Again, we're in Luke 19.45, as
Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold
their inn. As we looked at these things
in our previous lesson in Luke 19.41-44, Jesus beheld the city
Jerusalem and wept over it. You know, the temple would have
played a large part It would have been a central point for
the declaration of the gospel. It would have been the central
focal point of life in Jerusalem was the temple and the center
of religion, the center of all Jewish life was revolved around
the temple and all the things that went on there. And we were
talking this morning about if you didn't adhere to the traditions
of the elders and the rules All the things that went on with
all the religious, the law. You'd be ostracized out of society
and you couldn't buy or sell. They wouldn't have anything to
do with you. So life would become very difficult in Jerusalem for
you or any city that was controlled by the Jews if you didn't play
by their rules. serious business there. And what
should have been the great central point for the declaration of
the gospel, the work of Christ to reconcile the people of God
and restoring peace with God through Christ, it wasn't doing that. And it
wasn't fulfilling that. Hebrews 8.5 said that those things,
speaking of the priests who made these offerings and sacrifices
according to the law, they were examples and shadows of heavenly
things as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make
the tabernacle, it says in Hebrews 8.5. foresee, saith he, that
thou make all things according to the pattern shown thee in
the mount." Well, the pattern wasn't just to say, okay, it's
5 by 6 by 13 and it's going to have this decoration and that
decoration. The pattern was Christ. The pattern was what Christ would
do for His people in redeeming them from their sins. The pattern
was the Lord. And those things should have
shouted those things out. Then the people that were in
charge there the religious things that they should have been declaring. Here's what this represents.
Here's what this altar represents. Here's what this sacrifice represents. You know, when we observe the
Lord's Supper, Norman says, here's what this bread represents. This
is what Jesus said, this bread represents my body broken for
you, and this cup is my blood shed for your sins." And he explains
those things. And that's what they should have
been doing in the temple, but of course they weren't doing
that. They were just saying, okay, we have done this. We have
dotted this I. We have crossed this T. We performed
this act. Now we're going to perform that
act. you're all okay based on that. But you know, the Lord said in
our last lesson in Luke 19.42, He said, If thou had known, even
thou, at least in this thy day, the very day where He was standing
right there in their midst, if thou had known in this thy day
the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they're hid
from thine eyes." You know, this peace is almost universally misunderstood. People, especially this time
of year, peace on earth, goodwill to men, and they've transferred
that meaning into peace between sinners, peace between men, everyone
in agreement, peace about everything except peace with God. That's
the part that's left out. It just means we should just
all get along and sing kumbaya and have a good time and not
rustle any feathers and just whatever you believe is fine,
whatever I believe is fine, and we just all get together and clap hands. It's just that's not what that
is about. Peace with God means that there was something that
caused there not to be peace with God. And that something
was sin. And the things in our text there,
if thou had known in this thy day the things which belong to
thy peace, the things refer to peace between sinners and a righteous
and holy God. And the only things that can
ever bring peace between anyone and God are the blood and righteousness
of Christ." Those are the things. If you had known the things which
belong unto thy peace. It's not good works. It's not
universal application of religious monkey business. It's the blood
and righteousness of Christ. The Lamb of God slain from the
foundation of the world, it says in Revelation 13.8. And, you
know, I just was taking this, he's speaking these things and
he's going in the temple and he's teaching. And in Romans, the 10th chapter and
verse 15, Paul's quoting the Old Testament
there in Isaiah, and he says, how shall they preach except
they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace. And that's what we're
talking about here. He said, if thou had known the
things which belong unto thy peace, but now they're hid, how
beautiful the feet of them that actually preach the gospel of
peace. What's required for that? And bring glad tidings of good
things. You know, our enmity against God is quite the opposite
of peace. And that enmity that we had against
Him was slain, it was nailed to the cross, it says in Ephesians
2, verse 16. that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."
