If you will, let's turn to John
chapter 2. For the last two days, I've earnestly
prayed as I've walked around this building, as I've ate my
meals. night and day, that I could be
in the right spirit when I preach from this text. I pray I'm in
the right spirit. Spirit of love, compassion, and
meekness as we go through this text. This is a miracle of purging
the temple. Do you know that? We've read
this so many times. Christ went and purged the temple.
That's a miracle. Do you know that? We'll see it. Mankind needs
their temple purged. And only God can do that. Mankind
has been given a sign of who Christ is and what He accomplished. His office, His power, and what He accomplished with
that. And only God can give them eyes to see that sign. Mankind
needs to be reminded and brought into remembrance of the promises
of God. And only God, the Holy Ghost,
is the one that can perform that. I'm learning more and more. The
Lord is teaching me. I can have the best illustrations, as plain and as simple as a nose
on my face, and say, this is what this means, and this is
how this applies to us. And if God ain't pleased to bless
it, it ain't blessed. It's just information. It's technical. That's all it is. God has to
do that. We'll see tonight the physical cleansing of the temple,
when the Lord cleansed the temple. But keep in mind the whole time,
this is what must happen as an inward work of God in the hearts
of His people. Keep that in the back of your
mind. Here in verse 13, it says, John 2, 13, And the Jews' Passover
was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. The Jews' Passover. This is a memorial feast. Religion. So-called worship. Everybody
says, oh, worship. Let's go to church that's fallen
so far from the true worship of God. It's not even named after
it anymore. It was actually referred to as
the Jews' Passover. That's what they called it. You
could take that noun out. and put in another noun. This
is man's Passover. It's man's Passover. That's whose
hands obtained it, and that's whose made this a ceremony. From
what God says, this is what happened. It went from what God says to
what man's good intentions were. That's what it took place from.
The Lord's Passover to the Jews Passover. From the Lord's word,
the Lord's commandment, What he says, I think it's sort of
just a good idea. I think we all do it this way.
I think it might work a little better. Man's Passover. That's what's happened. Where
did all this begin? Why were they there? Why did
the Jews have a Passover? Let's turn back to Exodus 12
and look at it real briefly. Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12, we'll begin
in verse 3. Exodus 12 verse 3, Speak ye unto
all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this
month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to
the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. Now look down at
verse 6, And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the
same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it in the evening. and they shall take of the blood
and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts
of the houses wherein they shall eat it." That's where you're
going to eat it. Why were they doing that? Look down at verse
12. For I, the Lord, I will pass through the land of Egypt this
night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will
execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood
shall be to you for a token." This physical blood on those
physical doorposts, to those people, it's a token. It's a
symbol. It's a picture. It's a shadow.
It's a token. The blood shall be to you for
a token upon the houses where ye are. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day
shall be unto you for a memorial and you shall keep it as a feast
to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance for forever. Look down at verse 26, Exodus
12, 26. And it shall come to pass when
your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service? That's old English. That don't
sound like a child, does it? Mommy, why do you do that? What did God say? You're going
to do this Passover, and when your children come to you, Daddy,
why do you cut that lamb up like that? Why do we eat like this? Why do I have to gird up my loins? And it shall come to pass, when
your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service?
That ye shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover,
who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt,
when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head
and worshiped." This feast was so clear on why they were doing
this. It was so easy to explain. The
Lord intended this and instructed them that when a small child
comes to you, you say, we is in Egypt, we is in bondage. God
gave a lamb. Blood was shed. God saw the blood. He delivered his whole house.
That's why we're standing here today, son. God saves sinners.
He provides the blood. He provided Himself a lamb. He
ain't here yet. We're going to look for Him.
He's coming back then. It's so simple. A substitute had to take
place. Our blood don't count. That's
some hard talks at the dinner table while you're getting a
lamb ready for the Passover, isn't it? That's in the house
and that's what God said to do. You parents that know, teach
your children. Innocent blood had to be shed for me to live.
And the only way any of the children of Israel or Egypt is going to
be spared is if there's a substitute. And just as Abraham declared
to Isaac, child, we've read that. We've read that in the Scriptures,
haven't we? Just as the Lord put on Abraham's heart and he
spoke to Isaac, God provided himself a lamb. And that's why
we're observing this feast. It's the Lord's Passover. He gave it to us. All the instruction,
everything. It's His Passover. When the Lord
passed over us because He saw the blood, He sent His firstborn
to die, that those covering His blood will never die. What's the response to that?
