Expounds on the concept of the temple, identifying ten significant temples throughout the Bible, ranging from Solomon's and Herod's physical structures to the spiritual temple of Christ's body and the church. It highlights Jesus' cleansing of the Jerusalem temple as a demonstration of His zeal for God's house and a foreshadowing of His resurrection. The message emphasizes that believers' bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, urging them to maintain purity and allow Christ to fill the void left by sin. Ultimately, it concludes that only through Christ's sacrifice and resurrection can true cleansing and spiritual progress be achieved, contrasting the emptiness of self-reformation with the fullness found in His presence.
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John's Gospel, the second chapter, and will begin at the twelve verse. After this, he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brothers, and his disciples, and they continued there not many days. And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and over through the tables, and said unto them that so does Take these things hence, and make not my father's house and house of merchandise.
And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house have eaten me up. Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, What sign shows thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple. and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jew, forty and six years was this temple and building. Will thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the Scriptures, and the word which Jesus had sent.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. I was just thinking of that after how Mr. Bradford, quite a preacher I knew many years ago, a red-haired Irishman, was a mason before the Lord saved him. He'd have a lot of meetings, five, six, seven weeks, and he said, Monday nights are my poor night.
He said, but I always preach my best sermon Monday night. He said, to pay those who come out and penalize those who don't. So when I have a crowd out like tonight and where they're like this, I'm going to try and preach one of my best sermons. You deserve it. And so we have the subject of the temple. You know, nothing's in the Bible without purpose, and we don't have this portion without God having a real meaning in putting it in. And the subject is the temple. There are ten temples in your Bible. Some are spiritual temples. Others are material. and they are built by men.
But there are other temples, and we'll refer to them all. Ten is a number of responsibility, the Ten Commandments. And it's very significant that there are ten temples referred to in our Bible. The first one is Solomon's Temple. Now, of course, there were many big heathen temples, but God is not interested in heathen temples. Only that which relates to Israel... and his people. That's what he's interested in, and therefore he goes into detail relative to these temples. Solomon was the one who built that magnificent temple one thousand years before Christ, and it lasted up until five-sixteen or five-eight-six before Christ.
The period of four hundred and fourteen years Solomon's temple was standing and in use. But then it was pillaged and burned by the Babylonians when the children of Israel went into captivity. Then there's another temple, the second temple. It's called the Ramabal's temple. And this was the other one. What was left of Solomon's temple was rebuilt. And that was in five, sixteen. And by Ezra, if you want to read the book of Ezra, you'll find out how that temple was rebuilt under the decree of Cyrus. And this temple was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes, a very wicked, ungodly emperor, king in Rome.
He even offered a sow on the altar. You can imagine that, because God had no use for hog meat. People today liked it. But in those days, God deplored that animal. It was an unclean animal. And here is this man just trying to insult God. He offered a sow, not a sheep, but a goat or any clean animal, animal that God required. He offered a sow on that altar. And he paid for it because that man had a wicked debt. And so we find this altar and this temple being desegrated by this manaticus Epiphanes.
Then along came that secret period or that silent period of four hundred years between the Old and New Testament. Call the Maccabean period. A wonderful family. The Maccabees. The outstanding one of the Maccabees was Judas Maccabees. And he was the one who was dedicated to reestablishing that temple. He cleansed it and rededicated it. And it's the one that's referred to as Herod's temple. And that's the one you find in your passage here. When the Lord referring to destroy this temple and I'll build it in three days, they said, Forty and six years was this temple and building and will thou build it in three days.
They were referring to Herod's temple. And that was the temple that was destroyed by the Romans, AD, seven, they under Titus. And that was the temple. The veil in that temple was wrecked. when Jesus Christ said it is finished and he yielded up the Spirit. There you have those three temples. You have Solomon's temple destroyed by the Babylonians, the Rebel Bell's temple, and it was practically destroyed and detained by Antiochus the Tiffany's, and then you have Herod's temple. And that was in the time of our Lord. But when that temple was destroyed, you have another temple referred to.
