Construction and Collapse (2 Kings 12) with Pastor Matthew Crethar

Well, what beautiful songs.

Thank you for uh choosing those songs, David, and leading us in that worship.

Such rich words, and how delightful to sing it in unison together of our great God.

Well, I invite you to take your Bibles and open them to 2 Kings 12.

2 Kings 12.

We find ourselves in the kingdom of Judah, following the aftermath of a wicked regime under the reign of Athaliah.

She sought to snuff out the Davidic lion.

But out of his steadfast love, God protected the young boy Joash and preserved the lion of David.

And yet, the kingdom was in a miserable condition.

The house of the Lord, the temple, was in a dilapidated state.

The people of God had been worshipping idols.

We enter the reign of Joash back in 2 Kings 11 as a crown is placed on the head of a seven-year-old boy.

The context leading up to his reign is a sad and sorry state of affairs for Judah.

And so we find ourselves tonight exploring the reign of King Joash in 2 Kings 12, or also called Jehoash, but we'll just refer to him as Joash.

And his is a narrative of construction and collapse.

His is a reign of commitment without conviction.

His is a kingdom really with a tragic arc.

A tragic arc, rescued from the shadow of Athalia's sword, reaching its zenith in the restoration of God's temple, but ruined by ultimate apostasy.

King Joash, his is a kingdom of tragedy.

And we'll trace the tragic reign of King Joash in 2 Kings 12 in four points.

We'll see first of all, a good king.

We'll see the report of a good king.

And we see that in verse 1 to 3.

Secondly, we'll see a grand refurbishment.

A grand refurbishment.

And the lesson from our passage, the message of 2 Kings 12 is this Commitment without the right conviction ultimately crumbles.

In other words, you can do all the right things, but if your heart's not in the right place, then soon enough everything will fall apart.

A tragic tale.

Help me to preach clearly and faithfully with zeal and passion for your name and for your glory, and each of those that are here to listen.

May hearts be open.

Those that know you, may they be encouraged, soberly reminded of important truths, and any that are here that have not trusted in you, that belong to this world, and not to your kingdom.

Turn their heart to you this evening in Christ's name and for his glory.

Amen.

Well, as we open our passage and pick up where we left off last week, uh we read a summary assessment of Joash's reign.

Have a read of verse one to three and see the report of number one, a good king.

Verse one.

In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash or Joash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Zibia of Bersheba.

Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord, all the days in which Jehoidah the priest instructed him.

But the high places were not taken away.

The people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places.

Our passage begins with a summary assessment of the reign of King Joash, that man who became kings, two Kings 1121 tells us, at the age of just seven years old.

His kingdom is born really from great trial, rescued from the shadow of Athalia's sword.

The kingdom at this time was at a at a severe low point.

And here was Joash.

He reigned in Jerusalem, verse 1 for 40 years, son of Zibeah of Bathsheba.

And this young seven-year-old king who inherited a crumbling kingdom needed a guide, needed a sort of tutor to help him, to make wise decisions, to rule, and to restore.

And he had the right man, that priest Jehoiada, who back in chapter 11 had handed the law of God over to the young king, anointed him, and made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people of Judah that they should be God's people.

Jehoiada was the guy you wanted on your side, especially if you were a seven-year-old king.

Statues, idols, images, and altars of Baal were were torn down, and there was rest in the city.

And much of this was under the wise counsel of a good teacher.

It was the the priest Jehoiada encouraging the king to commit the right actions.

And Jehoiada's wise counsel stands in stark contrast to the foolish reign of Athalia from years past.

And so here is King Joash, and what's the verdict?

What's the assessment of Joash's reign?

Well, verse 2 tells us Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord.

A breath of fresh air.

A positive assessment.

To do right in the sight of the Lord was a great thing.

And really, this can't be said of most of the kings of Judah.

Tragically, the popular assessment has been and continue to will to be, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord.

That's the common assessment.

And it's stated of eighteen kings of Israel, Ahab and Omri, with the added note, worse than all before him.

That's a pretty bad added note.

But no king of Israel received a positive assessment in that traditional formula.

And Judah wasn't much better.

More than ten kings of Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord.

