Confronting Religion Pt 1

All right, if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 21. Matthew 21. This morning we start into a series over the next few chapters called Confronting Religion. Because that's exactly what Jesus is going to do is he's going to begin to confront the religious leaders of the day. And as he does so, there's a handful of things that we'll see.

We'll see him do. But before we get to those handful of things that we'll see him do, I would like to spend just a few minutes talking about religion. Because as I was putting together the title of this and sort of thinking through it, I started thinking about, well, there's a lot that's said about religion today. So let's see if we can't look up some definitions of it.

So I went on to the old Google machine and I looked up the definition of religion. And you know what's really funny? The definition of religion, if you look at Wikipedia, it says, The word religion is one of the most hotly contested words to define today. And I was like, isn't that funny? Not much has changed. Well, so I did find some definitions of religion, though.

So I'd like to read a couple of them to you. I believe this first one's out of the Oxford Dictionary. It says that religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman being that controls and has power, a god. Miriam Webster. Defines it like this. Religion is a personal set or institutionalized system of attitudes, beliefs, or practices. And the Ryan Standard Dictionary says this.

Religion is man's pursuit of God. Now, typically, when you're talking in Christian circles, most people like to use the same line. Well, you see, following Jesus isn't a religion. It's a relationship. And while it's true. The relationship is at the heart of what it's supposed to be. There's really nothing wrong with religion in and of itself. Especially when you look at those definitions.

Religion really is man's pursuit of God. It really is a belief in and worship of God. And it really is a set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices based upon God. The problem that we run into with religion is that at times it can become dead when the attitudes, beliefs, and practices supersede the pursuit of God. You see, religion can end up becoming an end in and of itself, and we can leave God out

of it. That's when religion becomes an issue. And this is exactly what took place with the religious leaders of Jesus' day and why he had to confront them, especially in this last week of his life. And so over the next several chapters, what we're going to see is four things. We will, first of all, see Jesus identify dead religion. We will see Jesus illustrate dead religion through a series of parables that he tells.

We will see him answer the questions of the religious leaders. And then last of all, we will see him condemn dead religion as he pronounces a series of woes on the scribes, the Pharisees, and the chief priests of today. But for today, what we're going to look at is identifying dead religion. Dead religion. And so as we look at this, we pick up in chapter 18 of verse 21.

It says, Now in the morning, when he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing the lone fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only. And he said to it, No longer shall there be any fruit from you. And at once the fig tree withered. Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, How did the fig tree wither all at once?

And Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. Now as Jesus begins to confront religion, and particularly identifying the dead religion of the day. The first thing that we're going to look at is the dead religion.

The second thing that we address is fig trees. Seems like an odd place to start, but that's exactly where Jesus starts. Let's paint some context for ourselves so we remember how we got to where we are today. Right? At the beginning of chapter 21, Jesus came riding into Jerusalem in what's known as the triumphal entry. He came riding in as the Messiah, exactly as prophecy said that the Messiah would come

riding in on the foal of a donkey. And so Jesus comes riding in, and as he comes riding in on the colt of a donkey, the people see him coming. And they start doing something amazing. They start laying down two things in front of him. They start laying down palm branches, which is why we often refer to this as Palm Sunday. And then they begin laying down their coats.

And as they're doing those two things, they begin crying something. They begin crying, Hosanna, which means safe now. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And as we mentioned last week, that is a messianic psalm. So everything about what Jesus is doing right now, it's very messianic in nature. And he is at this point in time saying the time is now, the time has come, and he declares

himself as the rightful king of Israel. Of course, as he declares himself as the rightful king of Israel, he starts off not as the conquering king, but instead as the humble suffering servant. And of course, the first act that he does is he goes into the temple, probably not the first time he's done this, and probably not the first time he's seen all of these people, but he goes into the temple and he sees in that outer court. People.

People merchandising and making money off of the people. And so he drives out those who are selling flocks within the temple, and he overturns all the tables of the money changers. And he says, my father's house shall be called a house of prayer. You've turned it into a den of thieves. At that point in time, he begins healing people. The lame and the blind begin coming to him.

True ministry is taking place in the temple where it should be taking place. He, of course, ruffled all kinds of feathers. Much like another person I've heard, he came in like a wrecking ball and just totally did damage to the entire religious idea at that point in time. And so with that as a backdrop, he then went back to Bethany, stayed the night, probably with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

And now it's time for him to come back into Jerusalem. That brings us where we are here. In verse 18 of chapter 21, he says, now in the morning, when he was returning to the city, he became hungry. Now, the first thing that we see is something very common and very human-like of Jesus, and that's that he is a hungry individual. Honestly, or oddly enough, he's probably staying with Mary and Martha.

And if we know anything about Martha is that she's one of those ladies who, if you leave Martha's house hungry, it's your own fault. One of the commentators said, how on earth he left Martha's house without eating breakfast, no one will ever know, but we can postulate a couple of ideas. Undoubtedly, Jesus did what he so often does. He got up early, and he spent time with his father, especially given the week that he was facing, the week in which he would face his death, he probably spent extra time with the father.

He wasn't thinking much about breakfast because he was focused on the things that were happening in his life. And then he gathered his disciples and said, boys, it's time to head into town. There's work to be done. But on his way into town, he found himself hungry. And along the road, there is this lone fig tree. And it says, As he sees this lone fig tree, he sees that there's leaves on the tree.

