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[0:00] Hey guys, thanks for listening to our Calvary Chapel Charlotte podcast.! I will walk by faith and not by sight.

[0:48] Good morning. Turn your Bibles to John chapter 2. We'll be finishing that up today. Man, last week was such a blessing. You know, I've been with John a lot lately.

[1:01] We're in Revelation Wednesday nights. Yesterday we started 1 John at Men's Discipleship and then the book of John on Sundays. So, you know, you start to get to know the guy a little bit. And he's very different.

[1:12] He's very different in his writing. But you kind of get, you start to grab a little bit of like, okay, he's going to kind of show us something. And then he's going to flip the coin and he's going to show us something else.

[1:23] And then he's going to kind of bring all of that down and say, well, here's what that is. You know, Paul, Paul's more linear. AJ and I had this conversation yesterday. He's not really linear, but he kind of keeps the line.

[1:34] But a lot of times it's like all over the place and you're kind of following him. And you get to the end and you're like, wow, that was like three chapters of a run-on sentence. You know, great. And you kind of piece it together as you go.

[1:46] John is like, it's not paradox. I looked up paradox and it's not what I mean. But it's like contrasting and comparing. He'll take something. He flips it. He says, here's the other side. And then he kind of gives you then the essence.

[1:59] And I think he's doing that here as he's, we've looked at chapter one, Jesus, the word made flesh. Right. And then he's like, okay, let's look at that. And he gives us chapter two. Chapter two in these two parts, they seem like these two completely unrelated events.

[2:13] Jesus goes to a wedding feast. Jesus goes with a whip and cleans out the temple. Those look like two very different Jesuses. And then we get into John chapter three and everything kind of just comes down to this point where you're like, oh, wow.

[2:29] Okay. I would have loved to meet John. I think he would have been one of those, you know, like an Oswald Chamber type. If anybody reads Oswald Chambers, I love Oswald Chambers or C.S. Lewis.

[2:40] You read a paragraph and you're like, man, that was good. I don't know what he said. It was so, it was so good. And it takes a little while to kind of like process that and to churn through it.

[2:52] John's a little like that. You read it at face value and you're like, yeah, okay. And then you start looking like, what is he saying? Wow. What is he saying? So last week we saw that it was the beginning of miracles that Jesus did.

[3:05] So the beginning of the signs was his first miracle. John's going to show us these seven signs, these seven proofs in a sense, not proofs, but these seven reasons to believe that he is the word, that he is the life, and that we believing in his name might have life.

[3:20] So that was the first one that he showed us. And he manifests his glory, forth his glory, and his disciples believed in him. Remember that we said that didn't mean it was their first time believing, but a continuation, a continual belief in him.

[3:35] As Jesus took something clean and pure, but what could not fulfill, something of the law, right? Those water pots, those purification. It couldn't fulfill the need.

[3:46] It was clean. It was pure. It was good. It was according to God's order and God's word, but it couldn't fulfill the need. And he turned it into something that brought joy and fulfillment. And he does that as he brings the new covenant and his grace into our life.

[4:01] A disciple, we said, is not one who believes once. I was like, yeah, okay, I did it. I got my badge, my name tag, my name's on the roll or whatever.

[4:12] But one who continues to believe. And last week we saw as one who continues to respond to the invitation of Jesus to come and see. That's all. We're just constantly just coming and seeing and coming and seeing.

[4:22] I think sometimes we get the idea that in Christ we're supposed to now come and do. You know? Oh, he wants me to clean the fellowship hall. I'll go and do. No, come and see. Come and see what it's like to work with Jesus.

[4:34] Right? That was not in the notes. Come and see. And one who continues to invite Jesus into their life, right? As a believer to say, hey, Jesus, you come. You come in. Come into this area.

[4:46] Come into this space. And we saw those seven principles of belief. We're not going to go through them all in depth. But we're to invite Jesus into every situation, especially the hard ones.

[4:57] We await Jesus' timing doing whatever he says. We obey him to the max, even when all evidence is to the contrary. Because with Jesus, the best is yet to come.

[5:08] And remarkably, as we put our faith in him, he says, hey, you come along with me. Come and see. Let's do this together. Crazy. It is through faith, through our faith in the word of God.

[5:21] It's through our faith in the word of God that we are then ready to be part of the work of God in this world. What we're going to look at today is ready or not, that work's going to go forward.

[5:32] Whether we're ready or not, whether we're equipped or not, whether these guys are ready or not, and Jesus is coming to his temple. So as we look at this second event in John 2, it's simply the other side of the coin.

[5:45] You know, as I approach the text, I'm like, okay, so we have one kind of random event, but not only random, it's the beginning of miracles. And then we have the second event. There's not really a miracle in it. And it just seems so kind of random.

[5:56] Like, how does this pair together? But we're going to see it's actually the other side of the same coin that John has showed us with the wedding feast of Cana. As we saw last week, seven areas of belief that were shown to us.

[6:12] This week, we're going to look at a little different angle. We're going to pair that up with some principles of how Jesus works in this world and see how we have two sides almost of the same coin here. At the wedding feast, we may not always understand Jesus, as we saw last week at that wedding feast.

[6:30] A wedding feast, Jesus, you didn't raise anyone from the dead. You didn't heal a leper. You didn't cast out demons. I mean, you didn't even use your own hands. You didn't touch anybody. You didn't. You just talked to a few servants.

[6:41] We may not understand him at the wedding feast, but we like it. We like Jesus there. Jesus flipping tables with a whip in his hand. And that's something entirely different.

[6:52] That's a little different. Jesus cleansing a temple is the same Jesus, though, who compassionately turned water into wine at a wedding feast.

[7:03] And so John is showing us these two. And he says this Jesus is the same Jesus. And one is hard to understand, but we like it. But listen, just because something is not what we expect it to be, man, there's a blessing in it if we trust him.

