Okay, well come back with me
to Revelation and the first two verses of chapter 11. I think
we're going to be some time in chapter 11 because there's so
much in there. But let me just briefly remind
you that Revelation is about God's plan for his kingdom to
triumph. And we saw it in the seven sealed
book in the first verse of chapter 5. The seven sealed book is God's
plan for the destruction of the kingdom of Satan and the triumph
of his own kingdom. And it's sealed with seven seals,
but those seals have to be opened. They're the elements of the plan
of God, and they have to be opened. But only one is worthy to open
those seals, and it's only the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only
God himself the God-man, the one who came and satisfied divine
justice for his people, because the purpose of a kingdom is to
be populated with citizens who are qualified and justified to
be there, and that is only possible in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The sacrifice of Christ for his
people satisfies divine justice, which keeps them out of heaven,
but what he has done qualifies them for heaven. And so a kingdom
will triumph. It will be populated. An innumerable
multitude is what John is frequently given the vision to see throughout
this book of Revelation. And so this plan of God is to
disrupt Satan's objectives. And his objectives are for a
worldwide kingdom of peace and of harmony. You say, oh, that's
good. I'll sign up for that. But it's without the righteousness
and justice of God. And God cannot allow that. We
cannot have Satan's kingdom, however good sinful man might
think the idea is, unless the justice and righteousness of
God is established and maintained and upheld and enforced. And
so the elements of the seven sealed book, the seven elements
of the plan, are to send forth the Gospel. And that's what God
did. Immediately that Adam and Eve
fell, He regenerated them. He clothed them with animal skins
from the sacrifice that pictured Christ. That was right from the
very start, and Abel learned the truth of it, and so on down
the ages. God sent forth the white horse
of the Gospel. He sent forth the red horse of
war, nation against nation. Why did he do that? That Satan's
kingdom should not come to success, that it should be frustrated.
He sent forth the black horse of inequality, of extreme limits
of poverty and of immense riches, and don't we just see it today?
What's telling the truth? The Bible, this book is telling
the truth. This world is a world of colossal
inequality, and that's exactly what John was given to see 2,000
years ago. And then death, oh gosh, you
know, taxes and death, the only two certainties, death. death. He sends the pale horse of death.
And then his justice, the next seal, is that it cannot be allowed
to carry on because the justice of God demands that there is
retribution. The justice of God demands that
the martyr's blood is avenged by the justice of God. And then
God makes it clear in the sixth seal that the physical creation
is going to be damaged to the extent that people cannot live
on it. And then the seventh seal is
opened, and what's that? It's seven trumpets that intensify
the judgment as the end approaches. They're to an extent, they're
throughout all of history, but they intensify as the end approaches. and they harm, the first four
trumpets harm the earth more and more and make it less comfortable
to live in. And there's a plague then of
demonic forces of evil, the locusts, the scorpion-like locusts with
the stings of scorpions in their tails. A plague of demonic forces
of evil, I tell you, as I watch the news every day, again and
again, having read chapter 9 of Revelation and seeing what God
is saying through it, again and again as I see the news of the
world unfold before our eyes, it's these demonic forces of
evil going forth in this world. And then there is the the ingredients,
the fomentation, if you like, of cataclysmic war toward the
end. You think that all war has finished,
but the end of chapter 9, the last half, says, oh no, definitely
not. There is great strife coming,
and it's coming in a way that we are again seeing before our
eyes. I'm not trying to stand, trying
to fit all the elements of a big historical jigsaw puzzle together
to say look there it is that fits nicely that fit nicely as
so many revelation commentators have done with all sorts of bits
of history and then been proven to be wrong but I clearly see
that everything that God has said he said he's given this
that we might know what is coming and what is happening and he's
given this to show his servants these things and that's what
it's showing us that there is an end coming and it's going
to be a cataclysmic war between the peoples of this earth is
coming that is what is coming but do we do we despair and do
we do we fear no absolutely not because chapter 10 was given
and we're assured that all of it is unfolding exactly as God
decrees but while we wait we're commissioned to imbibe the little
book, the Word of God, the little book, the Word of God, that which
is to be fulfilled, that which we're to have revealed to us,
imbibe that little book and preach it, preach it as widely as you
are able to many peoples and nations and tongues and kings,
that's the last verse of chapter 10. So then, the mighty angel's
