Today we are back in 1 Corinthians and back to
Paul's passionate rebuke and exhortation to the
believers in the first century city of Corinth
concerning the nature of the church there. And
as we know, it was a bit of a mess there in Corinth.
Last fall, I had the privilege of teaching the
history of the church at Masters University.
And I began the semester by asking the students
a series of questions on the very first day of
class. This was my introduction to the course.
I asked these questions that you see on the screen.
I said, what is the church? And I got a bunch
of blank stares. How do we define that? What
is the church? Is the church visible or is it
invisible? Where is it located, the true church?
Will I find it in a particular institution? Or
will I find it in a particular type of building
or an ecclesiastical system? And if the knee
-jerk reaction is, no, Jeff, it's a people, okay,
which people? And what is it that binds that
people together that then makes them this thing
we call the church? The reality is if you've
grown up around the church in America in the
modern age, those might be difficult questions
to answer. Not because the Bible and church history
are somehow lacking in giving us the right answers,
but because church leaders, for the most part,
have done a poor job informing their congregations
of what God's design for the church has always
been from the very beginning. Sadly, the things
that we value most here in the West run counter
to God's design for the church. The things that
we love, things we grew up in, they run counter
to everything that God has said about belonging
to his church. I'll give you a brief list of
them. Individualism. We love that as Americans,
right? Rugged individualism. Consumer choice.
We want all the choices we can get, right? And
then we pick according to what we want. All kinds
of forms of pragmatism. Whatever works. We make
it up, but whatever works is what guides our
choices. The pursuit of comfort and wealth and
all things. Defining success by, boy, that's
big or that's popular. That automatically means
success. Faith. Your faith is actually just a
personal and private matter. Doesn't impact other
people. It's about you and God alone. And the
notion that if I'm just spiritual, that's actually
better, more valuable than being a part of this
boogeyman we've created called organized religion.
I always ask the question, would you prefer disorganized
religion? But these things are out there, right?
And all of these trends that you see on the screen
have led to the degrading of biblical Christianity
in this country. And in its place, something
has risen that... would be unrecognizable to
a Christian who lived in the year 150 or 325
or 450 or even 1600 or 1800. Unrecognizable.
Cultural Christianity in the modern age has reshaped
how we think about this concept of belonging.
Rather than viewing our place in the body of
Christ as faithfully and sacrificially bound
to other believers by covenant, we now tend to
see the church as optional. It's just optional
or therapeutic, mostly self -focused, a religious
add -on to our busy lives that when we do choose
to participate, we do so with the idea that this
will personally benefit me. We put ourselves
at the center of everything. We no longer see
the church as God describes it, as the place
where his presence collectively dwells in us.
And we only have ourselves to blame, and I especially
blame church leaders, men and women who've written
book after book and given talk after talk about
how the church needs to change and adapt to cultural
trends rather than staying anchored to the eternal
truths in God's word. And so now if you rub shoulders
with other pastors, you hear these buzz phrases,
church strategy, church vision, where the whole
goal is to tap into religious consumers. rather
than to form a covenant people. And of course,
what that means is we now emphasize style and
the vibe, the vibe over real substance. In so
many churches, it's about the style. It means
making things as convenient as possible for the
people rather than requiring sacrifice from them.
Striving for big and shiny above. gritty and
authentic. Just big and shiny, the big show,
the big lights. It means entertainment over liturgy.
It means teaching that is topical and shallow
over teaching that is scripturally deep and challenging.
And by doing this, we've allowed the average
Christian to wrongly think that belonging to
a church is a weekly event rather than a way
of life. Oh, I belong to that church. How do
I know? I go there sometimes on Sundays. That
worship is what we do when we just sing praises
on Sundays. That's it. That's the extent of worship.
That ministry is done by the professionals, by
an elite few. The rest of us, we just attend.
We attend services and we sit there and we enjoy.
And by the way, if your church fails to meet
your expectations, You just go down the street
and find a new church who might make you more
comfortable. Because there's so many to choose
from, and we are consumers at heart. So the problem
we face today, it just isn't ignorance on the
part of congregants. It's a problem of church
leaders and the formation that we've done in
our local churches. We've allowed our modern
values not just to seep into the church, but
to overwhelm what was once an ancient and sacred
thing described for us in the words of Scripture.
This morning when I walked in, the band was rehearsing
the song we're going to sing next. It's called
Forgiven. And this lyric just jumped out at me
as I was praying through my morning. We've forsaken
the feast above for all the crumbs below. And
that's true about the church. All these crumbs
that we've found acceptable, sufficient. And
so this morning, as we come into God's word,
I want to implore you to lay aside what you think
you know about the church. I want you to lay
aside your expectations and your preferences.
Lay aside whatever tradition you were raised
in or whatever you remember from some church
in the past that you experienced. I want you
to completely clear the deck in your minds and
look afresh at what God's word says about who
you are as a member of the body of Christ, what
scripture says. this place is. And what if I
told you, according to God's word, we're far
more than just a group of religious individuals
who come to a gathering spot on Sundays to hear
the word preached and to sing songs. That it's
so much more than that. What if I told you we
are a people bound together as a part of God's
holy dwelling place? That we embody that. Would
that not change the way you view the church?
Would that not change the way you function? within
the local church. Just a quick warning for you
before we jump in. Today's passage might require
you to completely rethink your life as a Christ
follower. Are you okay with that? Are you open
to that? To have to rethink the way that you
have always thought about the church, to rethink
about how you participate in the life of the
church. Okay, grab your Bibles. We're going to
1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, we're finishing
the chapter today. Guys, this means we're almost
20 % into the letter. We are just flying. Chapter
3, verses 16 to 23 this morning. But first, just
to get the context, let's back up to verse 10.
We'll read from there because this is where,
beginning in verse 10, where Paul starts talking
about the building of this structure that we
call the church. And this is very important.
Verse 10. According to the grace of God which
was given to me, Paul says, like a wise master
builder, I laid a foundation. For what? For the
church, right? For the church in Corinth. And
another is building on it. But each man must
be careful how he builds on it. For no man can
lay a foundation other than the one which is
laid, which is Jesus Christ. We talked about
you don't keep laying foundations. There's one
foundation for the local church, and it's Jesus
Christ, verse 12. Now, if any man builds on a
foundation with, look at the beautiful things,
gold, silver, precious stones, and then look
at the very ordinary things, wood, hay, straw,
each man's work will become evident for the day.
The Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, the day will
show it because it's to be revealed with fire,
and the fire itself will test the quality of
each man's work. All the work that we do for
the kingdom of God, for the local church, all
the works that we do will be tested by fire in
the end. If any man's work, which he's built
on it, remains, he will receive a reward. If
any man's work is burned up, He will suffer loss,
but he himself will be saved. Yet so as through
fire. Two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, we talked
about that, right? The bama seat, judgment and
the rewards and the loss. It's a serious passage,
isn't it? Now, today's verses, verse 16. Do you
not know that you are a temple of God and that
the spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys
the temple of God, God will destroy him. For
the temple of God is holy and that is what you
are. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among
you thinks he's wise in this age, he must become
foolish so that he may become wise. For the wisdom
of this world is foolishness before God. For
it is written, this comes from the book of Job,
he is one who catches the wise, and their craftiness.
And again, from the book of Psalms, the Lord
knows the reasonings of the wise that they are
useless. So then let no one boast in men, for
all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos
or Cephas or the world or life or death or things
present or things to come. All things belong
to you, Christians. And you belong to Christ.
And Christ belongs to God. Now, I'm going to
do something unusual this morning. I'm going
to briefly touch on those last six verses first,
verses 18 to 23, and then we'll come back to
the primary focus for this morning, which is
just the two verses you see there, verses 16
and 17. Here's the reason why we're doing this.
Verses 18 and 23 are very much a summary of what
Paul has been writing since chapter one, right?
This same theme has come through in all three
of these chapters, and it's a summary. So we've
spent quite a bit of time studying these things.
What I'll do is just point out some interesting
nuances in that last section, and then we'll
come back to the big idea for today. Make sense?
Okay, look back at verse 18, and you'll notice
that he's talking again about this issue of wisdom.
which was so important to Greeks, right? Wisdom.
