The King and the Temple

Announcements

Return to normal services, Wednesday (1/8), Sunday morning and evening (1/12)

Final Wednesday is Calendaring (1/29)

Call to Worship

Philippians 2:5–11 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Introduction

When you look at America today you see churches everywhere. We have not shortages in this country of people, money, institutions.

The question is what are we relying on, while we have the stuff we put our trust is our stuff not in the Spirit of God.

I see no reason why America is not evangelized. We have everything we materially need. According to the SBC, our denomination has planted over 11,000 churches in North America since 2010, yet we haven't seen that impact.

This year is the year I’m reading a lot of Spurgeon, I want to see how he thinks and one of the biographers I’m reading when speaking of the age that Spurgeon was born into was a throughly Christianized British Empire which was forgetting her faith.

Society had been changing, simple life was giving way to extreme technological advancement. People were moving en-mass to the cities for jobs, people were moving all over the globe. So As I read this I can’t help but think about us today. America is in the same place. Things are changing rapidly, technology is on the cusp of AI that we can’t imagine, cars in our very town are driving themselves around you and you may not even know it. You may feel poor, but as an American you are very wealthy. It’s all so easy, we live in a gilded age.

Our wealth, and growth has made us trust in our things but not in the thing that matters.

Spurgeon tried to remind his parishioners that they had to trust in the Spirit of God. In this year and going forward we must reliy on the Holy Spirit

The Bible warns of those that don’t in this message basically for us.

Revelation 3:14–22 NKJV

14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’ ”

The water in that area was known for bing room temperature and not very good for drinking.

I don’t know about you, but I love a good fresh steak right off the grill. The heat causes the fat to melt, the heat is great in the mouth, the warmth makes it fun to chew, the proximty to it give you a warmth that you can even feel in the belly. The smell off of it is like no other!

I really don’t like room tempture steak. I’ll eat it, but the joy of it being off the grill is gone. It produces no smell, it gains the chewiness of rubber, because the heat cooks it until it’s fully dispensed. The joy of a hot steak is gone.

We by trusting in our own hands, our own minds, our own sweat, have become room temperature. The pleasant aroma that the Lord calls us to be fades, the strength of our faith becomes like rubber, and we like rubber bend at the slightest push. That which is made with men’s hand fails and fades, but that which God has made shall last.

Text

Mark 13:1–4 NKJV

1 Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” 2 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” 3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?”

Big Idea:

Marvel at Christ, draw on Christ, not at the works of man.

Point 1

This comes from the background

Chapter 12 JEsus just spent all day teaching in the temple and as they’re leaving everyone forgets what he just said when seeing the temple.

Want to waste your time at church? It’s real easy to do. I can put you to sleep but you can do it yourself!

Imagine being taken in by the stadium and missing half the game!

Application: 4 ways to make the most out of Preaching

The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings (Chapter 3: Receiving the Preached Word)

1. Listen with an understanding, tender conscience.

Jesus’ parable of the sower (Matt. 13:3–23; Mark 4:1–20; Luke 8:4–15) presents us with four types of listeners, all of whom hear the same word:

• The stony-hearted, superficial listener. This listener is like a hard path. The sower’s seed, or the Word of God, makes little impression on this hard heart. The gospel does not penetrate this listener, and the law does not frighten him. A minister could preach through all the Ten Commandments, addressing the needs and sins of the people, but the stony listener shrugs it off. If a minister addresses this person’s conscience, this hardened heart shifts the blame to others. He seldom changes his life because of conviction from the Word of God. He does not take preaching to heart.

• The easily impressed but resistant listener. Some seed falls on rocky ground. A plant begins to spring up from this seed, but it soon withers and dies because it lacks sufficient nutrients. The plant cannot survive because it cannot grow roots among the rocks. Jesus presents here a listener that seems initially to listen well to the Word. This listener would like to add religion to his life, but he does not want to hear about the kind of radical discipleship that involves self-denial, taking up his cross, and following Christ. Thus, when persecution comes, this listener fails to live out the gospel in practical ways. He wants to be friends with the world, the church, and with God. Like Israel, this listener does not respond to God’s Word when challenged to choose: “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word” (1 Kings 18:21). As listeners, we cannot have God and the world; friendship with the world is enmity against God. We must make a choice.

• The half-hearted, distracted listener. Some of the seed of God’s Word falls in thorn-ridden soil. As Luke 8:14 says, “And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.” This kind of listener tries to absorb the Word of God with one ear while thinking with the other about business, interest rates, pension funds, and inflation. He only serves God partially. The Word of God is quickly choked by the thorns.

• The understanding, fruitful listener. Some of God’s seed falls on rich, fertile soil. Jesus says this listener hears and understands God’s Word (Matt. 13:23). Just as a seed quickly takes root in fertile soil, so the truth of God implants itself into this listener’s eager heart. As a plant springs up, growing deep roots and showing healthy leaves, the Word of God is deeply integrated into this listener’s life, family, business, relationships, and conduct. With the help of the Holy Spirit, this listener applies the gospel teaching he hears on Sunday to his life throughout the week. He believes with his heart that if Jesus Christ has sacrificed everything for him, nothing is too difficult to surrender in grateful obedience to Christ. Before all else, he seeks the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33). Grace reigns in his heart. He brings forth fruit, “some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matt. 13:23).

