John chapter 2. John chapter 2. The title of
the lesson, or the message, and it's a lesson also, taught by the Word of God. You
know, I was thinking the other day, this is off subject a little
bit, I was thinking about preaching. You know, I grew up, when I was
very young, when I was very young, I grew up, preaching was this
hellfire and brimstone. You know, these people testifying,
you know. Preaching is instruction. It's
being taught of God. It's being instructed by God. You know, sometimes, even in
my thoughts, I get too caught up into this thing. It's this,
like, mind-blowing, you know, just experience. If you leave
here this morning and you just learn one thing and God burns
that into your heart, it's been successful preaching.
It's been successful. If you and I just leave here
learning of Him, thinking of Him. Now, to the message. Our Lord cleanses the temple.
The title of it is Christ Cleanses the Temple. Our Lord was very
busy. Every day had its agenda. Every day had its agenda. He
was about his father's business 24-7. He'd be up before daylight
praying, having fellowship with his father before the day began. He would have fellowship with
his father. Sometimes he would pray all night, all night. But he was a very busy man. And
after the wedding, after being at the wedding, He goes to Capernaum. He leaves Capernaum and he goes
to Jerusalem. And when he goes to Jerusalem,
he goes to the temple. And when he goes to the temple,
we see his zeal for true worship. True worship. We see in this
portion of Scripture how that the worship of God had degenerated
into big business. Isn't that what we see today?
Religion, there's no bigger business in this country than religion. None. It became a money-making
machine. When you're dealing with people's
conscience, and you're giving them a false hope, you can get
just about anything out of them. You scare them, and then you
give them a false hope, and then you get their pocketbook. That's
the religion of our day. Now it says in verse 12, our
Lord goes, He says He went to, and after this He went down to
Capernaum, He, His mother, His brethren, and His disciples,
and they continued there not many days. Now I want to point
something out here. about Capernaum. Capernaum was
his city. It's what it says over in Matthew
9, I believe it's 9.1. That's where he lived. And four
of the disciples, Simon, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, I believe
all lived there. But listen to Matthew 11.23. And thou Capernaum,
which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day." It's very serious to sit under
the gospel. I cannot express that enough.
It's a great privilege because no one's going to be saved apart
from the gospel, but it's very serious. It's a great responsibility. He lived in Capernaum and did
many mighty miracles, but they didn't believe on him. They didn't
believe on him. And it says here, you shall be
brought down to hell. And your judgment, Capernaum,
your judgment would be far greater than the sodomites, than those
sodomites, which shows there are degrees of punishment and
judgment. There are degrees of it. And the Jews Passover, there
in verse 13, and the Jews Passover was at hand and Jesus went up
to Jerusalem. What we're going to see here
is how far the true worship of God degenerated into this just
religious service and making money. And we will see how our
Lord despises hypocrisy in worship. He desires true worship. from
His people. And we'll see this. But it says
here, He went to this Jewish Passover. He went up there because
the Jews' Passover was at hand. What did it used to be called?
Over in Exodus chapter 12, it was called the Lord's Passover.
It was never called the Jews' Passover. But as time went by,
it went from being the Lord's Passover to the Jews' Passover. A.W. Pink said it degenerated
into that. It had become a dead ceremony
to the Jews by then. It was just a ceremony. That's
all it was. It was just going through the
motions. God forbid that you and I just go through the motions
of worship. They had forgotten the Egyptian
bondage, especially since they did not experience it. What's
that old saying, out of sight, out of mind? Years had gone by,
many years, 2,000 or 1,000 or so years had gone by. And it
was just a faded memory. You remember when it first happened,
how the Lord said, you tell your children about this. You tell
your children. Well, over time, it just faded
away. It didn't really have any meaning
to it. And they just went through the service. Their hearts were
hard as stone. It was nothing more than a hypocritical
service. It was nothing more than pretenders.
That's all it was. Going through the motions. This
is a warning to us. These things are written for
our learning and our warning. Let us watch over our hearts
that the preaching of Christ Now listen to this, that the
preaching of Christ crucified does not just become a historical
fact, but a reality. There's a difference now, there's
a difference between a historical fact and a reality, like it just
happened. Remember when Paul, writing to
the Galatians, he said that he preached Christ crucified, that
he was evidently set forth among you, like it just happened. And that's exactly the way we
ought to preach the gospel and receive the gospel like it just
happened. Someone said it was like he was
crucified yesterday, buried today, and risen tomorrow. It ought
to be that fresh with us. And part of that lays on my shoulders.
