Building the Temple

SERMON: 2016-04-03--bt0116--building-the-temple-part-1 SOURCE DURATION: 00:50:53.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.90 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with theological exposition about David and continues through the main body of the sermon (application/theology) and concludes with a formal prayer/benediction, all of which are considered integral parts of the overall message. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- I want to come back this morning to a series of messages that we have earlier been doing on the life of David. And David, as we have seen in previous messages throughout scripture, is known as a man after God's own heart. Not because he was so morally upright, because he wasn't. The sins were flagrant and they are openly recorded in the pages of scripture. Rather, he's known as a man after God's own heart because he not only understood God's purposes for Israel, but he applied himself to seeing those purposes fulfilled with everything that he had to offer. David understood that God's purpose for Israel was to be a nation among the nations of the world who walked in fellowship with Almighty God, who reflected his values so that in them and through them the values of God's kingdom would be preserved and ultimately salvation would come to the ends of the earth. David understood it. He not only understood it, but he went all out to do his part in making that vision of God's kingdom for the people of Israel come true. Now as we've been seeing in some of our evening services, so a lot of you will not have heard the messages on this, there are three ways in which David sought to fulfill the purposes that God had for the people of Israel. Let me just rattle them off really quickly this morning. The first thing that David did was he gave himself to defeating the enemies of Israel. David was a man of war, not because he was warlike, but because he understood that for God's purposes for Israel to be fulfilled, she had to be delivered from the power of the enemy and they had to live securely in the land. And so the history of David is just filled with battle upon battle until the enemies have been routed. That's the first thing that he did. The second thing that he did is he united all Israel under his leadership. It wasn't difficult for Judah to follow David, but the northern 11 tribes were allied with King Saul and when he died, they pledged loyalty to his son. And so David waged a seven year war until eventually the northern tribes came over and David became king over all Israel, thus uniting all of the people. The third thing David did is he provided structure for the nation. Structure militarily, structure religiously, structure administratively. David was not only a great warrior, he was not only a great poet, he was also a great administrator. He enabled the nation to function. That brings us together this morning to a fourth thing that David did to seek to fulfill the purposes of God for the nation of Israel. And that is he made extensive preparation and plans for the building of God's temple. As I said a few moments ago, for the next couple of weeks to Lord willing, we're going to be talking about that because even though this happened many thousands of years ago, it embodies certain spiritual principles that you and I need to understand if we are to understand the nature and the purpose of the church today and what it is that the Lord is looking for from you and from me. So building the temple, for our purposes this morning, the story really starts back in Second Samuel, Second Samuel chapter 7, the verses 1 and 2. That's what we read here. "After the king was settled in his palace, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, 'Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the Ark of God remains in a tent.'" Now let me pause here for a moment, because the Ark of God is the Ark of the Covenant. And the Ark of the Covenant, you will recall, was housed initially in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, but many years earlier in the days of Eli, his sons, Hophni and Phineas, had taken the Ark of the Covenant into battle, into hopes that that would help them defeat the Philistines. Didn't work, they were routed, and the Ark was captured by the Philistines. Turned out not to be a very happy experience for them, because God brought judgment on them, so they got scared of possessing the Ark, put it on a cart with cows that had just calved, and sent it off back to the nation of Israel. There the nation of Israel was very excited to receive it back, but that proved to be a disaster, because 70 men in Kiryat Jairam were curious about what was in the Ark, looked in it, and guess what happened to them? Got struck dead. So they parked the Ark of the Covenant in the home of Abinadab in Kiryat Jairam, and there it remained for 20 years. And eventually, as David came into his kingdom, because he had such a heart for God and a heart for the worship of God, he decided that he wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. That also proved to be a rather unhappy experience, you may recall, because instead of having the Ark carried by the priests according to the dictates of the old covenant laws, they had placed the Ark on a cart with oxen, probably copying the Philistines for all I know. Well, it so happened that the oxen stumbled, the Ark was in danger of falling off the cart, you know the story, Asa, one of the priests accompanying the procession, touched the Ark in order to stabilize it, and guess what happened