This one is the temple of his body, the Lord Jesus. The temple refers to a dwelling place for God, where God dwells. And when that temple, destroyed by Titus in AD, somebody, was in Asher, God says, but I've got another temple. A temple that no man will destroy. And in him I will dwell and show forth my glory. That was the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's running place. And he said, you destroy this temple. I'll raise it up in three days. So you come to the temple of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The one referred to even in verse twenty-one. Then you have the church referred to as being a temple. The whole church. a dwelling place for God. Then you have a local church referred to in Corinthians as a temple. And God dwells where two or three are gathered together in His name. He says, There am I in the midst of them. Then the individual Christian's body is a temple. Your body and mine is a temple in which God wants to dwell. I will dwell in it. And they say that if you destroy that body, or you defile that temple, I'll destroy you, because the temple of God is holy.
Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So there you have these spiritual temples, the body of Christ, the church, the local church, and the believer's body. But there's going to be another temple. That'll be the one in the future. It'll be built on the site now occupied by the Mosque of Omar. For that's where Jewish temples were built. Today, the Mosque of Omar stands there. And that is the key to a lot of this maneuvering in the Middle East. The Jews want that back. So they might build their temple on.
But you know what that's going to mean to the Arabs. The Arabs, they think as much of that spot as the Jews do. And they're not going to give it up without a struggle. How it's going to be brought about, and the negotiations are going on, I do not know. But on that spot, there's going to be a temple built. That's the future of temple, where the Jews are going to try and set up Judaism, not Christianity. They're going to try to go back to the old system of offering up of goats and animals. and has re-established the priesthood. They're going to try and do it, but it won't work.
That temple is going to be destroyed. And you find that in the eleventh chapter of Revelation when that coming temple is going to be destroyed. But then the final, the ninth temple is the one in Ezekiel. Chapters forty to forty-four, you have Ezekiel's temple. This is the temple of the millennium. That wonderful temple was given you in the Book of Ezekiel. All the details are given us what that temple is going to be like, and it will be established in the millennial reign of Christ. It will last for the thousand years. Then the tenth and final temple is the New Jerusalem.
That will be the whole New Jerusalem. And in that temple the Lord Jesus Christ will reign. and he will fill and flood with this light and it fall. They have no need of the sun, the moon, the star, for the lamb is the light, the rock. No need of an altar or a sacrifice or a priest. He is all free. He will function as such throughout eternity. And so we have these wonderful things about these ten temples given to us in the Bible. There is another thing very remarkable in this verse. The Jews pass over was at hand. Did you notice that? Verse thirteen, and the Jews Passover was at hand.
Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Well, he was the Passover, but not the one they were wanting to use. You know, in the Old Testament, God says this is the Lord's Passover. Here it's the Jews' Passover. God says I have nothing to do with it. He used to speak of the temple as my house. He says your house is left unto you desolate. He speaks of my feast. God refers in the New Testament your feast. You've taken everything out of my hand. It's all a man-made situation. I'm not going to associate myself with it.
Isn't it sad to think of how man can carry on in a formality? without the reality. That's why you find here the Lord's zeal, the zeal of mine hunk that's eaten me up, we read. Christ had a zeal for that temple, even though the Jews were so far out of fellowship with God. Yet the Lord Jesus realized the significance of a temple being the dwelling place of God. And he wanted it kept clean. You know, it's very remarkable what John brings in and other Gospels omit. You mentioned this morning about Cana of Galilee.
Mentioned four times by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. When it comes to John, you'll rather mention not at all by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but four times by John. You don't read Matthew, Mark, or Luke mentioning Cana at all or the wedding. But John did. When it comes to the feast of the Jews, Four times Matthew, Mark, and Luke refer to the Passover. John does sixty times. Imagine that. John mentions the Passover, the Jews Passover, sixty times. And Matthew, Mark, and Luke only mention it four times. Because this is the Lord's house.
