Well, it is good to be here on the Lord's Day to give our God the glory and the praise that is due his name. There's no place that we'd rather be than here in his courts and hearing from his word. I invite you, if you have your Bibles, to turn with me in the New Testament to the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 21. To Matthew 21, I'm going to be reading verses 12 through 22. And if you're following along in the few Bibles in the black ESB Bibles, this will be on page eight hundred and twenty six. Matthew, chapter twenty one, begin reading at verse twelve, this is following Jesus's public declaration that he is indeed the king who is worthy of praise. He's been honored as the son of David, as the one king who is mounted on the donkey, on a coat, the foal of the beasts of burden. He's been honored and recognized now as the Messiah, as the Christ, entering in as the king to dwell among his people. And he has not restrained the praises of his people. They have honored him rightly and he has not hindered their praise. What we're going to see this morning out of this text is that our Lord Jesus wields the supreme authority over his church. That he is no passive savior. That he is the one enthroned over his people. Should not this king have rights over his people? Should he not have expectations from his bride, the church? Should this savior not exercise rights and authority over us? And you'll see, as we read this text together, that our Lord Jesus wields this supreme authority over his church. And it calls forth a response from his people. So beginning at verse 12, reading on to verse 22. And Jesus entered the temple. And drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he said to them, it is written. My house. Shall be called. A house of prayer. But you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. And they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to him, Yes. Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies? You have prepared praise. And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it. May no fruit ever come from you again. And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled. Saying, how did the fig tree wither at once? Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. Amen. Grass withers, flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever. So here is your King. He has come to you. He has come to dwell in your midst. We were saying last week, every time His Word is read, every time His Word is proclaimed, every time the Gospel of Christ is announced, the King is passing by. And his word and his spirit, behold, your king comes to you humble. His rule is a humble rule. He's he's not. A boisterous, ostentatious ruler. He is no tyrant. Your King is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. His rule is personal. He is coming to dwell with His people, those whom He has redeemed by His blood. Jesus is your King coming to you. And is this not what we celebrate Lord's Day after Lord's Day? That we have a King who loves to dwell among His people. and who wants fellowship with His people. And He wants that so badly that He has laid down His life so that we might live and have liberty of access to Him. That's our treasure. That's why we love to worship the way we do, because Jesus promises to dwell among His people. Your King is coming to you. That's a personal rule. It's a worthy rule. He receives praise and honor. And he does not hinder their praise. This is a king who dwells in beauty. His majesty, y'all, it's all over this text. His splendor. His worth, his humility, Should not this king exercise rights over us? Sometimes we have a difficult time with that, don't we? We have a very difficult time with The notion of a savior who actually gives directives and who has rights over us and has authority over us. In other words, we have a difficult time with a redeemer who tells us what to do. We have a very hard time. Our wills resist that. And the reason why our wills resist that is because sin still rears its ugly head within our souls. That's why we resist the reign of this Savior. But I want you to see this morning. This Jesus is no passive Savior. He will either be a total Savior or none at all. He will either be a whole Savior or not one at all. I want you to see that our Lord Jesus wields supreme authority over His church. And as the supreme king and head of His church, He issues four pronouncements here in this text. Four directives. And the first one is that the Lord's house must be cleansed. If something's dirty, You got to clean it. What does he do? He goes to the temple. Jesus entered the temple. And drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. Now, the situation here is in order to worship in the temple, you needed you needed provisions, you needed proper materials, you had to have wood for the fire, you had to have animals, you had to have things for the sacrifice, and you also needed to be able to pay for these things. So what did the officials of the temple do? They set up right outside the temple money changers, people who are buying and selling. You need money changers in order to convert currency so these people can buy materials for the sacrifices. And what this did was it turned the house of worship into a marketplace. And what Jesus does, Jesus enters the temple. This is the second time Jesus has entered the temple in order to purify her. The first time is recorded in the Gospel of John, in John chapter 2. He enters the temple at the outset of His ministry, and He does the exact same thing. He purifies, He drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. This is the house of God which had been built as a house of prayer. This is the temple and the prophecies concerning this house spoke of the gospel. The gospel of Christ would stream out of the temple. This house of God, Isaiah would say that the mountain of