to him? He got struck dead. David was very unhappy. And so now, the Ark of the Covenant got parked again. This time for three months in the house of a man called Obet Edom. Well, turned out that God blessed the household of Obet Edom. David heard about that, and he wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem so that Jerusalem could have the blessings of the presence of God. So this time they had learned their lesson, they got the proper priestly procession, and they brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, and David put it in a tent. That's the background to this story. So for all this time, however long this may have been, the Ark of the Covenant was now living in a simple tent. The rest of the tabernacle was still parked elsewhere. So Israel's religious life was really divided at this point in time. So that's the background here. And David is sitting here in his palace, and he is saying to himself, "You know, I'm living in a pretty fine house. God's still living in this pretty poor tent that I built for him. It is not right. I want to build him a house." And he shares it with his friend, Nathan the prophet. And Nathan, he gets all excited about it. And he talks before he consults the Lord, and he says in verse 3, "Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you." Well, sometimes prophets get ahead of God. And he spoke without consulting God, and so God pays him a little visit during the night. And he says to him rather nicely, "You know, you got it wrong. David is a man of war. His hands are covered with blood. He's not the one that's going to build the temple. His son Solomon is." So back he goes to King David and tells him the news. And you can imagine that David was probably disappointed at not having the privilege of building the temple for God. But he's not a man to sit and stew in his own juices. And so he applies himself for the rest of his days to make detailed plans for the temple, not only plans that he says the Holy Spirit inspired in him, enabled him to do. And then he collected huge, huge amounts of building materials so that Solomon would have everything in hand to build the temple. And that's the substance of 1 Chronicles 28 and 29. As I said, please read those chapters because they set the stage for what we're talking about. And so in this process then, David knowing that Solomon is going to be his heir, he challenges Solomon to make sure that he completes this building project that he believes God has inspired him in his own heart. And so here's what we read, 1 Chronicles 28, 20, David speaking to Solomon, "Be strong and courageous. Do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished." And of course, that's what Solomon does. If you read on into 2 Chronicles, the first couple of chapters, over a seven year period, Solomon takes his father's plans and he takes the resources that his father has gathered from the people and they build this magnificent temple that becomes the house of God among the nation of Israel. So a question for us this morning and in messages that the Lord willing we will continue with as time goes on, is how does that impact you and me? In other words, what can we learn from this story where David is determined to build a temple for God? Well let's make a start at it because there's a number of things that we can learn from that and the first is this, God's desire, listen carefully, God's desire is to dwell with his people. God's desire is to dwell with his people. Let's go back to Psalm 132 that we read earlier, verses 13 and 14, "The Lord has chosen Zion." Zion is a mountain in Jerusalem that became the dwelling place, that's where the temple was built. It used to be owned by the Jebusites and David conquered that citadel. If you look it up on a map it's quite distinct from the rest of the city in some ways, "The Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling place, this is my resting place forever and ever, here I will sit enthroned for I have desired it." From one end of scripture to the other, God has one overarching desire and that is to hang out, if you can believe it, with the likes of you and me. Let's review how that works in scripture. The book of Genesis, how does it open? It opens with the creation story of Adam and Eve in the garden, walking in perfect harmony and fellowship with God. Didn't last long, went off the rails, but that's how the Bible begins. The human race and God in perfect fellowship and harmony. Roll the clock forward all the way to the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation, what do you discover? There you have God and humankind back in total fellowship with each other, not in a garden this time, sorry you gardeners, but rather in the holy city, the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21, 3 puts it this way, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.'" The dwelling of God is with men. For all eternity, God is going to hang out with his people in the holy city. So the Bible begins with God and humankind living together, ends with God and humankind living together and in between there you have these constant moves that God is making in order to reestablish a relationship with his people. So go to Mount Sinai, Israel has come out of Egypt, God has entered into covenant with them. What is the first thing that God instructs Moses to do when the covenant has been made at Mount Sinai? Do you remember? He tells them, "Make me a sanctuary, Exodus 25, 8 and 9. Have them make me a sanctuary for me and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you." From