Unfathomable Riches of Christ - The Church as a Temple

Alright, so, one page handout, actually about a page and a half. Especially with a big picture here in the middle of the first page. So this is, we've been looking at things about the church body that are positional. That is, things about, we often times talk about position as your individual position and your individual condition, right? and things are true of you in Christ individually, and while those are all true, there is in parallel with that a set of truths, and in some cases they're both individually and together as a church body truth, and this is one of them. The church is a temple. Now why do I say that both individually and together as a church body, the church is a temple. Are each of us individually a temple of God?

Yes, we are. And as a matter of fact, this is what Paul writes to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, when Nancy and I got married, engraved on large pieces of timber up in the front of the church. was, you are not your own, you are bought with a price. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, and also in chapter 7. You're not your own, you are bought with a price.

And it says your body is a temple. So each individual believer's body is a temple. And as we'll see here, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, that's the first passage we've got quoted, we together are a temple. So both the individual truth and the together truth are truths and principles for us to live by. Okay? So, let's look at the first one. So, what is a temple? Let's ask this question. What's a temple?

It's where God lives. Okay, so it's a dwelling of God, and so was the you know, so-called brick-and-mortar, was the stone temple in Jerusalem, was that a dwelling of God? It was intended to be so, right? And so that's one reason why, what was the place that was considered most holy in that temple called? Remember that? The Holy of Holies, right?

And approaching that was the holy place right in front of it. And so priests would go into that holy place regularly, but only once a year at the right time. The high priest would go into the holy of holies. So here you have the temple as a dwelling place of God.

Sometimes it's expressed as a specific person of the Trinity, such as the Holy Spirit or Christ. And so we'll take a look at that. That's footnote two. So the teaching is found in several passages, and so the first one we have listed here, 1 Corinthians 3, 16 and 17.

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? Okay, so which person of the Holy Trinity is the person that's referred to here, that dwells in the temple? And this one? Let me say that the Spirit of God dwells in you. So it's the Holy Spirit in this passage. So that's why I said sometimes a specific person. In this case, the Holy Spirit.

And we've got one other point here, and we've got a bold italics and a footnote. There are two words for temple that are primarily used in the New Testament. One is what's called the inner temple, and it's pronounced the na'as, so you see that in your handout there. Repeatedly, all these passages that we're going to be looking at today all refer to the church as a temple, as the Naas, that's the most holy building that you see there. And that's one reason for showing the Jewish temple. It's that inner temple on the picture that's the Naas. And the outer courtyard is called the Hitaron. That's the larger area.

But the most holy part of the structure, the holy of holies, the holy place, That area was the naos. And consistently, when it turns out the Apostle Paul is the one who writes it, that we are a temple, it's that naos, that inner temple, the sanctuary is another way to look at it.

So, do you not know that you are a temple, a naos of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? And by the way, when he says, do you not know, what does that mean? Does that mean that they do know or they don't know? You do know, or at least you should, right? In verse 17, if any man destroys the temple, the Naas of God, God will destroy him.

For the temple, Naas of God, is holy, and that is what you are. And the you is singular or plural? So it's you plural, right? There is a truth we said from 1 Corinthians 6 that it says is true individually, and by the way the same word for naos is used there, but here together you plural or a temple, is what it refers to here.

So there's one place, 1 Corinthians 3, 16 and 17, where you as a church body, all together, are the temple of God. And so once you have that word temple in verses 16 and 17 three times, and it's clear in every single case, it's all of us together. are at the temple, the dwelling of God. Okay, so then we have a footnote which we'll make quick note of. We have a footnote 1, the naos is the Greek inner temple, the sanctuary is the outer courtyard. When Jesus cleared the temple, which temple was it? Cleared the temple of animals and money changers and all that. It was the outer area around it, right? And then they would take the animals into the inner temple to have them sacrificed.

Okay, so then we have below in Romans 8, 9 through 11, and we could add to that Galatians 2.20, where it says, Christ lives in me. However, you are not flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

So Galatians 2.20 says it's Christ who does the living in you, right?

And you have Romans 8.9-11 which says the Spirit lives in you, but notice also in verse 10, Christ is in you.