the house of the Lord, in other words, the mountain of the temple would become the highest of the mountains and that nations would stream to it. They would come to learn from the law of the Lord. This is a prophecy of the times and the days of the gospel. He entered the temple, which was intended to be a source of life for the nations, and all he found was a marketplace, and so he drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. He is purging abuse. When you placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior and you yielded yourself to him and you gave yourself to him, what did that mean? That meant that you submitted your life to him as a king and as a king, he has rights over you. It meant that you submitted your life to him as a prophet, as a prophet. He opens his mouth and he reveals his word to you. Jesus spoke to you and you heard it and you believed it. When you became a Christian, you also submitted to him as a priest. As a great priest over the house of God. As a priest who gave his life as a sacrifice for sinners and as a priest who has authority over your worship and over the worship of his people. What is Jesus doing here? He is entering the temple as a great high priest. And he is reforming abuse. That's what's happening. He is coming with the refiners fire and he is purging. He's purifying. And if we're saying this morning that Jesus wields supreme authority over his church, the very first pronouncement we need to see is he expects and he demands and he will make sure that his house is cleansed. And it's purged of all abuse and notice how he does it. He said that look at verse 13 with me. He said to them, it is written. If he's entering as a high priest, as a reformer of worship, what is he going to do? He is going to the law and the testimony. He is going to the word. It is written reform must be done according to the word. Well, that's why we're not ashamed to say here at Redeemer, we stand firm in the midst of the reformed tradition, we are in that stream, that that stream of tradition flowing out of the 16th and 17th centuries. Why? Because worship had to be cleansed and purified. And so these great men of God, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, you move on into the 17th century, our ancestors, our forefathers in the faith who wrote our confession of faith. These men stood and said, the Lord's house must be cleansed and it must be purified according to the word. He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. I want to read to you. He's quoting straight out of the prophet Isaiah. I want to read to you what Isaiah says here. I want to read the whole section because the whole section is just worth it. It's worth the price of admission this morning. Isaiah 56 and beginning at verse six. And this is a prophecy. It's a prophecy of the days of the gospel, a prophecy of the days when nations will turn to the Lord. And the word of God will not only be for the Jews, it will be for the nations. Isaiah 56, beginning at verse six, and the foreigners. who join themselves to the Lord. Foreigners. We're not talking just ethnic Jews. We're talking foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord and to be His servants. Everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it. Just stop right there. This is speaking of foreigners keeping the Sabbath. Our tendency is to think the Sabbath was an Old Testament thing. It's a Jewish thing. No! Here is a prophecy in black and white for foreigners the Sabbath. Everyone who keeps the Sabbath of these foreigners and does not profane it. Y'all, that's us! We are the foreigners. We are the Gentiles. We are living in the days when the Spirit of God is drawing the nations to the Savior. As iron is drawn to the magnet, we are now drawn to Christ. Everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast to my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain. We're talking temple language here. The temple is a picture of the days of the gospel. These I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. And here's the quote that Jesus cites, For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. What's the point of the Old Testament sacrifices? The goal of the Old Testament system is that this house will not just be a place where there's blood spilled, but this would be a place where prayers are offered. That's the whole sum of worship. That's the sum of true biblical piety. True worship, true spiritual religion, biblical spirituality. This is a place where God's Word is not only read, it is prayed. My house shall be called a house of prayer. And then he quotes out of Jeremiah 7, you make it a den of robbers. And every time we turn the singing of praise into entertainment, And every time we turn the preaching of the gospel into a motivational speech. We profane the house of the Lord, Jesus is saying the Lord's house must be cleansed. It must be purged. What practices must be overturned, what needs to be purged? We could go on, we're going to I go on to Jesus's second pronouncement. His first pronouncement is the Lord's house must be cleansed and his second pronouncement is that praise must be given. healing the blind. And then verse 15, when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. Now, what's going on here? These kids have learned from the grownups. And that's always how it works, isn't it? The young ones learn from the older ones. It's a beautiful sight, isn't it? It's beautiful to hear the praises of children who've learned from their parents. It's a beautiful thing to hear the prayers of children who, all they're doing is mimicking the prayers of their parents. They've learned from the adults. Somebody has to be the adult, and they've learned from the adults. You look back at verse 9, what happened? Jesus is riding into Jerusalem and the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David. What