That's good preaching. You know that? Just to tell what
God said. Just tell them what the Lord
did. That's all you got to do. If you know the Lord, if you
know what He did, not facts, not checklists, but if you know
Him, you just tell what happened. It says there at the end of verse
27, they bowed their heads and worshiped. how far mankind's
fallen from true worship. Now, these Jews here, the Jews
Passover, and you tell me what's changed. It's just a ceremony. It's just something we do. That's
because Christ has just become routine. We ought never have
the cross of Christ. Christ coming onto this earth.
A holy God being made as a man walking this filthy earth for
filthy sinners that hated Him. He willingly laid down His life
and He rose the third day. You don't, okay, let me get me
a laminated piece of paper. Okay, you said that, yep. You'd
train a dog to bark at certain words. Election, ARF, food, ARF,
it'd bark whatever you trained it to, wouldn't it? That needs
to be real, not just a ceremony, not just a theological position,
an idea. It's a person. It's a person. It's real. Not just a man's Passover. It's the Lord's Passover. That's
what he's talking about. All around us, you drive this county,
and it appears that man's has grown so much. They've got lovely
buildings. They've got parking lots that
cost more than my house does. Big fancy structures. Some of
them are really nice. They're lovely buildings. But how far
have we fallen? And the Lord's going to show
us that. Go back in our text there in John 2. John 2 verse 13, 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. Now back in the beginning, whenever
they had to bring this sacrifice to the temple, these people,
they brought their own animals to the sacrifice. That sounds
easy, doesn't it? You ever led an animal like 50
miles? You ever put a rope around a
goat or a sheep? You had to fight that thing,
didn't you? And it was theirs. They brought their own sheep
to the temple for the sacrifice. That's a very serious subject. This took time. It had to be
a male of the first year without blemish. Imagine rationing a
10-month-old sheep or goat to check to see if it's got a blemish
on it, to see if it's got a spot on it. You start at the head
and start working your way down. I don't know if you've ever dealt with
goats. You're probably going to have to start over. Let me start again. You've got
to check that thing thoroughly. God says it's got to be without
blemish, without spot. This isn't just a quick glance. Oh, that
one looks pretty good. Yeah, use that one. The Lord
commanded this to them. You had to check it. That took
some time. That took some effort. You were probably going to get
kicked. You were going to have some scratches on you. You might get bit or something
like that. It would be taken on the 10th day of the month,
and this one without blemish you had to keep until the 14th
day. Well, that ain't 14 minutes, is it? That's days. This sheep that was yours, you
had to keep it. It was without blemish. You finally
found one that was without blemish. And that meant you had to watch
it. You had to check the fences. You had to make sure the gates
shut after you fed it. You had to keep somebody posted
at night. What if a wolf hopped over the
fence and ate it? Now you've got to start all over again,
but it ain't the 10th day no more, is it? What if a mountain lion
come, jumped that real high fence and got it? You finally have
one without blemish, and you may not have another. You're
committed. You had to keep his sheep. Then you had to kill it.
This was your sheep. This is your source of food.
This is your breeding stock, and this is good stock. It ain't
got no blemishes on it. Boy, you can show that to 4-H,
can't you? This is going to be a good sheep. Might want to breed
this one. Nope. Male the first year, without
blemish, 10 to 14 days, you keep it. It's yours. That's your breeding
stock. That's your source of food. You can keep this thing
for wool. You can make clothes out of that,
have a covering. You could sell the wool, keep
your kids fed through winter, couldn't you? That's your income,
that's your time, and likely your blood, sweat, and tears.
Times have changed. People didn't have the time or
the energy for all that. Boy, we're busy now. We need
something that's just a little more convenient, more accessible, more expedient,
more up to the times. That's the old-fashioned way.
That's what Grandma and Grandpa used to do. We know better. We grew. That's old-fashioned. They wanted something less strenuous.
Something that didn't have as much commitment. And let me tell
you something, where there's a want, need, or a desire in
a free market, there's entrepreneurs, aren't there? Somebody's going
to be there to fill that want, need, or desire. And so someone
realized they could provide this service, make things more convenient
for folks. And you know what? They might
be able to make a living at that. That's a lot of hard work. That's a
lot of labor. I might be able to feed my kids off doing this full
time. I don't mind it. And I'm helping them. I'm doing
that in my service. It was time consuming. They could
just do it for somebody else. You know how many emails I get?
