Have You Seen This?

Pastor Stan Mons

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Sermon Transcription:

The title to this message, church, is Have you seen this? Have you seen this? I'll read to you Matthew 21:12 and verse 13. Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.’ Lord, I pray that you allow our minds to understand. I pray, Lord Jesus, that our hearts may receive clear understanding from your Holy Spirit, Lord, that every single one of us online and here present in the house, that every single one of us, Lord, may understand how to respond to your word this morning, Lord God; that we may learn to walk by faith in your word; that we may learn to respond in faith to your word, Lord God; that we may learn how to pray according to your word, Lord God; that your word may be in us, Lord God; that your word may dwell in us, Lord Jesus. Lord, ‘cause you—you tell us that we grow by your word. Lord God, fill us, we pray, this morning, with your word. Help us to understand. Help us to receive. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen.

We're going to get into the word today. Have you seen this? Have you seen this? And we're going to start in a remarkable story in Ezekiel chapter 8. Ezekiel, one of the Old Testament prophets who prophesied and has many quite famous prophecies, stories, things the Lord showed him—not only over his time—many of which were applicable for the time, the age of the church, in a time where Jesus Christ would begin to bring Gentiles not born in the Jewish house, Gentiles into his family, into his kingdom, making children, sons and daughters of those that never sought him. The word says, “I will be found by those that do not seek me, and I will call out to those that are not called by my name.” God doing an incredible thing through Christ Jesus, the sacrifice on the cross, to a people that don't deserve it, in a generation that doesn't deserve it. And Ezekiel— a lot of his words are to that time of the church.

I'll start reading with you in Ezekiel chapter 8. We're going to start in verse 6, and we're going to slowly work our way to chapter 9, verse 6. Starting in verse 6 of chapter 8: And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will still see greater abominations.” Here the Lord begins to call out to one of his servants, one of the people that know him—one of the people that has a relationship with God's Spirit, who was called a prophet in the Old Testament times. We know from the word, both from the Old Testament and from the New Testament, that the Lord talks about a time—the time of the church—where his Spirit will be poured out on all flesh. And the word says, "Your sons and daughters will now prophesy." In other words, now everyone that is part of the people of God is going to understand what God has on his mind, what he has on his heart in their generation, for that generation. And you're not going to be able to keep your mouth shut about it.

You're going to tell people what is possible now in this generation through Christ Jesus. And here we have this example where we see that when a man or a woman knows the Spirit of the living God, that God begins to also show them things that they couldn't see before. And he has this question, and you will see it come back over the next verses time and time again: “Son of man, are you seeing this? Son of man, have you seen this? Son of man, do you see what they are doing? Do you see? Am I allowed to open your eyes? Am I allowed to make you understand what you could not see before? Do you understand? Do you see what they are doing in some places that are called churches?” Verse 7: And he brought me to the entrance of the court. And when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. And he said to me, “Go in and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.”

"So I went in, and I saw, and there engraved on the wall all around was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up"

Now, it's incredibly significant that this particular name, Jaazaniah, that it is mentioned right here, because we know from the Scriptures that his forefathers were the ones that stood with the Lord in the time of the prophet Jeremiah. These were called by name as the people that were wholeheartedly involved with the Lord, with his kingdom, with his service, with everything that had to do with the Lord. And now he sees this message. He sees these people that once upon a time were wholeheartedly all-in for Jesus and for the cross. And now they are putting—we know from Jesus—burdens upon the people that neither they nor their forefathers have been able to bear.

They bring idolatry into the house of God, where their hearts’ trust has shifted from trusting the Most High God to now trusting other things. And he sees this picture of what that spiritually looks like. It says the walls were crawling with abominable stuff in the place where the elders of the people—where the leaders of the people—are supposed to be ministering to the Lord, are supposed to be having their wholehearted dedication to the Lord. It is abominable what is going on in the secret chambers of the church of the living God. And even those that once were known to be sold out and wholeheartedly committed to the cross—they did not have a half-hearted commitment. They didn't preach works and the law and Christ. They had wholly seen a revelation of the cross of Jesus Christ—that no one can come to the Father but through Him, that no one who had ever tried to get to the Father through the law had ever made it.

They had shifted to believing for the Messiah to come—for His burden to take away ours, for His deliverance to set free our captivity.

