Okay, let's get… started in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16.
That's where… Luke left off. He went through Verse 15 last week.
So I got my… presentation here.
So you won't have to turn to many of those scriptures if you don't want to. I've got all of them up here.
And I made some highlights here so i'll just read
316 through 23 is my section. And verse 16 says, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
So these verses, they're split up into three sections. And I'm going to give you my… summary or My paraphrase of these two verses.
The local assembly is the most holy place where the Spirit of God resides Act like it. If any false teachers try to destroy the local assembly of God, I mean the local assembly.
God will destroy them. So that's the first two verses.
And my interpretation of it, the first two verses are speaking specifically about the temple of God.
So the next few verses, the next three verses. 18 to 20, it says, let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in the sage, let him become a fool.
That he may become wise. For the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God.
For it is written, he catches the wise in their own craftiness.
And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they're futile.
My summary would be… Don't kid yourself. Worldly wisdom is foolishness because it does not consider the spiritual.
The false teachers will do their best to trick you, but God will find them out.
The false teachers wisdom will be shown to be useless.
And the last… few verses here. Therefore let no one boast in men.
For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas.
Or the world or life or death or things present or things to come All are yours, and you are Christ's.
And Christ is God's. And my paraphrase would be, don't divide the assembly by backing certain leaders Only, they are all working together to benefit you.
Benefit from all the teaching. The world, life, death, things present Things to come are all yours because of Christ's sacrifice.
And you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ belongs to God.
So now I'm going to complicate all that summary by trying to explain all of it. And I almost feel like we should just end there.
Pretty much. Let's do a little… recap here of recap here what 1 Corinthians is about just to remind myself mostly but The Corinthian church of believers are being addressed here.
So I think that's the key thing, believers. The believers are being addressed.
We need to take these particular verses And look at it at the lens of… believers that are being told told these things from Paul. And Paul's speaking to them.
They're described as carnal believers. Luke brought this out very clearly but they're very clearly
They're clearly saved. And their salvation is not in question it's their walk that is problematic.
And part of the reason we believe that is the previous verses that talk about the judgment seat of Christ.
Which applies to believers. And there's no hellfire in the judgment seat of Christ.
There's lost opportunities. But no.
Lake of fire. What we're talking about is believers and their need to… correct their walk so that's what Paul is doing, he's pointing things out and he's Pointing things out negatively and positively.
All right, so that's the… Kind of… Introduction there.
So the first verse here starts with, do you not know?
And that just stood out to me as a phrase that is supposed to emphasize To me, either something logical that you should infer.
Or something that has been taught you So if it's Paul.
I think we can say that we can say Many of these things were taught to them.
And they're… failing in certain ways and he's stating it, do you not know?
Do you not know? And he's going to go ahead and give… reasons for… maybe laying out something that's elementary or maybe something she's already said.
But that's a way of kind of telling us as well that This is something you've seen before or heard before.
And… There's a lot of other examples of that phrase in the New King James.
Version at least and there's about 26 verses in the bible Here's a couple of them. Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us?
This is the 3,000 men of Judah that are approaching Samson after he He took care of some Philistines and now they're coming to You know, get their revenge they're having to turn him over.
And they're like, do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Well, of course he knows that. And that's just a phrase to emphasize.
I'm telling you something you already know. Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?
That's David Morning Abner.
And a couple of more examples. Do you not know What I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands. This is Sennacherib.
Who's about to sack Jerusalem and he's telling this to everybody in Jerusalem Hezekiah.
And it's true. Don't you know? Everybody knows, really.
You know what I've done to the other people in the land.
And Pilate says, do you not know that I have power to crucify you?
And power to release you. He's saying something that he thinks is true. And in this one case, it was not.
He did not have the power, but… He and everybody else there probably would have agreed with him.
Now there's about 12 instances of this phrase, do you not know, in 1 Corinthians alone.
I won't go through each one of them, but I have them up on the screen here.
And the first one is the one we're reading right now.
In verse 16 and then it goes on. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?
