Last week we looked at how the birth of the Church at Pentecost was a major shift from the God who inhibits a place in the Temple to within His people—the Temple. The human soul then became a battleground for ownership and control—either by the One True God or by the god of this world. Those who do not belong to Christ do not have the Spirit of Christ residing in them. (Romans 8:9) Thus their bodies are not a temple of the Holy Spirit. Clearly, then, the greatest thing we can do for our bodies is to make them into a temple for God’s Spirit by placing our trust and faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. The moment we do this, the indwelling of God’s Spirit takes place (I Corinthians 12:13). Our salvation is then sealed and guaranteed (Ephesians 1: 13-14.) The Holy Spirit will then be with us forever (John 14: 16), given by God as His pledge of the believer’s future inheritance in glory (2 Corinthians 1: 21-22). Paul makes it clear in I Corinthians 6:19: “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
The question that I would like for us to consider today is “What is God’s desire for His temple dwelling within us?” Several weeks ago, I heard a five-fold teaching on what that looks like and with his permission will share those points with you and pray it inspires you as it did me.
Temple of worship. We are to praise God with all our body, soul and spirit. In order to do that we are to be yielded to God moment by moment and day by day. The prophet Jeremiah in 26: 2 commanded the people to worship by focusing on the Word of God. In Luke 24: 27 Jesus Himself emphasized that He is the object and subject of all the prophets spoke. In Psalm 56:11 we read: “This I know; for God is for me. In God will I praise his word: In the LORD will I praise his word. In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.” Temple of humility. The supreme example of humility can be seen in Christ who counted Himself not one to be exalted but was obedient to the Father even to death on the cross. Philippians 2: 5-7: 5 Indeed, let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. 6 Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, 7 but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant. When he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man.” Our flesh cries out to be in control but God requires humility. Temple of purity. Psalm 24: 3-4 helps us to define purity before God. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” All of us have sinned and come short of the glory and the purity of God. The solution is found in 1 Corinthians 11: 31 “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” Therefore, we are to continually confess our sins according to 1 John 1: 9 and God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. We need to keep a short list of unconfessed sin if we our temple is to be pure. Guarded temple. The Bible tells us that it is important to guard our minds from sinful thoughts. From wrong thinking comes wrong actions. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” This verse says that to guard your heart it will take diligence. That means it is something that doesn’t happen without effort. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we need to bring wrong thoughts into captivity. We must control our mind so that we can obey Christ. “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” Broken temple. The prophet Jeremiah uncovers the true condition of our heart in 17: 9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?” Only God knows the true condition of our heart so we must ask Him to examine it and cleanse us. Verse 10 says “I the LORD search the heart, I try the conscience, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Psalm 34: 18 says: “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” In other words, we must bow before Him acknowledging that without Him we are nothing and can do nothing and need Him. I Peter 1: 18-19 reminds us that we are not our own but have been bought with a price. Therefore, we must relinquish ownership and give Him the keys to our heart and life and allow His Holy Spirit to rule and overrule in our life. When we live by the Spirit, we will no longer gratify the desires of the sinful nature. “This I say then, ‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”(Galatians 5: 16) Only as we day by day and moment by moment yield control of our life to the Holy Spirit can we truly honor God in our temple—His temple. As the guy on Channel 12 says “It is time to clean up” God’s temple! We will be known by our fruit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5: 22-23)