are the children crying in the temple? They're crying the exact same thing. They are parroting their parents, Hosanna to the Son of David. The officials are indignant. Why? Well, proud men are never happy when others receive honors, are they? These are proud men. So much of the conflict between Christ and the Pharisees and Sadducees had to do with power. It's a power struggle. The Pharisees and Sadducees, the temple officials here, they feel that their power is slipping away. They're losing it. And they become indignant. Well, not too different from people today. And they ask him, do you hear what these are saying? Do you hear the children calling you the son of David? It's not just the adults now, it's their kids who are calling you Christ, the son of David. Jesus says, yes. He comes to the children's defense. Oh, there is something special about the bond between Jesus and children. You keep noticing this in the Gospels. Jesus had a special affinity for children. Somehow they were drawn to him and he was drawn to them and he comes to their defense. Have you never read, and then he quotes straight out of Psalm 8, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise. Now, what is Jesus doing here? He is showing them who he is. He is disclosing his identity. They're calling me the Son of David. They're calling me the Messiah. They are absolutely correct. Psalm 8 speaks of praise that is due to the Lord who has set His glory above the heavens. Jesus is identifying Himself as that Lord who is worthy of the highest praise. Jesus is placing Himself smack dab in the middle of Psalm 8 saying, yes, I am the one who is praised by the mouth of nursing infants. I am the one who is honored by nursing babes. And he's being praised by children. How do we want to feed our children's faith? How do we want them to grow to love and to cling to the Lord Jesus? We do exactly what's being set forth here in this text. We set the example. As mamas and daddies and as grandparents, we set the example that on the Lord's Day, worship comes first for us and on a regular day during the week, worship comes first. We seek first as a family, the kingdom of Christ and his righteousness. That's just it's just what we do. We set an example. And then we encourage. We love them. And we come alongside and we encourage them to do the same things, to have those same priorities. Jesus is saying, let this praise be given and do not let this praise be hindered. May there never be the day at Redeemer Presbyterian when children are not welcomed and embraced in our midst. This is not, I've said it a hundred times before, this is not adult time. This is the people of God time. And the youngest ones in here are part of us, and y'all belong in here, just as much as the oldest ones in the room. Praise must be given, and Jesus is wielding supreme authority over his church. Now y'all, there's no guarantee, by the way. You can set that example and you can encourage in the ways of the gospel. And that still is no guarantee. There is no such thing as a formula in the kingdom of God. So we. Keeps us on our knees, doesn't it? We set the case of our children before the Lord. We set the example and we encourage, but in the end, we leave their conversion In the hands of a gracious God. So Jesus, he's wielding supreme authority over his church and. He's saying the house must be cleansed and praise must be given, and third, and this is this is a little troubling. A third pronouncement is that spiritual barrenness will be judged. He's gone to the house, he's gone to the temple, he's. seen all the activity with absolutely no sign of spiritual life. And that's on his mind. It's on his heart. And so the next day in the morning, as he's returning to the city, he became hungry. Lo and behold, Jesus is a man. He is fully divine and fully human. He is one person with two natures, one divine and one human. His hunger, his physical hunger, is going to be the occasion for him to work a supernatural sign, a miracle. And it's a teaching moment. And it's a teaching moment that shows us that spiritual barrenness will be judged. He became hungry. In verse 19, seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. Well, this particular tree, usually when the leaves would come out, you usually see figs at about the same time. And he walks up to the tree, sees the leaves and there's no fruit coinciding with the leaves. And so he he pronounces a judgment. This is a curse, it's an active, living, breathing parable. Story about the kingdom of God, a lesson about the kingdom of God, and he said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again. It's false advertising. The leaves are put out with no fruit. One of the most scathing critiques Jesus will ever issue about the Pharisees and Sadducees is that they have a form of godliness, but they deny his power. The externals are in place, but their hearts are not right. And so he calls them. He calls them hypocrites, their play acting, they profess to love the one true God, they profess to love his word, and yet. They discard his word, the Pharisees problem was they didn't love the Bible enough. They didn't love the word enough. If they had loved the word sufficiently, their hearts would have been transformed instead of merely their hands. False advertising. Spiritual barrenness. Will be judged. Does Jesus have a right to expect fruit? Did he have a right to expect fruit from Israel? A vine planted by the Lord. The ground had been tilled. It had been cleared. This vine had been set in the ground and nourished and watered by the Lord Himself, the vinedresser. Did Jesus have a right to expect fruit from that vine? Absolutely He did. He had a right to expect that his kinsmen, according to the flesh, would embrace him. Does Jesus have a right to expect fruit from his church? If we put out the leaves of a profession of faith, he has every right to come