Every manifestation of the spirits of lust, of the love of money, of hatred, for example, must be driven from the saint, from the Kingdom of God, from the Temple of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ is coming now to cleanse His Temple. How shall we receive Him? Shall we allow Him to purge from us the adultery, the murder, the superstition, the riotous living, the covetousness, the foolishness, the unclean speech, the spite, the gossip?

As far as covetousness is concerned, can it be stated truly of us that we are not too involved with the things and spirit of the world? Are we indeed "strangers and pilgrims" on the earth?

God in His kindness has given us all good things to enjoy. But immersion in the things and activities of this present world is not of the Father. Are we bound by the spirit of the age in which we live or are we following in the steps of the Man of Galilee, of Paul, of James, of John, of Peter?

No man or woman, boy or girl, can be a Christian without putting his or her hand to the plow and walking straight on in the path set before him by the Holy Spirit. No person can be a Christian without taking up his cross and following Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the same "yesterday, and today, and forever." The standards of discipleship also are true yesterday, today, and forever.

Sometimes we claim, "We must have beautiful surroundings to demonstrate the beauty of the Gospel. We must adorn the house of God."

Is the place where Christians assemble actually the house of God? The record shows that Christ was born in a stable. Had the Lord God of Heaven wanted His only begotten Son, Jesus, to be born in surroundings befitting His kingly Person, Christ would have been born in a royal palace, not among the animals of the stable.

God is infinitely more concerned with the condition of the hearts of the saints than He is with the buildings in which they assemble. We are not advocating here that Christian people should meet in a dirty building when there is something they can do about it. (It would not injure the Gospel of the Kingdom if Christians met in a dirty shed.) We must be diligent in everything we put our hand to, and taking adequate care of the place in which we assemble is no exception.

It appears, however, that we continue to refer to the buildings in which we assemble as the "house of God." We teach our children in Sunday School that the building is the house of God. We attempt to glorify God by decorating and enlarging the assembly halls.

Yet the hearts of the believers, in many instances, remain boarded-up, cobwebbed shacks, hiding places for snakes and spiders, strongholds of stubbornness, rebellion, and gossip.

It is time now for the Lord Jesus to come and cleanse His temple.

Sometimes there is an inverse relationship between the appearance of the assembly building (church) and the condition of the hearts of those who assemble in it. The grander the building the more spiritually destitute the worshipers. This is not always true, but it occurs commonly as we know.

To be continued.