THE TEMPLE OF GOD
[p. 430] THE TEMPLE OF GOD
1 Corinthians 3: 16, 17; Ephesians 2: 21; Psalm 27: 4
These scriptures speak about the temple of God. The first scripture is addressed to a company of saints in a Greek city. The word ‘temple’ had a great place among the Greeks in a defiled and heathen sense; still, the word was well understood. It was a place where inquiry could be made. The answers in these heathen temples would be very evasive, very precarious, generally lies, and in other cases flattery. But in this scripture the word ‘temple’ is used divinely, in keeping with the word in Psalm 27. It would apply, not to a literal building, but to a number of christians, a number of persons, and the address was to these very persons, about themselves. So that the apostle inquires of them, “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God?” 1 Corinthians 3: 16. It would have been difficult in one way to say anything about them more extraordinary. Their knowledge of the use of the word ‘temple’ among the heathen would make it difficult for them to understand it as applied to themselves. So that the question was, “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God?” — “ye”, yourselves. It was no empty suggestion, nor was it merely a potential one. It referred to what was actual.
It is easy to make us believe things about ourselves if they are flattering things; but a man of God, Elihu, said it was not his part to flatter; he said his Maker would soon take him away if he did so. So that we are to be careful in saying things to the brethren about themselves, lest we may be telling lies or flattering. It requires that one should know the saints to say things rightly to them, to say what is true to them. We shall not find much difficulty in speaking to each other and of each other in heaven. What we are will be very manifest; our very garb, our countenances, our place as [p. 431] distinct from other families of the blest, will in themselves be enough to show what we are then. But to say of the saints what they are now is another matter, because we are in a mixed condition. That is a word that should be understood, because it requires discrimination; it requires the edge of the word of God, the sword of the Spirit, to bring out the mixedness of our condition. “For the word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”, Hebrews 4: 12. No other weapon but the word of God can do these things. It is a very sharp instrument, a dangerous one, too. It cuts both ways, so that in attempting to cut another you are apt to cut yourself very severely, and yet do yourself no good. So that in speaking of a mixed condition, how it beclouds what we are! One has to know the brethren to be able to speak rightly of them, and I am thankful to be in a position to know the brethren in these parts. The knowledge of the brethren helps you to minister to them. You have to take much for granted in those you do not know.
Now the apostle had spent eighteen months in this town of Corinth; so that he knew the brethren. He spent three years at Ephesus; you may be sure he knew them there still better. It is a great advantage to know the brethren. Hence he could say from present knowledge that the Corinthians were the temple of God, or rather, that they were that in character; “ye are the temple of God”, that is the way it should read. There was no ‘if’ with him, it is what they were. They did not know it, maybe, and of course it was to their disadvantage if they did not; but he knew it. He had been there. How many a brother and sister he spoke to in his eighteen months there, and discovered that they had the Holy Spirit! Two persons who have the Holy Spirit, who have an ungrieved Spirit in them, have a link with [p. 432] each other. There is no misunderstanding; they know each other. And that was the apostle’s experience at Corinth. Immediately after a visit there he went up to Jerusalem. Suppose the brethren there had asked him, ‘Paul, what about the brethren at Corinth?’ He would have said, ‘There is not one that can tell you better than I about them’. Indeed, in writing to them he said, “Ye are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read of all men”, 2 Corinthians 3: 2. He was no carping critic. He knew them and spoke the truth about them, but he would say a lot that was good about them; he could enlarge on the glories of the assembly at Corinth, as you see in the first nine verses of his first letter. “Ye are our letter, written in our hearts”; let us follow those words, “written in our hearts”. Who wrote that letter in Paul’s heart? God. Not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. That is, God would advertise the assembly at Corinth by writing in Paul’s heart about them, giving each of them a place in his affections; so that anyone listening to him speaking about them would know what a work God had wrought in that city.
And now he turns around to tell them what they are. This does not cover anything, but he says, “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any one corrupt the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye”. So that it is very clear that he had no doubt at all as to what they were: they were the temple of God, that is, in a characteristic sense. And that is my first thought, dear brethren, that we might understand what this means, what we are, how we would be regarded in heaven. Suppose the angel Gabriel came into this meeting and told us what he knows of heaven’s mind about us. What would he have to say? He would impress us with the favourableness of heaven’s mind about us. Even if anyone of us has been delinquent, and who has not, alas! (Pardon my simple, homely way of telling the thing), the angel would say, ‘There has been a good time in heaven’. What was the good time? This one has been causing the brethren trouble, but he has repented. That would cause a good time! Heaven has been waiting for months and years; the joy has come now, and heaven is aglow about it. Repentance is morally one of the greatest things known in heaven. We can have nothing down here in a positive sense unless we have repentance preceding. Then he would say to us referring to any of the localities represented here, ‘I tell you frankly that you have an assembly reputation in heaven’. Paul refers to speaking with the tongues of angels; that means they are good speakers, and would know how to enforce a thing, and Gabriel would know how to enforce this matter.
