THE TEMPLE

W.Dickson

2 Corinthians 6: 14-16; Luke 2: 25-32; 1 Samuel 2: 18; 3: 8,9

It is a blessing of inestimable value that as belonging to the Lord we can have the mind of God. It greatly simplifies the pathway of a believer, both individually and in his corporate links, to know that, in a world marked by chaotic conditions morally and men altogether unmindful as to the end of the course they are pursuing, a believer can have the mind of God. I sometimes wonder if we are tranquil enough or whether we are so restless and anxious to see that things are put into effect that we forget that the mind of God will ever be available to His people as certain conditions of a moral character exist amongst them.

I wanted to draw from these three scriptures. The one point of similarity that marks them is the temple. I think most of the brethren will recall in Psalm 27 that it was the desire of the psalmist to see the beauty of Jehovah and inquire in His temple (see v 4). I understand that the beauty of Jehovah which is spoken of in that psalm is the ark. There is nothing more blessed to a believer than to go into the presence of Jehovah and see the beauty of Jehovah, to see the Ark, to see Jesus in all His perfection and blessedness filling the heart of God in all that he accomplished, in all that He will yet bring to pass, a Man of unique moral greatness - the beauty of Jehovah. To inquire in His temple would be a spiritual confirmation of the fact that the mind of God is largely ascertained in the temple although it would be possible for a believer to have the mind of God through prayer and approach to God.

I started with 2 Corinthians 6 so that our hearts can be uplifted with the dignity of the thought that we are "the living God's temple". How it would enhance our view of our local gatherings if we thought of them that way! We might say we are just very few in number not marked by any religious distinction in the world, we have not been to the theological college to get our training, and yet the mind of God can be secured in a locality. There would be no need to go to the university professor and say that a certain matter has cropped up, what did St Augustine say about it? what did Clement say about it? what did the old fathers say about it? No, we have the features of the temple of the living God and we can get help in the Scriptures. How often as in the temple the living touch comes in as to the mind of God as we are together in right moral state. Now what the apostle calls attention to in this passage is the need for a right moral state in the local company if the experience of the temple of the living God is to be known. By the Spirit there are certain conditions required for obtaining the mind of God in our localities. It has been said that the accredited ministry has largely come out in the temple. Very little of it was written in article form. Yet we have the same Spirit of God; we perhaps have not the outstanding gift in teaching that the Lord graciously granted in that period, but the Spirit of God is here, and the temple of the living God, and we should be profoundly exercised, beloved brethren, as to the necessary conditions.

Now what the apostle calls attention to in this passage is how mixture militates against the functioning of the living God's temple. The Spirit would insist on a right subjective state amongst the brethren if the truth in a positive way is to flow forth, and we should be very seriously concerned as to anything that would involve a holding back of divine light. You might say, We do not allow diverse yokes; unrighteousness and lawlessness are not current amongst us, or idolatry. But what Paul brings out is that the principle of mixture hinders the operation of the temple. And I would question very much if we will get the Lord's current mind in regard to many matters that exercise us until we provide an environment in which the Spirit of God can function. How delightful to have Him with us, the living God who by His Spirit continually engages us with His glorious thoughts, His counsels, His purposes, His thoughts about Christ! "I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah", Ps 122: 1. Did your heart not thrill that there was a fellowship meeting today? Did you not gladly leave everything else and go up to the living God 's temple? Just to hear a debate? No; to have our hearts moved with the glory of divine thoughts and how they have embraced us in sovereign grace. How often we have had to judge our histories! but think of that mercy that has brought us again into an environment so rich. Let us be exercised to provide these spiritual conditions in which the living God can dwell among us and walk among us. Think of God walking amongst us! The thought of God walking is that God wants to commune with His people. He will dwell and commune with His people. Surely we would be exercised not to allow any mixture so that God would have to say, I am not free to commune because the conditions are not there for Me.

