Let's turn our Bibles to John, the Gospel of John, chapter 2. John, chapter 2. As we do each month, we continue our study through the various ways in which Christ died for our sins, different depictions of how That is to be understood in Scripture and how we come across this next section, how Christ has called us to be His temple, to be His temple of the Holy Spirit, to be, to join with Him in this temple of living stones being built one to another into a spiritual house. And in this context, you'll notice here, this is where Jesus cleanses the temple. And he says that he, indeed, is that temple who has replaced what they had once seen visibly is now being replaced by the church and God's people. So Christ died that we might be called to be a part of this kingdom as living temples, living stones. John 2, verse 12 and following. After Jesus had done this first sign of all of His seven signs in the Gospel of John, here Jesus is right on the scene here of Him turning water into wine at the marriage of Cana, and now it begins this way. Verse 12. After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days. Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there and making a whip of cords He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. So the Jews said to him, What sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. And now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people. and needed no one to bear witness about man, for He Himself knew what was in man." Let's pray. Lord, we thank You that in these vignettes, these little segments of Your Word, there's so much to be seen and understood and to grow from. Lord, help us to see how this relates to our worship of You. Our reverencing of You. our need to treat You as holy and to worship You in spirit and in truth. Help us now. In Jesus' name, Amen. In the book of Leviticus, chapter 10, we have that unusual event. And this is what happened with Nadab and Abihu. And I want to read verses 1 through 3 as it begins to teach us about worship. Now Nadab and Abihu, that's Leviticus 10.1, the sons of Aaron each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them And they died before the Lord. And then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord has said. Among those who are near me, I will be sanctified. And before all the people, I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. That's a sobering little passage, but it's one in which it should not easily be overpassed or passed over by God's people under the New Covenant. It gives us a little snapshot into what it means to treat God as holy, as holy other, to see God as the one we've come to worship here today. The same God, under the Old Testament, is the same God today, same God whom we've come to worship, and He's to be treated as holy, not with our bright ideas, not with all of our marketing ways in which we somehow could help God be better imaged in this fallen world, but in the way in which He is commanded, Spirit and Truth, and He should be reverenced in such a way as that He is honored and that we are treating Him as holy and glorifying God. Now, I know this is an extreme case, but it nevertheless covers a number of things that I think stand out. First of all, I want us to know that this is not a slam on Southern Baptist, but it's to make a point. Years ago, a book highlighted in a Southern Baptist magazine, denominational magazine, it mentioned how this particular megachurch had done their best to make Christmas services exciting for the congregation. It's a church in Texas. It's a well-known church. And it says they went all out. 20-foot float electric light Christmas parade was put into this event. It was the envy, they said, of Disney staff itself. And also the same church on Super Bowl Sunday presented, again, an exciting conclusion, halftime conclusion, with 2,200 people, the largest people ever to gather at a Super Bowl event on a Super Bowl Sunday outside of the Super Bowl for that purpose of watching the Super Bowl. Let your light parade the envy of Disney, Super Bowl Sunday extravaganza, and yet all this in the name of we're gathering for fun to draw people to our church to see how exciting God is. But probably the one that was the most amazing was at one church in Arkansas, where at a children's baptism, the kid, after being baptized, was shot out of a confetti cannon into the audience. It was to make, they said, it exciting for the church, and these kids being baptized, and the event was unforgettable. Then, as one man wrote, at the Christian Booksellers' Convention, he was quite troubled. I've been to this Christian Booksellers' Convention many times, and he said, this place was full of Jesus junk. Books were not really the big thing, and the books that were selling were all the latest rage books, not the stuff that would be helpful to people in their marriages and the way that it should be in their families. And this guy went on to say, this is a four billion dollar a year industry. And he said what grieved him is when he went looking at the various things that were being offered there, one of them was a candy called Testaments. Testaments. And he went on to talk about how someone was giving out baseball caps where it says, Things go better with Christ, but it looked like Coke. And he went on to go further to say this. He said that what we need, and I think reading the details of his critique of this convention, he said what we need is an overrun of a few book tables at local bookstores and turn them over and maybe people will start paying