message to his true people continues into chapter 11. So as we go
into chapter 11, and there was given me a reed like unto a rod,
and the angel, the same angel, the same angel of chapter 10
verse 1. Who is that? it's the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was quite clear from his description
that is Christ. This one who commissions him
to preach then goes on and gives John a rod and commissions him
to measure the temple. So he tells us two things, he
tells us who are God's true people, those who alone are destined
for heaven, And secondly, how can they expect to interact with
Satan's world before being taken out of it? That's the subject
of chapter 11. But first of all, who are God's
true people? Who are those who alone are destined
for heaven. And so let's look at the symbolism
in these two verses. There's the altar, there are
the worshippers, there's the outer court, there's the holy
city, there are the Gentiles, as they're called here, and the
42 months. As you preach, you will encounter
true believers. and a lot of religious folk who
pretend that they're true believers, who pretend that they are the
true people of God. So verse 11 of chapter 10, go
and preach. But as you preach, as you preach,
you will come across the true people of God, but you'll also
come across a lot of religious people who take the name of Christianity
They're pictured by the outer court and by the wider city of
Holy Jerusalem, the Holy City. They'll be pictured by that,
but there's only one bit that is the true people of God. Now,
we know that the temple, the Old Testament temple, it started
with the tabernacle in the wilderness wanderings, and then it became
the temple, and Solomon's temple was the first one, and then that
was destroyed in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar
came and destroyed that temple and took away its riches and
then it was restored in the time of well Darius sent forth Cyrus
and Darius sent forth the means for that to be restored and it
was restored but never in the same glory as Solomon's temple
as it looked to the eye But of course the prophecy said that
it would be more glorious in that Jesus Christ himself as
a man would walk the courts of that temple and would preach
the gospel in that place. But that temple which was destroyed
by the Romans in A.D. 70 exactly according to the prophecy
of God, you can read it in Daniel chapter 9, exactly as God prophesied
the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. You say well there's
loads of it still there, you can go to Jerusalem, there's
no temple There's no temple. There's the mosque on that rock,
but there's no temple. The sacrificial worship of God
by the Jews has never been restored. From that time forward, it ended.
Why did it end? Because God said. In whose scriptures
did it say? New Testament scriptures? No,
Old Testament scriptures. It said that would all end. Now
that temple was the one place on earth where God met with men
in intimate fellowship. you know, through the priesthood,
with the blood, went into the inner sanctum, on the day of
atonement, and atonement was made for the people whose hearts
were right with God. And Hebrews 9 explains, we haven't
got time to look into it now, but read it for yourself. Hebrews
9 says what the showbread was about, what the candlestick was
about, what the altar was about, all of these things were picturing
the gospel of God's grace in Christ. The Holy of Holies was
picturing heaven, a sinless environment, where God dwelt with his people,
represented by his priests going in there, with the right means
of going in there, with the acceptable means of going in there, the
blood of an acceptable sacrifice. There was the Ark of the Covenant,
with its mercy seat, and with the tables of the law, and with
Aaron's rod that budded, and with the pot of manna which the
children of Israel gathered in their wilderness wanderings.
There were the animal sacrifices there, so many of them. Read
them, read them in Leviticus and Numbers, you will read again
and again and again and again. The animal sacrifices, all of
them, picturing, are constant, repeated, every day, never-ending
need for the blood of Christ, who was slain, not every day,
but once for all. He was slain once for all. That one sacrifice on Calvary
fulfilled all of those daily pictures and is never to be repeated
because He has accomplished all that was necessary, the salvation
of His people. So all of that was pictured in
the temple. There was the gospel there, there
was the altar there. We know from Hebrews, again Hebrews
13 verse 10, we have an altar, says Paul, I believe it's Paul
writing Hebrews, we have an altar, whereof they have no right to
eat which serve the tabernacle. What's our altar? That altar
is Christ. Our altar is Christ. You know,
Anglican churches and Catholic churches have the big high altar
and people have a kind of an Old Testament worship approach
to it. No, no, the true people of God worship at the true altar. which accomplishes what God has
purposed. And that altar is the one that
Hebrews 13 verse 10 says we have. It is Christ. Christ is the one
where propitiation was made, where God's anger against the
sin of his people was turned away. was soothed, was calmed. There is now peace with God.
