Indwelling & belonging

Good morning. Before we proceed into the passage here, however, I want to take a moment for something special and that is I'd like to ask Brad Mastin to step up here to endure some things. Go ahead and step up here. Okay. We'll only give him this little monitor to hide behind here. Yeah. Now, why do we have you up here? Well, I think because you dragged me through school. Okay. All right. Yeah. We wanted to have him come up here in order to acknowledge and to honor his having completed a step in schooling here.

What just happened? Well, we just finished up the MA in Biblical Theology at Channel Island Bible College and Seminary. Okay, alright, so you got his Master's in Biblical Studies, so that's good. So let me ask you, are you done studying now? No. You're not? Oh, good! Good, good, because we've got something for you. Congratulations.

But you can't take off yet. We have to pray for you. You desperately need it. Lord, we thank you just for your faithfulness through this and as Brad looks to study some more, we just thank you for your continuing faithfulness and just pray for strength, wisdom, and guidance for he and for April as they lead their family together. And we just thank you for the gift, Lord, that you have given us as a church body. We just pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. Thanks a bunch. Okay.

Now, there was this announcement there was this announcement of the two babies, and I just got to thinking about that. You know, some of the folks who have little kids, you know, and believe me, I mean, I was really delighted for the babies that we had. Nancy's not in here, I can tell you this. I wish every one of our kids had an identical twin. I just love little babies.

But there's one thing that these parents, either they're going to discover or they need to keep in mind, these kids are capable of all sorts of things, okay? Okay. Yeah. Anyhow. So, anyway. And this is only the beginning. Okay. Now we will proceed into the passage, believe me. Okay.

In the passage that Courtney read for us, 1 Corinthians 3.16-23, Paul starts off with this question, do you not know?

And it's important for us, I think, to recognize, you know, why is he asking a question like this? He's asking them, you know, hey, do you know this? And you might almost wonder, you know, if he's thinking, do they know this or not? And one of the things that we'll observe here, because we're going to see this again, Paul often used this kind of a question to bring to mind truths to his readers, things that either they most certainly do know or at least they most certainly ought to know. And so he asks it actually for the first of ten times here in this book. Most interesting is this, do you not know occurs more times in this book than the rest of the New Testament put together. So that's telling me that there's a whole bunch that these people ought to have known. And so he's starting off with this series of do you not know questions, as we see here in the beginning of this passage.

Things that they certainly ought to know if they don't know already. But it isn't just about knowing it in your head, as Brad and I have talked about as going through studying of various kinds. It's not simply a matter of packing your head full of academic data. It's not just getting the book knowledge stuffed into your head.

Paul is very interested in the application of what's known, in living it out. Not knowing just about Christ, not just knowing lots of data about Him, but knowing Him and knowing Him in such a way that it gets lived out. His life lived out in and through us. That's God's intent. Application, not just because we do it, but because it is God's doing through us. Now, we have here as a title on page one of your handout, Y'all are a Temple of God.

Now, as some of you know, Nancy and I spent some time down in Texas, fortunately not too long, but spent some time down in Texas before we moved here. And I was finishing up going to school down there. And it was interesting going through it because they had a different way of talking down there. And one of the things that was interesting is, for example, going through Greek class with people who have a Texas accent. You know, it's words like logos and agape, you know, you know, things like that. So anyway, Greek from Texans is really something.

But one of the things that they would say is y'all. And there were distinctions I never could quite get. What's the difference between y'all and all y'all? And what's the difference between all and all y'all and all y'alls? I'm not sure what the difference is, but that's one distinction they did have.

And it actually is helpful in this respect. In our English usage of you, we don't know from the form of the word does that mean you one individual or you more than one? And fortunately in the Greek it's actually quite clear and it's more like the y'all of what they used in Texas or all y'all or all y'alls, I'm not quite sure which.

But the New Testament epistles teach that we believers are both individually and together a temple. Now there is something unique about this passage when we talk about together and that is this Several places in the New Testament talk about all the believers, that is what we sometimes call the universal church, all who believe being the body of Christ, all who believe being the church, and in fact all being a temple.