But there was a shift that was seen by Ezekiel in the inner chambers of those that are called to lead others into freedom. Then he said to me, verse 12, "Then he said to me, 'Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, "The Lord doesn't see us. The Lord has forsaken the land."' In other words, God is not doing the great work that I once believed him for. God is not bringing the restoration or the revival or the renewal that I once believed him for. He's not in the land the way that he used to be. The Spirit is not moving in the land, bringing about miraculous freedom as I once believed he would do. There's a dwindling of the faith. There's a dwindling of childlike faith, and it starts to make room, as Ezekiel sees it take place here. It starts to make room for a different kind of works. They're still in the house of God. They look like they're in the house of God. They look like leaders. They look like the people called. They look like the people that would know the Spirit of the living God, like you and I—people that are called to lead others into freedom through the cross of Jesus Christ. And he says, "Have you seen this? Have you seen what goes on in the inner chamber? Have you seen what goes on in the dark?"

Verse 13, he also said to me, "You will still see greater abominations that they commit." Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord. And behold, there said women weeping for Tamuz.

He takes Ezekiel to another portion of what represents the people of God, the presence of God in the earth, what really represents the church in our time—the people called after his name. And he says, "I see women weeping for Tamuz," which was a different deity whose worship was performed through prostitution. And he says, "I see women weeping, worshiping, desiring, having a broken heart for this other God, having a broken heart for finding their value in giving away their physical bodies and hoping that that will satisfy something—seeing them give away themselves lightheartedly and committing themselves to relationship outside of the covenant of marriage." And he says, "Have you seen this, oh son of man?" Verse 15, he said to me, "Have you seen this, oh son of man? You will still see greater abominations than these." 16. And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the ports and the altar, were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces towards the east, worshiping the sun towards the east.

Now, the location that is so clearly given—between the ports and the altar—tells us the identity of these 25 men. These were the priests. That's where the priest worked and dwelt. And the word tells us that the priests in the house of the king, in the house of the Lord, are going to shift their heart from doing what they are supposed to be doing to doing something else—to causing their gaze to be fastened on something else. Whether it be sin or idolatry, in every single case, they are not doing what they should be doing in their respective season. And he says, "Have you seen this? You who have the Spirit of the living God, have you seen it? Do you understand it? Are you able to discern it when you come into a house of worship? Do you see it in your own house? Do you see it in your own heart? Are you seeing this, oh son of man?"

Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, oh son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here? That they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose." That was a a a cultural thing that people would do that meant, "This means nothing to me." They put the branch to the nose. "Therefore, I will act in my wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in tears with a loud voice, I will not hear them."

Just sit on that for a second. Here he is seeing a vision of people filled with the Spirit of God that have secret inner chambers in their life where they not only commit abominations, they are all over the wall—crawling and infesting the very place that would be a place of worship in our personal life, a place of safety for our kids or strangers coming into our house, and even furthermore the temple—the door of our own heart. Says, "Are you seeing this, son of man?"

And the Lord says, "I won't excuse it. I won't hear them when they call to me." Incredibly heavy, strong language. Chapter nine, "Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, "Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand." And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand. And with them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. And the Lord said to him, "Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it." And to the others he said, "In my hearing, pass through the city after him and strike. Your eyes shall not spare; you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark, and begin at my sanctuary." So they began with the elders who were before the house." Are you seeing this? Have you seen, oh son of man? I want to talk to you, church, about when you stop seeing the sin. When you've come to Christ Jesus in your life, He has shown you to your heart that He has paid for your forgiveness, that He has bled for your freedom, that He has cried out on the cross on your behalf—‘cause you were on His mind. He didn't defend himself because you were on His mind. He didn't rebuke anyone.

He didn't protect Himself, didn't fight for Himself, because you were on His mind. And at one point in your life, He showed to your heart that He did it for you—that He paid for your life to set you free, to bring you into liberty, to bring you into freedom. And then something starts to happen in some of us, where we see something now that we could never see before. It's like the Lord all of a sudden opens the eyes of our understanding, and as it were, we can now see everything that is on the walls of our life—the things that don't belong there, the things that we now understand God wants them out of our life, God wants to remove them. It doesn't matter where you look when you have just been saved by the cross of Christ and the Spirit comes to live in your heart—it doesn't matter where you look in the house of your life. Everywhere you look, you see something that the Lord helps you understand. He wants to change it. He wants to bring about a freedom. He wants to bring about a liberty. He wants to glorify himself in the most dark and wretched parts of your life.