By the blood of Jesus Christ you have peace with God. God
meets and communes with his people, not in a church building, not
at a high altar, not in this place on earth, or that place
on earth, he meets with his people in the gospel. What did Jesus
say to the Samaritan woman? She said, you Jews say that in
Jerusalem is the place to worship, but we Samaritans say in this
mountain. You see, that was the sin of
Jeroboam. The sin of Jeroboam was saying that there was somewhere
other than Jerusalem where you could worship God truly. But
there wasn't. There wasn't in those days. Why
wasn't there? Because God was saying, Christ and Him alone. Only Christ is acceptable. Christ
and Him alone is the way. No. In the New Testament, The
gospel is the temple in which we meet God. It's the holy place
in which we meet God. It's where God communes with
his people. In the New Testament church,
it's by gospel preaching and gathering together and hearing
the sound of the gospel of grace. It's pictured in the Old Testament
by the golden bells on the robe of the priest as he's going in
and out of the Holy of Holies. The golden bells jingle and that's
saying God is at peace with his people. And we hear that in the
gospel of his grace. And all of heaven is the temple
where God will commune with his people. When we get there, it
says in Revelation 21 verse 22, that when we're out of this sinful
environment where we meet now, there, there will be no sin,
for nothing that defiles will enter in. And John says in Revelation
21 verse 22, and I saw no temple therein. Oh, no temple, no cathedral,
no church, no, why? Why not? Because, he tells us
why. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of
it. We have an altar, we have a temple.
The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, the Lamb of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, are the temple of it. All of heaven is the temple
where God communes with his people. but only in the inner temple
are the true worshippers. Who are the true worshippers?
Who can think of a verse that tells us who the true worshippers
are? I know you can. Philippians 3 and verse 3, for
we are the circumcision. Who are the true circumcision?
The circumcision, the Jews, the people, the descendants of Abraham
who followed that right that God gave to Abraham as a mark
of cutting off the sins of the flesh, the right of circumcision. Who are the circumcision? of
the New Testament, of the Gospel Age. We are the circumcision,
says Paul. What do we do? We worship God
in the Spirit. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman,
those who worship God must worship Him, not in this mountain or
that mountain or Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth. We are
the true people of God who worship God in the Spirit. We commune
with the living God in the Spirit. He speaks to us in the Spirit.
And We rejoice not in symbols and icons and liturgy and all
of these other things that religious folk put so much store by, but
we rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in God made man for
the redemption of his people, for the recovery of his people,
for the triumph of his kingdom. We rejoice in Christ Jesus You
might not be singing praises all the time, but as you go through
your life, you're walking in the constant conscious knowledge
that God in Christ has reconciled you to God for eternity. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Him. And we have
no confidence in the flesh. You look at religion. You look
at religion called Christianity. You look at how much confidence
it puts in fleshly, physical things. Ah, this is the sanctuary
where we meet. Oh, let's bow down and worship
the sanctuary. Oh, this, that and the other. Oh, this is the
traditions that are handed down from the fathers. I'm not despising
the traditions. I'm just saying, no confidence
in the flesh. Not a little confidence in the
flesh, no confidence in the flesh. But then you see, John is told
to measure that inner court. Measure it. Measure the temple
of God. Measure the altar and them that
worship therein. Them that worship therein. Who are the true people of God?
We are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit. Measure them.
Measure them. How big is that company? Measure
those that worship in the inner temple. But, but the outer court
Don't bother with that. Leave it out. Don't measure that.
