All right, brethren, let's go
back there now to John 2. I'm gonna read the passage again
and make a few comments as we go. Verse 12 says, after this,
after the miracle of turning the water into wine, he went
down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brethren and his
disciples, and they continued there not many days, and the
Jews' Passover was at hand. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
You picture the streets of Jerusalem just packed and the court of
the temple packed full. They had come to observe the
Jews' Passover. And that's significant that John
calls it the Jews' Passover. In Exodus, it's called the Lord's
Passover. But it had so degenerated into
such falsehood and he calls it the Jews' Passover. The Lord
Jesus is the one that was typified in the Passover. He is our Passover. He came forth and laid down his
life for his people, and by God's grace, he applies the blood through
faith, and when God sees the blood of his believing people,
because of Christ's blood, he passes over his people. passes
over us in judgment because Christ bore that judgment. But when
he walked into that temple, now you just picture this, here's
the one who is the Passover and he walks into that temple and
they're too busy in religion to even know or recognize who
was there. And he walks in their midst and
he found his father's house turned into this money-making den of
thieves. He said in verse 14, and he found
in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and
the changers of money sitting. Now those animals they're selling,
they were selling them for sacrifices and they also pictured Christ. And under the law, what they
were to do is, say they were going to offer a lamb, they were
to put that lamb up and take some time and examine that lamb
and make sure he had no blemish in him. And a true worshiper
doing that would have taken some time and he would have thought
about the lamb God's gonna provide, Christ the lamb. But what these
sellers were doing is making it convenient for the people
so they didn't have to put up a lamb. They didn't have to examine
their sacrifices. They could just rush into the
temple, pay for a sacrifice, make the sacrifice, and get back
on with their business and never even really give any thought
to what they were doing. It just was totally different
from what God had set forth. And these money changers, they
were profiting as well. Those people selling the sacrifices
were making money and the money changers. You remember we saw
that Everybody 20 years old and upwards was supposed to come
and offer a half shekel of the sanctuary, a silver shekel of
the sanctuary. But all these different regions
had all this different money, and so these money changers figured
out how they could make some money. People would come, and
they would give them a half shekel of the sanctuary, charge them
a fee, and change out the money for them. And you can just picture
the priests Alfred Edersheim says the Jews
recorded this as a bazaar of the sons of Annas. Annas is that
infamous priest known in the New Testament who was a wicked
priest and it was his sons that were making money on this. They
were selling the spaces to those that were selling the animals
and they were selling space to those that were doing the money
changing and they was probably taking a percentage of whatever
the profit was. And this is what our Lord found
when he came in and it's a good illustration of contemporary
religion. It's a lot, majority today is
religion of where it's profiting men monetarily, but it's not
profiting anybody spiritually. And it's making merchandise of
men's souls and for profit. And this was one of those occasions
where the Lord Jesus was provoked to righteous indignation. It
says here, When he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them
all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen, and he poured
out the changer's money, and he 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. And his disciples
remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up. This was the first miracle that
Christ did in Jerusalem. His first act was to purge the
temple, and it's considered a miracle. It's spoken of here as a miracle.
And he did it again toward the end of his ministry, and it's
probably called a miracle because it was a display of his authority
and his power. And while he did this, nobody
laid a hand on him. Nobody tried to stop him. None
of the rulers tried to stop him. And that in itself is a miracle
that they weren't able to do that. But he called the temple
here my father's house. You know that got their attention
because by saying that, he's saying he's the son of God and
that that's his house, his father's house. And his disciples remembered
Psalm 69 9, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. And I
think the word thine is the important thing there because when he said
my father's house, they remembered That scripture said, the zeal
of thine house hath eaten me up. Verse 18, then answered the
Jews and said unto him, what sign showest thou unto us, seeing
that thou doest these things? Now we saw in the first hour
Ahaz refused a sign. The Lord was gonna give him the
sign of the virgin birth, and here they're asking for a sign.
