No. 31 - SATAN’S HUGE ERROR By: John Blanchard Saturday, May 17, 2003 LEARNING ABOUT SPIRITUAL THINGS Many times we have compared the physical to the spiritual. You will recall in Proverbs 29:18 that we have often talked about, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” So that term “vision” comes from the Hebrew numbers 2377 and 2372 in Strong’s Concordance which is a sight, a dream, a revelation, an oracle. The number 2372 means a beholder in vision and also is a compact that is looked on with approval, to gaze at, to perceive, to contemplate with pleasure the things of God. So we contemplate with pleasure the things of God to see what He intends. That is what vision is. If we have no vision to understand God’s thoughts, then we are in danger of perishing. We are not speaking, of course, of spiritual vision but spiritual vision is a type, one we cannot properly see with our own eyes. We are in danger. We may not see that coming vehicle. We may not see things that we could trip over. We have to be very careful. This is the sort of thing we are talking about but in a spiritual sense. If we cannot see what God is getting at and understand what He is trying to do, we could put ourselves in harm’s way. We could actually be in danger of perishing. We often refer to Isaiah 55:8-13 which is that God’s thoughts are higher than man’s thoughts. As high as the heavens are above the earth are God’s thoughts above our thoughts! We have looked at the fact that His thoughts are fabrications. They are actually rain to the earth to bring produce. Turn to Isaiah 55 and read that just to refresh our memories. Isaiah chapter 55, starting in verse 8: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.’” God said His voice, His teachings, His thoughts are as rain is to the earth to bring forth a crop to make seed bud and bear fruit. God’s thoughts are the rains that make us bear fruit. It is a beautiful concept that God gave us physical creation in which to comprehend this. He says He will not let His thoughts come back void, come back empty, come back to waste. So God wants us to comprehend His thinking. He wants us to utilize His thinking to bear fruit for Him, and in order to do so we have to have the spiritual vision. We often talk about how we can compare the physical to the spiritual to get a better handle, a better grasp, of the thoughts of God and bring our lives into accordance with Him. Today we are going to talk about a subject that is going to expose a great error that Satan has made here in the last days. But in order to understand that error, we must first comprehend some spiritual thinking of God regarding ourselves. If you want to title this sermon you can title it, “Satan’s Huge Error”. DEDICATING SOLOMON’S TEMPLE We are going to start by going to the Old Testament in Chronicles. Turn back to II Chronicles chapter 6. We are going to talk about the temple and the dedication of the temple by Solomon. We all understand that the physical temple that Solomon built in the name of God was probably the most beautiful and valuable building to ever sit on the planet earth. It had tremendous significance in God’s plan. We are going to examine another aspect of that today but first I want to look at the dedication of the temple. We are going to do that in II Chronicles chapter 6, verse 12. II Chronicles 6, verse 12: “Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands (for Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven); and he said: ‘Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.’” Verse 16: “‘Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, “You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk in My law as you have walked before Me.” And now, O Lord God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David. But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth?’” Solomon asked that question. We have done what You have asked and kept Your word and we built You this home. Can You really be serious that You are going to dwell with men on earth? Continuing in verse 18 of II Chronicles 6: “‘Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built. Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You: that Your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.’” Solomon is asking God to always pay attention to the prayers from the temple. Please regard this place that You had us build for You. Be willing to forgive all of those who pray from here. He says other things regarding this and we will continue in verse 22. II Chronicles 6, verse 22: “‘If anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers. When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.’” Verse 28: “‘When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple: then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men), that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.’” Verse 32: “‘Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people...’” First he goes through this list of all the things that Israel can do individually and as a nation and how they can be forgiven. Please, God, hear us when we pray to You and ask for forgiveness. He goes through this whole list and then he says but even for the foreigner please do the same thing. Continuing in verse 32: “‘Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your