So in the last and dreadful day,
We are driven from hell away, And what we need from sinful
days, Shall swell the spell of praise again. OK, thank you, Sherry. Go back to Matthew 21, which
we read. This is a wonderful and powerful
portion of scripture. This story is recorded in all
four gospels. It is the story of the Lord Jesus
Christ cleansing the temple from all of the idolatry and merchandise
that it was so full of. The Lord is at the end of his
earthly ministry at this point, and he has come into Jerusalem
as prophesied. Now, Jerusalem is the capital
of Israel. It's the heart of Israel. It's
geographically located in the very center of Israel, so it
is the very heart of Israel by design. Jerusalem is where the
temple is or was, and it's where the yearly sacrifices were made. Jerusalem is where the Lord has
come. To do his great chief and final
work. That great work of salvation
to this end came he into the world to this cause this purpose
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And you and I have
rejoiced in seeing how that Christ started lowly in a manger. And from there, his face was
set to go to Jerusalem to go and be put on that cross. And we saw how that Christ, though
he started as low as one can get, yet began to go higher and
higher and higher until he ascended that cross. And then he went
even much higher than that, went on into glory where he sat down,
but he came into Jerusalem. to do that final work, the work
to end all work, to put in the way of sin by the sacrifice of
himself. As prophesied by Zechariah, we
read it in verse five, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, behold,
thy king cometh unto thee. Thy king comes riding upon an
ass, a colt, the foal of an ass. The Lord Jesus Christ King of
Glory came riding into town on this coach. And we rejoiced in
seeing that as a picture of salvation, didn't we? I would love to go
over that again. How the ass is a picture of how
Christ subdues every unbroken and unwritten sinner and makes
them willing in the day of his power for him to be their master. And the sole purpose of that
ass or that colt was to glorify the Lord, to exalt or raise him
up, lift him up. And what a picture that is of
so great a salvation that Christ has done upon all of his people
in breaking them and becoming their master. Are you with me?
I'd like to go over that again. I just did. But as much as I'd
like to dwell on that. And now the Lord comes into town.
And the multitude began shouting, as prophesied in Psalm 118, everything
our Lord did and everything our Lord said was prophesied. Now, as you know, the scripture
says all that he said and did was not recorded or the world
couldn't contain the books, but all that is necessary for us
to read and know about him was recorded and everything he that
is recorded was prophesied of in the Old Testament proving
that he is the very Christ. Proving without beyond shadow
of a doubt that he is the very Christ. And he comes into town
and the multitude began shouting what David wrote in Psalm 118.
Hosanna, O save us, our God. Blessed is he that comes in the
name of the Lord. And so, as prophesied, the king
has come riding into Jerusalem. The first time the king of kings
came, he came meek and lowly. As Paul the Apostle, I believe,
wrote, Hebrews, wrote, we see Jesus made a little lower than
the angels for the purpose of suffering death. Our Lord came
the first time as a substitute. as a meek and lowly man, submissive
to the will of the Father and a substitute for his people to
suffer death in their stead. But Paul said, now we see him
high and lifted up. He's no longer, as some call
him, gentle Jesus, meek and mild. But now he's the Lord of glory
seated on the throne. He's not meek and lowly anymore,
but he's high and lifted up. And that's how we need to see
him. As he. But he came the first time on
this cold king. Captain of our salvation riding
into Jerusalem and he rides straight into the heart of town. Where
the temple was he rides right up to the temple. And look at verses 12 and 13. And Jesus went into the temple
of God. and cast out all them that sold
and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers,
and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them," and
I'm sure I know that he did not say this in a meek and mild voice,
but in a strong, powerful, and judgmental voice of authority. It is written, My house shall
be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of
thieves. Prophecy, what he said there,
is taken from Jeremiah 7, verse 11. So our Lord comes, as prophesied,
into his temple, which Malachi wrote. You want to turn there,
Malachi 3. Look this with me, Malachi 3.