Do you not know that we shall judge angels? Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do you not know that your bodies are members of christ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her?
Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?
And, you know, a couple of other, I'll read this last one in first corinthians.
Do you not know those who run in a race all run, but one receives a prize?
So this is just the first few words of this section and i Just wanted to emphasize that it's It should be something that… They knew.
So do you not know that you are the temple of God?
The temple of God. What does that… really mean.
And looking at the word for temple Neos maybe is pronounced, but it's meant to be the sanctuary That's the… holiest of holies the most holy part of what would be the tabernacle or the temple where the arc would be.
So I think I had my… Yeah, there we go.
There's the arc right there. And… It's not just saying the temple.
The courtyard, the holy place. It's behind the veil.
Holy. So that puts a different spin on things I would think when we think about the Holy Spirit.
Reading through… the first part of the Old Testament, a lot of these the sanctity of the sanctity of the holiest place in the temple and in the tabernacle.
How moses And Aaron and… And the things that had to be done So all of these things make… it clear that this is a very, very, very unique and special place.
But Paul is saying you and and he's specifically saying the assembly the local assembly here You are this holy place.
The most holy place, the inner sanctuary. The most sacred part.
So… A few summers ago we did a… Summer Sunday school on… on the tabernacle and we went through a lot of this with the kids And here's a little diagram of what the tabernacle The three major parts of the tabernacle
The courtyard and that had the bronze altar and the bronze laver the holy place, the part that was under the tent But it was the first area And that had the golden lampstand, the table is showbread, the altar of incense.
And then you've got the veil And the Ark of the covenant.
Where this was the holiest of holies, the most holy place.
Some of the some of the things that we know about the most holy place.
The high priest entered only once a year on the Day of Atonement.
High priest entered to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat to atone for sins.
The focus was this Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat.
There's the length and here's some verses. The veil itself was a divider.
Between the holy place and the most holy place where the ark was kept and it was a barrier between God and man.
Only the high priest would enter there. The veil was made heavy woven cloth, blue-purple scarlet With designs, cherubims embroidered And it was hung with wood and also gold Gold hooks, sockets of silver There's no separation in the middle. The priest had to go around.
Some more verses there. And then a little bit more about the veil later when the temple was constructed, it followed a similar design.
And there was a thick veil of the temple and it tore from top to bottom when the Lord Jesus Christ died.
This symbolizes the ability of every believer, not just a high priest, to approach God.
Through the death of the Lord Jesus. So here's Solomon's temple, similar to the tabernacle.
Different in volume the
The sea and the altar on the outside is much bigger there's more space.
And the grandeur is… exquisite there's more gold, there's more… just permanence there.
As I was looking for pictures. I found out that There's… a Brazilian billionaire built Solomon's temple in Sao Paul.
About 10 years ago. And it costs $300 million to build it.
It's a Pentecostal preacher, it's not a Jewish synagogue or it's not a Jewish temple. It's a replica.
And he gets about 10,000 people in there. Believe it or not.
I just thought it was interesting. I don't know if you can see. Yeah, it's just a sea of people and you can see the menorahs.
Lighting the walls there.
I have no connection to that. I just thought it was interesting.
Okay, so… Here's some verses that connect to the temple of God.
And, you know, 2 Corinthians 6.16 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 walk among them.
I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Romans 8, 9. But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.
Ephesians 2.21, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
Anyone defiles… Oh, sorry. So this is the next verse. Verse 17.
If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.
For the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are.
So just taking a look at these two words, defiles and destroy.
It appears that they are One commentator says that it is the same word so you could use for both.
So… One of the things here is… This is a destructive work.
Anyone trying to destroy and destroy One of the things that false teachers will do.
Is they certainly don't understand the gravity of what they're doing.
Maybe their goal is to have power or maybe influence.
But it's a serious matter here, according to this verse, if you mess with the local assembly.
The temple of God. And God says he will destroy them.
So… viewed in its local setting, this means that if any man enters a local church and wrecks its testimony, God will destroy him.
