Let's pray. Oh, Lord, what a blessing that
you bring poor sinners together. To gather around the mercy seat. Asking for mercy and grace. With
the full assurance. That you are most gracious. Heavenly
father. Lord and Jesus Christ. Bless us, we beg this morning.
Help us to find Christ. Help us to learn something concerning
our Savior. Give us grace. Open our ears,
our eyes, our mouths, that we might declare and hear something
concerning Christ himself this morning. Bless us, we beg. Make your presence known to each
soul here for these things we ask in Christ's name. Amen. John chapter 2. Christ has just
cleaned out the temple. He had scourged the cellars of
animals oxen and doves, the money changers, the money lenders,
and he's just clean house in his house. And the Jews ask him,
by what authority do you do this? And here is where we pick up.
Then answer the Jews and said to him, what sign showest thou
to us, seeing that thou does these things? you cleaned out
the temple. Jesus answered and said unto
them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it
up. Then said the Jews, forty and
six years was this temple in the building, wilt thou raise
it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of
his body. When therefore he was risen from
the dead, His disciples remembered that he had said this unto them,
and they believe the scripture and the word which Jesus has
said. So here is a picture of Christ
him crucified described in terms of destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it up. Now, in the scripture, There are physical
temples, scriptural temples, and what I call spiritual temples. All pointing as a schoolmaster
to Christ. A temple is the dwelling place
of Christ. And in the Old Testament, it
points to, I will dwell or I will temple among my people and they
will be my people and I shall be their God. So this temple
that Christ is concerning about in his scripture is his temple.
In all scripture, if you look at first chapter of Romans, it
makes a statement that all natural and physical things, and I'm
going to include temples in this, point to Christ. And Romans 1
says, the invisible things of God from his creation of the
world are clearly seen and understood by the things he created. Even
his eternal power and Godhead, meaning Godhead meaning essential
being and the nature of God. All that may be known of God
is manifest. to everything that we see, we
hear, that we read, is sure and certain, made, created, and occurs,
appointed by God Almighty. And I don't care what it is.
What he says, my creation declares, it's a witness, it's a testimony
of who I am and what I am. everything he created. I'm going to extend that a little
bit further. Let me read a couple of scriptures
that support that, just from one standpoint, just from heaven.
Psalms 19, 1. The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. All that is saying is everything
that God created declares his glory. Psalms 976, the heaven
declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory.
Now how blind we are. It is a picture of the blindness
of the hearts and minds and souls of men with The Lord said, everything
that I created declares my glory, my righteousness, everything. And we don't see it. And Paul
goes on to say, we are without excuse. But it is because of
our blindness. Now let me take this one step
further and look at physical things and spiritual things. What are the four things necessary
for life? Oxygen. Each physical thing has a counterpart
in the spiritual things. Air. Absolutely essential. Think. Spiritual. The breath
of life, the breath of God in our souls. Water, fountains freely flowing
with water that we drink, you never thirst again. Food, manna, living bread, the
word of God. Shelter, the house of God, the
temple of God, the abode of God. And all I'm saying to those things
that we see every day declares something concerning the mercy
and grace of God and Christ. We are so blind, we can't see
it. Yet every one of us experiences
it. Physical things in his creation
declares, testifies, and is a witness to Christ himself. They point to Christ. They're
schoolmasters to Christ. And we see it and experience
it every day. I'm going to talk about shelters. And to do that, this may be not
a good way to do it. How many in here have ever heard
the story of the three little pigs? One made a house of straw. One
made a house of sticks, one made a house of bricks. I'm talking
about the shelters. And I want to relate it to the
temple of Christ. We naturally, if we place our
confidence and trust in straw, the big bad wolf comes along
and blows it down. If you make it of sticks, The
big bad wolf comes along and blows it down. So what do you
do? You take it and say, well, we'll
make it out of bricks and make it so strong that it can't blow
it down. And to me, that is a description of religion, natural religion. People put their confidence,
their faith and trust in something that completely collapses. So
what does religion do? We will build our creeds, our
doctrines, and everything we believe on something that's lasting,
something like bricks. And they do it. We have temples. We have cathedrals. We have these
magnificent churches. We have mosques. We have synagogues. We have all those things. Why? Because just like the three little
pigs, they build their religion upon something that is permanent
and substantial. But it's still not Christ. It's themselves. You can go to
some towns and there's so many churches that you can't even
hardly count them. And if you go to state and only
count to 10, And you got 12 churches there, I know you can't count
them. But it is an attempt of natural man to develop their
own temple, their own type of worship, their own place of worship. And they have just as much confidence
as three little pigs did in that brick house. It's something that
can't be long over. scriptural temples. The first
scriptural temple is a tabernacle, and it was a tabernacle that
was designed and directed to be built by God himself to Moses. It was made out of skins and
linen and wood, and it was portable. So here is the physical side
of that tabernacle. Now this tabernacle was the house
of God. It was built under the command
of God. And it had all the washing, the
cleansing, the ceremonies, the continual sacrifice, all those
things. And this pattern of worship was
revealed by God to Moses, and the central part of that was
what? The sacrifice. It's a testimony to the shed
blood of Christ. So here is a scriptural temple. It has a spiritual aspect to
it and a physical aspect. And these offerings before the
Lord were done continually. What was God's purpose in that? I will tabernacle with my people
on this earth. I will commune with you. I will
meet with you. I will speak with you. And it
is a picture of Christ coming to the earth. The word made flesh. And it starts with the first
tabernacle. And this tabernacle When it looks at the sacrifice,
the sprinkle of blood on an altar, and it says for all the transgressions,
sin, and iniquity of his people, and he says it's for a statute,
forever for this generation. Meaning, these sacrifices were
designed to show the forgiveness of sin by the shedding of blood
and the sprinkling of blood on that altar. It's a schoolmaster
saying, look to Christ. It's a prophecy. Christ is coming
to Tabernacle with his people. Exodus 40, 35. What was in that
tabernacle? The glory of the Lord filled
the tabernacle. The glory of God in the form
of the pillar of a cloud. What made that tabernacle spiritual? The presence of God tabernacling
with his people. When you see the glory of God,
the brightness of God, what does it mean? It's a picture of Christ. I will show you the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. So here is Christ, the purpose
of the tabernacle. So they commune and talk and
be with his people to forgive their sins through the shedding
of blood And they saw the glory of God in a physical form there,
in a bright cloud. And it filled that tabernacle. And this was the presence of
God. Psalms 118.5, what was the worship
in this tabernacle? The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the tabernacle. What is that about salvation?
