The Real Temple

Scripture

Now I promise that like you, your descendants will be kings.  I’ll choose one of your sons to be king… I’ll make him a strong ruler, and no one will be able to take his kingdom away from him. He will be the one to build a temple for Me. 

~I Chronicles 17:10-12, CEV

Quotes

Idolatry worships the shadow and ignores the substance.

~Ya’akov

I’m sure I have blogged about this before; I try not to blog on the same things over and over but now and again, I just can’t help myself. David wanted to build God a Temple. God did not ask David or anyone else to build Him a Temple because He knew they would eventually worship the Temple in place of worshiping Him and of course, that is exactly what they did. God spoke some amazing and astounding words through Nathan the prophet. He told David, “You are not the man to build the Temple: it will be built by one of your descendants but I make you a promise, one of your descendants will always be on the throne and no one can take his kingdom away from him; matter of fact, it will be an eternal kingdom.” Everyone, including David, jumped to the conclusion that this son or descendant who would build the Temple would be Solomon but that is not what Nathan said: Nathan said the kingdom could not be taken from him and that it would be eternal. Nathan was not talking about Solomon who had the kingdom taken from him upon his death. This Davidic covenant can only be fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah.

In John 2 Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it again!” The leaders replied, “It took forty-six years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus. John 1:14 reads, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. The phrase “made His dwelling” is the Greek word skēnoō which means to pitch a tent or tabernacle. In Christ, God pitched His Tent among us. Jesus was and is the real Tabernacle, the real Temple in whom God fully dwells. God does not want us to worship a building, an edifice or a place. He wants us to worship a person, His Son. The Jews loved and cherished a building made of stone and rejected Jesus, God in flesh, the real Temple.

There is nothing inherently wrong with buildings, budgets, buses and bulletins but these things are simply tools and we don’t worship tools. Jesus is the substance, don’t get caught worshiping the shadows.

There is one other prophecy in I Chronicles 17 and it is in verse 8 where God tells David, “I will make you one of the most famous people in the world.” Has God kept this promise? Trust me folks, the Psalms of David are alive and well. David is more famous today than in his own lifetime. This is old data but in 2014 there were 2 billion personal computers on line in this world and David is all over the internet. Between 1815 and 1975, an estimated five billion Bibles were printed. In 1995, one version of the bible, the Good News version sold 18 million copies. David is in every one of them. Is God amazing or what! By the time history ends, David will be known billions. Like Abraham, David never saw the promise fulfilled but you and I know that God fulfilled them both. Wow!

Folks we need rain. I love to mow grass but not when it is dry and dusty. They say we have a chance for some today.

The Southern Baptist Convention meets next week in Birmingham. They say traffic will be a nightmare. If you attended the State Tournament games, you know what I mean. Jefferson County Civic is mass confusion. You can catch a shuttle at Gardendale First Baptist right there on the interstate. My source tells me that there is not much hope of making major changes this year but we can support or vote against the social justice resolutions. We can also visit the CHRISTIAN LIFE COMMISSION and give them a piece of our mind. Russel Moore does not speak for me, nor does he speak for any pastor who attended Monday’s pastors conference. The social justice fanatics are walking arm and arm with the democratic party. They believe that racism is a bigger problem than abortion. Matter of fact, there are nominally pro-life but willing to vote for democrats. That is not pro-life.

RICHARD LAND was forced out as our Christian Life Chairperson. These yahoo’s put Russell no Moore in his place. I have been told that next year could be the year. The convention is in Orlando and the Florida Baptist do not lean toward the Reform or Social Justice movement. What these folks are calling social justice is really biblical injustice. It is wrong to kill babies period.

I was also told that Trump dropped in on Platt unexpectedly: good for Trump. He embarrassed the Reforms poster boy by asking him to say a prayer in Trumps behalf. Later he apologized for the prayer. What else do you need to know? Two people I plan to pray for everyday and that is President Trump and Franklin Graham.

Yes Platt and Moore are Mohlerites. People like me who have no political ambition have gone to sleep and we have allowed the Mohlerites to take our convention. I think it is time to take it back. They have more in common with John MacArthur than they do us: they despise the Grahams.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *