All right, turn back with me
now to the book of John. I feel impressed of God this
morning to speak to you along the same subject lines as our
Sunday school lesson in John chapter 2. And I touched a little
bit on these things last week, but I didn't get much of a chance
to talk about them in any depth. Now I want to try to draw for
you a picture of what's taking place here in his coming to the
temple. The temple worship, when we talk
about temple worship, we're talking about this Old Testament type
of worship. There was a temple. Within this
temple, the temple was kind of the permanent dwelling place.
I'm going to give you some references here in a little while explaining
what I'm talking to you about concerning the temple. I'm going
to give you some references to the tabernacle. And actually,
there was two of them. There was the old tabernacle
of the congregation that was just a tent that Moses went into
and communicated with God. And then there was the tabernacle
of God's design wherein was the veil and the Ark of the Testament
and all those instruments of worship that he designed and
put within this tabernacle, this temporary dwelling place. And
they went in there. And then when they entered into
the land of Canaan, Under the oversight of Solomon, a new temple
was built, a permanent structure. And this is the temple, and it
was torn down in time or destroyed partially and then rebuilt. And
that was the temple into which Christ went up in Jerusalem. That's the subject matter which
we're talking about. But I want you to try to get
a picture here of what's going on. The Feast of the Passover,
they were all required to attend it under the law of Moses, and
the Lord, as our representative under that law, who was made
a servant under that law and in our place, went up to fulfill
the law of Moses on our behalf. He went up there with not, and
we know this now by the gospel that we've heard from God, These
things must be fulfilled in the heart and in the mind and in
the motive, not just in the outward observance of it. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, when he went up to this temple, fulfilled these things
from his heart. When he went up to the temple,
it was a heart motivation. And his heart, he went up there
to worship God. He went up there to look in this
temple and see these things as they pictured him and the work
that he would accomplish. And he went up there to glorify
God and worship God in this temple. And he went up there and it's
full of merchandise and merchants. They had totally taken away all
the beauty and glory of the temple. It's outward. things and not
the things of gold and silver inside, but the things that pointed
to him, the things that revealed the glory of God were the spiritual
things of this temple. And he went up there and those
are the things that had been desecrated. And if you just look
around, I want you to see this as it pictures the religion of
our day because it's such a good picture of it. All of these folks were all gathered
in the same temple. They all went there, they said,
to worship God. They all went there to take a
sacrifice and to offer it up before God. They all went there
fulfilling the direction that God had given them. They all
went there for the same reason. And in our day, we go down here
and I see God's name mentioned on a sign outside the church.
They all got a Bible, same Bible I got, most of them. The things
that they talk about, they talk about worship just like I'm talking
to you about it here this morning. They use a lot of the same things.
But they weren't there for the same purpose. And they weren't
there to see and to feel and weren't motivated by the same
principles. And this is what's taking place
in this temple. It's a picture, I'm telling you,
it's a picture of what goes on in our day. The worship of the Jews was a
lot like the religion of our day, except for the animal sacrifices
that they incorporated in their ceremonies. I want you to see this. Most
of what we call Christian worship in our day, most of what we call
Christian worship, some of them use that The Christian Hour,
describing their broadcast on TV and these different things,
they use this name Christian. And most of what we call Christian
worship is nothing in the world but a mixing of Old Testament
worship with New Testament promises and influence. Now that's what
it is. It's just a mixture of what man's idea is. He takes
these things of the Old Testament. In Catholicism, you've got a
high priest. Where in the world do they get
an idea for a high priest? Under the old law of the Jews. In this old temple worship, there
was a high priest. There was a priesthood. Where
did Catholicism get the idea for a priesthood? Under the old
law of Israel. You see what I'm saying? They
want to take those things of the old, law and ceremony and
all those symbolic gestures, and they want to carry them over
into New Testament worship. And they mix those things. They
mix them together. They mix those Old Testament
types and symbols. They mix those in with the New
Testament promises and the influence of Christ and the new knowledge.
They want to mix them in. They want to mix them in. You've
got a single man in Catholicism communicating with God and then
declaring to you the will and direction of God. You've got
all the visual aids incorporated. Old Testament temple worship.
