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  THE VALUE OF THE TEMPLE
  by John Ker
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Summary: John Ker's sermon emphasizes the importance of maintaining the
sanctity of worship and warns against the dangers of materialism in the
church.

Topics: "Temple Worship", "Spiritual Purity"
Scripture References: Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:17, John 2:13, 1 Timothy 6:10

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DESCRIPTION
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John Ker preaches on the significance of Jesus purifying the temple,
emphasizing the sacredness of Old Testament worship even as it was about
to be fulfilled by Christ's sacrifice. The cleansing of the temple
serves as a warning against the dangerous combination of greed and
religion, a recurring issue throughout history. The presence of money-
changers in the temple symbolizes the ongoing struggle against
materialism infiltrating spiritual spaces, highlighting the need for
constant vigilance and purity in worship.

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CONTENT
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"My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den
of thieves" (Matt. 21:13).

One is struck in reading the account of the purifying of the temple by
Christ (Matt. 21:12), that He should have bestowed so much thought on
what was so soon to become obsolete by His own word, "It is finished!"
We do not read elsewhere of the indignation of our Lord rising to such a
height, and taking the form of outward compulsion. It is the seal of
Christ set on the sacredness of the Old Testament worship, all the more
needed that He is about to remove it; but still more it is a vivid
warning beforehand against the union between covetousness and religion,
or rather the form of religion. That evil reached a visible height when
the sale of indulgences and the building of St.

Peter's went hand in hand. But it has appeared so often, and in all
sections of the Church, that the entrance of the money-changers into the
temple may be called the normal danger of Christianity. Drunkenness and
sensuality, which had their shrines in the old pagan Pantheon, have
still a place in the hearts of many professed worshippers in the house
of God, but it is Mammon who still sets up his tables in the open court.

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/john-ker/the-value-of-the-temple/
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