[7:21] It may seem that they're completely unrelated, but they have more in common than we would think. In the water into wine, Jesus took something ceremonial and of the law, and he transformed it into something brand new.

[7:32] But yet, it had its roots in the law. Well, today, we're going to see the same thing, where Jesus will take something, again, ceremonial, something of the law, and declaring that in him, it is also brand new.

[7:48] In Matthew 22, verse 37 through 40, Jesus says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. And this is the first and great commandment.

[7:59] The second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Having gone through Exodus, while it's not explicitly stated, you shall love your neighbor, we saw example after example of, hey, if you find your neighbor's ox out of the way, take it home to him, don't take a video and upload it and go, ha, ha, ha, you know, like, be considerate, be compassionate.

[8:24] We saw all these examples, these opportunities under the law to do what? To have love, love for one another. The law provided space for love. And yet, so Jesus is saying here, hey, on these things, man, this hangs the law and the commandments.

[8:40] But yet he will say in John 13, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another. Jesus takes something that is already established, something that's good and something that is of God's word.

[8:52] And he takes it and he transforms it into something of so much more meaning and value than we could have imagined. That you love one another as I have loved you, that you love one another also. So as we jump into the text here in verse 13, Jesus has come from the wedding feast of Cana.

[9:09] If you remember, he's up in Galilee there. And it says, the Jews' Passover was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, I always think of up as north and down as south.

[9:19] But it's talking about the topography that whenever any direction you would come to Jerusalem, you're always going up, up to Jerusalem. And you'll always see in scripture that it is up to Jerusalem.

[9:30] And so the Jews' Passover was at hand and Jesus, as a good Jew, as a good Jewish man, as I'm sure he's been to, what, he's 30-some years old.

[9:41] This was one of the three yearly feasts that was required. Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Jesus was at many Passovers, right? And so he goes up. If you remember in Exodus 12, that's where we have the instituting of the Passover.

[9:55] Passover, Israel is in Egypt. God is bringing the last plague upon them to deliver them out of the land. And he says, I'm going to have my angel of death pass through the land.

[10:06] But hey, if you take the lamb, if you take his blood, and you put it upon the doorpost of the house, then the angel of death will pass over. So that's the first place we see that. And they're given instructions that they shall eat, eat the Passover lamb with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand, your engine running, and you shall eat it in haste.

[10:29] It is the Lord's Passover. Look in your Bibles. In verse 13, whose Passover is it there? It's a Jew's Passover. The Lord's Passover points to the lamb.

[10:43] The Jews' Passover here, unfortunately, they've made merchandise of the lamb we're going to see today. And so Jesus goes up to Jerusalem to go to the Passover, Passover that should have pointed to the lamb.

[10:53] The lamb was coming to the Passover. He was coming. They should have known. The lamb himself, the lamb of God, is presenting himself here at the Passover.

[11:07] I like, again, we have this phrase, if you remember from last week, the Passover was at hand. We saw that when we saw the water pots, right? They were at hand.

[11:18] Jesus uses what is at hand to accomplish his purposes and meet need. Now, whether that is something that brings fulfillment, like the wedding feast, to bring fulfillment to something beautiful, like a wedding feast, or to fix something broken, like religion, we're going to see today, Jesus just uses what's at hand.

[11:39] And guess what's usually at hand for Jesus in today's world? What is the most likely thing at hand at his disposal today? And reach out a hand and grab a neighbor.

[11:50] It's us. It's us. Jesus is going to have a confrontation here. He's going to go to the temple, and he's going to find that in the outer court, so the temple at this time, you had Herod's temple.

[12:02] It was a very, if you look up the, go look at a picture at some point, it was a very large architectural structure, a very large outer court. That would be the court of the Gentiles.

[12:12] And then you would kind of enter into the temple proper, and that would be then the court of the women, the outer court, and then you have the inner court, where the men could go. Essentially, Jesus is going to find out that this outer court, which should be for the Gentiles, is kind of turned into like a flea market, or it's turned into a place where they're buying and selling.

[12:34] Jesus did not seek out confrontation. I was thinking about it and looking through it. I don't think there's, I can't think of any place in scripture where he went and sought out confrontation. He went to be confrontational.

[12:45] He confronted many things, but he didn't seek out confrontation. But he also never let the threat of confrontation keep him from proclaiming the truth.

[12:57] He knew what was coming. He's going to head up, he's going to have so many confrontations. Why? Because he's looking for it. We're going to see so many times Jesus avoids it. They want to make him king.

[13:07] They want to stone him. And it just says he quietly exits the scene. Jesus is not looking for the confrontation, but he's not willing to let that stop him from bringing the truth.

[13:19] Where God is at work, so is the adversary. But adversity is simply the price we pay for progress in the kingdom, for progress as we walk with the Lord, as he works in this world.

[13:31] And I wonder sometimes if my comfortability is worth more than the truth. Is my comfortability worth more than someone's faith and someone's soul? Someone's faith being built up, someone's soul being saved, so the truth...

[13:46] Well, maybe I won't say anything. That'd be kind of awkward. Are they my words? Is it my choice? Listen, I don't take it lightly that you people come and listen to me speak.

[14:02] I want my words to have meaning and value, and I don't ever want to say anything that I can't back up and say, well, this is what I see in Scripture. I don't ever say anything that's like, well, I heard someone say, and it sounded really good, and I thought it might fit.

[14:13] No, it's been vetted, and it's been sieved and worked out and gone through, and like, hey, I can stand on this with my life. Is our comfortability worth the souls of faith in other people?

[14:26] In John chapter 2 here in verse 23, we're going to see that there are many that are going to believe on him at the feast. Now, we'll see that that belief, I don't think, is quite the same belief as what we're going to see with the disciples, but nonetheless, there were those there that will believe in his name.

[14:40] But at this time, as Jesus prepares to go up, he's heading up to Jerusalem. They should have been ready. The Jews should have been ready for Jesus' coming.

[14:52] Malachi 3.1 says, Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. Well, who's that? We saw that. It was John the Baptist. And the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple.