The passage is speaking about false teachers who are not true believers in the Lord Jesus.
So that's my take on this. Destruction would be for those that are not saved. So I believe this is speaking to false teachers.
Another way to say this is God shall ruin the ruiner of his temple.
Another thing to note, Paul does not say it was taking place, but he issues a severe warning.
To anyone who would dare set about wrecking what was built by himself and others.
Okay. Um…
So why… is the assembly sacred? Here's four things that we can think about that define that this temple, this sanctuary.
Local assembly is sacred. And one is that it's God's building.
He's the owner. Two, the foundation is the Lord Jesus.
It's built upon him as a foundation. Three. It's the temple of god inhabited by the Spirit of God.
And which ye are… It means the assembly is seen as composed of sacred people.
Believers are seen as sacred because they individually have the Spirit of God dwelling in them.
Moving on to verse… 18.
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in the sage.
Let him become a fool, that he may become wise. So first of all, let no one deceive themselves.
That has been pointed out by several commentators. That's the danger of self-deception.
And I'll read a couple of quotes here. Perhaps some of those who came to Corinth as teachers posed as men of extreme wisdom.
Any who have an exalted view of their own worldly wisdom must learn that they must become fools in the eyes of the world in order to become wise in God's estimation.
He will not attain true wisdom until he has passed through a crisis in which that wisdom of his with which he is puffed will perish.
And after which only he will receive the wisdom which is from above.
So… Here's a couple of verses that go along with that. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord.
And depart from evil. Proverbs 3.7.
Just read this this week. Mark 8.33 says, but when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful.
Of the things of God. But the things of men.
God's plan. Obviously, at that time, Peter didn't understand And he thought he was doing the right thing.
Trying to protect the lord jesus But God's plan.
Was contrary to what Peter thought.
Mark 8.36 says, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Have you ever seen this bumper sticker? Whoever dies with the most toys wins.
That could be seen as unspoken or spoken as the wisdom of the world.
Accumulation… of temporary things things that… boost your influence, boost your reputation in the world but in the end you can't take it with you.
But the Lord's wisdom is he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep.
To gain what he cannot lose.
Let's move on to verse 19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
For it is written, he catches the wise in their own craftiness.
And that's coming from Job. 513.
So the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Such wisdom cannot penetrate the divine mysteries.
It's nothing but foolishness. In spiritual matters.
Well, what is craftiness? Whenever I try to define a word, I never get it right. Because when I look it up in the dictionary, I… It's never what I, the words that I picked.
So here's the definition. Skillful, clever. Well, I would have said cunning, so I'll give myself credit for that one. Adept in the use of subtlety and cunning marked by subtlety and guile.
Here's some synonyms. Artful, beguiling, cagey, cunning, devious, scheming. Shrewd, slick, sly, subtle, tricky.
And Wiley. I was going to put a picture of the coyote, Wiley coyote.
And, you know, so craftiness, what is that? This really does… When you read this definition, it really does help you understand a false teacher.
Because of a false teacher was just extremely loud, obnoxious and extremely And just heavy-handed.
It wouldn't really work. Craftiness is is… the ability to be subtle and get your way in a devious manner.
And I think this definition really helps to show that god can identify craftiness, false teachers.
Where we can sometimes be beguiled. Maybe by charm or whatever the case is but we get fooled.
But God is saying, you know, I'm going to catch them As the verse says, he catches the wise in their own craftiness.
So in Job chapter 5, there's a lot of… context around that one verse.
And it says he gives rain on the earth. He sends waters on the fields. He sets On high, those who are lowly and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
He frustrates the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot carry out their plans.
Oh, there, there's the word crafty. I guess that's… synonym. He catches the whys in their own craftiness.
And the Council of the cunning. I meant to say cunning, not crafty, but cunning comes quickly upon them.
So… The Lord quoted, Paul quoted this and you can see that you can see that God is depicted as taking, grasping, seizing, arresting the crafty, cunning man. He intervenes to expose fully their cunning teaching.