And the wider city of Jerusalem, the holy city, shall they tread
under foot forty and two months. Measure the inner temple, but
don't measure the outer temple. You see, the wider city and the
outer court, they're not included. They superficially look like
God's people and city, as did Israel. In Jerusalem, they looked
like God's people and city, but we know that they weren't. They
are not all Israel, which are of Israel. They're not all the
true Israel of God, the people of God, the inner sanctum worshipers. who are descendants of Abraham,
that's what that means. No, they're not. The people who
believe the gospel of grace, who rejoice in Christ Jesus,
who have no confidence in the flesh, are the true people of
God, are the true Israel of God, as Galatians 6.16 says. And that
land that stretched from the Red Sea as far as the Euphrates
River in the east, that looked superficially like the people
of God, but it was false. How do I know it's false? Look
down at verse 8. Look down at verse eight. We'll look at whose
dead bodies there are later. But their dead bodies shall lie
in the street of the great city. The great, oh, what great city
is this? What's he talking about? Which is spiritually called,
spiritually, spiritually, not physically, not literally, spiritually
called Sodom. What's Sodom? An absolute abomination
to God. And Egypt, what's Egypt? It's
this world, it's this kingdom of Satan, that's what it represents,
that's what it symbolises. Really? Well, I still don't know
which city you mean. Where also our Lord was crucified? Where was Jesus crucified? Where
was he crucified? There is a green hill far away
without a city wall, outside a city wall. Which city? The
city of Jerusalem, the holy city, the holy city. It's that great
city which is Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified.
That's Jerusalem. He says, don't bother measuring
that, they're false. Christendom bears the name of
Christian and of Christ, it uses the terminology of redemption,
but actually denies the Christ of God. When it says it's given
to the Gentiles, it means those, I know we are Gentiles by descent,
because we're not descended from Abraham, we're not Jews, those
of us in this room. But it's not meaning us, it's
meaning those that are not the Israel of God, for God takes
of the Gentiles, as he said he would throughout the Old Testament,
again and again and again, the Gentiles will seek unto the light
of God. He's talking here about those
that are not the Israel of God. The outer court and those that
are in it, they look very much like the inner temple, but they're
not Philippians 3 verse 3. You know, worship God in the
spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, no confidence in the flesh. The
holy city, which is Christendom, which uses the name, which loves
the traditions, which has confidence in them, that despises God's
gospel. What do I mean? They say they
love the gospel, they say they preach the gospel. I've talked
to people who say, oh yeah, we believe in the election of God
and the sovereign grace of God. No, they don't. No, they don't.
They don't believe in particular redemption, that the death of
Christ was for the death of the elect multitude the Father gave
to him before the beginning of time and for nobody else. It's
a narrow, narrow doctrine. That's the true gospel of grace.
And these people, he says, they trample it underfoot, 42 months. They trample it underfoot. Look
at Hebrews 10 again, and we looked at it last week, Hebrews 10 verse
29, of how much sorer punishment Suppose ye that he be thought
worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. You see, as
the as the voices from the altar, the horns of the altar in verse
13 of chapter 9 cry out. They cry out for the justice
of God to fall on those who have trampled underfoot, trampled
underfoot the blood of the everlasting covenant, because that is the
blood which alone accomplishes salvation. So then, John is given
a measuring rod in his vision, and it's to define the size and
the extent and the limits of God's true people. And again,
it's symbolism. A rod symbolizes power. Again
and again in the scriptures, a rod symbolizes power. It symbolizes
those for whom Christ truly is Lord. It symbolizes those that
Jesus called little flock, because he is our master, he governs
them. It's an expression of the rule
and the power of God, is the rod of God, the rod of Moses
in the hand of God, think of what that accomplished. You know, Jesus said that when
he comes again, he said, will faith be found on the earth when
he returns? He said that in Luke 18 verse
8, because it's a rare thing. You know, there are so many people
that long for a situation where we're all in huge great churches,
in magnificent buildings, and the world is envious because
everything is going so well and absolutely wonderful. And the
fact is that is not the case. If anything, Large numbers are
more an indication of the fact that your doctrine's wrong, because
the flesh loves it, and will go to it, and it will be appealing
to them. But the truth is that the true
people of God, like the inner court of the temple, compared
with the outer court and the wider Jerusalem, are always small. Jesus called them little flock,
Luke 12, 32. He asked if faith would be found
on the earth. We are so easily discouraged
by small numbers. We're so easily discouraged.
built up, if we've got large numbers, oh, what must you be
doing wrong? You know, we get hundreds come to our church every
week, we're having to build extra buildings to get them all in,
because there are so many of them. What are you preaching,
is what I would ask. If that's truly of God, then
God be praised, but it's not what the scriptures indicate,
no. I think it's given to show God's people how small they appear
in contrast to the world of Satan and anti-Christian religion.