[15:04] He sure did. He sure showed up all of a sudden. Even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Why weren't they ready?

[15:15] Weren't they ready for Jesus? You see, they wanted the kingdom, but they didn't want the king. They were happy to have the kingdom, but they didn't want the king. As you keep reading in Malachi, it says that the purpose, one of the purposes of his coming is to cleanse and to purge and to refine.

[15:31] I don't know how much I want that. I want the kingdom, Jesus. I don't know if I want the king. And here we see our first principle of Jesus's work in this world. Jesus is coming, ready or not.

[15:45] Jesus is coming, then ready or not. Jesus is coming. His work is going to progress forward, whether we're ready or not. And Jesus will come again to set up his kingdom for Israel.

[15:58] And at that time, they will be ready. Matthew 23, Jesus speaking to the Jews, to Israel says, behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

[16:09] For I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth until you shall say, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. The king will return to set up his kingdom.

[16:20] That's where we're at in Revelation 20 on Wednesday nights, to set up a kingdom in which Israel will be the center and the world will be ruled from there. At that time, they will be ready. He knows a lot happening right now, especially right now, this weekend, regarding Israel, the Middle East, with Iran.

[16:40] I live under a rock, mostly. Under this rock. I don't follow the news a lot. I got between work and studying and all that.

[16:53] And so I say all that to say, if you didn't know, because I figure I'm usually the last person to find these things out, then, you know, Israel and the U.S. have attacked Iran and kind of taken out the head over there.

[17:08] And it can be a little disconcerting. What's going on? What is all this? And I don't understand all of it, but I can tell you this. They shouldn't be surprising. The events of today should not be surprising. They should be understood in the light of Scripture is what it should be.

[17:21] In Zechariah chapter 12, we read, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

[17:36] And that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. A little place about the size of New Jersey. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

[17:52] You see, they rejected him the first time. They were not ready for him. He came suddenly to his temple. And he will come again to a temple that will be built. And they will be ready for him.

[18:04] And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem. And I'll pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication.

[18:16] And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him. Or, yeah, me who, and as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him.

[18:29] As one that is bitterness, in bitterness for his firstborn. You know, Paul tells us in Romans 11, verse 15, he says, listen, don't boast yourself against God's people.

[18:40] If the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world. You realize the church is today, the gospel is being given to the Gentiles today because Israel is still in unbelief.

[18:52] The day will come where they will say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And at that day, at that time, you know, the church will be removed. That age will end. But we exist because they're in unbelief.

[19:05] And it resulted in what? The reconciling of the world. What shall the receiving of them be, Paul says, but life from the dead.

[19:16] The contrast, death to life. God has unconditional promises and covenants he's given to Israel. And yet they're in unbelief.

[19:28] You know what? I have unconditional promises and covenants God's given to me. Why not how many times I'm in unbelief and rebellion? And God's never broken one of them. If I can look at all of the prophecies that have been fulfilled actually, accurately, then I can look at all the prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled actually and accurately.

[19:53] Do I understand that all? Of course I don't understand that all. But I don't have to understand it to believe it because it's his word. But I want to take a minute and just pray.

[20:04] Just pray for God's people. Pray for the church over there. Pray for our troops. Jesus is at work. I want to be a part of it.

[20:15] I want to be equipped. I want to understand. I want to be ready. And I don't know any other way to do that than through this, through the spirit, and through prayer. Father, thank you so much.

[20:26] Thank you, Lord, that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Lord, your purposes and your plans they were set in motion long before 2026.

[20:40] Long before I ever was conceived. Long before I ever came to be sitting here, Lord. And long before any of us, Lord, ever even knew you, Lord.

[20:51] And how wonderful to know that in your heart, Lord, not only was the plans that you had for this world, for your kingdom, for how this wraps up, for as we're going to read about in Revelation, a new heavens and a new earth where therein dwells righteousness.

[21:03] I don't know what that's all going to be. And yet also in your heart, Lord, was that compassion. As we saw last week, that would, in the midst of all that you have to do, you would stop and consider a need.

[21:18] And Lord, there are a lot of needs right now. And we just want to lift up, Lord. We want to lift up your people, Israel, in unbelief, yes, but still yours. Lord, that's the whole story of the Old Testament.

[21:29] They're in unbelief the whole time. And Lord, you never, you never let go of them. Lord, we want to pray for our troops and those that are being called upon to serve in a way that may cost them dearly.

[21:42] They would come to know you, Lord, that their hearts would be moved for their protection, Lord. And Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters in the church, Lord, those that are part of your body and part of your bride, Lord, those that are in Iran, those that are there and in other places of the world, Lord, where there is so much cost to following you, that you would strengthen them, that you would make them mighty and bold, Lord.

[22:06] Lord, that they would proclaim the truth, they would not worry about the confrontation or the cost, they would look to the king. We thank you, and in Jesus' name, amen.

[22:17] Thank you, guys. You know, as a church, we stand with Israel and we support Israel. We believe, I believe what the Bible says, and, but I also believe that if God can keep his promise to Israel, I believe he can keep his promise to me.

[22:36] And I believe if he can keep his promise to me, then that's on his shoulders. I don't have to try and make it happen. I don't have to figure it all out. I can trust him. But how much more, then, should we, we who have received the spiritual aspect of the kingdom, remember, Jesus said, the kingdom of God does not come by observation, but is within you, currently, currently.

[22:59] But how much more should we who have received the spiritual aspect of the kingdom be ready for the Lord's return for us, as he promised in John 14. In my Father's house are many mansions, dwelling places.

[23:11] If it were not so, I would have told you and I'd go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

[23:22] Like, Jared, you quote this verse all the time. You know it. Look, if I said to you, hey guys, I'm gonna leave because I've gotta go prepare a place. Once I get it prepared, I'm preparing it for you.