up to the tree and find the fruits of obedience. And that's not demanding too much. That's not that's not Jesus being overly strict. Spiritual barrenness will be judged. And that's another one of the pronouncements that Jesus makes here is the king and head of his church. And for the fourth pronouncement, I want us to say here, As our Lord Jesus wields supreme authority over his church and his house must be cleansed and praise must be given and spiritual barrenness will be even cursed. The fourth pronouncement I want you to see is that faith is your shield. Faith, as one hymn puts it, is the victory. The way the Book of Revelation would put it, even Our faith is the victory which overcomes the world. Faith is your shield. And you saw that in verses 20 through 22, as we read together, when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, how did the fig tree wither at once? And so Jesus uses this as a teaching moment, not only about fruit bearing, but also about faith. And Jesus answered them, truly, I say to you, if you have faith, And do not doubt. In other words, you're not second guessing your convictions. You're not stutter stepping here. You will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you. Who's he talking to? Talking to disciples, talking to disciples who after this coming week will be alone without their savior in this world. He will be crucified and laid in the tomb. Forty days after that, Christ will be not only raised from the dead, He'll be ascended into the heavens and they will be charged with the task of making disciples of all nations. They will be given the task of executing the Great Commission. He's speaking to disciples who will be given work to do. And He's saying to them, here is how you must carry out your work. If you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, It'll happen. And as Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, that mountain was moved as 3000 souls were converted and added to the Lord as the apostles prayed and whole buildings were shaken, those mountains were moved as the apostles went about preaching and proclaiming the word of the cross. Mountains were moved as hearts were changed. You know, how do we fulfill the Great Commission? If Redeemer Presbyterian exists as an outpost of the Great Commission and if we're here as a missionary society and if every member of this church is appointed to be a missionary, how do we carry out the Great Commission? How do we fight these battles? Is it not trusting in the arm of the Lord? Is it not trusting that his gospel is sufficient, that his word is the power of God and the salvation? One of the church's greatest challenges is not the unbelief of the world. Holy Spirit can take care of the unbelief of the world. One of the greatest challenges facing the Lord's church as she seeks to advance the kingdom of God. One of the greatest challenges is the unbelief of the church. A lack of faith in our midst of the sufficiency of the gospel, of the power of the word, that this is a supernatural message. The unbelief of the church, how else do we explain the lifelessness of the American church? Well, do you see why in our prayers we would address our petitions to the throne of Christ? He's the one wielding supreme authority over his church. He is the one. And we pray down to heaven that he would purify his bride. We pray that he would purge us of all abuses. We pray, O Holy Spirit, search us and know us and see if there be anything in our faith or practice that is not pleasing to you. Purge it, O God. Would zeal come to your house with a refiner's fire? Do you see why we address our prayers to Christ that He would fill and fire our souls with praise on the Lord's Day? Praise must be given, but praise is not natural. Do you see why we would address our prayers to Christ that He would send His Spirit so that fruit might be born? Fruit's not going to be born, and we're not going to be interested in bearing fruit unless the Holy Spirit comes in His power. Unless He, by His Word, causes those blossoms to shoot forth. If the Holy Spirit of God is not in our midst, all we are are a bunch of leaves with no fruits. And so we pray, we address our petitions to Christ, and we pray that He would give us that faith that moves mountains. Well, we see this morning that our Lord Jesus wields a supreme authority over his church. And may he come. By his grace, might he come to his house. And would he purify his bride even this morning, would you. Ask the Lord's help and blessing with me, let's seek him together and ask for him to do so. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you are the one enthroned over your church, and we would adore you this morning, for grace is poured upon your lips. Lord Jesus, you are the one who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens. You send out your voice, your mighty voice, and you call out to the ends of the earth that they might be saved. And so we pray, Lord Jesus, that this morning you would look with favor upon our assembly. We ask that you would cleanse us and purge us. We ask that you would enable us to praise, we ask you to bless our children and our grandchildren. Lord, that they might appraise you with unrestrained lips. Father, we ask that you would convict us of spiritual barrenness and that you would do the work of producing fruit in us. Lord, we ask that even as we believe this morning, we pray you would help our unbelief and that you would give us to lean upon your promises and to rely on the sufficiency of your gospel. Father, would you hear us this morning? Would you go with us from this place this afternoon and enable us to give you the praise that is due your name on this, your day, and all this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. The final hymn is Hymn 353, I love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode. Standing as we sing.