What's a three-year-old most known for?
No.
You can ask them if they want something really good to eat and they will tell you no when
they really want it.
Okay?
How about a three-year-old?
What's a three-year-old famous for?
One word.
Why?
It doesn't really matter.
It's why about whatever, right?
I was one of those kind of kids once a very, very long time ago.
But I went from being a three-year-old to ask why to asking questions.
I drove my mother nuts.
Really truly.
Because I wanted to know this and I wanted to know that and I wanted to know the other
thing.
A lot of my questions had to do with, mommy, who's God?
Well, she didn't really know.
But she started kind of hunting for answers for me.
Then, well, mommy, where does God live?
What happens when you die?
My mother was clueless.
But she took a series of studies advertised on the radio because she needed to answer
my questions.
So she took a series of Bible studies from it is written.
So what kind of answers do you think I got?
Things that she discovered in those Bible studies.
I learned that the dead are dead and that Saturday was the Sabbath when I was about
this high.
But some things never change.
I didn't become a real Christian until I was a teenager and I was telling Sabbath school
this morning about a little book.
In fact, I have it with me even.
I carry it.
It's green and it's about this big.
Anybody remember that?
Remember what the name of that book was?
A little green book.
About that big.
Steps to Christ.
Only people who have white hair would know that.
Okay?
Steps to Christ.
And I was hunting for a book to read one day and I picked that out of the bookcase and
I read it from one end to the other.
Saturday was home.
I read it and I read myself through the steps of salvation and I became a Christian.
But some things never changed.
I'm still asking questions.
I wonder, what does that mean?
Where did that start?
And so what I want to share with you this morning comes from the fact that I ask questions.
And you would think at my age maybe I ought to know all the answers.
Guess what?
I don't.
I don't know all the answers.
But I still have tons of questions.
And as I grew older, I learned I could find answers to my questions.
And I found them right here in this book.
I found the answers to my questions.
But when I read scripture now, several years now, words will kind of almost bounce off
of the page at me.
They will maybe come alive, but they make me ask questions.
And so Caleb read our scripture this morning and something bounced off the page at me that
hadn't before.
And it's a text that's really familiar with us.
And we'll get to most of the text later.
But I want to share with you the one, the phrase that bounced out at me this time.
So we're still in 2 Corinthians 6.16.
And it reads again, and what agreement has the temple of God with idols for you are the
temple of the living God?
As God has said, I will dwell in them and among them.
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
What bounced out at me this time was two words, living God.
And I thought, well, that makes sense.
God's not dead.
When I was in my late teens, there was this theory, God is dead.
Anybody remember that?
It's kind of died along with everything else.
But it was being taught in universities and everywhere that God is dead.
But God is not dead.
God is the living God.
And I thought, hmm, I wonder where that phrase came from.
Here's my questioning again.
Just part of my DNA, that's who I am.
So I have this handy dandy little Bible program on my iPad that I can look up anything on.
And I just typed in living God in my Bible program.
And instantly, I have all these texts.
And so I went through them.
And I want to share some of those with you this morning.
Not all of them, because we'd be here really late, and you don't want me to do that, and
I don't want to do that.
But some of them, one of them is the first time it was ever said.
And that's important in scripture.
It's called the law of first mention.
Because when you first run into a phrase or a word that's used, it is very, very often
the most complete understanding that you're going to get.
But it develops past that point.
So the first mention is in Deuteronomy.
And Deuteronomy, we studied that in Sabbath school here, last quarter, quarter before
last.
Not been that long.
Deuteronomy was Moses going over the history of the children of Israel.
And he didn't use this in Exodus, but he used it in Deuteronomy 526.
And he said, for who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God
speaking to them from the midst of the fire as we have and lived?
First time living God was mentioned.
Did Adam know that God was living?
Yeah, bet.
He walked in the garden with him.
But the phrase living God, this is the first time it's used.
So this text was spoken, and he was recounting the giving of the Ten Commandments.
So who gave the Ten Commandments?
The living God.
And it's the first time God is called the living God with those words.
Given at a time when idolatry was rampant.
They had just come out of Egypt.
They weren't very far out of Egypt.
Somebody said the other day it was 40 days out of Egypt.
They were given the Ten Commandments.
So they come out of a very idolatrous time, and God spoke to them, the living God from
the mountain.
And before Moses leaves, he gives them the assurance again that God is the living God
who gave this to you.
Not stones, not sticks, not rocks, not wood.
The living God gave you the Ten Commandments.
Well, that was somewhere around 1500 BC.
And I'm going to track dates with you because I want you to see that this doesn't just happen
one right after the other.
The next mention that we find of it is somewhere between 1000 and like 970 BC.
So this is 500 years later.