[23:32] I'm gonna come and I'm gonna get you. We're all gonna go there to where I am. Let's say a year from now and someone says, have you seen Pastor Jared? No, I haven't seen him. He gone. No, no, no, no, no.

[23:43] He promised he's just getting things ready and he'll be back, you know. And then what does it say? I'm going to come back to a place you've prepared for me?

[23:55] No. Am I going to come back to where you are? No. I'm going to come and get you to bring you to myself to be where I am. And what does that look like?

[24:06] That looks like what Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

[24:25] Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. I am comforted that Jesus has said to me, well, he didn't say, hey, bro, but hey, bro, I got this and I got you.

[24:38] It's okay. Before Jesus returns to a physical temple built by Israel, he will first return and gather his spiritual temple made without hands. Know you not that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you.

[24:52] 1 Corinthians 3.16. So this is Jesus now coming to his temple, coming to a people in unbelief. Yes, he is, but still coming just as he faithfully promised.

[25:03] And he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting there. Well, what is all of this? Well, Israel was originally supposed to be the light to the nations, it tells us in Isaiah 49.

[25:18] Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth.

[25:32] What started is a legitimate service for the people. So when you would come up to Passover, if you're coming from Galilee, are you going to bring your sheep with you? Well, it would be easier to buy one there.

[25:43] You also, if you remember from Exodus, all the males above a certain age had to pay a temple tax and it was in a certain coin. So you'd get there and maybe you have money from Greece, maybe you have Roman coin, you know, maybe you got Bitcoin and you got to exchange it for the temple coin.

[26:01] What happened is, what started as a legitimate service eventually turned into gain. They would gouge the people and say, oh, you know, here, I got this great deal on a sheep, you know, or well, I did bring my own.

[26:12] Well, let's inspect it. There's a spot on yours. No, you're gonna have to buy ours. Yours won't work. And where they set this up was in the court of the Gentiles. Israel, who should have been a light to the nations, had filled the court of the Gentiles with the pursuit of their own gain.

[26:27] That's the scene Jesus comes into in the Gospels. That's why he seems so harsh sometimes with the Pharisees because they should have been seeking the good of the people.

[26:41] Our attitude in serving Jesus should never be, what can I gain? But what can I give so that others can gain? Jesus' heart is the only appropriate heart for ministering on behalf of God.

[26:55] Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus asked the question, well, what can I give that others might gain? And then Jesus, this is probably not your refrigerator verse, you know.

[27:13] And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables. Jesus flipping tables. Well, here's our second principle of Jesus' work in the world.

[27:29] We may not always understand Jesus' timing and methods what we can trust his purpose. Man, I don't always under, I, what are you doing, Jesus?

[27:40] Was there not another way? But notice the wording here. He made a scourge of small cords. Just, you know, I don't think it hurt very much.

[27:50] I don't think it hurt at all. Jesus' purpose, it took time. It took thought and it took care. He didn't just, he wasn't angry. He didn't just react and grab the nearest thing.

[28:01] No, he made a scourge of small cords. He took time. He knew what he was doing. He had a purpose. He had a reason. And it took time. It took thought and it took care because he wanted to cleanse the temple.

[28:14] Jesus takes a lot of time and a lot of thought and a lot of care into our cleansing, into the things that seem to scourge us. There's a second temple cleansing that happens.

[28:26] All the other gospels give that account. This is the only one that gives this one. That's at the end of his ministry. They're not the same thing. And that's when he says, my house is the house of prayer and you've made it a den of thieves.

[28:38] That's at the end of his ministry. And they go, why do you have to do it again? He did it once and then they come right back? Well, yes. Because a superficial cleansing never lasts forever.

[28:50] You could cleanse that temple however many times over you want it, but it would never last. No matter how many times a ceremonial temple under the law was cleansed, could never affect the hearts of the people, could never cleanse their hearts.

[29:02] But part of the Passover feast, what is one of the things you do at Passover? You look through the house to get rid of all of the leaven. So here Jesus, he's removing all of that. He's cleansing this.

[29:15] But it couldn't change the heart. You see, to cleanse the heart, a new temple will be needed. And we'll see that in a little bit. And he said unto them that sold doves, take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise.

[29:30] So he drives out all the animals, he dumps out the money, he overturns the tables, but he takes the people that are selling doves and says, take those out of here. He didn't overturn the doves, he didn't let them loose.

[29:41] Why? Because Jesus has a heart for the least and the doves are for the poor. Remember when Mary and Joseph, if they bring Jesus the first time they bring the lamb to the temple, they don't have money for the sacrifice that's required for her cleansing.

[29:59] So if you gave birth, ladies, and depending on if you had a male or a female, it depends on how long you're unclean. At the end of that, you would come to the temple and you would bring a lamb to give an offering for your cleansing.

[30:11] But it says in Leviticus 12, verse 8, if you're not able, if she's not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two young turtle doves or two young pigeons, one for the burnt offering and one for a sin offering and the priest shall make an atonement for her and she shall be clean.

[30:25] Meaning what? Well, Mary and Joseph couldn't afford a lamb. They were poor. They could only bring doves. Mary and Joseph didn't have a lamb to bring, did they? Or did they?

[30:37] Little did they know they were bringing the lamb that day. But God's heart's always for the least. And so you see Jesus, he's not reacting, he's not flipping out, he's, there's a process, there's a purpose for this and it's to bring cleansing.

[30:51] There's an appropriate place for merchandise. There's a time for merchandise. There's an appropriate place for gain and the ministry's not it. The ministry's not it. Now we like our church merch, that's not what I'm talking about.

[31:04] Right? I'm talking about the ministry is not a place for our gain. The ministry is a place to serve. Jesus acted in authority here because of his relationship.

[31:14] Relationship. Relationship with who? It's his father's house. He's essentially saying, I am responsible to my father for what belongs to my father. This is my father's house and I'm answerable.

