We are the Temple of God

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Transcript

we'll get going

uh it's mentioned in the uh

little descriptor i gave uh steve

the the theme of this class comes from second corinthians six paul wrote do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers in what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship is light with darkness

what accord is christ with belial or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever what agreement has the temple of god with idols

we are the temple of the living god as god said i will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and i will be their god and they shall be my people

so you know paul uh lays out this analogy for us that we should be viewing ourselves as

the temple of god a dwelling place for god almighty a place for him to dwell and walk among us

he also

um in first corinthians 6

comes back to the same analogy he says flee from sexual immorality

every other sin the person commits is outside the body but the sexual immoral person sins against his own body but you do not know

your body is a temple of the holy spirit within you whom you have from god you are not your own for you are bought with a price but glorify god in your body

it's funny today people have uh you know taken this idea that my body is a temple and they've applied it to all kinds of

uh different ideas about health and fitness and diet and

you know trying to make their body as physically pure as possible but it kind of misses the point obviously

paul was talking about the spiritual cleansing of your temple that

this is not just like the temple itself we're going to look at wasn't

wasn't your living room it wasn't a place to get comfortable and throw your feet up and uh still chips and salsa watching football it was a wholly dedicated place and that's that's what paul is directing us to

see ourselves as a holy dedicated place

for god

so uh what was the temple

in in paul's day obviously there was literally a temple

uh in jerusalem that would be in existence for another uh 10 or 15 years

um it was a magnificent evidence edifice

um doing a little brief uh

history on it it was started

excuse me

we'll go back to solomon's day about a thousand years before christ saul and built the temple and we're going to look at that a little bit too

uh and it was in existence till about 600

bc when the babylonians came and destroyed it it was rebuilt by ezra nehemiah

existed for a number of years and then herod

the king of judea and christ today was decided to rebuild it he actually literally tore down

nehemiah's temple and built something that looked similar to this in its place

the walls especially on the the south and west side i think i was reading that it was 30

meters tall 120 feet to the um

top of the top of the wall from the valley floor

the

massive plaza that you see inside the temple

one of the the guys i was listening to must have been british because he said it was about 30 soccer pitches

in size um

some of the information i was reading about it just uh you could put hundreds of thousands and some estimates up i think it was 300

000 people inside of this

worship and feast days it was a massive

massive construction

but when you think about it

um

this temple it's

often when we talk about the house of god or god's temple i don't know if you can see my cursor but

what i usually think about is the building in the middle the holy and most holy place

and you know that's that is the focus of the whole thing

so when you think about ourselves as being the temple of god

you uh

and what i'm gonna say is

i'm drawing an analogy from from what we know about the temple and it's i'm not going to be dogmatic about this i don't think it can be and i

don't mean to uh

when i say this

i'm going to bring up some questions in in your minds about how i how i but apply what i'm about to say but i'm not trying to be very specific i'm just talking in general terms

uh when you look at this house

the whole focus

was on this building in the center

and as a kid that used to kind of trouble me because

you get a chance to see uh large cathedrals like i i got a chance when i was a teenager to see notre dame in paris and um some other things this is a very small building it's beautiful and ornate but it's very small

but when you think about ourselves

as uh

reflections of this building

right you have this this

large edifice

um this large place for the congregating of people

and what you have out here to go to the left and right of the main building

is what they call the cord of the gentile

then you're looking at the temple from the east facing towards the west and as you going through these front doors of the

temple complex

you enter the uh

you leave the court of the gentiles and you enter into the court of the women and the court of the israelites and then you proceed further into the temple and you go into the holy place

and then the most holy place

so you have this this

graduation of of

acceptable people

uh within each precinct right and

the lesson one of the lessons i'd like to take away from tonight is

at its core at its center was the the most holy place the holy of holies

the the place of the presence of god

and you know who was allowed

in that spot

that in that if we think about ourselves in our core being the the innermost part of ourselves

there really should be room for

no one but god himself and his high priest jesus christ

the high priest was the only person allowed into that sanctuary and once a year so you you have

at its core

um

only space or should only be space for god almighty and his son

and then you move outside from that

and then you go into the holy place and it is full of priests

uh a peculiar set of levites like not any levite could be a priest it was a certain set of priests

and they what was their job

it was to minister to the temple

so when if you think about ourselves

as a temple of god

then you have room for for god almighty and his son jesus christ at your core

and then there are those who spiritually minister to the temple

are the people that you allow in

the closest next to that

and then outside of that

there's the precinct of the the court of the priests

where they were performed the sacrifices and the

washings from the ceremonies and beyond that was the court of the israelites

and the women then the gentiles

so one of the things that it occurred to me as i you know prepared for this class was that there was room

for the gentiles

within the temple precinct in fact the court of the gentiles

was a the vastly uh

largest area

and and in our own lives

you know we're apt to be bumping shoulders and running into a lot more gentiles than than priests and fellow israelites

in our own spiritual journey

now

i'm not saying that

we should

associate with friends without regard to who they are and their their focus in life and what they think is important we want to definitely uh

like the temple itself focus our attention to the holy of holies

and keep that very protected

and and slowly as we go out create space for other people and knowing that

the gentiles

by and large in this temple precinct

were people who had an interest in learning about this hebrew god

we're fascinated with his

glory and honor and if nothing else his tourists wanted to see what this was all about that the jews were so involved in

it is interesting to point and again i don't know if you've been sharing you can see my cursor but just outside of the

the courtyard of the israelites there's this little barrier

that wraps around it on that barrier there were signs that said any gentiles found beyond this point

put to death that was it was not a joke but there was a place in the house of god

for the gentiles and and so when isaiah wrote the foreigners who joined themselves to the lord to minister to him to love the name of the lord and to be his servant everyone who keeps the sabbath and does not profane it holds fast my covenant these i will bring to my holy mountain make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people

it's really a

a beautiful promise of you know something i don't think we've ever seen completely filled

we will when our master returns but in our own lives as we look at ourselves there has to be room for and looking for these people

who would go to god's holy mountain who would seek him out and love his name

and service and minister to him as we do

so uh

what piqued my interest in this this

subject though was

what paul was saying about ourselves being a temple of god and he says what agreement has the temple of god with idols

we are the temple living of god as god says i will make my drawing among them and walk among them

and as we're going to look at

this actually occurred and it happened frequently that not only did the israelites

bring idolatry into their lives

but they've brought it literally into the temple service

this is a

rendering of of israelites at the gate of the temple

worshiping at an idol of ishtar or ashtara

which we're going to see

happen

before we get to that though we want to talk about how the temple started

right when solomon built it

uh it says in first kings eight and one and

really if if i

hatch together two passages here these chronicles have something else i wanted to mention but these two are very similar passages then solomon assembled the others of israel and all the heads of the tribes

the leaders of the fathers of the houses of people of israel before king solomon in jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the lord out of the city

zion also king solomon and all the congregation of israel that were assembled unto him before the ark sacrificed sheep in austin which could not be told nor numbered from multitudes and the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the lord unto its place

the oracle of the house into the most holy place even under the wings of the cherubim

the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark and the cherubims covered the ark and the stays thereof and they drew out the staves of the ark that the end of the slaves were seen from the ark before the oracle but they were not seen without and there it is and to this day

i want to uh

just kind of

posit this thought

two things one is

what a magnificent day this was when when the jerusalem

temple itself is just packed with people celebrating the dedication of this house right and

here is this passage we see what makes this different from the tabernacle

verse 9 they drew out the staves of the ark

the ark was made to be transported it was made to be carried around

that the tabernacle was not fixed but

when they dedicated that temple

they pulled out the staves from the ark and god's mercy came to a rest and and had a home a permanent place

and you know clearly that's what we should be a permanent place

uh forever dedicated to the presence of god in our lives

deep in the the deepest part of our being

just like the the most holy

in the temple

and i'm sure there's a wonderful spiritual lesson about the cherubims spreading their wings over that place and the the shadow of their wings covering over the ark in the states but uh

that's for another time i guess

so the same uh dedication solomon says

the lord has said he would dwell in thick darkness but i have built a house of habitation to thee in a place where you're dwelling and the king turned his face and blessed the whole congregation of israel and all the congregation of israel stood

and he said but will god indeed dwell with man on earth

both heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you how much lifts this house that i built you have regard to the prayer of your servant and who is plea oh lord

listening to the cry in a prayer that your servant prays before you that your eyes may be opened day and night towards this house

place where you have promised to set your name that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers towards this place and listen to the pleas of your servant and your people israel when they pray towards this place and listen from heaven from your dwelling place when you hear

forgive so you have when you consider this as analogous to

ourselves our body being a temple of god

uh how unworthy are we that we should

call ourselves a house of god a dwelling place for him if he can't be if the heavens can't contain him and solomon's magnificent temple was

insufficient to contain him

yet

god has promised like he promised solomon that he would dwell with his people and he would be in that house

he has promised that to us and then so that we get this opportunity with almighty god to say well

put your a's eyes day and night on on this temple

and listen to the prayer of your servant

for this place and you can think of this in the singular as ourselves and you can think of this as in the plurality of the brotherhood

that you know when we come together to pray

god says he will listen you will hear

he will forgive

it's really a beautiful and touching

uh analogy that that paul gives us and then at the end of solomon's dedication that as soon as solomon finished his prayer fire came down from heaven and consumed the burned offering

and the sacrifices and the glory of the lord filled the temple the priest could not enter the house of the lord because of the glory of the lord fill the lord's house

i don't know if if

you guys have all dealt with them i know when i was baptized i i can liken that day to this

when you felt so

unworthy

and yet so filled by the presence and glory of god

um

we dedicate ourselves completely to his service this is the kind of

reaction on his part we can expect

he will fill this house this dwelling place with his glory

he did then

so if you look at the history of this temple

you have examples like in second kings

where jehovah sets the priests

all the money and the holy things

that is brought into the house of the lord the money for which each man is assessed the money from the assessment of persons the money that a man's heart prompted him to bring into the house of the lord let the priests take each room his donor and let them repair the house

wherever any need of repairs was discovered

but by the 23rd year of king johash the priest has made no repairs on the house

god's house requires

repair it reply requires a constant maintenance and you can see in jehovah ash's day

that that had not been taken care of and we can ourselves

fall away from the daily maintenance

and let our temple fall into disrepair

you know i'm sure

the idea isn't for me to tell you all the ways that uh

you can let your temple fall into disrepair

uh it's

more for for you to kind of think about ways maybe that your own temple i mean i know

i know mine is lapsed that time and and you know then you need to make a great effort like they did in johash's day

to uh

pick up the pieces and get started and put it back together

so you have that example

then

even worse

you have manasseh is 12 years old when he began to reign this is second kings 21 and he reigned 55 years in jerusalem and his mother's name was

jesus was evil in the sight of the lord

and i won't read all of this

um

you can read it as i talk maybe there's some awful stuff in here uh

verse seven like carved image of asherah that he made he set in the house of which the lord said to david and solomon his son in this house and in jerusalem which i have chosen out of all the tribes of israel i will put my name forever so here you have the first uh

at least the first i'm aware of the kings of judah actually bringing idols into the temple

and

that is a metaphor for

all of us to consider you know do we bring

our idols into our temple

when you get to the

final days of

judah's commonwealth

prophet ezekiel if you remember he was in babylon

he was

already a an exile

living there and he was taken in a vision

back to jerusalem

and when he arrived he's shown these things ezekiel 8 and 5.

son of man lift up your eyes now towards the north so i lifted up my eyes towards the north and behold the north of the altar gate in the entrance was the image of jealousy he said to me son of man do you see what they are doing

great abominations of the house of israel are committing here to drive me from my sanctuary but you will still see greater abomination

so he goes further and he's told to dig into the wall

and when once he's made a hole he's told to go in and look

so i went and saw and they're engraved on the wall all around with every form of creeping thing and loads of beeps and all the idols of the house of israel and before them stood at seventy men of the elders of the house of israel

jayaz and i are the son of shay fans standing among them each had a sensor in his hand and the smoke the cloud of infants went up

he said to me son of man have you seen what the elders of the house of israel are doing in the dark teaching his room of pictures

they say the lord does not see us the lord is forsaken the land so this is in the temple complex

that ezekiel is seeing this

these people have like apparently apartments if you read later on in ezra nehemiah i think it's sam ballet actually had

built his own apartment in the courtyard of the temple

and in these these these private apartments as it were these people are in the dark in the room of pictures it reminds me very much of uh

you know

i don't think this is what ezekiel had in mind but it makes me think of sitting in a

darkened living room with a tv on a

room of pictures flashing on the wall and you know what is it that we're

putting into our temple

the

lesson we have there

so after that he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the lord and behold there sat women weeping for to move

he said to me have you seen this oh son of man you will still see greater abominations than these um tomus is the the god um from babylon who's pictured on the right and this

at least that's what google images said i'm assuming that's actually him uh he was the consort of ishtar

who you see her image on the left

uh

they were

like they were a pair

and they were like a fertility kind of cult she was the goddess of love

and uh he was her consort he actually

according to babylonian mythology went into the the underworld to rescue her from her evil sister the queen of the underworld

and the price to get her out of

the underworld was that he had to go into the underworld for six months

um so in the winter they would weep for tamooze because he was dying and the the god of grain and and harvest and all of that uh was disappearing for six months and so they they wept for him which is what that

sorry for the long story but that's what that's all about

uh and then finally uh i won't read all this but ezekiel has shown the the eastern end of the temple which is where the doors were

the inner precinct

and these men were by between the porch and the altar 25 men were their backs to the temple of the lord and their faces toward the east worshiping the sun so you have all this evilness and idolatry this is like the the apex though

where

they're actually in god's holy temple

facing away from it and worshipping something else they're they're at the center of of yahweh worship

worshipping the son with their backs to their god

and uh it doesn't end well for them

so the the conclusion of this vision this whole time there's a presence of cherubim

there and the cherubim was standing on the south side of the house when the man went in cloud filled the inner court and we just read how

the glory of god filled the temple when solomon dedicated it

like the glory of god should fill us when we dedicate ourselves to him because the glory of the lord went up from the cherub

to the threshold of the house

the house was filled with the cloud and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the lord

then you skip on to chapter 10.

since the terrible were standing on the south side of the house when the man went in and the crowd filled the inner court and the glory of the lord went up from the cherubim to the threshold of the house

33 done that sorry

anyway the long and short of it as you get to chapter 11 and verse 22

when the chairman lifted up their wings and the wheels besides him and the glory the god of israel was over them and the glory lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city

so when

we fill our temple

with idols in

faithlessness and

and all of the debauchery that they were engaging in

the glory of the lord departed it left

and and we don't want that to happen in our own lives

we want to maintain that purity of our own temple so that god

will continue to dwell there if you remember back a few verses he talked about the the wickedness they're doing that is driving me from this place

and then when god leaves

it's not long till

total destruction come

and you know it's a theme that we see repeated it it happens

in ezekiel's day and it happens after christ's death in 70 a.d

no the lesson for us here

as we get into the new testament is that

paul says although they knew god they did not honor him as god or gave thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claimed to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man birds and animals and creeping things therefore god gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies amongst themselves

and here's the key thing

because they exchanged the truth about god for a lie

and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator

that they worship the thing created usually the thing of their own creation

instead of the one who created them and it's a common failure in mankind throughout history it's

as easy to happen to us as it is to as it was to them

that uh

we worship and trust and and put our hope in the things that we create

our 401ks our government our

ability to solve problems our relationships

uh and we turn to those things and not god almighty who created us not his ministers who who he has provided to service in the temple fellow israelites who are

uh guiding us and walking with us on our journey

within our nature to wanna trust in ourselves the things we create

when you get to the temple in christ's day it's interesting the temple was not in disrepair in fact it was still being built

you remember the disciples

taking him on a tour around the temple saying look at all these magnificent buildings right

but and yet the temple was

not a disrepair and it there was no idolatry there were no images

the

revolt that happened in 70 a.d was because the romans were threatening to put an image of the

caesar in

in the temple and that was that kind of kicked that all off

but while there was

no physical idols there was all kinds of idolatry going on

jesus uh matthew 21 and 12 went into the temple of god and cast out all that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the table for money changes from the seats of them the troll dove

said unto them quotes what we read in isaiah earlier my house should be called the house of prayer would you have made it a den of thieves so you know we can

bring idols into our

temple that are not

traditional idols

matthew 23 and 1 jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples the scribes and the pharisees sit in moses's seat so do and observe what they tell you but do not the works that they do for they preach but do not practice they tie up heavy burdens hard to bear they lay them on the people's shoulders but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger

there's all kinds of

rejection of god's

law and the spirit in which it was given

by the the leaders at that time and that's a

something we have to be very careful about causing each other to carry heavy burdens that are hard to bear and laying those burdens on each other's shoulders and not being willing to help move them with our own fingers

so in the end

you know what agreement has the temple of god was idol

jesus the temple is a living god as god said i will make them