And we'll look at that verse a little more closely here a
little later in the lesson. All the things which belong to
thy peace, he said, how oft would I have brought you this? How
oft would I have gathered you together as a hen gathers her
chicks? But you would not. You'd rather
stick with your Here's your list of stuff to do. Here's the law. Here's your works for salvation. And continuing in relation to
our text, we must always be mindful of the sovereign purposes of
God Almighty in all that transpires in this world and in the world
to come. We read last time in Acts 4.26, the kings of the earth
stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against His Christ. And those things are transpiring
as we see the scripture in Luke 19. The people had just got through
cheering hosannas to Him, and blessed be He that cometh in
the name of the Lord the King. and all that in Acts 4.27, for
a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
both Herod, Herod Antipas, the very one that had spent years
and years bringing this temple up to show standard for his own
grandeur. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. The actions of the people and
the rulers seemed on the surface to be the very antithesis of
peace with God. They were doing the very opposite
of the thing that He was there for. And yet, they were the very
things that God used to cause peace between His church and
Himself through the death and sacrifice of His only begotten
Son in their stead. Isn't that, you know, the Lord's
always saying, My ways are not your ways. and how you would
do things is not how I would do them. And He often uses the
exact opposite of what we would conjure up in our immortal minds
to present Himself to us. So, without the stabilizing effect
of the new birth, many of the people here that we read about
in Luke, one minute they're shouting hosannas Christ, the Messiah,
the King, and the next minute they're shouting, crucify Him,
crucify Him. And that's the way it is with
religion. One minute you're up, one minute everything's fine,
one minute, oh, I just feel real religious and I'm good. The next
minute, things are not so good. And that's how they are. Antipas
spent 46 years upgrading and decorating the temple to make
it this showplace to reflect his own grandeur. And Josephus
said that the gold and silver plating was prolific. Everything
was made to look shiny, just like religion is just made to
look appealing to men. Oh, how important this is. Oh,
how important that is. If we decorate this up, it looks
real religious. It looks real spiffy. And it
caused people to look at it. My, my, how wonderful. And all the time, the Lord was
right in front of them. And unless a man be born again,
he can't see the kingdom of God that is much greater, much more
grand than anything that they could. The disciples, later on,
they come up to him and say, Look at this temple. Isn't this
just grand? Look at it. It's tremendous. It's wonderful. And he says,
you know, it's not going to be long before it's
tore down. Not one stone's going to be left
upon another. The temple was a type and a shadow
like the Passover, and like the Passover, it wasn't needed anymore
because the Lord, the true Passover, was here. The temple which should
have been for the dispensing of the gospel was not needed
because a greater than the temple was here. And he would go in
there every day, the scriptures tell us, and teach the people
and preach to them the gospel. In fact, the very first sentence
of Luke chapter 20, So he was daily in the temple teaching
the people and preaching the gospel. That's what he did. So he would spend his last few
days daily in that temple declaring the gospel of himself. And yet
few could really grasp that. all the elements that were in
the temple, which pointed to the advent of the Messiah, the
place of the sacrifice, the veil, the ark, the mercy seat, the
sacrifices, the Passover feast, all spoke of the very Christ
who was in their midst. And yet, he was invisible to
them, as it were. Hebrews 9.24 says, for Christ
has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true. The temple was made with hands
and it was figures of the true, but unto heaven itself now to
appear in the presence of God for us." So the things that should
have declared his work, what he was doing in the redemption
of the church, were just physical things that They lacked any spiritual understanding
in those people. I'm sure there were some born-again
believers there, but not many, as we usually find the case. He says, I've not come to send
peace, but a sword. I've not come for unity, but
division. And the Bible is the gospel,
especially the sovereignty of God is such a divider. There's
no ambiguity between grace believers and people that are free will. They just don't see things together and have problems because of
that. In John 2, verse 19 through 21,
Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple, in three
days I'll raise it up. The Jews said, 40 and six years
was this temple in building and that will rear it up in three
days. Of course, they're speaking of what we just mentioned about
Herod working on that temple and dressing it all up. But he
spake of the temple of his body. But you had to have eyes to see
and ears to hear to grasp that. Both the Passover feast and the
temple were corrupted with iniquity. The Passover became a work for
salvation and it was corrupted by substituting the sick, the