[31:25] Man, I like that. Because if Jesus is answerable to the father, to what belongs to the father, well in John 6, 39, he says, and this is the father's will which has sent me, that all of which he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

[31:42] That means he's responsible to the father for me because now I belong to him. And so we have seen here in this first half of the chapter, one side of the coin, where Jesus took something and converted it into something else.

[32:00] He made it something new, conversion. And here in the second half, we see cleansing, the other side of the coin. Because only a converted heart can be cleansed. As we looked at yesterday, guys, right?

[32:11] First John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Only a converted heart is able to be cleansed.

[32:23] Salvation is the process by which we are made right with God. Sanctification is the process by which we walk with God. First John 1, 9 is the process by which I walk with God.

[32:34] I walk with him clean. As we talked about yesterday, it's not about sinless perfection, but it's about living a life that's clean. And his disciples then, they remembered that it was written, the zeal of your house has eaten me up.

[32:49] And that's Psalm 69, verse 9, if you want to write that down. The disciples remembered. Now, John doesn't say they remembered this later on. He's telling us they remembered, which to me is pretty impressive that they would remember because you kind of can get the idea through the gospel sometime that these guys had a little, you know, they were the troubled kids and Jesus kept them close, right?

[33:13] But what we saw, even in chapter 1, was they knew their Bibles. Philip knew when he found Nathanael. He said, this is who Moses and the law spoke of. They knew their scripture. And here we see that the disciples knew the word.

[33:29] They recalled the word. You can't remember it if you don't first know it. But then they applied the word. They knew it. They recalled it. And they applied it. The word zeal means excitement, fervor.

[33:44] It also means jealousy. It's like, I am so, I have such a fervor for this thing. I'm so jealous about this. I don't want anyone else to have it. Eaten up means to consume or to devour.

[33:57] But it also has the idea of it forcibly, right? You know, it's 1130. Right now you're thinking about, huh, I wonder what I will eat and up for lunch. What should I consume and devour forcibly?

[34:10] So Jesus here, the disciples are remembering the scripture that the zeal, the excitement, the fervor, that Jesus was jealous over what was his father's. It consumed him, devoured him.

[34:21] It was something that he had a passion about. I think in Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 that it tells us to consider one another to love and good works.

[34:32] But it says to do that in a certain environment by not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, but exhorting one another and all the more as we see the day approaching. And I think if Jesus was consumed with a zeal for his father's house, man, how much then should I be consumed with a zeal for the body of his father's son?

[34:52] If Jesus was consumed for his father's house, I should be consumed with a zeal and a jealousy and a desire, but the body of his father's son, the body of Christ, the gathering of his people.

[35:07] And here we see our third principle that Jesus and his work in the world, his words reflect the father's heart and the father's word. I think sometimes we forget that.

[35:18] Oh, Jesus is upset. Oh, I don't know if I'm in good with God right now. Oh, it's the father's heart and it's the father's words. Remember, Jesus would say, hey, everything I say, I've heard the father speak.

[35:30] Jesus' words are always true, but they are sometimes very difficult. Very difficult. When Jesus challenges things that we consider normal. Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, Lord, we've always done it this way.

[35:42] This is how we make money in the church. The thermometer is there for a reason. Jesus' words are difficult when they challenge that which is familiar. God, I've never done it any other way.

[35:53] And you're asking me to do it some... Jesus' words are difficult when they challenge our expectations. Ouch. That's a tough one. It's difficult. It's difficult when something that seems so normal and so familiar to me, that's such a part of my life, and then I come to the word and the word absolutely challenges that.

[36:11] Guys, come out Saturday. We're going to be talking about the things in our minds, those strongholds, those high places, those things that set themselves up, it says, against the knowledge of God.

[36:22] God, here's God's word, here's what is normal, familiar, and expected of me that I expect in my mind, and God's word says, no, you can no longer hold that and be in alignment with God's word.

[36:33] Man, Jesus' words are difficult, but they're true. Just because something is familiar doesn't mean it's right. Then answered Jesus and said unto him, I mean, then answered the Jews to Jesus and said unto him, what signs you show us seeing you do these things?

[36:48] What are your credentials? Well, if they knew their scripture, they wouldn't have to ask for a sign, would they? The disciples knew the word. These guys didn't. Authority is not given by sign, by scripture.

[37:02] Jesus' authority does not come because of a sign. We just read it in John 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God. The same was in the beginning, and what does it tell us that the word did?

[37:15] In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Man, that gives Jesus authority. He is the word. He is the word of life. He's the one by which all things consist. He doesn't need to give a sign.

[37:29] And we know that Romans tells us faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Remember in Luke chapter 16 there, where Jesus is telling the story of Lazarus, the rich man, I mean, the rich man and Lazarus.

[37:44] Lazarus dies, and he goes into Abraham's bosom. They both go into Hades, the place of the dead, but one goes into Abraham's bosom, which is the place for those that are the redeemed, and one goes into hell, where there's torment.

[38:01] And Lazarus lifts up his eyes, and he can see what's going on. He sees, I mean, I keep saying Lazarus. The rich man lifts up his eyes, and he can see Lazarus and Abraham. And he wants them to go back and tell his brothers, to warn them so they will not end up in this place.

[38:17] And Abraham says, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And this is not, Abraham's not being flippant. It's like, well, no, he's saying, hey, they have Moses and the prophets. Do you understand what they have?

[38:28] Let them hear them. And he says, no, no, no, no, no. But if one rose from the dead, they will repent. Did that work? Even with Jesus, when he rose from the dead? The Pharisees knew.

[38:39] The chief priests knew he rose from the dead. There was no question. They said, let's hush that up because we don't believe. We don't care what the sign is because we won't believe the word. And he said unto him, Abraham did, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded.

[38:57] The one rose from the dead. No amount of signs will convert a heart. No amount of signs can convert someone's heart. It is the word that does.

[39:09] And Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple. You want a sign? I'll give you one. Destroy this temple. In three days, I'll raise it up again. In Matthew, Jesus will say that it is an adulterous generation that seeks after a sign.