He demonstrates his superior wisdom by nullifying their efforts.
Um…
Verse 20. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile.
Another word we need to find, I think. So, incapable of producing any useful results.
Pointless. Merriam-webster says, serving no useful purpose, completely ineffective.
Occupied with trifles frivolous, vain, and fruitless.
That is really a sad definition for what the thoughts of the wise They're futile.
And… It's William McDonald says, the Lord knows all the reasonings of the wise men of this world, and he further knows that they are futile.
Empty and fruitless, but Why is Paul going to such pains to discredit worldly wisdom?
Simply, for this reason. The Corinthians were placing a great premium on such wisdom.
And we're following those leaders who seem to exhibit it in a remarkable degree.
So… you know these vain, useless, empty, fruitless, hollow teachers should not be followed.
Okay, the context of Psalm… 94 is understand you census among the people and you fools when will you be wise? He who planted the ear shall ye not hear?
He who formed the eye shall he not see? He who instructs the nations, shall he not correct?
He who teaches man knowledge. The Lord knows the thoughts of man that they are futile.
The fact is that the Lord knows everything he knows everything what these crooked men are thinking and he knows that their thoughts are empty wisps of breath.
Here's some other verses. 2 Corinthians 4.5 says, For we do not preach ourselves But Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your bond servants for Jesus's sake.
This verse, according to William McDonald, says that we have both the poorest theme for a preacher and the best theme.
The poorest theme is ourselves. While the best theme is Christ Jesus the Lord.
And he points out apparently the Judaizers had a great habit of preaching about themselves.
So Paul sought to bring men and women to the place where they were willing to bow the need to the Lord Jesus and pay their homage to him as Lord of their lives.
Verse 21, therefore let no one boast in men, for all things are yours.
William McDonald says, in the view of all that has been said, no one should boast in men.
As far as true servants of the Lord are concerned. We should not boast that we belong to them, but rather realize that they all belong to us.
And… what the Bible teaches the Bible teaches Hunter, he says at the beginning, verse 18, he had appealed, let no man deceive himself.
Now he concludes let no man glory in men It is folly to boast in the glory of glory in the qualities teaching and wisdom of such men when they stand in opposition to Christ and the truth.
Instead of becoming partisans of special teachers and champions of separate doctrines, they might enjoy all that was good in the doctrine of all teachers, whether they were prophets or pastors or evangelists So the next verse goes into more depth with that.
Verse 22 says, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come.
All are yours. There's no need to choose. You get them all.
So here's a little illustration.
We've got Paul. We've got Apollos.
We've got Cephas. We've got Ray Giannini. We've got Joel Schultz.
Got Mike Harris Craig McKendrick.
We've got Jade Nicholson. We've got Jim Quinn.
We've got John Duckhorn. Got Luke Myers.
Got Dan Keller. Gotalduguma.
We've got JJ Routley. We got Dan Kachikas.
And last but not least. We've got Ruth Schwart. So all are yours. You don't have to pick.
You can come every Sunday. You can come every Wednesday.
They're all yours. And William McDonald says, someone has called verse 22 an inventory of the possessions of the child of God.
Christian workers belong to us, whether Paul the evangelist or Apollos the teacher or Cephas the pastor.
Since they all belong to us, it's folly to claim that we belong to any one of them.
Causing divisions. I think that's the main point is, you know.
There's no need for division. And whether it's any of these all were servants for Jesus's sake.
Instead of becoming partisans, they could enjoy the greatness of all.
Each and every gift is for all saints. As one teacher does not carry all the truth of God.
All are necessary for the enrichment of the saints.
So another illustration So it jumps, that verse jumps from Paul, Apollos, Cephas.
To… a huge jump the world So you just went from you know the paul is saying… These are all for you.
And then he takes this giant leap to The world is yours.
I think this is a huge leap and it's worth noting that As Bill McDonald says, as joint heirs with christ we will someday come in possession of the world.
It's not an exaggeration what Paul is saying. It's a reality.