lame, the halt, and a vain attempt to fool God. You know, that was
going on back in the old days that Isaiah and the other prophets
wrote about. Jeremiah, they all wrote about
that. You bring the sick and the halt and the lame. And the
Lord says, take those to the governor and see if he'd be satisfied
with them. He says, I guarantee you that
he would not be. But as long as you brought something
and sort of did what was prescribed in the law, you were okay. So this Passover became a work
for salvation and corrupted by these various things they did
in an attempt to pull the wool over God's eyes, as it were. And instead of a picture of the
most valuable Son of God, the true Passover, which was a lamb
without spot, and salvation by Christ alone through the meritorious
act of His sinless death on the cross in the place of the guilty,
it just became a something you do. You know, in Daniel, we read
the scripture a couple of lessons back in Daniel 9.26, Messiah
shall be cut off, but not for himself. What a picture. I don't understand how people
can see that and then say that he needed to die for his own
sins. How can that be? He's cut off, but not for himself. He didn't need to have anything
be cut off for him. The temple was corrupted in the
worship of God. The Gospel of Mark quotes Jesus'
saying in Mark 11, 17, and He taught saying unto them is it
not written my house shall be called of all nations the house
of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves spiritually
God had spoken this through Isaiah declaring that the Lord would
in the end as always determined by God be to be triumphant he's
not going to be deterred by these activities of men that are corrupted
and full of iniquity and against Him. Let's turn over to Isaiah
chapter 56. It's only eight verses long,
so we'll just read that. Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye
judgment, and do justice. For my salvation is near to come,
and my righteousness to be revealed." Boy, as we think about that,
the Lord is looking down on Jerusalem. He's coming into the temple,
teaching the gospel. Blessed is the man that doeth
this, and the Son of Man that layeth hold on it. It has to
be laid hold on. And we can't do that. We've got
no grip in our own mortal hands, in our own natural self. that
keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from
doing any evil." Well, we just heard the other night in our
Wednesday night lesson from Hebrews that entering into the rest of
Christ, a man ceases from his own works. That's what that Sabbath
speaks to in Hebrews 3 and 4. that keepeth the Sabbath from
polluting it. Not the fact that, well, like
Norm says, well, that guy went out and picked up sticks and
violated the law because he wasn't looking at the spiritual application
of that Sabbath was to totally rest in Christ for all your salvation. Not do anything. You can't do
anything without it resulting in death. You can't pollute the
gospel even that much and have it still be effectual. you've
got to keep from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing
any evil. You have to totally trust in the Lord for all your
salvation. Neither let the son of the stranger
that hath joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, The Lord
hath utterly separated me from his people. Neither let the eunuch
say, Behold, I am a dry tree. He's saying that I'm going to
bring people from every kindred, tongue, nation, tribe, For thus
saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose
the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant, even
unto them will I give mine house, and within my walls a place,
and a name better than the sons of daughters, and I will give
them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the
sons of the strangers that join themselves to the Lord to serve
him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants,
every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh
hold of my covenant. Even to them will I bring to
my holy mountain." He's going to bring those people that trust
in the Lord to his holy mountain. "...and make them joyful in my
house of prayer." And those people he's speaking about are the Gentiles
that we just read about previously here. "...and make them joyful
in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their
sacrifices shall be accepted on mine altar." Well, not the
physical sacrifices, because by the blood and sacrifice of
bulls and goats, no one's justified, but it's just a picture of the
Lord. But these people that brought
a sacrifice of Even if they brought a physical sacrifice, there were
believers, born-again believers that went and said, I know there's
no efficacious value in this, but it's a picture of what you
did for me. It's like the bread in the Lord's
Supper. It's not efficacious within itself,
but do this in remembrance of me. Their burnt offerings and their
sacrifices will be accepted on mine altar. Not the physical
one, but in their hearts they're saying, I know what you did for me and
I believe that. And this is just a picture. For my house shall
be called an house of prayer for all people. The Lord which
gathered the outcasts of Israel saith yet, will I gather others
to him besides those that are gathered unto him. And so we have that block of
scripture there from Isaiah in relation to this things that
were going on in the temple. Get back to my notes here. The house of prayer for all nations.