John, I bet you get them too. How many emails I get a week
from businesses or people that tell me, do you need help streamlining
your services? making things more efficient.
Do you need help improving tithing at your local assembly? You can
reach a broader audience that's less likely to physically attend
service. Click here to see how. How to grow the virtual congregation. Because it's easy. Them people
don't even have to come out of their pajamas. We'll show you
how to do it. I get all kinds of emails. There's
a whole industry that caters to religion. They cater to religious
music, religious soundboards, audiovisual, attendance, whatever. Whatever you want, day camps,
weekend camps, it's big business. And you know what? They get just
a little small percentage of that for their time, because
they're working hard. They're in Louisville, Kentucky.
There is a massive church. They got escalators. I used to
love riding escalators when I was a kid. They got escalators. And
I don't think it's the name brand, but they got a, it's a knockoff
copycat of a real nice coffee shop. I don't like that, I don't
like that flavor of tea. We got you other flavors. Whatever
you want. It's almost cost. It's real cheap. You can go there and you can
get you a coffee or a tea. And you can get a bagel. You
can get you a donut. You can knock out brunch while
you're going to service. You can go worship and get brunch
knocked out with them at the same time. How convenient. That's
just good for the kiddos, isn't it? What did Paul say to Corinth?
He said, you want to eat? He said, you got houses, go eat
in them. And then he laid into it pretty good. He said, I'll
tell you the rest of it whenever I show up in person. I don't
want to be there in person. I think I ought to move to Ephesus. I
stayed a step ahead of him. In our text, 2,000 years ago,
people started selling things in the name of religion, as it
is today, and expressing who it's convenient for, who it makes
it easy for, who it's good for. These people, they could come
to the temple, they could pick out a sheep. It's not their own
sheep. Pay the merchant and head on their merry way. The sheep
they paid for meant nothing to them. It wasn't their sheep. It wasn't
the one that they cared for, maybe for generations. They had
great grandparents' sheep and grandparents' sheep and this
sheep's parents. You had to feed all them, take
care of them, keep them alive. Now you had to have another baby
sheep. Stayed up late at night watching
it, feeding it, providing for it, caring for it. It was just
merchandise. Take it or leave it. It wasn't
their first fruits. You know that? I ain't said much
about this, but whenever you give to the furtherance of the
gospel, God says, first fruit's mine. If anybody makes out a
month's budget, you put that first, and then you worry about
everything else. It wasn't their first fruits, was it? They had
contribution and not commitment. I told that little anecdote the
other day about the chicken and the pig. If you missed it, I'll
tell you later. There's a contribution there.
Feels good, but there's no commitment. There was no commitment to it.
There was no pain or emotion whenever they cut the artery
of that sheep. I butchered my own chickens,
I butchered my own ducks, and I butchered my own turkeys. I
don't like ducks. Don't care for them at all. Just
about died one night trying to coop them up, get them in the
coop. Just about killed me. Come real close. trying to get
ducks into a coop, keeping protected at night. But there was a flood
of emotion when I butchered them ducks that entered me. Blood
shot everywhere. We don't talk about this. You take a pint of blood, makes
a big old spot on the flat floor. Blood's slippery. You better
have a knife with a good handle on it. We're apart from those
things nowadays. But I cut them throats of them
ducks, blood went everywhere, and I looked at my children,
and I said, something's got to die for us to live. That was precious. There was
heartfelt grief in me. And I was brought into remembrance
of who had to die for me to live through eternity. All it was was those people at
that temple. This was a pacifier for their conference. You can
imagine their conscience. You can imagine them saying,
you know what? Hey, you want to go to the lake? It's a heat wave. You want to do some fishing or
some skiing or whatever they did back at swimming? Yeah, that
sounds good. Sure, I'll go. You know what?
