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( A message for Builders of God’s Temples).
PREAMBLE :
All over the world we talk about the House of God, the Church, the Sanctuary, the Temple of the Lord. People usually build these edifices.
The Church here to the layman is the building, but to bible students the church is a human being, the called out of God. The church is the Bride of Christ most often used to designate a place of worship. Thus the church are born again people of God, who have become the dwelling place of God. No man therefore can build the real church, rather the church are created people and dedicated people of the Most High God.
THE MESSAGE:
In early Israel we had the Tabernacle, where there was the Holy of Holies. God dwelt in the Holy of Holies, so it was veiled and the priest only could get there at very rare occasions, it could be once a year.
Has man indeed built a habitation for God? The answer truely is NO.
THE PARADOX :
From what we will read in the following, if man cannot build for God a dwelling place, all the cathedrals across the nations put together, runnning into trillions of dollars, have become a waste, if those living or worshipping in them, have not sanctified themselves, wholly and acceptable to God.
Let us read from 2 Samuel 7: 1-11 and 1 Chronicles 17:4-10 and note God’s reaction to David, when he desired to build a house for HIM. We shall take some specific verses therefrom :
7:1 And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies; 7:2 That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. 7:3 And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee.
God’s position about building Him a house :
7:4 And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying, 7:5 Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? 7:6 Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.
7:8 Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: 7:9 And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. 7:10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime,
“And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house. (2 Samuel 7 : 11.)
Comments:
In the above reading God told David that He had not complained of a living place since the fathers and in the wilderness He had dwelt with them in tents.
God also told David in verse 11, that He will make him a house instead. You discover from this point , it is David who needs a bouse and not God. Further Jesus in His words said :
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14 : 1-2).
God had built mansions already for us in His abode, how else can we build Him a house.
After Solomon commissioned the temple God spoke to him saying :
“And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.( 1 Kings 9:3)
God loves the vision of any man who wants to build for Him a house. He will build a house also for such people, but He does not live physically in such houses we build for Him.
God does not dwell in temples built by men’s hand, but His presence can be therein. God in the above verses indicate to us that He will not dwell in these temples, but will put His name therein, His eyes and His heart will be there perpetually.
THERE IS A CONDITION FOR PERPETUITY OF GOD’S PRESENCE.
“But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:
And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house? (1 Kings 9:6,8).
If men depart from God such temples built by them, will loose the presence of God and the structure will becone a mere proverb. When Israel failed God, their exit from the land made this temple to pass into the hands of other nations, who built their own temples in parts of this edifice.
Also when people depart from God, God will leave them and the life of such people will become a mere proverb. People could say ” Ah, but they once called on the name of the Lord.”
WE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD.
God moved in the midst of lsrael, while in the wilderness. Today God lives in the body of believers. Thus God made man as a temple or sanctuary of His habitation. If man has becone His sanctuary how else can He desire us to build Him an house. Therefore any physical structure, we set up in the name of God can only have the name , eye and heart of God in it , like as our signboard on buildings, to set apart such structures as a place of worship but never His habitation.
Note this reading :
8:13 I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever. 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? (1 Kings 8 :13, 27).
Even the builders of the house of God knew indeed that they cannot house God.
From the above premise, we can note what and why Paul wrote to the Corinthians thus:
1. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”(1 Corinthians 3 :16 -17)
Note what Jesus told the Jews :
“Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. (John 2 : 19).
The temple which Jesus spoke of was not the temple built by Solomon, but Himself Jesus, that even if He be killed He will rise full body and spirit in the third day.
2. YOUR BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF GOD
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)
Adulterers, fornicators, idol worshipers and indeed all sinners are defiling the temple of God which they are. In this respect we must dedicate ourselves to God, as people dedicate church buildings. Failure to do so would lead to destruction.
Read the following :
1. You have an entrance door for God.
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me”. (Revelation 3:20)
2. God will make obedient people His abode :
“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”. (John 14:23)
3. Christ lives in you. Therefore you are a house :
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20)
4. There is the new man who is a dwelling place of God :
“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:34).
5. Crucified people in Christ’s cross are crucified also to the world. Such people live sin free lives.
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:14).
HAVE YOU BUILT A PLACE OF WORSHIP OR CONTEMPLATING ONE?
You do good by so doing, but you are just honouring the name of God by so doing. He does not live in houses built by men’s hands, but His divine pressnce is enthroned therein. Let us build ourselves through obedience and service, so that God will make us His abode.
God bless the reader of this message.
Miracle Valley Sermons.
Rev. Dr. Prof. P C Nnaocha
July 15th 2018.
email : outreach.mvgm@yahoo.com
Phone +2348037179735. from Yahoo Mail on Android