Turn back to John chapter 2. John chapter 2. In these verses, we see the deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see His power in running these
people out of the temple. We see His omniscience. He knew
the hearts of all men. He needed not that anyone testify
of men. He said he knew. He knows men.
No one had to talk to him about men or tell him about men. We
see what religion can degenerate into. We will see what the Lord's
Passover turned into here. It's so sad. So sad what happens. But if the Lord did not continually
cleanse us, we'd be the same way. would follow the same path. Now it says here in verse 12,
after this, he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brethren
and his disciples, and they continued there not many days. After the wedding feast, the
Lord and those who followed him went down to Capernaum. That
was his hometown. But they didn't stay there long
because of Passover. was at hand. Our Lord was always
about His Father's business. I wish I could do that. I wish
I could get up every day with this attitude. I want to be about
my Father's business. Lord, what would you have me
do this day? I wish I could do that. Every waking hour. Things like this just impress
me. Every waking hour, He was totally consumed with the will
of his father. This is our Lord. This is our
brother. This is our substitute. He was constantly about his father's
business. He kept every command of his
father. He kept everything to the very
jot and tittle. That's amazing. That is absolutely
amazing that he was so meticulous in keeping and doing his father's
will and command. It is written in the Scriptures
that every male was to appear before God at the Passover. So
he goes to Jerusalem in obedience to his father. And the Jews'
Passover was at hand in verse 13. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem. I want you to turn to Exodus
chapter 12. Look over in Exodus chapter 12.
I want to show you something here. In Exodus chapter 12, look
in verse 11, and thus shall ye eat it with
your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff
in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's
Passover. It's the Lord's Passover. Now
go back to verse 13 in John chapter 2. And the Jews' Passover was
at hand. The Passover used to be called
the Lord's Passover. It used to be the Lord's Passover.
But now it has degenerated into the Jews' Passover. It became,
here's what happened. This is what happened. And this
struck me in the last two days of reading this, and this is
one of the readings I wanted to bring to you. It became just
another religious ceremony for them to go through once a year.
They were to do this once a year, and so it just became another
religious ceremony to them. I'm sure there was a few of them
that it was still very important to, that it really meant something.
But for the most part, it was just another religious service. That's what it degenerated into.
Their hearts were far from the true meaning of this. They had been so far removed
from the bondage of Egypt that all that they were recognizing
was historical facts. I don't want that to happen.
I do not want that to happen. I wrote down here this evening,
right before I came over here, don't let the cross of Christ
become a historical fact. Don't ever let that become a
historical fact. I want that to be a real living
experience every day. Every day, the cross of Christ. John went to the third heaven.
He said, I saw a lamb. How? As it had been slain. As if it just happened. The cross
of Christ should always be to us as if it just happened. I don't want this to just be
another religious coming to church on Sunday and coming here on
Wednesday night and going home and doing it over Come here to worship God. Come
here to feed. Come here to eat. And it's my responsibility to
give you something. And that's a heavy responsibility.
We must be very careful not to let coming to church, coming
here, gathering together as God's people to hear the gospel and
to worship God, not to become just a religious service. We
must be careful not to preach Christ crucified as something
that happened 2,000 years ago. Lord, keep us from that. We have
to guard against this. And note what happened. Let's
take notice here of what happened when it became the Jews Passover. In verse 14. And found in the
temple, that is the outer courts, they're talking here about the
outer courts, and he found in the temple those that sold oxen
and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. This is what
happened when it became the Jews' Passover. When they got so far
removed from what happened in Egypt and that bondage. This
is the condition that their worship degenerated into. Money changers. Money changers. Big business.
There is no bigger business in this country than religion. And
you know what? It's tax free. It's tax free. Now why do they want to get into
it? It's tax free. And these people justified their
services by making it convenient for the people. They said, all
we're doing here is making it convenient for the people to
come and worship. They don't have to drive these
oxen for miles or these sheep. They can just come here. They
can leave their good ones at home and just buy what we have to
sell and use them. You know, our Lord said this.
He said, count the cost. He didn't say make it easy. He
said, count the cost. Following Christ is costly. I'll
tell you what it'll do. It'll cost you your life. Following
Christ will cost you your life. But they wanted to make it easy. Their deeds and their hearts
in this matter was evil. They used this as a cover, as
a veneer. Oh, we're just making it convenient
for the people. No, you're not. You're making money off of it.