But a few did right.

We see we've seen Assa and Jehoshaphat.

Later in Kings we read of Amaziah, Azariah, Jotham, Hezekiah, Josiah, and here we have Joash.

And Joash did right in the sight of the Lord.

He heeded the wise counsel of the priest Jehoiada.

He approved the tearing down of the idols and altars made to Baal that marked the reign of Athaliah.

He reigned in a manner that pleased the Lord, that was right in the sight of the Lord.

But then we have a condition.

We have a condition.

Look at verse 2.

It says, Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord, good.

All the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

You see, Jehoiada, the priest, he was the anchor.

He was the scaffolding, the secret ingredient to his his reign, the MVP, if you will, to Joash's successful reign.

And so much so, and this can't be understated, that we read in 2 Chronicles 24, which is the parallel passage to this, in verse 15 to 16 of 2 Chronicles 24, it says, But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died.

He was 130 years old when he died, and they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both towards God and his house.

Jehoiada the priest was so respected and so influential that when he died, he was buried among the kings, an influence that marked the reign of Joash.

You see, without Jehoiada, probably Joash's reign would have been assessed the same as that long list of disappointing kings.

But with Jehoiada in the picture, the king did right in the sight of the Lord.

This was a good reign.

A good reign.

And yet we get a hint at one of the cracks in Joash's reign, don't we?

A crack that's not unique to him, nor is it unique to the wicked kings, as though only wicked kings have this fault.

Have a look at verse three.

It says, But the high places, the high places were not taken away.

The people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places.

That is, those those formerly Canaanite altars once permitted, but now prohibited by the Lord to use were still being used for worship.

These were were publicly accessible worship sites formerly to Canaanite gods, but repurposed for worshiping Yahweh.

Now these were permitted to be used for worship for a time, until the time of Solomon's temple, which centralized worship.

And although Solomon built a great temple to the Lord, which began the time of the prohibition according to the Lord in Deuteronomy twelve, still even Solomon, the one who built that temple, foolishly tolerated worship at these high places.

And this sin of Solomon, ugly sin, persisted on through the generations.

Now the people of Judah, they weren't necessarily worshipping foreign gods at these altars anymore, but they were worshiping God in a way that he prohibited.

It's a sort of strange or unauthorized offering.

And the king's commitments were beginning to crack because he lacked a personal conviction.

Instead, he followed after the pressure of the public's cry for convenience.

Oh yes, King Joash has has very good days.

He did right in the sight of the Lord.

And the the same can't be said of most kings.

Yes, there were mistakes he made even here.

But undoubtedly, with the influence of Jehoiada, this was a good reign.

But when the tutor departs, the student's convictions are truly tested.

And we'll pick up on this thread a a little later, but just keep in mind that while there's some to criticize, certainly, there is here, as the passage begins, an overall positive assessment, a sort of reprieve.

And so what do these verses, these first just few verses, uh, mean for us in our day?

What what can we expect from a good king who does right in the sight of the Lord?

Well, they will have good days and bad days.

They will make wise, even benevolent, decisions, and yet they will also make foolish, even tyrannical decisions.

A good king, from an earthly perspective, will still be imperfect, and may even seek to please man rather than God.

Now they will make decisions, a good king will make decisions which which honour God, yet by no conviction of their own, but by the instruction of godly counsel.

And even that, as this passage assesses, even that is a good thing and pleasing in the sight of the Lord.

Remember, the second use of God's law is to restrain evil.

And so there is a blessing for the nation's people to live under the authority of an imperfect government that upholds the law of God.

And we don't need to just wait for that.

But but we can appropriately, as Christians, give godly counsel to our governing authorities, tell them what sort of leading pleases God, even if they are unbelievers, prompting them like Jehoiada to rule in a manner that is right in the sight of God.

And yet at the moment, our rulers will at best still be imperfect.

But we await a king who not only does right in the sight of the Lord, but whose righteous reign requires no condition.

There's no second half of verse two, no earthly tutor is required, no but to his reign, a king who is empowered by a vision for the glory of God, a king whose reign is perfect, a king whose rule is just.

