Now I said last week, I probably
said it the week before, but I'm going to say it again, just
so that you're absolutely clear. What is the scripture for? What
is the Bible for? It is God's declaration to his
redeemed, justified people to them the effectual salvation
that he has accomplished in his son for his own glory. That's
what it's for. To those that he justified in
Christ from before the beginning of time, on the basis of the
lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, but who had to
come in reality in time, in this realm of time, 2,000 years ago,
to be the representative of his people. to bear their sins, to
die on the cross of Calvary, to pay redemption's price. That
justification from eternity is reality, but it's entirely on
the basis of the fact that he had to come in time and accomplish
it in time. That's what the scripture's about.
It's not telling mankind how to live. There may be spinoffs
that tell mankind how to live. There may be spinoffs that were
a great benefit to countries like this in years gone by when
the laws of the land and the justice of the land was based
squarely on the principles of God's word and tremendous benefits
they were and Tragic is the state of society that has completely
thrown overboard and lost all of those things. But that isn't
the main purpose of the scripture. It's to declare salvation to
God's redeemed, justified people. Salvation accomplished. This
is what he says. Salvation accomplished. He's
the God of salvation. And all scripture, says Paul
to Timothy, is given by inspiration of God. It's a special book.
It's a holy Bible, a separate Bible, a different Bible. Bible
means book. It's a different book. It's absolutely
unique in the literature of the world. All Scripture, because
this and this alone, is given by inspiration of God. So as
the old catechism used to say, holy men of God wrote as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. They were born along, they were
inspired, God breathed that truth into them. And it's profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness. And what's instruction in righteousness?
how to be righteous. How can you be righteous? We
must have righteousness, without which no man shall see the Lord
in Christ and Him alone. This is what it shows us. It's
all supportive of that single declaration of salvation to God's
redeemed people. All of it. The creation account,
you know, the creation account, all supportive of that declaration.
The fall, It's all supportive, it's there in scripture, it's
revealed, God willed it and purposed it, and it's there revealed for
this purpose of showing salvation to his elect. The flood, the
judgment of God, the patriarchs, how God dealt with Abraham and
Isaac and Noah and all of those, of Israel, his dealings with
that nation, that special nation which wasn't big, wasn't powerful,
wasn't strong, it had nothing to recommend it. Why did God
love them? Because he just loved them. out
of pure grace. Israel, the law, the priesthood,
the sacrifices, the prophets, the kings, the temple, the exile,
the return from exile, all pointing to the coming of Christ as a
man to accomplish the atonement. Atonement, you want a definition
of atonement? Break the word down. At-one-ment. God, who is holy, who dwells
in unapproachable light, and man, as we are, sinful and under
the condemnation of God, made one, at one, atonement, the atonement
accomplished We saw two weeks ago life promised in the Gospel,
2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 1, the promise of life, abundant
eternal life. We saw last week the journey
that each believer experiences in going from that state of a
child of wrath, even as the others, to life. It's a journey of life,
death to life. That's the believer's experience.
It's a lonely, narrow way journey in this life. It's a darkness
to light transformation, absolutely. You only need to look at some
of the things that are said and done in the media to see that
the darkness, the thick black darkness that rests over so many
and the light of the knowledge of the glory of God that is The
possession of the child of God in the scriptures in the Lord
Jesus Christ. A darkness to light transformation. We're seemingly
small and insignificant in this world. This was the other thing
we saw last week. But we're part of God's great temple building. He's building a temple. And I've
called this message, The Temple That God Built. And I think this
is going to be the first one of maybe two or three of these
messages. I want to turn your thoughts
to the temple. the temple in the scriptures
and what it signifies. Because there in Haggai chapter
2, well the whole of Haggai is about the building of the temple
following the exile, following the return from the Babylonian
exile. And that's where our text is
this morning, Haggai chapter 2 and verse 9, the glory of this
latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the
Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give
peace, saith the Lord of hosts. What's the historical background
to the temple? It was always the symbolical
of, and actually in the Old Testament, the presence of God with his
people. It started when Israel came out
of Egypt, and they did everything the way that God had told them,
told Moses on Mount Sinai. They had a tabernacle, which
was a mobile temple, if you like. It was the place where the presence
of God dwelt and traveled with his people. It was the place
wherein the sacrifices were made, the sacrifices for sin. It was
the place where the Holy of Holies was, and the symbols of God and
his dealings with his people. There was the Ark of the Covenant
in the Holy of Holies. There were the altars on which
the sacrifices were made. There was the table of showbread.