And he's once again making this contrast. You
have the wisdom of man and you have the wisdom
of God, divine wisdom. Okay, so there's this
type of wisdom out there. We see it every day
that is earthly. It belongs to this age, Paul
says. Not eternity, but to this age. And there
are many men and women out there, back in Paul's
day and today, who think they're very wise according
to this. standard of the world. But in verse
19, Paul renews our thinking and says, no, no,
think differently about this. In reality, the
opposite is true. In verse 19, he says, the wisdom
of this world at this age is actually foolishness
before God. It's foolishness before God. So a
man may be very well read, very impressive. in
his knowledge of all kinds of topics of math
and history and science and literature, all kinds
of things. But apart from knowing God, he's actually
a fool, right? According to the standard of divine
wisdom, he's a fool. Because after all, think
about this, what creature, what creature's thinking,
no matter how earthly smart they are, is comparable
to the Almighty Creator. So whose word are you
going to take, man's or the Creator's, right?
And the irony is that that earthly wise man or
woman is going to look at you or look at me and
say, you're a fool for trusting the creator.
Right? We hear this all the time. And knowing
this, Paul doesn't hold back in verse 18. He
says, look, if you think you're wise according
to the standard of this age, if that's what you're
looking for, let me warn you, you better become
a fool before God. Get it straight. And he says,
if you're willing to become that kind of fool
before God, then guess what? You're actually
becoming wise, right? He turns the whole thing
up on its head. You're actually becoming wise.
And that's according to the only standard that
will matter in the end. You can get all the approval
of man in this age. When you pass into eternity,
it is not going to matter a lick. The only standard
that's going to matter in the end is the standard
of the eternal judge. So be a fool before him.
That's what Paul is trying to say here. Now,
he's been walking through the same argument since
the beginning of the letter. What's new in this
section, and I want you to see this, is the very
opening part of verse 18. He says, let no man
deceive himself. That should be a warning to
us. He's writing to Christians, and he's saying,
don't be self -deceived. The truth is, true born
-again believers can be self -deceived, especially
in this area. We can find ourselves getting swept
up by the wisdom of this age, putting more time,
more stock, more trust in the opinions of intellectuals
and influencers than the truths that God has
shown us in his word. We spend way more time,
right, on YouTube and on social media and all
kinds of opinions of intellectuals and influencers,
right, philosophers of this age. And if we're
not alert and careful, we can find ourselves
so absorbed in those worldly pursuits, so absorbed
in those earthly philosophies that we take the
mind of Christ and we replace it with the mindset
of the world. That's easy for any of us. Look
at how you spend your time. Look at the places
that you put your mind and your heart. It can
happen to any of us. So be warned. We're all
capable of deceiving ourselves, thinking that
we're becoming wise when actually we're acting
the fool. So Paul says, get this straight. Remember
that the wisdom of man is restricted to this
age. It will pass away. God's thoughts are eternal.
The word of the Lord shall endure forever. So
how are you investing your time? It's an important
question. Even worse than being just temporary,
Paul's making the case here in this section that
man's reasonings, they're not just useless in
eternity, they are capable of leading you astray
in this life. So be careful, right? So in that
sense, if they're leading you away from the mind
of Christ, they're actually destructive. That's
the case that he's making here. So in light of
that, he concludes in verse 21, he says, look,
so then don't boast in men. Stop boasting in
men. This comes back to this again, the same
argument he's been making since chapter one.
He says, stop lining up behind your favorite
teacher. Stop idolizing these men. As wonderful
a believer as they are, as great a teacher as
they are, stop lining up behind them, right?
Stop doing that. The mindset that you're investing
in when you do that is symptomatic of the wisdom
of the world. This is what unbelievers do, right?
They line up behind their philosophers. Stop
doing this. If you're going to boast in anything,
boast in the Lord, he says here. And then he
adds this amazing statement. This is, to me,
when I read this and started studying, it just
blew my mind, this all -encompassing statement.
He says, besides, all things belong to you. Did
you see that? It's verse 21. All things belong
to you. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or
the world or life or death or things present
or things to come, all things belong to you.
Here's what he means in context. If you have
the wisdom of God, if that's what you're driven
by, the wisdom of God, and you're found in Christ,
you already have everything. You have everything.