out-stretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple; then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.’” Continuing in II Chronicles 6, verse 34: “‘When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, “We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness;” and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name: then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.’” Verse 40: “‘Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place. Now therefore, arise, O Lord God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let Your saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, do not turn away the face of Your Anointed; remember the mercies of your servant David.’” That is a beautiful dedication prayer by Solomon and it outlines the purpose of the temple. How important this was for the people of Israel and indeed the entire world! Now we are going to see God’s reaction once again by continuing the story in II Chronicles chapter 7, starting in verse 1. II Chronicles 7, verse 1: “When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying: ‘For He is good, for His mercy endures forever.’” God’s reaction to Solomon’s prayer was extremely favorable, and He completed His covenant with them by accepting the sacrifice and dwelling in the temple. Continuing in verse 4 of II Chronicles 7: “Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. And the priests attended to their services; the Levites also with instruments of the music of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord, saying, ‘For His mercy endures forever,’ whenever David offered praise by their ministry. The priests sounded trumpets opposite them, while all Israel stood.” Verse 7: “Furthermore Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord; for there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat. At that time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt.” When the inner court was dedicated, it was a feast that lasted seven days like the Feast of Tabernacles. Verse 9: “On the eighth day they held a sacred assembly, for they observed the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.” God accepted the prayer of Solomon. He accepted the sacrifice in the inner court and dwelt there and then accepted, eventually, the sacrifice following shortly thereafter for the middle court. Showing that the entire temple and the temple complex was acceptable to God. THE DESTRUCTION OF SOLOMON’S TEMPLE What happened after this is the saddest tale in the Bible but has a lot of significance for us today because we understand (it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt) that God’s Church is the spiritual temple. All of these physical examples that we see are to help us understand God’s thoughts and His purposes. Let us see what happened a few hundred years later to this beautiful building. Let us turn now to II Chronicles chapter 36, starting in verse 5: “Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord his God. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him, and bound him in bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also carried off some of the articles from the house of the Lord to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, the abominations which he did, and what was found against him, indeed they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. Then Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.” This took place in about 597 B.C. So in approximately 597 B.C. we see that the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, attacks the temple complex. He attacks the City of Jerusalem and the temple complex and he carries off the king into captivity, but he also takes with him to Babylon some of the treasures of the temple. It says here in verse 7, “...the articles from the house of the Lord” and he actually put them in the temple of a false god in Babylon! What a horrible thing to happen in this beautiful building dedicated to the Great God! This is a place where God dwelt. If we were to study this in detail, we would find that the Shekinah glory, (as the glory of God is called) actually left in three stages when all of this was taking place and the temple destroyed. We will not get into that today, but there comes a point where God can no longer dwell in His own house if it is no longer fit for Him to dwell in. There were abominations taking place in His house, it says right here. This is what prompted God to allow the temple complex to be attacked and ransacked. Go to II Kings chapter 24 and we will see something interesting. II Kings 24, starting in verse 8: “Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, as his servants were besieging it.” Verse 12: “Then Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers went out to the king of Babylon; and the king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, took him prisoner. And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said. Also he carried into captivity all Jerusalem: all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land. And he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers, and the mighty of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. All the valiant men, seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for war, these the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.” We