You know, they reckon the population of the world now is fast approaching
eight billion people, I've said before. Three and a half times
what it was when I was born, maybe even four times now. Think
about that. That's a colossal statistic.
In my lifetime, 72 years, in that lifetime, the population
of this planet, there are now three to four people for every
one that there was when I was born. That's the state it is,
and yet, Look at the people of God. What does God call them
in this book? He calls them his 144,000. Look
at that compared with 8 billion. Isn't it just a tiny, tiny proportion? So then, what are the marks of
the true people of God, of the inner temple, of that which John
is to measure compared with the rest? Here's the thing. God's true worshippers commune
with God in the temple proper, in the inner temple, in the inner
court, around the altar, and the Ark of the Covenant, which
is accessed by the priesthood, a qualified priesthood, an elected
priesthood, a called out chosen priesthood, an adorned priesthood
with the priestly robes, Now we don't have priests now, for
we have a priest, which is Christ. We have a great high priest.
He alone has replaced all those that those Old Testament priests
pointed to. The church does not have priests. There was a debate many years
ago about whether the Church of England should have women
priests, and I remember at the time writing an article saying
that's not the issue, it's whether there are priests at all. We
have one priest, for we are a kingdom of priests. The true people of
God themselves our priests, because why? Because of the blood of
Christ and the accomplishment of redemption, we all have access
by faith, through that blood, into the Holy of Holies. We all
have. We are a kingdom of priests,
is what it says in 1 Peter chapter 2. A kingdom of priests, that's
what we are. We have that access into that
inner place. and the blood atonement speaks
of our, the blood atonement, that which Christ accomplished
when he said, it is finished, that had satisfied the offended
justice of God. And they all, all those symbols
typified the true gospel. The mercy seat covering the law,
the heavenly manner picturing Christ, the living bread from
heaven, the typical animal sacrifices for a specific people. Who was
justified? Who was atoned on the Day of
Atonement. It was the Israelites who were
around that temple when the priest went in with the acceptable sacrifice.
It was a specific people. It was an interceding priesthood
that pictured the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone, for we
have a great High Priest. It's how a holy God who cannot
abide sin, who must who must exact retribution for sin against
his being, his person, his law, his justice. It's how he reconciles
hell-deserving sinners in the person and work of the Lamb of
God, who alone was qualified to open that book, that seven-sealed
book. When the psalmist, in Psalm 73,
if any of you remember that, Psalm 73, the psalmist admits
that he was envious at the wicked, at unbelievers, that they had
such a... He tried his best to serve God
and he was finding it so hard. He was envious at the wicked
and was about to throw it all overboard and say, I've given
up, I'm going the way of the world. And then he went into
the sanctuary. He went into the temple in the
Old Testament. He went into the sanctuary and
he looked around and he said, then understood I their end. Those that he was envious at,
when he went into the temple, he looked around, he remembered,
he said, then understood I their end. They're in slippery places.
Why? Because everything he saw spoke
of the gospel of grace. The symbolism spoke of Gospel
truth. The symbolism spoke of the five
points of Calvinism, though he didn't have them written down
like that. Divine sovereignty, total depravity, unconditional
election, particular redemption, irresistible grace, all of this,
all of those things, that's what it spoke of and that's what it
said to him. Then understood I the end of those who denied
it. the unchanging covenant of God
in grace towards the objects of his love. Grace, grace is
God's greatest glory. How do I know that? Moses asked
God, show me your glory and it will suffice me. Exodus 33 verse
18, show me your glory and it will suffice. And God said, come
here and stand in this cleft of the rock and I will show you
my glory. This was his glory. I will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. God is sovereign in the matter
of salvation. God is sovereign in all things.
