2 Chronicles 29:15 – And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.

2 Chronicles 29:16 – And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron.

2 Chronicles 29:17 – Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the Lord: so they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

2 Chronicles 29:18 – Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof.

2 Chronicles 29:19 – Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, and, behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.

Hello readers, hope you’ve had a good week! Today I am talking about the need to be clean, the temple of God must be cleansed! God dwells in a separate, set apart and clean place… but king Hezekiah found the temple as anything but, and his first order of business as king was commissioning an old fashioned thorough spring cleaning.

If you are saved, the Bible says you are the temple of God, which is an incredible thought, but our heart is where God dwells by faith. And God is not going to dwell in a fouled up, defiled, and unclean dwelling place. So what is the state of our heart and lives as God’s dwelling place? How’s your temple going, the temple of your body? If cleansing a physical building was so vital, how much so cleansing the house of our own spirit and body where God dwells?

Cleansing is such a huge part of our salvation, the Bible says that Jesus Christs’s blood cleanseth us from all sin. Until we are cleansed from our sin, God does not and will not accept us. Being clean and being a Christian go together, and there is a strong lack of cleanliness amongst many professing Christians today, which should have our alarm bells ringing, beginning with looking at our own lives. What are we doing with our temple… God’s temple? What needs to be dragged out into the light and disposed of?

There is that old saying “cleanliness is next to godliness”. Because being clean is so important to God. The Bible teaches that God is a clean God, and furthermore God has clearly defined what is clean and what is unclean, and he has put a very clear division between what is clean and what is unclean… and we must be clean because we are commanded to be clean, because God will not receive us if we are not clean. You know how this world is full of dirty dead stuff? God is not part of that, he is separate from that, and so should we who carry his Son’s name.

By the way, cleansing is great. Cleansing is such a necessary part of life and you probably understand that more than you might think. Having a shower to wash off the day’s dirt and grime is cleansing yourself. We clean our houses, our equipment, our cars, our bodies… so we understand that cleansing is an important and vital part of life. How much moreso must we be cleansed from the filth of sin to be right with God and able to serve him?

I have quoted from 2 Chronicles 29, which is about when king Hezekiah took reign in Judah. He had a wicked father, but this guy did not follow in his father’s footsteps. If you come from a family that has rejected God, you do not need to go that way too. You do have a choice. You will stand before God for your life and your sin and there will be no excuses. Yes honour your father and your mother, but you do that by honouring God first.

The first thing Hezekiah did when he began to reign was he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. Jesus Christ said “I am the door” in John 10:9. In 2022, we’ve closed the door because we are so fouled up by our own sin we’ve lost our testimony, witness and use in this world. Christians have shut the door on people hearing and believing the gospel because we are so wicked ourselves. Revival starts with God’s people, not with this wicked world. We’ve lost God in our midst, and noone cares for Christianity anymore because of the reputation they have gotten, because they were just as unclean, if not moreso, than the world. Revival will begin when we start repairing the truth that we once knew and believed… that still hasn’t changed. God’s rules were still the same here people, yes times had changed, but God had not.

You cannot sin and it not cost you dearly. The temple was the place the whole nation would flow to to offer sacrifice to God, hear God’s word and pray. It was a place for personal revival. Yet it was shut. Noone was coming or going. When you start fouling up with sin and uncleanness in your life, expect your life to be exactly useless. The priests and Levites had no ministry anymore. Christians have been shut up from this world by their own sin which they refuse to deal with. That’s why people don’t seem to be saved anymore. Truth has become locked up and the key thrown away.

By the way, just note, it was an evil government that shut down the temple worship and brought the nation to ruin. But a godly government that Hezekiah brought in reocgnized that national revival begins with a return to God. It’s the same for us today. The solution to our national mess is getting right with God. A government that puts God’s word back at the top of the agenda is the nation that will still thrive and prosper.

Well, Hezekiah got the priests and the Levites together. Guess what, he went to the pastors and the preachers and the teachers. And that’s where revival in our society must begin.  The people in God’s ministry must repent first. Hezekiah found that they weren’t even sanctified, what does that mean? They were living and doing like everyone else. They were not separate unto God at all. They had no sanctified God in their heart. Although their lives were dedicated to God, they weren’t actually dedicated to God. How could they clean the temple and be used by God in the ministry when they weren’t even right with God themselves? When are we going to put God number one in our lives? As a Christian you are called to be separate from this world unto Christ… and that’s what the Holy Spirit produces in our life, lack of which indicates there are spiritual issues in our life.