What I am speaking of now is not a meeting of a general character like this; it could not be said in a meeting like this, “ye are the temple of God”. It is a local matter in the sense in which the word is used here; it is used in a characteristic sense only. It is not the whole idea, nor can any locality represent the whole idea; at most we can only represent what is characteristic. Not that there is not the whole idea, I shall come to that in a moment in Ephesians, but no locality can represent it. This letter contemplates the local position, and if we are to get on locally, we must accept this fact; but based on the fact that there is such a thing as temple of God in the town in which the brethren meet. If there are two companies opposed to one another, one of them cannot be the temple of God or anything like it. It is simply a deception and a mockery, and repugnant to heaven for any practising unrighteousness to assume that they are temple of God. They are not. This is a real matter. Paul had been in Corinth and he knew the persons, and he knew that the Holy Spirit dwelt in them and that He was in them collectively. Many and many a time had he enjoyed the presence and the power of the Spirit in ministry meetings and in assembly meetings,
[p. 434] so that he is speaking to them of what he knows, and telling them they are to know it too. “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” It is not simply that He is there theoretically; He is dwelling there. Paul could see when he was in Corinth that the Spirit was restful there. That is what he wishes to impress upon them. That is the first point.
As to the persons meeting here today, we represent a good many companies of christians, each of which may be designated in its locality as “temple of God”. It may be said to them, as said here: “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Then the apostle warns anyone who defiles that wonderful temple, and adds that it is holy. The great difficulty with most of us is the want of holiness; that is what mars this whole matter. Intelligence will not make up the temple, though it has to do with it; but without holiness you cannot have it. You may be able to make good remarks, but they do not come in the power of the Spirit, in the power of holiness. That is the secret of the difficulty, you may be sure. So he carefully adds, “the temple of God is holy, and such are ye”.
Well now, dear brethren, that is the impression I would seek to leave on all the companies that are represented here; for I fully believe from my observation in this district that in every gathering represented here there is some character of the temple of God. That is a great matter, an immense matter, but the apostle stresses the ideal of holiness, and that if there be any that corrupt the temple, God will destroy him. “If any one corrupt the temple of God, him shall God destroy”. The word ‘corrupt’ here is the same as ‘destroy’. And he goes on, “Let no one deceive himself: if any one thinks himself to be wise among you in this world, let him become foolish, that he may be wise” (verse 18). That is, what a man does in the meeting will react upon [p. 435] himself. So that we are in a serious position in this group of gatherings. Heaven has taken much account of us, and has been helping us greatly, too. But the Lord says, “And to every one to whom much has been given, much shall be required from him”, Luke 12: 48. So that this matter of the temple and its holiness, its dependence on the Spirit in the place, not only in each person, but collectively, is of prime importance to us. Young people especially need to take home this great fact: “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any one corrupt the temple of God, him shall God destroy”. This letter was written that it should be true of them characteristically, and continue to be so that the light of God might be diffused and shine amongst them.
Now the Ephesian side is taken up in order to have balance, and the verse I read indicates that the building grows, or increases, to a holy temple in the Lord. That is the next thing. It is a growing thing, an increasing thing. It is a test, dear brethren, as to what we profess to be and what we are. We are entitled in our localities, I say without hesitation, to accept the apostle’s statement in the principle of it that “ye are temple of God”. Let us accept it, and the obligations that go with it. But these obligations imply that there is to be growth or increase. So that it is a question of whether the garment we wore last year fits us now, because that is the test. You young people, can you look back a year and say, ‘I enjoy the meetings more now than I did then?’ Let every young person challenge himself. We often refer to Samuel, a typical saint; he was a saint from his youth, his boyhood. There was steady increase with him as year by year he needed a larger coat. John the baptist was another such. Gabriel speaking to Mary spoke of “the holy thing also which shall be born”, referring to the Lord Jesus. That means substantially holy. None of us could be that; but in the Corinthian epistle the Spirit of God tells believing parents that their children are holy,
[p. 436] which is a very important matter. They are only provisionally holy, but there is responsibility attaching to every child. He is over against the unclean babes all around. They are children of unclean parents, but the babes of christians are clean. That is what the apostle says: “since otherwise indeed your children are unclean, but now they are holy”, 1 Corinthians 7: 14. That is an important matter to start with in the family, to have holy babes, because it is a basis, a provisional basis, for intrinsic holiness. It is the basis for what I have been speaking about, the temple of God in the place.