I think a huge part of it lays on my shoulders. One of the things
that I always was, I want to say admired, but I don't know
if that's the right word, with Henry is he just seemed to always
be fresh. And that's because, and here's
why, here's why. He was always in his study, and
he was always seeking the Lord. Give me the message for the hour.
Give me the message for the people. God forbid that I should ever
stand here and preach Christ crucified as a historical fact.
And we all say amen and go home. But we really truly say amen
and worship Him. Bow down and worship Him in our
hearts. Let's not let our worship service
turn into a religious service. When you say, you know, when
you're getting ready to come here, and I've said this, I've
said this, I try not to say it, but I do from time to time, and
I try to change it. But try not to say, let's go
to church. Let's say it this way, let's go to the worship
service, because you are the church. You are the church. We're going to the worship service
this morning. That puts a different light on
it, doesn't it, when you're going to the worship service. And let
us remember the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3.15, where the
Lord said, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor
hot." You're not even cold about it, you're not hot about it.
It's like, it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. He said, I would that you were
cold or hot, be one or the other. So then, because thou art lukewarm
about it, about the gospel. That's what he's talking about,
about worship. He's talking about worship. He's talking about the gospel.
You're lukewarm about it. You're neither cold nor hot.
I can be there or not be there. It doesn't matter whether I'm,
you know, if I'm there this week or this Sunday or miss, it doesn't
matter. So then because I aren't lukewarm and neither cold nor
hot, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth. I'm going to spit
you out. That's serious business. Now I want you to notice what
happened when it became the Jews' Passover. And when he came there
and he went to the temple, in verse 14, he found in the temple
those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of
money, sitting, in the outer court, the Gentile court, but
in the outer court, before you go into the inner court where
the Jews only were allowed, they had all these animals that were
used in sacrifices. These animals were used in sacrifice,
which what? Typified Christ. All these animals
were types of Christ in their sacrifice and they were making
money off of them. They were making merchandise
off of Christ. You want to take a trip to the
Holy Land? We got tickets. We got tickets. We got a tour
bus. We'll take you to all these places. We'll tell you where
He walked and where He stayed. I'll tell you where Holy Land
is. It's where God is. That's where Holy Land is. It's
where God is, and God is not over there right now. That's
where they killed Jesus Christ. That's where they put Him to
death. He said, you murdered the Prince of Life. That's where
He was despised and hated. He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. Now what He does with Him yet,
I don't know. Time will tell. But I know this,
that's not holy land. Holy land is where Christ is,
in heaven, paradise. And He said to that thief on
the cross, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise. That's holy
land. That new earth wherein dwells
righteousness, that's holy land. There's no holy land on this
earth. This earth has been corrupted from one inch, from one side
of this earth to the other, this whole globe. There's not one
place on this earth, and I mean this, there's not a square inch
on this earth where something hasn't died and been buried.
It might be an earthworm, but it died and was buried there.
Something has died on every inch of this earth. It's cursed. This
earth is cursed. But here's what he found there
when he went to the temple. Money changers, not worshipers.
Not worshipers. He found money changers. Men
who were there for the purpose of exchanging Roman money to
Jewish money. He found the things that people
were to bring from their own homes. He found there things
that were to be in the marketplace. You could buy in the marketplace.
They brought it right into the temple. You know, you catch them
at the door, catch them coming in. The money changers, they made,
and here, listen, here's what they did. They made religion
easy and convenient. They made it easy and convenient. If you'll look through the scriptures,
God never made it easy and convenient. Never. Abraham traveled all over
the place. Isaac and Jacob. They lived in
tents. You know, when they were in the
wilderness, when the cloud moved, what did they do? They packed
that tabernacle up. The Levites would pack up the
tabernacle and they moved with it. And they moved for 40 years.
For 40 years they did that. And then when they went into
the land of Canaan, they had to fight all those Hittites, Amorites,
Canaanites, they had to fight all of them and remove them out
of the land, take possession of it. It's never easy. Christianity
is never easy. We saw that in the Bible class.
The flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh.
And these two war with each other. It's a battle. It's not easy.
It's not easy. That's why the Lord said this. He said, Before a man builds
a house, Does he not first sit down and count the cost if he
has enough to finish it, if he'll be embarrassed or not? You know what the Lord says?
You're going to join up and follow me, you sit down and count the
cost. You know what it's going to cost you? Your life. Everything. That's why people don't follow
him. That's why unless the Lord saves
you, you're not going to follow him because it's going to cost
you your life. He that loves his life shall lose it. You love this life, you're going
to lose it. That's what he says. He that loves mother, father,
sister, brother more than me is not worthy of me. And people
really hear that, they're like, I don't know about that. If they
understand it. And what he found there in the
temple was money changers. They made religion easy. It's
like today, put it on your credit card. I saw that not long ago
on some religious program. Put that on your credit card.
Don't you ever charge anything to support the gospel. Don't
you ever put it on your credit card. If God's in it, He'll supply
it. The gold is His. The silver is His. And He'll
put it into the heart of His children to support the gospel.
He'll do it. Don't you put it on your credit
card. But I know this, I know those money changers, they justify
their service by making it convenient for people who had to travel
a long distance. You know, that's just proof of
faith. Back when we were married, we were young, God saved us when
we were young, and I lost my job. And it was a difficult time. I mean, I had a good job. I had
a job. I was asking, I think it was
Sidney, she calculated it up for me, what I was making back
in 1980, the wages I was making back then was 2,000-something
a week now, compared to now. And I lost that job. I lost that
job, and we were broke. We were traveling down to 13th
Street from Milton. And I remember saying, there's
something to stick with you. I remember saying, why does the
Lord make it so hard to hear the gospel? All I want to do
is hear the gospel. It's called trial of faith. It
took me years to learn that. It took me years to learn. It's
a trial of faith. It's a trial of faith when you
don't feel good to get up and come here. It's a trial of faith
when you've got to get up and drive somewhere to be there. It's a trial. He doesn't make
it easy. Because sooner or later, the pretenders are going to fall
away. They're going to say, well, you
know, that's just too far, this too this, this too that. It's
just not going to, you're not going to do it. And they justified
their services by making it easy for the people that traveled
a long distance. What they did, they did it with
the money. They didn't do it for anybody's convenience. They
did it for the money. They were not there for the people
or for the worship service. They were there to make money.
Paul said in Philippians 3.2, beware of dogs. Beware of evil
workers. Beware of the concision, the
flesh merchants." They're going to make merchandise out of you.
Now, our Lord shows His indignation for false worship, insincere
worship. This is what we see. We don't
want to miss this. And I want you to notice how
He responds here in verse 15. And when He had made a scourge
of small cords, That's on purpose. I'll show
you this in a minute. It's a small cord, just a little
old whip, about a foot long or something. He drove them all
out of the temple, the sheep, the oxen. He poured out the changers'
money and overthrew the tables. Here we see a flash of Christ's
deity. Here we see a flash of the wrath
of the Lamb. This is just a flash of the wrath
of the Lamb of God. And He makes a small whip of
cord and He drives them out. And you'll notice here the whip
is said to be small. You know why? Because the power
is not in the whip. He didn't take this long whip
that had glass in it and everything. He could rip your flesh open
and everybody's trying to get out of the way. It was just a
small cord because the powers of God. You see, this is God. This is God expressing His indignation
of false worship. This is God. This is, for a brief
minute, for a brief minute, the fear of God strikes their heart
because God's standing in front of them. And He drives them out. They
leave. None of them stand there fighting. They leave. I tell
you, when the Lamb of God stands up in wrath, You know what the
people are going to do? Scripture says over in Revelation,
they're going to cry for the rocks to fall on them and hide
them from the wrath of the Lamb. So much for sweet little Jesus. This shows His power. Then we
see how false religion is an abomination to our Lord. You
see, He says in John 4.24 to that woman at the well, God is
A spirit. I would rather read it like this.
God is spirit. He's not a spirit among spirits.