You know, the temple was divided. the temple. I've got a graphic
handout here. It's a representation, an artist's
representation of the temple during Herod's day, and it's
probably generally correct and overall, but It's drawn from somebody's interpretation
of things that are written in the time. So you can kind of
look at it, but there are some things that I
wanted to point out that are recorded in the Scripture from
Josephus' history of the Jews. I don't know if you, you probably
can't see that. I tried. This temple was divided. It was partitioned by the Jews
with the design of preventing the Gentile participation. They
didn't like the Gentiles. They didn't even like the Samaritans
who were sort of part Gentiles and part Jews. They didn't like
And they only tolerated the Gentiles that were proselytes, and they
only tolerated them a little bit. The outer court, as we look
as you went in the gate of the temple here, this outer part
here, and you can see it's called the Court of the Gentiles. And
you could go in there if you were a Gentile. And the court
of the Gentiles was as far, though, as a non-Jew could go. That's
as far as you could go. There was a barricade wall, and
it's depicted in this dividing the court of the Gentiles from
the upper part of the temple. It was about three meters high,
and Josephus said there were signs hanging on that periodically
that said Gentiles cannot pass further except on a pain of death. But they didn't elaborate on
who the death was going to come from, whether it was going to
be struck down by the Lord or stoned by the Jews or whatever. But they did have signs there,
he said, that said Gentiles can go no further. That wall separated the court
of the Gentiles from the next court, which was the women's
court. And right adjacent to that was the court of the Jews
or the court of the Israelites. And you just couldn't go there if
you were a Gentile. And Paul records being arrested
for that in Acts 21. If you turn over to Acts 21,
In verse 27 and when the seven days were almost ended acts 21
27 The Jews which were of Asia when they saw him that be Paul
in the temple Stirred up all the people and laid hands on
him crying out men of Israel help this is the man that teacheth
all men everywhere against the people of and the law, and this
place, and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and have
polluted this holy place." So they arrested him and beat him
up, and took him to court, and while Paul was there, you know
what he did? I probably would have just said,
let him suffer. He preached the gospel to them.
After his arrest and beating, he seized the opportunity to
preach to them the gospel and declared how the Lord had saved
him on his way to Damascus to harm the church, which again,
Norm brought out here in his Wednesday night message from
Zechariah 14, and how the Lord turned one from a life and path
of destruction against his people to one of his greatest messengers. And then in Ephesians 2, the
apostle Paul wrote about this wall of partition. In Ephesians
2, verse 11, he's writing to these Ephesians. He says, Wherefore remember that
you, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called
uncircumcision, that's just a Jewish word for heathens, the barbarian
race, anybody that was not a Jew, by that which is called the circumcision,
and that be the Jews, in the flesh, made by hands, it just
means that religion of the flesh profiteth
nothing. Religion of the flesh profiteth
nothing. that at the time you were without
Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ
Jesus you, who were sometimes far off, were made nigh by the
blood of Christ. For He is our peace." Remember
back in our text verse from Luke, if thou had known the things
concerning thy peace. He is our peace. Not a what,
but He. Remember our text, the things
which belong to thy peace. For he is our peace who hath
made both one, that be Christ, made both one, that be the Jews
and the Gentiles, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the
enmity between Jews and Gentiles, and the enmity between all of
them and God, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances,
for to make himself of twain one new man, so making peace.
