The 21st chapter of the book
of Revelation, I'd like to read one verse as we've gone through
this view that God has of his church and this time that John
got to see himself and all his brothers and sisters as God sees
them. Now we hear about it. I had the
privilege of talking to Marvin Stoniker today, and the more
I visit with him, in person when I was there and over the phone,
the more I'm anticipating having him here. And I've, I've heard
him a number of times on tape, heard him in person, and it's
just, he just is easy to visit with. And I mentioned to him
that Jennifer and Britt had lost a baby. And, uh, I said, Jennifer,
like the rest of us, have some view of the sovereignty of God. We don't have a complete view.
We will not have a complete view until we're in his presence.
All of his characteristics and all of his attributes are somewhat
blinded to us. And so it is in this passage
of scripture, as in any passage, we'll never be able to see the
full extent of it in this life. We anticipate, we read, we think
about, but it will be so much brighter and more glorious when
we see him face to face and not through a glass darkly. And as
we look at this view of the church, I appreciate and delight in what
God left us through his servant John. And I believe I have a
more, a greater appreciation for this view of the church than
I've ever had before. And I see more about the position
of the church in Christ than I've ever seen before. And yet,
there's so much that we can't see and we won't see in this
life. Even though we go through it
again, we get much more. So this is a, there is no, and
I saw no temple therein. Verse 22. Revelation chapter
21 verse 22, and I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb are the temple of it. Now there's no need of a
physical place of worship. Now it's convenient for us today.
I appreciate when it's cold to have a convenient place to worship.
And I appreciate when it's hot to have a convenient place to
worship. And not all those who have called on Christ have had
the convenience that we have, but they met together and they
worshipped God. And this picture that we have
here of a temple takes us right back to the Old Testament and
particularly to two temples, one that Solomon built and one
that was built years later after the destruction of Solomon's
temple. There is no need of a physical place of worship in this place. in the church, and we find saints
of old have told us about that. Stephen was stoned over much
of this same thought, that he dwells not in temples made with
hands. That it is a spiritual worship
and he shared with the woman at the well that the time is
coming and now is that they that worship God must worship him
in spirit and in truth. Now that's all been through the
Old Testament. Anybody that actually worshiped God worshipped him
in spirit and not with their hands. They worshipped him in
the blood and righteousness of Christ and not with their works.
all the way through and it continues on that way and in the final
fulfillment of all things, the church will be able to worship
God completely in spirit and in truth with no hindrance whatsoever. We're hindered with the thoughts
that go through our mind, we're hindered with our aches and pains,
we're hindered. And that's just the way it is.
But thank God that he has given us a glimpse and a view. A building
had been used to intimate the divine presence of God. And that's
what God told Israel. This is where I'll meet you.
Well, that's a beautiful thought when we get over here to say,
I'll meet you in Christ. I'll not meet you in a building,
I'll meet you in Christ. That's why it's so valuable.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am
I in the midst of you. So it's not the place, it's not
the temple of Solomon, and it's not the temple that followed
Solomon that was around at the time of the Lord Jesus. That's
not the place where God meets us. It is a spiritual meeting
that he meets with us, and it is our prayer that when we are
assembled together, that he might meet with us. Not because of
the building, but because of the hearts of the people that
he has drawn out of this world and caused them to see Christ.
That he would meet us, and visit with us, and instruct us through
his spirit and through his word, and we'd go home better for it
than worse for it. All right, the Solomon's Temple
was a grand picture of the Lord. And I don't know if there was
ever a study that I enjoyed as much as I did that. When we went
through the building of that temple, it was just glorious
of how the Lord dictated how he would be remembered in the
building and in the completion of that temple. And yet it was
a solitary place that symbolized God meeting with his people and
spoke of it, but nowhere does God meet with his people like
he does in this city, Jerusalem, New Jerusalem. He truly meets
with his people there. It's a spiritual meeting. It's
not physical. We're not going to a physical
place to worship a physical person. We're going to a spiritual place.
