Last Sunday night we looked at the condition of the Temple and discovered the doors and been broken down according to 2 Chronicles 29:3. Relating this to our lives, we are the temple of the living God if we are believers. It is a real possibility for us, through disrepair, to allow a thief to break in and steal from us physically, spiritually and or emotionally if we do not guard our heart, eyes and ears. And when the doors have been broken, the enemy can come in during his leisure killings, stealing and destroying.
Say this with me…My Body is the Temple of the Living God…I am going to maintain my doors for Him.
Tonight I want to continue to look at the next problem which can come up and cause havoc in and through our lives. In 2 Chronicles 29:5 it reads, Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves and consecrate the temple of the Lord, the God of your fathers. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary.
I. Filth accumulates when left unattained.
The writer points out that rubbish, defilement, had filled the Temple as a result of neglect. How many of you have notice there is no such thing as a self cleaning house? How many wish there was? For a house to stay clean, you have to work, put effort, elbow grease into it. You also need a desire to keep it clean or things will get out of control. A house filled wit garbage gets that was as a result of neglect.
In the King James, they use the word filthiness. The Hebrew word used here means rejection. How many of you want to live in rejection? Rejection has plagued our society. Where there is rejection you will always reach out to meet a need. Rejection is the main cause of immorality. When you have an area where you feel rejected, you will always reach out to something or someone else to fill that area of rejection, and in so many cases this is done through immorality. You might feel rejected in your acceptance by others, so you reach out to fill that area through someone who seems to say they accept you though it ends up in immorality. Are you with me? When you do this, it opens up a wrong door in your life.
In Chronicles, the Temple has been filled with rubbish, it has been defiled, and the rubbish has to go, the Temple needs to be cleaned out. Look at verse 6, Our fathers were unfaithful, they did evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and forsook him. They turned their faces away from the Lord’s dwelling place and turned their backs on him.
II. Not every Model is a good role model.
The writer points out our Fathers had trespassed, they had been unfaithful. In the modern English it means they have gone somewhere they were not allowed, that they have covered up. In another area we lived, the hospital would ask pregnant mothers if the father was a relative because incest was far too common. There are too many people who carry the scars of a father who has gone somewhere he should not have gone. Every 2 seconds in America a child is sexually abused. Over 3 million teenagers every year are sexually abused. The number one killer of children under 5 according to a medical book on pediatrics is not some disease, it is parents. Those five children killed by their mother this past week speaks to the horrors some children might face going home after school. It is tragic.
Here we read of fathers who have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of God. They have gone where they should not have and as a result brought corruption into the temple. Now it is not just the father who has brought wrong things into the temple, he has also brought them into the temple of the child. Studies have shown the sins of the father are carried out in the lives of their children. Many adults who do wrong today were victimized as children. Something happened in their childhood years that birthed a seed of corruption in their lives bearing rotten fruit when they attain adulthood.
Look at verse 7 They also shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel.
III. An unclean Temple will close out God.
They had shut the doors, they had closed out God. The Hebrew for shut means surrendered and the word door means tongue. They had surrendered their tongue to an alien language. If the devil can get you talking wrong he will. There is a pervasive language out there alien to God. A lot of the music out there seems to swim in the sewer. You walk down the street and people use as a regular part of their vocabulary, almost every sentence, a word which describes a sexual act. Would it be great to institute some good old fashion soap washing? How many of you know if they did, owning stock in Dove or Ivory Soap would make you rich. They would not be able to produce enough soap just for the people who use this type of language in the movies.
When people have a potty mouth, they surrender their tongue to something other than to God. When we say what the world is saying, with the carnality, with the philosophy, with the believes, when we align ourselves with what the world is saying, we are in effect surrendering our tongue to an alien force and that force then has the right to rule over us. And here in Chronicles, we see they have shut the doors and allowed that process to happen. It also tells us some other details.