Now, I know a little bit about horticulture, but I don't know very much about fig trees. But I've read a little bit this week, and apparently there's two different times when a fig tree produces fruit, early and late. This, of course, would be the early time. And when it first begins to produce fruit, the thing that will always accompany fruit with a fig tree is leaves.

As a matter of fact, anyone who raises fig trees knows that the moment you see leaves start to really show up on a fig tree, there's always fruit that goes along. With it. And so Jesus looks at the fig tree, and that's exactly what he expects to see when he goes up to this fig tree that is covered in leaves. But notice what happens when he sees this fig tree covered in leaves by the road.

It says, He came to it and found nothing except leaves. Leaves, but no fruit. There's something interesting for us to pay attention to here, because this tree gave every outward appearance. It gave every outward appearance of being a healthy tree that should have produced really good fruit for him to have a little bit of fruit for breakfast. And yet, though this tree outwardly appeared to be a perfectly good tree that would have

much fruit, it had on it nothing of value. We'll talk about the symbolism of this with the nation of Israel in just a moment. But I think that there's something here for us to pay attention to. Oftentimes, we can have all of the right appearances. At the right times, and have none of the fruit that goes along with it. None of the fruit that the Holy Spirit would actually like to be producing in our lives.

And so Jesus looks at this tree and performs one of his only destructive miracles. And he looks at the tree, and he says, No longer shall there be any fruit from you. He curses the fig tree. He curses it at this point in time, and it says, Now, this has nothing to do with Jesus' hatred of fig trees, and I don't even think it really has to do with the fact that he couldn't get breakfast, and he's really upset about it.

Instead, there is great symbolism that takes place with the cursing of the fig tree, and it's symbolic of what Jesus is about to deal with as he moves into the city of Jerusalem. You see, lots of Old Testament scriptures refer to the nation of Israel as something. They refer to the nation of Israel usually as one of two things. Either it refers to the nation of Israel as a vine, or it refers to the nation of Israel as a fig tree.

And as Jesus is about to approach the nation of Israel, he has come to understand something about the nation of Israel. Though they have all of the leaves, though they have all of the outward signs of being religiously, healthy, they were still lacking something. And make no mistake about it, the nation of Israel had every outward sign of looking healthy. They honored God's word. As a matter of fact, when a

scribe went to write down the word of God, to copy the word of God, if they came to the name of God, once they had written the name of God, they would then take a bath and choose a clean pen to start writing again because they held the name of God in such high regard. As a matter of fact, we don't know what vowels are actually used in the word for God in the Old Testament. We just know the consonants YHWH because they would never write the full name of God. You see, they honored the name of God and they honored the word of God. They had a beautiful temple. They made sure to keep all of

the sacrifices. They made sure to keep all of the feast days. They made sure to tithe the way that they were supposed to tithe. From the outward appearance, they did everything the way that they were supposed to do it. And yet, they had missed the full name of God. They honored the name of God. They honored the word of God. They honored the main thing because everything in that word that they held in such high regard, everything

that that word pointed to was standing right in front of them and they missed it. They had all of the look of being a fruitful tree, but they lacked all of the fruit. And may I say, brothers and sisters, I fear that sometimes the 21st century church is just like the nation of Israel. So we have all of the look of a healthy tree. We have more Bible translations than we've ever had

before. We have the word of God available to us in more avenues than we've ever had before. There are mega churches all over the country that are constantly adding new services or adding new online platforms because they're growing so much. There are more celebrity pastors than we've ever had before. There's more Christian music being produced than ever before. There's more Christian books being

written than ever before. And yet what we find is that with all of the leaves on the tree, seems like we're missing some fruit because it seems like the church today is a little bit dead. And in the same way that the nation of Israel had all of the leaves, but none of the fruit, I fear that that's who the Western culture church is today. And once you notice what Jesus does, he goes on to say, no longer shall there be any fruit from you. And may I say, that's exactly what's going to happen

to the nation of Israel. Because as a nation, they are rejecting Jesus. As a religion, they are rejecting Jesus. And so what happens? Well, in AD 70, Jerusalem is destroyed. The temple is destroyed and the nation is scattered. And so what happens? Well, in AD 70, Jerusalem is destroyed. The temple is scattered. And remained that way until 1946. Yep. When Jesus dealt with the nation of Israel,

he did so swiftly and he did so without question. You know, we're told something in the book of Romans. We're told in the book of Romans that we as the Gentile church have been grafted in. And if God did not spare the natural branches, meaning the nation of Israel, then we as the grafted in branches, we'd better pay attention because he could remove us too. And as the church,