You're in it for the money. You're not in it for the people,
and you're not in it for the worship of God. You're in it
to make money off the people. And I tell you this, there is
no more gullible people than lost religious people. There
is no one more gullible than those who are lost but religious. If you give some person some
kind of hope for heaven when they die, they'll just do anything
for it. What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? You give him all kinds of things to do or give
and he'll do it. Well, he'll do it. And I'll tell you this,
things have not changed since that day, have they? We are doing
the same thing. I have watched some of these
programs and it is a begging fest. It's like that can't you
teach channel, you know that. Now they're honest. At least
they're honest about it. They show you a little bit and
they say, now we need your support. But these religious people do
it in the name of God. If God's in it, God will support
it. God will support it. If he's in it, he'll support
it. If he's not in it, shut it down. Just shut the thing down. I tell you this, human nature
doesn't change. It disguises itself in different forms, but
it hasn't changed. Hasn't changed at all. Covetousness
is still the number one sin of the heart. And the scripture
says covetousness is idolatry. That's what it is. But note our
Lord's reaction to this. And when He had made a scourge
of small cords, He didn't make the kind of whip He was whipped
with. He didn't make that kind of whip.
He made one of small cords. You know why? Because God, He
doesn't need a big whip. He doesn't need a big one. He
just needs His Word. He just needs to speak. But He
made a scourge of small cords. He drove them all out of the
temple and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables.
False religion. This kind of religion is an abomination
to God. A man would be better off to
be a heathen than to be a hypocrite. He's better off being a heathen
than a hypocrite. He gives here a small demonstration of his
wrath. We see just a small demonstration
of the wrath of the Lamb right here. Just a small demonstration. You know, I was reading today
that this outer court, this is where they had all these animals,
oxen and sheep and doves You know that was 14 acres? They
said that was 14 acres big. And they came in and set up their
booth just like you would at a flea market. It was a big flea
market for selling sacrifices. And he drove them out. He just ran all of them out of
there. And you know not one of them
withstood him? I mean, you're talking hundreds
and hundreds of people here in this 14 acre field. And he runs
all those animals out. He runs all those men out of
there. He runs all those money changers out of there. He runs
everyone out of there. And not one resisting. Here is
a glimpse of his real power. He makes a small cord now. I
just pictured it being about that long. And just the flame
and the power of his voice just strikes fear in their heart and
they leave that place. You know, in one place they try
to throw him off a hill. Another place they're going to stone
him. But when he demonstrates his power here in cleansing the
temple, nobody rises up against him. No one lifts a voice against
him. Not at all. Oh, he demonstrates
his power here. Here is one man driving out all
of this mess. It's driving him out. The Lamb
of God, now listen, the Lamb of God is meek and lowly, but
He is not weak and unable. He's able, He said He's able
to save unto the uttermost those that come unto God by Him. He's
able to drive them out too. He's able to drive out the wicked.
And He demonstrates His righteous indignation against those false
professors. And if he does this with a little
bit of wrath, what's it going to be like when the wrath of
the Lamb is turned loose completely? You know what it says in Scriptures? There in Revelation 6, they're
going to cry for the rocks and the mountains to follow them
and hide them from the face of the Lamb, the wrath of the Lamb.
They just had a little taste of it here, just a little. Weakness
is not weakness. And the Lord is going to judge
all of those who are pretenders. This false religion makes you
sick. One day, He's going to do away
with it. One day, He Himself is going to judge you. He's going
to bring them into judgment. But I'll tell you what else is
going on here. Here's something else going on here. He's purging
out the old leaven just before the Passover in the Old Testament. just before
the Passover, the house was to be totally purged of leaven. And here we have the Passover
about to happen. And here the Lord of glory comes
in and purges his house, purges his temple, just before the Passover
happens. That's another thing that's going
on. And he said to them, that so doves take these things hence,
and make not my father's house a house of merchandise. He reveals
His deity here once again. He said, Make not My Father's
house. Moses didn't say that. David
didn't say that. Solomon didn't say that. Isaiah
didn't say that. Ezekiel didn't say that. But
the Lord Jesus Christ said, Make not My Father's. This is My Father's
house. Make not My Father's house. He's
showing here His Sonship. He made it so plain, didn't He?