Give me a few minutes. I need to go make a sacrifice
for the Passover and we'll get on the road. That's what it was. Verse 13 there, John 2.13 says,
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. They had to exchange
different currencies for that filthy lucre, and make changes
into half shekel of the sanctuary as required. And when He had
made a scourge of small cords, the Lord made a whip out of a
bunch of little cords. Do you know you don't just Pick it up,
and I got a whip now. He made a scourge of small cords. That took him some time. This
was planned, intentional. And you know why it was a small
scourge, it was a small whip? It wasn't like a whip he was
whipped with, was it? He's God, he don't need nothing big. This is a miracle we're about
to see. Little tiny whip, he made it by hand. 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 changer's
money and overthrew the tables. And he said unto them that sold
doves, take these things hence. Make not my father's house a
house of merchandise. Matthew, Mark, Luke, the synoptic
gospels for those drafts out there. They all tell the same
thing. John is telling us too. If all
four of them are telling us, we need to pay attention. But
John does things a little different. John recorded it a little bit
different. He said, take these things hitched. Make not my father's
house a house of merchandise. Mark, Matthew, Luke, they all
said this. Is it not written, my house shall
be called of all nations a house of prayer, but you've made it
a den of thieves. under the deception of honoring
the Lord, making it easy, making things more accessible. Men and
women are attempting to steal God's glory, to steal His honor,
and to steal His praise, and to keep a pacifier in natural
man's mouth and keep doing what they want to do. The first five
verses of Malachi 3, you can go read it when you get home.
It's the prophecy of this happening. And it goes on to ask Sir Malachi
3.8, will a man rob God? A den of thieves trying to steal
God's glory. A man's going to get away with that? It looks
like it for a season, don't it? I don't think so. What's the
cure for this? Let me try to get attention by
saying, who's the cure for this? Churches in shambles. I know
how to fix that. I got some ideas. I know how
to whip people in shape. I got some tactics. Let's read
this closely here, verse 15. When he 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 overthrew
the tables, and said unto them that sold the doves, Take these
things hence, and make not my Father's house a house of merchandise."
All throughout the Scriptures, this is called the Lord's Temple,
isn't it? Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. The
Lord's Temple. This is the Lord's Temple. This
is the Lord's Passover, is how it started, wasn't it? Done at
the Lord's Temple. Christ says here, this is my
Father's house. No prophet in the Old Testament
said, this is my Father's house. This is the Lord's temple. Christ
said, this is my Father's house. This is the declaration that
Christ is the Son of God and Him and His Father are one. He
declares who He is and everyone there knew exactly what He was
saying. He said, this is my Father's house. And it declares His power. His power. He had a scourge of
small cords and he drove them all out of the temple. Why was
he doing that? He had to purge the home of leaven
before the Passover. He couldn't have any leaven in
the house. Where did the Lord abide? With the Father? It's His house, isn't it? He
was getting the leaven out of His house before the Passover.
Why were we required to get the leaven out of our house before
the Passover? He was purging his house, his temple. We can
plant a very dangerous seed in our young children by having
them color pictures of biblical things. We can plant a very dangerous
seed in our children by having them color pictures of biblical
things. I'll tell you why. My whole life, I remember a picture,
whenever you think of him scourging that temple, on a Passover. What
do you think? There's six, seven men sitting
on a couple steps. Maybe they got one of them little
bamboo boxes that's got a couple of doves in it. There's a sheep,
an oxen, a goat. That's what's in my head from
my birth. At the Lord's Temple, you had the holy place. Outside
of that, you had the court of the priests. Then you had the
altar, and then you had the court of Israel. Then you had the women's
court, and then you had the Gentiles' court. The court of the Gentiles.
Like a flea market's how they're running it now. The priest leased
out spots. Because it's orderly, right?
Well, you've got to have a permit to come here. It'll be $5. Let these
vendors come in here to sell. That Court of the Gentiles, depending
on how you do math, about 13 acres is how big it was. And
some estimate, some of these scholarly people, that there
was anywhere that week between 300,000 and 400,000 people come
through. Let's say they're 90% wrong.
There was 30,000 to 40,000 people there, and all the vendors, and
all the animals. And the Lord took a little tiny
whip, declared that He is God, and said, get out. You think,
if that was me, could they have overtook me? Could I have been
trampled and stampeded by oxen? Animals left too. We have quail
all over our property. Have you ever heard the expression
herding cats? I couldn't get them things to go from one side
of that property to the other. If I wanted to, they'd go right back to where
I was standing. The Lord cleared that place out. All the animals. All the people. Not a one of
them resisted. One man, nothing comely about
him. He wasn't six foot eight and four hundred pounds of muscle.
Takes a small whip and by himself purges out the multitudes. They
run for their lives. They run from their livelihoods. This is how they fed their children.
Well, we cry on our day. I like supporting small businesses.