But there's a stirring, a negative stirring, in so much of the body of Christ that says, "Well, these things by now have so long been on my wall that I just have to believe that I am forgiven, but I'm going to live with these things. These things are just the scars on my walls. They are just the sins that I walk with. They are just the weaknesses in my humanity. I'm going to struggle until I come home." Thank God I'm forgiven. I get—I can live with this sin and survive. I can live with these difficulties and survive. It is the person that begins to compromise in the very truth that God first showed you when he came to live in your temple. He began to point out and say to you—in other words, as if he's saying—"Have you seen this, oh son of man?" And something comes to your attention, and you can't help but run to Jesus right away and surrender it, and repent, and turn to him with all your heart because you wanted him to just repaint the whole place and make you a whole new man and a whole new woman. And then come the compromises in some of that truth.

You begin to see that there are so many houses of worship that are not worshiping Christ and Christ alone, where there's a small compromise in allowing still some attention that puts sinners to work to try and keep a law that no one ever was able to get to God through. And you begin to see it so clear when Christ first began to fill your heart and show what was on the walls. And then there comes a compromise in that says, "Well, it couldn't be that God is not going to move within these four walls, or within my household, a certain way. That couldn't be." And a compromise sets in—that even though I see what God would not like me to put myself in, or what he would like to remove out of my life—we find some kind of way to explain away why God, what he's showing us, we can close our eyes to it. We can allow some of these things to stay, and we have good explanations as to why. And all along, we compromise in truth. We make excuses for sins, small and great. And all of a sudden, a blindness and a deception begins to settle on portions of the body of Christ that are not willing to be led by the Spirit of God. A blindness begins to settle where, even though they are not walking in full obedience, they can now have false peace.

A blindness, a deception begins to settle. I'll read it to you from the Word — 2 Thessalonians 2, starting in verse 9. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders. Let me tell you, church, you can have all kinds of signs and wonders in your life and you're not following Christ Jesus. That's what the Word helps us understand. Signs and wonders prove zero. It is the fruit of the Spirit of the living God in your life that is the proof that Jesus Christ Himself has come to live in your heart — not a sign, not a wonder. Verse 10: “And with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.” When Jesus comes to live in your heart, church, He begins to show you so much truth — people that you can be a friend to, but you can no longer let them be a friend to you. Places that have compromised worship. Places in your heart that have made room for things, or you are practicing things, that God says, “That doesn’t belong in My house. You are now My temple. That doesn’t belong in My house.” And when we don’t love that truth that God is showing us, we kind of dislike it a little bit because we either don’t want to let go of the sin, or we don’t want to believe that we can be free — to be confronted with the reality that we only love Jesus a very, very tiny bit.

Whatever the reason may be, Scripture says people refuse to love the truth. They’ve seen it. They’ve understood it. But some refuse to love it. They’re willing to comply with it, they’re willing to live with it, but to actually love it — they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. And that word saved — when you read it in the Bible, it’s not talking about a one-time thing. Now, there is a first moment where Jesus Christ saves your life. But that word in the Bible, anytime you read about salvation, it’s a word we don’t have in English. It means: He has saved you, is going to be saving you, and will save you. It’s a relational word — that the Father will treat you according to saving you any day, any time, any situation, all that you live through. He’s going to behave toward you in a saving way. They refuse to love the truth and so be saved — out of some of their sin. They refuse to love the truth and so be saved — out of their company or the place where they’re working where God never intended for them to be. They refuse to love the truth and so be saved — from the relationship you are about to head into with a commitment of marriage when God never intended for you to be with that person.

They refuse to love the truth when God reveals to your heart the things that are on the wall. They refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore — watch now — therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false. Full of faith, believing what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth — here it comes — but had pleasure in unrighteousness. They wanted Jesus and sin. They wanted Jesus and a career. They wanted Jesus and their life here on earth — never placed it in His hand wholeheartedly.

There’s a blindness that can set in in the house of God. Ezekiel so ably writes it out for us — the Lord revealing that vision to him. There’s a blindness to the reality of the condition of the heart.

In the house of God, in the house of our lives, even in the house of our personal life, there’s a blindness to the reality of the condition of the heart. It can very much set in people that appear to be in the right place at the right time.

