Jesus turned over the tables of the money changers because these people were taking advantage of those that were wanting to worship God and, through the proper offerings, be accepted back into right standing with God, the atonements that were being made for them.  These priests had taken their position as the ones that could judge whether the offering was acceptable or not and we all know how this worked, right?  You would bring your little pigeon to them for examination and they would say, “No, this one doesn’t quite meet the standards, but we have such a good deal over here and these have already been pre-examined and these are acceptable and so here you can buy it from my brother Vito.”  That is just what it was like, mafia, those priests, those Pharisees. 

You could see where Jesus would be angered, but you know what caused Him to be just as angry?  People were using the temple as a shortcut to get from A to B and they would take their animals, their wares, and whatever they might have, and they may not be even going to be selling them there on the temple site, but they were just cutting through that court of the gentiles to get where they wanted to go.  The temple was to be a house of prayer, and for their own personal convenience, their own personal ease; they defiled the house of God?  You say, “Well, how does that relate to us?”  Think about your quiet time.  What decisions do you make for your own personal ease and comfort that cuts into the time that you should be in the presence of God in the temple, in communion with God, in bringing forth free will offerings to God?  Aren’t you glad that the price for our redemption has already been paid once for all, but we can spend the rest of our lives giving those free-will offerings of thanksgiving; amen?  So, that defilement of the house of God manifested itself in many different ways and it grieved His heart. 

We’ve spent a lot of time establishing what sound doctrine is and protecting yourself with the helmet of salvation.  Most of the church today will say doctrine is not the issue, we just need to be in unity.  You can’t be in unity if you don’t have sound doctrine.  Doctrine is everything and people today want to make it nothing, it’s a side issue, as long we just love one another.  Well, doctrine tells me whether I can love you or not.  Do I see you as a brother or as an enemy?  What gospel are you preaching?  This helmet of salvation, where we understand what sound doctrine is, we understand who we are in Jesus Christ.   Then, here come the fiery darts and we begin to have things come into our lives and we begin to doubt, as Satan accuses us, “If you were a Christian, you wouldn’t act like that.”  Yes, Christians do act like that but they don’t remain there, they hate their sin, they come back to God, they repent, they confess their sin and God is faithful and just to forgive them and cleanse them from all their unrighteousness; amen?  You’d better believe that, in this hour that we are coming into, because what is going to happen is we’re going to see these supernatural forces, these false prophets that are going to arise are going to begin to bring all kinds of doubt and confusion into the church.  They will try to convince you that prayer doesn’t work.  You pray to just soothe your own mental faculties and to be able to bring in an inner peace and prayer brings that salve, it’s like meditation.  But there is no living being on the other end that is hearing your supplication that is touched with the feelings of your infirmities that will move heaven and earth on your behalf; amen?  You can’t expect God to answer your prayers, you can’t expect God to heal the sick, you can’t expect God to raise your dead child, and the supernatural isn’t for us today.  Don’t let the enemy rob you of your prayer life.