We've been drawn to a spiritual place to worship the Lord. It
was built on Mount Moriah somewhat a thousand years before Christ.
And that temple was begun in nine years in building that temple. And it was totally destroyed
in the 11th year of King Zedekiah. Wiped off the face of the earth.
And most of the instruments and most of the furniture was carried
off to Babylon. And it shares with us in the
latter part of, it's either 2 Chronicles or 2, I believe it's 2 Chronicles.
It shares with us there that the brass was without weight.
And the fine metals were without weight. They were carried off
to Babylon. That brazen sea was carried off. Those great pillars of brass
that stood out in front of it were carried off. And it was
without weight. They just couldn't measure it.
It was so much. But it was taken off, and it
was never brought back. It was never reintroduced. In
fact, they did not have the Ark of the Covenant in the days of
the Lord Jesus. That was taken off and destroyed. They did not
have the fire on the altar that went, that did not go out. It
was gone. They did not have the Shekinah
glory. When this temple was dedicated, it was not dedicated like the
old temple was dedicated. The Lord had taken his glory
away. It did not have the spirit of
prophecy. There are five things that this temple, the second
temple, did not have, that the first temple had, that the Jews
depended upon. In fact, the They did worship. They worshiped those things.
The Urim and the Thummen. Brother Rupert brought a message
on that and some of the things about the temple that were taken
out. And these things were taken out. The Urim and the Thummen. Everybody's
at a loss exactly what that was, but there was something about
it that people could get the will of God out of this. And now, We don't need to go
to an object to know the will of God. We are drawn to Christ
and he reveals his will to us. And sometimes he just simply
blocks the path as he did with Paul. And sometimes he opens
the door like he did with Paul again. And we're just I guess
when I was saved, when the Lord took me out of religion, it just
saved me a lot of time scrambling on what's God's will. I don't
have to lay out, I used to lay out fleeces like we read about
that guy did, you know? Well, if you do this, God, I know that I should do
this. And I don't have to do that anymore. I just, the Lord
just opens doors and closes doors, and we don't have this constant
battle of what the Lord's will is. Christ is the will of God,
and he has brought us to a peace with God that we never knew in
the religious world, and this is where we are settled. And
life moves on, and he takes us along. The 21st, or the 20th,
the 21st is coming up, and Brother, Brother Marvin asked Brother
Henry Mahan one time, now if you knew the Lord was coming
back this week, if you knew, it was just given to you and
this is what was gonna happen, the Lord's coming back, what
would you do? Would you do anything different? He says, oh my, yes
I would. I'd have all the eggs I want to eat. I'd eat lots of
waffles. He just went down this, you know,
there was nothing spiritual change, but his doctor says, you can't
eat eggs and you can't eat this and you can't eat that and you
can't eat that. He says, if I knew the Lord's coming back, I'd indulge
in that good food that I used to eat. But the spiritual things,
no. If we have to change what we're
doing spiritually, if we knew the Lord was coming back, then
we have an issue with God. That shouldn't be a change. We
should be doing what we would be doing if we knew he was coming
back, or if he's gonna wait a thousand years. That first temple was
destroyed, but in the first year of Cyrus, the Jews were permitted
to return and to build it, and the building of that temple,
it says, had more glory than the previous one, even though
it lacked those five things, and didn't have all of the beautiful
structure around it. The reason, would you turn with
me to Haggai, Haggai chapter two, and I should have put a
page number here. in Haggai, it mentions that the
glory of the second temple, now the Jews that had seen the first
temple, the old fathers, those that were way up in years that
had, they were just young when they were carried off, or left in the land, when it
was built, they wept, because the glory of this house had nothing
compared to the glory of the old house. They wept. But Haggai
says in chapter 2 and verse 9, the glory of this latter house
shall be greater than the former. Now that's just contrary to what
the old men saw there. They were young people when that
temple, they saw it the last time or when it was destroyed