So that if you can look back and say, I am getting on a little better; I enjoy the meetings more, and I read the Bible with a little more interest, then there is increase. Because it is like that. It is well to face facts, it is a beginning. It is a little here and a little there. And if you are humble before the Lord, He gives you assurance; He would say to you, ‘Go on’. That is what Samuel did. And yet (and it is very remarkable), the Spirit of God expressly says after all this history about the little coat every year, “Now Samuel did not yet know Jehovah”, 1 Samuel 3: 7. We often use that word ‘yet’; it is a very good word, I think, in dealing with children; and they use it too, “Not yet”. But they may say it too often, and God may say, ‘I will say, Not yet; you may say those words so often — Not yet; I will say, Never’. He may take you at your word and say, ‘It is all over now; the time is gone’. Therefore, do not keep on saying, ‘Not yet’. The Spirit of God said Samuel did not yet know, but he did come to know. The Lord spoke to him. When you are telling Him you are able to enjoy His things better, it may be that the Lord is just then calling you by name, Samuel, Samuel. That is what happens, and the Lord puts you on your faith. And you know what the Lord did; He told Samuel a lot of things that are spoken of and debated in the care meeting, showing God had confidence in him. It is a great matter to know that God [p. 437] has confidence in you, that your parents have confidence in you, and the brethren have confidence in you. This matter of confidence is one of the greatest in moral things. So that Jehovah tells this boy things about Eli, a man who could be his great great grandfather. That is God. It is a very rare thing for God to tell boys about His things, but it is because He had confidence in that boy. So that, as I said before, if the temple of God is in this town, even in one or two persons, the next thing is growth, because that is Ephesians. It increases to something — to a holy temple in the Lord. It is not now a holy temple in this town, or in Corinth, or in Ephesus even; it is in the Lord. It is a universal thought.
Well, if we have good times in the temple in that light, the Lord would say, ‘What about the results? what about the bearing of all this?’ Can I go afield thousands of miles and convey something of what I have been growing in? That is the idea. It grows, says the apostle, to a holy temple in the Lord: “in whom all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”, Ephesians 2: 21, 22. That “in the Lord” is as good in New Zealand as it is here. If I should go again to New Zealand, and they have been growing ever since my last visit, but I have not been growing, would they not, as I ministered, see my lack of growth? This is a universal matter. There must be uniformity and symmetry in it all; not one place shooting out unduly, but growth throughout. It is a building that is in mind, really a building composed of persons, but it grows to something, “a holy temple in the Lord”. I might say, I have gift; I can go and preach and teach there; but what about this holy matter, and what about “in the Lord”? The Lord may make me feel that I am behind in the distant land where I have gone to serve.
So that, dear brethren, the point in the second section is that of increase, and that from my little meeting [p. 438] where I am set, where I have my part in the holy temple locally, I can convey to other meetings thousands of miles away that it is the same thing. Paul, for instance, went up from Corinth to Jerusalem, which is a long distance. As he passed through he would see the brethren in different places, and what they would see in him and hear from him as to other gatherings would be the same as they were enjoying if they were going on with God. It is a matter of measure, he and they moving together. Paul said of the Thessalonians, for instance, that they took their measure from, or copied or imitated, the assemblies of God in Judaea. That would mean that if he went to an assembly in Judaea and came back to Thessalonica, he would find the same thing. It is a universal thought, and the building is growing to a holy temple in the Lord. That is fixedness. It is a certainty that universally there is such a thing in this world, growing unto a holy temple in the Lord; that we have actually arrived at it. We have grown into the idea. It is a great mental conception in the power of the Spirit that will come out to the millennium in a wonderful display of glory; but it is already here. The apostle says, ‘I see it now as I move about’. Paul’s account of the saints at Corinth would be a testimony to this. The growth was there, and the growth included himself.
You do not want to be out of this matter of increase, dear brethren, dear young people especially; because increase is going on, and the Lord is saying, ‘If it is not going on, then there is nothing’. The little coat brought up every year determined the growth of Samuel. And so God applies that test to us from time to time. Something happens in the locality, that is the test, and then perhaps we find brethren who are not equal to the matter. They are just ordinary people talking about ordinary things, as people do. The coat does not fit, you see, the emergency brings out the measure. But if there has been increase, the measure will be brought out too,
[p. 439] that things can be taken up and dealt with according to divine principles. There is evidence of growth or increase to a holy temple in the Lord. That is how it will be in the millennial day. What a time we are going to have! I have been speaking of what we are, but think of what we are coming into! If we have ten cities to rule over, or five cities, we shall travel immense distances in the universe. We have to understand the letter of Scripture, and what an immense thing we are coming into, and what power will be there. Think of the instances in Scripture where people were carried away enormous distances by the sheer power of God. One man, Philip, raptured; the Spirit of God raptured him and he was found at Azotus. Probably that would be beyond anything we know of now in material things. That is what we are coming into. John says himself, “What we shall be has not yet been manifested”, 1 John 3:2. We should be filled with faith and hope. Think of God! Think of the power that will be available in those days!
