Let's turn in our Bibles, brethren,
to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Let's begin reading verse 16. We'll just read two verses. Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of
God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy,
which ye are." Now, the Holy Spirit used the Apostle Paul
to declare plainly. He is speaking by the Spirit
of God. And the charge he's given, he
said, Christ sent me forth not to baptize, not to try to coerce
sinners into a profession of faith, not to be cutting and
cutting this out and trying to get them to cut that out, cut
that out. That's what the circumcision
does. They're always cutting. And he said, he sent me forth
to preach the gospel, to preach Christ and Him crucified. not
with wisdom of words. And he said why later. He said
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the
power of God. And then he came down to where
he said, now I've laid the foundation and there is no other foundation
that can be laid than that which is laid and that's Jesus Christ. Paul preached Christ and Him
crucified. He said, I was determined to
know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified. And then the
Spirit of God moved Paul to tell us that God's preachers must
build on this foundation using the same means, preaching, using
the same gospel, the gospel of Christ crucified, and using the
same patience to wait on God to make it effectual in the hearts
of His people. Only God could redeem, only God
can sanctify. We have to wait on God and He's
going to do this through His Word. That's the gold and the
silver and the precious stones that we're to build upon of Christ. Now, in order to show us the
importance of just preaching Christ and Him crucified, using
no other means, no other method, waiting on the Holy Spirit to
work, God moved Paul to tell us that this is to show us how
important this is. He used Paul to show us that
the temple of God, the church of God, is not any ordinary building. It's not just any ordinary building. Now, the subject tonight is the
temple of God. The temple of God. Now you know
that first tabernacle, that very first tabernacle and that very
first temple, they were built to be a picture of the true spiritual
temple of God. It was holy, that temple was
holy because it was constructed according to God's divine direction. That's why it was holy. It was
built by God according to His direction. It was holy because
it was inhabited by the Shekinah glory of God. That's how it was
sanctified, made holy. And it was holy because God protected
it. He protected it. He wouldn't
allow anybody to defile that first tabernacle, that first
temple. And if they did, the law said they must die. But you
see, that earthly temple was a picture. That earthly temple
was a picture of God's true spiritual temple. And so God destroyed
that temple. Remember that day when the apostles
were just gazing at that temple and admiring that earthly temple?
And Christ said, there won't be one stone left on another
out here. And He destroyed it. He destroyed that temple. Because
God's eternal purpose was, from eternity, His purpose was that
that temple be destroyed once it had served its purpose, and
it not be rebuilt, but that God's spiritual temple would take its
place and last forever. Now, it's God's true spiritual
temple we're talking about in our text tonight. And I want
to show you four things. I want to show you the materials
that this temple is built of. I want to show you the presence
within it. I want to show you the state
of it and the protection of God over it. So, the materials, the
presence, the state and the protection of our division. Let's look at
the materials which God's true spiritual temple is built with. First of all, verse 16, he says,
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? Now God's temple, that
he's speaking of right here, is his local church made up of
those gathered, saved, and assembled by God. He says, Know ye not
that you, ye, are the temple of God? Now right here, He's
speaking to and He's speaking of the church, the local church
at Corinth who He's speaking to. And that's who He's speaking
of in this situation. He's talking about those who
have been chosen of God, redeemed of God, regenerated of God, believers
in Christ that made up the church, the Corinthian church. Now later,
in 1 Corinthians 6, he's going to speak about how the Spirit
of God, how your body is the temple. The individual believer's
body is the temple of the Lord. But now right here, that's not
what he's speaking about. He's talking about us collectively,
which make up the church of God. That's what he's talking about
here. Notice the word ye is plural. He's talking about all ye that
are redeemed and regenerated and called and sanctified. All
ye. That's what he's talking about. But the word the temple
is singular. You see, ye all make up one temple. Just one temple. You're the living
stones at Corinth that God's regenerated and He's built up
so that you're a spiritual house. The temple of God. Peter said
ye also as living stones are built up a one spiritual house. Now the same is true right here.
Each living stone, each living stone is built up by God into
one spiritual house. It's the temple of God. It's
the church at Rocky Hill. It's the temple of God. It's
not the walls, it's not the building, it's not any kind of struck earthly
edifice whatsoever. It's God's people assembled together
by God and that is His temple. Now that's important because
the Holy Spirit is teaching us here why we don't want to ever,
in preaching and bearing witness and helping and supporting one
another in the way that we conduct everything in this church, we
don't ever want to do anything to defile worse to destroy the temple of
God. We don't want to do anything
of that sort. Now, here's the first thing that we see here.