So you don't have to choose between this apostle
or that teacher. They all belong to you. Isn't
that great? I mean, we prayed for Crossroads
this morning. You could go on and listen to Pastor
Todd teach. He belongs to you as well. We're
part of the church. You have my teaching and
Adam's teaching and our elders. It all belongs
to you because you're found in Christ. And then
it gets even bigger and better. As a child of
God, he says, all of creation is yours as an
inheritance, right? Every moment of this life,
he says, is yours. Enjoy it. God has given it
to you to enjoy. Death is yours. Why? Because
it just ushers you into the presence of Christ,
right? He goes on, things present. They're yours.
Enjoy them. The future, all eternity lies ahead
of you. It's for you. What Paul's doing here
is he's imploring the Corinthian believers to
lift their eyes, to quit doing earthly things,
seeing the world through that. The lens of this
age, lift your eyes, see the bigger picture.
Everything belongs to you in Christ. So why would
you grumble and divide over something as silly
as that's my favorite teacher or you're my favorite
teacher? How silly is that in light of the big
picture? That's what Paul's saying here. And
the reality is sometimes, guys, we just need
to step back. from our petty little issues and
refocus our minds on the things that really matter,
who we are in Christ, what we have in him, that
is a game changer for any Christian to have that
ability to step back and go, I need to change
my perspective. Because we get caught up, right,
in the nitty gritty of life and all the frustrations
and all these things. Step back. Everything is
yours. Amen? So, okay, let's get on the big idea
this morning. I want you to refocus on verse
16. I want you to take this really seriously.
Look at verse 16. Do you not know that you are
a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells
in you? Now, the first thought in your mind might
be, and this is indicative of modern -day evangelicalism,
your first thought might have been individual
when you read that. Paul's talking about me.
As an individual, my body, as a temple of God,
the spirit who dwells my soul. And that's not
theologically wrong. That is a true thing. But
that's not what Paul's talking about here. And
the interpretive clue that we have for this,
it's built into the original Greek. You wouldn't
see it in the English language because our language
doesn't work this way. Both times in verse 16,
when he says you, it's written in the plural
form. He's not talking to individuals. It's in
the plural form. We don't have a plural you in
English. Isn't that ridiculous? Unless you say
y 'all, right? You add y 'all. Okay, then we'll
speak to a whole group of people, y 'all. But
when we say you, it can be singular or it can
be plural. Well, in the Greek, it's plural. So
in speaking that way, Paul's talking to the Corinthian
church as a group. He's talking to the entire
body of believers in that city. He says, you
collectively are a temple of God. Look around
at each other. You collectively are a temple
of God. And the Spirit of God dwells in your
midst. That's what he's saying here. Now, it's
true that our bodies are also, right, as individual
believers, a temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul's
going to talk about that when we get to chapter
6 two years from now. Just kidding. Just kidding.
But the immediate context here, again, what he's
been talking about is divisions in the entire
church. So he's not yet gotten to the individual
temple of the believers. He's still talking about
the church as a whole. By the way, catch the
little subtle dig. that Paul puts in here. He
says, don't you know this? You Corinthians, you
think you're so wise, right? You think you know
so many things, yet you're not aware of this
basic truth that you, the body of Christ in this
city, that collectively you are a temple of God
and he dwells in your midst. How do you not know
this? And the implication is this is a basic
truth. But it's lost on so many Christians in
this country. It's a basic truth that we just
haven't understood because of our modern mindset.
Now remember, again, Paul started to draw the
picture of this building, this structure back
in verse 10. Like a wise master builder, he says,
I laid the foundation and now others, including
the people he's writing to, you guys are building
on it. And he says, look, some of you guys aren't
being faithful in that building. For whatever
reason, you're not on the construction team.
You're using these really perishable things,
wood, hay, and straw, that aren't going to last.
Others of you are stewarding this well, right?