Incense burning. They have little incense burners.
I was raised in a town where Catholicism was the major religion
of the town. But I've been in their churches
very few times. I was in there once at My wife's
father was a Catholic and we went to his funeral in there
and the little boys in the robes came out and they had their little
incense burners and smokers and they puffed that smoke around
and they went through all that rigmarole at his funeral. Well,
where did they get the idea of this? They got the idea because
they went back here in the Old Testament and they read about
that incense that was carried in and what it represented. And their whole religion is symbolic
religion. All of it. It's just symbolic,
all that. It's just ceremonies and all
this type of thing, stained glass, all these. And one man wrote
an article here recently, Joe Terrell, and I think it's an
outstanding article. I may go ahead and download it
and print it out for you to read, but I want you to see. And he
was talking about the old Tower of Babel. And it's design. He was talking about the design
of the temple versus the design of this old tower of Babel. And
that old tower of Babel was designed with a system of steps. And they
crawled up, John. They get up to the first step,
and they get up to the second step, and then the third step.
And the idea was the higher you went, the closer to God you were.
The Scripture says that if you leave them alone, they're going
to go right on into glory. They'll go right on into glory
in their mind, in their mind. And that's the whole idea behind
modern symbolic religion in their design of the places where they
meet. You go into Washington, D.C.,
and there's a lot of beautiful structures there, but if you
ever go over and see that big cathedral, over there, that big
Catholic cathedral, you can see that thing from anywhere in Washington,
D.C. You can see that thing when you
can't see the Washington Monument. You can still see that big cathedral.
But the temple was not designed to show man's climbing up to
God. It was designed to show God coming
down to man. You didn't climb up a bunch of
steps to go into the temple. You just walked in. You just
walked in. It's God coming down even in
the design of these things. And you've got confessionals
and catechisms and the preeminence of the church over all that you
do and say. And them Baptists, they know
better. They know better. The Baptists with all their organizations
and their memberships and their consecrations and all this type
of thing. And these other churches that
dedicate babies and baptize babies and all these things, all these
things was a carryover from that Old Testament circumcision of
the child after eight days and bringing it in and dedicating
all this type of stuff. It's a carryover from the Old
Testament. It's a carryover. And you can just go on and on
and on with how men dress and how they wear their hair and
how they talk and how long the women's dresses have to be and
whether or not they can wear pants or dresses, all this type
of stuff. So-called Christian religions
of all kinds in our day, they still have the writing of the
Ten Commandments out in their parking lot and hanging on their
walls. And up front, they'll have an American flag on one
side and a Christian flag on the other side. We say, what's
wrong with that? Well, Christ is our banner. Isn't
that what He said? The Lord our banner. I don't
carry a flag. I don't look to a flag. The flag is not my ensign. Christ
is my ensign. Christ is my banner. He is the
Lord our banner. And these so-called spiritual
leaders of our day, what gave them the idea to put on these
big robes and gowns And in Catholicism, you've got the Pope, and he's
really dressed different. He's got the miter of the old
high priest, and he's got all the things of the old high priest.
He's got a ring on his finger, and you can just go on and on
and on with him. He's all made out of linen. I'm
telling you, you can just take it right out of the Old Testament,
and here it is. But it's mixed. It's mixed with
the influence of the New Testament. It's mixed in the truth of the
New Testament. And there's just no end to the
carryover in the worldly religion that mixes the old with the new.