You're God's temple. You're the temple of God. As
he said earlier, you're God's building. You're God's building.
Now that's a motive right there for a believer. God's church
is His building. It's His. The Lord said this,
I say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. You see, God built this church.
He said, I will build my church before the foundation of the
world. I told you this last time, God chose every stone He would
use to build up to make this temple. You know, back there
when Moses was to build that tabernacle, God told him everything
that would go in that tabernacle, exactly where it would go from
top to bottom, from the smallest little loop that was used to
the holiest of holies in the Ark of the Covenant. He told
him everything and right where it would go in that temple. And
that's the same with God in this building. He chose who would
be in this building where they would be, who they would be with. He chose it all. He organized
the whole thing. And the Lord our God laid the
foundation. He chose Christ who came forth
and redeemed us by His precious blood. And so God said, Thus
saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation of stone,
a tried stone. Christ came forth, He was tried.
He was found perfectly faithful, even unto the death of the cross.
You could say even unto the curse, the death of the curse, because
that's what the cross is. And He was cursed. He bore the
curse of His people. Yet through it all, He was tried
and He was faithful. He said, I lay in Zion a precious
cornerstone. And by His precious blood, He
holds the whole temple together. It's built on Him, and it's the
cornerstone that holds the whole temple together. He said, and
He's a sure foundation. You know why the foundation is
sure? You know why the foundation of God's true church is sure?
We're built on Christ, on the righteousness of Christ. God
will never again charge one of his people with sin. He'll never
again cast his church off. He will not do it because he
forsook Christ in her place. He will not do it. Peter said,
to whom coming? As unto a living stone. Disallowed
indeed of the builders? the chosen of God and precious.
And He's precious to you that believe. That's our precious
cornerstone. And the Holy Spirit had a part
in this. God the Father chose us. Christ redeemed us. He's
the foundation. And the Holy Spirit came to where
we are and dug us out of the dead rock clay of Adam and fallen
humanity. And He made us living stones
by regenerating us and giving us life. So that we have life
now. And now Christ as a Son is over
His house. whose house we are. He's the
head of the house. He's the head of the temple.
He's the great high priest of the temple. And He charges you
and me, every one of us here. He charges us to preach His glorious
person and His work and to be sure of this, the Lord addeth
to the church daily such as should be saved. It's hard for me sometimes. I get anxious and I get impatient. And I think, I sure would like
to see the Lord add to the church. But He's doing it right on time. He's doing it right according
to His purpose when He will. And He will add to the church
daily such as should be saved. That's what the Scripture says.
Now this building, we read, it says in Ephesians, in Christ,
by Christ and in Christ, all the building is fitly framed
together and grows. unto a holy temple in the Lord."
Now, you remember that illustration. I think when Brother Don was
here, he gave it to us. When they built that temple in
Jerusalem, they didn't use hammers and they didn't use chisels to
lay those stones. They would take a stone, they'd
put a stone over here, and they'd take a stone, they'd put a stone
over here, and they'd bring another stone, and they'd find one that
fit. And they would just rub that
stone like that until they made it ease down in there and it
was fitly framed together, all those stones. Well, the Lord
teaches you and me not to be like so-called churches in this
world, not to be like the synagogues of Satan. They're using their
hammers and they're using their chisels and they're cutting these
stones every way they can and they're trying to make you be
sanctified and make you be holy and make you be conformed by
their power and their force and their legal constraints and all
that stuff. You put your hammer and your
chisel to this work and you will defile it. God said, I'll add
to the church and I'll fitly frame them together and I'll
make this temple grow. into a holy temple unto the Lord. So Christ assures us now that
we not to attempt to destroy His temple by putting our hammer
and chisel of our vain means and vain works to it. Don't put
vain doctrines to it. That's all wood, hay, and stubble. Every bit of it. He's building
the temple. Now, here's the second motive. The first motive is Be extra
careful in what we preach, what we teach, the means we use, everything. Make sure it's all the gold,
silver, and precious stones from Christ our foundation. Because
you're God's building. Now, number two, the presence
which dwells in this temple. Who dwells in this temple? Look
here. He says, verse 16, You are the temple of God, and the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Now again, remember, this passage
is not speaking of our individual bodies, though that's true. But
here he's speaking of the church, you and us collectively, the
temple of God. And he says, the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you. That's a comfort to a local assembly.