Exodus 25 on to the end of the book of Exodus, which is chapter 40, if I count properly that should be, what, 16 chapters in, for you and me, boring detail. God describes step by step what it is that they are to do in building the tabernacle so that God can dwell among his covenant people. And all through their history and their journey in the wilderness, whenever they camp the tabernacle is at the center of their existence and all the tribes are arranged around the tabernacle because God is dwelling among his people. The tabernacle, by the way, God is particular about how it's built because it is a reflection of God's heavenly sanctuary. I don't fully understand that, but Moses was not given the option on how to design it. He had to do it exactly the way that God dictated and we'll see there are reasons for that as time goes on. So the first thing that happens, God says, "Build me a tabernacle." Now again, roll the clock forward, David's king over Israel like we've been seeing. He's at rest, the nation is at peace. What's the first thing that enters into his heart? He wants to build a temple for God. Why? Because he knows God delights in dwelling among his people. Now roll the clock forward a little bit more. Now you're in the New Testament. Why did Jesus come into the world? At Christmas, what do we call Jesus? Immanuel, meaning God with us. Listen to how John describes Jesus coming into the world in that very familiar verse, 14 of John chapter 1. The word became flesh and made his what? Dwelling among us, we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father full of grace and truth. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. You'll miss it in English, but in Greek the word is tented or tabernacled. It's a very deliberate throwback to the presence of God in the tabernacle or in the temple. It is now Jesus dwelling among the people as the very embodiment of who God is. Roll the clock forward a little further. Jesus has died, raised from the dead as we celebrated last weekend, ascended back into heaven, poured out the Holy Spirit. The day of Pentecost came. What happened on the day of Pentecost? Guess what? God came to find himself a new home. This time who is his home? It is God's people. Guess who now is the temple of God? You and I, not only individually, but collectively. Hold on to that because we're going to spend a lot more time on that going forward because it defines what it is to be church and what God is looking for in you and in me. Suffice to say, let me say it one more time, from one end of the Bible to the other, God has one overarching desire, and that is to hang out with you and me. The reason for that is because he's a relational God. For all eternity he's had a relationship with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. They don't need anybody, but they're so full of love, they wanted to spread it around. So God creates the world, creates the human race, and he says, "I want you to be my children." And just like two lovers want to spend time with each other because they love each other, or you and I look forward to spending time with our friends or with our family on special holidays or on special occasions, so God has this passion within his heart to hang around with the likes of you and me, and I think that is an awesome and an amazing thing. I think we get the better part of the deal. But that's the heart of God, and if you don't understand that, you'll never understand the story of Scripture or why God does what he does with the nation of Israel. So God wants to hang out with his people, but there's a second lesson that we learn in all of this, and that's not a very pleasant one. And that is, for God to dwell with us presents a huge challenge to God. I know you and I think we're pretty nice people and, you know, God should be pleased to have an opportunity to hang around with the likes of us, but the reality is the opposite. And the answer to that is real simple. God's holy. You and I are sinful. The Bible says in the book of Malachi that God is of purer eyes than to behold evil. What happened when Adam and Eve sinned? Relationship with God got broken. And the whole story of the Bible between the opening chapters of Genesis and the closing chapters of Revelation is the steps that God has persistently undertaken to deal with the obstacle that sin has caused in his relationship with you and me. A holy God cannot hang around with sinful people. And it's really important for us to understand that because we live in a culture where the character of God has become so watered down that most people think that God is sort of a benevolent grandfather who smiles benignly at the sins of people going, "Wink, wink, oh I know that that is just them and I'll just overlook it and forgive them." If it was that easy, you wouldn't have all those chapters in the Bible between Genesis chapter 3 and Revelation chapter 21, let me assure you. Sin from God's perspective is a huge problem. And you know why? Because God is not only a God of love, he is a God of justice. As the ruler of the universe, he is ultimately responsible for making sure that justice is dealt with. If you read the Bible about the last days, God is going to judge the world in righteousness. He can't just wink at sin because God's justice is the reverse side of his love. If he loves his people and he loves his creation, then anything that comes against his people or that comes against his creation, he must deal with and he must deal with it firmly or he can be charged with injustice and unfairness. You really