Building the Temple

SERMON: 2016-04-10--bt0216--building-the-temple-part-2 SOURCE DURATION: 00:44:00.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The material at both the beginning and end of the provided window consists of continuous theological exposition, reviewing scripture and discussing Christian doctrine (God's dwelling place, sin, Christ). No clear non-sermon material is present at either boundary. 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 --- Let's begin with a quick review this morning for the sake of those of you who may not have been here last week. We were seeing last week how God's stated desire throughout scripture is to make his dwelling place among his people. Psalm 132 verses 13 and 14 really sum it up beautifully, "The Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his dwelling. This is my resting place forever and ever. Here I will be enthroned, for I have desired it." And so as we saw last week, the Bible opens in Genesis 1 and 2 with God and Adam and Eve in perfect fellowship in the garden. The Bible ends in the closing two chapters of the book of Revelation with God and his people dwelling together in the holy city, the New Jerusalem. And in between those two bookends, you have God constantly trying to find a dwelling place among his people here on earth. That we saw presents a tremendous obstacle to God because God is holy. We are sinful and God says the book of Malachi is of purer eyes than to behold evil. And so confronted with his own holiness and man's sinfulness, God has three options that we can follow, that he can follow. The first option is to absent himself. The Bible says God is a God who hides himself. He does that so that we will not be consumed by his glory. Number two, he has the option of pouring forth his judgment. That's always God's last resort because there is no coming back from the judgment of God. And then the third thing that God can do is he can try to find a solution to the problem of sin. Because if God is holy and if he manages to make us holy, then there is no longer the need for a barrier between God and ourselves and we can dwell together. And that of course, as we all know, is the message of scripture between the two bookends of paradise lost and paradise regained, the message of scripture is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. That's 2 Corinthians 5 19, two verses later on, Paul puts it this way, God made him who had no sin, be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Theologically, this is known as substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary atonement means that somebody takes my place in sin so that I can take his [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:03:40.960; remove through 00:44:00.000] place in the righteousness and in the [CUT] blessings of God. That's the solution God came up with to the issue of sin. And what we want to try to do together this morning is see, is look at three things. First of all, how this came to expression in the covenant that God made with Abram back in Genesis chapter 15, this corresponds to the three questions that I gave you last week. Secondly, how this is modeled in the old covenant made at Mount Sinai between God and the people of Israel, and then thirdly, how this comes to expression in the new covenant in the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. So we're going to start this morning then by looking at how this doctrine of substitutionary atonement, this means that God has ordained to restore relationships, comes to expression first of all, in God's covenant with Abram in Genesis chapter 15. Now I won't ask you if you did your homework, some of you will have, some of you I'm sure did not, I won't put you on the spot, but Genesis chapter 15 is a very important chapter in scripture because it is the first place in scripture where God most clearly reveals this notion of substitutionary atonement and he does so in the covenant that he makes with Abram. Now if you remember the chapter, it begins with Abram questioning how God is going to fulfill the promises that he made to give him a land and to make him a mighty nation because he still has no offspring. And so he thinks one of his slaves, Eleazar of Damascus, is going to inherit his property. In response, the Lord comes along, takes him outside, and whereas previously in the daytime God told him to look at the sand on the seashore and that his offspring would be as numerous as the sand, in this instance he says look up to the sky, count the stars, and your descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abram believes God and it's reckoned to him, the Bible says, as righteousness, but he says how do I know, how do I know this is going to happen? And in response to that, God steps into a covenant with Abram and under the terms of that covenant he tells Abram to take a goat and a ram and a heifer as well as a dove and a young pigeon, Abram then cuts the larger animals in half, places the pieces across from each other, a deep sleep comes upon Abram and then a smoking fire pot and a blazing torch in the middle of this great darkness that has descended passes in between these two pieces. That seals the covenant between God and Abram and God renews to Abram the promise that God is going to give him the land from the river of Egypt all the way to the Euphrates. Now to understand the significance of this, we have to understand how covenants were signed and sealed in the ancient Middle East. Today if we make a covenant or a deal with somebody, we might seal it by a handshake or signing a document or in marriage by making vows and exchanging wedding rings. That becomes the symbol of the covenant that has been sealed. And in covenants typically you have two parties making promises to each other and promising to be faithful to those covenants. Now in the Middle East the way these covenants were sealed was in the kind of ceremony that is described here. They would take an animal, a calf or a goat or some other animal, they would cut it in half and then both parties would typically pass in between those two pieces and in passing in between those two pieces they made two promises. They made a promise that they would be faithful to the covenant and secondly they invoked the judgment of the gods upon them if they broke covenant. If you read the book of Deuteronomy you will see how blessings and curses were always a part of the covenant. If you are faithful to the covenant these are the blessings. If you break the covenant then you have invited a curse upon yourself because you have broken the deal that you solemnly signed. There is a remarkably clear example of that in the book of