I like mom and pops. That's what I like to do. They say, you ain't going to
run us out of business, but this wasn't a mere man, was it? This
is a God man. Isaiah said, the Lord said to
Isaiah, Yea, before the day was, I am He, and there is none that
can deliver out of My hand. I will work, and who shall let
it? Who's going to stop it? Not man. Turn over to Hebrews
chapter 10. Our Lord is meek, but He is not
weak. He's gentle, but He doesn't lack
the power and the justice of wrath. He's long-suffering to
his people, but he will not suffer the fool who says, no God. Look
here in Hebrews 10 verse 28. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith
he was sanctified as an unholy thing, as something common, and
hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace." How much sore punishment
will it be for somebody that's seen, heard who Christ is? what
His blood accomplished. Man's nothing. The Lord did this
and He entered His covenant of grace before time was, before
He was on the scene. And then they counted. Verse 30, For we know Him that
hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me. I will recompense, saith
the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge
His people. It's a fearful thing to fall
in the hands of the living God. I can say that out loud. It's
a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God. I can
tattoo that all over my body. I can paint the sides of my houses
with it. I can put it on my license plate. I can get bumper stickers
all about it. And if it's just a fact, if it's
just words I've memorized, if it's doctrines, plural, that
I agree with, that I side with, and the things that I don't side
with, people make a doctrine out of what he don't believe
just as quick as he can what he does believe. What a danger that is. What a frightening danger. That's
a fearful thing, being in the hands of a living God. This ain't
one of them gods that's got hands that can't do nothing. This is
the living God. We would be wise to be like David
wrote in Psalm 2, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling,
kiss the Son lest He be angry, and He perish from the way when
His wrath is kindled but a little. Oh, don't turn from Him. He's
got a little scourge, a little whip. When we see that, what
happens when that Lamb comes in that final day of judgment?
Revelation says that they'll cry for the rocks and the mountains
to fall on them. That's who we're dealing with.
According to the Word of the Lord, according to His Word,
I have a deep concern for everyone in commercialized religion. Everybody's
just going to church. That's what we do. It's Wednesday. It's Sunday morning. Time to
go to church. Then we can plan the rest of
your week. Plan everything else and see
if you can squeeze that in there. That's a frightening thing. Those
that are making a profit out of it, they have no fear or reverence
for the Lord. It will be worse than that day
for them than Sodom and Gomorrah. John 2 verse 16. And it said unto them that sold
the doves, Take these things hence, make not my father's house
a house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered
that it was written." And he purged the temple. His disciples
remembered that it was written. The zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up. As soon as the disciples saw
this great miracle happen, these droves of people, these droves
of animals getting cast out. The only person in that temple
now is Christ. Everybody else is outside of it. They remembered. They remembered Psalm 69, 9.
The zeal He has for His temple. They remembered Psalm 119, the
zeal He has for His temple. They're not talking about that
physical building, is it? What's the Lord's temple? His people.
That's where He abides. If we could enter into a drop
of that. If we could get one drop of that
put on our heart. The zeal that Christ had for
His people. The one who's able to keep and
defend. The one who's fulfilled all the law, every jot and tittle
of it. He's completely satisfied the Father. He has a zeal for
His temple. He has a zeal for His people.
That makes it easy to wake up in the morning. Why didn't the mail run today?
That's alright. Didn't that package show up? I don't care. The Lord
has a zeal for His temple. He purged their temples is what
happened. His disciples standing right
there. The Lord physically purged the temple to get everybody out.
He came into their hearts and purged His temple in their heart.
And they were brought into remembrance. Hawker said, this reminded him
when the Lord spoke, I am. And the captors fell back when
they came to arrest Him. He purged His temple. It says
in verse 18, Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What
sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou dost do us these things?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up. Show us a sign. They ask him that again, don't
they, Matthew? Lord, show us a sign, and we'll believe it.
He said, I ain't giving you no sign. A corrupt generation wants
a sign. All you got to sign is Jonah.