And in Christ, God dwells. God manifests in the flesh. And that's where we get the emphasis. Sixty times over you see mention of the Passover. And God wanted to impress them. The real sacrifice is in your midst. The Son of God. He is the temple in which I dwell and manifest my glory. The Jews Passover was at hand. You know the Lord cleansed the temple twice. He cleansed the temple. at the beginning of his ministry, and that's what we've been reading about.
At the end of his ministry, he also cleansed the temple. That's over in Luke nineteen. The first time when he cleansed the temple, he said, you made it a house of merchandise. And at the end of his three and a half years public ministry, he said it's identities, not very complemented. And here were these Jews and all they thought so much of that temple. God said, I don't have any use for it. You've turned it right into something else. My house should be called a house of prayer. You've made it a house of merchandise. A den of thieves. And he said, I'll not associate myself with it. It's a lot of formality.
And Richard. What did the Lord do? He took a scourge. And he made a cord of it. They used to bring the old little goat. Lans. Oxen. to this place without what we might say a strand, possibly a little string or rope, strong enough to leave the animal there. The Lord picked up these pieces, and he planted it into a real good-sized cord that had some weight and some authority. And with that, he drove this crowd out.
I don't think it was a very present thing to receive a blow with that call in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people talk about the Lord Jesus, though he was a feminine character, meek and lowly, or they look upon him and try and portray him. I think there's a big tourist center up above Asheville. I went to it, and they're picturing the life of Christ in certain places. certain statutes. And in the brochure they give you before you go through there, they point out that the Lord Jesus had more of a feminine appearance than a masculine.
I disagree with that wholly. The Lord Jesus wasn't feminine on this occasion. He went in there and he made that cord and he went to work, and he laid that cord on, And he overthrew the table, scattered everything, he threw up all those tables and the cages that had the doves and the animals and everything. He had a good housekeeping. And as I said this morning, if we had the news media then we got today, they'd have the two zeroed in on that situation. To see a man come along and clean out a church.
And so everything in the church you didn't agree with outside. That's exactly what he did. Why did he do it? The zeal of my house that eaten me up. The Lord said, I have a zeal for the house of God. And it's like this. I can't stand this going on. This cult conduct revokes to think that this house, that should be a house of prayer, Where God is recognized and delivered, should be turned into a house of merchandise, at a dead of thee? Yes, he used that scourge. And the Lord wants to use the scourge on his people today because they need him.
Very remarkable, the temple is the heart of the nation, and he begins with it. We've mentioned before that judgment begins at the house of God. You find that in the first two chapters, or chapters two and three of Revelation before the big judgments come upon the world. He said, I'm going to deal with the church. The seven churches of Asia in Revelation, two, three, judgment beginning at the house of God. God says, I want to clean up my people. But I don't think there's going to be anywhere like a real revival until God's people are cleaned up. And when God's people get in shape and there's a house cleaning, I believe then we'll see some souls getting saved.
And God uses this scourge. And that scourge isn't pleasant. The scourge that he uses is his word and his Holy Spirit to bring about conviction of sin. and a house clearing, getting rid of this and throwing that out and throwing the other thing out, and he's got to do it. And he did it. There's a lot of things that need to be thrown out of Christians' lives. They're a disgust and a dishonor to the Lord. He used a scourge. And I know his words sometimes hurt, but the truth always does hurt.
And if we don't want the truth, then we'll have to take the consequences. Sinners sometimes make their own scourge. A little sin of this, a little sin of that, a little sin of other, and they platter together, and the first thing you know, they've got a pretty strong cord. And the Bible says the wicked is holding by the cord of his sin. And it's when these sins are bound together, they become a sizable and a strong cord and bind the sinner he can't break. A cord he can't break. He's held by his habits. So in these habits, the Lord wants to drive us to your life and my life.
And the passage here certainly teaches one thing. It's not just, you might say, reformation, cleaning the place up. The Lord wants regeneration. There's a remarkable verse in this connection. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, I think it's in Matthew twelve, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none. Then he says to himself, I'm going to take more spirits and enter in and repossess That house is empty, slept, and garnished, and it says the last state of that man is worse than the first.