Well, we see in the text's assessment of King Joash that that conditionally he is a good king, and the kingdom is looking up.

The glory of God is advancing among the people of God, as the house of God is being built up.

Keep reading verse four to sixteen and see, secondly, a grand refurbishment.

Starting in verse four.

And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated gifts that are brought into the house of the Lord, each man's census money, each man's assessment money, and all the money that a man purposes in his heart to bring to the house of the Lord, let the priests take themselves, each from his constituency, and let them repair the damages of the temple, wherever any dilapidation is found.

Verse six Now it was so, by the twenty third year of King Jehoash, that the priests had not repaired the damages of the temple.

So King Jehoash called Jehoi Jehoidah the priest and the other priests, and said to them, Why have you not repaired the damage of the temple?

Now therefore do not take more money from your constituency, but deliver it for repairing the damages of the temple.

And the priests agreed that they would neither receive more money from the temp from the people, nor repair the damages of the temple.

Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bought a hole in its lid, set it beside the altar on the right side as one comes into the house of the Lord, and the priests who kept the door put there all the money brought into the house of the Lord.

So it was whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest that the king's scribe and the high priest came up and put it in bags, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord.

Then they gave the money which has been apportioned into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord, and they paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house of the Lord, and to masons and stone cutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the damage of the house of the Lord, and for all that was paid out to repair the temple.

However, they were not made for the house of the Lord basins of silver, trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, any articles of gold or articles of silver from the money brought into the house of the Lord, but they gave that to the workmen, and they repaired the house of the Lord with it.

Moreover, they did not require an account from the man into th into whose hand they delivered the money to be paid to workmen, for they dealt faithfully.

The money from the trespass offering, the money from the sin offering was not brought into the house of the Lord, it belonged to the priests.

The national temple had come into disrepair.

The house of God was was showing signs of age and wear after a hundred and twenty years of use.

And by this point it's been plundered at least twice.

It's been plundered by Shishak of Egypt during the reign of Rehoboam in 1 Kings 14, and more recently under Athalia's reign in 2 Kings 11.

Athalia and her sons not only neglected to maintain the temple, but they went in, and they plundered the articles and treasures to make offerings to the pagan bals.

But it was the responsibility of the king to see to it that the temple was in presentable and honorable order.

And King Joash, he took on this responsibility.

And so here, here was King Joash refurbishing the temple in the text we just read to a respectable condition.

Rather than the altars of the high places, this temple was the true place where the Lord instructed his people to sacrifice and worship him.

And although Joash failed to shut down the high places, uh those altars for worship, he did at least desire to restore the temple of God.

This at least was a good thing.

He was committed to his duties as a king.

And as 2 Chronicles 24 positively presents it, it says, Joash set his heart on repairing the house of the Lord.

This was of his heart.

Now a temple restoration project probably doesn't sound all that exciting to us.

Why are there so many verses dedicated to paying stone cutters and masons?

We hear that the bills for car park markings and regular maintenance and repairs on our own building every few months, and we shrug it off and like okay, I guess we have to do this, not so exciting.

But the restoration of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, the temple that King Solomon built, the place for the people of God where God's glory dwelt, this was a big deal.

This was the place that God's people were authorized to go and worship the Lord, and for the high priest to meet the Lord in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, the place to make sacrifices to the Lord and make atonement annually for sin.

This was a big deal, this restoration.

And so Joash initiates a significant building project.

Temple income is collected from three sources.

We have in verse four the dedicated gifts or holy gifts, funds that were given to the temple for matters of upkeep and repair.

We we have the assessment money, which is atonement payment of half a shekel to the temple at the at the time of the census for every man over the age of twenty to pay.

We also have verse four the money a man purposes in his heart to give, or what we might call voluntary offerings.

And the priests are instructed to organize, to collect this money and to organize the repair process.

But after what is probably a matter of years, Joash inspects the progress of temple restoration, and what does he find?

Nothing was done.

The damage is all still there.

And King Joash points the finger right at the priest.

Verse 7, why have you not repaired the damage of the temple?

And the text it actually gives us no answer.

Perhaps the funds were simply insufficient, they didn't have enough money.

Perhaps the priests kept the funds for themselves.