You're using imperishable materials, good stewards
of the project. And this building that Paul founded
and is now being built, he says it's specifically
designed to be a temple for Yahweh. That is what
we're building. We're building a temple for Yahweh,
the living God. How many of us knew that? We
just come here on Sundays. It's great. We love
it. Great music. Get the preaching. It's all
that. You're building a temple with everyone
else here, a temple for Yahweh. Now, think about
this for a second. If you're a Greek believer
in the first century, how would you have understood
this word temple? If you were a Jewish believer,
you knew right away, right? The temple in Jerusalem,
right? They understood what that was. But the
majority Greek believers in the city of Corinth
in that church, they would have immediately thought
of what? All the pagan temples in their city
and throughout Greece, temples to all kinds of
false deities, Apollos and Athena and Zeus and
all the rest, right? But this much they would
have understood because they'd seen it with their
own eyes. When a temple is built to a particular
God, That place, that structure is devoted to
that God. They understood that because it was
all over their city. Well, now they're being
told, you as a people are collectively a temple
for Yahweh. Right? You're part of Yahweh's holy
creation. You are his holy place. You, the body
of believers, are the place where he makes his
presence known. under the new covenant in the
person of Jesus Christ. This is a giant vision
for the church, you guys. Far more than we tend
to think of. It's mind -blowing, isn't it? Peter
also talks about this. So this isn't just found
in Paul's writings. Peter, in his first epistle,
describes the building of this very same temple
to the Lord. Describing the believers themselves
as what? Living stones. Not only are you building
together, but you're actually stones in the structure.
Living stones being built up together into what?
A spiritual house. Not a church building physically,
a spiritual house. That is very important to
recognize. A spiritual house. And then catch
this, Peter says, all the believers in the church
together constitute a holy priesthood. You're
a priest if you're a believer. Now you say, wait,
how is that possible? Biblically, priests are
the ones who are set apart by God to offer up
sacrifices to him. And Peter says, exactly. Did
you catch that? Wait, biblically, priests are
set apart by God to offer up sacrifices to him.
Yes. Peter says. That's what we are. He finishes,
look at how he finishes the thought. Together,
you're a spiritual house for a holy priesthood
offering up spiritual sacrifices. Not physical,
we're not bringing animals. Spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through our high priest, our
mediator, Jesus Christ. So not only are every
one of you in ministry, builders in this construction
project, you're also a part of a holy priesthood
bringing spiritual sacrifices to God. Giant vision
for the church. Giant vision. This means when
you think about spiritual sacrifices. Bringing
with you into your life in the church offerings
of praise and worship, offerings of sacrifice
and service, offerings of obedience and holiness.
These are the spiritual things that we bring
to the altar of God and say, here I am, Lord.
Here I am, part of your temple. This is what
it means to participate in the life of the temple
of God that we share here at Oak Hill, whether
you knew that or not. You also heard our call
to worship passage from earlier in Ephesians
2, the same picture being drawn for us. Paul
says, you Gentiles are no longer strangers and
aliens, but now you're members of God's household.
You're part of the family. Having been built
on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ himself being the cornerstone. You ready
for it? In whom, here's this building again,
the whole building being fitted together is growing
into what? A holy temple in the Lord. Same language.
God's design for his church is that all of us
here be fitted together like those stones that
Peter talked about. Living stones, each with
a unique shape and size, each carefully chosen
by God to fit together into this temple that
we're building as one. We're to be growing together,
all of us, each member contributing to the overall
integrity of the structure. that we have as a
temple here at Oak Hill. Isn't this a beautiful
metaphor? Can your mind process this? Isn't it
more than just, oh yeah, there's this place I
go to on Sundays. It's so bigger than that. Wow.
Now at the end of verse 16, Paul tells us this
also. The Spirit of God dwells in you as a church
body. Yes, he dwells within you as an individual,
but he also dwells within the body itself. His
presence is among us. And listen, this is how
it's always been with Yahweh. I don't know if
you know this. I went down this rabbit hole yesterday
on this. I started thinking about all the ways.
that God redeems a people so that he can be with
them, so that he can dwell with them. It is everywhere
from Genesis to Revelation that God redeems a
people for himself so that he might dwell with
them, that we might be his people and he might
be our God. It's everywhere. I mean, it starts
in the garden, right? You have Adam and Eve with
this intimate fellowship with God, intimate fellowship
with him, right? And then we get to the patriarchs
and we find God coming to Abraham in Genesis
12 and saying, walk faithfully before me, Abraham.
And then we get to Genesis 26 and God says to
Isaac, I will be with you. I will be with you.