I don't know a time of the year when that is more applicable than today, rather the beginning of a new year. I presume when midnight came, or the last day and hour of last month, and before the new year came in, there were a lot of people made new resolutions. I'm going to stop this, and I'm going to stop that. I'm going to turn over an elite. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to read my Bible more. I'm going to attend the meetings more. Yes. And they may clean up. Lot give up certain habits. The unclean spirit goes out of a man.
And he walks through dry places. Seeking rest and finally, well, that's a strange. I thought if I trimmed over a new leaf, I'd feel better. I thought if I gave up those habits, I'd feel better. I'd have more or less a religious attitude. And I think I'd like to go to church. I've cleaned up, but he goes to church. Dry places. It's a pretty dry place to a sinner. Read the Bible. Pretty dry book. I don't understand it. Seeking rest. He doesn't find them. The house is empty, it's swept, it's garnished.
A clear house pleading, turning over a new leaf. What's the trouble? Why are people doing this and yet not satisfying they don't have peace and rest? The point is, the house is empty. The unclean spirit has gone out of a man. And he walked it through dry places, seeking rest and finding none. So that's the whole secret. If the Lord had gone into that house, it wouldn't have been empty. And the man wouldn't have gone back to his old habit and plunged into sin worse than ever. For he took with him seven more spirits, more wicked than themselves.
He entered in on the last day that man was worth a ticket. A lot of people are going to be at work. In nineteen seventy-eight and nineteen seventy-seven, yet they cleaned up. simply because they cleaned up the house and tried in their own strength to live a Christian life. And they can't do it. If Christ had came in at the New Year and replaced all those things, the house wouldn't have been empty. It would have been full of the presence of the Lord. Then in his strength, they could have lived a Christian life. How true that is here. The Lord cleaned the place up. But he replaced what was in there temporarily.
He drove them all out. It might have been, must have been quite interesting and exciting to have seen those men being driven out by the Lord. With that call, and seen those jug cages with the dozen and going out the door, and the cattle in haste to get out, and the tables thrown over and thrown out, and all the coins all over the floor, the temple. is going to clean this place up. Well, we need a cleaning up today. And thank God He has a way in which He's done clean us up. He's given us His Word. He's given us His Holy Spirit whereby there can be a real cleaning.
But don't forget, unless Christ comes in and replaces what you give up, you've made no headway. Only Christ can come in and enable you to carry out those new ideas you have. And if Christ comes in, He brings an appetite for Him, Himself, and His Word, His Holy Spirit, if He fills the vacancy, if Christ comes in and fills the vacuum, left by things a person's given up, that person's going to make spiritual progress. Only Christ can do it without Him defeat.
You know, it's remarkable to compare this chapter. There are two sections to it. The first eleven verses, then the last section. The first eleven verses we were speaking on this morning. The wedding in Canaan of Galilee. Tonight, the cleansing of the temple. You know there's quite a difference. Seven contrasts in this chapter. First of all, you see divine favor being displayed. He turned water into wine at the wedding. The last half of the chapter, Divine Judgment, he cleaned up the temple and threw those who were guilty of merchandise.
He threw them all out. The second, the first half, you saw a marriage, love and a home. The second half, angered in the temper. The Lord was in the temple and he was there a man. He's going to clean that place up. In the first, he was invited to come to the wedding. In the second place, he was not invited. He took the initiative. He went in. He cleaned that place up. They didn't want him in there. But he went in. Then you have also, he employed human instruments in the first one. He told the servants to fill the water, but he was. In this last, he acted on himself, on his own.
He didn't ask anyone else to do it. He cleaned the place up. Quite a contrast. In the first one he supplied wine for empty bottles and for empty hearts. And he filled them up in this temple. He emptied the temple. And he filled hearts with fear. At the wedding he filled them with joy. Here he filled hearts with fear. Could a contrast between these two incidents? The first one points to his death, the wise. The second one points to his resurrection. You find that in verse twenty of our portion.