Isn't that a comfort? That's a comfort because the
Apostle Paul says this is It's the same as He declared it to
the church at Corinth. What He says to the church at
Corinth is what He's saying to us. The Spirit of God. The Spirit of God. The Spirit
of Christ. The Holy Spirit of God dwells
in this temple, which is His church. dwells in us. After he
said, in whom all the building is fitly framed together and
grows into a holy temple, he says not only that, but in whom
you also are built together for a habitation of God through the
Spirit. Here's why I'm comforted by that.
All that time I was coming up here from Tennessee and we spent
a year or two or whatever long it was getting to know each other
and preaching and going back down there. All this time we've
been together, all this time we've been assembling here, all
this time God adds some here and He adds some there. All this
time, you know what God's been doing? Our Lord Jesus Christ
has been fitly framing us together, making us to grow into His holy
temple for this purpose, that He might dwell here. that we
might be a habitation of God. Now, that right there is comforting. Now, get this word. If that wasn't
amazing enough, he says, he dwelleth. That means the church is his
constant home. Well, I thought he was at the
right hand of the Father. He is, but he's God. Everywhere,
all the time. The Spirit of God makes His home.
He doesn't make it in temples made with hands. And I'll tell
you something, when Paul talked about that, he meant more than
just these big stone buildings that people build. If you take
your hand and try to build a church, you may get a bunch of people
and say, now the people are the church, not the building. If your motives are wrong, if
your glory is in the wrong place, if you're dividing people and
sowing discord, if you're doing it to just get a following just
to satisfy a church convention and to keep the role field and
all that stuff. He doesn't dwell in a temple
made with those hands. Listen to this. Howbeit a most
high dwelleth not in temples made with hands, saith the prophet. Heaven's my throne. Earth's my
footstool. What house will you build me?
What house will you build me, saith the Lord? Or what is the
place of my rest? Christ tells us where the place
of His rest is. In Matthew 18, 20, He said where
two or three, are gathered together in my name." That means where
Christ gathered them. He says, there I am in the midst
of them. There's where my place is. The place that I built. He said to his apostles when
he was leaving, you can imagine now, they had him walking with
them physically in a body that they could see. And oh, we're
so attached to the earth. We want to see something. And he was going away. He was
leaving. And he told them, I'm not going
to leave you comfortless. He said, I will come to you. I will come to you. Well, he
came to him after he arose, yeah, in the body. Paul, I have much
people in this city. At Coleraine, keep preaching
here. And so he preached there a long time. He's still with
his people. He said, as you go forth and
you teach them to observe everything that I command you. And that's
what we're to teach. Everything Christ commands us.
Everything Christ commands us. That's what we're to teach. And
he said, as you go forth teaching that, he said, Lo, know this
now. I am with you always. to the end of the world. Now that means to the end of
this world till there's time no more. But that also means
wherever you go into the ends of the world, to the four corners
of the world. I read that and the first thing I thought about
was Papua New Guinea. And I thought that's the end
of the world. I grew up at the end of the world. I grew up in
the backwood little country place where nobody knew there was even
a church anywhere else but this little handful of folks that
we were with. But when Brother Lance and just a handful or a
multitude, however many of there gathered together, that Christ
is gathered together, Christ said, I'm right there with them.
Just like He's right here. He's gathered His people together.
So wherever Christ has made His presence known, what is it? How
do you know if He's made His presence known? If He's in the
midst of the church, how do you know it? Well, one indication
is He said, no flesh will glory in my presence. But he that glories
shall glory in the Lord. And what you do is you just listen.
You know, folks get to looking for a church they want to go
to. Brother Kevin and him moved from Alaska down here, and they
came down here, and he wasn't wanting to talk to me about anything
about me. He just wanted to hear. And most
folks go places, and they want to know, you know, do you have
this? Do you have that? Do you have
this thing and the other? You just listen. And that's what
I tell people. Listen. Just go online and listen
if you want to. You don't even have to come.
If you're afraid to come, go on and listen. And find out who
gets the glory. If man's getting the glory, Christ's
presence is not there. It's a synagogue of Satan if
man's getting the glory. Alright, now here's the third
thing. See, doesn't that give you a motive to want to be careful?