I won't have you turn to too many passages, but this one needs
to be looked at. Malachi 3, as I said, everything
our Lord did and said, or what is recorded that he did and said,
was preordained by God and prophesied of in Scripture, proving him
to be the Christ. Look at Malachi 3, verses 1 through
6. Behold, I will send my messenger
and he shall prepare the way before me." Now you know who
that is. That's John. And the Lord, whom
ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger
of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hope. But who may abide the day of
his coming? And who shall stand when he appear? For he is like a refiner's fire. that is consuming, and like fuller
soap, cleansing. And he shall sit as a refiner
and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi,
the priests, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may
offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as
in the days of old and as in the former years. And I will
come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness
against the sorcerer, and against the adulterers, and against false
swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
the widow, and the fatherless, and that 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, ye sons
of Jacob, are not concerned. So the first thing the Lord does,
he comes to his temple as prophesied. And upon entering this temple,
he begins to cleanse it from all the merchandise, religious
merchandise and idolatry that it was so full of, the temple,
which God Almighty himself ordained, which God Almighty set up. As
you know it was first a tabernacle or a tent, a temporary place
that was set up in Shiloh. Remember that? Samuel or Eli
was there and Samuel. Shiloh was where the tent, the
tabernacle was. Now this permanent temple is
in Jerusalem. Solomon was the builder of it.
Remember? The temple was ordained by God
for one purpose, for one reason. It had one function. The worship
of God. The worship of God. Our Lord
said here in this text, He said, My house shall be called a house
of prayer. Prayer is calling upon God. Prayer
is basically two things. Thanks and petitions. Thanking God, praising God for
all that He is and all that He has done. That's prayer. And
prayer is bringing our petitions to him, which are mostly asking
for mercy and grace and forgiveness of sins and things that we need. The one thing that. He said,
my house shall be called a house of prayer, so the temple was
set up for this purpose, prayer and praise. And on down, we won't
get to it, but the children were crying out words of praise. And our Lord said, Out of the
mouths of babes. He's perfected praise. We're
going to dwell on that Sunday morning. But once again, the
temple of God, the temple, because of evil religious leaders, it
had degenerated into a place of merchandise and commercial
gain. A house of merchandise operated
Buy men for hire, or hirelings, with a salvation for sale. Does all that sound familiar?
Things haven't changed. God says, I haven't changed,
and neither has man. Old Brother Barnard used to say
that men are trying to sell Jesus, and if they can't get a dollar,
they'll take a dime. They've cheapened Him so much.
cheapen the message of salvation. But this place was operated by
hirelings with a salvation for sale. And this happened time
and time again through the history of Israel and the tabernacle
and the temple. Evil men, covetous men with D.D.s. You remember what that means,
don't you? In Isaiah 56, I believe it is, dumb dog, well, these
evil, covetous men and seducers, false prophets, came in and introduced
all manner of idolatry and abomination. And this is exactly what Daniel's
speaking of when he says the abomination of desolation in
the temple. In other words, the temple is
desolate of that for which it was ordained, worship of God.
You won't find any true worship there. And then the literal. And it's
an abomination that which is highly esteemed among men. What
does God say? It's an abomination. And our Lord came in much to
the shock and dismay of this religious crowd and purged it. And as I said throughout the
history of the tabernacle and temple. This happened time and
time again, that it became idolatrous. And yet, every time, every time
that the temple or the tabernacle became defiled, God in mercy,
for his elect's sake, God had a remnant according to the election
of grace, and God had not left himself without a witness in
every generation, and every single time God raised up a prophet. a faithful man with the truth
to come to the people, and the first thing he did, the first
thing he did was warn them to flee from idolatry. And God used
those men to free people from their idolatry and turn them
to the living and true God and begin to worship God in spirit
and in truth. Men like Josiah. You remember
that story of Josiah? Oh, I love that story. Back to
the book. Josiah said, we've got to get back to the book.
You remember, they found the book. It had been hidden all
those years and nobody had been reading it. And Josiah, when
he heard it read, he rent his garments and said, we haven't
been seeking the Lord through his word. You remember that story?
