God's Holy Temple [Part 2]

Alan Wright pastor Bible teacher and author of his latest book the power to bless.

Wherever there needs to be correction in your life if you want to know if it's God that's speaking to you he'll point out your sin but as he does so you're gonna be drawn into him with vast hope running into your father's arms because he loves you so and he wants so for your life to flourish and to see you be who you actually are. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series belonging to God as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program but now let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Destroy this temple the very meeting place between God and humanity the holiest place on earth the very longing of our lives was to have it rebuilt and once it had been rebuilt to never see it torn down and you're gonna say destroy this temple and you're gonna rebuild it in three days as long as it takes to rebuild the temple they were furious and this saying of Jesus was used to mock him the rest of his life even to the point that he was on the cross the text says people came and wagged their heads at him and said look at him he said this is the one who said he'd destroy the temple and rebuilt it he can't even save his own life even the thieves next to him on the crosses joined into the mockery destroy this temple and Jesus was not only speaking prophetically about the fact that in 70 AD indeed that temple would be destroyed and has never been rebuilt but he was speaking about something altogether glorious that day that he drove out the money changers and he said this whole system has to go he was saying that this process by which people come desperately looking for an adequate sacrifice to make this is coming to an end for a new covenant was being inaugurated the system of the law the system of sacrifices the system of ritual at the temple all of it coming to an end for Jesus himself was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world he is the one who Hebrews 10 10 said has made us holy because he has entered once and for all figuratively into the holy of holies and sprinkled his own blood there so that anyone who would accept Christ is no longer on us under a system of coming to an altar to offer a sacrifice whereby you can be accepted by God when you become a Christian you are not accepted by God by any of your own sacrifices you are accepted by God solely by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ destroy this temple tear down the old to make way for the new for the old is gone and the new has come a new covenant of grace Jesus said the temple considered to be the holiest place there is an interesting midrash and the Jewish rabbinical commentary that has been developed over the centuries regarding Psalm 79 that caught my fascination that Psalm has an introductory note that says it is a song of Asaph and it is actually a song that is a great lament over the destruction of the temple the Psalm says God the nations have invaded your inheritance they've defiled your holy temple they've reduced Jerusalem to rubble and in the midrash a student had once asked a rabbi the question why does Psalm 79 have as its introductory note that it is a Psalm or a song of Asaph shouldn't it be called a lament of Asaph how could there be anything praiseworthy about the destruction of the temple so the student asked the rabbi answered with an interesting parable he said suppose there was a king whose son was to be married and in the king's joy of the upcoming wedding he built a magnificent nuptial home for his prince and his future daughter-in-law shortly before the wedding the prince went wayward and fell into sin and refused to be married the king and his anger went and destroyed the beautiful home that he had built for his son a minstrel who might have played at the wedding seeing the destroyed house picks up his flute and begins to play a passerby asked why does the minstrel play when the house has been destroyed and the minstrel answered putting down his flute I play for joy that the king took out his wrath on stones and wood rather than on his son and the rabbi answered the student God vented his wrath upon wood and stone and did not vent his wrath upon Israel so it is a song of ASAP it is an extraordinary little piece of midrash because do you see what God in the end did in Jesus Christ was he did let his wrath come not upon wood and stone but upon his only begotten Son and therein and therein only through the destruction of the body of Jesus where he became sin who knew no sin through that Jesus said I will then in a resurrection raise it up and anybody who is in Christ therefore has become engrafted into the new temple which is Jesus Christ the implications of this are mind-bending please think about it all week long as I think about being the temple of the Holy Spirit I just got to keep saying this must be one of the most misbelieved verses in all the Bible if we really believe this oh my you Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit can you imagine the implications of such a thought at Pentecost we had the new Sinai they're shaking quaking and there's fire this time as tongues of fire have come upon every believer and the Holy Spirit is now poured out upon all flesh instead of being relegated to keep the distance from the holy presence of God now through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ the believers encounter God directly it means that you're the temple of the Holy Spirit that God has wanted and chosen through Christ to make it possible for his desire to come true and that is to be with you at all times in all places God wants to be with you at all times in all places he wants to be up close and personal with you he wants to share his glory with you he wants to share his inheritance with you he wants to share his holiness with you he wants to share his truth with you he wants to share his joy with you everything that God has everything that God is he wants to make available in your life by making