Jeremiah that refers to this ancient Middle Eastern custom, Jeremiah 34 verse 18. This is God speaking. He says the men who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, now notice, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces. You get that? I will treat the covenant breakers like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces. So this whole covenant ceremony says if I break covenant you are the gods can do to me what we did to this calf I will be subject to this judgment. Now back to the covenant that God makes with Abram. What's unique about the covenant that God makes with Abram is two things. Number one Abram is fast asleep. Verse 12 Genesis 15 is the sun was setting Abram fell into a deep sleep and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Abram is passive in the making of this covenant, we'll come back to that in a moment. The second thing that happens in this covenant is this smoking fire pot and this blazing torch. Verse 17 when the sun had set and darkness had fallen a smoking fire pot and a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. Now this smoking fire pot and blazing torch is a miniature representation of the pillar of cloud and fire that accompanies Israel later on in its journey. It represents the presence of God. So what we have here is a very interesting thing. God is making a covenant with Abram, I'm going to give you the land, I'm going to make out of you a mighty nation, I'm going to bless you, but it is an unconditional covenant. Abram is totally passive in the making of this covenant and it's God himself who assumes the curse of the covenant and he says even if you and your descendants break covenant with me, I am going to fulfill this promise and you are going to be a mighty nation and you're going to inherit the earth. You with me? This is the first evidence in the Old Testament of salvation by grace through faith. It is God saying I'm not only making you this promise, I'm going to see to it that you are able to fulfill this promise, I'm going to make you a righteous and a holy nation so that you and I, your descendants and I can actually permanently live together. This is substitutionary atonement described already back in Genesis 15 as we'll see later on fulfilled obviously in the person of Jesus Christ who on the cross suffers the darkness of judgment, absorbs the penalty of all our sin so that by faith in him you and I can be redeemed and be made into a holy people but I'm getting ahead of myself. Abram in Genesis 15 in relationship with God models for us or rather God models for us an unconditional covenant where God says I not only make the promises for you, I'm going to make sure that you are able to keep the promises. Now hold onto that and roll the clock forward 430 years and we meet up with Israel at Mount Sinai and God again makes a covenant. The dread that Abram experiences in Genesis 15 if you've read the chapter represents the slavery that Israel is going to experience in Egypt for four generations. People lived a long time back then, these are generations of 100 years. So God says to Abram your offspring is going to be enslaved to the Egyptians for 400 years but in keeping with my covenant to you I'm going to deliver the children of Israel. So again roll the clock forward it actually becomes 430 years. God raises up Moses, the people of Israel get delivered by God's mighty hand out of Egypt's power because remember God is faithful to his covenant. Now they are at Mount Sinai and God enters into a covenant with all of the people of Israel but this covenant is a conditional covenant. That is to say God not only makes promises about the land and blessings and everything else but it is contingent on Israel's obedience. Genesis 19, 5 and 6 if you obey me fully and keep my covenant then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation but you must obey me fully and you must keep my covenant. Well we know how that story ended don't we? They did not obey God fully in fact all of Israel's history is a history of wandering away experiencing God's disciplining action and being brought back to faith until finally they were just so corrupt that God said I've got enough of you and so if you read the prophets and if you read the book of Ezekiel you will read there the tragic story of the glory of God departing from the temple and you will read of course in the prophets the fact that God scatters the people of Israel first among the Assyrians then among the Babylonians because they could not hold onto the land if they were not faithful to the covenant that God made with them at Mount Sinai because it was a conditional covenant but and here's the thing to remember the covenant made with Abraham was unconditional so what does God do? Yes he scatters Israel because they have broken covenant made at Mount Sinai but he remembers his covenant to a thousand generations and so after 70 years he moves in the heart of Cyrus and other rulers and he brings them back a small remnant to be sure but he brings them back to the land of Israel because his promises endure forever. But now here is what we need to understand about the covenant made with Israel at Mount Sinai. The key to this covenant is the tabernacle later on the temple and the holiness laws. If you've ever tried to plow through the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament then you will know how particular God was that they must live his way and how dangerous it would be for them if they didn't and the tabernacle and all of its attendant worship the temple later on and all of its attendant worship and the holiness laws which God gave to Israel at Mount Sinai all served to underscore repeatedly for Israel the three things that we have been looking about in terms of God's relationship with his people it underscored the holiness of God nobody gets close to God without being zapped. Number two it underscored our sinfulness and the barrier that our sins caused for God. And number three it illustrated repeatedly it modeled for Israel the need for substitutionary atonement. In other words God was constantly telling the people of Israel I am super holy. That's why he lived in the holy of holies in the tabernacle later on in the holy of holies in the temple and you could not get close to him for all the money in the world in fact only the high priest only once a year with the blood of bulls and goats was allowed into the holy of holies to make atonement for the nation of Israel anybody who violated that would die on the spot. God was teaching them he was holy. He was also teaching them that because of their sinfulness they couldn't get close to him there had to be all these barriers this