Then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? He sure did. He spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that he had said unto them, And they believed the Scriptures, and the Word with Jesus and spoken. In the miracle of the turning water into wine, you have his precious blood. His death. In the second, you have his resurrection. He took up his life. They destroyed his body. Not an idolatry. But they put him to death.
He said, I'll raise that up in three days. And he did that. There you have his death and his resurrection. So the one points to his death, the other to his resurrection, and he manifested forth his glory. He manifested his glory in the first case, the glory of his peace and presence at the wedding of a young couple, showing that Christ is consistent. Christianity is consistent with those who want to enjoy this life within the bounds of Scripture. I can enjoy this life.
I enjoy it every day. And I don't win for unclean things. I don't win for a lot of worldly things, but I enjoy life. I can enjoy this world because I'm set for the next. I'm all ready for the next. I'm not worried about the next. If I die, I'm going to heaven. If Christ comes, I'm going. I have nothing to worry about. And seeing the next world is settled, I can enjoy the present. That's why the other saved can't enjoy the present. They're not ready for the second. The next word. How wonderful it is to know that you're ready. Your needs have been met. You're saved on the way to heaven. And you're spending your time as much as you have to the glory of God.
to getting the gospel out into each other's with the truth. So the Lord shows us in these two passages the true contrast between what he gives, what he is, and what he can do to those who are disobeying him and defiling his temple. He only speaks of the temple as an illustration of his body. And that's true. How wonderful to think of the body of Christ as a temple in which God dwells. When you think of this, you think of some of these wonderful temples and cathedrals in some parts of the world.
Many years ago, about twenty-three or four years ago, I was over in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. I went through some marvelous cathedrals or temples, if you will. Westminster Abbey, for one. I'm in Scotland. I'm in Wales. There are many beautiful cathedrals. And that was one thing. The church did. When church and state got together back centuries ago, they built these big, magnificent cathedrals. Why they built them so massive and so expensively, I never know. For so few attended them. But there they stand today. And Christ is lightning his body unto a temple.
And you can take Solomon's temple if you like it. It was the most glorious except for the coming millennial temple. And that's an illustration of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful body was his. And what a wonderful life he lived in that temple. What is my body like? Is my body like a little inn or village with all kinds of traffic on becoming a Christian? Is my body... My temple is at a library stored with all kinds of worldly knowledge and books.
Is my temple, my body, a counted house dedicated to making money? Is my body a playhouse given to pleasure seeking? Is that the temple of my body? Is my body a pigsty where swineish passions reign? Is this my body, the temple of the Holy Spirit? Is my body a temple, a fashion plate, to manifest my ego? What is my body? What was his body? What is your body? It's a temple in which God rests.
It's our body a dwelling place for the Almighty. The Lord Jesus Christ, His temple, His body, revealed the glory of God. When you think of that temple in the day of the Lord that we have in this chapter, there you see the sheep, the oxen, the doves. What a stench in the temple. What a stench. No incense going up, just a stench. Because these men were in there. changing money. This group of men were in there with their tables, and they knew all these Jews who came there, they wanted a half-secular sanctuary because they couldn't get in there without it.
The Old Testament teaches that, and they had to get some money changed. And also there were those who came, so there were such a far place, they couldn't bring their animals, so they had to purchase an animal there to offer sacrifice. And these men were making money out of these people that came all the land. And the Lord knew they were making money, shortchanging the people, charging too much. And he knew the whole thing was merchandise. And that's why he threw the whole business up. What a stench went up to God from that supposed religious institution, the temple.
And the Lord cleaned it up. When you think of the stench that must go up to God today, there's a house of merchandise with their suppers and their raffles, their yards saved, their bingo games. And to think today they're advocating men and women to hold offices in the church who are guilty of some of the vilest, most filthy things on the face of the earth. They're debating these things in their big conventions. Your man could be a preacher, he could be a priest, he could do this and hold an office in the church, and he's guilty of some of the vile sins. The whole business, a stench in the nostrils of God, using all kinds of merchandise to make money for the church.