They were in the temple. They were in the place where they ministered to the Lord, in the place where people sacrificed — and if you will, in a form at that time, laid down their life. They’re in the right place, seemingly dressed up nice — but the Spirit allows Ezekiel to see the hidden things that are going on in that place. And there can be a blindness, church, that can happen to anyone — can happen to me, can happen to you. When we begin to refuse, for a consistent and a long time, to love the truth that the Spirit is revealing to our hearts — a direction He wants to take your life, a direction that He wants you to step out of, things He wants to remove, places He wants you removed from — a blindness will set in. And the call of God keeps coming forth in this story: Have you seen this? Can you see this? Can you still see it? And I’ve heard it die, church. I’ve heard it die in people. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen them be on fire for Jesus. I’ve seen them have revelation after revelation of the cross of Jesus Christ, weeping with joy because of what the Lord was showing them. And I’ve heard it die in them — in the spirit of a man or a woman. I’ve seen it many times.

They get to know Christ, and instantly they see all these things in the house of God that are not as biblical as they should be, or worship that is not as Christ-centered as it should be. They see it. It’s clear. They see houses of worship where the intent of the Scripture is not properly explained. And they begin to notice suddenly the things that are wrong in their life — and they believe God wants to change it. They get excited. Even though they see all the stuff on the walls, God is opening eyes. And when He does it, it is for us to respond in faith and to run to Him in surrender and say, “Lord, that’s me. That’s my wall. Now I see it, Lord.” And I run to Jesus because I believe He’s willing and able to change it — but I see it. I acknowledge it. And some — and I’ve seen it time and again — begin to softly, gently, in minuscule ways, deny some of that truth that the Lord is showing them in their life. And they begin to make small, and slowly bigger, excuses for what the Lord is showing them.

Church, you have to fear God. You and I have to fear His Word — tremble at His Word. If we don’t listen to Him, who will we listen to? We have to fear when the Lord opens your eyes and you are able to move on without acknowledging and surrendering to the King of Kings. When you don’t want the truth anymore — when you don’t love the truth with all of your heart anymore — when you become unwilling to give up every single one of your sins or your sinful ways — there comes a point where God allows a strong delusion to settle upon the heart and upon the mind, that you may begin to believe what is false. And you’ll have false peace, and you won’t even be aware that anything is wrong. You’ll have false security, thinking you’re going to heaven — and you’re not going to find out that the door is not opening to you until you, if you will, knock on that door.

Just like the five wise and the five foolish virgins — all ten of them believing the Bridegroom was coming, all ten of them waiting for the Bridegroom — five only finding out they were not coming in the moment they stood in front of the door. False intimacy with God. I’ve seen it time and time again — people saying God told them things that are contrary to the Word. People being intimate with Jesus while they have a grudge or an offense toward a denomination or people group or a person in their heart. When Jesus Himself says, “When you don’t forgive one another, My Father in heaven will not forgive you.” And there’s this deception that settles on people — “You don’t know what they did to me. I get to not like for them to be forgiven. I don’t like for them to be forgiven. I don’t want them to get away with it.” And they still think they’re right with the Lord. They’re deceived — blind, false peace, false security, false intimacy. Have you seen this, oh son of man, in your generation?

Are you seeing any of this in your own heart — closing your eyes to lingering sin, beginning to explain why it is still here, and still thinking you are a child of the living God, obeying the living God, following the living God? “I’m a real Christian.” Closing eyes to half-hearted following — “I have a wife now, kids now, I can explain why I can’t be as wholeheartedly dedicated to the Lord’s direction.” Half-hearted surrender when the Lord asks us for things, and we intend in our heart to do it, but don’t follow through — and we’re okay because we genuinely were intending to do it. Closing eyes to idolatry — things we covet, things we desire, things we’re willing to bleed and die for, things that we are willing to place higher in our priority system than the Lord — still thinking we are the people of God. Church, the eyes of your heart can become so heavy with sin and compromise, so heavy that your eyes begin to close, your heart gets tired.

And then things begin to be allowed to stay in our hearts. Then things begin to be allowed to stay in our homes — the way we treat one another. Then things begin to be allowed to stay in our churches. “Son of man, are you seeing this?”

That question resounded so deeply in my heart as I was preparing — the Lord speaking just as much to me as He is to you. “Son of man, are you seeing this? Does it hurt you at all? When you see those things, does it bother you at all? Do you weep over those things?” God says, “I’m going to judge. I’m not going to put up with this. My presence won’t remain on this person or on this house. Terrible judgment is coming.” But there are also those in the house that, at this time, respond to the Spirit of the living God. And some of you — I believe this with all my heart, online and also here in person — some of you, the Lord is seeking to open your eyes this morning. You're seeing things that you used to see when you were just saved. You're realizing some things that you've compromised on, or you've not fully committed to, even though the Lord has shown you His direction. Or you're seeing things now clearly on the walls of your own heart or in your own house. There are the unpresentable things, and you've settled for believing that they're just going to stay the same — and it's okay, because the cross, the cross, the cross.

