Guest Speaker: Pastor John Farley
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
“To read them is like traveling through endless galleries of lumber, where the air is darkened and the lungs are well nigh asphyxiated with the rising dust.”
Men know they need a message from above, and they instinctively recognize that authentic voice when they hear it.
Some people may be tired of hearing about Jesus….
But many secretly ache to hear from Him!
Christianity is the most practical and only truthful thing in the entire world!
EPH 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
What is the message of the Christian church to all this?
There is NO OTHER satisfactory explanation of the world and its condition today apart from what is found in the pages of Scripture.
As in the first miracle it is the arrival of the Lord that makes all the difference.
We should allow Him to speak to us, instead of speaking ourselves.
Too many are talking for Him rather than listening to Him.
Since Jesus Christ fulfilled MAL 3:1, it follows that He is the Lord God.
In the Church Age worship of God and membership among God’s people is available to all who believe in Jesus Christ in and through Jesus and the new temple of His body (JOH 2:21).
In the church age, the Lord no longer dwells in buildings.
In the Church Age, the temple is made by the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit.
HEB 10:10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
MAT 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.
The Bible also tells us that at the moment of salvation, church age believers are baptized into the body of Christ.
ROM 12:5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
In the Church Age, the body of Christ remains the temple of the living God.
He will come suddenly to His temple in grace and compassion to cleanse it and claim it as His own!
EPH 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith
The place where the Lord dwells is to be a place of grace and of truth.
So what is the condition of your temple?
He still comes today as Lord of the Temple!
He is not only Savior; He is the Lord!
He owns the temple of your body. You belong to Him.
He has the right and authority to inspect our temple, and He also has the insight and the knowledge to do so.
2 Ch 16:9 “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”
Today our Lord comes on the scene to purify His temple, and everything changes.
He uses the word of God and the Power of the Holy Spirit to do it.
The first and most important matter in the life of an individual or a nation is our relationship with God.
It was to the Temple that the people went to worship God and to meet with God.
When things go wrong in the Temple, they will go wrong everywhere.
The problem with the Jews in Jerusalem was that they were misusing what God had given to them.
1 Pe 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God;
These things were being used to serve man’s selfish ambition.
The greatest need of this hour is the presence of the Lord in the Church.
The cleansing of the temple is to be the manifestation of His glory, His authority, His zeal and His power.
Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
The waters of the Word and the Spirit had been accumulating inside; now He was ready to launch His public ministry.
The level of preaching was ridiculously low at this time.
The scribes were probably the most barren and unspiritual set of men who ever taught the people.