Genesis 28, God says to Jacob, I am with you
and I will keep you. Genesis 46, God assures
Jacob, even though you go into the land of Egypt,
my presence will be with you. During the Exodus
and Sinai period, in Exodus 3, God says to Moses,
I will be with you. This is his desire. Exodus
19, Israel's called to be what? A kingdom of
priests and a holy nation. Those are the very
words that Peter then echoes under the new covenant.
A kingdom of priests. and a holy nation. Exodus
29, God says to Moses, I brought my people out
of Egypt, out of slavery, so that I might dwell
with them. Exodus 25, God instructs his people
to build what? A tabernacle and a sanctuary in
the wilderness. Why? So that I may dwell among
you. This is what God's always wanted. Exodus
40, the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle
as a sign of what? His constant presence with
his people. From there, we see Numbers 9. They
have the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar
of fire by night. Why? That's a sign of Yahweh's
presence with his people. I'm guiding you and
I'm among you. Deuteronomy 31, we first hear
God make this famous declaration. I will not
fail my people, he says. I will not leave you.
I will not forsake you. Joshua 1, God promises
this successor of Moses, I will be with you just
as I was with Moses. And we get to the period
of the kings and the presence of God becomes
even more obvious. The temple in Jerusalem is
built, the Ark of the Covenant is put in the
Holy of Holies and this house, this temple, this
structure becomes the place of Yahweh's name
and his presence, the place that his people will
come to pray and to worship. God dwells in their
midst. 2 Chronicles 7, fire comes down from heaven
and the glory of the Lord fills the temple. His
presence established in Zion, his beloved city.
And then during this period, we have this amazing
prophecy from Isaiah talking about the future
Messiah. And what does he say? His name will
be Emmanuel, which means God with us. That's
the ultimate promise of Christ, that God is with
us. Are you seeing the trend? This is what God
desires. Even in exile, the promise of God's
presence continues. Jeremiah 31, God gives to
the house of Israel and Judah the promise of
a coming new covenant, which includes what? I
will write my law within you. You will know me
from the inside, he says. Ezekiel 37, the valley
of dry bones. They will come to life, he says.
Israel and Judah will have a promise of restoration,
a promise of a second temple, the promise of
a revived Davidic kingdom. And God says, my dwelling
place shall once again be with them. My presence,
my presence, my presence. Then we come to the
New Testament. And in John 1, Emmanuel is revealed
to us. The logos of God becomes flesh for what
purpose? To dwell among us and to show us the
Father in a very personal way. Jesus promises
to make his dwelling with us. He says, abide
in me. Make your dwelling with me and I will
abide with you. We will dwell together, Jesus
says. In John 2, we learn that the temple is
going to come down someday, but Jesus himself
will be our temple. John 14 and 16, Jesus says,
look, I'm going away, but I promise you, I will
send you the Holy Spirit who will be with you
and in you, that God might dwell with you within.
It's amazing. Matthew 28, Jesus says, by the
way, by the way. Don't be depressed. I am with
you always. I'm with you always, even to the
end of the age, he says to his disciples. It
doesn't stop there. Acts 2, the Spirit of God
is poured out on the church, and it's announced.
Our bodies are now temples of the same Spirit.
Ephesians 2, Jewish and Gentile believers get
brought together to be a single dwelling place.
For God to inhabit. Hebrews 10, we're told that
through Christ, we have direct access into God's
presence in the truest tabernacle in heaven.
God with us. God's presence. He redeems the people
so that he might dwell with them. And then we
get the grandest vision of all, Revelation 21.
the new heaven and the new earth, the final state
of things. And John says this, I heard a loud
voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle
of God is among men. He will dwell with them
and they shall be his people and God himself
will be among them. Genesis to Revelation. This
is the story of God. It's always been about him
redeeming a people for that purpose that he might
dwell with us. So now we come back to 1 Corinthians
3. What's Paul's intention here? To grab the
attention of these Greek Christians and say,
don't you understand what God's doing? Do you
not know what he's trying to do here? What he
is building in you and through you? Do you not
understand how special you are to God? You're
not just a bunch of loosely gathered individual
worshipers. Together you are a sacred and holy
temple where God dwells with you by the Spirit.
He desires to be in your church. He desires to
be in our church. There's a reason why he cares
for his church so deeply. Because we were purchased
by the precious blood of his Son. Right? He cares
deeply for us. It is a blessing. It is a privilege.