He's calling your eyes to be open, and He's putting it in your face and asks, "Son of man, are you seeing this? Are you looking at it? Open your eyes. Let me show you." And when you believe on Jesus Christ and you begin to see your sin, church, let me tell you one thing — you're going to be in pain when He begins to show you what is on the walls of your heart.

When He begins to show you all of the things in your life, all of the things in the churches, all of the things in our households that were literally the hammers driving the nails through His hands — because we didn’t care. And we thought, Well, I can obey God tomorrow. I can respond to Him tomorrow. It’s not that big a deal. Thank God there’s a cross. I can sin and survive. And as much as the true believer that is wholeheartedly surrendered to Christ Jesus — any mistake they make, any failure they commit, any sin they struggle with or fall back in — as much as all of that is covered, that's not the case for the person that is playing games with God and says, "Well, God, I believe in You. Surely, I’m forgiven and saved." Without having any proof that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is in their life, you’re playing a dangerous game. The church of the living God, I believe in our generation all over this nation and around the world, is playing a very dangerous game with the souls of men — with the glory and the honor of the living God, who bled and died to clean up the house, as Jesus portrayed to us when He came into the temple. And He said, "This temple doesn’t look the way I intended for it to look. It was supposed to be a house of prayer, a house of intimacy with My Father. It’s full of distractions, full of things that man brought into it. I’m going to clean this house up and make it the way that My Father likes it."

He does it to our life. He does it to us personally.

But when we don’t love the truth of what He is showing us — what it’s going to cost to put Him in charge of the house, what it’s going to cost us, what He’s going to remove, what He’s going to add — when we don’t love the truth, we begin to explain away why we’re still fine, even though the fruits of the Spirit seem to never really come to fruition in our life. It’s a dangerous game that the church has played with a Holy God, who was willing to pay any price to set you free, to make you clean, and to glorify His name inside of you. In the weakest, the most unpresentable parts of your life, God will seek to glorify Himself the most — in the face of the devil who thought he won for a season over your life. And God says, as we just read it, as Ezekiel wrote it — He says, "Go find those people."

He goes, "Find those within My people, within My house — those who are tormented and in pain because of what they see, because they've loved the truth. Their eyes are now open, and they are so bothered. They can’t fix it. They can’t change it. They may have it just as much as the next person, but there’s something different going on in their life. They’re seeing, and they’re bothered, and they’re in pain and they’re tormented because of what they see — in their heart, in their house, and in the houses of God." And this is the man that God will mark. And we read it in Ephesians 1:13 as well: "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal — the promised Holy Spirit." And that marked man has been saved, is going to be saved, and will always be saved by the Lord. He’s going to be passed over, as we read it in Ezekiel: "Go out into the city and bring that judgment of the Lord upon every person, but don’t touch any of the ones that are marked. Don’t touch any of the ones that bear that mark." And Ezekiel was seeing something of the transitional wrath of God that would be removed from some and placed on someone else.

Those that hear from the Holy Spirit, those that are able to see sin — not only in their heart, but also in their household, also in the house of the living God — those that are able to see it and in response wholeheartedly turn away from it to Christ Jesus and Him alone. For those people, there is incredible news in this world. For those people — all the terrible stuff, just even a glimpse of what the wrath of God looks like upon the person that handles the things of God lightly and tries to play a game with God, where they think they can live with sin and have Jesus just do what He’s good at and cover me forevermore — those people that saw all that terrible stuff in Ezekiel. For the true believer that doesn’t play games with sin, this wrath that we see a glimpse of, and God holding us accountable for our sins and our compromises — this judgment and this wrath — has already come to pass. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. As Judah was mentioned by name in this prophecy, Jesus was judged in Jerusalem.

He was prepared for slaughter in Jerusalem. In that place where the vision took place, He was forsaken by God the Father. As the Word says, “I won’t hear them anymore.” That’s exactly — to the word — what happened to Jesus Christ: forsaken by the Father. “Father, Father, why have You forsaken Me?” He was forsaken by God the Father because judgment started with the priest of God’s own temple. And Jesus Christ Himself, to cleanse the temple — to cleanse you and I — said, “I’ll take it. I’ll take the blame. I’ll take the punishment. I’ll take the wrath that I may cleanse My own house.” 1 Corinthians 3:16 — “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” Jesus Christ, the High Priest of our faith.