And they're asking him, show us a sign that you have the authority
to purge this temple. Show us a sign that you have
the authority and the power to do this. And listen to what the
Lord answered. He said unto them, destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And said the Jews,
forty and six years was this temple in building. Wilt thou
rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of
his body. And when therefore he was risen
from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this
unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which
Jesus had said. Now, that sign we saw that God
gave Ahaz, of Christ coming forth, the Son of God coming forth in
human flesh, that was the sign that he said, all my word's going
to be established. My word is sure in Christ, and
all the word of God is sure in Christ. This sign here, is to
show that he's the son of God with power, he's the son of God
with authority, that his church is his house, it's his house. And so he told them, destroy
this temple and in three days I'll raise it up. You remember
another time they asked him for a sign and he said, there will
no sign be given but the sign of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah
was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall
the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth. Christ is, He is the sign. He is the sign of everything
God speaks and of the power and authority, it's His. And so we're
looking now at the sign of Christ's resurrection. Now, after our
Lord was crucified, Our Lord arose from the grave. He Himself
raised Himself from the grave. And it declares that He is the
Son of God with power. He is the authority over His
house, over His temple, which is His church. So I want to look
here at the declaration of His resurrection, what it declares
to us, and then look at the power of it, what He actually accomplished. Now, by Christ raising himself
from the grave after he was crucified, he was crucified, he was buried,
they put a stone over it, over the tomb, and our Lord came forth
alive. Now, some men had been raised
before, but they died later. Our Lord arose never to die again. He's the firstborn from the dead,
the firstfruits of his people. He arose and entered into glory. and it manifests he's the son
of God with power. He told them, destroy this temple. He was prophesying to them of
what they were going to do. They didn't even know yet what
they were going to do. You're going to destroy this temple.
By his permission, he was going to lay down his life and they
were going to destroy or crucify him. That was the, ended up being
the very word they used to falsely accuse him. He said he'd destroy
this temple and raise it up in three days. And they're still
talking about the physical temple. They thought themselves wise.
You know, the Lord said, seeing, they see not. And thinking themselves
wise and thinking they could see without having Christ to
give them spiritual discernment, he left them in their blindness.
and didn't give them spiritual sight. His word will trip up
proud sinners who think they're wise and prudent and think they
understand things. This word will trip them up.
Christ's word tripped them up. It was a stumbling block to them.
He was. They thought they could see apart
from his power and he left them in blindness. But the sign is
that after he laid down his life, after he went to the cross for
his people and he laid down his life on the cross, he himself
raised himself from the grave. He arose from the grave and he
said he would and he did. Look over at John 10. He said in verse 17, he said, therefore does my father
love me because I laid down my life. that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father." Part of that miracle of that day was the power was
his to give them permission to crucify him so nobody touched
him while he was running them out of that temple. And the same
power was his to raise himself from the grave. Go over to Romans
chapter 1 and Paul there is talking about the gospel and he says,
He said that the gospel in verse 3 is concerning His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh and declared the Son of God with power according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So the Lord Jesus Christ incarnation
declared He's the power to fulfill all God's covenant promise. And
when He had gone to the cross and redeemed His people from
our sins, He raised Himself from the grave declaring He has power. He is the Son of God with power
and now he has power over all as the head of his church. Ephesians
1.20 said, he raised him from the dead and set him at his own
right hand in heavenly places far above all principality and
all power and might and dominion and every name that's named not
only in this world but in the world to come and has put all
things under his feet and given him to be the head over all things
to the church. and the church is his body. That's
what he was talking about when he said destroy this temple.
He was talking about his body, and not just his physical body,
but he's talking about his whole body, his church, his people. He's the head over the body,
and he's the one that feels all. He's the fullness, our fullness,
and he feels all in all. So in a few days, the world's
gonna be thinking about the little baby born in Bethlehem. And we're
seeing right here that this baby born in Bethlehem is the king
of kings and lord of lords. He is the omnipotent power as
the God-man mediator. He was born into this world to
lay down his life for a specific chosen people and he did that
and accomplished what he came for and now he's seated in the
heavens as the head over all things to the church. That's
the declaration that he made here, that by his being raised
up, him raising himself up, he said, I will raise myself. And
he did that, and he declares he is the son of God. He's who
he said he is. And he has all power as the head
of the church. Now what does that mean for his
church? What does that mean for you and
I who are his? Well, it manifests he's the authority
and he's the power to purge his temple. He's the power to work
all things to purge his people. He's the power. God's elect together
as his assembled church is his temple. That's what was pictured
in the physical temple. Now when he said it's finished,
the veil in that temple rent and that old covenant was finished,
that temple was finished, and he destroyed it later. He said
your house is left to you desolate. But now it pictured him and his
church. in His temple, and that's His
people. Ephesians 2.21 says, in Christ, all the building is
fitly framed together and grows unto a holy temple in the Lord. We're the temple of the Lord.