So let me ask this, are you involved by Christ or the Holy Spirit? Yes. The answer is yes. So if you said Holy Spirit, you're right. If you said Christ, you're right. If you said both, you're right. So it's not a pick one, right? But you are indwelt by Christ and the Holy Spirit. Both are taught in scriptures, right? And together we are indwelt by Christ and the Holy Spirit.

So 2 Timothy 1.14, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Notice the us, right? Us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. Let's turn to page 2, 2 Corinthians 6, 4-16.

It says, Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, and what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Morning. So we're on page 2 of the handout at the top. I just read 2 Corinthians 6, 14-16. So notice there, we are the temple. We is plural, right? Temple is singular. So we, all of us together, are the temple, the dwelling place of God. I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. So are we his people? Yeah.

So you see Paul has it in 1st Corinthians and now 2nd Corinthians. He's got the same consistent teaching. In each case, it's the church body as a whole is the singular temple. In both those places, 1st Corinthians 3 and now 2nd Corinthians 6. Both places, and in both places, consistent teaching. It's the naos or inner temple, the sanctuary. that's spoken of there.

And then we get to the passage that we had looked at previously, a couple weeks back, and we'll read it all, but with an idea that we're going to focus on the last two verses. The last three verses, rather. So Ephesians 2, 11-22, reading the whole thing, but focusing on verses 20-22.

So, therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, so who is he writing to? In this specific thing, you the Gentiles, the non-Jews, right? Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision, So the Gentiles were called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed by flesh and human hands, in the flesh by human hands.

Remember that you are at that time separate from Christ. So these are words of separation and exclusion. You are separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. And by the way, that's separate from the Christ. The Messiah, separate from the Christ, the Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers, so here's separate, excluded strangers from the covenants of promise, including which covenant? The New Covenant, right? Including the New Covenant, right?

Having no hope and without God in the world. How much hope? No. And this word, where it says without God, it's actually one word, it's atheos. We derive the term atheist from that. You were atheistic in the world. Without God in the world. But now. But now in Christ Jesus. And who's in Christ Jesus? All who are saved within the church body from the day of Pentecost to the day of the rapture are all in Christ. So that's you. It is 164 times you're in Christ, in the beloved, in him, in whom, 164 times in the New Testament.

So this is a very, very substantial teaching. And while Paul is largely the one who writes about it, he's not the only one who writes about it. Okay, so, but now in Christ Jesus, you, and I have some brackets here just to make sure what's clear, you believers who formerly were far off, the Gentiles, right, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So when did this get accomplished? Brought near by the blood of Christ? When did that happen?

On the cross. So one thing is people need to expand, you know, think outside the box in terms of what was accomplished on the cross. Rightfully so, many people will say Christ died on the cross for my sins. Yes, and you'd better believe that. However, it was not all that was accomplished. Right here, he's explaining more of what was accomplished there on the cross, right?

So he himself is our peace who made both groups, Gentile and Jew, both ethnic groups, into one non-ethnic group and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. So all the different distinctions and divisions that are true earthly go away so far as our position in Christ. What are the distinctions that go away, so far as our position in Christ, when we are in Christ?

Is Hassan in a different church body than we are? No. Hassan is not in a different church body than we are. There is not a distinction based on, we talk about different races, actually there is one race that is called the human race. Hassan is in no different spiritual position, and all those people he is with, no different spiritual position than the rest of us. 1st Peter, chapter 3, verse 7. Husbands live with their wives in an understanding way, and to get to the chase realizing, recognizing that she has the same position as you, right? Same position as you.

Okay, so now, he broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. What was the dividing wall that was a barrier between Jew and Gentile? I mean the law. The law. And so this is one of the points we made a couple of weeks ago, is that you have this, just for the Jews, you can imagine their mindset, for them it's been, boy, from the time I could breathe, you know, and first came out of my mother's womb, all they ever heard about was the law. You're a Jew, you're under the law. And the law, the law, the law.

And if you were under a rabbi, what was the thing that the rabbi was going to teach you about? the law. You're going to learn all 613, get them memorized, get all the little additions here and there, and here's how to understand it. 365 of them, like the number of days in a year, are things not to do. And you learn it all about the law, and so to these Jews, it is absolutely mind-boggling.

You look at the passage here, where it says Christ, it's the Christ, the Messiah. broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, and if you're not sure whether it's the law, let's keep reading. Verse 15, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments. So what did he do when he died on the cross? He abolished in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments. Yeah?