There was the lampstand with its seven branches to it. in the sanctuary, the Holy of
Holies, where only the high priest could go once a year. And all
of these things were symbols of God's presence and of his
saving grace. They're all symbols of the Gospel.
This is why in the days of Eli, the high priest, when Samuel
was a child, and they fought the Philistines, and the Ark
of the Covenant was stolen, was taken, captured by the Philistines. This is why Eli's daughter-in-law
cried out when her child was born, call him Ichabod. because
the glories departed. And what was the glory? It was
the Ark of the Covenant. Why was it glorious? Because
it represented the gospel of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of these tabernacle things
represented the gospel of grace. And this tabernacle went with
them through all the wilderness journeys until they came into
the land of Canaan, the promised land, and there at Shiloh the
tabernacle was set up. But it was always the desire
to have something more permanent. David said, I live in Oak-paneled
houses. I want to build a house for the
Lord in the midst of Israel. And God told him, no, you won't
do it, but your son Solomon will. And in about 950, I'm not going
to be a stickler about the precise dates, but about 950 years BC,
Solomon's temple was built And it was in the hands of God, and
under the sovereign, providential direction of God, it was made
of the best materials, the best cedar, the cedars of Lebanon,
the finest gold. Amazingly, all the kingdoms round
about all contributed to this glorious temple in Jerusalem. And the stones were cut out of
a quarry, and it's all symbolical of what God was going to do.
And this temple was a glorious temple. And people would come
to see the glory of Solomon's temple and the wonder of his
kingdom. And then idolatry, of course.
They were always idolatrous, but idolatry came to the fore
again and again. And God had promised that if
you go after false gods, then punishment will come. You'll
be taken away from this land. All of this will be stripped
away from you. You will spend years in exile in a foreign country. This will no longer be yours.
And the people did. They went after false gods. They went after idols. And Nebuchadnezzar
came. And Jerusalem was basically destroyed. It was flattened. It became a
ruin. It became a dwelling place of wild animals. The temple,
which was the glory of Solomon's reign, that glorious temple,
was ransacked. All of the golden vessels were
taken away. And you remember Nebuchadnezzar's,
not his immediate son, but after him, Belshazzar had that feast,
that booze-up, if you like, where he used those temples sacrilegiously
from Jerusalem and they were there in Babylon for 70 years
of exile during the time that Daniel was prophesying and writing
his prophecy and it all fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah exactly
Jeremiah 25 verses 9 to 11, he says, you will go into exile
for 70 years. It was absolutely precise. Why
70 years? For this reason, there would
be those around at the end of 70 years, who although they were
pretty old, they were getting on, they remembered quite clearly
the glory of that temple. before it was ransacked. See
verse 3 of chapter 2 of Haggai. Who is left among you that saw
this house in her first glory? It's 70 years later, after Nebuchadnezzar. How do you see it now? It was
a glorious temple, wasn't it? How do you see it now? Is it
not in your eyes, in comparison of it, as nothing? It's flattened. It's a ruin. It's the place where
jackals live. It's just overgrown. It's a ruin. It's a wreck. But some of you
remember what it was like. Some of you old men and old women,
you remember what it was like. You remember when you were in
your teens and you look back all those years, 70 years ago,
and you remember what it was like, what a glorious temple
it was then. The coming back had been prophesied
too. In the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
44 verse 28, we saw it when we were looking at this, 200 or
more years before these events, God said to the people, through
Isaiah the prophet, that he would raise up a king, a king called
Cyrus. And what Cyrus would do, this
foreign king, this foreign potentate, what he would do would be to
build Jerusalem and lay the foundation of the temple. And God said it
200 plus years before it happened. And in this time they came back. We're going to be looking in
coming months, I think, at the book of Ezra. But the book of
Ezra in the historical books is the account of them coming
back to build the temple. Then the book of Nehemiah is
the book of them coming back to reestablish the walls of Jerusalem
and put it back into its pre-exile condition as far as possible.