God raised up that faithful man. They began to sacrifice. The
blood was brought back in and the Lord was well pleased again,
as we read, with the sacrifice. Isaiah. Read Isaiah and you'll
see the woe that he pronounced on his generation. Jeremiah. Go over there. Jeremiah 7. Look
over here. Jeremiah 7. You'll see a plain declaration of God through Jeremiah
to his generation. It sounds like ours. Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, other men like that, Malachi. They weren't men that
were loved by the people of the world, but God's people sure
loved them. They were men that the people
of the world said troubled Israel. Remember that? Was it Elijah
that the king said, Are you he that troubleth Israel? Or was
that Isaiah? I forget. Were they all? That's
what they said about them all. You remember that story of that
prophet named Micaiah, Ahab and Jehoshaphat sent for? You remember
that story? If you want good reading, read
that sometime. Ahab got the blessings of all
his false prophets to go and do what he wanted to do, but
Jehoshaphat said, we better call a true prophet. And Ahab said,
is there one? And Jehoshaphat said, there sure
is. His name is Micaiah. And Ahab said, don't sin for
him. I don't like him. He said he never says anything
good to me. Read it someday. He never says
anything good. He always says something evil. Or what he thought
was evil, but it was good. You say you can't hear the good
news until you've heard the bad news. The first thing that God
Almighty does to every one of us is kill our God. cast out of this heart all the
idolatry and all the false worship. Like Paul when he came to Mars
Hill. Remember that? He said, I perceive that in all
things you're just too religious. And I'm going to tell you about
the true God of whom you ignorantly worship. He's not like the God
you've been worshiping. He's a different God. And isn't
this the message that God brought home to you when you first heard
the truth? A God who's not like the God you used to know. And
this is eternal life to know the true God. who was manifesting the plague,
the Christ of sin. But look at Jeremiah 7 in verses
9 and following. Verse 8, Behold, you trust in
lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, and commit
adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal? Verse
10, And come and stand before me in this house which is called
by my name. Verse 11, Is this house which
is called by my name become a den of robbers? You see, that's what
Jeremiah said to his generation. And so God, go back to the text.
So God raised up in every generation, true men who decried the idolatry
of their day. And things haven't changed. It
hasn't changed a bit. It's worse than it's ever been.
Worse than it's ever been. Men in whom the zeal of God's
house That's what John wrote about when Christ purged the
temple. They remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine
hath eaten me up. Someone once commented about
your preacher. They said he sounds like he's
mad sometimes. I hope I don't always sound like
that. But you better believe I'm mad
at times. Aren't you? Aren't you mad at
what they say about God? How they pervert God's Word,
prostituted God's truth. Aren't you mad? Doesn't it make
you mad? Doesn't it make you fighting mad when you see God's
name plastered everywhere? That name which is to be exalted
and put down on a bumper sticker for people to use and abuse as
they will. Doesn't that make you mad? All
the lies they're telling on God, doesn't that make you mad? And
I say with David, is there not a cause? Now more than ever. The zeal of God's house eaten
up these men, these prophets, and still does. Men whose hearts,
Jeremiah said, my heart is sick. And now comes to the temple that
prophet, to end all prophets, of whom Moses wrote, that prophet,
but he's going to cleanse it as never before. That profits. To cleanse his
temple, he said, my house, this is my house. Lord cleans his house. And he
does it with his power, that is with his word from I want
you to notice throughout as we study how Christ. Uses his word,
everything he says is it is written, it is written. See, it's the
Word of His power. This is what God, it's the Word
of His power. That's what God uses. Always
has and always will. Christ is the Word. And though
Christ could have used physical power, He used His Word. Scripture
says, out of His mouth a sharp two-edged sword that would both
slay and heal. And He used His Word. And I love
how He confronted all the Pharisees who prided themselves in knowing
or thinking that they knew God's Word. And he always you note
as you read how many times the Lord says, have you never read?
And it made them fight and mad. Have you never read? He said
this to him time and again, have you never read? They said, do
you hear what these children are saying? He said, yes. Have
you never read? Haven't you read it? And he cast them out with a word. John said he had a whip, though,
a scourge, and that's fine. But he cast and drove them out.