I think we need to be examining our lives to see if there is really fruit, examining our lives to see if that deadness of religion is in us. And we'll deal with that as we come to the end of the message. And so that's what Jesus does. And as he pronounces this, uh, this, uh, curse on the fig tree, it says at once the fig tree withered. And of course, seeing this, the disciples were,

amazed, were amazed and asked how this fig tree wither all at once. Now I've seen the commercials for roundup, right? Have you ever seen these commercials? You've got those weeds growing in your driveway. If you spray this roundup on it, it'll kill it. I love the time-lapse of, of those commercials, right? Like I wish roundup works in the time-lapse version because it sprays it on

there. And then some guy drinks a glass of iced tea in the time-lapse and the thing just blow away. By the way, I've never killed a weed and had to blow away. That has never yet happened to me. My weed eater takes it away, but that's about it. Anyway, I think that's kind of what happened with the tree here. I think there was one of those time-lapse moments. And the reason I think that is

not only because Matthew records it as having happened all at once, the fig tree withered all at once, but also notice the response of the disciples. They were amazed. I think all the disciples kind of went, you know, it was just one of those moments where they were like, oh, oh my gosh, I can't believe that just happened. And here's what I love about the disciples. The

symbolism was completely missed on them, right? They did not pick up on the subtle symbolism at all. They weren't like, oh, the nation of Israel. I see what you did here. That is mind blowing. But also how did you do it? Nope. Missed the symbolism 110% because notice what they said. How'd the fig tree wither all at once? Essentially they said, how'd you do that? That's the craziest thing I've

ever seen. And what I love about Jesus is that he does not rebuke them for missing the symbolism because you know what? I've wondered about myself sometimes. How many times has God done something and I've been like, how'd you do that? And I completely missed the main point of what he was doing, right? Jesus was like, I was going for something deeper there, but okay, let's deal

with the shallow thing. Let's, let's deal with what actually did catch your attention. And Jesus is always just so patient with us like that, right? Like sometimes, believers in Jesus Christ, we can be shallow pawns, right? And we miss the depth of what Jesus is teaching. And he's like, okay, let's deal with what you will get right now. And so what Jesus does is he uses this as a teachable moment for the disciples. And he teaches them something

about the power of faith. He gives them a lesson in faith. Notice what he says. Truly I say to you, if you do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to the mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen. And all things that you ask in prayer, believing you will receive. There are a few passages of scripture that have been twisted quite as much as this one,

right? So what I want to do is I want to do two things. Number one, I want to deal with the power of this scripture because I think sometimes in our dealing with the twisting of it, we forget the absolute power of it. And then we'll make sure it remains in its correct context so that we don't become name it and claim it saints. So first of all, let's take what it says, because this is

powerful. Jesus says, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will do the same thing that I did. He says, if you have faith and do not doubt, I don't need to see a quick show of hands because I know everyone's answer to this. Who here struggles with doubt? I do. I struggle with believing that God can do certain things. So does that mean I'm never going to be able to

do the kinds of works Jesus wants me to do? No. Because faith without doubt, means that even though I struggle with a little bit of unbelief, I do not stop believing. I do not stop taking these things to Jesus. One of my favorite stories that goes along with this, I've actually got two of them from scripture. One of them is the man that comes to Jesus and his son is in need of being delivered from a demon. And Jesus says, all things are possible

to him who believes. And what does Jesus say? He says, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. What does Jesus say? Or what does the man say? He says, Lord, I believe. Could you help my unbelief? Right? Like that's the most honest answer ever. And at that point in time, Jesus isn't like, nope, you have unbelief. I can't help you. You must never doubt. No, Jesus doesn't do that. He

heals him because he owns up to the fact that I believe you can do this. I still kind of doubt just a little bit, but I'm not going anywhere because you're my only hope. I still believe. And then my second story, or my second, favorite story about this has to do with when Peter was in prison in the book of Acts. You guys remember the story? So Herod had killed James, the apostle, as James was that very first apostle to

be, to be martyred. And he saw that it pleased the Jewish leaders. And so he took Peter into prison as well. And of course, they're just now dealing with the death of James and they don't know if they can handle the death of Peter. So there's a prayer meeting that takes place and they're all gathered at this house and they're praying together and they're praying

fervently that God would deliver Peter from prison. You can imagine how the prayer meeting went. Lord, if it's your will to deliver him from prison, deliver him from prison. If it's your will just to deliver him from death, deliver him from death. But Lord, if it's your will for him to die, give him the grace that he needs. And they're praying this intense amount of prayer.

Meanwhile, an angel shows up, wakes Peter up. All right, Peter, let's go. It's time to head out. Opens up all the prison doors, runs him out of the prison, closes the doors behind him. And then Peter goes to where the prayer meeting is. The prayer meeting's taking place. He's stoked that he just got set free, but he knows hanging out on the street seems like a bad idea at that point in time. So he goes to the door and he's

knocking on the door and everybody's in there praying. And Rhoda, the little servant girl, comes out and she's like, who is it? And he's like, it's Peter. I've been set free. And rather than opening the door, because that's what would make sense at that point in time, she goes back in and tells everybody in the prayer meeting, hey guys, Peter's out there. I think he's been

set free. And they're like, that's just his ghost. You know what I call that? Doubt. Here they are praying that God would set Peter free. He gets set free. He's knocking at the door and they're like, that's just his ghost. Man, listen, are you going to struggle with doubt? Yep. What's the best thing you can do? Just keep going to Jesus. Because that is having faith

that overcomes your doubt. He says, if you do that, you can do the same thing that I just did now with making the fig tree wither. But wait, I'm like Billy Blank. But wait, that's not all. You can also take that mountain, undoubtedly looking at the Mount of Olives, you could take that mountain and you could cast it into the sea. That's pretty amazing power. I don't know what I would do if I was standing

there like in Colorado one day. I was like, ah, the beauty of the mountain. Just dumped into the sea. I'm like, whoa, what was that? To my knowledge, this has never actually happened. To my knowledge, there's never once been a mountain that's been lifted up out its roots and cast into the sea. But it does tell us that there's powerful things that God is able to do.