And they came back at the end of the 70 years of prophecy,
The Babylonian Empire was swept away, in a night the Persian
Empire came in, and Cyrus had it for some reason in his heart.
We know why. God said he would do it. And
where did God say, in his word, the heart of the king is in his
hands? The heart of the king, whichever
king, not the one who says he believes in God, the heart of
the king is in the hands of God. The heart of Putin, the heart
of Obama, the heart of, is in the hands of God. Don't forget
that. God is sovereign over all things.
And he put it in his heart. And he said to the Jews, he said,
the God of the whole earth has put in my heart to build a temple
in Jerusalem. I want you to go back to Jerusalem.
Absolutely amazing. God controls, God rules in the
affairs of men and in the affairs of kingdoms. We need fear nothing.
He's sovereign over it. Think of the trivial things that
you lie awake worrying about at night. Think of the trivial
things that we worry about. God is sovereign over everything. And when they came back, Ezra
came back, and Zerubbabel, and Shealtiel, and Joshua, and they
came back to Jerusalem, and the first thing they did when they
got to this ruin was they built an altar for sacrifices, because
they must worship God on the basis of an acceptable sacrifice.
And they kept the Feast of the Tabernacles, and they laid the
foundation stone for a new temple. They cleared away all of the
rubbish. They suffered hindrances and opposition from the people
round about for 20 years. but they built the temple eventually. Prophets like Haggai were raised
up to encourage them to build the temple. And in verse nine,
the glory of this latter house that they were building in place
of the old one, in place of Solomon's temple, shall be greater than
the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will
I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Well let's look then. If we're God's people, saved
by his grace. If we're God's people, this temple
is significant to us, to you and to me. It means something
to us. It has relevance because the whole of the scripture is
to declare to his redeemed people effectual salvation accomplished. What's the temple's spiritual
significance? Now, you know that there is about
everything to do with the truth You don't have to look very far
to see that which is greatly in error, which is greatly erroneous. The stuff that comes through
your door, that lands on your mat, from those that are trying
to make out that they're angels of light telling you truth, and
it actually isn't. It's falsehood. It's error. Marguerite
got something this week. Comes through, looks so plausible. Just dig, just scratch below
the surface. It isn't. It isn't. It's error. It's error. There's great misunderstanding
about everything to do with the gospel. It almost seems like
truth, but you dig and look and scratch. And in our society,
for hundreds, over a thousand years, there's been misunderstanding
about the temple and what it means to Christian believing
people. And so the societies of the Western
world have built huge great cathedrals trying to mimic the temple idea,
that you have this magnificent building in which there is this
ethereal, inexplicable, mysterious presence of God. And you have
a priesthood that decks itself in elaborate robes and headgear. And you have places where the
music of echoing harmonious choirs is more important than the truth
of the gospel preached. And you have such wonderful architecture. And we have to admit, you look
at it, you think, wow, what impressive architecture. What wonderful
engineering, given they didn't have the hydraulic cranes and
the steel and all that sort of thing that we have these days.
They just had basic building materials of stone and wood,
and what wonderful structures they produced. But they're objects
of idolatry. All of them are objects of idolatry. Admire them for their human ingenuity,
but they're objects of idolatry. They're not the place where God
dwells. They're not the place where God's truth is portrayed.