you his holy habitation wherever you are therefore God is wherever you go God goes this means that if God is in you that not only everywhere you go God is with you and God goes but it must necessarily also mean that whatever God can do wherever he is must be possible through you no matter where you are at what time it is it means that when you are against adversity and you do not know how it is that you would possibly face it it means that God is there with you powerfully on your behalf that's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you I love you I'll never forsake you when you feel cherished but what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said I'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up I don't think I'll love you anymore wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days when 1% of conditional love poison the other 99 percent well just 1 percent of law is enough to spoil grace the tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear what if I don't measure up when might I be rejected when the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian Church the Apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace it's called Galatians and that's the gospel discover the purity and power of the grace of God when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership call us at 8 7 7 5 4 4 48 60 that's 8 7 7 5 4 4 48 60 or come to our website pastor Alan org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright I was reading a pastor this week who said his little girl wanted so bad to go out and play in the backyard soccer with her older siblings and neighborhood kids that were older and he was like honey but they're so much bigger than you and she just begged and begged to finally he let her go out there and sure enough within about five minutes she fell down got nearly trampled and was crying her eyes out he went out there and it scooped her up and he said well you're all right you're all right and she said but I still want to play and so the daddy did something very interesting he just went out and held her in his arms and played the game for her while she giggled and laughed the whole time we're the one who was so little now is the biggest one on the field sort of you are so big on the inside because you have God inside of you every time that you're up against those that seem faster and bigger and threatening you have to remember I'm the temple of the Holy Spirit everywhere I go therefore God goes everywhere I am God is everything God can do can happen in and through me it means that every part of your being spirit soul and body is impacted by a new identity that you're the temple of the Holy Spirit and see the Bible doesn't teach that the body is bad and the spirit is good Bible teaches that the entire spirit soul and body created by God in the image of God is good God made you in his own image it's not that the body is bad and the spirits are good is that God has redeemed all of you and one day you're going to get a whole new heavenly body but in the meantime you are spirit soul and body but you're one person and so the things that go on in your spirit are affecting the things that go on in your mind the things that are going on in your mind are affecting everything that goes on in your body and everything that's going on in your body is linked also to your spirit this is what Paul's saying that's why I'm saying a man can't go and just join himself to a prostitute and say well it's just a thing you know of the body says no do you not understand that your body is actually members of Christ do you understand your your body your physical body your presence here on earth you're the temple of the Holy Spirit and so you're the very hands and feet of Jesus Jesus is not here in the flesh he's here by spirit and we are here the ones that are in the flesh now all over all over this entire globe a great sea of saints spread all over everywhere in every place meeting here today meeting over in another campus on the other side of town meeting underground in China everywhere the body of Christ is there is a temple of the Holy Spirit and God is just saying it matters very much therefore what you're doing with your temple and in the context of this you must understand that the way in which God and the way in which Paul is bringing us to the point of the conviction of the Holy Spirit is he never tried to correct our sin by telling us how wretched of a sinner we are but the way in which you're called up out of lifestyles of sin is by and be reminded of who you actually are this is the man who calls us Saints and now in correcting some of the gross sexual immorality that was taking a place even amongst the Christians in the Corinthian Church he is calling them up and out of it by reminding them you're the temple of the Holy Spirit so you're always always always always always always always going to go further and gain more victory by a proclamation of who you are rather than a condemnation of who you are Jesus came not to condemn but to save and so wherever there needs to be correction in your life if you want to know if it's God that's speaking to you he'll point out your sin but as he does so you're gonna be drawn into him with vast hope running into your father's arms because he loves you so and he wants so for your life to flourish and to see you be who you actually are I read this week of a father who had to discipline his son and he had told him that the son continued in this behavior he was gonna he was gonna give him a spanking and so the boy did and he to be discreet there were a lot of people around the father took him into the into the bathroom and he he spanked his bottom not abusively just a just a gentle but a form of discipline and and as soon as he admitted this discipline the little boy just threw himself into his father's arms just threw himself into his father's arms and just wept and just said daddy I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I love you daddy I love you I love you I love you and the