He is spirit. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. They were pretending to
worship. They were going through the motions
of it. Lord, let us worship You. This
morning, let us worship You. Listen, we see Christ, our Lord,
purging out the old leaven just before the Passover. You know,
that's what they were supposed to do back in Exodus 12, before
the Passover, they were to purge out the old leaven. Listen to
1 Corinthians 5a, Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old
leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Let us keep
this feast." This morning, this morning, we have a feast of the
Gospel. We have the feast of God's Word. Let us do it in sincerity
and truth. And then listen, true worship
is the very heart of the matter here. It's the very heart of
the matter. And in verse 16, And He said
unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence, make not
My Father's house an house of merchandise. Do you see anything
here? I see controlled wrath. I see the Lord's, and I don't
know how to put this, He's a just man. He's a just man. He drove
out the oxen, the sheep, turned over the money changers' money.
They could go get all of that. They'd go round up their sheep,
their oxen and stuff that they broke. They can pick the money
up they had. But the doves, if he turned them loose, they couldn't
get them. And our Lord did not destroy
the time and money that they put into obtaining those doves. And he tells them, just carry
those doves out of here. I mean, he could have just opened
it up and just turned the doves loose. But that's just, our Lord
is under such control. You see, his anger is never out
of control. He's still a just God. He knows
they can go gather their possessions, and their possessions, it'll
fly away. Isn't that amazing? In all this anger, in all this,
I mean, His anger over the, and it's just anger, it's just wrath,
yet He's thoughtful. He's thoughtful. But notice here, when he said
to them that so does, take these things hence, make not my father's
house a house of merchandise. He calls the temple there his
father's house. The church, and this has reference to the
church more than anything, the church is his father's house. Don't make it, don't make it
a house of merchandise. We're not having a bake sale.
We're not having a rummage sale. So we can raise money to buy
a piano. God provided that piano and the money to get it. The
money to get it. The church is His Father's house
and it's to be kept pure from all pretense of worship. Let's not pretend to worship
God. And then it's not for the social gatherings, entertainment,
or political platform, like it's been used over the years. It's
for preaching Christ and Him crucified. It's for feeding the
sheep. It's for the true worship of
the triune God. The church is not a house of
merchandise. It's a house, it's the Lord's
house. Now, let's take this to ourselves
individually. Believers themselves are not
to be a house of merchandise. This morning in reading this,
I could see, and this is the first time I've seen it this
way, or at least I remember. I can see when the Lord comes
in, to the soul of a believer or of a sinner that he's going
to say, the first thing he's got to do is drive out all this
pretense and all this hypocrisy and all this merchandise that
we're so covetous of. He's got to set our hearts on
him. He's got to take possession of the house because the house
now belongs to God. You are the temple of the Holy
Spirit. He dwells in you. Where you go, he goes. That's
right. Believers themselves are to be
a house, they're not to be a house of merchandise. We are the temple
of God singly and collectively. The church is the spiritual house
which God is building to dwell in. Look over in Ephesians chapter
two. I want you to turn to this one. In Ephesians chapter two. Look in verse 19. Now therefore, ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
builted together for the inhabitation of God through the Spirit. You're
the temple of God. God dwells in you. God dwells
in His church. You're the building of God. He's
building His temple. You're it. You're it. And here's the importance in
verse 17 of knowing the Word of God. And His disciples remembered
that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me
up, over in Psalm 69.9. They remembered that. They knew
the Scripture. They remembered that Scripture.
They were able to look at Him and see the Scripture fulfilled.
They were able to take Christ and Scripture and match it up.
That's the first thing that really struck me when I heard Henry
preaching the gospel. What I heard him preach and what
I was reading matched. It matched. You see the importance
of reading the Word of God? You can read and read, then when
I stand here and preach, you say, I see, it matches, I see
it. I see him. I see him. But now the animosity comes out
here in verse 18. Ooh, now it's gonna come out.
Then answered the Jews and said unto him, what signs showest
thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Here is what
they were asking. What right do you have to act
in such a manner? That's what they're saying. You
see, I have no doubt they got a commission off their sails.
And they're upset. They want to know, well, who
gave you the authority to drive these people out of here? You
see, they gave them the authority to bring it in. Christ told them
to get out. Well, here's, listen, what right
does Christ have for driving them out? Well, it's His temple.
It's His temple. The service was given by Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ. All the types and pitches were
given by Him. And all authority is given to him by the Father.