Is the 613 laws like our original Constitution where they've added to it and added to it and added to it? Here's what they have done. They have not added to those by number explicitly. Jews who are orthodox and conservative and reformed will all recognize the same 613 laws. So here's the difference, however, among them, is how do I interpret that, and how do I tweak it, and how do I understand it?

So here's Jesus who repeatedly, and I would even say deliberately, he went out of his way to heal on the Sabbath. And the Jews, well, they had 39 different considerations as to what was work and what was not on the Sabbath. And they had a list of exceptions. And none of their considerations and none of their exceptions allowed Jesus to heal on the Sabbath, according to their way of looking at things.

So it wasn't just, you know, because the Sabbath, here's one law, right? But instead they had all these things they added, so all these incrustations that they added to the law and then they had ways to go about bypassing it. You've got your donkey and you've got to get it to water and the water is not close enough because you have a Sabbath day's journey and you can't take the donkey more than a Sabbath day's journey away from your home.

So what did they do? Twice as far away from home, if there was another watering hole, that was another home and allowed you to travel farther as long as you had some kind of a roof of even any minimal sort over the top of the animal, then that was the home. And then you could travel twice as far.

You think that was God's intention? No! Jesus even brought that up, right? He says, you guys make up rules where you get this exception and that one. That's why in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, don't swear by this or swear by that, because they had a list of things that if you swore by this, you were bound. But if you swore by this other thing, you weren't bound. And so somebody would swear by three or four things that were on the not bound list, and somebody else would think, well, boy, that guy really means it. And what it really means is, no, he doesn't mean it at all. He's not going to keep his promise because those are all things on the list. And if you weren't aware of what's on the list of things you're bound by and what's on the list of things that you're not bound by, you could have somebody just flat out lie to you and you think he's telling the truth.

So, there were additions to it and ways to bypass it, both. And on one hand they say, well, I want to give a tenth of everything. And by the way, that tenth of everything is only agricultural. You know, you have pastors who go and pound, bring in the whole tithe and the offering, and it's trying to force people. If it wasn't agricultural, you didn't need to give it. It was designed to do what? The tithe was designed to give food Food to the priests, to the Levites. And it's a rare pastor, I would guess, that knows he's a Levite. And it was designed to work in the land, because where did you take the tithe?

To the storehouse cities in Israel. How many of you have taken your agricultural products to the storehouse cities in Israel for the Levites? No. And so what will happen is here is the rule of the tides and right before that is the list of foods you're not supposed to eat, right? And then right after that is you have to have your land life follow once every seven years.

So here's this pastor, he goes and beats on the pulpit and tells people to bring the tithe into the storehouse, and then he goes and has lunch at Red Lobster and breaks the law like crazy, and he goes home and waters his lawn instead of letting a life follow every seven years.

I mean, what kind of a guy is this? What a hypocrite, right? So, Jesus did what? He took most of the laws out of the way, took down the dividing wall. We, Jews and Gentiles, are not just mostly together. We are completely together. Jesus didn't reduce the dividing wall. He didn't make it lower. He eliminated it. So not just 603 and we are going to keep the 10. Took it all out. Yes.

You're saying that that's primarily agricultural? No, it is exclusively agricultural. What about the widow and the mites? That's giving to the temple, but that's not the tithe. She didn't tithe that? No. The tithe was exclusively agricultural production. That's why Jesus poked at the Pharisees. You guys tithe even your little garden herbs. Actually, if you look at all the things that Jews were required to give, they were not required to give just a tenth. That was only of agricultural production. If you put it all together, it varied from person to person, but it might be a quarter to a third of your income might be put towards fulfilling the law.

I would imagine they had a lot of zucchini. Lots of zucchini. It's funny, when I went over to Uganda, they would have an offering and I'd end up with a lot of bananas. Anyway. Oh, we have to give you an offering. Here's your bananas. Great, thank you. It's sort of off subject, but it's about the temple. You always see these pictures of the Templons, all this open space. Did they have anything to sit on or did they sit on the ground? You see all of ours, everything we have has benches or seats or something.