We're His body, His temple. And in Christ, you also are built
together for habitation of God through the Spirit. And then
each of us born of his spirit individually. Our body is the
temple of the Lord. He said, your body's the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and
you're not your own. So we're his temple, individually,
personally, and as his church. Now Christ's resurrection declares
that there was an accomplishment. There was something he accomplished
when he laid down his life. He called his death an accomplishment.
in the Mount of Transfiguration, he talked about the death he
would accomplish. And his death was an accomplishment, and his
resurrection declares it. What did he accomplish? He purged
the temple. He arose from the dead because
he purged the temple. He purged the temple, his elect,
by his shed blood. Hebrews 1.3, says He's the brightness
of God's glory. He's the express image of His
person. He's upholding all things by the word of His power. And
it says, and when He had by Himself purged our sin, He sat down at
the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high. His resurrection
declares He got the job done. He put away the sin of His people.
He delivered us. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. His resurrection tells you and
me that He purged His temple. He put the sin of His people
away and made us the righteousness of God in Him. And God the Father
accepts Him as the righteousness of His people. So we're accepted
in Christ. Not only that, but his resurrection
declares that as the head, as the power of his church, he has
the authority and the ability to purge us just like he did
that temple that day. Look over at Malachi chapter
three, and we see this. When he came to that temple that
day, he did this physically, but this is what he does in his
people spiritually too. Malachi 3.1. He says, behold,
I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before
me. Just like he sent John the Baptist
before he came to that temple, he sends his messenger preaching
his gospel to prepare the way before him. And it says, and
the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple. Just like he did that day. He
enters our bodies suddenly in spirit, unexpectedly. And it
says, even the messenger of the covenant, he comes declaring
the truth of the covenant of God's grace to us. He's the messenger
of it. And it says, whom you delight
in. And he does this in the first hour when maybe we claim to delight
in him, but really didn't. But he keeps doing this for his
people even after we delight in him. He still does this work. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of
his coming? Who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap. And he
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he shall purify
the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver. He burns
up our wood, hay, and stubble. our draws, but he makes his people
to be gold, silver, and precious stones, and that can endure the
fire, and he puts us through the fire to refine us. He says
here why, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in
righteousness, that we might come to God through faith in
Christ alone. That's the only offering in righteousness
God will receive. And he purges us that we might
come to him in truth, in righteousness, in Christ. Then shall the offering
of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days
of old, as in the former years. When he does this work, God is
pleased with his people. He's satisfied with his people.
His elect is Jerusalem and Judah, and he brings us to come to him,
to come to the Father through faith in Christ. But he comes
in judgment to them who reject him. He comes in judgment. just like he did that day in
the temple. He said in verse five, and I will come near to
you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against
those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and
the fatherless, and turn aside the stranger from his right,
and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts, for I am the Lord,
I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. When
Christ comes to you and I, when we're, He first comes in the
first hour. He finds us just like he found
them in that temple, engaged in some falsehood that we know
not what, whether we're in religion or out, just like the majority
were in that day, dead in our sins, not knowing God, not knowing
what his scriptures teach, what true religion is. But because
he changes not, because he everlastingly loves his people, he doesn't
consume us Jacobs, his elect. He comes to us to purge us. He
comes suddenly to his temple, he enters our body and spirit
with the gospel of his sin-cleansing blood. He comes in spirit and
he enters in with this gospel and the word of his grace cleanses
us. In our heart, in our conscience,
he cleanses us. He said, how much more shall
the eternal, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God? He has
to purge us, just like he purged that temple. And just like he
drove out the merchandisers, he drove them all out of there,
he's gonna subdue our sinful flesh when he comes. He's gonna
bring down our sinful flesh and subdue it. And just like his
disciples believed on him, He's gonna purify us that we may offer
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness that we might come
to God through faith robed in Christ's righteousness and be
accepted of God. This is what he does when he
comes. And when he comes into his temple, you who are his body,
he sits in his temple. That's what Malachi said, he
sits. He doesn't leave, he stays. He
sits in his temple and he stays there the remainder of our days
and he keeps purging us. He keeps purging us. The only way that we're going
to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him is by Him continually
purging His temple, our body. And that's what our Lord does.