need to understand that because a lot of people don't get that. Let me say it again, God's justice is the reverse side of his love. Let me illustrate it this way, if you followed the news at all this past week, then you know that Marco Muzo was sentenced to 10 years in prison. If you don't recall the story, he's the young man, had been out partying, got out of the plane in his car, drunk, drove at a high rate of speed, drove through a stop sign and he T-boned a van and he killed a grandfather and he killed all three of his grandchildren. Terrible tragedy. The young man pleaded guilty and he's been sentenced to 10 years in jail, probably will only do about three years because that's how it works. But now imagine that at that trial, the judge turned around and he said, "Well, you know, I'm in a good mood today and I know what you did was really bad, but I know that you're really sorry because the young man really is sorry, it's going to ruin his life. He's really, really sorry and it's going to live with him for the rest of his days. What if the judge has said, "I know you're really sorry and so instead of sending you to jail, I will receive your apology and I will just let you go." What would have happened? If you were the father and the mother of those three children, what would your reaction be? Would you not believe it? Because that kind of forgiveness comes at your expense. You are not receiving justice and your pain is being written off as irrelevant to the situation. See, justice is the reverse side of God's love. If God loves his creation, then God must exercise judgment and that produces a huge issue for God because he's holy and we're all sinful. For that reason, whenever after humans fall into sin in Genesis chapter 3, God encounters human beings relationally, God has three options that he can follow. Now listen carefully, I'm going to walk you through those because you need to understand how God deals with sin. The first option that God has is to absent himself. Isaiah 45, 15, "Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel." Throughout scripture, one of the laments of God's people, even God's people is, "God, where are you?" Isn't that true? Isn't it true in your own experience, there are times when you say to yourself, "God, I don't know where you are. Have you abandoned me? I feel so alone. Where are you?" Or in other moments, don't you say to yourself, "God, if you would only show up in glory. We sing these songs with glory and power and fire and God come and join." Right? Have you ever considered what might happen? If he answered those prayers, a holy God and a sinful people coming together, that's pretty combustible because the Bible says our God is a consuming fire. Don't ever think you can just walk up to God in the natural and say, "How do you do? My name is Sue. I'm pleased to meet you." You won't even get there because you'd be fried in a pan. And so for that reason, throughout scripture, God withdraws what some theologians call His manifest presence. Now the manifest presence of God is the full display of His splendor and glory. Just to be distinguished, theologians will tell you from His omnipresence. Let me take a moment and explain the difference between the two. God theologically is said to be omnipresent. Omni is Latin for all. He is everywhere present. The psalmist talks about that in Psalm 139 when he says, "If I go up into heaven, you're there. If I go down into the bottom of Sheol, you are there, there's nowhere that I can go and get away from you." A lot of people, that really freaks them out because it's like big eye in the sky. Somebody's looking at me all the time. But for God's people, that's tremendously encouraging because it means that there isn't a place where I can go in all of the universe and there isn't anything the devil can throw at me, but God has got His eye on me. And He will either, as we often said, avert all evil or He'll turn it to my good. That's God's omnipresence. God is everywhere in all the universe and He is there all the time. His manifest presence is when you experience His presence. It's when God draws back the veil and He shows His face to you. And He lets you encounter some of His glory. And if you want to understand what that looks like, then go back first of all to the last chapter of the book of Exodus where the tabernacle is dedicated and God shows up in His pillar of cloud and fire and all the priests fall flat in their fannies because God has shown up in His glory. Or read ahead a couple of chapters in 2 Chronicles when the temple is dedicated and the glory of God fills the temple and those who are serving in the temple can no longer stand because the glory of God is so heavy. That my dear people is the glory of God. And that glory you and I typically can't handle because it would consume us. And so God in His love holds back His manifest presence, holds back His glory so that He doesn't have to consume us in His anger and His wrath. And a good example of that you'll find in Exodus chapter 33, Israel has broken covenant with God by building the golden calf. Moses is livid with them. God is unhappy. God says, I will give my angel to go with you into the promised land but I'm not going along with you any longer because I'm going to break out and consume you with my wrath. And Moses pleads with God and he says, God I did not volunteer for this job to lead these contentious people into the promised land. They're your people and if you don't go with us, we're in trouble. And he pleads with God and then he says in verse 18, 19 and 20 of Exodus 