see in 597 B.C. there are some more details here of what was taken. There was a tremendous amount of beauty taken back to Babylon. Keep your place in Kings and we will come back to this section of the Bible, but now let us go to Daniel chapter 1. The incident is mentioned back there as well. Daniel 1, verse 1: “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god.” We see that Jehoiakim and his son, Jehoiachin, each received the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar so to speak. The first one, the father, had some of the temple riches taken at that time. Then the son was reigning; more of the riches were taken. It was ransacked further. This was a process that actually took quite a few years, as we are going to see. The sacking of the temple of God and then its complete destruction is something that took place over a period of years. Now we are going to go to II Kings chapter 25. These are all parts of the story of the fall of Jerusalem and the temple of God. Remember this is because the temple was abominated. God was upset that it had been abominated. II Kings 25, starting in verse 1 and we will read through to verse 10. We see that the destruction is more complete here. There is a third king mentioned, King Zedekiah. He is also captured by the king of Babylon, and the temple and the area around Jerusalem where the mighty men dwelt in the city is all destroyed. It is ransacked and destroyed. THE VESSELS OF THE TEMPLE ARE TAKEN Continuing in verse 11 of II Kings 25 and we will read through to verse 16. We see that all the temple vessels were then taken. The place was pretty well cleaned out. Anything of value was hauled away, and if it was too big to haul away in one piece, they busted it up and hauled it away. The valuables of God were no longer in the temple. Everything was taken. This was in approximately 587 and 586 B.C., over that year period where this siege took place. Then the temple was finally completely overrun in 586 B.C. and destroyed. We can read a little section of scripture that will talk about this final crushing by turning to Jeremiah. It was quite a complete desolation and destruction of God’s beautiful home where He dwelt with the people of Israel. It was a beautiful building. Jeremiah chapter 52, starting in verse 24: “The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. He also took out of the city an officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.” Continuing in verse 28 of Jeremiah 52: “These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews; in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons.; in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons. All the persons were four thousand six hundred.” In stages Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took away captive the prominent people, I would say, of Judah leaving the poorest of the land as it is mentioned elsewhere. This was a process that took some time, but when it was complete, the devastation was nearly total. There were very few left and no valuables left, and of course the Shekinah glory had left the temple as well. Let us go to Daniel chapter 5 and see stage two, as I call it, because this was stage one. It was just the first thing that happened with the vessels of the Lord and valuable things of His. They were hauled off by the king of Babylon and put into the false god’s temple in Babylon. But that is not the end of the story. More happens with these things, and we will call it stage two. THE VESSELS ARE MISUSED Turn to Daniel chapter 5 and we will read the entire chapter to get a feel for what is going on with the things of God at a later date. This is Nebuchadnezzar’s son who is now king Belshazzar. Please read Daniel 5:1-5. Here you see the picture. They are having a big party, an orgy as it were, and they brought out God’s holy vessels from the temple. They are mocking the Great God, praising false gods, drinking wine, laughing and joking at this party with God’s holy vessels that used to be used in the service of God in the temple that Solomon had built. Continue reading in verse 6 of Daniel 5: “Then the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.” He saw the handwriting on the wall and the king got terrified. Read Daniel 5:7-29. We see that God is not finished with these vessels. They were still His. They were not the gods’ of the earth. They were not man’s vessels. They were His. Belshazzar went too far when he took those vessels and had a party with them. So God said, that’s it! I have had it with you. I humbled your father. You did not learn the lesson even though you watched what I did with your father. Now your kingdom has been measured, you have been found wanting and I am giving it to the Medes and Persians. THE CONQUEST OF BABYLON In history, if you were to study King Cyrus (Persian) and Darius (Mede), they were two powerful men over the Medes and the Persians. They were pretty knowledgeable military geniuses if you want to put it that way. They knew that they would have a difficult enemy to face if they were to defeat Babylon. They came up with a method to attack Babylon and destroy Babylon. They used their engineers and built a dam across the River Euphrates and diverted the river. The way the city was built, the city had a high wall around it but the Euphrates River