attention to how the temple of the church needs to be cleansed. Now, maybe this is a bit harsh, but nevertheless, I think it gets the point across. People today think, just because you mean well, that God could be treated any old way we deem necessary, we fabricate in our minds, that God could be treated any old way because our motives are right. We want to see people saved. We want to see churches grow. And why not put these extravaganzas on to draw crowds, to somehow help them to see how loving and how exciting your church is. Now this is somewhat what happened to ancient Israel in the time of Christ. What happened is, is this temple, the Holy of Holies and the temple complex and all this, it became a place where a hustling, bustling, money-making endeavor And it was one in which was foreign to what I've just read in Leviticus. Furthermore, in Isaiah chapter 6, verses 1 and following, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Now this portrayal of God in the Holy of Holies and then the one in Leviticus begin to unfold for us again a view that under the new covenant should continue a view of God. In fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the Corinthians were probably those today that would be most like the churches that I've just mentioned in a prior quote. They might be the same types of things going on, all kind of activities and experiences and all these kind of things they want. Everybody's having a good old time and people are not doing things orderly, biblically, and yet they deserve a rebuke, which is what Paul says. This is what he says in 1 Corinthians 15, at the end, near the end, he says in verse 33 and 34, do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. So really, it's the same type of mindset he's addressing in 1 Corinthians. In fact, if you go to 1 Corinthians 14, Verses 23 and following, he says, if therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will you not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed. And so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. So we see there's not much difference between the New Covenant portrayal of God as calling us to a sober-minded worship, a reverencing of Him. And it's very similar to, again, Leviticus 10 and Isaiah 6. And also, it reminds us of where this comes from. And that is, Jesus' own teaching shows why it endured through to the Corinthians and to us today. And in John 4, as Johnson read earlier, in verses 20 to 24, but just to highlight the point, Jesus says in verse 21, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming is now here when the true worshipers, which means there's false worshipers, If there's true worshipers, there's false, and the false don't worship like this. When the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him, notice, must worship Him in spirit and in truth, not like the Samaritans zeal and spirit without the truth, not like the Jews, truth, having the Old Testament, but no zeal, but spirit and in truth. Now, he said that time is coming and is now here. That's the New Covenant. And how much more under the New Covenant should God be revered and honored, not pragmatism, the drawing card of a church, but the centrality of the Word. I was reading about some things about Spurgeon's ministry, and I thought it was quite interesting that Spurgeon had the largest church in London for years, 6,000 every Sunday. And he was attacked constantly as being too serious and this and that. And finally, it was interesting, Spurgeon responded in his Sword and Trowel magazine in the 1880s, he responded and he said, you know, I am not going to apologize for preaching Christ and Him crucified. I'm not going to succumb to your critiques of our music. And actually, interesting, and I'm not saying Spurgeon is right on this, but nevertheless, he was down on organs and pianos and they would have a guy stand before the congregation with a tuning fork to sing in key and then they would all join and sing that way the hymns and The point I'm saying is this he was saying he's not going to succumb to what they think is what he ought to get with the program with about music and change their music to be like everybody else and All this again fits well with the whole point. At some point, where we gather can be treated in such a cheapened way that we forget the whole point why Jesus came. He came to produce a people zealous for good works, godly. in Christ Jesus. Now let's go to 1 Peter before we go finally to John 2. In 1 Peter we see again our activity and who we are, our calling. He uses the word calling in this text. In 1 Peter 2, 4 and 5, he said, rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." So that's what we're about here today, to come as living stones building up a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God in His worship. In this passage, this very interesting passage in John 2, right on the heels of the marriage of Cana, Jesus cleanses the temple, talks about how it is going to be replaced, and then also rebukes those who are impersonating the temple who say they believe in Him. Very interesting. Look at the first part then. The temple is cleansed. Verses 12 and following. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum. That is, after He had left Cana, or Cana in the modern day pronunciation, Sixteen miles away from Capernaum and gone to Capernaum, He went down the hill, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples, and there they stayed a few days, because it was the time of the feast. And the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, And he was found in the temple, those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers were seated. And he made a scourge of cords and drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers, and overturned their tables. And those who were selling the doves to them, he said, take these things away. Stop making my father's house a house of merchandise. In other words, get this stuff out of this holy area. His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for thy house will consume me. That was in Psalm 69, 9. Think about this context here. Jesus is in the temple complex, and they're hustling and bustling. Now, for us to understand clearly this whole thing, this was a time in which actually one of the three major feasts a year in ancient Israel that all who were males, 12 years old and up, were called to be there in Jerusalem. And then everyone who was 20, every man that was 20 years old and above, was required to give certain temple tax, pay certain temple tax, to be able to, again, be a part of the worship as designed by the temple leaders. So this was a time of millions of people when all of these Jews from all over Israel came. It was a time of great congestion and clutter and hustling and bustling in this whole situation. And so the money changes, they're wheeling and dealing, and Jesus comes into the context and Jesus turns over the tables after he starts whipping them with the cord that he made, a cord of whip, I mean, a scourge of cords from making into a whip, and drove them out, overturned their tables. Now think for a minute. Why didn't they jump Jesus? Have you ever thought about that? Why did they not tackle Him and stop Him? Well, remember, He was a carpenter. And carpenters in those days didn't go down to Lowe's to get their lumber. They were very physical men. They were very strong men. All testimony says that Jesus, even though He wasn't much to look at, says Isaiah 53, He may not have looked like Superman in His face, but His body may have been close to Superman. And how He was able to be, think of God in flesh. He was not meant to draw attention to himself with his, I'm sure his physical looks in the face, but, it says that, but instead he was in a situation where he was able to turn over these rough-hewn tables, who knows what they weighed, and turn them over and look at men in such a way, with a whip, whipping them to get out of Father's house, and turning over all this, you would imagine that he must have been an imposing figure. at least for that particular encounter. In other words, it conveys to us that God is not interested in a lack of sobriety and seriousness in His worship. The seriousness should be a joyful seriousness. In Psalm chapter 2, notice how this psalm works together and conveys this very truth. In Psalm 2, in verses 10 and 11, So this is not saying that if you are sober-minded or you're serious about who God is and whom you've come to worship, this is not to say that therefore we all have dour looks on our face and we're not somehow, you know, that we're somehow conveying that, you know, this is so serious that we don't ever smile. We're not saying that at all. And it says here that true worship And Psalm 211 is one in which we worship the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. It's both. It's spirit and truth. It's rejoicing and trembling. It's both. It's not diminishing the lyrics of a hymn or drowning out the lyrics with a rock band. It's none of that. It's worshiping God in spirit and truth with the mind and the heart It's drawing near to God and joyfully singing the great truths that God has called us to sing to His praise and honor. Now this is an interesting thing. If you look at the Latin word here near the end of this section where it said, Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise. The word there in Latin is, what should we get the English word, negotiation. So in other words, don't be out there wheeling and dealing and negotiating. The only thing I could think of, it's very similar when I was in Israel years ago, and these guys were taking me from different sections of Jerusalem, and I went into the Arab section. And they have the Catholic section, Catholic slash Christian section, the Arab section, and then the Jewish section of the old city of Jerusalem. And here I am, and I go into the Arab section, and the tour guide with me said, he goes, now you really got to be on your toes here. He said, because these Arabs are nothing but negotiators. They're going to want you to buy this, and then they're going to start high. But they're going to pull all the money they can out of you if you don't sit there and negotiate with them. And so they're going to try and hoodwink you, and so you're a tourist, you're obviously an American, so beware." He said, those Arabs, and I'll tell you, what I found was, man, they were by far the most challenging. Then the Jews and the Christians were the least challenging. But trying to get us to negotiate. And at the end, if you're a good negotiator, you leave with something very cheap. But nevertheless, it's that same mindset. You get the same feeling that they're in there negotiating on prices on doves, right, for the sacrifice, or on lambs. But yet, these are things that are going to be sacrificed to God, and they're working on negotiating the best deal they can, instead of giving God the best. The whole area is humming and buzzing with, again, a marketplace idea, but it's in the temple. Again, it conveys the atmosphere of like an auction or a