But as a wise man once said, and I'm not referring to me right now, I really do mean somebody else said it. Sometimes the mountain God wants to move is inside of you. Because while I've never actually seen a mountain picked up and thrown into the sea, I've seen the miracle of salvation. While I've never actually seen a mountain picked up and thrown into the sea, I've seen the miracle of salvation.

never seen a mountain picked up and thrown into the sea, I've seen marriages get healed. While I've never seen a mountain get thrown into the sea, I've seen people come to a place where they can forgive. While I've never seen a mountain thrown into the sea, I have seen God take someone who thought their life was more damaged than God could ever use again and then begin to use them in the most powerful way possible. Yeah, you see, if you believe in amazing things you're able to do and if that's not all, he takes it one step further. He says, and all things that you ask

in prayer, believing you will receive. Now again, I'll get to dealing with the twisting of this scripture in just a moment, but I fear sometimes that as conservative Christians, we can lack the power that God intends for us to have in that verse. We can lack the power and authority that God intends for us as believers in Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to have in that verse. Because brothers and sisters, I think that we as believers in Jesus Christ need to get serious about the way that we claim the promises of God in scripture. Because while we can't claim outside of what God's word has to say, we should absolutely

claim inside of what God's word has to say. And it's okay to get a little bit geeked up about it sometimes. It's okay to get a little bit geeked up about claiming the fact that we want to be saved. It's okay to get a little bit geeked up about claiming that we want to see your family come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We can claim the fact that we want to see your family

members, your friends, you get set free from your addiction to alcohol or drugs or pornography or gambling or whatever it is. We can get geeked up about praying that marriages would be restored once again. And we can begin claiming those things in the name of Jesus because he says, all things that you ask in prayer, believing you will receive. And you say, oh, Ryan, only according to God's will. I get that. We'll deal with that in a minute. But sometimes I think we just need

to believe that God wants to do miraculous things again. I read a book here a while back by Jim Cimbala called Fresh Wind and Fresh Fire. And my favorite chapter in that book is the chapter when his daughter is set free from the things that she had fallen into. Jim Cimbala, God used him to pastor the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, and all kinds of crazy people are getting saved through it. He said, but Satan told me something. He said, I'm coming for your family.

I can't have you. I can't have your church, but I'm coming for your family. He said, my daughter walked away from the Lord in a way that I've never seen anybody walk away from the Lord before. He said, she ran out. She moved out. I didn't think we'd ever hear from her again. He said, I pleaded with God. I bargained with God. I did everything I could. She wasn't coming back. He said, we had these weekly prayer

meetings. In this weekly prayer meeting, one of the sisters came up to me and she said, I feel like the Lord's telling me we need to focus our prayer meeting tonight on your daughter. He said, so we started praying. He said, I don't know what your theology is, and I don't care what your theology is because I know what I saw and I know what I heard. I heard people pray in the most powerful way possible

for the deliverance of Jesus. deliverance of my daughter. He said, so I came home that night after the prayer meeting. When I came home, I looked at my wife and I said, it's done. If that doesn't do it, she's never coming home. He said, I went about the rest of my evening and got ready for bed. All of a sudden we heard a knock at the door. He said, I was upstairs and my wife just screams.

So I come running down the stairs and there's my daughter. God had set her free and she repented of everything that she'd been doing. Friends, I just think sometimes we think God probably won't do it. So we just don't pray with the power God desires for us to pray with. Because I think what Jesus says right here has a great deal of power in it. And we should access it with the full amount

of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we have. I think it's okay if every now and then you get mildly Pentecostal in your prayers. Okay, I'm going to give you that freedom. That being said, Jesus doesn't tell this to the crowds. He tells this to his disciples. How do we define a disciple of Jesus Christ? Chuck Smith always came back to the same thing. He said, if we're going to define a disciple of Jesus Christ,

we'll do it the way Jesus did. He said, if you want to be my disciple, you will deny yourself you will take up your cross and you will follow me. You see, that X's out the twisting of that scripture. Because the way that that scripture often gets twisted is kind of like this. Listen, if you want that new house, the Bible says that all things believing, if you do so without doubting,

you will have what you pray for. Therefore, you need to pray for that house. And if you don't, and if you have faith, God will give you that house. If you want good health, then you need to claim that house. If you want good health, then you need to claim that house. If you want good health, you need to claim your good health. Because God says everything that you pray for, you will receive

if you believe. You want wealth, you need to claim that wealth. Well, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, if my life is surrendered to God, if I have given up my will to pursue him, then all of a sudden prayer is doing what it's supposed to do in my life. Because you see, the goal of prayer is not for God to align his will with mine. It's for me to align my will

with God's. And so that's how we keep from twisting that into the way many would like to twist it. And so we go on from there, because now it's time to leave that poor, lonely, barren fig tree alone and head into Jerusalem. And next we'll deal with the authority. Notice what it says in verse 23. When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him while

he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? Jesus said to them, I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source? From heaven or from men? They began reasoning among themselves saying, if we say from heaven, he'll say to us, why don't you believe in