It's also a responsibility. It's a responsibility.
It's a stewardship responsibility that we all
have, not just elders, not just deacons, all
of us, to build and to serve and to sacrifice
and to care. Is that how you view your life in
the church today? Is that how you view how you
function within this local church with this size
of a vision? All right, let's look at verse 17.
Look at the warning now in verse 17. If any man
destroys the temple of God, God will destroy
him. Why? Because the temple of God is supposed
to be holy, right? And he says, that's what you
are. If you're part of the temple, you are holy
because God's holy presence dwells among you.
I've declared you holy, God says. Our God's a
protective God. That's what we find in verse
17. He doesn't look kindly upon anybody who comes
to his church to defile it or destroy it. And
yes, there are people like that in the world.
There are people out there in this community
who have set out to destroy the work of God's
people, to hinder the work of the church, even
to try to remove that foundation of Christ through
false doctrine. They're out there. And in the
process, look what they're doing, setting themselves
up to be destroyed by God, to suffer the worst
eternal fate you can imagine. God will judge.
Now, obviously, I don't think there's anybody
here this morning that's setting out to intentionally
defile the church here at Oak Hill, right? I
don't think that's true. But should we not consider
that there are ways that we can unintentionally
bring damage to the bride of Christ? Yeah, we
can. We can. when our walk with Christ becomes
lukewarm, we're not building as we should. When
our commitment to the body becomes just casual
and inconsistent, we're not building. When we
use the body as a place to be served rather than
to serve, when we're not employing our gifts
and our energy to build the temple here, when
we become takers and not givers, consumers and
not participants, we're not building as we should.
And whether we know it or not, that is damaging
the building of the structure here. When our
brothers and sisters are in need, but we don't
show up, or when volunteers are asked for and
we don't raise our hand, we can damage the body
of Christ. When you read the New Testament letters,
you see every member is called to be part of
that construction team, building in some way,
building in some way. And you see in the ancient
church, In the ancient church, there was not
even a conception that any Christian would just
be an attender of services. There wouldn't even
be a conception of that. I just attend services.
Now, it can get worse than what I've just described
because what I just described is unintentional
damage to the body of Christ. The language that
Paul uses here in verse 17 is very severe. Destroy,
he says. Thyro in the original Greek. It can
mean to defile or corrupt. If any man corrupts
or defiles the temple of God that I establish,
I will destroy you, he says. Now, I think what
Paul's referring to here, and I think there were
very real people in the city of Corinth who were
doing this kind of damage. They're causing division.
They're creating factions. They're undermining
church leadership. They're stirring up controversy
over non -essential issues. They're turning away
from sound doctrine. They're choosing to live
in open sin. They're injecting doubts into the
minds of other believers. Guys, those things
drain the life of a church. They chip away at
the building of the structure. Not only do they
not build, they actually destroy the structure.
So there's a spectrum of things here that can
damage the church. But those things that Paul's
talking about here, this division, this strife,
this conflict, this undermining of church leadership,
may it never be that anyone in this room ever
destroys the bride of Christ by doing those things.
Okay. Time to wrap up. How are we doing? We're
good. I want to come full circle. Can I come
back to those questions I asked at the beginning?
Can we answer them? What is the church? It's
the ekklesia, right? That's the Greek word, which
is a compound Greek word that comes from the
word ek, which means out, and the verb kaleo,
which means to call. So the church is an assembly
of people who are called out of the world and
set apart as a people belonging to God. That's
what the church is. Now, is it visible or is
it invisible? Yes, it's both. It's both. And
you should understand both sides of that. It's
visible in the sense that, yes, there are physical
assemblies of God's people all over the world,
all over the world. But it's invisible in the
sense that we, with our human eyes, cannot see
who among these assemblies is truly a believer
and who's playing a game, who's faking it. Only
God knows that. So the true church is invisible
in the sense that only God knows those who belong
to him. We can only see with our human eyes.
So it's both. It's both. Where is the church
located? Is it found in an institution or a building?
Listen, if you go online today or you go on YouTube,
you'll find far too many religious leaders. making
this wildly arrogant and exclusive claim that
theirs is the only true church. You see it everywhere.