So that this matter of growth is to be taken into account; if I am not growing, I do not need a new coat, I am just the same year in and year out. But we are to be growing or increasing to a holy temple, not now in Corinth, but “in the Lord”. That is universal, and will go on to the millennium. “In the Lord” is an exclusive idea, a dignified idea. It is the dignity of exclusiveness. It holds today as it will hold in the millennium. The position we are in today as having the Holy Spirit is exactly the same as it will be in the millennial day. It is “in the Lord”. It is not now of heavenly choice, but of millennial administration that I am speaking. And so in that day everything will be accurately dealt with; no secret councils, but matters that come up will be dealt with in clarity as on a sea of glass. Think of the confidence that will be established in the heavenly city! It will have established itself as the very essence of confidence. “Jerusalem, coming [p. 440] down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her shining was like a most precious stone”, Revelation 21: 10, 11. I hope the brethren are following what I am saying. It establishes itself in infinite confidence in the universe, that is the idea. A holy temple in the Lord is a place where saints may go and ask questions with confidence and get all matters solved. I am speaking now as to saints on earth. Paul says, “Do ye not know that we shall judge angels?” 1 Corinthians 6: 3. People will come to us, as the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon, with hard questions, maybe, and they will be solved. Anything Solomon told her she believed; she had no doubt about it. So it will be then. Think of what God is working out in this very town at the present time, how He is impressing upon us what we are. And then the growth into the universal idea, not getting on in this world, but in that world, for it is “in the Lord”. Nothing in this world is in the Lord, it is the very opposite. But “in the Lord” you are in a fixed position outside the world, and that goes on into the millennium.
What a time we shall have, travelling and conversing! Let no one think I am enlarging unduly on it; it is a practical thing. We are dealing with practical things in christianity. The apostle says, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us”, Romans 8: 18; and again, “While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen eternal”, 2 Corinthians 4: 18. We are looking at those unseen things, and if we do look at them, what I am telling you will be intelligible to you, the things we are coming into. But I am speaking of the administrative side, because it is a temple in the Lord, and that has to do with the millennial day. We shall be inquired of and shall be able to answer the questions, so wonderfully constructed is the heavenly city. Now the point is whether we are growing into [p. 441] that, wherever our local position is; because the word ‘temple’ is the same in each case and it is a holy temple. It is no mere theory; the persons who form it are holy.
Now the final word is in the Psalms, and as usual, that helps in experience. “One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple”, Psalm 27: 4. Now I have come to the idea of desire. I have spoken of what we are locally, what we are as growing, what a great outlook we have; and now it is a question of desire, for that is what the verse begins with. “One thing have I asked of Jehovah”, or, “One thing have I desired”. It is not a mere mental desire; it is an asking for a thing. And what is this thing that the psalmist is asking for? It is not that he is wishing for a thing secretly; it is asked for. It is what I have made known to the Lord in prayer, and He knows it. And then he says, “that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life”. He says, ‘I have asked for it, and I have sought after it. I did not get it right away’. I suppose everyone of us here can testify to that, that we did not get things right away that we asked for. But do not forget you asked for them; keep on asking. You do not get answers right away. God has His own way of acting because the answers to our prayers depend on growth, and it takes months to bring about growth for some things, maybe years. One thing I have asked of the Lord, and I have sought after it, and I am seeking after it yet. I am going to get it. I have confidence in the God I have asked. He has never disappointed me. He says to me maybe, ‘There is something wrong with you’; perhaps there are hidden motives in your asking, and He keeps me waiting. But on whom am I waiting? God. The Psalmist says, ‘I will seek after it’. He is not disappointed. It looks as if it is still in the future; it is in the future the way it is put in the psalm; but it [p. 442] is desired and sought after, and now he tells us what it is: that he may dwell in the house of the Lord.