Their music may be beautiful, but they're not the place where
you'll find the words of eternal life, not at all. The Samaritan
woman said to Jesus when she met him at the well, she said,
you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place to worship, and
our fathers say in this mountain is the place to worship. And
he said, woman, I say to you, the days are coming when the
place where you worship is utterly irrelevant. God's people will
worship Him in spirit and in truth. Spirit and truth. Whether it's in a simple room
in a village hall or in somebody's parlor at home, wherever it is,
in spirit and in truth is the key thing. Not in a temple, which
is an object of idolatry. Not in a cathedral, which pretends
to be a temple. They have places where you can't
go, mimicking the Holy of Holies. They have the high altar. Gosh,
and even in the little churches around the country, which mimic,
you know, they're like the offspring of the big cathedral. They have
that bar. I told you that in my youth for
a while, I was the verger of the village church, and the reason
I was, because it paid 30 shillings a week, so that tells you how
long ago it was. It was in the 1960s, and I used to clean the
church, you know, hoover the mats and whitened the stones
and polished the brasses and all that sort of thing. In fact
Christine used to help me at times when I first met her while
I was earning that money. But there was a place in the
parish church where there was this rail and there was a bit
beyond it that had the altar and the stained glass window.
Don't go beyond that rail, mustn't go in there, be struck dead.
Just like going into the Old Testament temple in a sanctum,
the holy of holies, if you weren't the high priest with an acceptable
sacrifice and it wasn't the day of atonement, you'd be struck
dead. And that spirit was upon me at the time. Oh, I don't go
in there, no, that's the high altar. mustn't go in there. They
try and mimic all of these things. But the temple was a key element. Do you remember this when we
were looking at Hebrews? The temple was a key element
in God's blueprint for the gospel. The Old Testament pictures are
the blueprint for the Gospel, but the reality it signified
is Christ and his Church. This is what it's all about.
The blueprint leads on to the reality. Once the realities come,
once the worship is there, once the magnificent building is there,
You don't keep poring over the blueprints. You've got it. You've
got the real thing. It's there. Go and have a look.
Go and experience it. Go and touch it. Go and see it.
The presence of God on earth in the midst of his people is
what was symbolized. But how is it now? You see, as
in the tabernacle before the temple, there was the Shekinah
glory, the presence of God on earth. He dwelt between the cherubim
on the Ark of the Covenant. In the Holy of Holies, we read
that there was a light there. In 2 Kings 19 verse 15, O Lord
God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art
the God, even thou alone. there in the Holy of Holies was
the symbolical place where the presence of God on earth was
focused. And there was holy light there
resting on the Ark of the Covenant. Now, what does it symbolize?
What is the temple's spiritual significance? And I've got two
points, and just two. First of all, the temple signifies
Christ's body. his physical body on earth as
he walked the earth as a man two thousand years ago the temple
symbolized his physical body in john chapter two and verses
nineteen to twenty two you know the account of where he turned
out the turned over the tables in the temple early on in john's
gospel and he chased out the money changers and he said you've
made my father's house into a den of thieves And Jesus answered
and said unto them, Destroy this temple. This was the temple they
built in the days of Ezra and Zerubbabel and Joshua the high
priest. Jesus answered and said to 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 building.
And will thou rear it up in three days? It took our fathers in
the days of Ezra forty-six years to build this temple, and you,
a mere man, are telling us that you can build it in three days.
But he spake of the temple of his body. In Christ, as a man
walking the earth, God was manifest in the flesh. As the presence
of God was manifest in the Shekinah glory in the temple in Jerusalem,
In Christ as a man, flesh and blood, walking the earth without
sin, God was manifest in the flesh. Great is the mystery of
godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Think of it. God was manifest
in the flesh. In him, writes Paul to the Colossians,
in him, this man that walked the earth, dwelt the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. If you would meet with God, in
the Old Testament, you had to go to the temple. You had to
go up to the feasts. That's where God's presence was.