And it happened, David said it.
And he spoke with the Maroon around him and saying, what shall be done for the man who
kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of?
Who do you suppose?
The living God.
Second time it's used, 500 years later.
I think it was referred to commonly.
Next time it's in scripture.
And then David said, your servant has killed both a lion and a bear.
And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing as he has defied
the armies of the living God.
So David, he was a teenager, guys.
Okay, he was a kid.
17, 18, somewhere around that.
He had an understanding of who God was, that God was the living God.
And then later, as David was writing the Psalms, probably while he was running from Saul, he
said, my soul thirsts for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
And again he said, my soul longs, yes, even faints for the court of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
David knew God, he wanted to be drawn into a closer relationship with him.
The next mention in the Bible we have is Hezekiah.
And this was somewhere 6, 700-ish, don't have an exact date.
Hezekiah was 25 when he started reigning.
And he reigned for 29, 29 years.
He was the son of Ahaz.
Now was Ahaz a good king or a bad king?
Remember?
Not a good king.
Not a good king at all.
But Hezekiah came out believing.
First thing he did was he went around and he broke down all the high places, so he got
rid of the idols.
He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him there was none like him among the
kings of Judah, nor were there before him.
He held fast to the Lord God, he did not part from following, but kept his commandments
which the Lord commanded Moses.
In the ninth year of his reign, Assyria took Israel captive.
Now he was in the southern kingdom of Judah, but Assyria came in and wiped out Israel and
took him off.
In the 14th year, Sennacherib, from the same area, came against Judah and took many cities.
Hezekiah gave tribute, but still this guy kept coming and coming.
He was going to take Jerusalem and he mocked them.
And Hezekiah went to prayer.
He went to prayer.
And he said, it may be that the Lord your God will hear the words that are said.
This king of Assyria has sent a reproach to the living God.
And he sent to Isaiah and he said, Isaiah what should I do?
So Isaiah and Hezekiah were contemporaries.
And Isaiah said, don't need to worry about him.
Don't need to worry about him.
God's going to take care of him.
So Hezekiah and this guy that I can't even pronounce his name, Rabshaka, something like
that, the cup bearer for Sennacherib came with a letter and said, either bow down or
we're going to take you basically is what he said.
And Hezekiah took this letter from the hand of the messengers and read it.
And Hezekiah went up to the temple, to the house of God and spread it before the Lord.
And he prayed and he said, oh Lord God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim,
you are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth,
incline your ear, oh Lord, and open your eyes, oh Lord, and see and hear the words of Sennacherib,
which he sent to reproach the living God.
And so he prayed and the living God did something pretty amazing.
This living God took care of Sennacherib on 185,000 soldiers.
They were all dead the next morning.
The living God did that because Hezekiah went to the living God.
Next, I didn't put a date on this one and I should have.
I'm going to say it's at least a couple hundred years later, maybe more.
Actually it's more than that because the children of Israel went into captivity.
They were there 70 years and they came back 500-ish.
The next mention of the living God comes from a Persian king.
I find that amazing.
He just thrown Daniel in the lion's den because these guys were out to get Daniel and he had
to carry through on what he said.
And he came the next morning and he opened up the den and he said, Daniel, servant of
the living God has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from
the lions.
A heathen king called God the living God.
And then he did something that I find just really amusing considering he was a heathen
king.
I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble in fear before
the God of Daniel for He is the living God and stand fast forever.
His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed and His dominion shall endure to
the end.
Even the heathen king knew that our God is a living God.
Well time progresses from that point and we end up in the New Testament.
And it's used all over the place in the New Testament.
When Jesus asked Peter who do men say that I am and then who do you say that I am?
Peter answered you are the Christ the son of guess who?
The living God.
We have come to know and believe that you are the Christ the son of the living God.
And here's another really interesting one.
When Jesus was brought before the high priest he kept silent.
Now you've got to understand that this priesthood was totally corrupt.
They were into money and stuff and power.
Did they care much about anything else?
No.
Money, stuff and power.
And this high priest said I put you under oath by the living God.
Tell us if you are the Christ the son of God.
Isn't it interesting that a totally corrupt high priest would ask that question?
Then comes Paul and it's used throughout the New Testament.
So I'm just going to give you a few.
Paul wrote to Timothy his protege and he said but if I'm delayed I write to you so that
you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of the God, house of God which
is the church of the living God.
The pillar and the ground of truth.
Another time to Timothy for this is the end we both labor and suffer and reproach because
we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men especially those who believe.
Hebrews beware brother unless there be any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God.
And it goes on.
To the Corinthians clearly you are an epistle of Christ ministered by us written not with
ink but with the spirit of the living God not on tablets of stone or flesh that is of
the heart.
