Zeal for the Lord's House

Providence Baptist Church

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Will you turn in your Bibles tonight to John chapter 2.

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John chapter 2. Okay, here's the deal. We are going to get back into the

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Beatitudes. But personally, it's been kind of a busy week.

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So, and it's been a providentially busy week for Pastor Jacob as well.

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So we're going to look at something that's been on my heart. Now, I don't know what to call this, like, it is a sermon, certainly we are,

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I am going to be preaching the Word, but I don't know, it's kind of offering some devotional thoughts as well.

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This is, by the way, this is in our Bible reading, we're reading through John, and so it's not, it wasn't that long ago that I was reading through John chapter 2, and this verse that we're going to read tonight, it really stuck out to me, really stuck in my heart and in my mind, and it's just something that I want to give to you tonight as we consider zeal for the

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Lord's house. If you want to name the message, it will be zeal for the

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Lord's house, and I'm preaching to you from John chapter 2, and we'll begin in verse 13, but the focus of our sermon tonight will be verse 17.

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Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word? John chapter 2, beginning in verse 13.

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The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

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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 on the money changers and overturned their tables, and he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away.

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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.

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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this text. Help us to have a biblical understanding of our

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Lord Jesus. We pray tonight that you would speak to your church through your Word. Give us a holy and righteous zeal for your house, and we pray in Christ's name, amen.

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Now you can be seated. There's some things about Jesus in this text that maybe the average person in the

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Bible belt may not draw to their mind when they think about Jesus. Can you imagine this scene where Jesus is in the temple, and He doesn't say, hey guys, y 'all shouldn't be doing this,

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I'm going to have to ask you to leave now. The text says in verse 15 that He makes a whip of cords, and it says

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He drives them out of the temple. He, verse 15 as well,

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He pours out the coins of the money. Like here, these offering plates are sitting here by me.

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Let's imagine Jesus walking into a church, if you will, taking the offering and just dumping it out, right?

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Like He pours out the coins. He demands that the people leave.

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I wonder if they would have said, Jesus, this sounds a little judgmental, right? Today you can't tell anybody what the

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Bible says without them saying something like, you're judging me. Well, look at what

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He says in verse 16, take these things away. Do not make my

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Father's house a house of trade. Now I have several thoughts for us this evening.

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I didn't have time to really structure the sermon as well as I wanted and, you know, get your fancy alliterated points.

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But here's some thoughts that I have from the text that I want you to consider.

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The first is, Bible people are church people.

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I'm going to elaborate on this, but let that just stick in your mind for just a moment. Bible people are church people.

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If we love the Bible, if we love what God's Word has said, we're going to love the church.

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And I'll flesh this out later in the sermon, but one of the things I'll just draw your attention to is verse 17.

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Now, there's a little bit of disagreement, the first half it is. There's a little disagreement about what John really means here.

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But consider in verse 17, he says, his disciples remembered that it was written.

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Now the disagreement is, when did they remember it? Did they remember it as it was happening or did they remember it later and the

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Holy Spirit brought it to their mind? Martin Luther gives the idea that they remembered it right then.

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And so one thing to consider, it's in October, we can't disagree with Luther, right?

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The month of October, because Reformation month. That's a joke. But the idea here is they remember that it was written.

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You have it in your Bible. Where is this written? Well, it's from the Psalms. This is from a

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Psalm of David, Psalm 69 and verse 9. In other words, the disciples being acquainted with the

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Bible is how this was brought to their minds. Now, even if the

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Holy Spirit brought it to their minds, he used the natural means of them understanding the Bible. In other words, his disciples remembered the

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Scriptures. And there's a lot of application I could give there to you tonight, but let me just say some things to you.

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If we know the Bible well and if we love the Bible well, we're going to see the beauty of the church. We should teach the

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Bible well to our children. You say, I do family worship. I'm teaching the

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Bible to my children, my grandchildren. When my grandchildren come over, I teach the Bible. But I just don't see anything.

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I don't notice anything. I don't see any difference. Well, what about, what if I could tell you this?