There was a large open space and by the way this large open space was put there by Herod the Great, the Not-So-Great. A large open space, the courtyard, was put there by Herod. And the whole platform was put there by Herod the Great. Previously, there was not a platform. And what is explicitly described in the Old Testament is this inner temple, and prior to that, the tabernacle. But this large open space was not required. But it was area around the inner temple. But is that cultural somewhere, or to have that like a big open space? That was later on... Only to see open spaces like a football field or something like that. Yes, six football fields, just to give you an idea. Six football fields, right? As you look at this, yeah, there's a large open space. This is the way it was done under Herod.

The great started, the planning started at 20 BC, continued on until the temple was finished in 62 AD and then destroyed in 70 AD. By the way, when they were finishing it up, they had 18,000 workers working on it, so this was a major, major upgrade to the temple. When they laid them off, it was a riot. Having 18,000 guys suddenly lose their livelihood was a bit shaky.

There was in this large open area, lots of people standing around. Standing was quite the norm. In the perimeter area around the colonnade, people would more often sit down in there, where you could sit down and you wouldn't have people milling past you. They would more sit on the ground. They didn't have lots and lots of areas for benches. Because that's not a norm anymore, is people standing around. Yeah, that's right, but it was, you know, there were no big bunch of benches there, right? For the thousands of people who came to the temple area, the great majority of them had nowhere to sit.

Yes? I would presume part of the reason for that would be that if they ever got into a riot, or if they had some kind of you know, disagreement that they could use the chairs and all this other kind of stuff for, you know, a weapon. And you've got the tower there monitoring these people. I mean, you've got thousands of people there. The chairs probably weren't nearly as common. Well, and yeah, and it's just, people stood.

And as a matter of fact, when you look at descriptions, quite often standing. In that front area in the inner temple, that was an area, this is where the publican and the Pharisee, thank you God that I'm so good, that's in that front area, standing. You hear descriptions of people standing in the temples, sitting down in the temple was not uncommon.

Okay, so let's continue to look at the last part. So, the Messiah was the one who got rid of the law, put it out of the way in order to make the two groups into one. And it says there that he might reconcile them both in one body. How many? One body. To God through the cross. So how did he do it? the cross, through the cross, so there's the Messiah who through the cross, very clearly, through the cross, put to death the enmity.

Did he reduce the number of laws? No. Put it to death. So it wasn't a, you know, we're going to cut down the number and make it a little more feasible, you know? A little easier to remember and pull off, right? No. Completely, totally, absolutely put it out of the way.

Now, so what do people in many church groups and denominations do? They want to put you part way back under the law in some degree, and they don't recognize this. And so here's Christ, He died on the cross to take the law completely out of the way. Abolishing, not reducing, not trimming it back, not minimizing it, completely, totally, absolutely out of the way. And various Christian groups want to go back and put part of it back.

Hello? Hello? Right? It's a guilt trip thing. Oh yeah. How am I going to make people feel guilty if I don't put law on them? Right? Yes. Is that a way of controlling the population? I'm sorry, say that again? Is that a way of controlling the population? Yeah.

Well, the practical fact is that they did. They put people under law, and then if you didn't abide by the law or whatever other doctrinal variation they had, yeah. Even some of the reformers were pretty severe and intense. In the Reformation, between 4,000 and 5,000 people who did not believe in infant baptism were killed. And it was usually drowned or burnt at the stake.

That's loving, right? Yes, oh it's definitely loving and of course what they would do is put the law, I mean it's right in the Westminster Catechism. It's right in the Heidelberg Catechism. You look in the Reformed Catechism, it's right there. La la la la la, right? And that's not la la fun, right? Hello?

But the flesh loves the measuring stick, and that's why they want to be... Yes, the flesh absolutely loves the measuring stick, and they will insist upon it. And when you say there is no measuring stick, they go, huh? And that's if they respond somewhat nicely. Yeah. Alright, so let's look at the rest of it here.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far away. Who's you he's talking to? You Gentiles, right? To you who are far away and peace to those who are near, the Jews, right? So he preached the same thing to both groups, right? Peace to the Jews, peace to the Gentiles, okay? For through him we both, who's we both? We Jews and we Gentiles, right? So we both have our access in one spirit to the Father, through whose hymn?

Christ, right? Because he's the one that pulled it off on the cross, and you have all three persons of the Trinity right there. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household. Are the Jews a part of God's household if they're believers in Christ? Yes. Are the Gentiles a part of God's household if they're believers in Christ? Yes. Should I start up a Messianic Jewish congregation?