You're God's temple. Not only that, The Spirit of
God dwells in you. Dwells in this place. We need
to be careful. People are so flippant. People, the way they
show up for church services in places and just the things they
do and say and the way they act and the way they don't listen
and the way the preachers, just so flippant the way they preach
and all. He said, I'm present with you. where he's gathered
his people. There's going to be a change in attitude where
Christ has made his presence known. You can mark that down.
All right, here's the third thing. Look at the state of his temple.
The temple of God is holy and the translators added which temple. Take that out and read it this
way. The temple of God is holy, which
ye are. The temple of God is holy, which
ye are. Now, with all the carnality and
all the errors and all the divisions in the church at Corinth, now,
if this would have been some of the great physicians in our
day who show up to preach at churches and they examine God's
fruit, And they make their prognosis. They would have made their prognosis
at Church Corinth and said, this is an unhealthy church if it's
a church at all. Because it was full of division
and errors and just all kinds of sinful things. Full of it. And yet writing by
the Holy Spirit, writing by God the Holy Spirit, the Apostle
Paul says here that the state of the church, the state of God's
temple is this, the temple of God is holy which ye are. He didn't say the temple of God
is holy which you ought to strive to be. He didn't say the temple
is holy which you might someday be if you just work hard enough
He said, even in the midst of all your trouble, the Holy Spirit
of God moved him to write this, the temple of God is holy, which
you are. So then, that tells me that being
holy, according to the scriptures, differs from what most in our
day say being holy is. It differs. Now be sure to get
this. When He says, you are the temple
of God, it means you are the sanctuary of God, the holy place
of God. How can that be? It's because
of what He had written just before. God dwells in His church and
His presence sanctifies it. His presence sanctifies it. Turn
to Exodus 29. Let's see how the first tabernacle
was sanctified. Exodus 29, verse 43. God is going
to show us here how His spiritual temple will be sanctified. He told Moses and Aaron to build
this temple and to offer certain sacrifices. In Exodus 29, verse
43, He says, And there at this tabernacle I will meet with the
children of Israel. and the tabernacle shall be sanctified
by my glory." Do you see that? It's going to be sanctified by
my glory. And I will sanctify the tabernacle
of the congregation and the altar. I will sanctify also both Aaron
and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office. And I
will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God.
Sounds like what he's telling us over here in our text, doesn't
it? And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that
brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell
among them. I am the Lord their God." You
see, it's the glory of the Lord that sanctifies the temple. Well,
what's the glory of the Lord? That glory of the Lord was an
emblem. Remember that when Moses finished
the tabernacle? The cloud came down and covered
the tabernacle. And the glory of the Lord filled
the tabernacle and Moses could even go in the tabernacle. Remember
that? That was God sanctifying the
tabernacle. What is that picture? What was
that showing us? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
brightness of His Father's glory. That's what Hebrews 1 tells us.
He's the express image of God, the brightness of His glory.
the brightness of His glory. When Christ took His habitation
in the human body, when He came into the human body, the fullness
of the Godhead. Remember that mysterious Shekinah
glory in the Old Testament? That's the fullness of the Godhead. When Christ entered in, the Son
of God entered, the fullness of God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit entered that human body, into that human
nature. And that majesty dwelt in that
tabernacle, in that temple. And that's how it is in the church.
The temple of God, just like it is, we're going to see later,
it's like this with our individual bodies. But the temple of God
enters into the church by the Spirit of God. And when He does,
the tabernacle, He said, shall be sanctified by My glory, the
temple. He makes us priests unto God,
just like He did Aaron. How does He do that? He said,
I will sanctify my priest to minister to me in the priest
office. He said, I will do it. I'll dwell among the children
of Israel and I'll be their God. And they'll know me, that I'm
the one that redeemed them. That I'm the one that brought
them out. Brought them out from where? Brought them out of Egypt.
Have you ever gone out of some place and not gone into some
other place? Ever? When you go out of some place,
you're going into some place. He brings us out of the curse,
and out of death, and out of separation from God. He brings
us into holy, the state of being holy. That's what He does for
His church. Now I want you to see this in
the New Testament. Turn to Hebrews 8 with me. This
is almost the exact same. Now that was the picture. This
is the express image right here. This is Christ right here doing
it for His people. Now watch this. Hebrews 8.1.
Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the song. We
have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the
throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary. and of the true tabernacle, which
the Lord pitched, and not man." What was our first point? Your
God's building. He pitched this temple, not man.