He constrains us to turn from our sins. And He does it by continually
teaching us about His precious blood and what it accomplished
for us. That's how he's gonna, that's
our constraint. That's how he's gonna turn us
from our sin, make us hate our sin, make us see our sins for
what they are, and make us no longer want to, whatever it is,
he turns you from it. He said this, your body's the
temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of
God, and you're not your own. For you're bought with a price,
and that's what he has to reveal to us. that precious blood, that
precious price, what He paid to make us His. You bought, you
belong to Him, He owns you, He purchased you. And when He makes
you to see it, He teaches you glorify God in your body and
in your spirit, both are God's. He owns us, He owns our body,
He owns our spirit, and He teaches us to glorify Him. And the only
way we're gonna glorify Him, the only way we'll be turned
from our sins, the only way we'll see that precious blood and the
value of it and follow Him is when He purges us. And He keeps
doing that. He doesn't do it all at once,
but He keeps purging His child. And He keeps us separated unto
Him from our sinful works and from vain religion. This is how
we're kept. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter six. He continually teaches us this. What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? He said, you're the temple of
God. And what agreement is the temple of God gonna have with
idols? And he says, for you're the temple
of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty,
all-powerful. This is our Redeemer. When he
does it, this is sanctification. This is how it happens. he comes
in and he separates us out. And he says, having therefore
these promises, having the promise that he'll be our father and
we'll be his children, having the promise that he's gonna separate
us out and receive us, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. When he says filthiness
of flesh and spirit, it means outward and inward. And he says,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God. I thought, the way we
do this, just like they would not have stopped doing what they
were doing in that temple that day if he hadn't walked in there
and drove them out. And that's what he has to do
in me, that's what he has to do in you. subdue our flesh,
purge our conscience, and keep teaching us about His precious
blood to make Him more and more and more valuable to us and our
need and everything to us and make this world less and less
and less and our sin more hated and more hated and more hated.
And so Christ's resurrection declares that not only is He
the authority over us individually when He comes in and purges our
body, our temple, but he assembles his church, and this is his temple. His local assembly where he's
assembled us, this is his assembly, and this is his temple. And he
enters in, and he keeps us assembled, and he keeps us cleansed, and
he keeps us continuing worshiping together with one mind and one
accord, glorifying him only. Look at Zechariah 6. We see that
this is the glory of the Lord to do this. He says in Zechariah 6.12, look
about the middle part there. He says, Behold the man whose
name is the branch. That's Christ. He shall grow
up out of his place. He grew up in a dry and thirsty
land, but then when he finished redeeming us, he came up out
of the earth to the right hand of the Father. And he shall build
the temple of the Lord. He's the builder. Even he shall
build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory.
That means he getting all the glory for this building. And
he shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest
upon his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them
both. He's our great high priest who brings God and his people
together in peace, and he's our great high priest ruling in the
midst of his people. The king, the sovereign, the
king priest. So as our resurrected head, he
has the power all the power to purge His church from all our
corruptions, from every corruption that we have. He's the one who
purges us. He purges us from strife and
vainglory. It's by His Spirit, the Spirit
of Christ, that He's gonna make us endeavor to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He has to do that. And
that's what He makes us do. He makes you want unity. And
He purges us from worldly practices and worldly methods. He's gonna
burn up the wood, hay, and the stubble. That's what Christ is
gonna do. Any worldly practice, any worldly
methods that we might use, He's gonna burn that up. He's not
gonna let His church do that. He's not gonna let His church
go that way. And He's gonna purge us from
any false gospel of man's will and man's work. We're continually
being taught the gospel. He's continually teaching us
just how much this work is not of our will and not of our works.
It's all of him. And he keeps teaching you that.
And he doesn't stop teaching that. We're growing in grace
and knowledge of him and what he's accomplished. And he's the
power to purge us and teach us that. The apostle Paul said,
And this is an example. He said it was only by Christ's
power that he was a minister. It was only by his power that
he was able to preach. Think of what Paul endured. Think
of the trials and think of the sufferings that he endured. And
he said, he said, I'm weak, I'm with you in fear and trembling.