him? But if we say from men, we fear the people for they all regard John as a prophet. Answering Jesus, they said, we don't know. He said, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. So they move into Jerusalem. Jesus goes into the temple and Jesus does what Jesus does everywhere he goes. Jesus had the heart of a teacher and he was going to teach. And he began to teach the

people. I often wonder what some of these sermons sounded like. It may have sounded very similar to the sermon on the mount. He could have been preaching on Isaiah 53, knowing what he was about to face, the suffering servant, whatever it was, he's in the middle of teaching. So paint the picture in your mind. He's in the middle of teaching. He's in the middle of teaching. He's in

the side of kind of an open courtyard sort of area, undoubtedly the court of the Gentiles, because he wanted as many people as possible to hear. And as he's in the middle of this open air teaching, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the chief priests come to him and they come to him with a question. You can imagine what they did before this, right? You can imagine how they formulated this question because Jesus drove out all of their, uh, all their people selling animals. He overturned all of their tables. He cleansed their temple. And then he called them

when they said, do you hear all these kids praising you? And he goes, Hey, they seem to get it. Why don't you? Right? He, he pretty well had worked them over and in the past 24 hours. And so they're like, how do we get them? I just hate that guy. He gets me every single time. And so they start formulating this question. Like, I know how we'll get him. Let's ask where his authority came

from. Because if he says his authority came from God, we'll call it blasphemy. We say his authority came from men. Well, then what man has the authority over the temple? That's God's temple. This will get him. So, you know, they all went hands in the middle Pharisees on three, one, two, three Pharisees, right? And they go in and they're like, okay, let's take it. So they go in, they

enter the temple and they pull him aside while he's teaching. I think they interrupted him while he was teaching. And they said, I wonder who they chose to be the spokesperson or if they all said it in unison, sort of a choir kind of a moment. They were like, by what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority? Undoubtedly feeling really good. They went,

I did this the other day in Bible class. And I was like, like, the most evil Disney character you can think of. And one of my students goes, Jafar. And I was like, that's exactly right. Right? So, so they did that. And Jesus stood there. Jesus did what Jesus is so masterful at doing. He answers a question with a question. I love it. I have got to remember that the next time somebody asks me a really hard question or a question I don't

want to answer or a question that's stupid, I should answer it with a question. So if I ever answer your question with a question, I'm not saying it's stupid. I'm just saying. So that's Joe. Jesus answers mine with questions all the time. So Jesus says, I'll tell you what, you tell me one thing and then I'll answer you if you answer me. Who gave John his authority?

Uh-oh. He just treaded on some pretty dangerous territory because everybody respected John, right? Even the religious leaders really respected him. They didn't agree with him. They didn't really like him, but they respected him. Herod even respected him. Even though he put him to death. But the common people especially respected John. He was a prophet. He was a prophet like Elijah. He lived like the common people. He talked like

the common people. He preached to the common people. And quite frankly, he taught them in a way they'd never heard before, at least until Jesus came along. And he was respected by the common people. But you see, Jesus treads on this territory, not just because John was respected, but because John had made some bold statements. Jesus. Hold your finger here and go over with me to the gospel of John, chapter one.

Last gospel account. If you hit Acts, you've gone too far. John, chapter one. And I want you to start in verse 19. That means somebody found their spot or an angel got its wings. I don't know which one. If you have a study Bible, it probably says the testimony of John. Verse 19, it says, this is the testimony of John, which is why he gave that title, I suppose.

When the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I'm not the Christ. So he said, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I'm not. Are you the prophet? He answered, no. And they said, who are you? So that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? And he said, I am the voice

of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said. Now jump down to verse 29. It says, the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he on behalf of whom I said after me comes a man who is higher in rank than I, for he existed before me. I did not recognize

him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. And John testified saying, I've seen this spirit descending as a dove. And he remained upon him. I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said, he upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I myself have seen and have testified that this is the son of God.

All of a sudden, Jesus's question isn't just a silly question anymore. Because you see, he just asked them, what about John the Baptist? Who gave John the Baptist his authority? And he asks them that because John the Baptist declared that Jesus is the lamb of God. He declared that he was the forerunner of the Messiah, that Jesus is the lamb of God, that Jesus is the very son of God, the one who would come to take

away the sins of the world. So there's no good answer for them at this point in time, because if they say this man is from God, that John received the lamb of God, then they're not from heaven. Well, then they have to admit that they didn't believe John, who declared that Jesus is God. But if they declare that his authority is from men, then they're in a lot of trouble with all of the people. And that's exactly what they surmise amongst themselves. Back over to Matthew

chapter 21. I love this moment. Again, I paint everything as a cartoon in my mind. And so I just picture them all sort of huddling up on the side. Okay, guys, this is a no-win situation, right now. This is not going to go well. We have no good answer. If we say all those things I just said, then man, are we in trouble? But if we say he's from man, man, are we in trouble? There's no

good way that we can do this. What do we do? I don't know. They're ciphering together, counting on their fingers, whatever they did. Like, I don't know what we're supposed to do with this one. This is a really good question. I hate when he asks these really good questions. I have no idea what to say. All I know to say is we don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go with we don't know. We don't know

seems like the right thing right now. Let's claim ignorance. Okay. Hands in the middle. Pharisees on all right, break. We don't know. And Jesus is like, no problem. I'm not telling you the answer either. He totally stumps them with this. But what he really does is he reveals their heart. Because you see, in the heart of these Pharisees was dead religion. Because we're told in the Old