And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby." He's the Savior of everyone.
He's the Savior of the Jews. He's the Savior of the Gentiles.
People from every kindred, tongue, nation, tribe. There'll be a
remnant made up of those people from everywhere. And He came
and preached peace unto you which were far off, And to them that
were nigh, isn't that what he's doing right in the temple? He's
preaching the peace, the reconciliation of God by the sacrifice of himself,
preaching that gospel. For through him, we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore, you are
no longer 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 a holy temple in the Lord." You know, each Jew
and each Gentile that's a born-again believer makes up an intricate
part of that and they're all fitly formed together as suits
the Lord and he speaks to that pretty distinctly in other epistles
that we have and we don't have time to delve into that today
but he says they all fit fitly framed together they all you
watch those shows where those guys take and they notch out
a they're building a timber frame house and they make a notch and
then they cut a piece of timber that fits in that notch and that
holds up all the rafters. It just fits perfect. And it's
just solid when they get it done. He says, in whom ye also are
builted together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. We're fitly framed together into
a holy temple unto the Lord, in whom ye also are builted together
for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Again, there's a
spiritual application here that applies to the temple that was
not, the physical temple was not cutting it as far as declaring
all this. The court of the Gentiles was
lower than the rest of the courts which pertained to the Jews.
There was 14 steps up to the next level. 14 steps up. That's kind of a picture of how
the Jews viewed the Gentiles. I'm glad I'm not like other men.
I'm glad I'm not like you Gentiles or even this publican. Fourteen
steps up. We have the court of the women,
the court of Israel that could only be accessed by male Jews
purified And then the final court that was accessible only by the
priests and then the holiest of holy, which could only be
entered once a year by the high priest. And so this court of
the Gentiles that had become customary for that to be profitable
to do business in. And this temple, the court of the
Gentiles, as far as the Gentiles could go in the temple, where
all this activity took place, the selling of doves and the
selling of cattle and buying. We'll look here at a couple of
the Gospels that record the many business enterprises which were
engaged in inside the court of the Gentiles. Luke, Luke records
them that bought and sold. He ran them out that bought and
sold. And Mark and Matthew records
them that bought and sold, the money changers, and them that
sold doves. And these were all elements that
were necessary to participate in the required feasts that Jews
were required to come to three times a year. And John records
them that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of
money sitting. Can you imagine, I was telling
Norm this morning, can you imagine someone comes into our building,
never been here before, says, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church.
I'd like to go and hear the gospel. And they come in the front door,
and they come into our foyer. And here's all of the members
sitting there at little tables. And this one's selling religious
merchandise, and crosses, and candles, and images of the Last
Supper, maybe a portrait of Jesus. and prayer cloths and widow's
mites and specialty Bibles with our name blazing prominently
in the lower corner. And the list is endless. Can
you imagine what that person would think? They walk in here
to hear the gospel and they say, oh, they're selling stuff. Okay,
I'm leaving. I'm turning around. Well, the
Jews couldn't leave because If they left, they would not be
participating in the law and things that controlled their
very lives, and they would be ostracized and cast out. And like Norm brought out that
blind man that was healed, and his parents threw him under the
bus and said, I don't know how I can see you. Ask him. And he
said, well, I don't know how, but I know one thing. where before
I was blind, now I can see. So they cast him out and wouldn't
have anything to do with him. Couldn't buy, couldn't sell.
Everybody would shun him. It was awful. So what kind of
message does that send to the people of God? The message that
it would send here is the same message it sent then. things were just nothing more
than a money-making scam in most cases and in the temple it was
just much more egregious because it was the temple that should
have been declaring the gospel and that's true of any assembly
where people are gathered together and when they put things that
take away from that or they put things that that change that
or falsify it, then it's the same egregious behavior now as
it was then. Jesus called it a den of thieves.