33, show me your glory. Remember that? Show me your glory. And the Lord said, I will cause all my goodness, that's the glory of God, to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. Now watch what happens, but you cannot see my face for no one may see me and live. And if you know the rest of the story, what does God do? He hides him in the cleft of the rock. His glory passes by. He says, you can see my backside but you're not going to see my face. That's what God does to save his people when the issue of his holiness and our sin meet up with each other. Sometimes you and I will complain, God where are you? Please remember that sometimes it is his mercy because when he shows up in power, nobody remains standing because his presence is a consuming fire. So that's one option that God has when he has to deal with you and me, that's to hold back and that's why Peter says the Lord is not slow about his promise in coming. He doesn't wish anybody to perish and so he gives people the opportunity to come to faith and repentance because if God does not hide himself, then the second thing that God has as an option is that he comes in judgment. When he reveals the fullness of his holiness and of his splendor, then he consumes everything and anything that doesn't fully measure up to his glory and to his holiness. Listen to how John the Baptist puts it, this is in the New Testament pointing to the Lord Jesus, here's what he says, "I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will one come who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." His winnowing fork is in his hand. For a younger generation that's a difficult concept to grab hold of, but a winning fork is a fork with teeth on it, that in those days they would stick into their harvested crop, throw it into the air, expect the wind to carry away the chaff and the straw so that the grain could be gathered into the grain array and the chaff, says Jesus, is going to be burned with fire. Let me say it one more time, why does God hide himself? Because when he comes in glory, he comes in judgment, and when he comes in judgment he is going to weigh the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the chaff, the weeds and the wheat and the wheat, and he's going to separate one from the other and he's going to say to the sheep in his right hand, "Welcome, beloved of my father, enter into the kingdom that he has prepared for you from before the foundation of the world," and to the goats in his left hand he's going to say, "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you into the unquenchable fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Now understand something about God's judgment in scripture, it is his absolute last resort. Here I quoted 2 Peter chapter 3 where it talks about Jesus holding off, coming again because he doesn't wish that any should perish but that all should reach repentance, and if you wonder sometimes why aren't you showing up quicker, Lord, why aren't you stepping into the world, history quicker, then it's because God wants to make sure that everybody gets every opportunity and every chance to come to repentance and to turn to human faith. And judgment happens, now again listen carefully because these are very biblical terms, judgment happens when the measure of sin has become full. What does that mean? It means sin has gone as far as it can and it has demonstrated that it is beyond redemption. A good example of the full measure of sin is when God enters into covenant with Abram back in the book of Genesis and he says to Abram, you know your descendants are going to serve as slaves for 400 years in the land of Egypt, who remembers the reason God gives for that delay because the measure of the sin of the Amorites, these are the people living in the promised land, has not yet reached its full measure. God lets the Amorites go for another 400 years allowing his own people to be enslaved insufferably in the land of Egypt because the measure of their sin is not full. But the nature of sin is to grow and when it grows to maturity, it is ready for harvest. That is the point in time at which God says it doesn't matter what else I do to this patient, he cannot possibly recover, I've got to pull the plug because he's gonna die. Very very serious business and throughout scripture there are classic examples of when a people reach the full measure of their sin and God steps forth in judgment in ways that are meant to serve as lessons for the rest of history. Think of Noah, why did God wipe out the world in Noah's day? The Bible says because God saw that the thoughts of men were only evil continually, that's as bad as you can get. And God says if I don't get rid of this cancer, it's going to destroy my whole creation and so he saves Noah and his family and drowns the rest of the world. Israel coming into the promised land, terrible stories when you read them in the Old Testament, kill off everybody, why? Because the measure of their sin is full and if we don't deal with that, it's gonna destroy creation once and for all. Back earlier, Sodom and Gomorrah, cities that to this day stand as models of the judgment of God because their sin reached up to heaven and there weren't even ten or five or however many were left that were righteous before gone. You say well that's God dealing with the world. Have you read the history of Israel beyond David? How the temple itself was destroyed and Ezekiel saw the glory of God departing from the temple because God's people would not surrender their idolatry and their loyalty to Baal and they