place where people play bingo. or a place where they are having these raffles, or a bazaar in the ancient Near Eastern world. You just have the idea, but it's the temple. It's the temple complex. You're seeking out an animal to be sacrificed and then have it offered for you by the priest. The whole scene is terrible. So this is why it's called the cleansing of the temple. Now, does God do that today? Does He cleanse places of public worship? I mean, Revelation 2 and 3 seem to indicate to me He's walking amongst the candlesticks. To act as if how we worship is really irrelevant, God just looks at our heart, the how is also important. And if worship isn't just the music part, But it's also the giving, the reading, the praying, the preaching, of all that, and that's how it should be understood, as all being worship. It's a frightening thought, isn't it? All the flippancy and jollity. I was watching a video recently of some church, and the pastor was a joker. One joke after another, you know, you just go, get to the sermon. I thought he was cool. I just thought to myself, what planet is this guy from? What Bible does he read? Why do I understand God as being holy and we're to be reverent to Him? Why am I looked at like I'm the idiot killjoy? And why is someone like that who thinks he's cool and snappy and telling jokes and kind of elbowing someone in the stomach? Okay, give me my Bible. Let's get to preaching. There's a problem. And God's walking amongst the candlesticks, let me tell you right now. And He's judging His church. So what Jesus wants us to, I believe, to see in this first point then, we are called to ongoing Reformation. We just came off the Reformation, a celebration time of 500th anniversary, and one of the statements that was made at the time of the Reformation was this, the church is reformed, reforming a deformed church, and it's always reforming. Which means, this side of heaven, there's no perfect church, there's no church without all kind of problems and issues, and all of us have our own issues, our own church included. All of us are imperfect and sinful, and yet God is calling us to always be reforming and conforming to the Scriptures. Why? Because, as God said in 1 Peter, I am holy, therefore you be holy. Be holy, for I am holy, says the Scriptures. And also, if Jesus was zealous for His Father's house, shouldn't we, shouldn't our zeal for God consume us? I say this with utmost sobriety. I'm humbled. I'm humbled to even be up here preaching. I mean, it's just a humbling thing. I feel so inadequate every week. God, just help me. I mean, God, only you can take my feeble offering and cause it to speak to the souls of your people and honor your name and be glorified. Only you can do that. But I believe there's a need for reformation and awakening. A.W. Tozer made this comment If I could find A.W.' 's quote here. He made this comment in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy. If you've never read that, it'd be a good one to read. He said, With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of God's divine presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence as well. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words be still and know that I am God, mean next to nothing to the self-confident bustling worshiper in the middle period of the 20th century. Well, that was in the 1950s. Quite interesting. So, we are called, in our calling, we're called to ongoing reformation. which means to not being settled and comfortable with not ever looking at our worship in a way that can be improved. We want to grow as God's people in how we revere Him and honor Him and draw near to Him. If Jesus, as I said earlier, if Jesus was so zealous that it consumed him for true worship, how much should we who honor the Lord and Savior of our soul? Secondly, notice here, and this is a calling for us also to be true worshipers. But in coming to that conclusion, we need to look carefully then at verses 18 to 22 because Jesus tells them that this physical temple, this beautiful, physically beautiful temple that they were in awe of, the Jewish people, is about to be replaced. It's going to be irrelevant. Look what he says in verses 18 to 22. The Jews therefore answered and said to Jesus, What sign do you show to us, seeing that you do these things? Since you're turning over our tables and whipping us with this cord of whips, since you're looking at us and rebuking us, what sign do you show to us? What? seeing that you do these things. And Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Isn't that interesting? The Jews said, it took 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? but he was speaking of the temple of his body. And when therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken." Now, what Jesus is doing here is he's saying, I'm now here. The temple is unnecessary. Now watch. Go with me to Matthew 12. This makes sense. In Matthew 12, this will make even clearer sense to you now as to why He just said what He said. In Matthew 12, He's talking about how He's the Lord of the Sabbath. Verses 1 through 8, He's dealing with the whole issue. He's Lord of the Sabbath. He mentions in chapter 11, verse 28 to 30, coming to me all who are wearing heavy laden, and then he ends, he says, you will find rest for your souls, and then it goes right into the issue of the Sabbath, which they were persnickety detail guys about the Sabbath. And then he says to them, he says, or have, in verse 5, or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless, I tell