Sermon Tone Analysis

*Our Identity In Christ*

 

Lesson 26

 

*Temple of the Holy Spirit *

 

/I Cor.

6:19-20/

/19//Or //do you not know that your *body is a temple of the Holy Spirit* who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?// 20 For //you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body//./

/ /

/ /

/II Cor.

6:16/

/Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

*For we are the temple of the living God;* just as God said,/

/“I will dwell in them and walk among them;/

/And I will be their God, and they shall be My people./

/ /

Would you agree with me that according to these verses, our bodies are the dwelling place of God’s Spirit?

The question I want us to think about today is:

 

Do I treat His dwelling place as a temple or

do I treat His dwelling place as a garage?

Let’s talk first about the garage.

What’s the purpose for the garage?

·         Protect our car from the weather.

·         Storage for the things we don’t want in the house.

Let’s compare the inside of a garage to the inside of your house.

In most homes which is given less attention by the builder and requires less funds to finish?

Garage may be left unfinished—we’ll get to it.

How clean is the inside of your garage?

Fairly clean, but often neglected.

Now let’s have a look at the temple.

Turn with me if you will to II Chronicles 3

As we read through the chapter, notice the divisions of the temple, the materials used, the care taken, the furniture and other items brought into the temple.

Ch.

3

v. 3 Foundation

v. 4 Porch – overlaid with pure gold

v. 5 main room – cypress wood overlaid with gold ornamented with palm trees and chains

v. 6 adorned the house with precious stones and Parvaim gold

v. 7 cherubim carved on the walls

v. 8 Holy of holies overlaid with fine gold

v. 9 used gold nails

upper rooms overlaid with gold

All that was visible inside the temple was *gold*, the symbol of deity, picturing the glory of the Lord which was to fill the place.

v. 10 -13 sculptured cherubim in holy of holies overlaid with gold

Their combined wingspans extended the entire width of the *Most Holy Place*.

The ark would later be placed under them

 

 

v.

14 veil of fine linen in royal colors w~/ cherubim sewn in

v. 15 pillars

v. 16 chains in the inner sanctuary

pomegranates (fruitfulness) on the chains (unity)

named the pillars Jachin (He shall establish)

 and Boaz (In Him is strength)

 

Ch.

4

Bronze altar (for burnt offerings in the courtyard)

Bronze laver(sea) receptacle for water where the priests would wash their hands

oxen (signified strength and fertility)

Bronze stand with Bronze Basin

 (to wash animals before being placed on the altar)

Ten Tables

(hold the showbread and bowls of liquid to be sprinkled)

Ten Lampstands

 (each with 7 lights corresponding to the 7-fold spirit of God)

Golden Altar

(altar of incense)

Bread of Presence

(offering placed before the presence of God)

 

Ch.

5

Ark of the Covenant was brought in

5:12-13 Worship

5:14 The glory of the LORD filled the house of God

 

The Bible has so much more to tell us about the temple and all that it represented, but our purpose today is just look at the overall picture so we have an idea of what God is telling us when He says that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Divided into

a.

The porch.

2Ch 3:4.

b.

The sanctuary or greater house.

2Ch 3:5.

c.

The oracle or most holy place.

1Ki 6:19.

Sammye often tells us that we also are a three-room house:

 

Body – the outer man – what people see

 Soul – our mind, will, and emotions

  Spirit – the part of us God designed for Himself to occupy

 

Can we define the over-all purpose of the temple?

a place of sacrifice and worship

 

Notice what Solomon says in Ch. 2:4-5

*The temple was a tribute to the greatness of God.*

 

Now imagine the privilege, but also the concern for personal purity if you were called as a priest to serve inside the Temple of God.

As the law prescribed, the priest who entered the holy place was to make offering outside for his own sins before standing before God to offer sacrifice for the people’s sins.

Imagine then the calamity that would occur if a worshiper actually committed sin inside the Temple.

It would be an atrocity of the worst kind.

(John Piper)

 

I believe Paul wanted his readers to understand the enormity of this illustration when he reminded us that God considers us His temple.

And if our bodies are the temple of the very Spirit of God, how it must grieve Him when we profane that temple especially with the sexual immorality as Paul has been describing to the Corinthian believers.

Surely He had this in mind when he wrote to the Philippians in 1:20 “It is my earnest expectation and hope that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”

And when he wrote to the Romans in 12:1

“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Girls, are our physical bodies important to God? Let’s turn back to I Cor.

6

I Cor.

6:13 “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food; but God will do away with both of them.

Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body.”

I Corinthians 6:19 & 20

 

v.

19 “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you…you are not your own”