Zeal For Your House

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, Jesus said, there am I in the midst of them. To those of you who love him in truth: mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied.

Thank you Father! We thank you for this day; we praise your holy name Father; we thank you for this program, Amen! Thank you Lord. I just ask you to open our hearts and our minds; to speak to our hearts by your Holy Spirit the truth of your Word. Amen Father, in Jesus’ name. 

Today’s program is called, Zeal For Your House. Let’s turn to John 2:13, Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. 

And He said to those who sold doves, Take these things away! Do not make My Father's House a house of merchandise! Then His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for Your House has eaten Me up.  That was written in Psalm 69. Verse 8, I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother's children; because zeal for Your House has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on Me. Verse 19, You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor; My adversaries are all before You. Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave Me gall for My food, and for My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink. Clearly King David was writing by the Holy Spirit about Jesus. This is Jesus! Is Jesus in you? 

2 Cor 13:5,...Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you?... Do you not share His zeal for His Father’s House? John 2:16, Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s House a house of merchandise! Mark 11:17,...Is it not written, My House shall be called of all nations a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves! King David had that zeal. He wrote Psalm 69; he also wrote Psalm 132. He desired with all his heart to build a glorious Temple; a holy Habitation for the Lord. Psalm 132:1, Lord, remember David and all his afflictions; how he swore to the Lord, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob: 

Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house, or go up to the comfort of my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a Habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob.

Josiah had great zeal for the Lord God of Israel, and for His House. 2 Kings 22:1, Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Now it came to pass, in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the Lord, saying: Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people. And let them deliver it into the hand of those doing the work, who are the overseers in the house of the Lord; let them give it to those who are in the house of the Lord doing the work, to repair the damages of the house—to carpenters and builders and masons—and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. However there need be no accounting made with them of the money delivered into their hand, because they deal faithfully. Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who oversee the house of the Lord. Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us. So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. (She dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter.) And they spoke with her. Then she said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man who sent you to Me, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read—because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched. But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, in this manner you shall speak to him, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Concerning the words which you have heard—because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. Surely, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place. So they brought back word to the king. 

2 Ki 23:1, Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the Lord, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. Then he tore down the ritual booths of the sodomites that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. Verse 12, The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron. Verse 24, Moreover Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the House of the Lord. Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.  As I said, Josiah had a great zeal for the Lord God of Israel, and for His House. And he cleansed the Temple; he purged Judah, of all idols; of all iniquity. 

1 Pet 2:1,  Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as lively stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Eph 2:19, Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a Habitation of God in the Spirit. 

Saints! Jesus is building a holy Temple: a holy Habitation of God His Father. He is purifying those of us who are willing; those of us who love the truth of His Word; who love Him and the Father with all our hearts, and He is building us together a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.  He is zealous for His Father’s House. Are you? Do you have enough zeal to put away and destroy every idol and every defiling thing out of your life? Do you seek to purify and cleanse His Temple, which Temple you are, that He would be pleased to inhabit it and manifest His glory in you and through you, and that you may become a part of His royal priesthood; His holy nation; His own special people, that you might show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light? The churches today, in many cases, have become dens of thieves; houses of merchandise. Does this concern you at all? Do you have that desire for God the Father to have a place with His people where we are walking in holiness and offering Him acceptable spiritual sacrifices, that He might inhabit our praises, and we might fellowship together with Him and with His Son and with one another in the truth; in the light, and in the Holy Spirit? Glory! Have you ever been to such a place? Can there be such a place on the Earth? I believe it is possible. All things are possible if we can believe. Have you ever truly been in His presence? In His presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. 

Isa 57:15, For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Draw near to Him with all humility and singleness of heart, and He will draw near to you. 

Thank you for reading this message from 15 Minutes With Jesus at roberthaymes.com . May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you who love Him in truth, Amen.