His grace to undeserving sinners is His greatest glory. That is
His greatest glory. And when that glory departs from
a place of so-called Christian religion, you know what sign
you can put above it? Ichabod. What does Ichabod mean?
The glory has departed. It was from that account of Eli's
sons and the wife of one of Eli's sons, Phineas I think it was,
was about to give birth and The Philistines came and they captured
the Ark of God, the Ark of the Covenant, and they took it away.
And as she was about to die, giving birth to this child, they
said, what should we call the child? And she said, call him
Ichabod, for the glory has departed. The Ark of God has been taken
by the Philistines. Call him Ichabod. And so they
did, departed glory. You see, Those that claim to
be the true Church, the wider city of Jerusalem, the outer
court, but not the inner temple, Their gospel denies the scriptures. It denies the scriptures. You
say, how can you say that? Because it does. It denies, there
are churches up and down this country that believe they are
maintaining an absolutely solid tradition of biblical truth. They believe in election, they
believe in the five points of Calvinism, or so they say, but
their gospel denies the scripture concerning law and grace. They
put a burden on the backs of those that listen to them, which
is not according to the gospel. They put a burden of law on the
backs of people that listen to them, in the name of progressive
sanctification. They do all of these things,
and that's just one example. It denies the gospel of grace. Their God is impotent. Their
Christ is an idol. Their Christ is an idol. Why
do I say He's an idol? Because so often He's a Christ
who died for everybody, but accomplished the salvation of nobody. That's
not Christ. That's an idol. That's a figment
of the imagination. That is not true. They deny God's
holy nature. They exalt human nature. They commit spiritual adultery. The scriptures talk of this a
lot. They commit spiritual adultery. They claim to be the Bride of
Christ. They claim. That's what the Church
of God is. The true Church of God is the Bride of Christ. There's
a marriage supper of the Lamb coming. They claim to be the
Bride of Christ, yet they commit spiritual fornication with the
prophets of Antichrist. We'll see more of this when we
get to Revelation 17. The temple court And the holy
city includes all who in reality deny that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh. You know that John said in his
epistle, his first epistle, chapter 4, Try the spirits, whether they
be of God. All who come professing that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh are of God. And you say,
oh, well, that means everybody is right with God. They're all
correct. They're all doing it the right
way. No, no, not true. Not true. They're not. They're
not. They don't preach that the Christ
Jesus that was born in Nazareth, that man that lived, you know
what was the message of the preachers in the Acts of the Apostles?
The apostles themselves, they preached that Jesus was very
Christ. What did that mean? He was the
Messiah of the Old Testament. He was the God accomplishing
salvation, particular redemption, specific sovereign grace, all
of these things. Many a sincere religious folk
But you know, listen to this, many are sincere religious folk,
but sincerity gets you nowhere. Because they come before Christ,
he said, in Matthew chapter 7, verse 23, he said, many will
say to me in that day of judgment at the end, when the end finally
comes, many will say, Lord, didn't we do this in your name and that
in your name? And he will say to them, depart
from me. I never knew you. You who work
iniquity, because to deny the gospel, to water it down, to
poison it with other things is iniquity. Now then, there's a
conundrum, isn't there? The true church confesses that
it's all of God's grace. You know, why are we saved? If
we're saved, what is it? Is it because you were better
than anybody else? No, it's all of God's grace. If it wasn't
for the grace of God, I never would have believed. I was dead
in trespasses and sins until He quickened me, as we read in
Ephesians chapter 2. We say that without any hesitation. It's all of God's grace. But
the outer court and wider Christendom will all come to confess when
he says, depart from me, I never knew you, that it was not all
of God's reprobation, but of their own willful unbelief. That's what they'll confess.
They'll have to confess. It's of their own willful unbelief. Why are you not there? Because
I refused to believe when I'd heard the truth. The distinguishing
marks of the inner temple the altar, and the worshippers, these
are all primary gospel tenets, those which distinguish the true
from the false. That which John symbolically
measured was the true Church of God. Without any denominational
label, it was bearing witness, commissioned in verse 11 of chapter
10, to go and preach the true gospel, the little book, to many
people, and many tongues, and many nations, and many kings.