And there was a big problem in the temple, guess what that was? There was filthiness in the holy place. Imagine that. There was a lot of unclean stuff in the temple. Stuff that needed to be taken out that had been brought in by people disobedient to God’s word. And we likewise need to get the unclean stuff that is dishonoring God out of our lives. If you are saved, and you are the temple of God, there are things that need to get gotten out. What needs to be purged out of your heart and mind and desires and will and daily deeds? What unclean stuff are you heavily involved with that is dishonoring God and ruining your life and your testimony in this world?

If you go and read books like Leviticus, which was the law to the Levites, that tribe separated unto God’s work, God’s business, God’s ministry… which we are today as Christians… there is so much stuff about clean and unclean. Don’t doubt the vital importance of this issue. Leviticus 22:3 “Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD.” You didn’t just go into the temple and minister unto the Lord any way you pleased and felt like, you had to be sanctified and clean, otherwise God would cut you off. Just because you’ve changed your standards doesn’t mean God has changed his.

If you do a word study of “clean” and “unclean”, it is incredible what will you find. I can’t quote them all or cover it all. God wants you to be clean because you are not acceptable to him if you are unclean. So we, like the priests and Levites did, must go into our lives personally and do a bit of cleaning. Guess what, it took them eight days to clean the temple out, there was that much filth in there. By the way, the only way we are truly clean before God is through the blood of Jesus Christ.  So yes, we should actively clean our lives from stuff that dishonours God, but we do that all because of what Jesus has done for us. We could never do enough cleaning or be able to clean away the guilt and filth of our sin with our own efforts. But if you are saved, and if you have been cleansed from sin, you should want to steer clear from all that filth and junk that was ruining your life and still would ruin your life. Stay away from unclean garbage, don’t let it cleave to you.

The Bible says in Psalm 19:9 “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever…”. Fear of God and cleanliness go hand in hand people, if you are unclean in your speech and deeds, it’s because you do not fear God. There are just so many verses I could quote which abundantly show the importance of being clean, but also how to be clean. You know, God’s word makes us clean, Jesus said that, and reading God’s word has a cleansing effect on our minds and souls and lives. You get in the Bible and your life will be cleaner, guaranteed.

So the priests and the Levites went into the temple and kept emerging with bits of filth and junk that had no place being in God’s holy place. So we know that they were able to identify what was clean and what was not. Read your Bible and you’ll find out quick smart what is acceptable and honourable to God and what is not… it’s not hard. And they took it down to the rubbish dump where it belonged, because the brook Kidron was their place for garbage disposal in those days. Note, they didn’t take it out, and then reconsider, and bring it back in. They got rid of all the filth entirely.

As we have already noted, when they got right with God themselves personally, then they were able to cleanse the temple. See, the order must be right. They had to be sanctified first in order to do this work. Many professing Christians won’t be dragging any filth out because there is no personal sanctification to God. The reason why Christians butt heads so much on matters of clean and unclean, what’s acceptable and what isn’t, is because they aren’t even sanctified themselves. They aren’t set apart unto God at all. They don’t care what God has said. They aren’t interested in putting God first or obeying him. The reason why we buck so much against God’s word is because we’re not interested in truly obeying him… isn’t that the truth? If you really loved God, it wouldn’t be that hard to kick the stuff that dishonours God out… would it.

But God still requires cleanness and cleansing. If you are not cleansed, you are not saved. Maybe you still like the unclean things because you are unclean, not cleansed. Dogs  were unclean, and a dog goes back to its vomit because it is an unclean animal. Maybe you like that vomit because you are just an unclean creature. The appetite is there because the nature is there. Remember, salvation is a new creature. Maybe you are still like that old creature because you are still that old creature, you may become religious, but not been born again. Until God creates a clean heart in you, until he gives you a divine nature through being born again, you won’t have that desire for clean things. You still like the dead things because you have that dead old nature. Like the raven picking out those rotting corpses of Noah’s flood versus the dove which found no rest for the sole of her foot out in the rotting dead carcase of the old world.

Ezekiel 39:24 “According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.” God is not pleased with uncleanness. He won’t tolerate it. Cleansing was so vitally important in Old Testament times, and it is still important for the born again child of God today. We have no business in being unclean and having unclean thoughts and motives and things in our lives. Get cleansing in God’s word. Get cleansing in the blood. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

And if you are saved, this command is for you… 2 Corinthians 6:17 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” and James 4:8 “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” I hope you have a great week, and by the way, there is a blessing with being clean, it’s good to be clean, it’s good for us on every level, and it will pay off. Think twice before going back to all that old unclean dead and filthy stuff this week, ask God to save you and cleanse you and make you clean and to give you a heart for clean things… because that is profitable to you, and to all those you will have to do with this week and this year and this life.

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