There's no basis for it biblically. It doesn't mean that there isn't some level in which I can understand with it, but there's no biblical basis for that. Alright, so now, verse 20, we're going to start bolding it. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom, and we said verses 21 and 22 are Hebrew poetry pattern, they both start with in whom.

So let's look at that. In whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. This not only says we're a holy temple, but something's in process. It's growing into a holy temple. So let's think this through. What's the foundation that God's already laid? Apostles and Prophets. They're the foundation. And who's the cornerstone? Christ. So we have Christ, and then you have Apostles and Prophets are the foundation. And then the superstructure on top of the foundation is who? The Church. The Church. Everybody else, aside from Christ and the Apostles and Prophets, those are the superstructure, including us. And let's ask one other question.

When will this building be done being built? The rapture ends the building of the building. So right now, is this building still being built? Absolutely. Still happening. God's still doing something. So this is the temple of which we are a part. We'll talk about this being the sanctuary sometimes, but the truth is, who's the sanctuary? Us. It's us. But we're the sanctuary, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as a cornerstone. And God's still building it, and it won't be done until the Father tells the Son, go get your bride, as we talked about last Sunday. In whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple, and this is the word naos again, the New Testament teaching is absolutely consistent. We are the inner temple. We're not as Marilyn was asking the question about this big outer courtyard. We are the inner temple, the sanctuary, the dwelling place of God. In the Lord, in whom, verse 22, you also Who's you also? Who's you that he's been talking to in this passage? The Gentiles, right? Are being built together into a... Now, here's something to look at.

That word dwelling, a lot of times we'll think a dwelling of God, right? That's kind of a house. This is a word that is special to learn about. As a matter of fact, the book of Acts makes a distinction with this word. This is a long-term, settled-down, deep dwelling of God.

God's not just using it for a hotel. He isn't just coming to visit. This is a long-term, settled-down, deep, long-term resident. God has come not to visit you and me. God has come not to just have us, you know, offer a hotel room for a week or a day or something. But this is a settled-down, long-term dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Yes? So is it basically a gathering or is it a building? It's a building is the way he's described it here, right? And he describes this cornerstone, as would have been done in those days, and the foundation which is set off of the cornerstone and seated He talks about the superstructure which is everyone else is continuing to be under construction until the day of the rapture.

The day of the rapture when the last Christian church age believer has come in. The day of the rapture when the building is complete. It's not done until then. And what's amazing is we get to be rewarded eternally for looking forward to that day when the building is complete. When the Lord says, OK, that's it. The father tells the son, go get your bride. And it's all done.

So we are being built together. Who's doing the building? We're being built together. Who's doing the building? This is God's accomplishment. This is God's accomplishment. He's doing the building. It's his job. Into this long-term, settled-down deep dwelling of God.

So, when we say the Church is the Temple, this is a thorough teaching of scripture. It's an often overlooked one, but it is a teaching that the Apostle Paul is the I have to check and make sure I'm saying this correctly, but as far as I can tell, immediately, the only one who teaches this. So it's a Paul-specific teaching, I believe. And I'd be glad to be shown otherwise. Yeah.

So, when you say this is done by God, particularly, being built together, but yet if you go back over on Romans 8 and 9, it talks about the Spirit raised Jesus, but it was actually the Trinity, it was all three that raised Jesus, right? Or do we look at kind of the same thing here, that this is all three that are doing this? Okay, so when you look at it, the Spirit raised Jesus, but specific to the teaching of the temple. Specific to the teaching of the temple, what we find is that it will talk about being a dwelling with God. We just looked at the passage that says that. But we'll also find reference to the Holy Spirit and to Christ specifically.

So we've got more ways to talk about in the weeks to come in which Our position as a Church body together is what is taught in Scripture. Last week we talked about the Church as the Bride of Christ. We talked this week about the Temple. So we've got other things that we'll be looking at in terms of the whole Church body. Having a position as a Church body together. Including that church, the church body. And by the way, who teaches about the body of Christ?

The Apostle Paul. Again, a lot of what you're going to see here is a Paul-specific teaching, or a Paul-mostly teaching with these things. It's the Apostle Paul who was given certain things to teach and to talk about. And that was his assignment, to teach and to talk about those things, including some of these things we've looked at. It's not exclusive that the Church is the Bride of Christ in Paul, although it's substantially there. But here what we see is, in terms of the teaching on the Temple, it is very significantly, if not exclusively, Paul. And we're going to talk about the body of Christ And that's Paul teaching.