If you would know God today, you must meet him in Christ.
The temple was the only place sacrifice could be offered. Even
as far back as Deuteronomy before there was a temple, there was
just a tabernacle. Here we have this instruction,
take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings
in every place that thou seest. but in the place which the Lord
shall choose in one of thy tribes there thou shalt offer thy burnt
offerings and there thou shalt do all that I command in other
words he's saying don't you dare go offering sacrifices outside
of the tabernacle which then became the temple don't dare
do it and that's why today you know in the Jewish religion nothing's
changed apart from this there are no animal sacrifices anymore
do you know why? I know all sorts of laws of lands
would stop them doing it, but it's because there's no temple
in Jerusalem. That's the reason why. There isn't a temple in
Jerusalem, therefore there are no animal sacrifices. In the
same way, Christ alone on Calvary is the only propitiation, the
only turning away of anger of God for sin. and our sacrifices
are only accepted by Christ, our sacrifice. They're only accepted
on the basis of Christ, our sacrifice. We read earlier in 1 Peter chapter
2 and verse 5, you also as lively stones in this temple that God's
building are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. You and I as believers offer
up spiritual sacrifices as the high priest alone could offer
up those animal sacrifices that were acceptable if they were
offered in the way that God had said. So we offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ because it's
in Him that they're accepted. In the Old Testament, all spiritual
worship was offered in the temple. In 2 Chronicles chapter 6 we
read, hear the prayers of those who pray toward this temple.
And in Jesus' ministry on earth, he talks about the publican.
who goes up to the temple in the parable, goes up to the temple
to pray. Where does he go to pray? To
the temple to pray. Even after Jesus had risen from
the dead and ascended, in those early days of the New Testament
church, before the transition was clear in their minds, Peter
and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer to pray.
Christ, in his earthly ministry, frequently went to the temple.
He went to the temple to spend time there. So, for us, all true
worship of God is in Christ, who is our temple. The spiritual
significance of the temple? Firstly, it's the physical body
of Christ as He walked this earth. The presence of God. God with
us. Immanuel, God with us. Immanuel, a virgin shall conceive,
Immanuel, God with us. Say to the cities of Judah, behold
your God, God with us. His body was what the temple
looked forward to. His body as he walked this earth,
God with us, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The temple
was a beautiful and blessed picture of the Lord Jesus and especially
of his human nature as our God-man mediator. Then the second point
is this. The temple was also typical of
Christ's spiritual body. It was typical of his physical
body as he walked the earth, but it's typical of Christ's
spiritual body. And what's his spiritual body?
It's the church. today. Ever since he came, it's
his church, it's his body. We're the body of Christ. The
church is the body of Christ. And it's typical of Christ's
mystical, spiritual body, every true local church, and of every
individual believer in Christ, in that church. Let me read you
some scriptures. In fact, I don't really need
to say a great deal more, other than read the scriptures to you.
1 Corinthians chapter 6, Verses 15 to 17. Know ye not that your
bodies are the members of Christ? You know, meaning the arms and
legs and fingers, the members of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12,
talking about gifts of the Spirit, he says, you're all different
members. You know, shall the hand say to the eye, I don't
need you because I'm a hand? No, you're all members of the
one body. This is what he's saying. Know ye not that your bodies
are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members
of Christ and make them the members of Anharlot, shall I join them
to Anharlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not
that he which is joined to Anharlot is one body? For two, saith he,
shall be one flesh? Two, saith he, shall be one flesh,
but he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. In other words, Paul is making
the argument, don't think that you can live in adulterous, sinful
relationships with the world, when you're members of Christ's
body. You're his temple. The church is his temple. The
church is his spiritual body on earth. It's his body. And
the temple symbolized it. Just as his physical body fulfilled
the temple type, so did the church. And we as its members fulfill
that spiritual type of the temple. 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse
16. And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. You, he's saying to the church at Corinth, you
are the temple of the living God. Oh, surely it's that building
in Jerusalem. No, you are the temple of the
living God. You know what happened to that second temple in A.D. 70? Exactly the same as happened
to the first. It was destroyed. The Romans
destroyed it. They tore it down, entirely in
fulfillment of the prophecy, because it's not needed anymore.