Testament multiple times, if you seek me, you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. And here Jesus was right in front of them. And he said, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But they had no desire to seek him. They had no desire to find

him. Because all they were concerned about is their personal ideology and the popular opinion of people. Isn't it amazing how easily those two things can sway us from the truth? I'm seeing it happen a lot right now. Seeing it happen in a lot of areas of life right now that personal ideology will cause someone to go, oh man, I'm sure that that's the truth, but that doesn't go along with

everything else that I believe. Therefore, I'm going to go and I'm going to go and I'm going to go and I can't admit that's true, because that's going to change everything else that I believe. Which, BT dubs, when you come to Jesus, he'll change everything else that you believe. He'll completely ruin your personal ideology. But the second thing is that aspect of popular opinion.

These guys can't say who Jesus really is, because it violates popular opinion. And they cared more about what people thought, than they cared about what God thought. And in doing this, he absolutely revealed the dead religion that was in their heart. He identified what dead religion really looks like. As I was thinking about this, and thinking through, not only with the Pharisees, but other things in Scripture,

I thought, gosh, I want to make sure that I can identify this, not only in my own life, but that we could all search our hearts to see if there's any of that dead religion in us. Because as I did, I saw that there was a dead religion in us. And as I said in the beginning, I think the potential is there for the Western culture church to be acting just like the Israelites did in A.D. 33.

And so as I was thinking about it and praying about it, there's four things that have come to mind. Four things that I think can cause dead religion in the life of a believer. Number one, legalism. Do you know the most simple definition of legalism? Adding to God's Word. You add to what God's Word has to say. God's Word says X, Y, and Z, those three things.

But if I really want to do good, I'm going to take those three things, and I'm going to add the next 45 to them. Because if those three things are good, this next 45 is going to be better. And all of a sudden, we start adding to God's Word. We start adding new rules and regulations for ourselves. We start adding new ideas, new holidays. We add all these different things.

We add to what God's Word has to say. And when we add to what God's Word has to say, the things that we've added become our greatest focus. Those legalistic things that we add on to what God's Word has to say, those become our focus. That's exactly what the religious leaders of that day did. They said, you know what? If a little bit's good, then a lot's better.

If it's good to do this, then we'll add this on to it, and we'll really look holy. If keeping the Sabbath day is important, then we'll make a series of laws about keeping the Sabbath day. You name the thing, whatever it is. Pretty soon, that becomes your focal point. And listen, brothers and sisters, if the focal point of your life is the rules that you make

to go along with what God's Word has to say, then God is no longer your focus. And knowing Jesus is no longer your focus. Keeping your rules is your focus. And legalism will always lead to dead religion and our lives. Number two, licentious. Licentiousness. First service, I said this word, and somebody just looked at me. It means giving yourself the license to do things that the Bible doesn't.

Licentiousness is taking away from God's Word. There's a lot of this going on right now in the world and in the church. Matter of fact, a lot of the church is like, hey, listen, I'm pretty sure all that stuff about sexuality, I'm pretty sure that was all just like first century type stuff, and we don't really need to worry about it too much now. Matter of fact, I think we should just remove that from God's Word because that's not real.

It's not really all that important. And we take away from what God's Word has to say. And we keep stripping away the things that God's Word has to say that we don't like. We start stripping away the things from God's Word that doesn't fit how I like to live my life. And pretty soon, there's just a couple of pages left in God's Word. And you know what those couple of pages left in God's Word say?

God is love. That's the religion of the licentious person. And it's true. God is love. But he's also a lot more than that. And so for us just to dumb it down to that one thing kind of strips away all of the other characteristics of God because as A.W. Tozer so aptly points out in Knowledge of the Holy, if God is loving but not also a God of judgment, then it makes his love not really all that important.

And so he can be all of those things at the same time. But when we live a licentious life and we take away from God's Word, it causes dead religion. You know why? There's another line in the book of Deuteronomy. Book of Deuteronomy chapter 4, Moses is talking to the people and he's challenging them to obedience. And he says, I'm going to lay out for you the statutes and the judgments of God

and you should obey them. And here's the important part. Because they are your life. Do you think about obeying God as your very life? Because that's exactly what it is. Do you know I will promise you that if you live a life in obedience to God, you will live the most full life possible. Your life will be as full as it can possibly be. Because your life will be full of joy because you won't be held down by guilt.

Your life will be full of freedom because you won't be in bondage to sin. And your life will be fulfilled because you will be living for something outside of yourself. You'll be living to obey your Father. Real life is living in obedience to God. The world tells you that real life means giving into all of the things that your flesh craves. Because after all, if it feels good,

but do it, right? That's how we should live our lives. But that's called living according to licentiousness. And it's one thing when the world does it, because I expect the world to live that way. It's a whole other thing when it creeps into the church. And brothers and sisters, it's not just creeping on in anymore. It's here. It's marching through the door with pride.

And we need to beware of the licentiousness. Because I will make you another guarantee. If you live, according to the edicts of your flesh, if you live a life doing whatever you want to do, you will never be close to God. It's impossible. Because God and sin are two opposite ends of the spectrum.