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What would happen if you knew that in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, there was going to be a time in their life that the

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Holy Spirit's going to use something you did early on in their life and they're going to remember what the

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Scriptures say? Well, praise God. I just want to encourage you with that. That's kind of a secondary point to consider.

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But Bible people are church people. Now what I want to do is I want to break down the text.

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So the disciples remember that it was written. This is from Psalm 69, verse 9. Now I want to break down what that verse says.

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Zeal for your house will consume me. Now the word zeal, the

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Greek word for zeal is, I'll just read to you a lexical definition, to have a deep concern for or devotion to someone or something.

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To have a deep concern for or devotion to someone or something.

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In the Greek, this word can be used for something good or something bad. I'll illustrate it this way.

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We use zeal to mean usually something good. But if we want to use the same idea, the same concept of zeal, but to mean it in a negative way, maybe we would use the word obsession.

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Does that make sense? It's like if you say he is zealous for his work, that's a good thing, right?

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If you say he's obsessed with his work, well, we're saying that's a bad thing.

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But really we're saying the same concept, right? The same concept, to have a deep concern for or devotion to someone or something.

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Now in Christ, we know this is a holy zeal because Jesus is sinless.

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I think it's even okay to consider it an obsession for Jesus as long as we are confessing that this is a holy obsession.

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This is a righteous zeal. Jesus is righteously obsessed here.

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Now what does it mean that he's consumed? It says zeal for your house will consume me.

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Again, Jesus is sinless. Jesus is holy, perfectly.

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The word for consume is a strong word. It has the idea of being eaten up with something.

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We know people like this, they're consumed with whatever it may be. It just eats at them, eats at them, eats at them.

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In fact, the word is used in the idea of eating. Do you remember when Jesus in Matthew 13 gives the parable of the sower?

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That when there's certain seeds that are devoured by the birds of the air.

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You remember that? Okay, that word for devoured in Matthew 13, it's the same word here for consume.

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It's the same word. Zeal for your house devours me, eats me, consumes me.

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Jesus is saying, the text is saying here that Jesus is eaten up with, consumed with, devoured by zeal, obsession for God's house.

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This happens in other Gospels right before Jesus' death.

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Here's something you need to think about. Some of you, maybe you haven't even been aware of this before, but you should be.

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That is, in John's Gospel, this is unique because John records this event as happening early in Jesus' ministry.

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The other Gospel writers record this event as happening at the end of Jesus' ministry.

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Which is it? Actually, I agree with R .C. Sproul. I'll read what he says. He says, I think,

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I'm quoting R .C. Sproul, I think it did occur in the early part of his ministry, and I join many others in church history who believe that Jesus cleansed the temple twice.

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Have you considered that? That Jesus was so consumed with zeal for God's house that this event of cleansing the temple took place at the beginning of his ministry and again at the end of his ministry.

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But now we need to consider, what is God's house? Zeal for your house will consume me.

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What is God's house? Think about it for just a moment. In the text, I'm not asking you to go off here,

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I'm just saying, specifically in the text, what is being referred to? Zeal for God's house.

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What is it? Zeal for your house. What is God's house? It is here, the temple. Remember, this is the temple of Zerubbabel.

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We looked at that not too long ago when we were looking at Zechariah 4. The physical temple here that Jesus is in, that he's driving out the money changers, this is the rebuilt temple.

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And it is the physical temple where God manifests his presence in a special way, particularly in the

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Holy of Holies. And this is the place where God was to be worshipped by his people in a special way.

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That is, what is God doing in the world? God has always been about having a people for his own glory who love him, who serve him, who worship him, who obey him.

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The way that this was manifested in the Old Testament under the Mosaic concept, or under the

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Mosaic covenant, is the people of God would come to the temple and they would sacrifice.

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They would bring their sacrifices and they would worship God. Now, you understand what has happened here in John chapter 2.

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The religious leaders had made a complete... I know you have no concept... You've got no concept for this, right?

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Do you have any concept today for religious leaders making money off religion?

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You probably can't even imagine that, can you? Well, if you can just pretend for a moment, right? 2 ,000 years ago, religious leaders were using religion in order to make a profit.