And he said, but when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. What
did he mean? He meant, when I don't have any
strength in myself, that's when I see where my true strength
is. And my true strength is Christ, it's not me. And this is what
he said, listen. He said, I was made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of Christ's power. And that's what we're
talking about here. He sends his minister, and he's
the power that effectively works in his minister to give him the
word and to uphold him, and he makes the word go forth in power.
And he's the one who assembles the living stones that he's made
alive and builds up his temple and continues to purchase from
every vain way, from all wood, hay, and stubble. But he's made
you his people to be the gold, the silver, the precious stones.
And though he puts us through the fire, That's just refining
you. He's consuming the draughts,
but He's refining that which He's made. Scripture says, Psalm
29.9 says, In His temple does everyone speak of His glory. That's how you can tell the true
church from a false church. In His temple, everybody speaks
of His glory. It's Christ's glory. He does
the whole thing. He makes His church build with
gold and silver and precious stones by His working in us. He makes us preach Christ alone.
He makes us ask Christ to bless it by His Spirit. He makes us
wait on Christ to bless it by His Spirit. And everything else
is wood, hay, and stubble. Everything else is useless and
he'll burn it up. Every bit of it. Remember this,
believer, and I think this is very important. Christ makes
you to be his precious stones. He makes you to be what he is.
He's precious and he makes his people to be precious stones. It's the gold and the silver
These precious stones, they can withstand fire. And he makes
you what you are by his grace and upholds you by his grace.
So, as a precious stone, he's going to put you in the fire.
You're going to go through trials because he's going to purge us.
It's just what he's going to do. So don't think it's a strange
thing when you enter into a trial. Don't think it's a strange thing
when your brother enters into a trial. We're going to go through
trials. He said you must through much
tribulation enter the kingdom of God. He gonna put us through
trials. And they're gonna be hard and they're gonna be fiery
trials. But listen to this, don't doubt
and don't disbelieve because everything that's precious must
be tried. Listen to this. Proverbs 17.3,
the fining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but
the Lord trieth the hearts. The heart he's made. He's saying
to you, just like the fining pot is made for silver to be
burned in it and refined in it, just like the furnace is made
for gold to be refined in it, your heart has been made to be
refined in the fire of our refiner. of Christ. And those that Christ
has made precious cannot buy it. If he has made you a precious
stone, when he puts you in the fire, your faith is going to
be proven to be the gift of God and you are going to be proven
to be pure gold. Because you will endure the fire
by his keeping grace only. But that's what he's doing. He's
not putting us in the fire to show some strength in us and
some ability in us. He's going to purge the troughs
from us. And we're going to find out we've
got a lot of troughs when we go in the fire. But he's going
to do that because he's purging you. But this is the thing, brethren.
You're going to be able to abide the fire. It's the law of God. Numbers 31.23, everything that
may abide the fire, you shall make it go through the fire that
it may be clean. That was the law. And what he's
saying there is his people can abide the fire by his grace,
by his making. And he says, so you must go through
the fire. Everything that may abide the
fire, you shall make go through the fire, and it shall be clean. But you remember Isaiah 43? Christ
said, when you go through the fire, I'll be with you. And the
fire won't kindle on you. It won't. The result will be
communion with Him. Listen to Zechariah 13, 9. I
will bring the third part through the fire. God said, I will. I will bring the third part through
the fire. Now he's not going to bring everybody
through the fire. He said those he loves, he's
going to chase them. He's going to scourge every son.
Just like he scourged them in that temple, he's going to separate
us from anything and everything that would separate us from him.
And he's going to bring us through the fire. The third part, his
remnant. But he said this, I'll bring
them through the fire and I will refine them as silver is refined
and I'll try them as gold is tried. And here's what the result's
gonna be. They shall call on my name and
I will hear them. They shall call on my name and
I will hear them and I will say it is my people and they shall
say the Lord is my God. That's so You remember Hebrews
12? Let's go over there just a minute.
Hebrews 12. It's always going to be the case
when he purges his temple. Look at this. We got all this
cloud of witnesses, he said. So he says to us in verse 1,
Let us lay aside every weight, the sin that so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that he has set before
us. looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of our faith. Sometimes that right there is
the problem. The besetting sin is it takes
our eye off of looking to the author and finisher of our faith.