And what I want you to see in this text is the work of the
Holy Spirit in the preaching of Christ that destroys these
old types. They said, give us a sign. Here
you come into our temple in these things that we've been doing
for thousands of years. Well, they didn't. They couldn't
really go back thousands of years and talk about these things that
they did because over time they'd changed some things. They weren't to have those sacrifices
there and buy them when they got into the temple. Those sacrifices
was to be taken from their own herds and from their own sheep
and saw as the gift of God. You can't buy Christ. You can't
come down here and exchange what you have for Christ. And that's
what religion tries to sell. They're trying to sell the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're trying to sell redemption. You come in here and they're
either trying to sell you on their lives, or they're trying
to sell you on your experiences, or they're trying to sell you
on this business about coming down an aisle and making Jesus
your personal Savior. Cost not for sale. Cost has to
be given. That lamb had to be given. God
gave it to you, and you went out there. If you went out there
in your little flock and there was no unblemished lamb, you
didn't have a sacrifice. You was in trouble. Well, here's
how they're going to overcome that. They're going to sell you
one. They're going to sell you one. And that's what happens. Folks
go down to church and they buy this sacrifice. They buy whatever
it is this man is selling. It just depends on what church
you go to. And they make it convenient for
it. The Holy Spirit, they've got him tied up in a box. You
do this and here it is. We've got God in a box. We've
got Him in a cage. We've got Him tied up over there
on the side of... He's not tied up. He's not tied up. His hands ain't tied. And you
think I'm telling you a bunch of garbage here this morning.
I just showed Winston in the back of this Bible here what
the Nazarenes believed. They've got a picture of the
temple back there and the steps that a sinner has to take before
he can come up to this plateau of the temple and enter into
this temple and begin to worship God. And it's showing all these
steps that he climbs up. That's what religion believes.
These folks were here at this temple, and they were going through
these ceremonies and doing all these things because that's what
they believed they had to do to get up to this level to be
approved of God. But in truth, God gave the design
of the temple. He told David, who wanted to
build him a house, he said, Will you build me a house? The heaven
of heavens can't contain me. Paul said, in Him we live and
move and have our being. Will you build me a house? And so with Solomon, he said,
okay, we're going to have a permanent structure. We're going to have
a house. And inside this house are these things. And he said,
you take care. You take care. And you build
this thing exactly as I give it to you to build. But here they are. They've done
taken all those things and just threw them things out. Them things
wasn't of any importance. And here they are trying. All
they did was take the things of God and incorporate them into
that old blind religious paganism. And I'm telling you, some of
you got relatives, and I hear you talk about them. Well, they're
pretty good, but they're a little bit awful on the side. They're
pagans! They're pagans! There's only
two types of people in this world, believers and pagans. That's
all it is. Well, they believe a few good
things. They'll go to hell believing a few good things. Now, I'm telling you the truth.
There's paganism and there's true worship, true believers.
And these men were not good men. They were held in esteem by even
the apostles. still was holding out esteem
for these men. That's how ingrained that ceremonial,
symbolic religion is and how dear it is. Paul held it dear
to him. He treasured it. He counted this
his righteousness, his hope. It's what motivated him. It's
what made him get up in the morning and go out the door. These old
religious memories and history and traditions and all these
things. And he wanted to hold a little something out for it
until God took his face and shoved it in the mud. and showed him
where he was, and brought him to faith in Christ. Now, he said,
I discount those things, but dumb. He killed Stephen over
these things. That's how dear them things was
to him. He killed him over them. Stood and held his coat by those
men and said, Amen, while they stoned him to death. He said,
those things is dumb now. And that's what happened. They
said, give us a sign. He said, here's a sign, tear
this temple down. It's coming down. It's coming
down. Now, he spoke of his body. He
spoke of the literal tearing down of his body, the destruction
of his body, the death of Christ is what he was talking about.
That men by wicked hands have taken him and slain the Son of
God, slain the Lord of glory on the cross is what he was talking
about. And the Lord is going to raise
it up in perfection. justified except all that was
done inside. And he's going to raise it up
and he's going to seat it next to him in glory. That's the temple. But this old temple, he said,
tear it down. Tear it down? It took 46 years
to build it. Huh? I spent 30 years building
mine. How long did you spend? Huh? And he tore it down. He tore
it down. He tore the roof off of it, all
those beautiful doors, and windows, and memories, and experiences,
and that whole dining hall. He just tore it down. He throwed
it out in the trash pile. And it was okay with me. It's
okay with me. Now, this is what happens, I'm
telling you. This is what happens when the gospel comes in power.