buffer zone so that they could be safe. And then God was constantly reminding them that their sins had to be dealt with and that somebody had to die for their sins and that's why everything under the old covenant was sanctified by blood and by blood sacrifices without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Are you with me on this? The old covenant reminds Israel constantly how holy God is how sinful they are and the substitutionary atonement that constantly needs to take place for God and man to live together in harmony. Now the benefit of that of course what is that if they obeyed those laws and practiced those principles then God promised to bless them because that's what God's presence among his people does from his overflowing gracious self God's people would experience unprecedented prosperity in the land that's the old covenant. Now the problem with the old covenant is that it can remind us of God's holiness it can remind us of our sinfulness it can remind us of the need for substitutionary atonement it cannot change our lives because we are still sinners at heart and so if God and people are going to live together eternally we must be changed from the inside out so that from the inside out we begin to share God's holiness brings us this morning then to the new covenant God makes with the person of Jesus Christ it is a new covenant that is already introduced to us in the old covenant in these words from Jeremiah 31 31 to 34 the time is coming declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah it will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt because why they broke my covenant though I was a husband to them there you get a picture of how God views his relationship with his people parallel to the marriage relationship which Paul picks up in the New Testament God sees himself as the husband his people as the wife covenant making with God is like a marriage relationship where you say we're going to be faithful to each other until death do us part they broke my covenant though I was a husband to them declares the Lord this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time declares the Lord I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts I will be their God and they will be my people no longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother saying no the Lord because they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord what's the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant that God is predicting through Jeremiah the old covenant was a law covenant that said do this and you will live didn't give you the power on the inside to be changed and so you constantly had to be reminded of your sin and your sin constantly had to be forgiven but God says I'm going to make a new covenant because remember his covenant is unconditional under the new covenant you're not just going to be told from the outside what it is that you need to do you're going to be changed from the inside out I will write my law on your heart and from the inside out you're going to become righteous because you see the old covenant as I said could remind us about sin all the time but it didn't matter how many sacrifices you brought it didn't make you a regenerated it didn't make you a new person on the inside the writer to Hebrews if you know the book well picks up on that theme with these words Hebrews 10 1 to 4 the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming not the realities themselves let me stop there keep that verse up for a moment the law is a shadow it is a picture of what God plans to do in the future in the person of Jesus Christ it models biblical realities for this reason that's the law it can never by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year make perfect those who draw near to worship if it could they not have stopped being offered for the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins but those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins notice verse 4 it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin doesn't matter how many hoops you jump through doesn't matter how many religious rituals you perform how many laws you obey you cannot change your nature and your nature and my nature we have inherited from Adam and Eve and it is prone to hate God and it is prone to hate our neighbor if we don't find ourselves in that category it is only because God has already applied his grace to our hearts by his Holy Spirit so what's the Bible saying the old covenant sealed in Mount Sinai all this law keeping and all this tabernacle and temple worship was God's way of saying these are the shadow of the reality that is to come they cannot really change your heart and can't really make you holy and righteous before God so you can permanently live together so what's the solution well the solution is a new covenant and under the terms of that covenant in keeping with God's promise to Abraham many years earlier God sends his own son into the world lives our life dies our death gets raised from the dead sits down at God's right hand pours out his Holy Spirit promises to come again in glory and the message of scripture from one end to the other is that when we see how holy God is how sinful we are and how the Lord Jesus has bridged the gap to make us a new creation and to make us righteous then sin has been addressed and we can live in union with God listen again to how the book of Hebrews goes on to describe this in Hebrews 10 the verses 10 through 14 and by that will that is the will of God the Father we have been made what say it with me we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but when this priest that is Jesus had offered for all time say it with me one sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy notice the contrast the priest stands Jesus sits the priest has to make continual sacrifices Jesus makes a sacrifice once and for all the writer to Hebrews is pointing out thereby that the Old Testament priesthood could not really change you or make you holy before God the only one who could do that is the Lord Jesus who by his life by his death on the cross by his resurrection from the dead his ascension into heaven and by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit joins us to himself he becomes sin so that in him we become the righteousness of God that is substitutionary that told me it has very quickly as we wind up four very practical implications if you and I can understand this with the understanding of the heart number one it means that if you're in Christ your sins are forgiven you are fully justified which really means just as if I'd never seen the Bible says it doesn't matter who you are where