Who He is. my Father's house. And they knew
who He was talking about. He's calling Himself the Son
of God. And I tell you this, the church, you, we are the Father's
house. We are the Father's house. And
when we meet together, it is for the purpose of worshiping
God. It's for the purpose of coming together here to hear
from our Father. Have we not come here this evening
to hear from our Father? I hope you didn't come to hear
me. you're going to be disappointed. But if you came to be instructed
and to hear something from your heavenly Father, I guarantee
you'll get it. You'll get it. We came to hear
our Father. We do not come together for social
events. This is not a social gathering.
We do not come together to entertain. God forbid that I should ever
entertain sinners on their way to hell. You know, preaching on the radio. I really try to make it as plain
and as simple as I can make it. I want there to be no mistakes
when I get done. Who Jesus Christ is and how God
saves sinners. We're not entertaining men on
their way to hell. We're not playing games. We're
here to worship the living God together. To worship Him in spirit
and in truth. The church is not a house of
merchandise. I'd like to shout that. I'd like
to just shout that over this world. The church is not a house
of merchandise. Nor, listen, nor are we individually
houses of merchandise. I realize the Lord has to run
a lot of things out of me. There's a lot of things He has
to chase out of me. Covetousness. Drive down the road. I need blinders.
You drive down the road, you see his nice home. You say, boy,
wouldn't it be nice to have that? I watch sometimes on TV. Vicki
told me once, she said, it's a good thing you're not rich.
She said, your taste is just too rich. I see these big homes,
he's built more. And I said, man, look at the
craftsmanship in these things. I just, I could live in them.
Well, he has to run that out of me. And that takes the rest
of my life. And that's what he does. He constantly
cleanses his temple. He sends his trials, heartaches,
whatever it is, whatever it takes to run it out of you, to run
them out, he'll send it. If you're his, he'll send it.
He does that to his church, to his temple. We are the temple
of God. And that's what he does. We are
a spiritual house that God is building and we're not to be
given to covetousness or anything else but him. And his disciples
remembered, it says in verse 17, they remembered that it was
written, the zeal of thine house, listen, hath eaten me up. That's in Psalm 69.9. You've
heard somebody say this, but boy, he's ate up with it, isn't
he? He was. He was ate up with the zeal of
you, God's house, God's church. He was ate up with taking care
of you. of cleansing you, of presenting
you faultless before God's throne to make you a dwelling place
for God Almighty. He was ate up with it. He said
his zeal, if we could just catch a little bit of that, just a
little bit of that would drip on us. Just the zeal of his house
would eat us up. Then answered the Jews and said
unto him, What signs showest thou unto us? Well, what gall
they had. There's so many signs and wonders
that he did in front of them. And then they said, What signs
showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
Here's what they're asking. What right, what right do you
have to come in here and do this? What right do you have? Who gave
you this authority to run these people off? You see, the priests
let them come in there and do that. I'm sure they probably
rented them spots just like they do at these flea markets. And
they got money out of it. And they said, who gave you the
authority to chase these men off? Well, first, it's His temple. That's what they don't understand.
They're talking to the very God who gave them the temple. It's
His temple. And He has the right, as the
giver of it, to cleanse it. You know, we own a house over
on Gusper Street. We have a right to clean that
house if we want to. We have a right to clean it.
It's our house. He has a right to cleanse the
temple. It's His temple. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up.
If you'll notice, He didn't answer their question directly, did
He? Do you know why He did not answer their question? Here's
the best answer I can come up with. God gives no account of
any of His matters. He's not going to answer me.
We are not going to call God into question as to why He does
what He does. He gives no account of any of
His matters. Now, I need to give account.
You give account. We give account all the time.
He gives no account. And He's sure not going to give
an account to those Jews who say, well, it's His temple. He
can do with it as He will. But here's the sign. He said,
I'm going to give you a sign. I'll give you a sign. It's another
sign of His deity. It's another sign of who He is,
the Son of God. I will give you a sign. Destroy
this temple, this body. He's speaking of His body. We
know that. And in three days, I will raise it up again. You want proof of my authority?
I'll give it to you. I'll give you proof of my authority.