He said, My house, this is my house, and it shall be called
a house of prayer. And you made it a den of thieves.
And then verse 14 says, And the blind and the lame came to him
in the temple, and he healed them. And you're going to see
in a minute how this goes together. So the Lord cast out all the
merchandisers and idolatry from his temple and he healed the
blind and the lame. Now I want you to look at this
with me as we looked at our Lord's cult as a picture of salvation. I want you to look at this, him
cleansing the temple as the picture of his salvation, what he did
to you. That's what it's all about. The Lord does this to
every single person that he saves, that he has mercy on. Look at
2 Corinthians chapter 6. What the Lord did in his temple,
he did to you. Look at it, 2 Corinthians 6.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes, Know you not that you are the
temple of God? and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you. Do you remember that verse? Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, the true church, the
chosen people of God, the true Israel? And he is a Jew which
is one inwardly. A little geography lesson of
Jews of Jerusalem being at the very heart of Israel. Are you
with me? Why did I have to say all that? Because where Christ does his
work is where? In the heart. The true church,
the chosen people of God, the spiritual Israel of God, into
whose heart the King of Israel comes riding. Every single person,
out of the heart of the issues of life. And when the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords comes in, he comes straight to the
heart with his work. I love that story John Bunyan
wrote of the Holy War. You remember that anybody that
read that story how that the devil had talked his way into
that town, the town of Mansoul. Remember that? Anybody read that?
Anybody? I need to read this. But anyway, the town of Mansoul,
an allegory of man's heart, the soul of man. came to this town
and there were two gates, the ear gate and the eye gate. And Bunyan wrote that the devil
talked his way in, that he had a smooth tongue and a fair speech
and the people of the town just opened the gates to him. And
he came right in. Do you know where he went? First
place he went was straight to the castle in the middle of the
town and set up the heart. Entered in. And one of the first
things he did was quiet a man called the recorder, which was
the conscience. It's a great book, quieted that
way. Anyway, that devil set up, set
up his reign in the heart of the castle in the town of Mansoul.
But by God's mercy and grace, the people began to realize they
were in bondage to this Diabolus, this devil, this, this evil one. And they began to send out messengers
to Immanuel, the king's son. Would you come and save us? That's
what hosanna means. Oh, save us. And they sent out
messengers. Come save us. We're in captivity. And Immanuel comes. And he comes
to the gate. And no matter what he says, they
won't open the door. You know this silly saying, Christ is
on the outside of the door knocking, won't you let him in and all
that? Bunyan got it right. Bunyan said the Son of Man broke
down the door. He wouldn't open it freely. But
he broke down the ear gate and the eye gate. And he came riding
into town. And the first place he went was
straight to the castle and bound that devil in chains and led
him through the middle of town, led captivity captive. And then
He set up His reign and rule in the heart of the town of Mansoul,
never to leave again. Isn't that a great story? Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, in whom the Spirit of God dwells? Look at, and this
is what the Son of God does. First thing He does is He cleanses
your heart from all of its idols and turns you from your idols
to serve the living and true God. Look at 2 Corinthians 6,
verses 16 and 17 with me. It says here, what agreement
hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God, as God hath 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." What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? What concourse or fellowship
hath Christ with Baal? Light with darkness? Long ago,
they ceased to invite me to their ministerial breakfasts and so
forth, and their citywide meetings. How about you? So be it. That's fine. Our Lord
said, Marvel not, brethren, if the world hates you. You know
that it hated me before it hated you. If you're of the world,
the world would love its own. Since you're not of the world
and the world hates you, you know that it hated me before
it hated you. And rejoice when they say all manner of evil falsely
against you for my name's sake. What's this all about? His name's
sake. His name's sake. Now more than
ever we need to make mention that God's name is exalted when
the name of God is on everybody's lips more than it ever has been
before. Huh? This is proof, final proof to
me that these are the very last of the last days. The name of
God is upon the lips of small children as an oath. And men don't think anything
about it. It tells me that God is removing His hand. Unite our
hearts to fear Thy name, David said. Huh? Don't grow used to
that. I know you don't. And Scripture
says, And such were some of you. Such were some of you. Idolaters,
weren't you? Such were some of you idolaters.