It's in Christ. So this tabernacle is a picture
of Christ. Leviticus 26, 11. The Lord says,
I will set my tabernacle among you again, speaking concerning
Christ himself. All these pictures were saying
the word will be made flesh. God will come in the form of
a man and he will tabernacle and live with you and you will
rejoice in his salvation and sing praises to his name. The next tabernacle was Solomon's
Tabernacle. Now if you want to see a strong
building, look to Solomon's Tabernacle, made of huge blocks of stone. And it was so beautiful with
gold and silver and all these vessels And it was a, in my opinion,
should have been classified as a world great wonder. It was so beautiful. But here
is the first temple and it's Solomon's temple. Now this temple
was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. It was rebuilt by Silas. And
when Christ came on this earth, in the form of a man, this rebuilt
temple was the temple that in John 9, he just cleaned out.
The same temple. And to show you how blind we
are, when he said he would destroy this temple and build it again
in three days, he said, okay, it took 46 years to build this
thing. thinking physical, and here is
Christ thinking spiritual and declaring spiritual things. So
this temple came when, guess what, God was
tabernacling with his people when Christ came. Now, was this
temple forever? Nope. In 70 AD, Well, Cyrus took
all the vessels and everything that were in Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar
put in Babylon and brought back, and they built this temple back
up just as close as they could to its original structure. In 70 AD, the Romans destroyed
that temple, and the scripture says, Matthew, Mark, and Luke
make this statement. Behold this great building, meaning
a temple, there shall not be one stone left upon another that
shall not be thrown down. All right, now, we have no temple. There is no physical temple on
the face of this earth that they can call God's house. And do
we have temples? Absolutely. No Mormons have temples. And to get in there, you got
to put on a special set of underwear and a special cloak and go through
washing, the same thing the Jews did to get into their temple.
And they call that a temple. And they call that, this is where
God comes and communes with us. Look at the Roman Catholic cathedrals. all the stained windows and the
frescoes and the paintings and all those things, they think
themselves to be some type of structure, I'll call them temples,
where Christ comes. Christ caused all the temples
that were pointing to him to be destroyed. Why? Because there
was absolutely no need whatsoever for a temple. The temple is in
himself. The temple is here. God, in the
form of Christ, is tabernacling with his people. And he destroyed
it purposely. How much did he destroy? Not
one stone left upon another. Completely totally destroyed.
Why? As a testimony to us, there's
no such thing as the temple of God made with the hands of man. I am that temple. In his statement,
I will destroy the temple in three days and raise it up, he
was saying, look at me. If you want to see a temple,
look at me in my sacrifice. Look at me when I shed my blood. Look at me when I'm resurrected. I am the temple. Simple, complete,
and in my opinion, it's final. No temple. The temple schoolmaster
to point us to Christ. When Christ comes, there is no
need for a temple. He is our dwelling place, and
he made himself a temple for what purpose? For you, for me,
and all his sheep. That's where we live. That's
where we abide. in this temple, which is a person,
it's Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9-11, Christ being come
and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, not of this building. Those temples and that tabernacle
were good for the purpose that God intended. look to Christ
is what they were saying. Now he's come a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, not man's hand could
not do anything to make this temple. In fact, we have script
that says don't put a tool on these stones because if you do,
you corrupt it. Same meaning here. Man's hands
are so corrupted, they cannot make a physical temple that can
give the essence of God Almighty in the person of Jesus Christ.