father said well son I'm I love you too I love you so so much and he said I'm I'm almost surprised at your response you know and the boy said that he said I looked while while I was while you were why you spanked me I I could see in the mirror and I could see your face and I realized for the first time how much it hurt you to have to discipline me you can't ever understand the discipline the Lord unless you understand the love of the Lord because his love is it's profound it's infinite I'm tell you how God would change your life and take you from this level to this level as you recognize yourself as the temple of the Holy Spirit and you know what Jesus called the Holy Spirit the helper the advocate the parakletos the one who comes alongside he is perhaps the best term for the Holy Spirit the encourager he's the best teacher in the world he's the greatest encourager in the world I read this week of a of a state educational initiative in a particular state where they sought to help some students who were lagging far behind their peers with a remedial program and they funded it and they brought in some new materials and they had a select group of students that they were studying to see if it would work and and this remedial program what they found was that almost none of the students made any real progress and despite all their funding and all their initiative it wasn't working and they finally concluded that the students part of the problem was they knew they were in this remedial program and that somehow they didn't have any initiative because they just felt stuck with the stigma of being students that were behind others all except for one student whose name was Edie and she progressed wonderfully and in fact she came came all the way up to the same level that she should be at at her age level and so the researchers decided well we're gonna research and find out what happened with Edie and they came to Edie's teacher and they they knew all they knew about Edie was that she was a track star for the team they called her speedy Edie and that's all that they knew but they didn't know why so they came to the teacher they said what have you done differently with Edie and she said I didn't do anything different they said well did you think hard did you use any other books and she said no I used the exact same books were supposed to use all the other students said did you bring any additional curriculum to bear and they said no I didn't do they said please think there must be something that has happened with Edie that's different other students because she's the only one that has grown and excelled through this and finally is almost an afterthought the teacher said well did you know that Edie runs track they said oh yeah we've heard of speedy Edie and she said well I started going to her track meets and cheer him for that's the only thing I know of that's changed sometimes if just one person begins to cheer for you and encourage you every other dimension of your life will come up wonder if the Spirit of the Living God where they're encouraging you at every moment would it not bring up every facet of your life the temple was the holiest place to the Jews of all the earth they believed by tradition that it was the very spot in that Holy of Holies that God first formed Adam out of the dust they believed that it was at that spot where God would meet humanity and his glory would be manifest and Jesus said destroy that why because the Holy Spirit was to come when you accept Jesus Christ though it bends your mind the scripture clearly teaches you now are that temple you have become the holiest spot on earth which means not only is God with you but all things are possible in you and that's the gospel Allen right there's good news here today in the teaching God's holy temple from the series belonging to God Allen is with us here in the studio and we're back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life in our final word today imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you I love you I'll never forsake you when you feel cherished but what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said I'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up I don't think I'll love you anymore wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days when 1% of conditional love poison the other 99% well just 1% of law is enough to spoil grace the tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear what if I don't measure up when might I be rejected when the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian Church the Apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace it's called Galatians and that's the gospel discover the purity and power of the grace of God when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty that's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty or come to our website pastor Alan org Alan you said earlier in our teaching a few days ago even maybe even practice saying some of this out loud claim it and believe it and see yourself as God's holy temple yeah you would get further in your ongoing spiritual growth and sanctification if instead of getting up in the morning and saying well I'm gonna try to be holy today and I'll try to be worthy of God in some way you'd be much you get much further I believe by stating your real identity to according the Word of God according to Hebrews chapter 10 is I have been made holy and then if you want to even go deeper about the reality of that you say I'm God's holy temple where I go therefore God's going which is an incredible thought it's just extraordinary to think that from the earliest times in Israel the temple was known to be the holiest place on earth it's the meeting place of God and man and then when Jesus came he was that temple and in him God and and humanity met but now we the church we are his temple we are the very inhabitation of God and it proves we must be to God the holiest place on earth next extraordinary thought today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries