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The Temple Of God
July 03, 2016
The temple of God is not some man-made structure. It is not a church building, a chapel, a cathedral or any other concoction of man. It is a spiritual building, one made by God and not by man. We, the called out, are the temple of God, both individually and collectively. - Bernie Parsons
The Temple of God
A sermon by Bernie Parsons
Presented to Globe church of Christ on 07-03-2016
Presented to Load church of Christ on 07-10-2016
We recently studied about when the kingdom of God came and how to enter
that kingdom.
In this lesson, I want to delve more deeply into this spiritual kingdom.
First, we must realize that members of this spiritual kingdom are a
temple of God.
The physical temple was never what God wanted or asked for.
2 Samuel 7:5 "Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt
thou build me an house for me to dwell in?
6 Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up
the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked
in a tent and in a tabernacle.
7 In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of
Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded
to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of
cedar?"
Isaiah 66:1 "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth
is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is
the place of my rest?
2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have
been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is
poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."
Worship is a frame of mind, an attitude, and not a building or a place.
John 4:21 "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh,
when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship
the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation
is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such
to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth."
We don’t worship God from a place, other than within our minds and
hearts. Our body is a portable temple, a tabernacle that can be taken
with us wherever we go in this life.
2 Corinthians 4:18 "While we look not at the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are
temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our
house which is from heaven:
3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for
that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be
swallowed up of life."
2 Peter 1:13 "Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle,
to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our
Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me."
The buildings that we make are for our own convenience and comfort. But,
He has made us, and our bodies, and these are temples wherein we worship
the God who made us.
1 Corinthians 6:12 "All things are lawful unto me, but all things are
not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought
under the power of any.
13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy
both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord;
and the Lord for the body.
14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by
his own power.
15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then
take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God
forbid.
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body?
for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but
he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit, which are God's."
The body is not about satisfying various pleasures of the flesh, but
being a place of worship.
Hebrews 8:1 "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We
have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of
the Majesty in the heavens;
2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the
Lord pitched, and not man.
3 For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices:
wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
4 For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there
are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was
admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See,
saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to
thee in the mount.
6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also
he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon
better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place
have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the
day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not,
saith the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind,
and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they
shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to
the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more.
13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now
that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away."
Hebrews 9:8 "The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the
holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing:
9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service
perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal
ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to
say, not of this building;
12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us.”
Hebrews 9:23 “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in
the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God for us:"
Collectively, we Christians are living stones in the temple of God.
1 Peter 2:5 "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house,
an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion
a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded."
1 Peter 2:9 "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:"
The physical temple is gone, and we are the spiritual temple of God.