Can't do it. And if they try it, They contaminated. Because this temple, again, is
not made by man's design, not his imagination, not his anything. These hands are made by God Almighty
and cannot be contaminated with man's hand. In Hebrews 8.2, he
talks about a true temple which the Lord pitched and not man. And all it's saying is, this
temple is spiritual. This temple is holy. This temple
is righteous. This temple is the glory of God
almighty in the person of Jesus Christ. And yet we still have our temples. 2 Corinthians 5.1. We have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in heaven. Why did God destroy
the second rebuilt temple, not one stone left upon another stone?
To show that it's temporal, it's temporary. His temple, his spiritual
temple, he says it's eternal. It is spiritual. It is forever. It is eternal. What is Christ as our temple? What does that mean to you and
to me? Romans 12, 5. We, being many,
are one body in Christ. We are in that temple. We are one body. We are united
spiritually with Christ into a single structure. What is that
structure? It is the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's called the church. It's
called his people. It's called his elect. All those
centers that he calls is one body, united equally in Christ. One body in Christ. Where is our abode? Where do we live? In Christ. That's our temple,
our spiritual temple. Colossians 1.18. He is, Christ,
is the head of the body. This body that we're in is absolutely,
utterly controlled by the head, just like our physical bodies,
our brain. Christ is the head. He had the
preeminence. He's the firstborn. He's all
those things in his body, which is the temple. Now, in this temple,
in this body, which is in Christ, and Christ is the head, Colossians 2.10, we are complete
in him which is the head. What does that mean? Complete.
It means perfected in everything that God requires of us in Christ. So united with that body, we
are one. One in that body, in Christ. Colossians 2, 19. The head, again,
Christ is the head of the body. From which all the body, by joints
and bands, having nourishment, ministered, and knit together,
increases with the increase of God. Just that one verse. That one verse, all the body,
and we're the joints and the bands, have been nourished but
ministered. What does that mean? We are constantly
given mercy and grace to nourish our souls in that temple. Why? Because we are one. We're united. with christ every thing that
a soul need is fed by the mercy and grace of god and christ in
this temple and just listen to the words knit together can't separate it god has knit
I all of us every child of god knit together with holy knitting
needles and holy thread knit us together in Christ. It doesn't stop there. Increasing
with the increase of God. Grace multiplied by grace multiplied
by grace multiplied. And you keep going on an infinite
number of those multiplications. It increases to the same extent
degree that God increases. That's how united we are in Christ. our temple. That's where we're
nourished, that's where we live, that's where our security is,
our trust, our faith, our hope, our peace, our reconciliation,
and you can name any other thing that requires, God requires to
be in his presence. And as he increases, and Rupert,
I understand how he can increase, he's already everything. But
whatever this is, God says we are increased with the increase
of God. Another spiritual aspect of this
temple, Christ is called the foundation stone, the chief cornerstone
of this building. That's a physical thing, again
with a spiritual meaning. Somebody says, well, your temple,
won't last as long as one of the pyramids, because it's been
out of them rocks. They've been there for 2,000 years. But here's
a picture. When Christ says, I am a spiritual
stone, I am a spiritual chief cornerstone, then we can say,
oh, our temple is made out of stone, a eternal spiritual stone. And what is that stone? It's
the person of Jesus Christ. First Peter 2.15, you also as
lively stones, and another interpretation is living stones, are built upon
a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. What do we do in that temple?
We worship and praise God Almighty. offering spiritual sacrifice. What kind of sacrifice? Spiritual
sacrifice, God-given spiritual sacrifices of mercy and grace. And then he says, when you worship
spiritually, I accept that worship in Jesus Christ. Our worship
is in the temple. The temple is Christ. What do
we do? We praise and sing honor and
glory to his mercy and his grace. And God says, I accept that. I am satisfied in Jesus Christ. I'm satisfied with this worship.
I'm satisfied because you are in my temple, my son, you're
in Christ. He is our temple. John 15.4 says,
Abide in me and I in you. And that's what being knit together
means. It is a union performed by God Almighty. And he says
you abide or you live in me and I live in you. What does Christ
see when he looks at us? He sees his temple. He sees Christ. I abide in you as a branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in vine. No more can
you except you abide in me. What he's saying is, here is
an abiding place, an abiding person, and without You're abiding
in Him. You are nothing. You cannot do anything. You cannot even breathe. You
can't see. You can't walk. You can't understand. You can't hear. You can't do
anything. Because without this abiding
and knitting together of his people, in himself, we can do
nothing. So here is the blessing, the
blessedness of our tabernacle, our temple. What should our prayer be? Oh,
may I be found in him. May he find me in Christ, my
temple. May he find in his temple the
mercy and grace of God. May he find me in Christ so I
can be accepted all based on the work of God. And I'll end
it by this song. Rupert, I don't remember what
the name of the song is. Oh, the love that sought me, oh,
the blood that bought me, and oh, the grace that brought me
to the foe. And I'm going to change that
word foe to a temple in Tabernacle. The love that sought me, the
blood that bought me, and the grace that brought me to the
foe. to the tabernacle, to the temple, wondrous grace that brought
me to this temple, this tabernacle, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our temple. And I'll stop right here, but
you can say Christ is our sacrifice, Christ is our altar, Christ is
our everything. And pray that he gives us the
grace to keep that in our spiritual minds at all times. Thank you.