before their eyes. And now it's rebuilt and there's
been 70 years. So if they were 20, now they're
90. If they were 10, now they're
80. There's been 70 years in between there. And these old
men looked back and saw, they wept at how unfinished this looked
compared to the old building. And yet Haggai says, Haggai chapter
2 and verse 9 it says the glory of this ladder house should be
greater than the former saith the Lord of hosts and in this
place will I give peace saith the Lord of hosts now what made
this second temple greater and particularly for us Jesus Christ
who is the one who lets us know of his will. He is our Ark of
the Covenant. He is the fire that consumed
the sacrifice. He is the representation of the
presence of God. And he is the prophecy that was
made here. When he went into that second
temple, he made this second temple much more glorious than the previous
temple because Jesus Christ in his incarnate glory had never
stepped into that place. Now he'd been in there in spirit,
but he had never been in there in the physical sense like the
second temple. And this second temple and that
passage of scripture just really reflects on what it is for Christ
to be in the church. The glory of this temple far
surpasses the glory that could even be imagined in the pictures
and types and shadows of that first temple or the second temple
that were built to represent the presence of God. The second
temple was missing things, but this temple that we read about
over here where there's no need of a physical temple, for He,
the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it, He has all
of the spiritual blessings that the first and second temple represented. He is the spirit of prophecy. No wonder we run into that verse
in the book of Revelation. Jesus Christ is the spirit of
prophecy. And he is the revelation. This
is the revelation of Jesus Christ. If we want to know his will,
it's in Christ. If we want to have the sacrifice,
it's in Christ. And it stops all building. because he is the building, and
he is the temple, and we don't go to a physical place to worship,
we go to Christ. Now, we might assemble together
in a physical place, but we'll never worship God because of
a building. We'll worship God because of
a changed heart. When our Savior entered the temple
in his day, he brought all those things that had been missing,
and he has continued to bring them as the temple of God to
the church of God, and it is there where we truly enjoy all
of those things that were only a picture or a shadow in the
Old Testament. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 shares
with us this wonderful blessing of the presence of God. There
is no physical temple therein. In this city, the city of God,
the church of the living God, we don't have a physical temple.
We have Christ. We have God. He's the temple. He's the representation, but
he is also the reality. He is all the spiritual blessings
of God. And here in the book of Colossians
chapter two, Colossians chapter two in verse
nine, the scriptures share this. For in him dwelleth all the fullness,
and I can't understand that. If we're ever gonna have a thought
about all, here's one of them, in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Someday, I'm beginning to. It's better now than it was 10
years ago, and it's better now than it was 20 years ago, but
I anticipate if we are able to be here another 10 years, And
then when we see him face to face and see the tremendous glory
in this person, Christ Jesus, because when we are in the presence
of the Lord Jesus, we will see him in his body. He is going
to demonstrate his love for us by his pierced hands and pierced
feet. He will in his body. We will appear before him in
his body. We are his body, but we'll see
him as he is. John chapter two, back up to
John chapter two if you would, verse 19. John chapter two and
verse 19 is we think that there is no need for a physical temple
here. The Jews worship the temple. Like it or not, they worship
the temple. They worshiped it. They talked about how great it
was. It was here where God meets the Jews. It's interesting when
we go back over to the Old Testament, how many Gentiles were used to
help build it. They're the ones that fell all
the timber. And they were the ones that were used to help straighten
up all those rocks that went into the foundation. What a beautiful
picture that God's going to bring in Jews and Gentiles. This is
their house. This is not Jew's house. This
is not a religious house. This is the house of God. The
church is the house of God and he's the temple of the church.