Jesus Christ, the sacrifice for the sins of many. He took all of the judgment that came on His house, that His temple may be cleansed and purified by His blood. Isaiah 53:5 — “But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.” Oh church, do not close your eyes to sin. Do not close your eyes to the very things that God’s Spirit is showing you — He would like to see removed from the temple.

The things that He wants to send — Christ and His strength and His Spirit, His power upon your life — to remove those things out of His temple and put it back in order. Make it a house of prayer, a house of intimacy with the Father — not intimacy with sin. Don’t close your eyes to sin. It’s fine if you struggle with sin. Every single one of us from time to time does, until the day that we come home. But it is the most dangerous thing you can ever do to your life, your house, your church, to say, “Oh, well, I’m giving up on this sin thing. It’s just happening to me. God could have removed it already. It’s just going to be on the wall in my place of worship. It’s just going to be on the wall as I live my life away with my kids. It’s just going to be on the wall of my heart.” Don’t close your eyes to the things the Lord will show you. Love the truth. He’s showing you your heart. He’s showing you the dark corners. Love the truth. This is the truth. This is who you are. And Christ says, “I’ve loved you with an everlasting love. Let Me into that house. Let Me into that temple. Let Me put things in order. Let Me remove what needs to go. I know you cannot do it, but love the truth. Obey My Spirit. Open your heart to what I’m seeking to do in your life.”

Don’t play games with God. Don’t play games with compromise. Let God open the eyes of your heart. See sin for what it is. Judge it. Call it sin. Judge it — and then turn to Jesus, and He will cleanse His temple. None of it will stay. None of it will hold power over you. None of it will continue to define you. He will miraculously, by His own strength, His own initiative, begin to remove what doesn’t belong there — in a house that Jesus purchased, a house that He builds.

I believe with all my heart there’s people online, there’s people in this house, and the Holy Spirit is asking you to allow Him to convict you — that there are things that don’t belong in the Lord’s temple. You’ve put up with it in your Christianity. You’ve made excuses for it in your household. You’ve grown quiet about it in your own heart. So, what do I do, pastor, if that is me? Church, today — whether you’re with us online or here in the house — the Holy Spirit is asking you to one more time love the truth and begin to judge sin for what it is.

“Lord, I’m seeing it.” To say to Him, “Lord, I’m seeing it. I’m seeing what You’re bringing up. I’m seeing it, and I judge and agree with You, Father, that this is sin. And I’m turning to Jesus. I don’t know how this is going to work. I don’t know how You’re going to fill up the room in my heart. I don’t know how You’re going to make things work out in my life, Lord. I’m seeing the relationship You’re asking me to turn away from. Lord, I’m seeing the future that I had in my desire that You’re asking me to turn away from. Lord, I see the very secret sin that I’ve known for a long time, and You bring it to my mind, and I can’t press it down. Lord, I’m seeing it, and I’m turning to Jesus.” And I’m going to continue to turn to Jesus — to Him — with all of this temple until I see the temple cleansed, because I believe He is who He says He is. I’m going to let Jesus do the work. And today, Lord, I’m ready to give up sin. I’m ready to give up compromise. I’m ready to give it all up, Lord. I’m not going to play games with You. I can still hear You, Lord God, and today I say yes.

As the question comes forth, “Son of man, have you seen these things?” — to say to Him, “Lord, it’s me. I’ve seen some of the stuff in my heart, in my house, and in the house of worship. Jesus, I love the truth. I’m acknowledging it, and I’m going to let You into every corner of this temple — that, Lord, no matter when it hurts, no matter how difficult it gets, Jesus, I’m going to let You cleanse the temple You paid for.” If that’s you, I want to pray with you. I want to ask you to come and join me at this altar so that we can pray together and that we can take our first simple step of faith and say, "God, I’m giving all of this temple, everything that’s on the walls, to You. Jesus, come and put things in order. Jesus, come and cleanse the temple." If that is you, join me here at the front. And if it’s you online, I want to invite you — as we pray together — to not harden your heart, but to take this wake-up call, this lifeline the Holy Spirit is throwing toward us, and to respond and say, "Lord, I see these things happening in Your churches. Lord, I see these things happening in my household — the excuses, the compromise, the willingness to let it sit even though I claim to be a follower of Jesus — and to say, ‘Lord, I’m going to let Jesus into the temple. I’m going to let Jesus take every corner.’"

-Pastor Stan Mons