So Paul was given certain things. By the way, was Paul given certain things and nobody else could talk about anything? No. So here's one that's, how do you say, complementary. Did Paul go to Paradise? Yes. 2 Corinthians, Paul says in a very roundabout way, he says, I went to Paradise. So what does that mean? He went to heaven. He was given to go to heaven. So as he comes back and he writes 2 Corinthians and just tells everybody all about heaven. Is that what happens? No, what does he get told? You've been here? That's great! Zip it! Zip it! Why? Who gets to talk about heaven? John gets to talk about heaven.

That's his job. That's his assignment. So he is told, Revelation 119, you must write, you must write, and he writes 150 verses about heaven that Paul was forbidden to write. So what you see is, here's Paul, he says we have a heavenly citizenship, we're blessed in heavenly places, We are seated with Christ, set your mind on things above, but he's forbidden to talk about it. John, on the other hand, is told, you absolutely must write about it, and you've given 150 verses to write about heaven. That's your assignment.

So what we find is the apostles were not, it's not all about Paul, but they were given complementary assignments. Paul, you write about this and this and this and this, that's great. Don't write about that, that's John's job. So it's cool. This is the way the Lord put it together. Even among the apostles and prophets, it was not one big uniform, you talk about this, and you guys all talk about that and everything. They had specific assignments. And it's very clear. Paul is forbidden to write about heaven. John, you must write. You must write. You're commanded to write. Paul, you're given a ride by all sorts of fantastic, wonderful things, but when it comes to heaven, keep your mouth shut.

So it's a good thing. The Lord knows what he's doing. He has the apostles with these complimentary assignments. And it's on purpose. It's very clear. Okay, any other thoughts, questions? Paul is the chief of the run-on sentence. He's got two largest sentences, longest sentences, run-on sentences in all of Greek literature. He's got the number one and number two. He gets the gold and silver medal for that.

Yeah, Paul would do that. Another thing is where John doesn't use compound words unless he has to. Paul just compound words all over the place. Two and three and sometimes four part compound words. In some places he writes three and four part compound words you don't find anywhere else in all of Greek literature. So it sounds like he made them up. John He writes real simple, he calls Christ the Lamb and he does so from beginning to end. Astounding stuff.

In 1st John he talks about how we are to love one another. a different aspect of our bodies that Paul didn't. I mean, Paul said to love one another too, but John really emphasized that. John, here's a key thing. If you're wanting to know how do I understand 1 John, because a lot of times people get real bewildered. How do I figure it out? 1 John is a piece of cake if you understand this principle. Everything in 1 John that is puzzling is explained in either the Gospel of John, the Book of Revelation, or both.

Example, 1 John has a lot of love and abide. Where is that? The Gospel of John, chapter 13 is love. Chapter 15 is abide. Piece of cake. Exact same word, exact same author. So what's so tough about that? John writes consistently. He's the only one who talks about Christ being the Lamb. Period. No exceptions.

And when he writes in Revelation, Christ is the Lamb from the first term, early in the book of Revelation, all the way to the last chapter. Pardon? Oh, there's reference to the Lamb, but when you get to the New Testament, explicitly Christ, Jesus Christ, the one born in Bethlehem and from the city of Nazareth, little city, town, that one, that one who died for us is the Lamb, always in John. So the Lamb is given as a picture in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, Christ The one that we know of, I say born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, that one, John is the only one who calls him the Lamb. John is a very consistent writer, he's a simple writer. There are multiple sevens in the Gospel of John, there are multiple sevens in Revelation. This guy is consistent. And he doesn't use a compound word unless he has to.

So, yeah. God had different assignments for different men, and that's okay. That's good. Probably good for us to learn from. Different assignments for different ones. And that's just fine. All right, let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for what you make clear. We thank you as we look at these various, say, word pictures of our position. We thank you that even in that, a great consistency.

We see that in each case, we're a temple, the inner temple. the Naas of God and abundantly consistent. We see that teaching in Paul's writings and we see that expressed very clearly and consistently. We thank you for that and we just pray that that clarity and consistency would settle in our hearts and minds, that we would understand it, that we would take it to heart and learn what you intend for us to know and to have. We just pray in Jesus' name. Amen.