He's the meeting place for all people. John chapter two, verse
19, the scriptures say, and Jesus answered and said unto them,
destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it again, raise
it up. Then said the Jews, 40 and six
years was this temple in the building, and wilt thou rear
it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of
his body. Now, it goes on to say in verse
22, when therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples
remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed
the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Now he's, you
destroyed this temple in three days, I'll raise it again. And
he spoke of the temple of his body. This is where we meet God. We'll never meet God anywhere
else but in Christ Jesus. There is only one door and he's
it. There's only one path and he's
it. There's only one water and he's it. There's only one bread
and he's it. And we can only meet him And
in meeting him, we're meeting God at his temple. Now, God manned
his temple, the Lord Jesus, throughout the Old Testament. But he typified
it and pictured it by that temple that was built in the days of
Solomon, and this temple that was built in the days of Ezra
and Nehemiah. And this temple was destroyed.
They didn't have the mercy seat. They didn't have the Shekinah
glory. They didn't have the fire upon the altar. They didn't have
the Urim and Thummim. And they didn't have the spirit
of prophecy here. But in this one, they do. And in this one,
we do. the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter 2. Would you
turn there with me? Ephesians chapter 2. There's
no need of a physical place. No need of a physical place.
We meet at Christ. He is the assembly place and
He is the meeting place with God. God only meets His people
in Christ Jesus. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20. We read this, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone in whom all the building, fitly framed together,
groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. He is our meeting place. We meet with God in Christ Jesus. Stephen preached about Christ
when he said, He was not found in a temple made with hands. That just went right against
the grain of them. What do you mean he doesn't meet
here at this temple? And they brought this up, had
brought this up at the trial of the Lord Jesus. He said he
would destroy this temple in three days, raise it again. They
didn't bring up. about what it meant because they
didn't understand what it meant. Turn with me to Acts chapter
7. Acts chapter 7 and verse 47. All that the Old Testament temple
was a picture of is found in Christ. He's the presence of
God. He's the sacrifice. He's the glory of God. He's the
prophecy of God. He's the food of God. Here in
the book of Acts chapter 7, let's read this just three or four
verses here about what Stephen said just prior to his martyrdom
as he's preaching Christ through the historical events of the
Old Testament. Stephen just marches along through
the history of the Jews. I didn't realize until the second
it didn't make the impact that Before as it did this afternoon
when I was reading but that first son of Abraham Ishmael was also
circumcised Abraham circumcised him He had
the outward show But he didn't have the inward temple. I And
he fought against the spiritual. He fought against the heavenly.
That's what brings out in the book of Galatians. All right,
Acts chapter seven, and we're seeing that right here. Here's
a bunch of religious people listening to their own history by one of
their own people, and they said, we're pretty upset with you.
Acts chapter seven, verse 47. But Solomon built him a house.
Howbeit, the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with ants,
as saith the prophet. I'm gonna bring you, he's preaching
and he's got a text verse. Old Testament, heaven is my throne
and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for
me, saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Hath not
my hand made all these things? And then he said, ye stiff-necked
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do you. And then they took
him out and killed him. But he brought this to their
attention. He does not dwell in temples
made with hands. This is not his residence. His
residence is in the people, his people that he's called by his
name and brought them out of darkness. In Acts chapter 17,
it is again mentioned, Acts 17 verse 24, that this temple is
not a physical temple in the church of the living God because
it's a spiritual body anyway. This is not the temple of God.
The temple of God is the land. Acts 17 verse 24, it says here,
God that made the world and all things therein. Now he's describing
the unknown God. We back up just a little bit.