In Luke's gospel one was thinking of this beautiful scene in the temple. There was this man Simeon; note the reference to his moral state, that he was just and pious, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. I would appeal to the brethren that there may be more simple piety amongst us. These are the conditions in which the light of God and the mind of God can come to us. It was not the chief rabbi or the high priest who went into the temple, it was a just and pious man. How his heart must have been cheered as he saw Joseph and Mary bringing that Child up! In the Jewish economy it was not obligatory to bring the child up to the actual temple at Jerusalem, but Joseph and Mary would say, Where better could He be. Where better could our children be, beloved brethren, than in the temple and get a blessing from the hands of a Simeon? Oh, the formation in this man! He was an assembly man too. I can think of some asking, What is an assembly man? An assembly man is one for whom Christ's chief interest is his chief interest. I know you have other interests, you have your family, you have your business, but an assembly man has Christ's chief interest as his interest. Here Simeon was in Jerusalem, right in the centre of things, ready to receive divine communications. That glorious day when Jesus Himself was brought in by His parents into the temple, Simeon had the mind of God regarding the greatest matter in the universe, the incoming of the blessed Son of God. Simeon despite his age was not crystallised. The danger with us older persons is getting crystallised, to think we have heard it all and nothing fresh can come. Do you think Simeon would be awkward as he held that Babe in his arms? No! his heart would be filled with reverent, tender feelings as having light from God as to the glory of that Babe. Beloved brethren, do we come to the meeting like that? Do we realise the sanctified sphere in which we are, the temple of the living God, having to do with holy things, having to do with what is most choice? People say that this world is morally very bad, but the world morally today is no worse than the day in which Christ was crucified. It is just the same, and all of us should value the blessedness of a sanctified sphere where in holy intimacy we can take up the choicest thoughts of God that have come to us in that Babe, the Person of Jesus. It says "And it was divinely communicated to him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he should see the Lord's Christ". I have often wondered if that was possible, that the Lord would tell an older brother or an older sister when they are going to die. Think of being so near the Lord that you could get a divine communication from Him as to when you are going to die and the circumstances under which you are going to die! How good to have that touch, the living touch from God that He can speak and tell us these holy secrets in regard to His own thoughts about Christ and ourselves. Thus there is much that we can have by the Spirit in this sanctified area of the temple. Perhaps some evening the Spirit of the living God will set something in motion, something perhaps that you have never heard before - despite all you have read you have never heard it before - the Spirit of the living God imparting a divine communication.

I wish now to speak of Samuel. I have chosen Samuel because having spoken about an old man I want to speak about a young man. It is possible for a young lad to get the mind of God. That is very fine. It says Samuel was clothed with a linen ephod. Now dear young brethren, have you a linen ephod in your wardrobe? I think that what it refers to is a habitual practice of prayer. Younger brethren that have a desire to continue with the Lord's people and get divine communications should value the linen ephod in a habitual addiction to prayer, particularly in regard to the Lord's interests in the place where they are set. Then as Samuel went up to the temple it says in verse 3 of chapter 3 that he lay in the temple of Jehovah where the ark of God was. He would see, according to Psalm 27, the beauty of Jehovah. As that lad Samuel looked at that ark he would think about it. How it would convey to him the faithfulness of God. All around him was moral chaos; the priesthood had broken down, the people were in disarray, and as he lay every night in the temple he would look at that ark and would say, God is faithful. He would desire to be the recipient of a divine communication so that he could serve God's people. He was honoured of God as bringing in that great type of Jesus, king David. What must have filled his heart! If you had asked Samuel at the close of his life, What was the highlight of your career? Was it these prophetic words that thundered through Israel, made them all listen? No, he would say, the highlight of my career was that day when I anointed David.

Oh, beloved brethren, what a man Samuel was! and he began as a boy clothed with a linen ephod; he knew how to pray habitually. He lay down near the ark; he had tender feelings about it all; he had that message from Jehovah and he was obedient. This brings out another moral feature and that is the great importance of subject minds in receiving the divine communications. We may pride ourselves that we have a critical mind, and say, I would not let anything pass. It is right to have a critical mind; Paul says "let the others judge" (1 Cor 14: 29); but also we have to have subject minds and make sure that the critical mind does not overshadow the subject mind; but in the combination of the two you get the divine communication. This lad was nurtured by his mother. Many a godly mother has had desires for her son, not in relation to this world but in relation to the testimony of God, and God has honoured them. Dear sisters, if you are like Hannah, if you have that outlook and that desire, God is faithful and He will honour it. Who knows but in this very place, so richly endowed, God will raise up a teaching priest able to convey the mind of God to His people in a current way and to act as a great strengthening in the face of what the enemy might do?

So beloved brethren, let us be exercised to provide the moral conditions in the temple by which the living God can speak to us in His word. For His Name's sake.

NEW YORK

9 May 1981