Those old things are destroyed. They come down. He tears them
down. And he raises up in perfection
those things which God has given him to do. All these things,
all things are of God. They are all of God. Things we
once trusted in and held dear and thought that those were the
things that connected us with God. Paul said all of his family
ties and his tribal rights and the company and agreement of
all of his kinsmen bore How good it felt when you go down there
at that old church and all those folks was in there patting you
on the back. Now, don't worry about that. Don't worry about
that. We remember when you come down
the aisle and these things are God. This guy here, he's just
trying to take you away from God. Boy, you know, how good
that felt when they put you on. You know, you get in a company
of people and you begin to feel a little bit better. You ain't
hanging out there by yourself. God singles you out all by yourself. And he tears those things down. Tears them down. I don't care
how long you've been building them. My dad was 78 years old
when the Lord came in and tore his down. Raised in the Nazarene
religion, he was so ingrained in it and bound in it and wrapped
up in it, you couldn't even hold a conversation with him. God
tore that whole mess down. He died up there in Ashland sitting
in a pew, tears rolling down his face listening to Henry preach
the gospel. Got to come down. All these things
have to be destroyed. Paul said, "...and be found in
him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, his faithfulness, his
righteousness, which is of God by faith, that I may know him,
and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering,
and be made conformable unto his death, if by any means I
might attain under the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I
had already arrived, either were already perfect, but I follow
after, if that I might apprehend that which also I am apprehended. I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do," listen to me, "'forgetting those things
which are behind.'" That's what Paul had to do. "'This one thing
I do, forgetting those things which are behind.'" You know how he forgot them?
He turned this way and walked away from them. That's how he
forgot. That's what it is. You see the gospel, you come
out. Abraham, come out! And he came out, didn't he? And
that's what you're going to do when the Lord calls you. You're
going to turn your back on those things and everything that those
things have to do with, and you're going to go this direction. You're
not going to go back that direction. You're going to go this direction.
forgetting those things, he said, which are behind. Can you do
it? Can you do it? Can you turn loose
of those old experiences and those old things and cling to
nothing but Christ, nothing but Him, John, hanging over that
precipice? Down here is nothing but eternal
judgment and fire. Can you turn loose and hold on
to His hand alone? Can you do it? Can you forget those things which
are behind? Can I, by what I see in this
man, forget everything in my past, blot it out, just like
it never happened? Can I do that? Can I let go of
that old ingrained religion and tradition and philosophy? Can
I turn it loose and just hang on to him? That's what Paul said
he did. Forgetting those things which
are behind. Forget them. They're just dumb. They're just rubbish. They're
just cranks. Let go. Turn them over. Cling to Him. Cling to Him. Forget my worldly
ties to my family. I'm telling you now, we cling
to our own blood kin more than we do to the people of God, and
it ain't right. I'm telling you it's a sin. You're
okay with everybody being upset until one of your relatives gets
upset, and then you won't go to his defense. We won't find these things that
have to do with our family more important than the worship of
God. I'm telling you, you'd better turn your back. You'd better
walk away. You'd better walk away. Where's that love? That love is for the brethren.
Ain't that what it says? The Lord stopped his own mother
in her tracks. He stopped her. He said, Who
is my mother? Who is my brethren? Who is my
sister? Those that do the will of God.
