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Cleansing The Temple Of God
Text: 1 Cor 6:19-20
19 What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Introduction:
1. I believe that most of the time we put things in the temple of God that isn’t the will of God.
2. And we allow things to come out of the temple of God that isn’t of God.
Matt 21:13
Jesus said: It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves.
If we are his house, the dwelling place of God, don’t you think we need to be careful of what we put in and what comes out of the temple of God?
Ps 91:9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
Definition of habitation: a place of residence; dwelling; abode. the act of inhabiting; occupancy by inhabitants.
We allow a different Spirit to come in and it is so different than what God desires.
In God’s temple there should be a place according to: Matt 21:14 the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them.
This temple of God should not be a place to put the worldly things. In God’s temple there should be life and a place of refuge for the lost.
Ps 121:1-2
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
If the world cannot get it’s deliverance from the church, the body of Christ, where can it go?
Maybe we need a cleansing a renewing that God can show us exactly what he desires from us.
What are we letting God do in our temple? We rob God of time with us; we are too busy for God.
In God’s house there should be prayer isn’t that what he said? “My house shall be called the house of prayer.”
But listen, he also said “But you have made it a den of thieves.
What does a thief do? John 10:10: The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.
Jesus was the express image of God, the temple that God used to bring salvation to a lost and dying world. But have we made it a den of thieves?
Can God use us this way? Can God use us if we are un-teachable?
The most dangerous person to the body of Christ is not some one that is demon possessed, it is not someone that has a different doctrinal belief but it is the person that is un-teachable.
When I say ‘un-teachable,’ I mean that he has it all figured out. He is the classic, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, I know what I believe” guy.
1. Being a disciple is being one who is always learning.
2. Always teachable willing to look deeper than their own beliefs
The religious people of Jesus day, many were un-teachable, even though they read the laws of God they didn’t understand the laws.
They drew their own conclusions to what Moses said.
We need a cleansing of our temple so we can allow God to live in us to guide us by his spirit.
· Our own lives prove if we are the temple of God, or some other spirit.
· Are we lead of the Spirit of God or are we lead of the Flesh?
· Un-belief was one of the things that Christ was trying to cleanse the temple of.
Matt 23:14: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
It isn’t always how long we pray but it’s the condition of the heart when we pray.
What clutters your temple? Is it un-belief? Is it selfishness? Or greed.
The temple of God which was Christ Jesus it was full of compassion, love and giving and healing.
This made up the character of the mighty God the creator.
Do resemble God in any way?
We say of our children or someone else child they resemble you or they look like you or they act like you.
When we make these kinds of statements we are referring to the resemblance of the child to the parents.
Is there anything that would make someone say that we resemble our Father that is in heaven?
Are we anything like Christ at all? Are we obedient to our heavenly Father?
Does his Spirit lead us and guide us into all truth? Or are we satisfied with what we want to see as truth?
What do you think you need to do to become a habitation of God a dwelling place for the Holy Ghost?
Rom 8:9-13 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
2 Cor 6:16-17
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
Eph 3:16-17
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
1 John 4:11-15 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
For God to be in us, Satan has to be out of us. Jesus cast out many unclean spirits throughout His ministry. he did that so that he could live in that person and where the spirit of the Lord is, Satan cannot dwell.