That's his right. And then he answers them here,
but it's an answer that seems to have nothing really to do
with what they ask. Because do you know why? He gives no account
of any of his matters. He's not subject to answering
us. Why do you do this? Well, that's none of your business.
That's what it says over in Job. He gives no account of any of
his matters. If he wants to take away from me, he's not going
to give me a reason why. If He gives to him, He's not
giving me a reason why. Now, if He does, that's up to Him.
But He's not obligated. In verse 19, Jesus answered and
said unto them, Destroy this body, this temple, and in three
days I'll raise it up. You see, they asked, they said,
What sign do you show that you have the authority to do this?
What you just driving them out. What sign do you show? Well,
He said, Here's a sign. And it's, they don't connect
it with what they ask. Destroy this temple, and in three
days, I'll raise it up. What he's saying here, here's
your sign. It's a sign of deity. It's a
sign of Him being God. You destroy this temple, and
in three days, I will raise it up. Only God can do that. I'll raise it up. And here is
spiritual ignorance. It then said to Jews, 46 years
was this temple building. It took us 46 years to build
it, and you are going to raise it up in three days? It's amazing
how learned and ignorant people can be at the same time. It's
just amazing. Reading the Word of God by itself
without the Holy Spirit opening the Scriptures to us just leads
to trouble. We're twisted every time. Nicodemus,
good example, next chapter. He must be born again. How can
a man be born when he's old? How can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb? He was so totally in the dark, he didn't
have a clue. The Lord must open the Scriptures
to us. And He does in the next verse. He doesn't say this to
them. This is not being said to them.
John is saying this to us. He's saying this to us, but he
spake of the temple of his body. His body was a temple. God was
in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in him. And he said, you destroy this
temple, this body, and in three days I'm going to raise it up.
Now listen, in verse 22, When therefore he was risen from the
dead, his disciples remembered he had said this unto them, and
they believed the scripture. They saw all those miracles,
but it's believing the Word of God is taking God at His Word.
You know, to really truly believe the Word of God, to take God
at His Word, that's faith. It's not believing miracles.
Miracles never saved anybody, never saved a soul. It's believing
God. But the disciples remembered
this statement after his resurrection, and they believed the Scriptures.
I cannot express the importance of knowing the Scriptures. Because you can't believe on
Christ apart from the Scriptures, you know that? You can't do it. You can't know Him apart from
the Scriptures. The Scriptures are Christ speaking to us by
His Spirit. Right now, do you realize that?
I've been going verse by verse here. And you know, verse by
verse here, the Lord's been speaking. It's just Him standing here speaking
by His Word. And then I'll close here in verse
23, 25. I'm not going to say much about them because it actually
starts a new division. Now when He was in Jerusalem
at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in His name
when they saw the miracles which He did. You see, they saw miracles. They saw those miracles and they
believed, but it was not real faith. It was not real faith. Not all faith is real faith.
Now how do I know it was not real faith? Because of what it
says in verse 24 and 25. But Jesus did not commit Himself
to them, You who believe the Lord has been committed to you.
He's committed Hisself to you. I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. He didn't commit Himself to them because He knew all.
You see, that word men is supplied by the transfiguration. He knew
all. He knew their hearts. It's more than just knowing something
about them. He looked right into the heart.
He looked right into the heart. And he needed not to any man,
any should testify of man. He didn't need anybody to tell
him about those who claim to believe. He doesn't need anybody
to tell him about you. He knows your heart. He knows
my heart. He knows the heart. He knows
what my heart's interested in. He knows what my interest in
love is. He knows that. Peter said, Lord,
you know all things. You know I love you. You know
that. He needed not that any should
testify of man, for he knew what was in man." He knows the heart. He knows whether you love him
or believe him or not. But the lesson here, the message
here is, let's not let this turn into
just a religious service. God desires and is after true
worship. And true worship only happens
when Christ is preached. When Christ is preached, that's
when true worship happens. That's when you know the Spirit
of God is among you, when Christ is preached. He'll take the things
of mine and show them to you, is what He said. And you pray
for me, and I pray for you, that the Lord give us a heart to worship
Him in spirit and truth until the day He takes us home. And
we don't turn this into a religious service. And don't think you
can't. Let us never get to the place
we think, well, we'd never let that happen here. We're too grounded.
Let him that thinketh he stand take heed lest he fall.