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And they made the worship of God a mockery.

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They showed up to the temple to make a profit.

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They showed up to the temple with concern about carnality and the world and the things of this life and unconcerned about the glory and wonder of God.

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Again, I'll read from Sproul. He says, the truth we need to grasp from this incident is one that has almost completely vanished from the landscape of contemporary

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Christianity. It is the truth that God is particular about how

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He is to be approached in the sanctuary. Jesus said to His contemporaries, this is holy ground.

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This is a place for prayer. This is a place for adoration and worship. Take your animals, take your produce and go across the street.

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This is my Father's house. It is a serious thing to impede His worship.

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What we think about today in contemporary evangelicalism is I can worship God however

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I want. You've talked to people, maybe you've said it before. Maybe you've seen it on Facebook.

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I can worship God in the deer woods. I can worship God at the grocery store. I can worship God, and it's always said in that kind of country accent, right?

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I can worship God. I can worship God wherever I want, however

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I want. Now let me say this. First of all, the first part of that is true, right? You can worship

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God, and you must worship God. You ought to worship God tomorrow, at work, at home, with your children, wherever the case may be, we're worshiping

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God, right? Amen and amen. However, there is something different about the worship of God with the gathered body of Christ than there is worshiping by ourselves, and you cannot worship

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God in any way you want. God has given His people, and has always given

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His people, instructions about how He is to be worshiped. So He's referencing here, of course, to the temple.

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Now, in the passage itself, so let me push a little farther, Jesus also speaks of His own body as a temple.

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So keep going, verse 18. So the Jew said to Him, what sign do you show us for doing these things?

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Like who are you? Why do you have this authority? He takes a whip of cords and drives people out of the temple.

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So they're like, who are you that you can do these things? Give us a sign that shows us you have this authority.

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Verse 20, verse 21, or sorry, verse 19, we'll get there in a second. Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days

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I will raise it up. Of course, what are they thinking? They're like, you can't, you can't do that.

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Of course, verse 20, the Jews said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?

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Verse 21, but He was speaking about the temple of His body.

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This is the temple. But then, there's a further concept of the temple of God in the

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New Testament. We'll look at two passages. First Peter 2. Turn to First Peter 2 for a second.

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First Peter chapter 2. First Peter chapter 2.

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I like, I think it's appropriate. When I hear babies, this is a very good verse for that.

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Look at verse, chapter 2, First Peter 2, verse 2. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.

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If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Verse 4, as you come to Him, a living stone,

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Jesus is a living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious.

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Now look at verse 5, you yourselves like living stones.

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Now what does that mean? That we ourselves are like living stones being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

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What does Peter mean that we believers are living stones?

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He means we are the temple. Ephesians 2, go to Ephesians, you know where that book is.

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Ephesians 2. If you're like me, your Bible just falls open to Ephesians now. Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in verse 19.

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So Peter says you're like living stones. Paul says in verse 19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

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Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows, grows into what?

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Into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit. Friends, I'm telling you tonight that the temple is no more.

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It was destroyed in AD 70. The temple of Jesus' body was destroyed in AD 33 and then it was risen again on the third day.

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But that physical temple of the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, never to be a part of God's plan again because the temple that is being built today is the church.

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Now do not equate in your mind. This is the hardest concept, so let's be careful. So we're moving from a physical temple to an analogy here where I think some people mess up.

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So they think you're standing now, you're standing now in the temple of God.

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No I'm not. I'm standing with the temple of God, right?

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So we go out, you could touch the walls here, maybe you could jump and touch the ceiling, the floor, but we're not saying that this building here is the temple.

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You're not saying, okay, now there's all these physical temples now. No, no, no. We're saying the church, the people are the temple, the body of Christ.

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However, be careful because some people want to individualize it as well.

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So they want to run around and they want to say, I am the church. Well that's not entirely accurate either, right?

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No, you are in one sense, your body is the temple of God, Paul talks about that.

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However, however, you are one brick in the wall, as it were, of the temple.