Perhaps the priests they they they just never got around to it, they had a a lot of other stuff to do on their list.

We don't know why.

We can only speculate because the writer here, and in the parallel passage in Chronicles, doesn't think that we needed to know why, so we won't spend any more time on it, but they didn't get the job done.

And yet, despite the setback, Joash, to his commendation, is committed to see this project through.

So he gives the instructions, verse seven, for the priest to cease personal collection, redirect all the funds through a new system of repair funding.

Verse 9, Jehoiada, the priest makes a secure box that only the high priest, who's probably Jehoida at this time, and the king scribe, only they can open this box.

This box would receive all the income, all the offerings and uh and proceeds in a centralized spot, and from this they will pay the builders, the carpenters, the masons to complete the repairs.

And they were to prioritize using the funds for refurbishing the temple itself.

Verse 13 records that they did not use the funds to make new articles of silver or gold just yet, but instead the first priority was the temple itself and the fair payment of the workers involved.

Then, once the temple had been restored to its original condition and even further reinforced, then attention was given to the essential furnishings.

And 2 Chronicles 24, verse 13 to 14 records these same events, but just with a slight shift.

2 Chronicles 24:13–14

It says there that so the workmen they laboured, the work was completed by them.

They restored the house of God to its original condition and reinforced it.

When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the kings and Jehoiada, and they made from it articles for the house of the Lord, articles for serving and offering spoons and vessels of gold and silver.

They furnished the temple, returning it to a resemblance of its former glory, before it was plundered by Athalia for Baal.

And two Chronicles twenty four fourteen it says, and this is worth taking note of, and they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Jehoida.

That's a good thing.

This was a temple restored and befitting the worship of the Lord once again.

And really, this is the high point of King Joash's kingdom.

The restoration of the temple, the restoration of the house of the Lord, mending the broken walls and clearing out the remains of Baal worship, filling it with the articles and utensils and adornments necessary for the worship of the one true living God.

King Joash's reign reaches its zenith in the restoration of God's temple.

Well, we've read the high point, the pinnacle of King Joash's reign, the refurbishment and restoration of the temple.

It is a golden age of worship, again for the people of God.

The temple is restored.

Jehoiada the priest has godly influence over the king, but tragedy looms.

Even as that closing line of 2 Chronicles 2414 haunts us again, they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Jehoida.

Yet what would happen when the days of Jehoiada ceased, the cracks widen with great concern.

Keep reading verse seventeen to eighteen and see number three, a grave mistake.

Verse 17.

Hazael, King of Syria, went up and fought against Gath and took it.

Then Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem, and Jehoash, King of Judah, took all the sacred things that his fathers, Jehoshaphat and Jehorim, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred things, and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord, and in the king's house, and sent them to Hazel, king of Syria.

And then he, that is the king of Syria, went away from Jerusalem.

The zenith of Joash's reign was reached, and then begun a sharp downward trajectory towards tragedy.

What looked like a reign of genuine faithfulness by all surface appearance and outward obedience has come under trial and tribulation, and the testing has revealed what was underneath the surface the whole time.

This was the test.

And so how does the battle unfold?

Well, we actually read more of the battle in 2 Chronicles 24, where it says, The army of Syria came up against him, and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the leaders of the people from among the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.

And as the battle raged on, King Joash, he was severely wounded.

He took all of the sacred things, uh all of the everything from the treasuries in the house of the Lord in two Kings twelve eighteen, and then sent them over to Hazel, king of Syria.

And then after this great boon, the Syrian king withdrew from Jerusalem.

The battle was won in a sense, but at what cost?

King Asa had emptied the treasuries of the Lord of the House of the Lord for the Syrian king Ben Hadad back in one Kings fifteen, and now King Joash emptied the treasuries of the house of the Lord for the Syrian king Hazael.

A desperate time undoubtedly, and a truly desperate measure.

So where did things go wrong?

Where did things go wrong?

The kingdom once new peace, the temple had been rebuilt, the worship of God was restored, and indeed, how well refurbished the temple of God was.

How important this was for the people of God to restore the temple where God dwelt among his people, where the high priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement.