[39:24] Adulterous generation is what? An unfaithful relationship. And there shall no sign be given it but the sign of the prophet Jonah, for his Jonah was three days and three nights in the heart of the whale's belly.

[39:36] So shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jesus is saying, I'll give you a sign because you seek one. And the sign was what? Resurrection.

[39:47] The proof of Jesus' authority is resurrection. If they had believed the word, they would have believed the resurrection. If they believed the resurrection, they would have believed who he was because he's going to tell us that he speaks concerning his body.

[40:04] The proof of Jesus' authority says you want a sign? It's the resurrection. It's that I am the life and I came out from among the dead. God's word is key to understanding the resurrection.

[40:16] The resurrection is key to understanding who Jesus is. Paul will write in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

[40:29] He was buried and three days later he rose again according to the scriptures. And then he will say, if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. You are yet in your sins. Why?

[40:40] Why is that the case? Because the wages of sin is what? Death. If one cannot overcome death, one cannot overcome sin. Jesus coming out from among the dead overcoming death shows to die no more shows, hey, death has no power over me.

[40:56] Therefore, sin has no power over me. And Paul will go on to say in 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 23, he says, every man after his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they are Christ that is coming.

[41:11] Firstfruits just mean the beginning of the harvest, the very first part that comes up before the main harvest. Then comes the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.

[41:22] So what comes first? Well, first Jesus, and afterward they that are Christ that is coming for the rest of his harvest, for us, for his promise that he fulfills in John 14. Then comes the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom of God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

[41:40] Well, that's what we're reading about in Revelation. Then comes the end when he puts down all authority and power. For he must reign till he's put all enemies under his feet. And that's Revelation 20.

[41:51] He will reign for a thousand years till all enemies are put under his feet. What is that last enemy? Death. Death. And as we're going to read about in Revelation 20, death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire.

[42:05] So in verse 15, remember, we said that to cleanse the heart, a new temple would be needed. Well, here Jesus is declaring that a new temple not made with hands will be established through his resurrection.

[42:19] But this temple, the temple of his body and of his resurrected life will not be based in the law or dead ritual, but in something brand new in a living spirit. Paul will tell us that we, by becoming part of Christ, we become part of that temple, part of that living thing.

[42:39] He says, you are no more strangers and foreigners in Ephesians 2, but fellow citizens with the saints and household of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also have built it together for habitation of God through the spirit.

[43:05] So just as Jesus, the first fruits of the harvest was raised, so shall we be raised. Just as Jesus, the first fruit of the harvest ascended to the Father, so shall we ascend to the Father.

[43:19] And our fourth principle of Jesus' work, Jesus' word is fulfilled to the max. Jesus said, destroy this temple and I'll raise it again in three days.

[43:32] Man, is it fulfilled in a way we would never have expected. In a way they didn't expect, he fulfills it to the max. He says, hey, that's my body we're talking about.

[43:43] And then said the Jews, 46 years was this temple and building and you're going to raise it back up in three days? God's word makes no sense without spiritual discernment.

[43:55] Makes no sense without spiritual discernment. We should never seek to understand God's word by natural means. It's just not going to work. What does that mean? Well, it means I can't take what's happening in my life and try to use that to interpret God's word.

[44:11] Example being, man, Jesus, I feel like someone with a small scourge is whipping my back. I feel like I've had a really tough week. I feel like you must not be very happy with me. You must not be pleased with me.

[44:22] I must not be right with you. I must, we're taking the natural and trying to bring understanding to God's word. We never seek to understand God's word by natural means. But we seek to understand what God's word means to our natural, right?

[44:37] I want to understand what God's word means to the situation I'm in. Man, this hard time I'm going through. What does God's word say? How can it speak to me in this situation?

[44:49] The word interprets the word. Verse 21, and he spake of the temple of his body. The word, the Bible just interpreted the word, Jesus, his words.

[45:03] Number five, Jesus, his word will be fulfilled no matter how improbable it may seem. That seems really improbable, Jesus, that you're going to destroy the temple and raise it up again in three days.

[45:14] That seems very improbable. Does my understanding of God's word prevent God's word from being fulfilled or lack of understanding? No, it does not.

[45:25] It does not. Peter tells us, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

[45:41] It wasn't like Jeremiah sat down and thought, you know, I don't got a lot of time right now. I'm going to write this really long thing and just give my own twist and interpretation on what's going on right now in Israel and in the world and in life.

[45:52] No, God gave him insights. And for Jeremiah, 90% of the time, everybody was against him. Everybody thought he was wrong. And yet he was in line with God's word.

[46:06] Second Timothy 2.15, Paul says that we should study to show ourselves approved under God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly understanding the word of truth. Does it say that? It doesn't.

[46:17] It says dividing. What does that mean? The word means to cut straight. Anybody here really bad at wrapping Christmas presents? I can't cut straight for nothing. You know, it's just all over the place.

[46:30] But to divide the word is to cut straight. And when I get to a part, I might not want to deal with and cut it straight because I have my own feelings and comfortability about that. I go, and I go around it.

[46:43] But to cut straight is, hey, when I hit that point, I got to cut straight. Even if it cuts here. Even if it cuts the heart. Even if it cuts through my understanding.

[46:54] We are to take heed to God's word. We're not to take liberties with it. We are to divide the word. We do not define the word. It already has a definition. Psalm 119, 104 says, Through thy precepts, I get understanding.

[47:12] When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them. Wow, that's a long time. We're talking about three years before they had what?

[47:24] Understanding. Did their lack of understanding prevent them from believing in Jesus, following Jesus, serving Jesus, and working with Jesus? No, it did not. They remembered that it was said, When he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

[47:49] The scripture, I believe, is Psalm 16, 10. You will not leave my soul in hell. Now that we suffer, your holy one, to see corruption. They believed the scripture and his word. Remember what a testimony is?