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And the idea of the temple is to come together, right, to gather together.

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And it's when the church gathers together, that's when we show forth a more beautiful picture of the body, of the temple.

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The body of Christ manifests itself on the earth in visible geographical locations that we call local churches.

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Okay, next thought. The temple in our text, zeal for your house will consume me.

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The temple in our text is really an arrow pointing to the church.

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It points us to Christ and then it points us to something greater.

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So here's the idea here. If Jesus loves the temple, how much more does

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Jesus love what the temple points to? Let me give you an example. Stephanie took a picture this afternoon, it was so funny.

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Dude, you would not think something so little could yawn so big. But she took a picture of little Margie and a big yawn.

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It was like, oh, you know, I can't even do it because it's silly. It looks weird if I do it. But she does it, it's cute. So if I show you that picture, and if you say to me, that picture stinks, all right,

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I don't like you anymore, no, that will offend me. But it's just a picture, right?

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But it'll still offend me. But how much more offended am I going to be if you look at my little girl and you say, oh, yeah, and also not only does that picture stink, she stinks.

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You know, like, wait a second, it's even worse. So the idea is the picture is important, absolutely important, and this analogy breaks down in so many ways.

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But if you understand, if Jesus has a zeal for the temple, right, how much more of a zeal does he have for the church?

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Because the foundation here, the background here is the worship of God, right?

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And the New Testament teaches us, Ephesians 5, that Jesus gave himself for the church.

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How much did the zeal of Christ consume? How much did the zeal that Jesus had for God's house consume him?

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I could put it to you this way, not to be silly or funny about it. It literally consumed him to death.

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He went to the cross over his zeal for the worship of God.

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He died so that God would have pure worshipers cleansed from idolatry and false worship and sin.

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So here's the heart of what I'm getting at tonight. We see in John 2,

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Jesus' zeal for God's house. How much more zealous is

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Christ for his church? Because the church is

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God's house. And if Jesus is zealous for his church, why are

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Christians not more zealous for her than we are now?

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J .C. Ryle notes, the text before us shows that it sometimes is justifiable to be entirely absorbed and eaten up, so to speak, by zeal for some object in which

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God's glory is concerned. If our

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Lord is eaten up with zeal for the worship of God and for the temple of God in John 2, why are his people today not consumed, eaten up with zeal for the church?

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The place where we meet with God, the place where God's glory is manifested here in the world today, the place where the kingdom is and where the kingdom is furthering and expanding, if Christ is eaten alive by zeal for the worship and glory of God, let us today, those who follow him, have the same zeal for the church.

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Will there be anyone among us tonight with zeal for the house of God? In fact, let me just read to you so we're on the same page here.

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In 1 Timothy chapter 3, 1 Timothy chapter 3,

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Paul says in verse 15, if I delay, you may know, this is 1 Timothy 3, 15, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.

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Now, this is why this is such an important text. You may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living

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God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. In other words, when Paul talks about the household of God there, he's talking about the gathered church.

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He's actually talking about the local church because he walks through there about worship in chapter 2 and he walks through about leadership in chapter 3, overseers and deacons, elders and deacons.

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And so when he calls the church a household of God, he's not just talking about this amorphous blob, this invisible, you know, unknown blob, you know, whatever.

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No, no, he's talking about visible, local congregations are the household of God.

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And so the question I have tonight is, will there be anyone among us who has a holy zeal for the

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Lord's church? Will we be consumed, eaten up, obsessed with, over the state of the church?

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Richard Phillips notes of our text, Jesus shows us that godly people are passionate people, passionate for the things of God, passionate in their love of good and in their hatred of evil.

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Jesus hated what he found at the temple, employing all his great moral energy and cleansed it of impurity.

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Now some of you are more even keeled, you know, like, maybe it takes a lot to get you riled up as it were.

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But I wonder tonight if you're a passionate person, and I wonder tonight who among us will show a passion, not for the stock market, not for the world, not for sports, not for movies, not for music, not for politics, all these things today the church is fighting about, all these things today you go to, and I've been there, right?