That's not God's order. God's people are not in need of a cleaning up because of so much of going on in the name of religion. That's an abomination. unto the Lord. How different is the temple the body of the Lord? He spake of the temple of his body. One thing I noticed in going through those cathedrals years ago, a number of things that amazed me was the floor, marble floor, polished. There were more tutors going through there than there were members of that big cathedral.
that polished marble floor? Could that speak of the shining light of the Son of God? When you think of that, those massive pillars, maybe a hundred feet high or more, could that speak of the strong, upright life of the Son of God? Think of those beautiful windows, many-colored windows. Could that speak of the eyes of Christ? And out from those eyes shone love and grace and pity and compassion. Furthermore, you think of those long corridors through which you walk, through those long corridors of brain and nerve, through which the thoughts and motions of God's knowledge and wisdom pass to man.
Think of that many-tongued organs, because they're beautiful organs, and that many-tongued organs. giving out those beautiful, majestic strains of things that glorify God instead of praying to the tune of the world and to the tune of earthly things. What about our bodies, these temples? Think of the temple of Christ, the body of Christ, and how he lived and what that body did while here on earth. And so he speak of the temple of his body. And your body and mine is the temple of the Holy Spirit that dwelleth in you.
I trust these things to come home to your heart, that they come home to my heart. How did he pave the situation up? He didn't condone it. He didn't walk in there and size up the situation and appraise it. Well, fellas, you should do a little better than this. This is kind of a mess you got here to try and straighten it up. He went in there and he went to work and he cleaned up. And he wants to do the same today with us. He wants us to be cleaned up. And he's ready to do it. And the only way he can do it is on the basis of his blood and sacrifice. There's no other way.
That's why I drew your attention to what you have in verses nineteen and twenty two. Notice these verses. Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then, said the Jews, forty and six years of this temple and building, wilt thou rear it up in three days. But he spake of the temple of his body. That's the only way his death and resurrection, and he can clean up any individual or any church. That's the starting place. Recognition of his death, his sacrifice, and his glorious resurrection. There was no room for the ark in the Temple of the Philistines.
Gagan their God was parked in that Temple of the Philistines. And when they took the ark of God in the represent of the living God, Gagan fell down flat. Because no earthly God can stand in the presence of the living God. And that's true. There's no place for the idols of the world to occupy the same room with the Son of God. One's got to go. Are you going to worship the true God or that of idols? What fellowship hath light with darkness? Or he that believeth with an infinite, or the temple of God with idols.
One's got to go. The two can't stay together. And there are certain things in your life and mine that have got to go out. If Christ is going to be there in conscious presence, he won't abide if those things are in there that are a stench to him, they have to go. And his death and his resurrection are the basis of this cleansing. And more I get back to the cross and see what Jesus did for me, the price he paid for my salvation, then... I begin on the right track to clean up my life, the motives, the thought, the intent of my mind and my heart, and my life, that which the world sees, that which others see.
He says, you destroy this temple, I'll raise it up, and he did. The purpose David tells us and gives us some remarkable text. He says, purge me with hyssop. and I shall be clean, purge me with hyssop." And that replied to the Passover, when they took the hyssop and they dipped it in the basin of blood and they sprinkled on the two side posts on the upper lintel. And that hyssop speaks of faith. David referred to that when in a backstudent condition he says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter, than snow.
That's the only way we're going to get cleansed of a lot of these filthy things, filthy thoughts in our lives. David also says, Wash me and cleanse me from my sin. Again, he says, Cleanse thou me from secret thoughts. These things have got to go if we're going to have the presence of the Lord in this temple. The two can't abide. You can't divide your heart say, Lord, you can have half. The Word's got the other half. The Lord said, I won't come to those terms. I will accept those terms. All are none. All are none. These are serious things.
What does Saul tell us in St. Corinthians, six, nineteen? What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you? Also in Second Corinthians six, sixteen, what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them. That's remarkable. Our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Some folks think that I am a little extreme on my eating habits. dieting, if you will, refusing certain things that I know will put a few pounds on.