[48:02] Testimony is God's word plus my experience with God's word equals a testimony. Right? This is my testimony. What God's word and my experience, this is what God did in my life.

[48:14] Their experience was validated. The resurrection was validated, not because they experienced it, not because they saw it, but because of the words of scripture and the words of Jesus. They knew the scripture and they knew the words of Jesus and they believed him and they were then able to benefit from the understanding that came regarding the resurrection.

[48:36] But it did not come at this point, but it didn't keep them from believing. It didn't keep them from following. Look, I don't understand it all. I don't understand it all, especially the parts, you know, we've talked about this on Wednesday nights with Revelation.

[48:50] I mean, how's it all going to play out? It's the future. Until it happens, we don't exactly know. And judging from how badly they missed everything else, the account in scripture of how badly people have gotten prophecies, my guess is, it's not going to be exactly like we think.

[49:09] But just because I don't understand doesn't mean I can't believe, I can't follow, I can't trust, I can't obey, and I can't be used by Jesus in his work. But, it also means the best is yet to come and it's resurrection.

[49:25] The best is yet to come and it is resurrection. No matter how bad or how good it gets, no matter how effective we are in serving Jesus. We, man, all of the state of North Carolina, bam, they're all going to church and reading their Bibles.

[49:38] Woohoo! Well, they might be. But, really meaning to. They really want to. And they all come to Christ. And great, no matter how good it gets, no matter how bad it gets. a Jeremiah, nobody listens to you.

[49:50] You're all alone in your ministry. Seems like every relationship you have falls through. The best is yet to come. Paul writes in Titus, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

[50:08] 1 John 3, 3, and every man that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. The best is yet to come. And what does it do? What does it do when I look and say, Jesus, you are faithfully going to receive me as you promised.

[50:22] There will be a resurrection. I think, well, I want to be ready. Ready or not? I want to be ready. I want to be ready when Jesus shows up and says, hey, Jared, I want you to go over there and minister to that person.

[50:33] Hey, I want you to go over here because there's a cleansing that needs to happen. I want you to be part of it. Hey, some water needs to be turned into wine. You want to come and serve? The fellowship, no, I won't go there.

[50:43] But I want to be ready. I want to be ready for Jesus. I want to be looking for that blessed hope now and to come. And it has an effect in my life.

[50:56] I'm reading a book by C.S. Lewis on Psalms. Very interesting. I didn't even know he wrote one. C.S. Lewis is no biblicist by any account, but he is a man who loved God and understood many things and deep things and wrote and was a great apologist, a great defender of the faith.

[51:15] And he has some very interesting ideas he comes up with and some really good stuff, too. One of the things he talks about is this idea of heaven and hell and Israel at that time, the Jews writing the Psalms or the David or others, their viewpoint, that we from the church view things so differently because of what we know and understand.

[51:34] For them, it was much more terrestrial experience. But what he was pointing out was that heaven seemed to involve God. Heaven was his presence. Anything without that was not heaven.

[51:46] And he was saying how we have turned it into something that all of a sudden is like, well, it's a hope of something a little better than now. It's kind of like a little better circumstances than now. And hell is a place that, well, we don't really want to think about because it gives us nightmares.

[52:01] He said, when you read these psalm writers and you see their heart and what they're crying out for, they want God. God is heaven without him is hell.

[52:13] And he said that when you look at those who place God in their future and God is the hope of their future, they are the ones that most live in, a sense, the realm of heaven.

[52:26] And like I said, he's not a biblicist in that like, he's using a lot of analogy and hyperbole. But the idea of God being in our future, God being the hope of our future, greatly affects my presence, well, my present.

[52:41] So that those that know the word, those that believe the word and hope in the word, they are the ones who take part in conversion and in cleansing. And they are the ones that are part of the congregation, the congregation of God and the congregation of his promise.

[52:57] Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw miracles, which he did. And this is where he said, hey, many would believe this is wonderful, but what is their faith based in right here?

[53:09] It's a faith based in sight. They believed when they saw the miracles. John 12, we will see an account there that says, but though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believe not on him.

[53:27] But the saying of Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who has believed our report? Sight, our sight, it can help support our faith, a faith built upon the word, but sight can never be the basis for faith.

[53:40] Why? Because a faith based in sight will never see past experience. If my faith is based in sight, then the only thing I have is experience, and I've got to have another experience, and another one, and another one to validate my faith.

[53:53] Now, sight can support my faith based in God's word, right? As I see God's word played out, in a sense, in my life. Things that other people might look at, and go, that's just a coincidence, and I'm like, no way.

[54:05] I know the Lord because I've been in his word, and I know that this is just him at work. But if I try and do it the other way, and I come from sight, and I need to see something big, I need to see an experience, well, I'm always going to chase experience.

[54:17] It says, Jesus then did not commit himself unto them. Interesting. The word commit is literally the word believe. Verse 11, and verse 22, and verse 23, and the disciples believed in him.

[54:31] Jesus did not believe himself unto them. What does that mean? He didn't commit unto them. Because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.

[54:44] You see, Jesus essentially did not believe in man, because he knew what was in man. He didn't believe in them. He didn't believe in man's heart. Because man's heart, Jeremiah 17, 9 says, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

[54:58] Who can know it? I, the Lord, searched the heart. Essentially, God's saying, I know it. I try the reins even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.

[55:09] Jesus did not believe in man because he knew what was in man. He would not commit himself into the hands of men whose hearts had not been converted and cleansed.

[55:22] He says, no, no, I can't. I know what's in you. You need something new in you and I will gladly give it to you. Remember John 1, 9? What did it say? He was the true light which lights every man that comes into the world.

[55:34] In other words, Jesus knows everything about everybody. He's the one who lights him up. He knows there's no dark place. There's no hidden place. He knows. He knows what's in the heart of man.

[55:45] He shines that light in there and he says, ooh, that's kind of yucky. But if we will allow him to convert us and to cleanse us, he will shine a light into our hearts.

