Our lesson this morning will
be taken from Luke chapter 19, verses 45 through 48. I hope that you'll read along
with me as we read these passages. I don't want you to go home thinking
this is what our preacher said or this is what our preacher
believed. I want you to go home seeing what God says. In these four verses, Luke describes
a great miracle performed. A lot of the old writers said
it was one of the greatest of his miracles. Jesus of Nazareth
came into the temple at Jerusalem and physically purged that building
of all that polluted it. His disciples told him before
he ever went up there, they said, don't go up to Jerusalem, they'll
kill you. They hate you up there. Don't go up there. But he did. And nobody touched him until
his time was come. Let's read this account together
in Luke 19, beginning with verse 45. And he went into the temple
and began to cast out them that sold their inn. and them that
bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house
of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And he taught
daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the
scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him. and could not find what they
might do, that is to accomplish his death. There was no opportunity
for him. For all the people were very
attentive to hear him. Now all four gospel writers give
an account of the purging of the temple. Matthew, Mark, and
Luke's account gives us an account of this purging just before the
crucifixion of Christ. If you look at the various, and
I'll give them to you here in just a second, but if you look
at the various references, they're all at the end of the Gospel
writers, the book that they wrote, except for John. The purging
of the temple in John happened in chapter 2. John's account describes the
first time he cleaned out the temple, and this took place three
years earlier than what we're reading about here in the book
of Luke. And if you want to read these accounts, they're in Matthew
chapter 21, in Mark chapter 11, here in Luke chapter 19, and
in John chapter 2. Now the hierarchy of the Temple
of the Jews were a fearsome bunch. They were not to be taken lightly.
They were responsible for the imprisonment, death, and torture
of anyone who dared to publicly confess faith in Christ. They
were a fearsome bunch. In 1 Corinthians 15, 29, talking
about the resurrection, if there be no resurrection, That's what
his argument is. He's preaching the resurrection,
but he's telling them, if there be no resurrection, this, this,
this, this. Your faith's in vain. You got
no hope for those that have passed on. And he said, else what shall
they do, verse 29, else what shall they do which are baptized
for the dead? He's not talking about being
baptized in proxy of some dead man, but he's talking about being
baptized under martyrdom. These people were martyred. And
if there be no resurrection, what was the sense in that? You
see his argument? This bunch polluted or plotted
the capture, the torture, and the death of Christ. They met
together. They said, here's what we're
going to do. We're going to hire false witnesses. We can't find
anything against him. We're going to make stuff up.
And they sat down and plotted it out. This bunch gave letters
to Saul of Tarsus to become a religious bounty hunter, not for money,
but for zeal and self-satisfaction. This bunch was a cosa nostra
of Jewish religion, the mafia, if you will. They stoned Stephen, beat Paul
twice, stopping one last short of death, and the temple is where
they were headquartered. This was a den of rattlesnakes.
A den of rattlesnakes. And I'm telling you this to emphasize
how great a miracle it was to go into this place and do what
he did. There wasn't just one priest. The whole priesthood was there.
There was a high priest, chief priest, and a common priest. And another thing I want you
to see here is that this temple was but a figure of the truth.
Hebrews 9 gives us an account of that temple and priesthood
and the sacrifices saying it was a figure for the time then
present. It stayed and they practiced
in this place as a figure. as a picture, as a foreshadowing
of what was to come. That thing continued until, he
said, the time of Reformation, which is the coming of Christ. The house of God is not a physical
building. His house is not a place with
a roof or a floor. Paul said, ye are God's husbandry,
ye are God's building. Do you ever look at yourself
that way? Huh? You're God's building. And His
church is His elect. In 1 Corinthians 3.16, He said,
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Holy Spirit
of God dwelleth in you? Where is this temple? What is
this temple? It's His church. were built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all
the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in
the Lord. His church is the temple. And Peter said, ye as lively
stones are built up a spiritual house. That's what I'm talking
about this morning. miracle that Christ performed,
I want you to see. He was doing this in a physical
building, but it has a spiritual application. His temple is his
church. You build up a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood, to offer up sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. His house is a spiritual house. It consists of living stones,
believing men and women. But in that day, the day set
before us here in Luke chapter 19, the figure of the true was
still standing. The physical temple was still
standing. And the one who comes in to purge
it will also fulfill it. He'll take its place. There's
an interesting fact. I've read all four accounts,
but there's an interesting fact that enters in in John chapter
2. When he come to the temple in
John chapter 2, he came in and he looked around and then he
left. And he went out and spent the night in Bethany. No doubt
with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And then he came back in the
next day, that's the day he cursed the fig tree. You remember the
story of that. And then he went into the temple
and he didn't come stomping in mad, he come in and sat down.