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And I still, I love to watch a good Razorback game, right? It's been a few years since I've watched a really good one, right?

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But I love to watch a good game, I love to go, I love to cheer, I love those things. But you have people in the church today who will be passionate about that, passionate about politics, passionate about the state of the economy, passionate about what's going on in the

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Middle East, but there's no passion for the church. Now I understand I'm talking to the Sunday night crowd, right?

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Like, bro, we're here, it's Sunday night. I get it, I get it. I thank you, beloved, for your passion for the church.

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But let me ask you, who among us will have a zeal, a holy zeal for the local church?

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Who will keep beating this drum? Who will keep strumming this note?

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Who will keep giving it all for the sake of the church? Who will be like the Apostle Paul and carry a great anxiety for the church?

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And I could break this down in several ways. I'm going to, and then we'll conclude. But as we partake of the

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Lord's Supper tonight, I want you to think through these things. Do I have a zeal for the church?

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Look, I'm not talking about silly, inconsequential stuff. We get all kind of weird traditions and stuff sometimes, like, you know, well, you know what?

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Yeah, I preached, and next time the air will be set on 71 instead of 73.

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Like, I'm not talking about that stuff. Yes, there's a sense that we want to pick up and we want to clean up, and I'm just not talking about that.

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I'm not talking about sister so -and -so left trash out, or brother so -and -so left, you know, a mark in the floor with his shoe.

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All that stuff's important, sure, in its own right. I'm not talking about that.

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I'm talking about, do we care about what the church is?

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Let me break it down like this. Do we have a zeal tonight for the church's order?

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What I mean is, we're a Baptist church, and we believe that the church is to be made up of regenerate people.

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Do we have a zeal for that? Like, are we ready to guard the front door? Are we ready to say, hey, this is what it looks like to be a

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Christian, and this is what we believe that the church is, and the church is made up of those who are born again, and this is our stance.

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And we care about that, and we care about church discipline, and we care about church membership, and we care about the leadership of the church.

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We care about qualified men serving as elders. We care about qualified men serving as deacons.

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We have a zeal for the church, and this isn't just haphazard to us. This isn't secondary to us.

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This matters to us because we have a zeal for God's house.

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Secondly, will we have a zeal for the church's worship? Now, let's be careful here.

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I've written in verse 17, His disciples remember that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. You know how much

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Jesus cared about worship? Now, you better listen to the whole thing. Jesus cared so much about worship,

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He was willing to assault people over it. I'm just preaching the

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Bible, right? He was willing to chase people and, if necessary, physically accost them because of their rejection of the true worship of God, because they had made a mockery of the worship of God.

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Now, be careful. We're not going to appoint, you know, whippers here or whatever, right?

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I know there'd be some people in this church that would really want to be the person that drives out people, but we're not going to do that.

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However, we should be more consumed by right worship. Should we not seek to worship

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God as He has instructed? If we do something that's a little off in worship, I would hope that some of you would start coming up to me or to Pastor Jacob and say, hey,

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I don't know if we should have done that. Why? You say, is that my right? Should I do that? Yeah, if zeal for worship consumes you, right?

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Like, if you want pure and true and right and biblical worship, then we want to be a church that holds each other accountable in these things, and we want to worship

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God rightly. Why? Because zeal for the house of the Lord has consumed us, and we want to worship

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God as He has instructed. Should we not have a zeal for the purity of the church?

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Listen to what Augustine says. He says, Let the zeal of the house of God ever eat thee.

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For example, seest thou a brother running to the theater? Stop him, warn him, be grieved for him, if the zeal of God's house hath now eaten thee.

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Seest thou others running and wanting to drink themselves drunk? Stop whom thou canst. Hold whom thou canst.

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Frighten whom thou canst. Whom thou canst? Win in gentleness. Do not in any wise sit still and do nothing.

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In other words, what Augustine's saying is, he's saying, You care about the holiness of the church? You care about the purity of the church?

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Then if you see your brother or your sister doing something that they shouldn't do, why are you just sitting there?

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Why aren't you talking to them? Why aren't you going to them? Why aren't you having a conversation?