And then we come to today's text and we're going to flush this out a little bit more
but the background is the living God.
He said to the Corinthians what agreement has the temple of God with idols.
We've just been talking about who the living God idols are they alive.
No they're dead.
So he said you are the temple of the living God.
Have you stopped to take that in.
This is where that phrase bounced out at me.
You are the temple of the living God.
I am the temple of the living God.
What's a temple?
Temple definition.
What's a temple?
A place of worship.
OK good.
It's a place of worship.
It can be to worship an idol right.
It can be.
But Paul said we're the temple of the living God.
What that means.
What should be taking place within me.
You're right.
It's a place to worship.
It's a place for me to worship.
It's a place for you to worship.
And God said I will dwell in them and walk among them.
I will be their God and they shall be my people.
And here he is quoting Leviticus by the way.
This was said way back.
OK.
At least 2000 years before.
Long time back.
Probably more like.
I'm not going to guess but it's more than 2000 years previous.
He's quoting this.
OK.
God said this.
I will dwell in them and walk among them.
I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Has anything changed?
No.
He's still talking to his people.
I will dwell in them.
Now N is a preposition.
Those of you people who know anything about English.
Prepositions show the position of something.
OK.
I had to memorize those when I was a kid.
And I see Jennifer nodding her head.
There were like 40 some of them.
We had to memorize them in alphabetical order.
And later when I was teaching English it was anything a mouse can do.
No.
Anything a bird can do to a cloud.
They can go in the cloud, under the cloud, over the cloud, beside the cloud.
All of those are prepositions.
But that word in.
What does that mean?
Can you be in a box?
If it's big enough, right?
It means inside of.
And here God says I will dwell or I will live in them.
And this is what kind of a God?
The living God.
I will dwell in them.
And I will walk among them.
I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Now often when we pray before church, we pray that God will be present with us.
That he will live in us.
Stop and think about that.
The living God has promised that.
He has promised to be in us and walk among us.
And to walk in scripture, that word walk means to live.
To carry yourself about.
Do you know what an incredible promise that is?
He will be in us and he will walk among us as a people.
He will live with us.
Well this wouldn't be much if we didn't get to some practical application would it?
It would just be head knowledge that Cindy dug out of the scriptures.
So we're going to bring it home just a little bit.
Paul said, do you not know that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells
in you?
That's kind of what we've been saying right?
He also said if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple
of God is holy which temple you are.
Are you holy?
He considers us that way because when he sees us he sees Jesus.
We are the temple of the living God.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you
have from God and you are not your own?
If we are a temple who do we belong to?
The living God right?
We belong to the living God.
You know even in Revelation it uses this phrase the living God.
Then I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of home.
The living God and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted
to harm the earth and the sea and it goes on.
But he has the seal of the living God.
If I am the temple of the living God, is he going to place his seal on me?
Yes.
If you are the temple of the living God, is he going to place his seal on you?
Yes.
But it is interesting to me that it is the seal of the living God.
Well what does this all tell me about God anyway?
I told you we have to do practical application right?
Number one, he is alive.
He is not wood, stone, whatever else.
He is not only my creator, he is a personal God.
He is not somebody you know that is out there.
He is personal.
He wants to live in us and he sends his spirit to accomplish that.
If you have one you have all three right?
The father, the son and the Holy Spirit.
He accomplishes that through the Holy Spirit.
He wants to live in us.
He wants to dwell among us.
That is a pretty amazing kind of God don't you think?
What does this tell me about myself?
God regards me, us, as a place that is worthy of his presence.
He desires to live among his people.
He wants to be in us and among us.
He also gives me the right to choose whose temple or whose dwelling place I will be.
Can you imagine?
I think that would be hard if I were God.
You know when I make things I kind of like them.
Sometimes they flub up and they are ugly but when I make something I really like it.
I like to look at it.
But God gives me the right to choose to serve him when he made me.
He does ask me to make responsible choices.
Sometimes I don't and if you are honest probably sometimes you don't.
But he really wants us to make responsible choices.
And he leaves me responsible for the upkeep of his house.
He wants to live in me.
But I am responsible for the upkeep.
He will live in me.
He wants to cleanse me.
He wants the inner temple to be clean physically and morally.
He wants us to be clean.
And he will do that if we let him.
And the outside of the temple reveals who lives inside the temple.
The outside of the temple reveals who lives inside the temple.
So some application here.
He wants to cleanse the inner temple but he won't do it if I don't cooperate.
He wants to take sin out of my life.
I am really glad for that because it is pretty ugly.
He wants to take it out of my life but he won't take it unless I let him.
And he wants the outside of my temple to reveal that he lives on the inside of the temple.
That's pretty amazing.