Now, that kind of implies that everyone that was in there was
guilty of malfeasance and not just a few bad apples messing
up the show. You know, if we found a den of
wolves, if we were out tromping around Heppner area and we came
across a den of wolves, what would we expect to find in that
den? Wolves. and whatever they were dining
on that was dead. And we could be certain that
they were all wolves. Anything else would be being
eaten. And Matthew 7.15 says, beware of false prophets which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves. These people were a den of thieves. They were all in cahoots. They
were all involved in it. Each one played off the other
one. They were all a consortium of
egregious thieves. Josephus noted that the changers
of money exacted a fee Which would amount to about twelve
and a half percent by our standards interest or or a transaction
fee like If you if you if you come into the United States with
Canadian money and take it to the bank They'll change it for
you, but they're only going to give you the value of it in in
the whatever the exchange rate is and if you're not a customer
of the bank, they're probably going to charge you a fee for
Swapping that money out Well, that's what these guys did. The
Jews said, the temple does not recognize any money but Jewish
money, shekels and mites and Jewish denominations. So if you
come here with a drachma or a dinar or something, you have to exchange
that before you can make an offering or cast it in the box of your
tribe. We don't take laundry tokens.
monopoly money or whatever. So you could exchange the coinage
from your native country for shekels for a 12.5% fee and where
else are you going to go? Remember at this time of this
Passover, there's like 3 million Jews. There's probably a line
waiting to get in here for them people to take care of their
business. It's like Disneyland. You don't want to go to the end
of the line, the endless line. So if you couldn't transact your
business, you had to go get behind three million other Jews that
were wanting to get in there and make their sacrifice and
do their annual three times a year business. And doves, which would be sold for
about two pence outside the city, were sold for 20 pence in the
temple, is what Josephus said. What a racket. If you brought
your own animal for sacrifice, it would be deemed, well, you
know, that's unsatisfactory. It's got a blemish here, or this
feather is the wrong color, or this hair is not, the hair on
your heifer is the wrong color, or, oh, lookit, there's a little
blemish on your lamb. We can't take it. However, we
could take it off your hands for a couple of checkles of temple
bucks. Out of the goodness of our heart,
and then we could sell you a priest approved model from Achmed over
here We could sell you one of his sheep. That's already been
pre-approved by the priesthood and ready to go and for a modest
fee and If you don't have temple bucks well as luck would have
it we can take care of that for 12 and a half percent So what
our racket? What a racket. The places where
the gospel should have been declared and hosannas to the king shouted
are completely corrupted and places where prayers for atonement
should be made are turned in to say this canned prayer. The TV is just rife with it right
now of all these fake preachers that come on TV and say, all
you have to do is just say, repeat this prayer after me and then
call. Here's an 800 number that you can call. And I'll send you
this Bible with my name down here in the corner, and a self-addressed
stamped envelope for you to put your check in, or you can do
it by visa. It's awful. Say this prayer,
perform this activity, send your monthly contributions to the
following address. Well, That temple lost whatever
value it had as a type and a shadow due to corruption. You know, it's like that Ethiopian
eunuch that went to Jerusalem for to worship. He was drawn
of God to go to this house, this temple, and when he got there,
he got nothing. He went away saying, well, I
don't know what this is talking about. But you know, he was drawn
of God to go there and he was drawn of God to actually hear
the gospel because God presented a guy to him to take care of
that. And he said, what are you reading?
And he says, well, it says here, is this man talking about himself
or some other? And he says, let me see that.
And he took that scripture and preached unto him Jesus. That
was all determined by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. So, we're out of time here. You can read a little bit more
about the temple in Revelation 21.10. Boy, what a beautiful
picture. Carried me away in the Spirit
to a great mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem,
having the glory of God, and her light was like a stone most
precious, without spot or without wrinkle. How beautiful the feet
of them that bring the gospel tidings of good news unto you
that believe he is precious. So we'll stop there. And maybe
we'll catch up the very end of this next time about the oneness
of the church in presenting the temple. So until then, next time,
be free.