Destroy this body and I'll raise it up again in three days. No
man ever raised himself from the dead. but Jesus Christ. And that's because He's God Almighty.
He is the living God. Then said the Jews, 46 years
it took us to build this temple. It took 46 years. And you're
going to rear it up in three days? Who do you think you are? Oh, how ignorant. How ignorant
they were of spiritual truth and life. Like Nicodemus, he
said, you must be born again. He said, Now let me see here. How can a man, when he's old,
enter back into his mother's womb and be born again? Well,
a dick of demons, that's not what I'm talking about. He was not talking about that
block building. He was talking about his body.
He was talking about his body. It's not God's fault that people
are spiritually stupid and ignorant and dead and deaf and dumb. That's
not God's fault. God gave them light. He gave
those Israelites all the light. He gave them all the tithes,
all the pictures. He gave them His Word. All they
needed to recognize the Messiah when He came. And when He came,
they missed Him. You know why they missed Him?
They didn't believe the Scriptures. They didn't understand the Scriptures. You know why they didn't understand
the Scriptures? Because they didn't believe God. You'll never
understand the Scriptures until you believe God. That's when
a man understands the Scripture, when he shuts up and believes
God, what God says, and then God gives an understanding of
the Scriptures. But he speaks there in verse
21, he speaks of the temple of his body. 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. They both agreed. The spoken
word of Christ, the written word of Christ, both agree. They agree. This is one thing
that I told Henry. I said, when I heard you preaching
the gospel on television, I said, what you were saying matched
what I was reading. I mean, it was a perfect match. I knew there was something missing. I even told some people that
before I even heard Henry. I said, there's something missing.
Christ. Christ was missing. And when
I heard him preach the Gospel, what I heard matched what I was
reading. And he says here, they believed
the Scriptures, what they were reading. And they believed his
Word. They believed what they heard.
It matched. It matched. God must reveal his word to us
if we are to understand it. He has to reveal it to us. Now,
when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast days,
many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he
did. When they saw the miracles, not when they heard him. These
are not real disciples here. When they saw the miracles, when
they were impressed by, you know, you'd be impressed too if you
see saw some of the things he did. The blind seeing, deaf hearing,
raising the dead, that's impressive. And they believed, they gave
an intellectual agreement is what they did to this, but not
a heart worship. They did not embrace the Lord
Jesus Christ. They did not fall in love with
the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not, they believed he
was come from God. There's a difference in believing
he came from God and believing he's God. And believing he's God Almighty. They were stony ground hearers.
That's all they were. They were impressed with those
miracles. But Jesus, it said, did not commit himself to them.
That crowd, that crowd there that just said, believe in his
name. When they saw the miracles, he did not commit himself to
them because he knew all men. Here's his omniscience. He knows
every heart. He knows the thought of every
heart. Turn over to 1 Kings. Over to
1 Kings chapter 8. 1 Kings chapter 8. Look in verse
39. Then heareth thou in heaven thy
dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man
according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest. For thou,
even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men." He knows the heart of every man
and woman, child on this earth, who's ever lived on this earth.
And I'm glad he does. I'm glad he does. Peter said,
Lord, you know I love you. You know it. I know there's sin
in here. I know there's sin dwelling in
me. I know I've got my ups and downs, but Lord, you know my
heart. You know I love you. So I'm glad
he does know the heart. And it says, And he needed not
that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.
Sin. Deception. Deceitfulness. He needed not any to testify.
He didn't need anyone to say, Michael, there's a good man. Now this one over here, he's
a bad man. He knew man. He's known him since
the fall. He's known him since creation.
He's known him all through every generation. He's known him in
his most wickedness. He knows what's in man. Sin. He didn't commit Himself to them.
He didn't give Himself to them. I tell you this, if the Lord
saves, when He saves a sinner, you know what He does? He commits
Himself to that sinner. He gives Himself to that sinner.
He instructs that sinner. He draws that sinner. He feeds
that sinner. But He left them alone. Even so, Father, it's
in good and thy sight. That's all we can say. He knows
the human heart and how wicked it is. He knows everything about
every person. Nothing's hid. Nothing is hid
from this one, the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows every man. And He cleanses His temple. And
I'm glad He does. I'm glad He runs them out. I'm
glad He runs them out of us. I'm glad He does.