That's who they are. They were to go and do that in
the face of fierce opposition from Antichrist. He measured
the true spiritual temple of God. What is the true spiritual
temple of God? Who are the true worshippers
who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, have
no confidence in the flesh, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 6 and
verse 16, for you, for you, he's speaking to believers who believe
the gospel. That's how he knew the Thessalonians
were true believers, the elect of God, because they believed
the gospel that they'd heard. It was their heart and core,
their lives were built on it, it was their reason for being,
it was their rejoicing and joy, their hope. He said, you are
the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they
shall be my people. You are the, you believers, you
true gospel believers are the temple of the living God. It's
not a building in Jerusalem anymore. You are a living temple. What
did we read in Ephesians? Just turn over there. We'll close
with this. Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians
chapter 2 is such a wonderful chapter given by the Holy Spirit
to Paul and for us. Chapter 2 verse 1, you, he's
speaking to believers, hath he quickened. It's all in italics
but it's justified by later on where that is clear. You, He's
made alive, who were dead. You were dead, but He's made
you alive. You were dead to spiritual things, but He's made you alive.
It was your trespasses and sins that made you dead, and you walked
in them in the time past, according to the course of this world,
the pattern of this world. Verse 5, even when we were dead
in sins, He has quickened us together with Christ, made us
alive together with Christ. By grace are ye saved. Verse
6, and hath raised us up, you who he's speaking to, you who
believe Christ, he's raised you up together. And listen, we're
on earth in this room and you out there on the internet where
you are. He's raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. You know when John saw in Revelation
19 verse 1 much people in heaven, do you know what? If you're a
believer, I believe he saw you there in heaven outside of time. Verse 8 For by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, all of grace. Verse 10. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath before
ordained that we should walk in them for a while in this world.
Verse 12. That at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, before
you believed the gospel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world, but now But now? In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes,
at one time, were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Verse 16, that he might reconcile
both, that's Jews and Gentiles, unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity between Jews and Gentiles thereby. The
blood of Christ has made one people out of that which was
two. The Jews despised the Gentiles as not the people of God, but
now the people of God comprises Jews and Gentiles. And then verse
18, And for through him we both, Jews and Gentiles, have access
by one Spirit unto the Father. Then, verse 19, now therefore
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, trampling the city
of God underfoot, but fellow citizens with the saints and
of the household of God. You're worshippers in the inner
temple. You're built upon the foundation of the apostles and
the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
He's speaking about a temple. This is a spiritual temple. This
is a living temple. Look, he goes on, verse 21, in
whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto
a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit. You, believers, are
the stones cut out from the quarry of humanity by the grace of God. and you form the temple of God. It's not built of literal stones
anymore, because that was destroyed. It's built of living stones,
which are the believing people of God. This is the true church
of Jesus Christ. This is His body and His bride. This is what is distinct, not
only from the world of Satan's kingdom, but also distinct from
professing Christianity, which never in truth knew Christ. never did, never worshipped God
in the spirit, never rejoiced in Christ Jesus, and trusted
above all else in themselves and their religious traditions.
No, this is defining the true people of God, so that when you
look around, And you don't see many who believe like you. Don't
despair, because that's exactly what God has said to us here.
But when we get to heaven, there will be a multitude that no man
can number, of every tribe, and tongue, and kindred. Is that
not a glorious hope? You say, oh, I've got all sorts
of things that I love in this world. Well, yes, you've got
family, and you've got motivating careers, and all sorts of things,
and I'm not saying for one minute that any of those should be diminished.
We do what God gives us to do while He gives us the time and
the breath to do it. But our hope, if you're a true
believer, is in heaven. And so we pray, come Lord Jesus. Even so, come Lord Jesus. This
is where my hope is. This is where my treasure is
laid up. This is where my heart is also, in heaven. Oh, that
all who hear this might be found as living stones in God's spiritual
temple on earth until he comes to take us to our eternal home.
Amen.