That's what he said. Forget these old family ties. Forget my old traditions and
ceremonies. Forget my history of religion
and all my hopes and dreams that were associated with it. Forget
all my old experiences and fond memories. Forget my old associations
with religious men and my past kinship with them. Forgetting
those things which are behind. Can you do it? Not apart from a work of grace
you can't. Can you do it? Oh, I tell you,
when God comes into the heart and power and the Holy Ghost
presses upon your heart and mind who He is and who you are, Then
you can do it. Then you can do it. There'll
be a willingness on the part of that self-righteous heathen,
that pagan, to destroy that old temple and watch with spiritual
eyes as God raises it up again in those three days. Whew! I'd look at that old walk
down the aisle I took and sit there and cry. They had an old
mourner's bench up front in this little country church. Went down
there and bawled my eyes out in all sincerity. All sincerity. I thought I knew God. Boy, I
tell you, I clung to that. I hung on to that for years and
years. All of a sudden, God come in
and showed me who I was and who He was. And showed me the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And I don't walk down the aisle
and just crash after that. It didn't mean nothing. It didn't
mean nothing. Oh, Paul said that I might know
Him. Him. Not it. Him. Not His. Him. That I might know
Him and the power of His resurrection. This is God's dear Son. Hear ye Him. That's what he told
them. They said, let's build three
monuments up there on the mountain. One for Moses, one for Elijah,
and one for Christ. And the voice of God came out
of heaven. This is my beloved Son. Hear ye Him. And the other
two disappeared. And that old temple will disappear,
and that old religion will disappear, and that old hope will disappear
when you see God's glory in Him. When you see that everlasting
glory, that eternal glory, that man of glory, ordained of God
before the world was, by whom all things were created, by whom
all things consist. Him of whom all things typify
and picture and show, they're by Him and for Him. They're at
His disposal. You see, His hand arranging in
His sovereignty, arranging providence and arranging salvation, arranging
all those things. When you see that, boy, that
old stuff, you take it out and throw it on the garbage heap.
Put it out there and let the trash man have it. Let it all go. Let me show you something over
here in Exodus. Over here in Exodus chapter 33.
What was this old temple? What was it all about? That old
temple, it was a place where sinful men
could come and be reconciled to a holy God. You can't find one instruction
under the law for a righteous man. Go back and read it. Everything in that law, everything
in that temple, was directed and designed for sinners. Find
something in there. Find something. There would be
no need for sacrifice if you are a righteous man, would there?
There would be no need for the shedding of blood. Without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. There would
be no need to shed blood if I am not a sinner. Everything in that
whole temple worship was designed for sinners. Paul said, ìThis is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners.î Do you see that temple? Do you see that
temple? It is designed for sinful men
to be reconciled to a holy God. There never was a commandment
or direction given under the law for a righteous man. Now
listen to this. The Lord of Glory spoke unto
Moses, it says, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.
Look here in Exodus 33.11. Now look here in verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord,
See thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast
not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said,
I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight."
Now listen, finding grace in his sight is where communion
begins. That's where it all begins, finding
grace in his sight. That's where this meeting of
God begins, life begins, faith begins. Verse 13, Now therefore
I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, Show me now
thy way that I may know thee, that I might find grace in thy
sight." I've got to know him to continue to find this grace. I've got to know him. I've got
to know who he is. There's not going to be any grace apart from
that. Moses was smart enough to figure that out. I've got
to know who this is. I might find grace in thy sight
and consider that this nation is thy people. Show me your way that I might
know thee. Show me how I can know that I
know thee. Show me how that I can know I
found grace in your sight, and show me how I can know if this
nation is the children of God. Show me these things." All right,
now here's the way. This is the only way. A sinner
can know these things. Are you listening? Verse 14,
and he said, that is God said, My presence will go with you,
and I'll give you rest. Now, that's the only way you're
going to know. That's the only way you're going
to know. My presence is going to go with you. He said, Because
ye are sons, God hath sent forth his Spirit, into your heart,
crying, Abba, Father. It's because of this presence
of God that comes into your heart that you'll know. That's the
only way you're going to know. He said, My spirit bearest witness
with thy spirit that we are the children of God. Now, listen to this, verse 15,
And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry
me not up hence, for wherein shall it be known here that I
and thy people have found grace in thy sight. Is it not in that
thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and
the people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also
that thou hast spoken. For thou hast found grace in
my sight, and I know thee by name. And Moses said this, he
said, I beseech thee, he said, show me your glory. Show me your
glory. And he said, I'll make all my
goodness to pass before thee, and I'll proclaim the name of
the Lord before thee, and I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious,
and I'll show mercy on whom I'll show mercy. And he said, thou
canst not look on my face. Now, see, it's what religion
don't know right here. They put on their little
bumper stickers, smile, God loves you. I heard a song here years
ago they made up and sang, and it become a very popular tune.
You know the problem with those things, those ungodly tunes?