and took some rope and sat and plaited a whip right in front
of him. You know everywhere this man
went they had their eyes fastened on him. And here he is, he comes
into the temple and every eye on that temple is on him because
they know these men hate him and they believe him to be the
son of God. And they're watching, they're watching these guys and
they're watching him and he just silently sits down, not in a
hurry, plaits a whip. And when he gets done, he cleans
house. He took that whip and beat out
the money changers and the beasts and the lambs and the oxen and
the doves, overturned the money tables. But here's what I want
you to see. When he finished all this, the
Jews, these men who hated him, came up to him and they said,
by what authority did you do this? They knew he had authority. No
man rebuked him. They couldn't raise a hand against
him. He manifested his divinity when he walked into the temple.
That's what makes it such a great miracle. And then they said,
what sign show us? He said, here's the sign. Destroy
this temple. In three days, I'll build a temple.
Oh, that's 46 years this thing was in the building. You're going
to build it back in three days? You wanted a sign, here it is.
Here it is. But they knew not that he spoke
of his body. And boy, if you don't hear anything
else I say today, you hear that. We are the temple of God. The temple of God. He said, my house, here's the
first thing I want you to see in all this. He calls it a house. Yvonne came over to me the other
morning. She said, how's it going? I said, pretty good. She said,
and I sat there a few minutes, and I said, what is a house? What is a house? He calls it
a house. Well, here's what he says, my
house. is the house of prayer. Talk about a place where he'll
meet with his people, this place where he'll listen
to their petitions, a place where he's going to teach them what
they need to know about God, about Christ, and about the salvation
of their souls. God has a house. Well, what is
a house? You ever stop and just ask yourself,
I guess I'm way down below everybody else. It's these simple things
that people take for granted is what I have to think out because
it don't make any sense to me. What is a house? A house is a
shelter. It's a covering. It's a place
safe from the elements. safe from storms, safe from thieves. A house is a place where one
cleanses himself from the dirt of daily living. I don't go out
in the yard, I go in the house. A house is a place to dine, isn't
it? Come and dine, the master called
it, come and dine. We ate in the house. Now last
night we ate in the yard, but most of the time we ate in the
house. And no meal is more memorable to me than the meals I had in
our house when I just a little bit. You think back on that sometime? A house is a place to rest. I
think I'll go home now and rest. Ain't that what you say after
a hard day? I need to go home. I'm going to lay down and rest. I always felt secure in my father's
house. I could sleep like a baby. A
house is a house of pleasure. I remember many happy times in
our house. Gatherings together on Sunday.
I've told you often on Sunday we'd have a chicken dinner with
all the fixings. And it's so memorable to me.
A house is a place occupied with a household. House ain't much benefit if ain't
anybody in it. A household. In Ephesians 2.19
he said, Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household
of God. God has a household. He has people
in his house. In Galatians 6.10 it says, As
we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially, especially unto them that are the household of faith. Our Father has a house, and we're
God's building. Our Father sets the rules, He
demands a certain conduct, teaches us His ways, and Christ is the
head of the body of the church who is the beginning. Had I had
no father, there'd be no need of a house. There'd be no children,
there'd be no Brothers and sisters, there wouldn't be anything there. Our spiritual house is God's
house. We're built together for a habitation
of God through the spirit. God has a house, and his church
is the house. All right? Here's the second
thing. Where is this house? We're all the time talking about
going to church. You can't go to church. You are the church.