But this passage is unique in that it's all referring to those in the local church. For example, here in this local church body we call Holly Hills, That would fit into this teaching. All of you, plural, in this local church body are a part of the body of Christ. All of you here in this local church body are a temple, is what he's saying. So this teaches that all of us together, we all together, all y'alls, are a temple of God. Now, to get the picture, here is the temple, the inner part of it. as it was constructed in Jerusalem, and as Jesus and the Apostles all walked in.

This is the inner part. There were outer courts, of course, that Gentiles were allowed to go in. But this is more the inner area. In this kind of lower portion of the picture was called the Court of Women. Only Jews were allowed into this inner area, but this is where the Jewish women were allowed to come.

And this was the area where, for example, the widow put in her widow's mite into the offering. And that would be the place. Or remember the publican and the The Pharisee, where the publican, unlike the Pharisee who says, thank you, Lord, that I'm such a righteous man, the publican would have been in this little area that you see here, this lower part of the temple picture, saying, Lord, have mercy on me. It would be that area. In this area right there with kind of a semi-circle going outward, not only would that be an access into the area behind that wall, where the sacrifices would take place.

But on that little area, several times during the course of the day, the Levites, who had been trained in music, would gather and they would have a temple choir singing on those steps. As you go farther, this would be the part of the temple where the Sanhedrin, the higher up Jews, would meet. This would be even a place where they would decide that Jesus is a problem. On this side over here would be where they would keep the records of where the Jews' genealogies were located, even to the point where the author of Hebrews would write, it is evident, present tense, it is evident that Christ was from the tribe of Judah.

Don't believe it? You could go there in that part of the temple area and check it. There's the records. It's evident. In here, behind this wall and in front of that inner temple building would be the area where the sacrifices are. Kind of an angular shot gives you a little better idea. It's that little space between that dividing wall and the front temple area. So in here is where they would have the sacrifices taking place and some of the other things that were involving the priests.

But here, in this area here, is the holiest place and the Holy of Holies. This was the place where the Jews understood that's where God dwelt. That's where God was present among them. So this is the picture that Paul is drawing upon here for the believers who were in Corinth. Now, a goodly number of them hadn't seen this temple, but they had their own local temples and so could make some comparison to it.

So he says, you all are a temple of God here. So being pictured as a temple here implies two things for us in the body of Christ. Holiness, with the temple being holy, that is spiritually and morally pure, godly, that's one of the things that being a temple implies for us. There is an inherent holiness in us as believers. there is to be a holiness, that is why his pleading with them and the other apostles pleading with them, because we are a temple, a place that ought to be holy. So there's that meaning to it. There is also an implication of the dwelling place of God himself. Now I have here on the slide and on your handout of THE God. Why do I put that there?

Frequently, as the authors of the New Testament wrote, they would spell out, especially for these people who have pagan background, they would spell out that this isn't just any god, because they had all sorts of gods, but this is the god. And that's why he wrote here, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, specifically in that passage there. To give an idea of what this conveys, We studied some many months ago, Isaiah chapter 6, and I'm just going to look at the first five verses here. In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord, here's Isaiah writing, sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. This is the heavenly temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings.

With two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled. And the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

It was a recognition of God's holiness. And now here is Paul writing to the believers in Corinth and saying, this temple, this one that Isaiah was in, and he was concerned, and wait a minute, I'm a fallen human being even though I believe in the Lord, a recognition. that this temple is ultimately the dwelling place of God and is and ought to be holy.

So he says, right connected with that, the Spirit of God dwells in you, or as we put it to use the vernacular that communicates the plural, the Spirit of God dwells in you all, all of you. In all of you as a local part of the body of Christ, the Spirit of God indwells you. Each one of us, at the point at which we come to believe, becomes a dwelling place of God's Holy Spirit. That's each one of us personally.

That's something he's going to tell them in chapter 6, and we'll be studying that some weeks from now. So in chapter 6 he's going to tell them that. We have a similar kind of message in Romans chapter 8 and Galatians as we've studied in chapter 3 and chapter 4.

So each one of us individually is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We can count upon that. That's a thoroughly revealed biblical truth. The many ministries of the Holy Spirit are carried out as He indwells us. We have that summary. We made it available in previous weeks where Hal, in a one-sheet summary, has listed the ministries of the Holy Spirit to the believer. Something close to two dozen different ministries of the Holy Spirit to believers. But all of us together as one body, as one local body, as he puts it here, are also a dwelling of the Holy Spirit. So both the nature of the temple, being a holy place, and the Holy Spirit who indwells us implies a holiness, implies a godly character, a spiritual and moral purity.