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Well, it's hard. Yeah, it is hard, but let me ask you, what consumes you more? Does it consume you more, the coothness, is that a word, of our

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Bible -belt culture, like southern politeness? Is that what consumes you more, or does zeal for the church consume you?

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Will we have a zeal tonight for the purity of the church? Do we not care tonight about a pure church?

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Who among us will have a zeal for the holiness of the church? The order of the church, the worship of the church, the purity of the church?

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Fourthly, will we not have a zeal for the church's doctrine? Isn't it a travesty tonight, how little doctrine so many professing

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Christians know? Friends, who among us will have a zeal for truth? Some of you, listen to me here,

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I'm telling you pastorally, lovingly, and I know I'm talking to the Sunday night crowd, so listen carefully. Some of you are not as far along in the truth, in sound doctrine, as you need to be.

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Now here's how you need to respond to that. Don't get mad that one of your pastors said that.

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Instead, humble yourselves before the Lord and say, you know what, honestly, that's true.

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I don't know enough about sound doctrine as I ought to at this point in my

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Christian walk, and here's my resolve. I'm going to have a zeal for the doctrine of the church.

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That make sense? Like you can listen to that and you can just get mad, you're just like, well, he doesn't know, and then you can just not study and not care and get mad.

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But that's not the response. The response is you have pastors here who love you, who are encouraging you and exhorting you and telling you, let us be people with a zeal for the doctrine of the church.

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Who among us will have a zeal for truth? A zeal for sound doctrine?

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Who will have a holy zeal tonight for sound theology? Who will have a righteous passion for the truth?

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To read the truth. To study the truth. To humbly sit under the truth. To have the truth affect our hearts and our minds and our lives and everything about us.

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A zeal for the church. Order, worship, purity, doctrine, fifthly, mission. I know

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I'm running out of time, but I need to say this. Will we have a zeal for the mission of the church?

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This breaks my heart. I've failed at this in my own life. Do we not love the gospel?

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Is the gospel something we have just bottled up, sat on our nightstands, and if we need it, we'll take a little before bed?

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Or has the gospel affected everything about us?

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And have we understood that the hope for Perryville, the hope for the nations, the hope for the area that God has placed us in is the gospel?

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Who among us will have a holy zeal for the mission of the church? A holy zeal to take the gospel to the nations?

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Listen to me. There are 10 ,000 people in our county. I haven't counted them all, but I'm just taking the number that is given.

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There's 10 ,200 people in our county, and we live in a county, and I think we live, honestly, is this a little arrogant?

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I think we live in one of the best counties in the world. I'm so grateful for the county we live in. And we do, and I think this is probably more objective.

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Now, that was subjective. This is more objective. We live in one of the most church inundated counties in the world.

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No, the universe, right? Listen, we have churches everywhere in this county.

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You go here, there's a church. You go there, there's a church. You turn the corner, there's a church. There's a First Baptist Church, a

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Second Baptist Church. Well, not anymore. There's a Providence Baptist Church, right? But you get the point. There's this church that's split from that church, and now there's that church, and there's these churches over here, and that church over there in a county of 10 ,000 people.

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And so the question is, there are churches everywhere. There are church buildings everywhere, at least. Where is the zeal for gospel mission in this county?

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Where is the evangelism in this county? Where are those who are hungry to take the gospel?

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Or would we say, have we conquered even this little place in the world? Like, is Perry County the one place in the world that we could raise up the banner and say, every person here follows

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Jesus? Of course not. What are churches doing? What are we doing if we have lost a zeal for the mission of the church?

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Where is the holy zeal of the people of God for the mission of God? Friends, we must not drop this banner.

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Christ is worthy to be proclaimed. And I understand, I understand.

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And do not take this as me rebuking anyone in the church, in this church.

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I do think there are some pastors that need to be rebuked. Like, let's lead your people in evangelism.

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But what I would want to say to this church is you need to remember those of us who are going out with the gospel.

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You need to remember us in prayer. Not all of you can go. I understand that you're providentially hindered.