Number three. Hypocrisy. Uh-oh. As J. Vernon McGee would say, now that's where the rubber hits the road. You know what the word hypocrisy means? Well, the word hypocrite is an actor on the stage, an actor on the stage of life, right? Isn't it Shakespeare that said, all of the world is a stage? And some other more modern person said, if all the world's a stage, then I need better lines.

And I think most hypocrites feel that way. An actor on the stage of life. I think one of the things that contributes so much to dead religion in the church today is people who show up to church, and you know all the Christianese. You can say all the right words, you can have the right look, wear the right clothes, you can have the right Bible, you can find all of the locations in Scripture.

But when you leave church, maybe not on Sunday afternoon, because after all, we'll give God that full day. But after you leave church, and you start going into the rest of your week, and you get around everybody else who doesn't believe the way that you do, you drink the same things that they drink, you smoke the same things that they smoke, you act just like they act, you talk just like they talk, you talk just like they talk, you talk just like they talk, you talk just like they talk, quite frankly, the rest of the world finds that utterly unbelievable. Now, I want to share something with you. We all struggle with hypocrisy.

We do. It's who we are as human beings. I've shared with you before, I hate when people say, I don't like going to church because it's full of hypocrites. And I think two things. Number one is a meme that I've seen, which is great. If you don't go to church because of hypocrites, it's kind of like not going to the gym because of out-of-shape people, right? Like, this is where we go.

This is where we need to be. If you're a hypocrite, please come because we want to see your life changed. We want to see you go from being a hypocrite to being someone who is authentic. But the other aspect, doggone COVID brain, I just forgot the second thing I was going to say. It'll come back in a minute. I'll share it with you. But God does not like that.

He wants us to be authentic in our lives. But that hypocrisy keeps us from knowing Him. But each of us as individuals, we struggle. We struggle with it. We're all recovering hypocrites, right? We're all people that battle with that. The quicker that we can admit that, the more God can do a work in our hearts. Jesus had a word to say to this as He spoke to the seven churches there

in the book of Revelation. He spoke in particular to a church called Laodicea. See, the problem with hypocrisy is that I'm really not one way or the other. I'm wishy-washy. I'm different depending on who all I'm around. And as Jesus is there, or as Jesus is speaking to this church in Laodicea, He says, this is what I have against you. I wish that you were either hot or cold.

But you're neither. You're kind of lukewarm. So I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth because I'm tired of your hypocrisy. And it creates deadness within our churches. It creates deadness in your life. And if that's you this morning, you need to repent. And you need to begin to have that pure heart. I was just talking to somebody about the sermon on the mouth

the other day and they said, you know what really stuck out to me is when it says, blessed are the pure in heart. He said, because I didn't realize what that word pure meant. He said, I thought that meant sexually pure, which there's an aspect of that that's true. But the word pure actually means undivided. That's what the word pure means. Blessed are those who have an undivided heart,

who pursue God with all of their hearts. That's what hypocrisy keeps us from. That's what hypocrisy keeps us from doing. Number four is apathy. I'd define it for you, but I don't care. I'm just kidding. I told that joke first service too. I thought it would play again the second service. So the word apathy literally means lack of feeling or enthusiasm, a state of not caring.

Lack of feeling or enthusiasm, a state of not caring. In other words, you're like, I mean, maybe I'll go to church this week, but maybe I won't. It'll depend on how I feel. Maybe I'll read my Bible this week. Maybe I won't. It'll depend on how I feel. Maybe I'll stand up for the things of God. Maybe I won't. Just depends on how I feel, right? You're like the Eeyore of religion.

Do you know what? God had something to say to this too as Jesus spoke to the seven churches. This time it was the church in Ephesus. He told the church of Ephesus, he says, man, you do so many right things. You do so many good things. You, know what the word of God has to say. You study the word of God. You're a growing church. You, you hate the, the falsehood that's out there

and you stand against it. He goes, I got this one thing against you. You've left your first love. You've left your first love. To quote Top Gun, you've lost that love and feeling. Right? I mean, essentially that's what it is. You, you have no passion for it anymore. There's, there's no passion for following Jesus. You're just going through the motions. It's just another day.

Well, it's Sunday. I guess we'll go to church. Maybe. I'll show up. Are you going to sing? No, probably not. Too much work. Not going to put my hands up. Too much work. Not going to close my eyes. Too much work. You open your Bible? Eh. Lost that love. You've left that first love. You know what he says to do? He says, repent. Do your first works. I don't know how many of you

have walked with the Lord for very long at all, but I remember when I first started walking with Jesus, really walking with Jesus when I was in high school. And I remember those first works that I did. When God got a hold of my heart and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that's God and I need to follow him with all of my heart. First thing I did is I got out my Bible.

I'd gotten a Bible for Christmas that year and hadn't paid that close of attention. I got out my Bible and I started reading. And for some reason, I chose Romans because, hey, why not choose one of the deeper books? I chose Romans and I remember thinking, I don't understand most of this. So I came to Romans chapter eight and it said, nothing can separate you

from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. And I was like, that's really good because a lot of things should be separating me from the love of God right now. A lot, the least of which is the fact that I'm an idiot. I've been living like an idiot for a long time now. I got out my Bible and started reading. It was great. And I got out these old Christian CDs that I had.