But now the king who once set his heart on rebuilding the house of the Lord now plunders that same temple.

He plunders it just like wicked Athalia in order to pay the Syrian king, plunders it to the last silver gold article, brings upon it again dilapidation in desperation and despair, failing to turn to the Lord and trust in him.

So sharp a fall into tragedy.

The golden age was over.

This was a return to the state of worship at the outset of his tenure.

So where was the change of heart?

What happened to King Joash?

Well, notice who was absent from these verses.

When you turn over to 2 Chronicles 24, and I I invite you to turn there for a moment.

Two Chronicles 24, verse 15 to 22.

But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days and he died.

He was one hundred and thirty years old when he died, and they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and his house.

Now after the death of Jehoiada, the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king, the king listened to them, therefore they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols.

And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass.

And yet he that is God sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the Lord, an opportunity for repentance, and they testified against them, but they would not listen.

Verse twenty, then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoidah the priest, who stood above the people and said to them, Thus says God, why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper?

Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you.

And so they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they stoned him, that is Zechariah with stones in the cord of the house of the Lord.

Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoidah his father had done to him, but killed his son, and as he died he said, The Lord look on it and repay.

The man once keeping the king in check died.

And so King Joash turned his heart to serve pagan idols, and he dealt wickedly with Zechariah the son of Jehoidah.

He hated his rebuke, and so put him to death, like so many of those prophets of old, and plunged himself into the judgment of God.

And so the Lord sent the Syrians to punish King Joash for his wickedness and idolatry.

Two Chronicles twenty-four, where you are, but just down in verse twenty-four it says, For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, but the Lord delivered a very great army, that is the Judeans, into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers, so they executed judgment against Joash.

It's funny, isn't it?

We ironic, really, we read in the Old Testament so many times where that small army of the people of God triumphs over these mighty enemies.

And here the irony is we see a th a tiny enemy triumphing over a great kingdom that is meant to be the children of God, the people of God.

And so it's no surprise that idolatrous Joash, hardened in heart, shows his true colours.

And rather than call upon the name of the Lord in repentance, the Lord who has who he was instructed in from his youth, instead he plunders the house of the Lord and gives the riches to a pagan king.

How do we apply these particular verses to our life?

I think there's a warning here, isn't there?

King Joash, he reigned well in a manner that was right in the sight of the Lord, and yet only so long as as the priest Jehoida lived.

Jehoida was for him like an anchor.

And yet when he was gone, when the scaffolding keeping the structure standing was removed, we see what was really built up on the inside in all that time, and it was a hollow house of cards, and great was its fall.

And once he heard something that he didn't like to hear, he cut that person off with finality.

Oh he listened, he listened to godly counsel from his tutor Jehoida, but he failed to listen to the godly counsel of Jehoida's son.

And I wonder can we be like that?

Cutting off counsel that we don't like to hear?

Selective in our hearing?

Or perhaps when the scaffolding in our life is removed?

Godly parents, godly mentors, godly friends, and when we come under trial, will we stand under trial?

Is there enough foundation there on our own?

Dear friend, the only reason you or I can stand under great trial without the scaffolding of godly counsel is if Jesus Christ is our foundation.

Remember what he said in the Sermon on the Mount, in in Matthew seven, twenty-four to twenty seven, he said, Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, beat on that house, but it did not fall.

Why?

It was founded on the rock.

But then Jesus warns, Everyone who hears these sayings of mine doesn't do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

That same trial came, the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.

When the scaffolding comes down, and it will come down, there is only one foundation that holds, and his name is Christ Jesus.

And so I ask, simply, is Christ Jesus your foundation?

Or are you depending on the scaffolding of others so that once they're removed, you will crumble?

That old song says, On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground, even the best godly counsel is sinking sand.

You must have Christ as your foundation.

Well, we reached the tipping point of Joash's good reign and fallen a great descent.

But the tragedy of King Joash is yet to reach its punchline.

The final stroke of tragedy befalls him in these last few verses.

Keep reading verse nineteen down to twenty one and see forth finally a grievous end.

Verse nineteen.

Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

Yes, they are, we read those.