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I understand. But for those of us who are going and who are taking the gospel, we desperately depend on you to hold the rope, as it were, to pray for us, to lift us up, to encourage us.

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Yesterday was encouraging in many ways, but we also were met with some discouraging things. So take it upon yourself to say, you know what?

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They probably don't. They're just so zealous for evangelism. They don't need my encouragement. Now, I'm not asking for you personally to come and encourage me in evangelism.

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That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying, remember this. These brothers here who have been so faithful in evangelism,

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I'm just pleading with you. Encourage them. Tell them thank you. Tell them keep going. Tell them you're praying for them.

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Because we need the church to have a zeal for the mission of God. And then finally,

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I'll say this and then we'll close. And this will lead us to the Lord's table. If we have a zeal for the house of the

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Lord, again, this is so much more of a topical message. But I want to say that we ought to have a zeal for grace.

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We ought to be the least offendable people. I'm going to say that again.

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We ought to be the least offendable people. We ought to be the least complaining people.

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We ought to have a zeal for the grace of God. I'm going to use an illustration with Stephanie and myself.

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It's kind of, I haven't talked to her about it, so it's borderline if you should do this from the pulpit or not. But I've known my wife for a long time.

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We've been married 17 years, so I think it's okay. But there were some things after the birth of Margie that frustrated us, you know, with hospital stuff or whatever.

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You know, these things, you know, with our own children, like, come on, guys, we're a little bit, you know, tired, focused on the baby.

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Can you, you know, pick up maybe your dirty underwear? Like, come on. And one of the things that Steph and I talked about, and we just kind of had to walk back, and we just said, you know what, a few months ago, and we haven't really shared this very publicly.

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I'll share it now. A few months ago, we went to an ER visit in really terrible bedside manner.

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But the ER doctor basically walked in and told Steph, yeah, it's 50 -50 on the baby. And we're like, what?

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You know, like, we had no idea. And she was just like, yeah, 50 -50. And was very kind of cold about it.

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And so I walked it, you know, we walked it back the other day, and we're just like, right now, everything else doesn't matter.

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Margie's here. The floor might be dirty. The doctor, the pediatrician may have said something, you know, what

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I think was a little boneheaded. Whatever. Margie's here. We have nothing to complain about.

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Even more so to the Christian and the grace of God. You've got nothing to complain about.

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God has been gracious to you. And if we're zealous for grace, we ought to be zealous for grace in one another's life.

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It's one thing to be zealous for God's grace in your life. It's another to be zealous to be gracious towards others.

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And I'm saying those who have a zeal for the house of the Lord ought to be zealous for grace, not just in your own life, but in one another's life.

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And so that brings us to the table tonight. Tonight, we come to a table of grace. This is a table of grace.

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But listen to me. I want to be careful. I want to balance this very well. This is a table of grace.

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It's not a table of licentiousness. Do you understand the difference? It's not, oh,

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I've sinned, I've sinned, I've sinned, I come to the table and I leave and I sin and I sin and I sin.

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No, no. If anything that I've said tonight that has been biblical and true has convicted your heart, then what you need to do tonight is to examine yourself.

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And you need to take it to the Lord. What you don't need to do, though, is say, you know, well,

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I'm not worthy tonight. And so I'm just not going to repent. And maybe in a few weeks, next time we take the

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Lord's Supper, then I'll be worthy. No, for number one, you're not worthy tonight.

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I say to that, amen. You're not. But the grace of God invites those who are unworthy.

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Now, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't partake of the, that we should partake of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. But if you understand your unworthiness tonight, then here's what you do.

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You repent, repent, take it to the Lord. Say, you know what?

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I have realized that I've allowed zeal for other things to consume me and not zeal for the church.

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So repent and take those to the Lord and be reminded again of the grace of God at this table.

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The only kind of people invited to the table are sinners. But these are repentant sinners.

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So examine yourself, consider these truths, repent and come and let's eat together.

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Let me pray and then let's sing one verse of a song, Gunnar, of your choice.

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Father, we thank you for tonight. And we thank you for the opportunity that we have to hear your word in this country.