Some of them were worship music and I just started, I started singing worship to the Lord, not where anyone could hear me because I wasn't that guy just yet, but I definitely started singing worship to the Lord. And I started, I started actually finding Bible studies to listen to. And you know what else I did? I showed up to church on a Sunday morning. I got my Bible out.

I underlined things. I wrote business down. It was amazing. So if it was me and I'm living in apathy and he says, repent and do your first works, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get my Bible back out and I'm gonna start reading. And I'm gonna look for those things that stick out to me. I'm gonna start praising God again and praising him sometimes even where people can hear me.

I may even throw my hands up in a situation where everybody else might see and I might just sing with some reckless abandon and let a few tears fall down because I'm actually returning to my first love. And I'm gonna really focus every Bible study that I hear because I know that these words are the words of life. Nothing else will do. I want you to misunderstand me.

You're not always gonna have emotion that goes along with it because it's not about emotion. It's about a passionate drive that keeps you going every day. You all know one of my favorite things to do is watch interviews with athletes because I find them fascinating. First of all, because of the things that they can do that I am clearly unable to do, but also because I like to study people and figure out what makes them tick.

In interviews that I see with athletes, it's always the same thing. I do not always feel like getting up every day and going to work. I don't always feel like getting up every day at the time that I have to get up and putting in the kind of work that I have to put in and sacrificing the kind of things that I have to sacrifice. But even on the days when I don't feel like it, I still do it because I have a passion to win.

I have a drive to achieve a crown. And even sometimes when the emotion and the feeling isn't there, I don't care because I'm still driven. I'm still passionate. I'm still passionate about the sport that I take part in and the desire that I have to be the best. Brothers and sisters, there's going to be days where you don't feel like a Christian, even though there's no apathy in there.

But those are the days where your passion to know your Savior has to continue to push you. Your passion to know the Father continues to push you. Because after all, what's the purpose in any of this religion? It's that we would know God. So I don't know which of these you deal with, but I think each of us, if we're being honest with ourselves, deals with one of them.

You either deal with legalism where you're constantly adding to what God's Word has to say and you live a miserable life because of it. Matter of fact, you live a life where you feel beat down all the time because you can't keep up with the laws you're making for yourself. And it's causing some dead religion in your heart. Some of you are living lives that are licentious and you're giving yourself liberty God never intended for you to have.

And you're living in some sin right now and it's time to repent. Repent of it. Some of you are hypocrites. You're going to go to school Monday. You're going to go to work Monday and you're going to talk just like all the rest of the people do. You're going to sleep with your boyfriend and girlfriend just like all the rest of the people do. And today's the day to repent.

Today's the day for that to change. And then tomorrow's the day for that to change. And then the day after that's the day for that to change because just because you make a decision today doesn't mean you won't face that temptation tomorrow. There's some of you that need to just have a fire lit inside of your soul. A fire that cannot be put out by anything of the world

because it's a fire that's been lit by the Holy Spirit. It's time for you to repent and return to your first works. I'm going to ask the worship team to come on up.

I want them to share one last song with us. And as they do I want you to allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart. I can't make the decision for you. Matter of fact, let's all stand. I can't make a decision for you. I can't tell you that I can't make a decision for you. I can't tell you what it is that you struggle with and I can't repent for you.

That's your responsibility. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is working on some hearts in this room right now that are battling with these things. And he's saying today's the day. Today's the day to repent. And today's the day to lay aside dead, lifeless religion and to walk on in newness. Let's all bow our heads. Father, we come before you and I thank you for the morning that you've provided for us.

And Lord, I thank you for your word that is so good to us. And Lord, I want to lift up the hearts of each and every individual that's here this morning. Everybody watching online. And I want to pray that you would do your work. That you would continue the work that you've begun in the hearts of these people this morning. Lord, that we would not be content with dead, lifeless religion.

That we would not be content with going through the motions. That we would not be content to have the look of a Christian with the fruit of the world. Lord, do a cleansing and purifying work in our hearts today. Do a cleansing and purifying work in this church. Father, we thank you and praise you for who you are, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. In Christ alone

my heart hope is found He is my light my strength my song This cornerstone This solid ground Firm through the fiercest drought and storm What heights of love What depths of peace When fear is gone When fear is gone When fears are still When striving seems My comforter In the love of Christ I stand In Christ alone Who took on Flawless of God and helpless babe This gift of love and righteousness Scorned by the ones He cares for He came to save He came to save Till on that cross As Jesus died The wrath of the Lord was satisfied His body laid Light of the world by darkness slain Bursting for glorious day Up from the grave He rose again And as He stands In victory Sin's curse has long Rippon I am His He is my God with the precious blood No guilt in life

No fear in death This is the power of Christ In me From life's first cry To final breath Jesus commands my death No power of No scheme of man From His Till here we're In the power of Christ And returns Calls me home And I'll stand Oh Heavenly Father God I just pray that If there are any here That have not placed their hope In you this morning Lord I pray that today Would be that day God I know there's I know you're working in Some hearts this morning Lord You're working in all of our lives Lord But I pray that if But God if there's people here That have Never walked with you That have placed their hope In other things In other people I pray that today Would be that day That they would place their hope in you Lord as we leave here today

I just pray that you would continue To walk with us Lord Continue working in us Lord And we love you Lord We thank you And we praise you Pray all these things In your precious and holy name All of God's people said Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Be blessed