So what does he mean in verse 17 by destroy or defile as it's in there? Just to kind of illustrate it, here's a car that had a three foot diameter 1500 pound wrecking ball just roll into the trunk. But what does he mean by destroy when he says it there in this verse? The Greek word that Paul used for destroy, and he actually uses it twice, destroy, destroy in the New American Standard, and the King James, the first one is translated defile and then destroy, it has two meanings.

One is to morally and or spiritually corrupt, kind of corrosion, there's the picture of the idea there, or to bring to ruin. So there is an idea of a corroding or corrupting process pictured in there and also to bring to ruin or to bring damage to. Whether it's one or the other, the idea is something negative is happening, isn't it? I put this picture here of this leaking gas tank before I changed into being a pastor. One of the things I did was get involved in environmental cleanups and also preventing corrosion like you see happening here. This corrosion or corruption in a spiritual and moral sense was part of what Paul's conveying here. There's also the idea of just bringing something to ruin, and absolute destruction or damage is the idea as well.

Believers in Corinth, what were they doing as we've been addressing in recent weeks? They were trying to build up their own empires. They were trying to say, everybody follow me. And there'd be somebody else that'd say, hey, you follow me. And other people were perhaps following someone who didn't want to be followed, like Paul or Apollos. But they were breaking up into these little groups depending on what human being they tended to center on.

They were trying to build, at least among some, trying to build personal empires. And what Paul was saying is, you may think you're trying to build a personal empire, but what you're doing when you do that is damaging the body of Christ. When you follow this one or that one, when you follow this doctrine and that one, and you all head off in different directions, you may think you're trying to build something. You may think you're doing something good, But in fact, the body of Christ needs to be built up in unison and in unity.

The people, in spite of, oh at some level I guess you could say there was some good intent, they did not understand. They were in fact causing damage. They were in fact causing this corruption, this corrosion, this ruin to happen to the church. Paul said that he would bring consequences and in fact negative consequences to the lives of those damaging his temple, the local church body.

Isn't that interesting? It's something that perhaps is not taken seriously enough in many churches. Ever hear the term, oh boy, ever hear the term church politics? Ever hear that? Do you know that the Bible doesn't describe that there ever ought to be church politics? Oh, let's try another one. Church split. Ever hear that? The Bible doesn't describe that as being God's intent either. Both of those are human inventions, not God's intent.

Now, when we say God will cause damage or ruin to someone, Paul could testify personally what happens, and in this case, He ran into some serious trouble on the way to Damascus. What was intent, as a matter of fact, it spells it out here right in front of us. This is Acts 9, 1-4. Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest. So here's Saul, later to become Paul, the author of this book. Here he is. And he's breathing out what? Threats and murder. Later on in Acts, he says, whenever I had a chance, I voted for death.

Okay, so he was not talking about giving the Christians a tough time. He was talking about terminating, right? He wanted this Christianity stuff to stop. And the way to do that was whenever you have a chance, kill them. That's what he had in mind. still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, hey, he didn't care who, it wasn't like, hey, I'll just take the men and leave the women, no. Men, women, doesn't matter. If they're Christians, I want them dead.

That he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. You see, he didn't have the authority to go into these other places except into their synagogues and anything related to the synagogues. There he had the authority to bring them back to Jerusalem where they would be tried and if Paul had any say at all, killed.

That's what he had in mind. So on the way, something happened. It happened that he was approaching Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground. And what we read subsequently is he was basically blinded for a time and heard a voice saying to him, and notice this, Paul thought that he was persecuting Christians. What does the Lord think? Christ takes it personally. He says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting? Not them. He takes it personally. The Lord says, look, you're not going to get away with this without me doing something.

And this would be the point at which he would come to be a believer. In this picture, you see Straight Street there. It's the place he was taken. It's still there. And he's brought into the house of Ananias. And long story short, he became a believer. But the Lord did bring about exactly what Paul said would take place. He says, you're going to bring ruin? I'm going to bring a real problem in your life. You're going to be blinded for a time. And in that very chapter, what is Ananias told to do?