you, watch, something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." In other words, God's in front of your face. This God whom you've been worshiping, now you're selling this merchandise to, He's now here and He's greater than the temple. In fact, this temple is being replaced by His temple. John Piper makes just a classic Piper statement. And he goes on, and he's talking about this whole part here, verses 19 to 21 in the section of 18 to 22, Piper makes this comment. He says, when Jesus says, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up, he said, Jesus was saying in essence, kill me, you murderers. They're all murderers. Jesus already knows their heart. Kill me and I will become the global meeting place with God. Kill me and I will become the center of worship for the whole world. Not kept in one location. Just like he told the woman at the well. He said it's no longer in Samaria and now Gerizim. It's no longer, you Jews, on Mount Zion where the temple is. It's not kept in a location now. It's now where I am worshipped. I am greater than the temple, and the new covenant temple is my church and my people. Out of every kindred, tribe, people, and nation. They were all about the physical. This is a shutting down of the old covenant. The physical external religion is collapsing and in a generation will be destroyed. And Jesus is already saying, I'm the final sacrifice. I am everything. Now this is shocking to them because they knew, and I've double-checked this in all my studies and resources and got very accurate in this, that the temple was repaired, Zerubbabel's temple was repaired from 19 AD, 19 BC until 27 AD. In other words, 46 years. Again, just not to belabor the point, but when the church went to the Gregorian calendar, they found a five-year mistake. So Jesus was born in 4 B.C., and therefore 27 A.D. is more accurate that He began His earthly ministry, which is in this case, and He dies in 30 A.D. approximately. So they knew that this had been a major project. In fact, the full temple that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., that wasn't finished. In other words, all that was necessary for worship, but not all the full complex. The full complex kept being built and repaired until 66 A.D. but was destroyed in 70 AD. So the area of the worship where Jesus is have been worked on for 46 years. So they can't believe this guy just said this. It doesn't fit. And Jesus is calling them to New Covenant worship. And New Covenant worship is not less reverent. It's not under the Old Testament, an austere God, and we're all shaking in our boots at God on Mount Sinai, and then all of a sudden, everything is fancy-free, joking, chatty, and all this stuff under the New Covenant. And that's the result of the fabrication of a God of their own imagination, not the God of the Bible. And they were doing it in these days, and they do it today. It's a humbling reminder in all of our lives, all of our individual lives, all of us have a tendency to not treat God as holy in our own personal lives. And we kind of feel uncomfortable when we get too serious. I was talking to our speakers last week, and then other things I read here and there, and it is amazing, and they were agreeing. We were talking about how terms like repentance, sin, holiness, these terms make people nervous in churches today. To know that when most people struggle in their Christian lives with real issues of sanctification, you cannot address and help those people without addressing those issues. Repentance, holiness, obedience, these are all seen as taboo terms and negative and it scares everybody. So people do not get helped in their churches. They go on trying to, keep trying to self-atone for their sins out of legalism because they don't know what to think and God's going to zap me. And their understanding of God is confusion. And if anybody starts talking seriously, they're scared to death no one's going to come to their church. It's too serious. And thus people, of course, are seeking God. And then they love it. Then they know. that God is surely in that place. Go back to 1 Corinthians 14 for a moment. This is missed, can be easily missed. Remember, 1 Corinthians 14, he's talking to them about, again, this idea of sobriety and godliness in public worship. And he says here, Verse 20, for example, 1 Corinthians 14, "...brothers, do not be children in your thinking," in order to be mature, "...be infants in evil, and in your thinking be mature." And then, verse 23, again, just to highlight, he says here that, 23, 24, 25, 26, that if you have a situation where someone's speaking in tongues, or caught up in the ecstatic emotional experience, and promoting that Versus prophesying or forth-telling, preaching. He says, it's going to be a problem. He said, but if you understand that prophesying, preaching is what he's driving at. This isn't prophecy, C-Y. It's S-Y, proclaim, preach. He said, but if an unbeliever comes into a place where God's Word is being preached, he won't think you're crazy. What he will think is this, he'll say, man, my heart's been laid open. Verse 25, he'll fall on his face and worship God and say, man, God's among you. because of the preaching of the Word, because of the singing of God's God-centered hymns, and praise, and thanksgiving, and all these things honoring to God. And so Jesus is saying, this temple, I'm gonna cleanse it right now and rebuke you, and now I'm gonna replace it with new covenant worship, and it's no longer in this location, it's gonna be around the world, wherever