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NTRODUCTION: Jesus defended his working on the Sabbath with 4 arguments.

1) (Matthew 12:3-4) David was never condemned for taking the shewbread. 2) (Matthew 12:5) The Priests worked on the Sabbath also. They killed and dressed the animals for sacrifice. They baked and changed the showbread. There was the killing, skinning, and cleaning of the animals, and the building of the fire to consume the sacrifice. They also trimmed the gold lamps, burned incense, and performed various other duties. 3) (Matthew 12:7) Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6. The 4th commandment only forbids work for worldly gain. The Sabbath was made to provide happiness for man, not condemn him. It's a sad commentary on the church when we become finders of fault instead of messengers of mercy. 4) (Matthew 12:8) He was the Lord of the Sabbath.
1. God doesn't have to follow man's laws. He's the Lord over all the laws.
2. God doesn't have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah if He doesn't judge America.
3. God doesn't have to answer to you, the Pope, Benny Hinn or Barak Obama.
4. He is the I AM, The Alpha and Omega, The Good Shepherd, The Self Existing One, The God-Head, The King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
5. He spoke the worlds into existence, breathed life into man; the earth hangs and spins on His command.
6. HE IS THE FINAL AUTHORITY.
7. In Matthew chapter 12, you will find the phrase, 'greater than' 3 times in reference to Jesus Christ.
8. I want to focus today on the Greatness of Christ.
I. ONE GREATER THAN THE TEMPLE (MATTHEW 12:6)
A. THE GLORY OF THE TEMPLE
1. Thirty thousand men hewed cedar wood from Lebanon.
2. One Hundred and Fifty thousand were put to work on the temple and still it took seven years to build.
3. The dimensions were 90ft long x 30ft wide x 45ft tall.
4. The House was completely overlaid with gold.
5. The Inside of the House was overlaid with gold. The Altar was overlaid with gold.
6. Two Cherubims 15ft high x 15ft wide overlaid with gold.
7. The floor itself was completely overlaid with gold. There has never been a build built that can match it.
8. Carved into the walls cherubims, palm trees and open flowers; carvings that cannot be matched in beauty.
9. (Ill.) When the second temple was built, men wept because they knew it didn't compare to the first.
B. THERE IS ONE MORE GLORIOUS THAN THE TEMPLE
1. (Ill.) Moses seeing His backside. When he came down, his face glowed from the Shakina Glory of God.
2. We will need a new body when we get to Heaven just to handle His glory.
3. That's why God came as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. We couldn't handle his true form.
4. He's Indescribable and Unimaginable.

'Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made. Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Tho' stretched from sky to sky.'

5. Man saw him once in His humility, but we'll see Him again in His Glory!!! (Revelation 1:13-18)
C. THE HOLINESS OF THE TEMPLE.
1. The Priest had to change His garments. There was a place where he would wash himself.
2. Because he was going to enter the presence of God he had to make a sacrifice for himself first.
3. If he did not, he would die. It was a scary and careful time for the priest. It was a time of self examination.
4. I am told by those who have studied Israel's history that they had a rope tied around their ankles.
D. THERE IS ONE MORE HOLY THAN THE TEMPLE.
1. He's with us always yet we enter His presence daily without thought of how holy our lives are.
2. I wonder how we would live if we were constantly aware of His presence?
3. How would it affect what we allowed our eyes to see, our ears to hear and our mouths to say?
4. (Ill.) There is a S. S. song that goes, 'Oh, be careful little eyes what you see.'
5. We'd be careful of what we did. We'd constantly be running back to the place where sins are cleansed.

Hebrews 4:16, 'Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.'

E. THE SACRIFICE OF THE TEMPLE.
1. The only thing that could cover their sins. They lived or died by whether or not they made that sacrifice.
2. Yet the sacrifice was only temporal. It had to be repeated over and over again..
F. THERE IS A GREATER SACRIFICE THAN THE SACRIFICE OF THE TEMPLE.
1. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. That's why the last words He spoke on the cross were, 'It is finished.' (Hebrews 10:10-12, 17-20)
2. There's not a sinner that Jesus cannot forgive: Woman at the well; Adulterous Woman; Thief at the cross; Paul, the persecutor of Christians.
3. If you came to ODBC in New Bedford you would find ex-drug addicts, ex-alcoholics and ex-prostitutes.
4. (Ill.) Terry Childers and Centure
II. ONE GREATER THAN JONAS (MATTHEW 12:40-41)
A. THERE WAS NEVER A REVIVAL LIKE NINEVEH HAD.
1. Nineveh was a God hating nation. They hated God's people. They murdered children.
2. Jonah came to warn them, but they were so wicked that Jonah didn't want to go.
3. But in one day an entire nation fell before God and got right with Him.
4. Imagine that happening today.
a. (Ill.) Billy Sunday (Chicago, the city Billy Sunday couldn't shut down).
b. (Ill.) Jonathon Edwards. (Ill.) D. L. Moody's revival at the factories.
c. But none of these great men of God ever saw a revival like Nineveh had.
B. THERE IS ONE GREATER THAN JONAH
1. Most people think that could never happen today. They say, 'But we live in the Laodicean Age. We don't have great men like that anymore.'
2. (Ill.) Jonah wasn't a great man. He was a man running from God. He had to be forced to do God's will. And when God brought revival, Jonah was bitter that revival came. WOW! What a great man!!!
3. If you study it out, you'll find that it wasn't Jonah that brought revival. We have one greater than Jonah!
4. There's One greater than Billy Sunday; One greater than D. L. Moody; One greater than Jonathon Edwards
5. We have the God of Nineveh's revival.

II. Chronicles 7:14, 'If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.'

6. We will never experience another Day of Pentecost, but we do have the God of Pentecost.

Acts 2:2, 'And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.'

7. The same breath that breathed life into the nostrils of man breathed revival into that room that day.
8. This was the same breath that came from the mouth of God when he spoke the worlds into existence.

II Samuel 22:14-16, '14 The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice. 15 And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them. 16 And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.'

9. Jesus breathed on Pentecost and the revival got started. I think God is waiting to breathe on us today. (continued...)
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