Jehovah says to Solomon, ‘You did not ask for the life of your enemies, or for riches; you asked for wisdom, the very thing I wanted you to ask for, and I am going to give it to you; and in such great measure that there will be nobody like you’. The number of wise persons mentioned in 1 Kings 4: 31 is remarkable; their names are given and they are greatly distinguished for wisdom. But Solomon was wiser than them all. The longer you wait, the more you will get. This is a psalm of David, and it is included in the first book of Psalms, showing that David went through this and got his answer; he did not die without it. He speaks himself later about the formation of the house. Let us suppose that the ark was in the house of Abinadab at this time when David prayed this prayer. How could he get to the house of the Lord under those conditions? He would say, ‘That house will not do; the ark is not properly cared for there’. David says, “We heard of it at Ephratah, we found it in the fields of the wood”, Psalm 132: 6. You could never behold the beauty of the Lord in the house without the ark, but David saw to it that the ark got to the house, a very central thought. He says, “That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple”. You may say, God is never seen. But He is seen, He has found a way of showing Himself. That is to say, all this beautiful furniture described in Exodus represents the beauties of Christ. God is in Christ. That is the idea. That is how David would find the beauty of the Lord in the house, because these things spoke of Christ. The ark spoke of Christ; the whole thing that was disclosed to Moses spoke of Christ. All stands related to Christ. Thomas says to Him, “My Lord and my God”, John 20: 28. Do not be afraid to say that to Christ. After the Lord had shown him His hands and His side, Thomas worshipfully says,
“My Lord and my God”. He had missed Him on the previous first day of the week; he did not see Him then, but the ten did. As I said, that is the principle, that God is in Christ.
And so I do not believe David went to Abinadab’s house. Though he made a mistake in taking the ark up, he had the idea of beholding the beauty of the Lord. Let us not forget that Christ is God, and that God is in Christ; and He is in the house, and that is among the brethren. The brethren are the house of God; and in the place Christ has among them His glory is seen. So that Moses says, “Let the beauty of Jehovah our God be upon us”, Psalm 90: 17; not, ‘Let me see it’ — the beauty is there. He knew it was there; he had been on the mount. What did he see? Who can say what he saw in those forty days with Jehovah up there? It is said, ‘They saw the Lord; they saw Jehovah; they saw the God of Israel’. You say, ‘What did they see?’ Well, it is for us to find out spiritually what they saw. It is a question of God, and God has found a way to show Himself. The furniture of the tabernacle brought out what God was, and that is what David was speaking about, what he would see — “to behold the beauty of Jehovah”. How he would contemplate the ark, and the tabernacle, and the candlestick and the cherubim! That is the idea, “to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple”. That is, he would ask questions; but the first thing is to see God.
Let nobody hesitate at what I am saying. “They saw the God of Israel”, it says, and, “They saw God, and ate and drank”, Exodus 24: 10, 11. It is morally impossible that God should hold Himself back; He must be visible in some way. He says of Moses, “The form of Jehovah doth he behold”, Numbers 12: 8. Not everybody, but Moses saw it on the mount, and probably at other times. So he tells us himself, ‘I went into the sanctuary to speak to God’. Think of the light he had in his soul! He says it in a most princely chapter, in Numbers 7.
[p. 444] He says, he went in to speak to God, and he heard a Voice, and he tells us where the Voice came from: from off the mercy-seat between the cherubim. God was there. He was as really there as He was in heaven. These things were real to him; God was there; the Voice was there. David had the same thought: “to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple”. He saw something. You cannot imagine that we shall be in heaven without seeing something. Heaven is a place of visibility, of persons, the whole cream of the universe; but God Himself is there. ‘God and the Lamb — ’tis well I know that source divine’, that is the principle. It is a question of stirring ourselves up, and calling upon all that is within us as to these matters. How well do we know God in His house, so that we behold the beauty of the Lord? It is a matter of desire. The psalmist evidently had not reached it properly yet, and he asked for it, and sought it out. And then he tells us what it was he was seeking out, and it is the house, that he may enjoy the house of the Lord all the days of his life; not for a visit, but all the time. And then, “to inquire in his temple”. The nearer you get to God, the more light you have about what to ask for. “Ask, and it shall be given to you”, Matthew 7: 7. Do not forget to ask, and ask much, that is, according to what governs the position. Keep on asking, and you will get it. You may have to wait, but God says, ‘You are not ready yet; you are not great enough to get these answers’; because our minds travel much faster than our feet or our formation, and God knows the difference. But, He would say, you have asked them and I have heard you. Your requests are recorded. Be patient, and during the time of your patience you are growing; and when you come into the thing you asked for, you will be capable of enjoying it.
That is what I would leave with you, dear brethren: to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Do not forget to ask for it and seek after it. Keep on. Have it [p. 445] greatly before you what you would ask for, and that it is a question of desire, that you want to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of your life. It is really eternity.