He says, Paul is going to discover, this guy Saul, later to be Paul, is going to discover that I have designated that he suffer greatly for me. In verse 18, Paul explains here a spiritual reality. We're back in 1 Corinthians 3 here. The world has its wisdom and God has His. Paul has been for several chapters trying to divide between those two. They are not the same and they are not compatible.

Taking a philosophy class and I was very interested to have the professor give an oral final exam. Everybody was given a different question and they were asked a different question in front of everybody else and you had four minutes to respond. And the professor got around to me, he says, Mr. Peterman, it's apparent from your papers that you believe in God. You have four minutes to tell us what difference that makes in your life.

Of course, I was eager for that. Well, afterwards, a fellow came up to me and he said, hi, my name is Vince and I'm an atheist. I said, that's great. Let's get together and talk about it. So come over to my place for dinner. Well, that's the world's wisdom. Vince was convinced of the world's wisdom. And then there's God's wisdom. Long story short, a year later, I was surprised to look over in church and there's Vince. Vince, what happened to you? Oh, I'm a former atheist.

But the neat thing is, just a recognition, the world has its wisdom, the world has its way of looking at things, God has his wisdom and his way of looking at things, and they don't mix and match very well. It's important for believers to recognize it, and Paul's trying to make that clear here, especially when we talk about what's to be the character of our relationships as believers here in the body of Christ. Has the world gotten anything to share with us on that that's helpful? He says, no. God has something quite different in mind than the way the world does things. There is definitely a fork in the road. Accepting God's wisdom will make a believer appear to be a fool to the wise of this present world. They can't figure it out. They don't see it. And it's something that believers are best off to recognize.

When I walked into those philosophy classes, and I took multiple ones of them, when I walked into those classes, it was a matter of recognizing God, by his grace, has granted that I get to see something these guys can't see. The reason that they see things so very different from the way I do, and I'm thankful for the opportunity in this class, but the reason they see things so differently is God graciously has allowed me to see things that they can't see. I can't blame them for being blind. I just got to accept that they're blind and I should not walk around as if I'm blinded.

The world's wisdom has been developed based on this blindness to the truth, and as Paul puts it in Romans chapter 1, actually a suppression of the truth. It's a truth that is revealed in their hearts and is revealed in nature, and Paul says they push it down. They don't want to talk about it.

So here's Vince walks up to me. I'm an atheist. What had he done? He'd been suppressing the truth. By the work of the Holy Spirit, he came to a place of no longer suppressing the truth. This world is going to look at our belief in God as sheer foolishness, and our belief in a personal God as sheer foolishness.

As I shared in here just a few weeks ago, I had another philosophy class. One of the professors just struck me in the face for being a Christian within the first few classes. Whacked me right across the face. Some of the students said, do it again. Some of the others said, no don't, this is stupid. They were probably both right. See, biblical truth is sheer foolishness. What's the stupid Christian doing believing in a personal God and Christ who died for their sins? We've got a bunch of other philosophical stuff to teach these people. It looks like idiocy.

But God is the one who sees things as they really are. Why? He's the one who created it all. The one who not only created it all, but revealed some of the details about how he created it and the spiritual realities that this world cannot begin to see. So as Paul did earlier in this book, we give you several references there in the first and second chapters. He begins quoting the Old Testament.

In this case, he quotes Job 5.13 and Psalm 94.11. And what's his point there?

His point is that God sees through this world's wisdom. What this world says, hey, here is the right way to look at things. God says, uh-uh. He says, I really do exist, and you can know that I exist, and in your hearts you know some of my character by what's revealed in your heart and by what's revealed in nature. You know some of that already.

God sees what we do not, naturally. He sees through this world's wisdom. All the wisdom that's based upon an assumption that God does not exist or that we cannot know Him or anything about Him. God sees through all that. As Paul did in Romans 1, 9, 31 and 2, 9 and 16, he quotes from the Old Testament here. God sees through all these pieces of worldly wisdom and recognizes and expresses basically, to put it in modern vernacular, this world's wisdom doesn't amount to a hill of beans. This world's wisdom doesn't cut it.

Have you ever had a circumstance where you see something that somebody else doesn't? Ever had that happen? And their perspective, based on not seeing something that you clearly see, is going to be deficient. They don't see what's happening there. Hopefully it's not a car coming at you.