ran right through it. The people in the city had a tremendous supply of water. You could not starve them out or make them run out of water. They had lots of food that was stored so it was very difficult to starve them out. You could not make their water supply dry up. The wall was almost impregnable. They would have lost a lot of men and taken tremendous casualties trying to assault the city directly. They came up with a plan to divert the Euphrates River which they successfully did. Once that river was diverted in the night, they went underneath the city wall where the river had gone through. They overcame the city in one night, fulfilling this prophecy. The Euphrates was dammed up and diverted, the soldiers walked right into the city, and of course when in the midst of the defenders, overpowered them. They conquered the city in one night! Cyrus was powerfully used by God to bring about the punishment of Babylon, but Cyrus was also used by God in a variety of ways. We are going to look at that briefly and come back to this situation in Jerusalem and in Babylon and compare the two. We will learn something from it that we can apply to our time. Let us now go to II Chronicles chapter 36. We are going to find out that Cyrus was powerfully used by God. He was called a servant of God, as a matter of fact, in scriptures. II Chronicles 36, verse 22: “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia...” Notice it is God stirring up Cyrus to do things here. “...so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, ‘Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!’” This is approximately 70 years after the fall of Jerusalem in the first place. You have a situation where an in-coming military power, the Medes and the Persians, have conquered Babylon, punishing Babylon for fooling around with God’s vessels. But it also leads to an opportunity for King Cyrus to be used by God to release those captives, allowing them to go back and rebuild the temple. Then you come to the story of Zerubbabel which we will not study today. The temple gets rebuilt. It is nowhere as beautiful as the temple of Solomon, but it gets rebuilt so that there is then another temple. It is an interesting situation that God uses King Cyrus. King Cyrus’s decree is about 538 B.C. Let us go to Isaiah chapter 44:21. These are more scriptures referring to this King Cyrus. Read verses 21-26. God says I am the One who is saving you, delivering you and I will get your city rebuilt. Continue in verses 27 to 28. This King Cyrus is even called a shepherd of God. He is doing some of the work for God to allow that temple to get rebuilt by the captives by freeing the captives. So this man has quite a remarkable place in history, and he does some remarkable things. Continue in chapter 45 of Isaiah. He is spoken of again even in more detail almost as if he is a type of Jesus Christ as the redeemer of us all. This man was used almost as a type of Jesus Christ. You will see in chapter 45. Read Isaiah 45:1-7. God says to Cyrus even though you do not know Me I am going to use you in a powerful way to do some amazing things. You are My tool. You are My shepherd. I am going to use you because you are willing to obey. I am going to use you in a remarkable way, and He did. That is a wonderful testament to Cyrus and to our Great God that He could use someone not of the faith to that extent. What happens is the temple gets rebuilt, but that is another story. What I want to focus on is what happened to Babylon? Babylon got destroyed. Its position in history has never been the same since. We have just had a short physical war in Babylon, Iraq, today. Even though Saddam Hussein felt he was another Nebuchadnezzar, it was nothing like the glory and the power that Babylon had back then. It was a mere shadow of itself. It has never recovered from the defeat it suffered back then. The blow that Cyrus and Darius dealt to Babylon was horrible. It brought them down in a way that they have never recovered from. It you were to study that situation, God said there will be no inhabitants in the original Babylon. If you were to look at a map of Babylon, which is Iraq today, you would see that the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers are still there, but the city itself is moved over from itself just a little bit. The city of Baghdad is not where the ancient city of Babylon used to be. It is just moved over a little bit. You will notice the rivers are still there and the city still relies on those rivers. The Euphrates is still a very significant river in Iraq, which is modern Babylon. But it is not the same. God said that place where ancient Babylon was is just not going to be inhabited so it was destroyed. Interesting, its undoing was taking the vessels of God. That was where they went too far. God allowed Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan and these people to punish Israel because they had abominated the temple. God did not give them permission to take those vessels and use them in an unworthy manner. That was going too far. This is what brought about the undoing of Babylon. This is what we are going to focus on today because today the king of Babylon is about to be undone for doing the very same thing to the spiritual vessels of God. That is what we are going to prove now in the last half of