Now look down at verse 8. For finding fault with them,
those in the old covenant, He said, 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. He's speaking of His
true spiritual elect called out of every nation. And he says,
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. And there, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,
they're the fathers of everybody that believes. All the true elect
of God. He said, but this covenant is
not going to be like that covenant when I brought their fathers
out of Egypt. Out of Egypt. He said, because
they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith
the Lord. For this is the covenant, now watch this, that I will make. And he's the minister. He's pitching
this temple, and he says, and I'm going to make this covenant
with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I
will, he said, put my laws in their mind and write them in
their heart. I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me
a people. Isn't that what he pictured that
over there, didn't he? He said, I'm going to sanctify
them, and they're going to know me. They're going to follow me. But that was a picture. And they
didn't follow him because he didn't work it effectually in
all of them's heart. But now watch this. Here he says,
I'm going to do it in their heart. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For
I'll be merciful. I will, he said. I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities.
Will I remember no more? How can he do that? How can he
do that? Look at Hebrews 10.14. Here's how. For by one offering
he hath perfected. Do you know what holiness is?
It's to be perfected. By one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Them that are holy. He doesn't
ever speak of it as them that will be, them that are, them
that are holy. Now watch, keep reading. Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. That's our third point.
The Spirit of God dwells in you. And the Spirit of Christ is a
witness to us, the Holy Ghost. For after that He had said before,
this is a covenant I'll make with them after those days, says
the Lord. And He repeats what we just read in Hebrews 8. Now
look at verse 18. Here's the sum of it. After He
makes this covenant in our heart, tells us He forgives us for our
sins, He says, now where remission of these is, there's no more
offering for sin. Don't keep trying to go out and
make yourself holy. There's no more offering for
sin. There's no more offering to justify us and make us righteous.
There's no more offering to make us holy. Clay, you can't say
that. I can show you why I can say
that. Look at the next thing. Verse 19, having therefore. Not maybe going to have down
the road if I can get under the law and get yoked and bound by
a good legal preacher. No. Having therefore. Brethren, liberty, freedom, boldness
to enter into what? The holiest. How on earth could
an unholy man enter the holiest? There ain't no way. But a holy
man can. And a holy church can. that He's
made holy, His people, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and
living way which He's consecrated for us. He consecrated this way
for us. You see that? Through the veil,
that's to say, His flesh. And look at this, having a high
priest over the house of God. Look what I've got. I've got
boldness to enter by the blood of Jesus by a new and living
way. I've got a high priest over the
house of God. Now, what does he mean about
the Holy Ghost being this witness and Christ's rightness covenant
on our hearts and Him making us to know Him and to follow
Him and to put all our trust in Him and know that there's
no more remission of sins and know we've got liberty in the
Lord. How do we have all that? Verse 22. Let us draw near with
a true heart and full assurance of faith. There's that word again. Having. Is it just me or is that
past tense? Having. I already got it. It's already done. Having. Our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience. That's sanctification. And our
bodies washed with pure water. Turn to 1 Corinthians 6. I want
you to see what Paul said to these Corinthians. Oh man, he
got over there and there was some carrying on going on at
that church. And he listed this big long catalog
of sins. I mean some doozies. And when
he got finished, look what he said in verse 11. And such were
some of you, but you You cleaned your act up. You got under the
law and you put those sins away, so now that made you holy. Oh,
look at this. But you are washed. But you are
sanctified. But you are justified. Who did
it? The name of the Lord Jesus and
by the Spirit of our God. Now brethren, when Christ takes
up His habitation in His church through the Spirit, the temple
of God is holy, which you are. Not by works of sanctification
which we've done, but by the presence of His glory dwelling
in us. That's when He separates us out.
That's when He makes the covenant in our heart. That's when He
makes us to know Him in spirit and truth and believe Him. That's
when He gives us liberty to enter into the holiest of all, because
He has sprinkled our hearts and washed our bodies with pure water.
See that? When He says you're holy in our
text, He's not talking about just some ceremonial holiness.
He's not talking about something you've got to strive for to get.