Arguments, by the way, that when you listen to
them, they're not rooted in scripture. They're
rooted in fallible historical traditions. So
just know that. But according to God's word,
the true church isn't located just in the east
or just in the west. It's not found. in the city
of Rome or Alexandria or Antioch or even Constantinople,
right? It's not found in any one institution.
It's not found in any ecclesiastical system.
It's not confined to any type of building. The
true church is spiritual. It's not physical.
This is why it's a spiritual house, Peter said.
It's not physical. It's located wherever a people
gather, a people, by the way, saved by God's
grace through faith, where they're assembled
in sacred devotion to the worship and exaltation
of Christ and his word. It's spiritual. The reformers,
they took a lot of time on this in the 16th century.
They said, we need to really carefully define
what a true church is. And they came up with
three basic things. Wherever the gospel is rightly
preached. Right? Wherever the sacraments of baptism
and communion are rightly observed. And third,
and this one may be a surprise to you, wherever
church discipline is practiced according to biblical
guidelines so that the church remains pure. In
that type of a place where those three things
are present, God dwells with his people by his
spirit and they as a people are bound together
in covenant, living stones being chiseled by
God and built into a spiritual temple. where
Christ himself is the cornerstone, our spiritual
head, and our king. That's what a church is.
In such a place, we as God people, we make it
our joy. We make it everything to be in fellowship
with him and to be fellowship with our brothers
and sisters in the faith. Loving, caring, serving,
encouraging, exhorting, comforting, and bearing
with one another. That's the picture of the church.
Friends, we are a temple of God. here at Oak
Hill. We belong to something far greater than
us as individuals. We are a temple of God. And
you know what? Life in the church is not optional
for a believer. It's not to be self -focused.
It's not an add -on to your busy life. It's not
the way it was designed. We're members of something
that is ancient and sacred and in the fundamentals
is completely unchanging. So we're not to be
consumers, but participants. We're not to favor
style over substance. We're not to make convenience
our idol, but rather we're to sacrifice our time
and our talents and our treasure for God's glory
and the good of others. Lay aside the worldly
wisdom of big and shiny, will you please? Lay
it aside. It's not about the vibe. It's not about
feeling entertained by the music or by the preaching.
It's the last thing you should be looking for
is that the guy in the pulpit is making you laugh.
Life in the church is not a weekly event. Worship
is not just singing. It's your entire life of
holiness and obedience. Ministry is not just
done by the staff or by a few. Ministry is for
everyone. Everyone to do according to your gifts
and talents and passions. And no, if your church
disappoints you in some way, the answer isn't
to bounce. And just find a new one that's gonna
make you feel more comfortable. These are the
things that we have to learn as American Christians.
And I know you guys do. Look, I know I'm preaching
to the choir somewhat because the fact that you're
here at Oak Hill means you get some of this,
right? You understand it. Otherwise, you might
be in some giant church somewhere, a faceless
non -participant. But you're here. Praise the
Lord for that. So lay aside any wrong idea that
you had about the church when you came in this
morning. Lay it aside. Take your personal expectations,
your preferences, and say, Lord, I'm willing
to have open hands with those things. Show me,
teach me. Look at what God says about his church.
Look how he's always desired to dwell with his
people in a temple, in a temple to his glory.
And let's, you know what? Today, let's commit
to one another to keep building this particular
temple for his glory and for our good, amen?
Let's bow our heads. Father, as always, we ask
that you would renew our thinking. I know, God,
that we are all, we're sinners saved by grace.
We are fallible. We often think wrongly about
things. We often look out at the wisdom of this
age and we apply it to things that you've described
in your word. And then we battle to say, well,
which is the right vision? Lord, I pray that
when it comes to this important topic of the
church, that we would begin to see things only
according to your wisdom and not according to
the wisdom of men. that we would change our thinking,
that we would redirect our hearts to live out
this massive vision that you've given us for
your body. We want to be functioning, participating
members of your body, Lord Jesus. So help us
to do that. Cause us to do that. And whatever
corrections or adjustments we need to make, Lord,
help us to do that by your spirit. always be
a place of believers who are set apart to worship
you and to glorify you. Help us to strive well
to embody all that you are and to show this community
what it means to be a Christ follower. Work in
us, work through us for our good, Lord, but most
of all for your glory. Thank you for our time
in your word. We pray in your precious name.