continued to be disloyal to God and God said under the terms of the Old Covenant, "I'm gonna spit you out and I'm gonna send you into exile until the land has had its rest." And all of that, I hate to tell you this, but all of that is but setting the stage for the final great day of the Lord when sin in the world will again have reached its full measure. And God says enough is enough and it's time for a new heavens and a new earth. Listen to the book of Revelation chapter 14, you can read that whole chapter, it's fascinating even when it is scary. Take your sickle and reap, this is the angel speaking to the son of man sitting on the clouds, that's from the book of Daniel, we know that's the Lord Jesus. Take your sickle and reap, for the time to reap has come, the harvest of the earth is ripe so he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was harvested. Read on in the list of that chapter what it is for God to trample out the grapes of wrath as he brings judgment and all of creation in preparation for a new heaven and a new earth. I have to be honest with you, I read those chapters, I look at my own life, I look at some of our lives here, I look at society at large and I say, "Lord, where are we in fulfilling the full measure of our sin?" As Mrs. Billy Graham has quoted as saying many, many years ago, "If God does not judge America for its sin, then he'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah because he will not have been a God of justice." But I'm going to end with good news, so relax. God has three options, remember, withdraw, move into judgment, start all over, and periodically he does that. But God has a third option and that third option is to make us holy so that we can share His holiness. He solves the problem of sin and we're not going to get into it in detail now, we're going to leave that until next time, but that's really a third lesson that you and I need to learn from this whole story and that is that God engineers a solution to the problem of sin. Paul talks about it, summarizes it in 2 Corinthians 521 concerning Jesus, "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." Makes sense, doesn't it? If God's holy, can't spend time with unholy people, and he either has to separate himself from them or he has to come in judgment, then his third option is to say, "I'm going to remove their sin and I'm going to make them just as righteous and just as holy as I am so they can enjoy me and I can enjoy them, they don't have to go hiding and I don't have to be angry with them." I think it is a brilliant solution. It's a brilliant solution. It happens to be the story of scripture, how God in Christ reconciled human race to Himself so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God. We'll look at that Lord willing in more detail next time, but I've got an assignment for you, and that is this. You can write this down because you're not going to remember it, but I really want you to do this. Read Genesis 15. God enters into covenant with Abram. What is there in that covenant that sets the stage for God's reconciliation process? Just read it. You'll know the story, you know, it's the story about the smoking pot and God cuts the covenant and it's really weird, but it's an incredible revelation to Abraham of salvation by grace through faith. And Lord willing, we'll talk about that a little bit. Then ask yourself the question, when God enters into covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai and He establishes all these regulations for the people of Israel, what's God doing? Why the tabernacle? Why all these laws? What point is God trying to make? And the third question is this, when you come to the New Testament and the church is said to be the temple of God, what does that mean? And what does it mean that God wants to dwell among His people? And what does it mean then in that context to build the temple? Are you with me here? Read Genesis 15, a lot of you have good memories because you're not writing it down. The covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, what was that about? You could change that last question to say, how is the New Covenant different from the Old Covenant? What does it mean? The church is the temple of God and in that context, what does it mean to build God's temple? You're all going to do that. You're going to be faithful and Lord willing, next time we'll quiz you on it and make sure that you did your work. Fair enough? I do my work, you do your work. Let's stand for prayer. Father we're so grateful this morning that when your options were to abandon us or to destroy us, you found a third way and that is to make us holy by faith in Jesus. Help us to understand this morning how this was foreshadowed in your covenant with Abram, how this was modeled in the Old Covenant at Mount Sinai and how this has ultimately come to its ultimate fulfillment in the New Covenant that you've made in Christ Jesus our Lord. And then Lord help us to embrace with gladness and joy the righteousness that we have by faith in him and the intimacy therefore that we are allowed to experience with you by your Holy Spirit already today and an intimacy that one day we will experience in full splendor and glory when there is nothing but nothing that will separate us from your face and we can enjoy you and you us unhindered in the new creation. [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:50:46.190; remove through 00:50:53.000] Even so, Maranatha, oh Lord, come we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:50:53.000; resume after this marked segment]