IV. When you surrender your mouth, you lose your true fire.
Verse 7 states their fire went out. The moment you surrender your mouth to wrong living, the fire of God goes out. I won’t ask for a show of hands, some of you know what I am talking about. You cannot cuss a blue streak and say in the same breath how close you are to God. You can’t be driving down the road at 50, have some grandmother pull out in front of you at 10, be hurling profanities at her as you slam on your brakes and then say, “Isn’t God good. Thank-you Jesus.” Why? Because something cold douses your fire. The devil wants to pour water on the flame of God that is bringing within you.
The lamp in the Temple is the only source of light. We see today so many Christians walking around without fire, they have no zeal in their lives because their lamp has gone out. 1 John 1:6 says If we claim to have fellowship with Him, but walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. John 3:20 everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
There are far too many Christians today who look back and remember when the fire burned. Tonight God can relight the flame.
V. A broken down temple lacks the aroma of God.
Verse 7 said they have not burned the incense which means the aroma of God had dissipated. For those who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s you might remember going into some places where incense was burning and the smell was so strong, sometimes sickening. When someone lit incense, it permeated everything, it filled the whole house.
How many of you noticed the stench of the world is an affront to God? Listen, the aroma of Jesus is stronger than the stench of this world, but the incense needs to be burning for it to make a difference. When you walk around, people should be able to smell the aroma of Jesus on you. 2 Corinthians 2:15 Foe we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death, to the other an aroma from life to life.
Let me show you something. Turn to 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 and look at this with me in the NIV. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death, to the other, the fragrance of life.
Paul is giving praise to God and he abruptly explains something here. The triumphal procession Paul is speaking of is a victory parade the Romans had where they would march as the victors and bring with them in the same parade some of the people they had captured. Everyone along the route could smell the aroma of spices which were burning to accompany those in the parade. This aroma meant something different to two groups of people in the parade. If you were the captive, it was the smell of death, and if you were the victor, it was the smell of life. The Bible says to those who are believers, we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus so we should therefore have the smell of life around us, the fragrance of Jesus.
It is time to re-ignite the incense don’t you think?
VI. Disrepair leads to loss of sacrifice.
Verse 7 said there was no longer any more burned offerings. Temple sacrifice had ceased. What about today? Have Christians lost their desire for sacrifice? Remember when you first became a Christian, how radical you were. I only get to go to church once a week? I want wait for Sunday night, morning and evening. I can’t wait for Wednesday night. I can’t wait for special meetings and whenever the doors of the church are open. Remember. Remember how you wished the church had more going on. When you first got saved you were the first one there, waiting for the pastor to unlock the doors so you could make sure you had the front pew not the back row. You wanted to be right there, in the fire, roasting for Jesus. But little by little, the flame started to die. The aroma wafted away. Now it is, “Well…I have GOT to go to church…it is expected of me…but inside I don’t really feel like it…we have to hurry to get the kids ready…what a chore…” The joy of the sacrifice is gone. In the world system we hear TGIF, Thank God its Friday because the world wants to party. When is the last time you heart TGIS, Thank God its Sunday, we get to go to church. We get to praise God. Sacrifice. Where is that sacrifice in the church for the most part? The writer says the sacrifice is gone, the temple is in ruin, the desire has fleeted away.
When you were first saved you hung out at every opportunity at the Christian bookstore. So much so, they knew you on a first name basis. You didn’t want one Bible, you wanted three or four translations. You bought some of those large multi-translations and needed help getting your Bible into church. People, its time to get back to the area of sacrifice, to get the presence of the Lord back.
VII. A broken temple ushers in fear.
Verse 8, Therefore the anger of the Lord has fallen on Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of dread and horror and scorn, as you can see with your own eyes.
With your own eyes have you seen people who are filled with fear, trouble and agitation? I am talking about Christian people not just those in the world. When you who are right in your Temple just look at them, conviction covers their faces. We are dealing with a post-modern generation which has abandoned their faith. We are in a society that is agitated, irritated. We have fancy words for it like Road Rage, or going postal. When your temple is broken down, fear is a natural outflow and inflow.