And what else does he say? Well, he goes from the world What would you think would be next? I don't know, the moon?
The universe, whatever. Well, he skips all that and just goes to life.
So life is ours. It says, by this, we do not mean merely existence on earth, but life in its truest and fullest sense.
Because life in Christ is the only real life. And Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
Well, what's a scary thing? Death. Death is ours. And for us.
As William McDonald points out, for us, it is no longer a dreaded foe.
That consigns the soul to the dark unknown. Rather, it is now The messenger of God that brings the soul to heaven.
That is a great way of looking at death. As a believer Death has no sting.
Death actually brings us to the great next step of our eternity.
So to the Christian to live is Christ and to die is gain.
So death is no more than that. What else does it say?
Things present, that really If you said earth… that's substantial. You say life and death, that's substantial.
But then he just covers everything. That is presently existing.
And it's been said that all things serve the man who serves Christ.
A quote from A.T. Robertson once said, the stars in their courses Fight for the man who is partner with God in the world's redemption.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things. Because Christ has received all things have received all from the Father.
All things work together for good. And our momentary and light affliction will work for us an eternal weight of glory.
And that would be… things to come. So everything present and everything to come.
These are the… what we have in Christ.
And it's no exaggeration. That's the beauty of this.
There's no hyperbole. In these.
Statements. And here's the last verse.
And you are Christ's and Christ is God's.
This is a statement of eternal security, if there is any.
This would be one that I… consider to be something that is something that unbreakable. What better protection could you have than this?
Were wrapped in an impenetrable impregnable cocoon.
What could… break us from Christ.
And what could break us from God? All Christians belong to Christ.
Christians possess because they are possessed by Christ. Christ is our master and God our Father.
Um and if you're kind of uncomfortable with Christ being God's.
1 Corinthians 11.3 says the head of Christ is God. So this in no way contradicts the truth of oneness that the Lord Jesus Christ has with the Father.
We are his possession, his purchased possession, in an association that is unbreakable and eternal.
Christ is God's not only refers to him as the possession of the Father.
But he receives all from the Father as subject to him.
Here's some other verses. Romans 14, 8. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Therefore, whether we live or die.
We are the Lord's. But each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits afterwards those who are Christ's at his coming.
Do not look at the things according to the outward appearance. If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ's Even so, we are Christ.
Galatians 3.29 says, and if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
Psalm 46.1 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help.
In trouble. Psalm 4.8 says, I will… Both lie down in peace and sleep.
You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Another way to say this Last verse, and you belong to christ And Christ belongs to God.
I have three illustrations of what i have three of that kind of means to me.
What if you're in a tank? And John Schwitz told a story of this battleship that was out because Ronald Reagan was around.
What if you were in a tank in a battleship? You would feel very protected. So you are Christ's and Christ is God's.
How about this? What if you were in Fort Knox? And it was inside a nuclear bunker.
That'd be pretty safe, wouldn't it? But in Christ, we're so much vastly protected And then furthermore.
In God. In my last illustration, what if you were inside a diamond?
And that diamond was inside a pistachio that didn't have the little crack in it so you could open it. Have you ever tried to open that?
You can't. Impregnable. You never can get the nut.
But that's how secure we are. Okay? So that's my presentation here.
I'll just close in prayer on a silly note, I guess, but… Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we're just thankful this evening to look through your word And… we the local assembly here is your local assembly most holy place.
And may we… act like that in our lives, in our dealings with others.
And representing this local assembly. And also know that the Spirit of God lives in us individually.
And Lord, we're just… wannabe.
Careful about the false teachers that can interrupt and and interrupt and And in cunning ways.
Destroy. This sanctuary of the most holy place where the Spirit of God resides but We know that you're watching out for watching the craftiness of the craftiness the world and we just would love to continue to be reminded and remember that we
Are in Christ. And Christ is in god and we're… protected we're protected eternally secure And may that encourage us in our daily walk to our walk
Just… know that the Holy Spirit is in us and that we are protected.
We just thank you for this time and we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.