He says there in verse 21, let no one boast in men. Paul made it abundantly clear, as he spells out in these next verses here, it is only spiritually appropriate to boast in the Lord. He talked about that in chapter 1. He's going to talk about that when we get to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. It's only spiritually appropriate to boast in the Lord. As he said in Galatians, the sixth chapter, I will boast in the cross.

What did God do? What did God accomplish? And it is by God's doing that we're in Christ Jesus. Did any of you work your way into being in Christ? How about anybody, you know, you get to a place where God says, hey, you're good enough to be in Christ. Is that how it happened? Not so much, right? It is by God's doing. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. It's by God's doing and all by grace that you're in Christ. That's how you got there. That's how you got to be in Christ. All by grace. All by His doing. Let no one boast in man. Before other human beings, we may feel like there's a place to boast. But before God, nothing. It is all by His grace, all by His mercy.

See, human beings can do lots of things. And if you've been down at the beach at all, You might have noticed that people make some pretty phenomenal sandcastles. Ever seen those? I mean, there are some amazing sandcastles out there. There's even contests and things of that sort, and they are astounding. Sandcastles that are ornate. As a matter of fact, a lot of them I look at and I say, how do they do that? I mean, it is spectacular, you have to admit. Sandcastles, it looks like you could get in it and, well, creations anyway, and drive it away. It's so good. Some of them you say, boy, that has to win some kind of a prize. But one of the truths about sandcastles and other sand creations is eventually the water comes in and the other elements, wind, and takes them away.

The truth is everything that happens here on planet Earth is ultimately like that, isn't it? Work is good. God intended from the very beginning that we work. So I'm not talking down about work at all. Certainly there are productive and constructive things that we can and ought to be doing.

But there's also a recognition that over time all those are going to fade away. It's what God does and accomplishes that remains. Let no one boast in man, he says in verse 21. Boasting for the sake of building empires within the body of Christ is not at all what God had in mind.

People often long for a sense of belonging and ownership. Even here at Holly Hills, if you think about it, If people are involved here, they also want a sense of belonging and ownership. Yeah, there is a sense of that. Well, does God provide for that? Is that what God has in mind?

Paul is going to address that next. I would say, preliminarily, yes is the answer. He says there, and actually more than once, in verses 21 through 23, all things belong to you. Here he's writing to these believers, and he said earlier, you ought to know. As a matter of fact, he even asked the question, don't you know? But he's telling them flat out, all things belong to you. You ought to know this.

But there's a belonging and an ownership that this world does not begin to see. The Corinthians had been sold on the idea that we're going to build up our own personal empires, and that's what's really going to count. God's saying, no, that's not going to count. As a matter of fact, though you think it's helpful, it's in fact destructive to the body of Christ. We're not here to build up personal empires. We're here, in fact, to build up the body of Christ.

And that building, as we discussed earlier, verses 10 through 15, earlier in this very same chapter, that building done in dependence upon and for the glory of Jesus Christ is what will last for eternity. That will have eternal impact. Isn't it interesting that though it's certainly valid for us to have occupations in various ways of making our way in this world, and those are things that ought to happen. Just the same, it is ultimately what is done by the Lord's strength and for His glory that will last eternally. There is a belonging and an ownership this world doesn't even begin to see.

Only by God's revelation will we begin to see into what the Lord has actually in mind for us. All that we have eternally in Christ. Paul makes reference to it briefly in this passage, and in fact we could look at others to get a full scope. Even just a few chapters from now we're going to be looking at some more of that. As God has revealed in his word here, partly in this passage, partly in others we'll soon take a look at, we do have a belonging and an ownership that's for eternity.

We have a place of ruling and reigning with the Lord as believers. In our Revelation elective that meets in this classroom time just before this main service, we're going to be looking at that ruling and reigning in the chapters to come. Ruling and reigning with the Lord.

Did we deserve it? No. Did we earn it? No. It's all by grace. Ruling and reigning with him. Not because we're worthy, but because he's worthy. Even as Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 6, first few verses there, we will judge the world and we will judge angels in a time to come. It may be very close. It could be, and I hope so. We have a phenomenal position.

He says, don't go scrambling to try to build something in the body of Christ based on this world's values, this world's philosophies, and this world's wisdom. He says, you don't need to. The Lord's got phenomenal, amazing things already in place. Paul wrote to the believers at Ephesus.