He's at Athens. And he's perceived the multiplicity
of gods, and he's declaring unto them the unknown God. God that
made the world and all things therein, seeth he is the Lord
of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
And they had a temple. The Elks have a temple. There's
all kinds of temples. The Masons have a temple. What
do they expect there? They expect God to meet them
there. Religions have temples. Christians
have Christ. He meets them at himself. He
invites us to come boldly into his presence. It's not a building. And it is difficult for us in
our finite mind to understand infinite, but he has given us
a piece of the picture. I am the temple and I'm spiritual. You must worship me and spirit
it in truth and that's an impossibility unless we have the indwelling
of the spirit that enables us to do that. He goes on, neither
is worshiped in men's hands as though he needed anything. Verse
25, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things. And
hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell in the face
of the earth. And hath determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they
should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and
find him, though he be not far from any one of us. For in him
we live and move and have our being. As certain also of your
own prophets, or excuse me, poets have said, we all are also his
offspring. So he dwelleth not in temples
made with hands, but God dwells in his son, the Lord Jesus, and
that's where we meet him. And then a couple other verses,
one's found over at First Kings again, and this is, The words of trying to put God
in a box, you can't do it. David understood that, and Solomon
did too. Here is a house. But we are far
more understanding than to think this is where you dwell. We're
just not gonna do that. All right, 1 Kings. I hope it's
1 Kings chapter eight. It might be 2 Kings chapter eight.
I've been known to do that. First Kings chapter 8, verse
27. But will God indeed dwell on
the earth? Behold, the heaven and the heaven
of the heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house
I have builded. He understood that. This is just
a picture. This is a shadow of where God
meets his people. My goodness, this is not where
he meets his people. It's a picture of where he meets
his people. There must be blood sacrifice. There must be the
will of God. There must be the fire on the
altar. There must be the Urim and Thummim. There must be these
things, but they are all found in this one person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's why it is so valuable
to know there is none other name under heaven. What is it? There's
no other place God meets his people than in Christ. And then
in 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 2, 2 Chronicles 2, there is no temple
there. There's no temple there now.
He doesn't recognize it. There's no physical, hands-built
temple. In fact, that's a disgrace to
God. It's dishonorable to God to say God meets his people in
that building. He meets his people in their
heart. He meets his people in himself. All right, 2 Chronicles
chapter two, verse five and six. And the house which I build is
great, for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to
build him a house? See in the heaven, and the heaven
of the heavens cannot contain him. Who am I, then, that I should
build a house, save only to burn sacrifice before him? Send me
now, therefore, a man cunning to do the work in gold and so
forth, as we see this temple about to be built. But Solomon
shares with us through the spirit There is no way that God can
nor will meet with his people except in type and in shadow
at this place we're about to build because he does not dwell
in temples made with hands. Well, that talks a lot. We're
the temple of God, but he doesn't reside in temples made with hands. He does not reside in temples
made with works. He resides in temples made by
God. He's the builder, the master
builder. And finally, in John 4, We mentioned
this, but I want to read it. John 4. True worship is not toward
an object, but toward the Lord God Almighty. John chapter 4
and verse 23, Jesus shared these words with the woman at the well.
And they ring in our ear. True worship. John chapter 4,
verse 23. That the hour cometh and now
is. Now, I firmly believe that God
could have shared this same verse and probably did in some manner
with Adam and with Abel. You're not gonna worship God
at a place. You're not gonna worship him
with sticks. You're not gonna worship him with a lamb. You're
not gonna worship him with a, you're not gonna worship him
that way. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipper
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Or, if
we leave that him out, It's been added for clarity. They that
worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. It takes the Spirit of God and
the Word of God to worship the living God. And we're, we're
broken in the flesh. We can't worship God with the
flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing. If I could learn that lesson.
The flesh profiteth nothing. So this worship has to come from
our spirit, from our soul, and that's brought about by the work
of the Holy Spirit, the massaging of the Holy Spirit, the cry out
of the Holy Spirit. This temple, the Lord Jesus,
fulfills all that the temple was a picture of. He is the presence
of God. He is the sacrifice accepted
by God. He is the glory of God. He is the prophet and prophecy
of God. Everything that that temple was
a picture of, he is the reality of. And so as John was led to
write and share with us, can you imagine? I looked around.
I'm used to having a place. I looked around. It doesn't say
that, but I can just see John looking around in this beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful passage of scripture about the
church. I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of that. Revelation struck him. I looked,
but it wasn't there. But the revelation of Jesus Christ
struck me, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of
it. That's where we meet God.