Because the temple of the living God is his church, his spiritual
body. 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. Think of that temple, we can't
imagine it. And the holy aura that there
must have been over that place, the Shekinah glory, as they wandered
in the wilderness wanderings, there was the pillar of fire
at night and the cloud by day, the symbols of the presence of
God. And there was God in the midst, the God of the whole earth
in the midst of this little people, this few hundred thousand, this
million or two maybe, of people wandering in the wilderness.
God says in the same way in his church today. His presence is
there in the midst. I will dwell in them and walk
in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
And every true local church gathered together in the name of Christ
is his temple. It is his temple. This is where
God dwells. with his people in the temple
of the living God, not in cathedrals, not in buildings that man makes,
in his temple, in spirit and in truth. Ephesians chapter 2
and verse 22 says, in whom ye also, speaking to another church,
speaking to all believers in all churches, truly in all time,
in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit. What did we sing in our first
hymn? Matthew 18 verse 20, for where two or three are gathered
together in my name, just as he was there on the Ark of the
Covenant between the gold and cherubim, the presence of God
there, he says, there am I in the midst of them. You think,
oh, wouldn't it be good if we had such a wonderful building?
Do you know it would just be an object of idolatry? Do you
know, even those in nice, plush, evangelical churches, you know,
the human spirit is so weak. Isn't it so tempting to look
at it and say, look at this, look what we've got, what a wonderful
place we've got. And they talk about going into
the sanctuary. Do you know something? They're
not sanctuaries. This is a sanctuary. This room
here is a sanctuary if you're hearing the gospel of the word
of God, the truth of the word of God, and the gospel of sovereign
grace and particular redemption. Then it's a sanctuary. But there's
nothing else about the place. You take the preaching of the
word out of it and it's got nothing. It's Ichabod, it's departed glory.
That's why I say there is nothing in a place, a place where once
the glory of God in the grace of the gospel shone clearly,
in a matter of years that glory can be taken away and you can
pronounce Ichabod over the door. It's departed, it's gone, it's
not there. The presence of God isn't there
truly because the truth of God God in Christ will not endorse
that which is erroneous in the matter of the gospel of His grace.
So, He gathers together with His people. 1 Corinthians chapter
3 and verse 16 and 17, Know ye not that ye are the temple of
God? Couldn't be clearer, could it? 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 temple you are. You are the temple of God. It's
a holy place. The church is a holy place. It's
where God dwells by His Spirit. Christ has set up His throne
in the hearts of believing sinners. These are wonderful thoughts.
These are thoughts of grace. Christ has set up His throne
in the hearts of believing sinners by the power and grace of God
the Holy Spirit. And in this temple, do we have
an altar? Yes, we do. Hebrews 13 tells us we have an
altar. And on that altar, there's the
sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, worshiping our God in
spirit and in truth, focusing on Christ. He is our altar. He
is our altar. Him and his death atoning for
sin is our altar. And so, where truly is the presence
of God now? Don't be in any doubt about this,
Philippians 3 verse 3, for we are the circumcision, who are
the circumcision? The true people of God, which
worship God in the spirit, not in physical buildings, and rejoice
in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We
don't rejoice in a priest decked in robes. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus, our great high priest, who is clothed with all the robes
and garments of salvation, and he clothes his people with the
garments of salvation. We don't have to look at another
man, we look at him, the God-man, who is so clothed for us, and
we have no confidence in the flesh, none whatsoever. the temple
of God, the temple that God is building. Next time, we'll look
at Zerubbabel, this character Zerubbabel, and the foundation
stone.