this sermon. Turn now to Isaiah chapter 14. We will review once again something we are very familiar with. The king of Babylon is Satan. The spiritual king of Babylon is Satan. Read Isaiah 14:3-11. Up to this point you could say that sounds like a physical king dying and going to his grave and the maggots eating him. But this is a prelude talking about Satan’s destruction as the oppressor of the earth. Continue reading in verse 12 of Isaiah chapter 14 and read through to verse 15. There you have it, the king of Babylon is a physical type of Satan the devil who is the real king of Babylon. Babel being confusion. This is the real king of Babylon and Satan is about to meet his own Waterloo. We could look to what happened to Belshazzar when he had the audacity to use God’s holy vessels of the temple. THE CHURCH IS THE SPIRITUAL TEMPLE Turn to I Corinthians 3, verse 9: “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.” Verse 14: “If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” That is where Satan goes too far when he defiles the temple of God. He will be destroyed. This is a decree from God the Almighty. When Satan destroyed God’s temple and then defiled it, he had overstepped his bounds. Read Galatians 4:21-25. We have a physical Jerusalem and we have the spiritual which is about to be spoken of here in verse 26. Read verses 26 to 31. We are from the spiritual city of Jerusalem showing that the spiritual temple of God, which is the Church, dwells in the spiritual city, Jerusalem. God is showing us in the Old Testament that as the city was overrun and the temple was overrun and destroyed by Satan, so in the last days ultimately we know the spiritual city and the temple of God have been overrun. That was bad enough, but when Satan starts taking those temple vessels and using them for his purposes, that is too much. God is not going to allow it. If He would not allow it with a physical temple, why is He going to allow it with spiritual vessels that are very much cherished by Him? He will not! Too many of the Church groups have allowed themselves to be moved and motivated by Satan. They are spewing out hatred. They are spewing out division. They are dividing the sheep and hurting the sheep. Therefore, they become tools for the enemy. God is not going to tolerate that. If you were to go to Ephesians 2, verse 19-22 you would find that we are the house that is being built by God. We are a spiritual house. Let us turn there. Read Ephesians 2:19-22. We are God’s building. We are His house. Hebrews chapter 3 actually calls us His house. We are that temple. When the Church became conquered, that was portrayed in the Old Testament when the physical temple was conquered. We can look and see what happened. People and vessels were being hauled off. Then these were used in abominable ways. God is not going to tolerate it. God is not going to tolerate anyone taking over His temple and using it for evil purposes. We will want to make a note of Hebrews 3:1-11 where you will find that we are the household of God. GOD’S SPIRITUAL VESSELS ARE MISUSED Now that we have proven once again that we are God’s spiritual temple, let us look at the fact that we could be used as His spiritual vessels: the tools that He works with. Romans chapter 9. God works with human beings so we are His tools. We are the vessels that get things done. Read Romans 9:21-24. Here we see we are called His vessels, the riches of His vessels. Continue reading Romans 9:25-26. Eventually we will be called God’s sons even though we have been temporarily rejected and the Church has been allowed to be smashed. It is just what happened in the Old Testament. We must repent. We must return to the temple. We must pray for God’s intervention and beg Him for mercy. Beg Him for mercy and then God will relent and will redeem us. That is what we have been learning God’s purpose is. But we have to admit first that we have problems and repent of them. God will keep His agreement and relent. Turn now to II Corinthians chapter 4 and read verses 5 to 7. We are the earthen vessels. We are made of the dust of the ground and we become His holy vessels in His use when we give ourselves to Him at baptism. We say we are now dead in Christ and it is not us who live. It is Christ who lives in us. We become His vessels. We are very precious to God. If God can get angry enough over some people using golden and silver goblets in the wrong way, how angry do you think God is when someone abuses His spiritual vessels? He is angry right now and there is a price to be paid. We need to all repent and beg God for help so we do not get on the wrong side of His displeasure in this. We need to cherish those vessels and help one another. We need to encourage one another to go forward and get cleansed with what time we have left. Ask God to forgive us for our part in the whole fiasco that has taken place in God’s Church. Read II Timothy 2:19 to 26. When the vessels will not repent, they are taken captive just like they were by the king of Babylon or are taken captive by the spiritual king of Babylon. They fall into his snare. We have all fallen into that snare to one degree or another. By God’s great mercy and love, some have escaped. Now we need to pray for those who are still ensnared, but we must never fall back into that snare. BECOME VESSELS