And how did he start off? Chapter 1, verse 3. Just after he got through, Hi, my name's Paul. How are you doing? He says, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Don't worry about it. Okay? Here's the pattern in verse 21, starting in the second half to the end of the chapter. For all things belong to you, whether to Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come, all things belong to you. Notice the repetition. All things belong to you in this pattern here. Next, he kind of makes a list of three different kinds of things.

He says, Paul, Apollos, Cephas, those all belong to you. Here I am, I'm writing this. Apollos, the teacher that the Lord has sent into your church body. Cephas, which is the Apostle Peter. He says, all these guys, those are the Lord's apostles sent for you. They will give their lives for you.

And Paul and Peter did. How about these cosmic things? The whole world. You want it? Hey, the Lord has it in the plan already. You're going to rule and reign over this place. Life? Death? Death is not an obstacle. Christ overcame it. In fact, if anything is going to happen, He's going to use it. You are identified with Christ in His death. How about time? Do you ever worry about time? Look down at your watch? Look at the calendar? Anxious for things? It doesn't matter.

It's in the Lord's hands. Christ was speaking and it was recorded in the Gospel of John. He says, Before Abraham was born, I am all the time. He lives in the eternal present. We're there with Him. Where is your citizenship? In the heavenlies, with Him.

Now? Yeah. Tomorrow? Yeah. Ten thousand years from now? Yeah. It's with Him. Worry about time? He says, don't bother. You belong to Christ. And Christ belongs to God. The entire Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you're tied in with them. As a matter of fact, in the Gospel of John again, Christ says to them, In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Does that sound like we're connected? Yeah, I think so. Is he worried about it? Nah. Here's John 17.

The Lord is looking forward to this time on the cross and He's praying with the Father. He says, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, the disciples, but for those who will believe in Me through their word. That's you. He's praying for you in the garden there. That means you. That they may all be one even as you, Father, are in Me and I in you. that they may also be in us. Where are you? In them.

So that the world may believe that you sent me. He goes on, the glory which you have given me I have given to them. Hey, by the way, isn't this amazing? The Lord graciously shares his glory. Are you worried about it? Are you worried you're going to fall short of it? Jesus prayed to the Father before he went to the cross and prayed for you. He shares his glory with us.

How phenomenal is that? How gracious is that? Just as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfect, perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you have sent me and love them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me. By the way, what did He do? The Father who has given you to Christ. Isn't that something? Are you worried about belonging?

Wow, this is great stuff. whom you have given me, be with me where I am so that they may see my glory which you have given me. For you have loved me before the foundation of the world." The love that was there before the foundation of the world, before God said, let there be light. That's the love He wants to share with us. That's the love we personally share. His glory, He already talked about sharing it with us.

We don't have to worry about it. We don't have to build up our own self-glory. His glory is a whole lot better anyway. That's going to last a whole lot longer than sandcastles. You belong to Christ. The place that we believers have being in Christ and all the implications that that position has for each of us, all of us together, is just absolutely awesome. It's phenomenal. It's amazing.

1 Corinthians chapter 6, chapter 7, we'll get there, should the Lord allow us here that long. Those verses say, for you have been bought with a price, twice. Tells them once in each chapter, you've been bought with a price. Guess what? Any question about a belonging, a sense of belonging? Christ paid for you. And by the way, you're wondering if the debt's all paid? When he said, it is finished, that's an accounting term. It means that it's all been paid. All done. You've been bought and paid for, folks, by the blood of Christ.

The inheritance that we have is so awesome that all the petty things of this world, the kinds of things that cause church politics, the kinds of things that cause church splits, The attempts that some make to boost their own glory and to boast, that all just goes away. In view of this, it makes all the more sense to build up the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ, we're in Him, every one of us, we together here, even this local Body of Christ, is a temple of the Holy Spirit. We are the holy of holies, if you will. As you walk about today, this week, you're a temple on two legs. You're a temple on two legs. We together, as we gather here this morning, are a temple on two legs, or however many there are here. That's a new thing, isn't it?

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, how amazing, how awesome, All that we have, all that you've done, all that you've graciously given us, all that you have accomplished, all that you have forgiven us, it is indeed astounding. We thank you for your amazing grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.