We go to a seminary. But we don't go to church. Well,
I miss church today. You can't miss church. You are
the church. You see what I'm saying? Matthew 18, verse 20 says, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. Everybody in our house shared
the same name. Somebody told me, said, you pastor
the Whiteheads. Well, we all got the same name,
don't we? We're all in the same family.
You know that your brothers and sisters are out there at the
door knocking? Lord said, who is my mother? Who is my brother? Who's my sister? Huh? Right here. Right here. You're looking at
me. Don't give preference to your natural family like you
give to the family of God. Don't do it. Don't do it. Everybody in our house shared
the same name, our father's name. My mother was a Howard before
she got married, but when she got married, her name was changed
to Pruitt, and it stayed that way till she died. Huh? A bride's not ashamed to take
her husband's name. My friend believers take to themselves
their father's name, and his bride gladly accepts his name.
So where two or three are gathered together in his name, he said,
I'll be there at my house. I'll be there. All right, third,
there was discipline in my father's house. I usually got one of these, and
that was it. That's all the warning I was
going to get as a child. They were disciplined, and it
was sure to come. Sure to come. In Hebrews 12,
verse 9, it says, We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected
us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? Now listen,
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Huh? Oh, my son. Whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth. He scourgeth every son that he
receiveth. My father never punished somebody
else's children. But boy, he did us. He did us. Fourthly, our Father's house
is a spiritual house. It's a house that bears his name.
It's a house that shelters his children. It's a house of safety
and rest and a place to dine and rejoice. And this spiritual
house is a house of prayer. Sinners come to this house to
plead for mercy. Why do you come? To plead for
mercy. Why are you here today? To plead
for mercy. Where do you go? I go to his
house. I go where his people are assembled. Sinners come to this house for
spiritual food and drink. Except you eat of my flesh and
drink of my blood, you've got no life in you. That's what Christ
said. Sinners come to this house to
find lodging and rest. When are you the most comfortable?
When you're out on the river, Or were you sitting here under
the gospel hearing your place in Christ? I can rest in Him. I just need to be reminded of
Him. I need to be reminded often of Him. And we come to this house to
celebrate the name of our Father and His Son who manifests this
name. We're proud of this name. I'm
proud to bear the name of Christ, aren't you? It means no more
in our day out here in religion to be a Christian than to be
a golfer. It's nothing. But it is to a
believer. It is to a believer. And it's
a house of prayer and worship. This house is God's house and
he will not tolerate his house to be polluted with the ways
of the world. Don't bring the philosophers
of the world in here. And if you want to talk about
that temple as an individual, don't bring the philosophers
of this world to your door. If you bring not this doctrine,
don't let him in, don't invite him in, and don't tell him God
bless you when he leaves. This world has turned the house
of God into a place of business. That's what they've done. It's
organized like a business, it's run like a business, and it's
used like a business. But the worst of the business
is the business of false religion. It's the business of ceremonial
worship, the business of keeping of days, and the offering up
of your sacrifices. These men and women had degenerated
to the place where they just took what was set before them,
and offered up another man's lamb. You go back and read the
instructions given to Moses about killing the lamb. He said, you
go out there to your flock and you look it over and you pick
the firstling of the flock. You don't just grab a lamb, you
examine it. You get the best lamb. You get
the one who has no disease. He's not discolored. He's not
misbred. He's a perfect lamb. And then
you pin him up. You don't take him in and cut
his throat. You pin him up and you watch him to make sure there's
nothing wrong with him. Then you take that lamb and you
take it to the priest. Huh? But what were they doing? Oh, they, people in there had
lambs lined up. Here's a lamb. You don't need
a lamb. We got it right here. You don't
have to drive. You don't have to go through
all that. Just come down here. We'll give you the lamb. Well,
what are they doing out here in false religion? You don't
need all that. We got the lamb right here. Here's
your lamb. Hold my hand out for a small price. We'll furnish the lamb. Oh my, so you starting to see
something about the pollution in the temple? They degenerated to the place
where they just took what was set before them and offered up
another man's lamb. They brought before God another
man's dove. What's the dove symbolize? The
Holy Spirit. They'll come preaching another
gospel with another spirit. Ain't that what he said? Served on the plate was another
man's bread. They were buyers and sellers.