The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings (Chapter 3: Receiving the Preached Word)

2. Listen attentively to the preached Word.

Luke 19:48 describes people who were very attentive to Christ. Literally translated, the text says, “they hung upon him, hearing.” Lydia showed such an open heart when she “attended” or “turned her mind” to the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16:14). Such attentiveness involves banishing wandering thoughts, dullness of mind, and drowsiness (Matt. 13:25). It regards a sermon as a matter of life and death (Deut. 32:47).

We must not listen to sermons as spectators but as participants. The minister should not be the only one working. Good listening is hard work; it involves worshiping God continuously. An attentive listener responds quickly—whether with repentance, resolution, determination, or praise—and God is honored in this. As Proverbs 18:15 says, “The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.” The verbs used here refer to energetic, mental action.

Too many people come to church expecting to be spoon-fed.

A good question to ask is “how does God want me to grow after hearing thsi sermon?

3. Listen with Submissive faith

James 1:21 (ESV)

21.... receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

HJear the word with the expactation that you will be changed by it.

We believe faitbh is a gift, but that gift only comes from hearing. If you listen to preaching without faith, it’s like taking medcine with out the ingredieants that actually make you better!

So listen with faith!

Puritan Thomas Manton said this:

The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings Chapter 3: Receiving the Preached Word

“The whole Word is the object of faith,” wrote Thomas Manton. Therefore we need “faith in the histories, for our warning and caution; faith in the doctrines, to increase our reverence and admiration; faith in the threatenings, for our humiliation; faith in the precepts, for our subjection; and faith in the promises, for our consolation. They all have their use: the histories to make us wary and cautious; the doctrines to enlighten us with a true sense of God’s nature and will; the precepts to direct us, and to try and regulate our obedience; the promises to cheer and comfort us; the threatenings to terrify us, to run anew to Christ, to bless God for our escape, and to add spurs to our duty.”

4. Listen with serious Self-examination and humility

Want to drive your doctor, dentist, accountant, attorney, and pastor crazy? Don’t take their advice seriously. If you doctor told you that your child was sick with some disease would you blow them off?

When you hear God’s word preached, How do you respond?

Isaiah 66:2 ESV

2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

Do you look to his word? do you listen to his precepts? Do you want to grow as a Christian?

The world says love me as I am, the Christian says I am being made new.

Listen to his word, truly look at your life in light of what is shared and see does it comport to the word, and be willing to change.

About the Final Judgment

Point 2 - Judaism had run out

Mark 13:1 ESV

1 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”

So Jesus had just finished teaching in the temple and the disciples leaving the building were taken in by it’s grandness

Jesus had said

Wine skins

The prophecies

Micah 3:9–12 NKJV

9 Now hear this, You heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And pervert all equity, 10 Who build up Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with iniquity: 11 Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.” 12 Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest.

The system of Judaism had run it’s course. Any attempt to reach out to God through the works of that system, which never accomplished salvation anyway had run out.

Romans 9:30–33 NKJV

30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

They have because as Paul said they made it works of the hands not of faith. Thjey trusted in the beauty of the temple and the works of the priests not in God.

We are going to see next week how God ends the Old Covenant. He destroys the temple and the people of Israel experince a great judgment

Application: (Use 3 fold system if needed)

How ot not Get taken in by the temples

You must not trust on your own means.

This is temporary How you live is what is important. Peter heard this first hand and he said this in his Epistle

2 Peter 3:10–13 ESV

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

How quickly we trust the world but not Christ. Are you quick to look around you and feel secure? (Use counsel situation with daughter and boat)

2)Don’t get distracted

Sometimes we see the beautys of this world, the great temples and get taken in by them instead of by Christ. You see this all the time, Jesus warne about this with the seed among the thorns.

You ever meet a man or women who acted a Christian, but then got taken in by all the4 pressures of the world?

This is why i never trust a Hollywood or Athlete profession right away. I pray for them, ask God to protect them and then I wait and watch.

Puritan Brooks said this

The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1 Device (1)

. The world, siren-like, it sings us and sinks us; it kisses us, and betrays us, like Judas; it kisses us and smites us under the fifth rib, like Joab. The honours, splendour, and all the glory of this world, are but sweet poisons, that will much endanger us, if they do not eternally destroy us.3 Ah! the multitude of souls that have surfeited of these sweet baits and died for ever.

A few ways to not get taken in

3) Focus on how powerless the world is.

You can have all the riches in the world and still receive a cancer diagnosis. The frogs during the plagues of Eygpt went into the rich man’s house. Your honors, positions, accomplishments are weak things compared to the riches of above.

4) Remember the things of this world are vanities Ps. 4:2

Psalm 4:2 ESV

2 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah

I get told all the time, the days are long, bu the years are short, when it comes to my children. Every moment wasted on stupid things is a moment I’m missing with them. You invest to much looking at the temples of men and not at the king of kings.

Point 3

1. Sub-point

Application:

2. Sub-point

Application:

3. Sub-point

Application:

4. Sub-point

Application:

GIVE THE GOSPEL

Benediction:

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." (Numbers 6:24-26.)