you come from what you have done in your life when your eyes are open to the holiness of God your eyes are open to your own sinfulness and you say with a thief in the cross Lord Jesus remember me when you come into paradise that moment every iniquity that you have ever committed that you should have been punished for under the law is forgiven not because God is forgetful or because he is not just let's be clear about that but because the penalty of that was paid in the person of Jesus Christ in the person of Jesus Christ God managed something that the angels never thought could be done in the universe and that is to reconcile a holy God with a sinful people without God himself compromising his integrity and his holiness and you know how he did it because he's the fire pot that passed in between the two pieces and he took upon himself the judgment for your sin and my sin that we could have never paid we are justified by his grace that's how Paul describes it we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law which means really bad people bad people can get into the kingdom people like you and me have a chance because God does not hold our trespasses against us it means secondly that if we're joined by faith to the Lord Jesus we are declared righteous before God it's not only negative where God washes away our sins and says now you better smart up and learn how to live the way that I want you to live no no if we're joined to Jesus God looks at us and he doesn't see our cruddiness and our brokenness and our sin instead all he sees is the righteousness of Jesus second Corinthians 521 God who made him who had no sin be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God if you're in Christ no matter how broken you are no matter how badly you're put together no matter how compulsive your sins might be in Christ God sees righteousness hard for us to get our heads around because we so easily feel guilty Bible says if we confess our sins God is just to forgive us our sins to cleanse us from all unrighteousness God looks at you and me and all he sees is the righteousness of Jesus so now we have no sin now we are perfectly righteous guess what happens number three we now have access to God's throne of grace Hebrews 416 let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in a time of need remember the throne of grace that's the dwelling of God in the holy of holies in the tabernacle where the cherubim cover the glory of God above the mercy seat a place so holy that in later years they took to tying a rope to the foot of the high priest when he went into the holy of holies in case and God wouldn't accept a sacrifice and strike him dead so they could pull him back out without the whole nation being judged in Christ you know I wish I could make this plain I wish I could put this in every heart in this room in Christ God's no longer angry with you in Christ God has become your father in Christ God says come into the throne room and tell me about what you need and about what you are because the judgment has been paid for Christ is the mediator who has made us right with gone and the simplest believer today has greater privileges than the most profound priest in the old testament because we can go marching into the arms of our heavenly father that's why the teaching of Jesus that God was a father was so foreign to the people because it wasn't part of their religious experience under the old covenant where God was far away and he was way too dangerous to get close to some of us think God is way too dangerous to get close to and so we keep our distance and we miss out on the kind of intimacy that God wants to provide for his children so our sins are forgiven under the new covenant we're made righteous under the new covenant we have access to God's throne of grace to get help in times of need there's nobody bigger than the universe that almighty God who says I'm there for you because I have entered into covenant with you and I will give you the land and I will give you my blessings but number four it means God is free to dwell with you 1 Corinthians 316 don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit is in you remember how God came to dwell in the holy of holies in the tabernacle how God came to dwell in the holy of holies in the temple how God came to dwell in the person of Jesus Christ among the peoples of the earth and how on the day of Pentecost God poured out his holy spirit into the church and he came to dwell in and among believers what that means is that if you're in Christ not only are your sins forgiven not only are you considered righteous before God not only can you go marching into his presence unafraid with courage and with boldness to claim the promises that he makes in scripture but he says I've come to live within I've come to live with here and because I've come to live with you in my spirit I will transform you from the inside out so that one day you will be not only righteous in the righteousness that has been imputed to you put in your account because of the person of Jesus but a righteousness that will change you from the inside out so that one day the bride will have made herself ready and Jesus and the fullness of his glory and his splendor can come and dwell among his people so here are the questions that I leave you with this morning write them down if you will somebody will put them up on Facebook like they did last week that also appear on our website what does it mean that you personally are the temple of the holy spirit what does it mean that God dwells in your body what are the implications of that secondly what does it mean that God dwells in the church collectively what does it mean that the church is also the temple of God and then what does it mean when the Bible says God wants to build his temple so that God by his holy spirit can demonstrate his glory among his people see that's all preparation for the life that is to come because in the life that is to come you and I are going to be the dwelling place of God in the spirit there will be no temple in the heavenly city the new Jerusalem because God himself will be with them there will be no barrier and God will be able to show the fullness of his glory the fullness of his splendor the fullness of his power straight out because God's people will have been so made holy by Jesus there isn't a speck of sin that remains and smart people who see that's where God's going will do everything they can to lay hold of the promises that God has made in the person of Jesus Christ to be ready for that day even so Miranatha come Lord Jesus come [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:44:00.000; resume after this marked segment]