He's not even talking about anything done by us. It's the very state
of being of the temple of God because the Shekinah glory of
God, Christ Jesus Himself in the Spirit dwells in His church,
in the hearts of His people and in His church. That's so. That's
when of God Christ is made into a sanctification. When am I made
holy? When am I sanctified? When am
I set apart from everybody and all the sin and defilement and
destroyers of God's church? When am I set apart from all
of that? Tell me if this is not different from all of that. When
you can rest knowing Christ is all my sanctification. He's done
it. He's brought me out. I'm holy. It can't be undone. He made me
meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in life because
of what He's done. Alright now. Now briefly, let
me talk about God's protection of His temple. Because He's done
all this for His people, this is what God says. 1 Corinthians
3.17. He says, now if any man, now
this man right here, he's not going to be a child of God. This
is a false preacher, a false prophet, false teacher, false
witness, false believer. How do you know that? Because
that word defile means destroy. It means destroy. Now God is
not going to let that happen. He is not going to let His temple
be destroyed. Nobody is going to destroy His
church. Not so as to separate us from
God. There have been a lot of fellows who He, for some reason
or another, He let them scatter His church. He did in the early
church because He would have them go forth in all parts of
the world. But now as for that man who destroys the church,
who splits it and divides it and tries to destroy it, the
temple of God, He says, Him God shall destroy. And God won't
do that to His people. Christ bore our sins and He's
not going to do that to any member of His church. But that man who
can do that, God said, I'm going to destroy him. Destroy the temple
of God. The temple of God, His holy church
made up of His living stone, is regarded as a holy, separate,
sacred place and people for God's people. You don't come in here
and treat this like it's just any old time. Not you that know
Him. Because it's not. You're God's
temple. Christ dwells in you. And you're
holy. You know this is not common. This is something that's holy.
And so, we don't regard it as such. We don't treat it like
such. You know, men, you go and see these palaces. We went through
that Vanderbilt mansion down in North Carolina one time. And
they're so protective of that place. They got these things
up where you can't go just so far, you can't touch anything
in the place, you know. Just careful and just protecting
that palace. Well, this is God's palace. And
how are we going to do about it? Are we going to protect it?
God's people are. God's people endeavor to keep
the unity of the Spirit. God's people are not dividers.
By God's grace only. But we're not. We're wanting
to see God get the glory, because we've got to have the gospel.
You know, if you were starving, really, really starving to death,
and you've been waiting in a line, you know, and they're handing
out bread, and they finally give you a little bowl of watered
down soup, and they give you a little cracker or something,
and you go over and you set it down on a table, and two or three
of your friends gather around there, and you're going to try
to eat that. Are you going to start fighting and fussing with
them and run the risk of spilling that soup and spilling that bread
on the ground? You're not, are you? If somebody starts fussing,
you're going to say, buddy, you better step back. We can't mess up this
bowl of soup. This is all we've got. Well,
that's how believers are. If you want to mess up this bowl,
scoot on out because this is all we've got. And we're hungry
and we've got to be fed. And that's the attitude of God's
people. But that man who wants to build
with his wood, hay, and stubble, and he wants to be known, and
he wants to create a following, and he wants to divide, and he
wants to sow discord, or he's going to sin and rebel, and have
his way in immorality, or be self-righteous in his arrogance
here, whatever it is, it's contrary to God's holy church. God said, if that man tries to
destroy my church for the sake of Christ, for the sake of my
people, I'll destroy that man. That tells me and you brethren,
God's protecting His church. God's protecting it. Because
you're His temple, because He dwells in you, because He's made
you holy, and He won't let anybody touch it. That's right. He won't. I pity folks who really do think,
next time we're going to see this, Paul says, if a man thinks
he's wise, They didn't become a fool. Because you're not going
to fool God. He'll take the wise in their
own, they'll lay a trap and you got to trap them in their own
trap. That's right. Aren't you thankful? It's something,
to be holy, to be separated, to be in a state of acceptance
with God. That's amazing. Don't ever jeopardize
it. Don't ever jeopardize it. Alright,
let's stand together. Father, how we do thank you that
you've just poured out abundant mercy on your people. You've
done everything, you are everything, and you continue to keep us looking
only to Christ, only to you. Oh, Lord, we thank you. We thank
you. We pray that you keep your people,
keep your church here, and keep your church in every place where
it meets, and Lord, keep us separated, keep us holy, keep us in Christ,
protected by your grace. How we do thank you for your
mercy, unchanging, everlasting love and mercy. Thank you, Lord,
for Christ's sake, We know we have it for Christ's sake and
we thank you for his sake. In Christ's name we pray, amen.