those are who call upon the name of the Lord. And then I love this part in verse 22. It says, John 2, 22, When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scriptures and the word which Jesus had spoken. And this brings us to our last point. There's two ways you can take this last section, verses 23 to 25, and I've called this the temple impersonated. Not personified, but impersonated. In other words, the temple is personified in us individually and corporately, but I think what he's driving at here to them in this context is now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, beholding his signs. which he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, was not entrusting himself to them. So his immediate disciples believed, and remember what he had said, but now you have this group of people who believe, yet Jesus doesn't entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. Verse 25, "...and because he did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man." So he shows his divine omniscience, and I think what this is saying here is this, only those, and remember he's talking to religious Jews, he's saying, don't impersonate the temple with your religion. What I'm telling you, he says, is this. My body, I'm the one greater than the temple you're looking at. My people are individually temples of the living God. Corporately, temples of the living God. The corporate temple. Let me show you a few passages. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, for example. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Verse 16, he's talking to the Corinthians as a church, and he says, and this is corporately, the you here is plural, so it means to them as a church, so he says, 1 Corinthians 3, 16, do you not know that you are, you Corinthians, church, You are God's temple, and that God's Spirit dwells in you. If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. So we are, as living stones, being built up into this temple. Corporately, that's what we are. And so think about the Old Testament temple and what it pointed to under New Covenant worship. And then say, okay, if it was true of the Corinthian church with all of its imperfections, it's also true with us with all of our imperfections. And then it also gives us a snapshot into this. If anybody tries to destroy Audubon Drive Bible Church, God will destroy them. Think about that. Anybody who works against what God's doing amongst His living stones, is going to have to fight God. It's powerful, isn't it? If it's true about the Corinthians, how much more is well with us? It's a shocking reminder again of this temple, this new covenant temple, of which Jesus is greater than the temple, and His people are the temple. And then notice here in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and following. He's been dealing with sexual immorality, adultery, fornication, etc., all the sins he lists in verses 9 through 11 in 1 Corinthians 6. But here, later in that chapter, in verse 18 to 21, look what he says, 18 to 20. flee then from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the sexually immoral person, that means if you're having sex and you're not married, he's talking to you today. If you're having that as a person before marriage, that's, he's dealing with you in whatever bizarre forms. And then if you're outside of marriage, the same way. And he says, do you not know that your body, I'm sorry, he says, every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. In other words, self-destructs. It's self-destructive behavior. Verse 19. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, if you're a Christian, whom you have from God, You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Christ's blood is life. So glorify God in your body. So again, this again highlights, you're the temple of God. Corporately, individually, treat Him as holy and be holy. So this is a call, in a certain part, to a living faith, a true faith. Not a dead faith, Not a spurious religious faith. Remember, in James 2, he warns them, in James 2, he says, verse 19, you believe in God, well you do well, but the demons also believe in shudder. So he's talking to a church in that section of James, James 2, and he's warning them about a spurious faith. See, what we see in this context here in John 2, in this last part, in verses 23 to 25, we see something very interesting. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, verse 23, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. Okay? But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people. He wasn't buying their impersonation of the temple. He was calling them to offer true worship, to have a living faith, not a dead faith. Remember, faith without works is dead. Not a dead faith, not a spurious, flippant faith. J.C. Ryle said this about this section. He said, if it was wrong to defile and profane the temple of wood and stone, in Jesus' day, how much worse is it today to defile by our sin the temple of our bodies for God? He also went on to say this. He said, It is a wise saying that a man ought to be friendly with all, but only intimate with a few. And he's saying when Jesus said, It says, but Jesus on His part, verse 24, was not entrusting Himself to them. In other words, He was not intimate with them. He was not joining Himself to their worship. God knows everything. Notice about this man. He's referring to these people he's referring to in verse 23. He said they wanted signs. So they believed in his name and they made a profession. And then they believed