OF HONOR How do we avoid falling back into that snare? We avoid it by cleansing ourselves of all the things just listed: youthful lusts, arguing, vain disputations and harsh judgment of one another. We need humility. We need to be cleansed. We need to become vessels of honor. We are talking about human vessels in God’s service serving in His temple. This is an awesome thing to comprehend! But how can we continue if we want to be a part of this wonderful process? How can we be filthy vessels? Are we not allowing Satan then to use God’s vessels in an unholy manner? Aren’t we part of the problem? If we argue amongst each other, if we are angry, if we are bitter, if we are judging, if we are watching bad TV programs, reading bad books, listening to bad music, causing division and strife among brethren, how can we say we are a holy vessel? Have we not been taken by Satan and used to harm our brothers and sisters? That is why I am asking you. We need to get to the point where we love each other so much we could never get angry with one another, we could never harshly judge one another, we could never put one another down, we could never bring anything into the Church that would harm one of the weak of the flock. This is how much we have to love each other. It is far more than we ever thought. To the weak we should become weak. We must always care for one another as we would our own selves if God were in our presence. Would we act a little different if Christ was right here? I am sure we would. Let us act as if He was right here all of the time now. We would not argue with one another if Christ was in the room. We would not watch bad TV programs if Christ was in the room. We would not blow our stack and use foul language if Christ was in the room. We would not argue with our spouses and our friends. We would not be a bad example to anyone if Christ was standing there. Let us start acting like Christ was standing there all of the time. This will change us and help us to be clean vessels for God’s use because otherwise we can be vessels that inadvertently can be used by Satan to harm the Church. There is way too much arguing, judging and hatred in the Church. That is causing tremendous harm to brother to brother and sister to sister. If it does not stop, God is going to continue to let us get destroyed. Maybe none of us will enter the Millennium! That would be extremely sad. If we study Hebrews 3 and 4, you will find that is what it says there. Change now so you can enter the rest. That is the Millennial rest. Because if we do not cleanse now, God is not going to let filthy vessels serve in the temple in the Millennium. That is not going to happen. He wants to see us put forth maximum effort now. SATAN HAS GONE TOO FAR Turn to Hebrews and read chapter 9:16-22. If we want Christ’s blood to take care of our sins, we better try to maintain clean vessels. We cannot make a mockery out of God’s vessels. This is what Belshazzar did and it brought the destruction of Babylon. This is what is going to happen to Satan now. He has gone too far. He has turned God’s people against each other and he has made holy vessels a rotten thing in God’s sight. God is angry with the vessels, but He is extremely angry with Satan. Satan will be destroyed just as the king of Babylon was. I will read the definitions of vessels at this time. A vessel #4632 is equipment or an apparatus to be used by God or whatever. A vessel could be just equipment or apparatus but figuratively, in the New Testament, is called “a wife as contributing usefulness to the husband”. Can you believe that? So figuratively it is “a wife as contributing usefulness to the husband,” and we are to marry Jesus Christ. But figuratively, it is just a piece of equipment to be used. That is what it was in the Old Testament. Equipment used in the temple. We need to constantly be aware of the fact that we are vessels in the use of God for His service. In the Old Testament it comes from #3627 which means “something prepared” related to #3629 which is “kilya” a kidney which is of course a filtering organ in the body to make things clean. Figuratively it means the mind. We must filter our minds to be clean. We must be clean vessels for God, for God dwells in our minds and hearts. Keep that in mind, brethren, that we are vessels in God’s service. We must allow Him to cleanse us everyday and we must go to Him and repent and beg for mercy constantly. Never be a part of the problem. Never let Satan get into us even the littlest bit and cause division, strife, arguing, dissension. Nor let anything into our minds to our eyes or our senses that would defile the temple of God where He dwells. Because that defiling is what led to the situation we are into right now, just as it did for physical Israel in the temple of God back in the Old Testament. The most hopeful thing about this whole incident that has happened to the Church, being conquered by Satan, is it’s his fatal mistake. It is the biggest mistake he ever made, and it is the mistake that directly leads to him being destroyed! That’s the good news in the whole thing. What has happened to the Church was to a great purpose. God says all things work to the good. It would be a tremendous good to get rid of Satan the devil, the oppressor of mankind. He had to go one step too far, and he finally did!