Buyers and sellers. And under the law, they were
to take that lamb and look it over, bring it in, and offer
it up. No flaws, no issues, no diseases. But these hucksters are going
to bypass all this for a profit and sell you a lamb which they
have chosen. You don't need to know anything
about it. I've already did that for you. You just take the lamb. They'll come preaching another
Jesus. They'll come trying to sell you on another gospel. In
2 Corinthians 11, 1-4. Galatians 1, 6-9. And 2 Peter
2, 1-3. All three tell you that exact thing. And to beware of
it. And the Lord came into Jerusalem. And they were saying, Hosanna
to the King, Hosanna to the King. They were talking about the Conqueror,
the mighty Savior coming into the world, the Christ. And our
Lord entered into that temple, but He would not teach in a polluted
temple. And neither will He enter into
an assembly occupied by a bunch of outlaws. He won't do it. He
won't do it. The first thing He's going to
do is purge the outlaws. That's what he's going to do.
He's going to run them off. And no room in the house of God
for anything but prayer and worship. And that according to his word.
There has to be a tearing down before there can be a building
up. You go back there and read Nehemiah. Nehemiah came out there
and he was going to start the foundation of the temple. They're
going to build it back. He had the money, he had the
people, he had everything behind him. He come out there and he
couldn't do anything. because there was rubbish everywhere.
First thing you had to do, get rid of the rubbish. And that's the first thing God
does in his temple. This temple that he's building,
this spiritual house, he's gonna remove the rubbish. I can't point you to a refuge
while you're hiding out in your little hideout. I could destroy
your hideout. And to do this, we need spiritual
weapons. Blessed reform will not get it
done. A physical cleansing would just
polish the sepulcher. That's what the Lord said. It's
going to whitewash you. And our weapons, He said, are
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. I can't
pull down your stronghold. Only God can do that. That's
why I pray for the Holy Spirit to meet with us and be with us.
I've got no power to tear down your refuge. No man had power
to walk into that temple and do what Christ did, but he had
the authority. He's the Christ. He's the head
of the church. And he did it. Our weapons are mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalteth itself above the name of God. And I hope you understand what
I'm saying. We are the house of God, you and I. We're the
house of God. And the danger is not something
done in a building, but what takes place in hearts. People in the days of Paul, like
Lydia, met on the bank of a river, and some in catacombs, and others
in dens of the earth. They had to hide to worship God. The house of God is the house
of His elect. Having said that, let me say
this. This building where we meet is a reflection of what
we are and what we know, and him whose house we are. It's a reflection of us. And
as we're warned about the pollutions of a spiritual house, so we need
to be aware of the physical. I cannot allow the world to participate
in the worship of God. I can't allow their people to
come in here and start taking over and preaching and buying
and selling. You can't do that. Somebody comes
in here, a stranger, and he says, well, I believe what you're saying.
Next day we appoint him teaching Sunday school. We're going to
give him a job. You can't do that. You can't
do that. No room in the place of worship
for visual aids and religious symbols or images of angels and
saints and even the Son of God. Pictures. I don't know how many
churches I've been, had a picture of Jesus hanging out there on
the wall. I love, old Tim James come down
to Ball years ago and he got up to preach and he said, I see
an empty nail. He said, I love empty nails.
He said, something used to hang there that shouldn't. Huh? I'm going to purge his house.
I'm going to purge his house. Worship comes from the heart
and is brought about through the preaching of the gospel,
prayer, and song. You mean singing has a place
in worship? Well, here's what he said in Ephesians 5.19, speaking
to yourselves in Psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord. That's what he said. Oh, we don't have no singing
in our church. Well, you don't worship. That's the problem.