VIII. Rubbish in the Temple leads to disrespect.
Vs. 8 states the temple ceremony had become an object of scorn and jeering, our worship service. Recently in the news a local church was losing its pastor because he openly admitted he was gay. The congregation was in arms wanting to keep him despite what the denomination had said. Out numbered by the denomination, one woman in the news clip said this was a Biblical case of David and Goliath, that the denomination will eventually be defeated with its old rules. What we are seeing today is there is no fear concerning the glory of God. In the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, when the people were in tune with God, the nations trembled when they came walking in their direction. Where is the trembling today, or does the world laugh and scoff at us because they have no fear of what God can and will do?
Listen, there is a church coming forth that is going to walk in the power and the glory of God and the world is going to tremble again. But when the church walks in compromise, it because the laughing stock of the world. The only way to turn it around is to get right with God. Judgment begins in the house of God. God will not judge the world until he has first judged His own, it is time to get right, there is no sacrifice too great. God is getting ready to resurrect His church which has appeared to be dead. There is a supernatural move of God coming to those who have been in the holy place of God and they are preparing to walk out into the world, and the walls which people thought had been erected all around to keep God out are going to come tumbling down just as the walls of Jericho had their final day. It happens when we march forward in the name of the Lord, and that day can begin right now.
When we take a stand for righteousness, a stand for God, there will be those who will mock, both inside and outside the church, but I want you to know that I have been brought for such a time as this and so have you, to repair the gates of the Temple, and to have God move with us in power for His purpose, to advance His Kingdom. The time is now.
Listen, we may not see it but God is releasing His spiritual weapons for battle in this city. The house is approaching and God is going to make a sound across this land to show that He is the Lord God and there is no other.
Look quickly at verse 9 This is why our fathers have fallen by the sword and why our sons and daughters and our wives are in captivity. The world is trying to kill the family, fathers are falling by the sword and the radical voices of antichrist have made their way into the educational systems of our land to teach their sinful ways. It is time to rise a voice to save the family. God is looking for men and women who are willing to take a stand for this next generation. Look at verse 15-17, it is time to be proactive. When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify the temple of the Lord, as the king had ordered, following the word of the Lord. The priests went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord. The Levities took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley. They began the consecration on the first day of the first month and by the eighth day they reached the portico of the Lord. For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the Lord itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.
They went into the cleaning process to invite God in as King. When the king comes into your life, he never comes empty handed, Jesus came in with his bags packed. This is why worship is important, because it invites the king and the priests to come in.
How many of you have hit a roadblock in your faith and you need the trash out, the fire re-ignited, the sacrifice to flow again? Only Jesus can make that happen because He brings refreshing living water when He comes.
They took the garbage to the brook. The Brook Kidron beings in the north of Jerusalem, sweeps past the Temple mount, past what was to be Gatheseme, past what became Calvary, plunging down the bare terraces and cliffs of the Judean wilderness, the wilderness they released the scapegoat in. It was so barren and blistered and so furnace like that it took the name Wadi N R, or the river rotten of fire. I hope you catch it. Finally, the brook empties into the dead sea where its contents empty into that sea of death.
No matter what the condition of your Temple, no matter how close or far you feel from God, if you will just begin to worship Him, He inhabits the praises of His people. We can become like the Levites who literally carried the corruption, the defilement of our lives, to the Brook Kidron where it does past Gathesmene where Jesus labored submitting to the will of God, and then past Calvary where Jesus paid the price and has the right to come into your life because of the price He paid on the Cross. You sins go past Calvary and wash down the valley of the scapegoat and Jesus is that scapegoat without spot or blemish, and Kidron flows into the valley of fire. Jesus went to hell for you do you would not have to go there and the water empties into the dead sea where old things pass away and all things become new, a new Temple because God has cleaned the out one out and sent it away.
Tonight, you might be here needing someone to agree in prayer with you as you start that process and let the river flow, either for the first time, or you ask God to rekindle the flame.
Altar time