Well, I put on nine pounds over the holidays, and I wasn't happy. I had a guilty conscience for this reason that this body belongs to the Lord. It doesn't belong to me. This body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and I can only serve the Lord in the measure of this body is in shape to do it. If I were to get sick and not able to preach it, it was my fault, I'd be a very unhappy man. Because I deprived service to the Lord, deprived myself of being used by my gluttony. This body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Nothing fills me more than to be in good shape Sunday morning because I did no read during the week.
These are practical things. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I know sweet things are good for the palate. You get the good taste when you're eating. You get the pain later. Don't forget that. You could eat a nice sweet piece of morsel of food. You might as well eat a pickle as far as the five minutes later is concerned. You've lost the taste. These sweet things only last for a few seconds. Then it's gone. And sometimes you gorge yourself when you make yourself awfully uncomfortable and you get up from the table groaned. And you don't feel very comfortable for a little while.
Your own fault. But you do it for. The taste is gone, flavor is gone, the thrill is gone. Now pay the price. Go and get some tums. How foolish we are as to our bodies. which are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We'll notice from here how the Lord proved his deity by his overseeing this situation in verses thirteen and seventy. With this I will close. He oversaw the situation. Then the Jews passed the rules at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, found in the temple those that sold oxen, sheep, and dove, and the changes of the money cities.
When he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen, and they poured out the changes, money, and over through the tables, and said unto them, That sold out, take these things hence, and make not my father's house a house of merchandise, and the disciples remembered that it was written, And he, the vine house, have eaten me up. He went in, he oversaw the situation. You'll see his foresighted, not his only oversight only, but his foresight here in verses eighteen to twenty-two. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, speak in terms, forecasting the future. And in three days I'll raise it up. Then said the Jews forty and six years, was this temple of the building. Will thou rear it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. when therefore he was listened from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the Scriptures and the word which Jesus had said. There was his foresight. Then his insight, no notice verse twenty-three to the end. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did.
But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. That's his insight. Many believed on him because they saw the miracles that he did. They didn't believe on him because they saw themselves guilty sinners who had sinned against God, and they needed salvation. They believed in a miracle worker. The Lord did not commit himself unto those people. He didn't save them. There are a lot of people today who are wanting a miracle work. Something who can perform, someone who can perform the supernatural.
The Lord says, I'm not going to save you. I'll save only those who are guilty before God, then they want salvation. And they're willing to accept it on my turn. I'll reveal myself. to that person. For he knew what was in that. Isn't that something to realize we're dealing with somebody who has insight? He knows what's in that. No one needs to tell, but he knows all about it. Finally, you have his authority, for none withstood him. They're like they're a lot more stronger people there that day than the Lord Jesus Christ as far as the physicalist could serve.
There were a number of those men, likely angry. Couldn't they congregate together and gang up on the Son of God and throw them up? No. They couldn't withstand him. He had authority. And that one who scattered his enemies in that day is going to scatter them in a day that is to come. The point is, you destroy him, you destroy yourself. you condemn Jesus Christ, you condemn yourself. You might just as well submit to his authority for its final. And you know there's no need opposing it. They could not destroy that temple when he raised it from the dead.
He said you can destroy this one. And they did when they nailed it to the cross. Not in annihilating it, but they destroyed it in putting it to death. But he says, you won't destroy the body I'm going to be raised in, and no man will. For the body Christ was raised in is of God's right hand today, and no man will destroy that body. That body is eternal. And nobody can destroy that new life you have. That's eternal. And when you receive Christ, you have something that God has given you that no man can take away. How wonderful are these things relative to this temple in the second chapter of John.
Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come into thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy holy word. We thank thee for coming close to us, even when thou chider, tender, as I told, help us to take these things to heart. For thy glory. Remember any who may be unsaved you tonight. They know not Christ at all. And their heart and life was full of sin and wickedness. But the Savior wants in. That he may clean up the situation. And enter that heart and set things in order. We ask thy blessing then.
Receive our thanks in the Savior's name. Amen. This meeting is over.