Ezekiel, you know that story in Ezekiel chapter 36 where God
says he'll do all these things to them, cleanse them and give
them a new heart and purge them and so forth, give them a new
spirit and all that. And one of the things he said, John was
out, cleansed them from all their idols. And now, you who are once in
the midst of that, Robin and others, It makes you sick, doesn't
it? You see the corruption that's
there, and you were in the midst of that. And bless God, He removed
you from it, and it from you, and set up His reign in your
heart, set up the fear of God in your heart, and made your
heart a house of prayer, and put upon your lips and in your
heart, little child, Hallelujahs and praise to God. Hosannas to
the Son of God. That's what it's all about. Is
that why you come here? That's why you come here. Not to see
or be seen, but to hear God's Word and praise Him with your
mouth. Well, what about the blind and
the lame here? I told you they go together. Some of you have seen this before
with me. Turn to 2 Samuel 5, in closing. 2 Samuel 5. What about the blind and the
lame in the temple? This goes along with, in context,
the Lord removing this idolatry. The blind and the lame were in
the temple. Now, without a doubt, this is
a picture of how the Lord, we once were blind, but now we see.
Blind to His glory, to His fear, but now we see. We once were
lame, We couldn't walk in paths of righteousness, but now He
has set our feet on solid rock and in the path which is Christ
Himself. Christ is the path and Christ
is the bride. And now we walk by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We once were blind and we once were lame, and He's healed us.
The Son of God has come and healed us. But in context, 2 Samuel
5, in the context with this idolatry. And you see, the Lord wrote this.
You remember they said, Hosanna to the son of David. This is
the son of David, the Christ who's come into town, the king
of kings. The one that's born king. One whom God said, I've
set my king on my holy hill of Zion. All right? He's come into
town of whom David is of type and of picture. David has come
into Jerusalem. David is now the king over Israel. David now reigns. He's crowned
king over all, everybody. They once were divided, Israel
and Judah, remember? But now they're all together
in knowing that David is king. You with me? Say with me. I'm
going to close this out with a bang. David is now king over
all Israel, a united people. They all know he's king. But
some don't know it yet. They're going to. There's some
people called Jebusites. And these were idolaters that
were living in the heart of Jerusalem. They had control of Jerusalem. The walled city, the Jebusites
were a bunch of idolaters. And they were in Jerusalem. Here
David comes back in to claim what's his. These Jebusites don't
know that he's king yet. All right. You got the picture?
All right, verse 6, And the king and his men went to Jerusalem
unto the Jebusite, the inhabitants of the land. And they spake,
these men spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind
and the lame, thou shalt not come in here, thinking, or saying
to themselves, David can't come in here. He can't come in here. And what is this blind and these
lame? These were idols. This is what
every writer ever read on this. These were idols of whom David
later wrote in Psalm 115 saying they have. These were idols that
they sat on the wall all around the wall to protect them from
evil and so forth. It still goes on today. But these
Jebusites put these idols all around the walls to protect them
from all the evil spirits and so forth. And David later wrote
of these idols, they have eyes but they can't see. And he says
they have feet but they can't walk. Now how many times in your religious
history, those of you who grew up in religion, did you hear
somebody, some evangelist, some, I'd like to call him what they
ought to be called, but some so-called evangelist stand up
and tell a big crowd, Jesus has no hands but your hands. No feet,
but your head, feet. And won't you let him into your
heart? And so on and so forth. How many times have you heard that?
How many times did they say that when you were growing up? And
they're still saying it today. And you were right in the middle
of that, weren't you? Huh? That's what you thought
of him. You thought God can't have his way unless I let him.
Didn't you? Jesus can't come into my heart unless I let him.
And these Jebusites, John said, David can't come in here. We
got our gods out there. Look at the next verse. Verse
7. Nevertheless, David took it. Okay. Okay.