So he's going to turn us back to looking to him. And so he
says here, who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand
of the throne of God. Consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your
minds. You've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.
Now watch, you've forgotten the exhortation which speaketh to
you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him,
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. He loves his children. He's not gonna let us be at ease
in Zion. He's gonna chasten his children.
And he says, and he's gonna scourge every son whom may receive it.
Remember, that's what he did in the temple. He made a scourge
and he drove out what needed to be driven out. And he says,
if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the father chastiseth not? But if you be
without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you
bastards and not sons. And he says, we've had fathers
in our flesh that corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall
we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and
live? For they for a few days chastened us after their own
pleasure. Now here's my point, but he for our profit, that we
might be partakers of his holiness. No chastening for the present
is joyous, it's grievous. The fire is not pleasant, it's
grievous. But look, here's the point. Afterward,
it always yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby. So what does he say? While you're
going through the trial, when you're going through the fire,
lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and make
straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way, but let it be healed. Follow peace with all
and holiness without which no man will see the Lord, looking
diligently, looking where? To Christ. Make straight paths
to Christ. The whole point is to bring us
to him. To bring us to him, because he's our holiness. And he says
to us there, what I got on that, I got on that from Zechariah
13, nine, he says, once you go through the fire, you're going
to call on him and he's going to hear you. And he's going to
say, that's my child. And you're going to say, that's my Lord.
And that's going to be the peaceable fruit. That's always the peaceable
fruit. Keep us looking to him away from
whatever it is that we need to be purged from. and he's gonna
work that in all his people. Now, one last thing, and remember
this, brethren. While we're his temple, and he
abides in his people, individually, and in his church, his assembled
church, and when he abides in us, he's our temple, and we abide
in him. And this is our safety. Go over
to Isaiah chapter eight, And this is what our Lord told
Ahaz after all that trouble that they encountered while they were
being, this is what he told his people that were going through
that fire. Verse 12, he said, say ye not a confederacy to all
them to whom this people shall say a confederacy. Ahaz and his
men, they were going to make a confederacy with the king of
Assyria, with an enemy. They wouldn't look into God and
trust in God. He said, don't you make a confederacy.
This whole world is scared and fearful of making a confederacy
here and there in whatever ways they think they are going to
save themselves. He said, don't you make that confederacy. Now
watch. Don't be fearful of their fear,
nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself. See God as high and lifted up. See Christ on His throne, ruling,
reigning, the power, the almighty, the one who's ruling everything.
See Him as He is. And He says, and let Him be your
fear, and let Him be your dread, and He shall be for a sanctuary. He'll be your temple. He'll be
your protector. He'll be your holy place where
you're safe and secure in the rock. Stay on Him. That's what He's saying. And
that's what these trials are for. Our Lord, when He arose,
He declared that He accomplished the salvation of His people.
He's the righteousness God receives, and He sat down at God's right
hand. God is pleased with His Son, and He's pleased with His
church in His Son. And our Lord comes forth, and
He brings this word, purges us, turns us from our self, turns
us from our will, turns us from our work, and makes us believe
on Him. And He never stops His work. He keeps on purging the
draws, and He keeps on putting down our flesh, weaning us from
this world, weaning us from everything that we loved before, making
us hate our sin and this world and everything about it, and
making us see Christ as more and more and more lovely. and
making us call on Him and trust Him and know He's all our salvation. And you go through a few of these
trials and as you get older and experience them more and more,
it just isn't quite as surprising that you face one because you've
experienced it a little more. And what He's doing in the midst
of it is not quite so shocking anymore. because you've seen
it before. Seen it in yourself, seen it
in others. And also, you've seen Him more. And so, you can help console
others with the consolation that He's already consoled you with
time and time again, and that's Him. And encourage your brethren,
go to Him, trust Him, and wait on Him. That's all we can do,
brethren. He puts you in a place where
you can't do anything but wait on Him, and you gotta just wait
on Him. He's gonna work in each of His people, and He's gonna
work in His church collectively, and in each person individually,
and you gotta wait on Him. And anything else we use to try
to affect something is gonna be draws, and He'll burn it up
if it needs to be burned up. But wait on Him. Look to Him.
Call on Him. Trust Him. He shall bring it
to pass. He's the Lord of glory. All right,
brethren, I pray that's a blessing to you.