Lock the Doors of the Temple!

Lock the Doors of the Temple!

“Who is there even among you who would shut the doors [of the temple], so that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain?” Mal. 1:10.

Whenever Israel brought a sacrifice, they would use animals that were sick, lame, blind, or stolen. They kept the best of the flock for themselves. Such sacrifices were an abomination before God, and all the sacrifices they burned on the altar were in vain. God wished for someone to shut the doors of the temple to all such sacrifices.

Would that there were also many wholehearted people today who would make sure that the doors of the temple stay closed to all halfhearted sacrifices. It is easy to gather large assemblies if one accepts defiled sacrifices because of one’s carnal desires. God’s wrath rests over all such assemblies, and they worship Him in vain.

Do not accept a single penny for God’s work unless it is given in this spirit: “Imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.” 2 Cor. 8:4. Such an offering, even if it is only a few pennies, has God’s blessing over it. What shall we do with thousands of dollars collected from halfhearted people if there is a curse over it? It is God’s blessing that makes rich. We must believe God in all things and not make flesh our strength.

The doors of the temple must also be shut to all worldly wisdom and knowledge, and to all strange doctrines that do not lead to a deeper fear of God.

The body is to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor. 6:19. The doors that open up to this world must be closed if God is to do His work in this temple. It is useless to labor with souls whose temple doors are open, because if the fire has been kindled on the altar, the cold wind of this world blows in through all the doors, and it is quickly quenched.

Jesus would not accept anyone as His disciple or impart Himself to anyone unless they had forsaken everything and had closed the temple doors to father and mother, sister, brother, wife, children, fields, meadows, etc.

May we learn this lesson from Jesus. To entrust spiritual things to superficial people is like trying to keep loose grain in an open bin with a storm blowing. However, everything would have been all right if all the doors of the bin had been closed before the grain was emptied into it.

As a rule, the doors of the temple are wide open, and all kinds of thoughts about people, animals, houses, business, automobiles, etc., go in and out from morning till evening. It could be compared to a house of merchandise—but Jesus said that it was to be a house of prayer. He drove the moneychangers and those who sold doves out of the temple. Matt. 21:12-13. All foreign thoughts must not be allowed to enter in.

When the doors are closed, Christ will do His work in a person in quietness by the altar’s fire. If you have decided to bring an offering to the altar, let it be consumed in all quietness. The left hand should not know what the right hand is doing. Do not open yourself to carnal people even if you think the fire is getting hot; but rather anoint your head and let God do His work in the depths of your heart.

Oh, that there would be many, who would of their own accord close the doors of the temple to everything that is impure, and then labor to get them closed in the lives of as many people as possible. Each one of us is a temple, and every building shall be joined together to grow up to be a holy temple of the Lord. We shall also be built together to be a habitation of God in the Spirit. Eph. 2:21-22. When each one of us is a temple of the Spirit, and each one of us makes sure that the doors are securely closed against all evil, it will be blessed to come together in the church, which is the temple of the new covenant.