They're always such a tune you can't get one out of your head
once you hear it. It just echoes around in there forever, don't
it? He said, you can't look on my
face and live. They said me and Jesus got a
good thing going. Boy, ain't what Daniel said when
he saw him. He said, all my comeliness, he said, melted into corruption.
John saw him and fell down to his feet as a dead man. Job saw
him and covered his mouth and said he'd never speak again,
but we won't sing. Me and Jesus got a good thing
going. We don't know God. That's why we sing that kind
of garbage. And he said, Thou canst not look
on my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the
Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, And thou shalt stand upon
a rock, and it will come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that
I put thee in the cleft of the rock, and I'll cover thee with
my hand while I pass by, and I'll take away my hand, that
thou mightest see my hindred parts." What's he talking about?
He's talking about his glory and his goodness and his mercy. Because I tell you this, he said,
no man can look me in the face and live. You fly into the face
of God, you're flying into the perfection of justice and the
perfection of holiness and the perfection of righteousness.
It would be like a moth flying into a bonfire. You'd just be
consumed. We have no idea of how we appear
before a holy God. Satan didn't do anything. He
was one of the most beautiful, strongest, most preeminent of
all the angels in glory. And Satan just sat there and
had a thought in his heart. He sat in his heart and he said,
I'm going to sin. I know what was going on back
there. And you've got to read a lot of Scripture to know this
and maybe some years to understand what it is I'm about to say.
But Satan was sitting up there and he'd heard of this man of
glory. He'd heard of the purpose of
God in salvation. He'd heard about the preeminence
of Christ. And he said, now wait a minute,
I think I'm going to do this. I think I ought to be the one
doing this. He sat there in his heart and
he said, I'm going to be the one that goes up there and sits
on the throne. I'm going to be the one that
resides over the congregation. I'm going to do this thing. And
it said, And I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. All
he did was just a thought, Russell, just a thought. He didn't do
anything. He just thought about it. We
have no conception of how we appear before God. or that immaculate
holiness. We can't see it. We can't look
at it. No man can see me, he said, and live. But he said,
there's a place where I'm going to put you in this cleft of the
rock. He talked about Christ. And he
said, I'm going to cause my glory to pass by you. And I'm not going
to show you the glory of my face. I'm not going to show you that.
But he said, when I pass by, he said, I'm going to lift my
hand. And you can see my mercy. And you can see my grace. You
see my love and kindness and my long-suffering. I'll let you
see those things. I'll let you see those things. God's holy and righteousness
and just. Nobody can see those things. The temple of God was a place
of God's design. It was that cliff in the rock
where we could go and see that glory of God in redemption and
see those things and glorify God. And then let me cover one
more thing, and I'm going to close. Here in Exodus 33, go
back up to verse 11. Let me show you something here. Exodus 33, verse 11, And the
Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto
his friend, and he turned again into the camp. That is, Moses
did. Now watch this. The son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle." What's the significance of that?
Well, Joshua is the Old Testament name for Jesus, Joshua. Nun, his father, that word means
perpetual. So here's what's happening. Here's
what's taking place in symbol here, in picture. Jesus, the
Son of the Everlasting Father, departed not. As Moses went to
minister to Israel, Jesus was right there in that tabernacle.
The Son of the Everlasting Father. And that's what's taking place
here in John chapter 2. Jesus, the Son of the Everlasting
Father, comes up and He abides in that temple because He is
the temple. And when that time comes, He'll
destroy that old temple. That old temple will be torn
down. Nobody's going to find that ark. Nobody's going to find
any of that stuff. God tore it down. It's just junk.
If you did find it, God'd just have to have it, like the old
brazen serpent, have to have it ground up in powder. Just
a bunch of junk. You see that? Christ departs
not out of His tabernacle. That's why He come in there and
cleansed those things out before He fulfilled these things. Before
he brought to a close and consummated that old temple, he is going
to return it to its former glory, and he is going to clean out
all this old tradition and all this old mess to where you can
see just Christ alone. And there he is. He is standing
there in the courtyard, nothing else around, just Christ. Just
Christ. When we read about that old temple,
that is what we need to see. Nothing but Christ. Nothing but
Christ.