in his miracles. But it doesn't say that he doesn't pursue an intimate relationship with them. He doesn't entrust himself intimately with them, even though they're believing like demons. Shocking. He was saying, in essence, belief in His name is much more than mental assent. And that's what he says, notice, in John 8. We draw due close. In John 8. It's the same thing Jesus is doing here in John 8 as He's doing in John 2, 25. Same thing. Watch. In John 8, verse 30, to 32, it says this, And as He was saying these things, many believed in Him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. See, that's what he's dealing with, the same scenario. He's only entrusting himself to those with saving faith, but those with a spurious faith, he's not entrusting himself to them. So in other words, in this group, in this last group, we've seen the temple cleansed, the temple replaced, and now we see here the call to a living faith, to walk by faith, not by sight, and now in this third part, we see the temple impersonated. In other words, that's what religious people do. They say, I love Jesus, I believe in Jesus, but their lives don't change. And so it's an impersonation of the temple they say they are. And that's why Jesus is saying this warning here. He knew all men. For He Himself at the end of verse 25 says. He didn't need anybody to tell Him. Jesus wasn't saying, goodness, I don't have to think about these people. They all believe in Me, so I don't know what to do. He wasn't saying that. He knew what was in men. He didn't have anybody. No one had to say, Jesus, Jesus, let me give you a little lesson here. I'm going to try and help you, Jesus. He didn't need anybody to bear witness to Him concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in men. He knew that men can be religious, can even believe in Him, but not be saved. 1 Kings 8. King Solomon was one who definitely professed to know God and had talked to God numerous times. And this is a picture here in which we're reminded about Solomon who had all these things. King Solomon talked to God, had all these experiences. Now, I personally believe Solomon, the book of Ecclesiastes depicts that he was saved later in life. And Ecclesiastes is a picture of that. But think about all that Solomon knew. and saw, witnessed, but yet his life was a mess. It says in 1st Corinthians, I'm sorry, 1st Kings 8, And when the priest came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon said, The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever. And then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father. saying, since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city of all the tribes of Israel to wish to build a house that my name might be there, but I chose David to be over my people. Now it was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. But the Lord said to David, my father, whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did dwell that it was in your heart. He did it well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name. Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made. For I have risen in the place of David, my father, and sit on the throne of Israel. And as the Lord promised, I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. And there I have provided a place for the ark in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. And then Solomon prays an amazing prayer of dedication. It would be good to read today if you get a chance. And when I read that of Solomon and I study his life, I am reminded that my life needs to be one of genuine reverence before the Lord. And as we look at the Lord's death and His life and death, He died to make a holy people for His own possession. He died that we would be those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. He died not so we would be more religious and do all we can to help Him re-image Himself in a postmodern culture. He died that we might bow before Him and worship Him with joyful sobriety, with reverence and awe, to honor Him as He is designed and to treat Him as holy. The Lord be glorified through all this. Let's go remember His death now and proclaim His name together. Let's pray. Lord, we love you and we thank you for who you are. Lord, we ask that you would please help us now, Lord, that you would help us to draw near to you as your people, to worship you, even in this time of remembering your death, your life, your death, your resurrection, your ascension. Thank you, Lord, for, again, how you are the same yesterday, today, and forever, how you are unchanging, and how indeed you love your people. And Lord, we feel again, if it wasn't for your mercy and grace in our lives, oh Lord, who could stand? It's you who has made us even to be here today. It's your death that has given us life. It's Your joy through the Holy Spirit that has been at work in our hearts today as we've worshiped You, as we've fellowshiped, as we've encouraged each other. Lord, we want to think joyful, reverent, praise-filled, sober thoughts. We want to worship You in spirit and truth. We want to fear You in the way You tell us to reverence You, Lord. Lord, we want to learn to do that better as we read your word. Lord, help us to read your word, to meditate on it, to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness, to honor you, Lord, in every way we can by how we show our love and honor to your name. Thank you again for your mercy, your love, your patience, your undying covenantal love for all your people who call upon your name. In Jesus' name, Amen.