Just as He was in the belly of the whale three days and three
nights, so the Son of Man shall be in the belly of the earth
three days and three nights, and He'll rise. That's all you're
getting. Show us a sign. That's what the
two-edged sword and false prophets among believers said. Show us
something we'll believe you. He just purged the temple. Who gave
you the right to do that? Who gave you the power? Bow. That's what y'all do. But for
the believer, for those disciples that saw Him, those disciples,
He just purged their temple and their hearts. What a sure sign
we have. The Lord gave us a sign. Because
of who Christ is, because of His power, because of His authority,
because of His righteousness, we have an empty tomb. He's risen. All those sheep that were sacrificed,
physically that did nothing. Didn't do anything for those
people. And those sheep that were sacrificed, they were dead
forever. They died, they went through the ceremony, and they're
gone. They ain't coming back. Christ gave Himself for us. He
washed away our sins with His blood. This was effectual. And He rose again. Something
most sacrifices didn't do. He rose again. And He ever lives
to make intercession for us. The sheep's a shadow. The tomb
is the sure sign. That's a promise. It's a declaration
to His people. These religious Jews are asking,
what right do you have to do this? And what does the Lord
bring up when someone asks such things? Who gives you the right
equals, I'll kill you if I have a chance. We don't see it that
way, do we? These Jews didn't either. He
brought up His death, burial, and resurrection, didn't He?
Well, that wasn't on their mind, that's thinking about this physical,
what just physically happened. That's the heart, that's the
way God sees it. That's the heart of man. Who are you telling me
to do something like that? Kill them. That's what our heart
cries. That's what our old man cries. They didn't see it that
way either, neither do we. They said, I will not have that
man reign over us. Look here in verse 20. Then said the Jews,
forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt
thou rear it up in three days? It took us 46 years to build
this place. This ain't extreme home makeover. You ain't going
to do it in three days. What are you talking about? They
didn't have eyes to see. They didn't hear the Lord. Religion
reads their Bible and they see touch not, taste not, handle
not, don't smoke, don't drink, don't chew. They don't have it
in there, does it? That's man's Passover, that's
man's law, man's restrictions. Christ said, you read these scriptures,
but these are they that speak of me. It's not what to do, it's
what's been done. That's what we're reading. It
says in verse 21, but he spake of the temple of his body. What
was he telling them? He said, you destroy this temple
on Calvary's cross, and three days later, you will have your
sign. You want to kill me? Kill me. Put me in the ground
and watch what happens. Who gave you the authority to
do this? And he said, watch. Watch what comes to pass. Verse
22 says, and when therefore he was risen from the dead, his
disciples remembered. It says, when he was risen from
the dead, Three years later, his disciples remembered that
he said this unto them, and they believed the scripture and the
word which Jesus had said. The scripture and the words that
come out of Jesus' mouth are one and the same, aren't they? He is the Word of God. But they
believed what they read, they believed what they heard from
his mouth whenever he was risen. When this happened, when he purged
that temple, the apostles had no clue what he was talking about.
Do you know that? He said, you tear this temple
down, three days I'll raise it up. They didn't know. They had
no idea. He told them so plainly over
and over. When we get to John 6, we'll
see that. He said, I'm going to the Father. You can't come
right now. I'm going to go to the Father. I'm going to lay
my life down. I'm going to take it up again.
They heard them tell the Pharisees about that sign of Jonah. Just
like Jonah was in the belly of the well, I'm gonna go in the
grave for three days, and I'm gonna come back out. And then
he asked him, he said, how is it you have no faith? Lord, what
are you talking about? How is it you have no faith?
Have I been so long with you? There in Mark 16 it says, Now
when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared
first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He cast seven devils.
And she went and told them that had been with Him. She went and
told the apostles and the disciples. And they mourned and wept. And
they, when they had heard that He was alive and had been seen
of her, believed not. For three years have been telling.
But He had to come to them. It took the Lord to do it. Only
the Lord could do it. What's the comfort in that for us? How
many things has the Lord said to us here in His Word and it
ain't sunk in yet? How many times do I have to read
something and then I forget it? And the Lord's got to show it
to me again and then I forget it. How long has that been there? He purged the temple. I thought
He just whipped four or five people. How long did that happen?
Has it always been there? We have so many pages and we
forget so quickly. That's what He told us in John
14. It says, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things
and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have
said unto you. The Lord's Word won't return
to him void. He may say a word now. He may
give a word today. And then a year from now, 10
years from now, 50 years from now, in His good pleasure, He'll
send the Holy Ghost, the Great Comforter, to His people, stir
up our pure minds, and we'll say, you know what? He's right.
I believe what He says. That's what the Lord's got to
do in us. He physically purged this temple, but He has to come
to His children, in His power, under His mighty authority, the
Godhead in a body, and purge out all those wicked works, all
those things we thought were just really good intentions.
He has to push that out of us, get all that living out for the
Passover that's required. And then He reveals Himself,
and then He comes to us, and He keeps us, and He keeps us
forever. And we worship Him. Thank You,
Lord! What a God we have!