If you worship, you'd have music in your church. You'd be singing
songs. And the temple was God's house
and they were polluting it with the with a false preacher. And the Lord of Glory was not
walking softly. Our Lord was a tender, when I
read about Him, I touched on this last week. Our Lord was
a tender, patient, kind, and loving man who was so approachable
that even strange children came right up to Him and sat on His
lap. Huh? Isn't that something? But not when it comes to compromising
the house of God. Oh my soul. Now he takes in his
hand a whip and he drives out the intruders. There are three things that bring
about a polluted assembly. I'll sum this up. Ignorance of
the law. That's the first thing. Why were
these money changers and these beasts and all these things allowed
into the temple of God? Ignorance of the law. Paul wrote to the Galatians and
he said, you that desire to be under the law, do you hear the
law? You don't understand the law or you wouldn't be wanting
to get under it. I saw a big billboard. They cut
it out in the shape of a scroll, and they had the Ten Commandments
on it. And up above it, this is the first town going out of
El Dorado, that big town over there. I saw it on the left.
It said the Ten Commandments are enough for us. Well, they're
too much for me. Huh? You think you can handle
the Ten Commandments? Uh-uh. Ignorance of the law. The holy
law of God had been whittled down to a set of rules and regulations,
a few religious exercises, and they consist entirely in outward
conformity to those rules. It was the priesthood's ignorance
of the law, and especially of what it foreshadowed, that caused
them to allow the money changers to come in and set up their tables.
Secondly, what causes a polluted assembly? Degenerated worship. The holy temple of God looked
like a flea market. I was sitting there trying to
imagine all these goings on. What is required in our physical
building is an empty building. Same thing required in our spiritual
building, an empty building. That's what you need. God will
put everything in it that he wants in it. He told Moses, now
you be careful. You better hear what I'm telling
you. You see that you do everything that I'm telling you exactly
according to the pattern I showed you in the mount. Don't you take
your imagination and run off with it. Well, he could have
meant, uh-uh. No, he understood exactly what
he meant. Both Moses and Solomon put into
God's house what God instructed them to put in it, nothing else. And worship is owing to the Spirit
of God. If the Spirit of God doesn't
attend my preaching and our assembling, what have we got? We just up
here going over facts. We ain't going to worship. It's
not going to change how I feel. It's not going to have any effect
on my emotions at all. But boy, if the Spirit of God
attends that meeting, I can get up there and stutter and stammer
and you'd leave here in tears. Huh? If the Spirit don't fill the
house, the house will be filled with another spirit. Let me tell you something. You
don't need the Spirit of God to make a decision for Jesus,
but you have to have Him to be born of God. You don't need the Holy Spirit
to reform your life, but you do to be regenerated. You don't need the Holy Ghost
to make a profession of faith, but you do to receive the gift
of faith. And you don't need the Holy Spirit
to learn a creed or to learn how to defend it, but you must
have Him to learn the gospel. You don't need the Spirit of
God to be devoted to religious service or devoted to religious
activity, but you must have Him to sit quietly and learn at His
feet. I know your election of God.
You become followers of us and the Lord, otherwise you wouldn't
listen to us. That's your opinion, not the door you go. You don't
need the Holy Ghost to be immersed in water, but you do to be baptized
into Christ. If the Holy Spirit were to depart
from some assemblies that I've been in, I doubt they'd even
know it. They wouldn't even know he's
gone. It'd just be business as usual. They didn't realize that
the Son of God, who had the Spirit without measure, walked into
His temple. They didn't know it. And they
were just doing what they were doing. And when He walked out,
they kept right on doing what they were doing. And even after
He beat them out, they come back in, and two years later, here
they are. ignorance of the law, degenerated worship, and thirdly,
a corrupt message. Paul said, though we are an angel
from heaven, bring any other gospel to you than that which
we preach, let it be a curse. They substitute ceremony for
the person of Christ, works for grace, sacrifice for mercy, and
outward form for inward power. The Lord deliver us from these
things and teach us what it is to worship Him. He said, those who worship me. You going to worship God? If
you want to worship God, you're going to do it in spirit and
in truth. Otherwise, you're not worshiping
God. You're just meeting. You're just meeting.