. So they can't mount an attack on him yet, but they greatly desire to do so. You see in John 11, 47 and 48, John writes that the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, what shall we do? This man works many signs. If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation. What can we do? This man is doing something that has joined the hearts of people and we're going to end up being second-class citizens when we're the religious leadership. What shall we do? Well, Luke tells us later on in chapter 22 verse 2 that the chief priests and scribes saw how they might kill him, but they feared the people. Well, ultimately what's going to happen is there's going to be someone who's going to help them. His name is Judas. And Judas is going to make it possible for this to take place. He's going to make it possible for them to be able to destroy this one that they have desired to destroy for some time now. Judas. He's going to make it possible before you notice. As a matter of fact, at the end of the week, he's going to go to them and he's going to say, this is how you can do it. And he's going to make sure that Jesus is betrayed into their hands. Jesus Christ gets angry over the right kinds of things for right reasons. We should have a strong sense in our heart that some things are right. Some things are wrong. The wrong things ought to be righted. And the right things ought to be held fast too. And we ought to hold fast that line and not let the enemy move us away from our position. We're living in a time. I'm telling you, we're living in a time when people are giving up and giving in. I told you I wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the Orange County Register on a Sunday edition. It was actually placed in the center of the page there. Sunday editions of newspapers are the most heavily read newspapers. Sundays are the day that people read their papers. Some people only subscribe to one day, and that's Sunday. It's the number one day that people read their newspapers. And it just so happens I wrote a letter to the Orange County Register relating to the gay situation and marriage and all. And it was put in the center of the second page on the opinion second. Yes, it was there in the opinion section. And I mean that's, you know, and it had a picture of two men's hands with wedding rings and the heading said debunking the gay myth. And it was just a whole, it was just a large section right in the center there. And I didn't even know that. The way I found out is an angry homosexual wrote me a letter. And, you know, and I wrote him back, you know, become my pen pal because, and I actually rejoice over that. And I'll tell you why, because I believe in this one little saying, if you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that barks is the one who got hit. And sometimes people will get angry because you really hit them in a place that they're sensitive to. And so I responded to him and I told him, you're miserable. You're miserable. You know, you use the word gay when in reality you are miserable. You have no joy. And the reason you have no joy is you have no relationship with God. And you need that. And so I wrote him back and shared a long letter with him in response because I really believe that we're living in a time when the church had better wake up. We are that frog in that kettle of water. It's beginning to boil, but we don't notice the temperature change. And we're going to boil the death if we don't wake up. We need to start looking out at our culture realizing that we are salt. We are light. We are a voice that the Lord would have to speak to a generation that needs a clear voice. This is the way, follow it. And that's what the church is called to do. Don't be afraid to speak out for truth. Don't be afraid to stand up for Jesus Christ. Don't be afraid to open your mouth because the Scripture says if you open your mouth I will fill it. Jesus said that it is the spirit of your Father who will speak through you. I will give you words and wisdom which none of your enemies will gain say nor resist. So you just say Lord I'm going to open up my mouth oh God help me but out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. I've been in your word Father I'm asking you to give me an answer to this person. Give me the ability to communicate what is true. Why? Because we want to argue no because eternity is at stake. Many years ago, I'll close with this, many many years ago back in 1985 I received a phone call member of our congregation was dying. Can you visit him in the hospital? And I said of course. He was dying of a disease that we had just begun to become aware of. It was a disease that originally was called grids but had been changed to AIDS. Grids, gay related immunodeficiency syndrome because it was gay related because those who had been contacted had been involved in homosexual relationships. The first ones that were documented were homosexuals therefore they call it gay related but because the homosexual community got so upset they changed it to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Some of you know that I've said this before. But it was a new category of disease and I was given that phone call and that request to come. And as I went to the hospital and I stood outside and I looked into that window and I saw him, he had all of these tubes on his body and he hadn't entered into a homosexual relationship but he had an illicit affair and had contacted it in that way. And his wife was very dear to us who was there ministering to her husband. And Randy Walls my assistant at that time we now pastor at Calvary upland and I stood there looking into that room and I was afraid and I turned to Randy and I said I don't know how this is communicated. There are too many things as a new disease we don't know. They're wanting to put gowns on us and masks on us and I said Randy you stay outside I'm going in and Randy says no if you're going in I'm going in with you and so he and I both walk in and I'm quoting Psalm 23 I walk in through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me and I remember that and I walk up to the side of this man's bed and he's very weak and he's lost all of this weight and as he's there his wife wakes him up and he looks at me and he motions and asks her to give him a pen and some paper and as I'm standing next to him and I was praying for him he after I prayed he writes a little something on the paper and hands it to his wife and his wife hands it to me and I'll never forget as I looked at that paper what he wrote he simply wrote these words I am eternally grateful to you and the word eternally I am eternally grateful to you I have never forgotten I have never forgotten why because he died and he went to be with the Lord because in our ministry he had come to faith in Jesus Christ and the word eternity to him wasn't something he was afraid of it was something that he was able to enter into with confidence no he didn't get healed from AIDS but he has no disease now he's walking with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven beholding his face the gospel righteousness the grace of mercy compassion power all of that is eternally eternally important to us and when Jesus walks into his father's house and sees what they're doing to those pilgrims ripping them off my father's house is a house of prayer for all nations and you have made it into a den of thieves yes he got upset over that because God wants all men to be saved to come to a knowledge of the truth and so I as a minister I have to be careful to represent his heart sometimes I don't probably tonight I didn't very well but in some ways I do and one thing is I want to know him him in his word that we might have an eternity with him and Jesus wants that too