Verse twenty, and his servants arose and formed a conspiracy, and killed Joash in the house of Milo, which goes down to Scylla.

For Josekar, the son of Shimeas, and Jehosabad, the son of Shomah, his servant, struck him.

So he died, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David.

Then Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

King Joash's reign comes to a tragic end.

His kingdom was ruined by ultimate apostasy.

Two Chronicles twenty-four, verse twenty five, it records the same events, but it records them like this.

Verse 25 of 2 Chronicles 24, and when they, that is the Assyrian army, had withdrawn from him, for they left him severely wounded, his own servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed.

So he died.

And then it says, And they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

Our good king meets a grievous end.

There was retribution for the king's wicked acts, act of executing the high priest Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada.

A conspiracy to kill the king unfolded.

And interestingly, they did it in his bed.

A kingdom once marked by rest ended in the place the king lay down to rest.

And see where they buried him in 2 Chronicles 24-25?

Where do they bury him?

Yes, in the city of David, but not in the tomb of the kings.

But remember, remember where Jehoiada was buried when he died in the tomb of the kings.

A tremendous privilege that even that good king Joash didn't receive.

Jehoiada the priest was no king, and yet he was buried with the kings, ultimately because of his faithfulness to God.

Yet Joash, the king, who deserved to be buried among the kings, was not ultimately because of his unfaithfulness to God.

And you know the New Testament has something to say about this.

You and I, like Jehoiada, don't deserve to be buried with kings.

And yet, if you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are baptized into him, then you are buried with the greatest king.

As as Paul writes to the Romans, as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.

Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

And so although we look at the burial of Jehoida in the place of great kings in amazement, you can be buried in the greater place of the greater King.

Are you buried with Christ the King?

If you trust in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, then you are united with the King of Kings in his death, and raised as he is raised from that burial grave into risen life.

Well, the reign of King Joash has come to an end.

His is a narrative of construction and collapse.

His is a reign of commitment without conviction.

His is a kingdom rescued from the shadow of a thalia sword, reaching its zenith in the restoration of God's temple, but ruined ultimately by apostasy.

His is a kingdom of tragedy, but not so the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is a greater king than King Joash.

You see, unlike King Joash, who built up the temple of the living God and yet plundered it under trial and tribulation, King Jesus says himself that he is the new temple, and even under trial and tribulation he cannot be plundered.

Jesus said to his opponents in John 2 19, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

And that exactly happened.

And though he was put to death, he was raised on the third day, and he is a temple that stands forever.

But not only that, King Jesus is building a greater temple made up of his chosen people, not one of timber and stone, but of living stones, his own redeemed people.

Paul writes to the Ephesians in Ephesians 20, 21, he says, You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 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 dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Every believer, rescued, redeemed, and indwelt by the Spirit of God is a stone in a temple that even under trial and tribulation, no enemy can plunder and no king can strip bare.

And so, dear Christian, although the devil should seek to plunder the house of God, King Jesus, our great high priest, says no, I will not lose one, but will raise every one of them up on the last day.

King Jesus' kingdom will not end in tragedy.

The best days are not behind him.

The best days are ahead.

And when he returns to reign over the whole world, that's not even the zenith of his kingdom.

That's not even the climax.

No, dear friend, that is just the beginning.

The beginning of a righteous kingdom under a perfect.

Perfect king.

And so I ask, do you belong to that kingdom that cannot be plundered?

That despite trial and tribulation does not end in tragedy, but reigns in triumph.

Let's pray.

O Heavenly Father.

And that we are your people being built together into a dwelling place of the Lord.

And yet this temple, your son, the chief cornerstone, no devil, no demon, no earthly thing can plunder it.

It is a great and glorious temple, and so I pray if there is any that are here tonight that have not trusted in you, O God, would they see that they are not in a secure place, that they desperately need to trust in your Son and belong to the temple that cannot be plundered, that will have glorious victory in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And for those that are here, that have trusted in you, that are a part of this temple, in our Lord Jesus Christ, I do pray, as you have already promised, keep them, build them up, lose none of them, and let us rest in that wonderful promise.

Come, Lord Jesus, and may our best days be ahead when He returns.

In Christ's name.

Amen.