[55:57] For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to condemn us, to convince us we have to work really hard, no, to give, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[56:15] Our last principle of Jesus' work in this world, that Jesus who knows the heart of man, knows my heart, still chooses to use man, still chooses to use man.

[56:35] Are there times are there times where I, I should, I still need a scourge.

[56:47] I should be whipped. There are. There's times where I know, maybe nobody on the outside knows it, but in my heart, I know my heart needs a good whooping.

[57:01] But when I go to the Lord, I, he's not holding that little scourge anymore. What he does is he goes, hey, I took that.

[57:14] You don't need that anymore because I took that. And Jesus, he came not to seek man's approval. He didn't commit himself to man. He wasn't like, yes, let's ride this wave of popularity and we'll go and we'll take over the world.

[57:27] He didn't come to seek man's approval. He came to ensure that man might receive God's approval. And if Jesus wants to cleanse my life, after taking a much worse scourging than what he gave, man, he can come and he can cleanse this heart anytime he wants.

[57:45] Jesus knew what man was and what he would become. But first, the old temple, the body of sin, must be destroyed so that a new temple of the spirit might be raised up.

[58:04] And just as we saw the water into wine, Jesus took something ceremonial and of the law and he transformed it into something brand new. And here on the other side of the coin, we see Jesus once again taking something that was ceremonial and of the law, the temple, and declaring that in his body, he will make that temple something new, something we can take part of, but only after conversion and cleansing.

[58:31] Ephesians 4, 22 through 24 says that you put off concerning the former lifestyle, the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

[58:53] We can take part in something brand new. We can take part in something that Jesus did all the work of the conversion, he'll do all the work of the cleansing, and we can take part in that. We can put that on, as it were.

[59:05] And as we saw last week, we should invite Jesus into every situation. Why? Because he's coming ready or not, you might as well invite him in because he's going to come and he's going to work.

[59:17] Don't let him pass you by. Be a part of it. We saw that we were to await Jesus' timing because his timing and purposes can be trusted, even when we don't understand.

[59:28] We should do whatever Jesus says because his words reflect the heart of a father and the words of a father. As we said last week, we should obey to the max.

[59:40] Jesus' word is going to be fulfilled to the max. I want to be part of that. We should obey when all evidence is to the contrary because Jesus' word will be fulfilled no matter how improbable it may seem.

[59:58] And with Jesus, the best is yet to come, our resurrection. believing in Jesus has given us opportunity for working with Jesus, even though he knows my heart and still chooses to use me.

[60:13] Amazing. How do we do that? God has given us the new man. Jesus says, hey, my body has been, it rose. Death is conquered. Here it is, it's the new man of the spirit.

[60:25] Put it on. Put it on. Don't we talk about cutting straight? It's not that hard to stay straight. You just got to choose to do it. You are the light of the world. We were talking about this yesterday.

[60:36] He says, you are the light of the world. So let your light shine before men. Don't hide it. He doesn't say don't put it out. We can't put it out because the light's a different source. I'm not the source.

[60:47] Just don't hide it. That's not that hard. Just don't do that. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. How do I do that? I read the word. I believe the word.

[60:58] Even if I don't always understand the word. I obey Jesus. I follow Jesus. And one day like the disciples, so much more is going to make sense. And also one day like those apostles, I will be with him and see him face to face.

[61:15] And to me, I think that's worth any amount of maybe misunderstanding I might have of Jesus. Jesus took something that could not fulfill.

[61:27] He took something that was clean. It was good. But apart from him, it had no value or meaning. What is the temple apart from Jesus?

[61:38] What is this life and this body apart from Jesus? It has no value. It has no meaning. But when Jesus comes in and he brings conversion and he brings cleansing, then all of a sudden, all of that is at my disposal to take part in with him and have opportunity to be at work with him.

[61:55] God So as we finish chapter two and see the other side of the coin, sometimes Jesus' words and Jesus' behavior kind of like goes, whoo, what are you doing, Lord?

[62:06] But as he said to the apostles, are you going to leave because I kind of freaked you out right now? No, Lord, no. You have the words of life. I don't get anywhere else to go.

[62:18] I'll stick with you to the end. Father, thank you that your word is so true, so good, so powerful, and so deep, Lord, and yet so accessible.

[62:29] Thank you, Lord, that it's through the heart, Lord. We believe it's a heart that is converted, it's a heart that's cleansed, and then it's a heart that is completely at your disposal so that you can do your work in this world.

[62:49] Jesus, you have chosen to remove your physical body and now do your work through our physical bodies. Lord, you know what's in our hearts.

[63:01] You have shined your light in there. You are the light that lightens every man that comes into the world, and you have shined the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus into our hearts. You know what's in there. But, Lord, if we walk in the light as you are in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

[63:20] Lord, I pray that we would give you that opportunity now as we worship you, Lord, as we stand before you, Lord, we would let you do a work in our hearts, Lord. We would not shy away, Lord.

[63:33] You're not out to get us. You're not going to beat us down, Lord. You took all of that on yourself. Renew our hearts. Give us faith so that we might be your hands, your feet, doing your will in this world, even when we don't understand it, trusting that you know exactly what you're doing.

[63:51] We thank you, we love you, in Jesus' name. Amen. No amount of effort can change water to wine. Only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus can take something and turn it into something brand new.

[64:05] Maybe you need to be cleansed and maybe you need a part of Jesus' body to do that with you. Find someone to pray with, I would love to pray with you. I think that where Jesus said the zeal of the disciples, remember the zeal of his house has eaten him up.

[64:21] Thinking of Psalm 84 verse 2, says, My soul longs for you, yea, even faints for the courts of the Lord. Man, the courts of the Lord, they are clean, they are good.

[64:35] My heart and my flesh cries out for the living God. Be clean.

[64:47] Let Jesus make it new. Let him use you in this world. Sinless, perfect, no, but new and clean. Amen? May the Lord bless you and keep you.

[64:59]  May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and the Lord be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you.