Scott Brown's sermon, 'Life in God's Sanctuary,' explores the profound significance of the temple as described in Revelation 21:22, where the temple symbolizes God's presence with His people. Brown articulates that throughout biblical history, from the Garden of Eden to Solomon's Temple, the concept of the temple represents God's desire to dwell with humanity. He emphasizes the importance of progressive revelation in understanding the temple's role, noting that God progressively revealed His plans and purposes through various stages, culminating in the New Covenant where believers themselves become temples of the Holy Spirit. Brown highlights the need for Christians to cultivate a sense of God's presence, urging them to remove idols from their lives and to live in the reality of heaven on earth. He connects the temple with various biblical themes such as creation, the tabernacle, and the church, portraying them as reflections of God's glory and presence. Ultimately, Brown calls believers to embrace their identity as living temples, reflecting God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Open your Bibles to Revelation 21 and find verse 22. Revelation 21, 22. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. Revelation 21 verse 22. I'll just be reading one verse, verse 22.

But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we pray that you would instruct our hearts as to the condition of our temples, that you would come and lead us to the living waters here this morning and all the joys of the filling of God Almighty and of the Lamb Amen, please be seated so revelation 21 and 22 is the densest it's the most complete testimony of heaven and this phrase temple that we encounter here in verse 22 is loaded with significance not only for heaven but for the Christian life today because the temple is code for God's presence. And the temple was always a picture of God dwelling with man, speaking with man, redeeming man, and bringing mankind into physical spaces where God's glory is manifested. Well, that's what is happening here.

We're bringing the word of God. We're singing praises to God. We're praying to God. We're reading scripture. We're doing a number of things that relate to God's presence.

God's presence is manifested in his word through his people. And even in a gathering like this, this is like a temple. It's a temple of God. And people went to the temple to be close to God. God was there in the temple.

And the greatest gift of a person is to know the presence of God in any given moment in their life. And the greatest grief is to waver and go in and out of a sense of the presence of God. And in the Old Testament you had temples. The Bible and of course history speaks of temples. Idolatrous temples and holy temples.

So the church is actually a temple. This one verse summarizes God's zeal to be near his people and to reveal himself to his people, to remind them of his tender mercies toward his people. We just sang a song about Emmanuel. Emmanuel, God with us. That really captures the meaning of the temple.

Now this verse is the last mention of this word temple in the Bible and of course if you read your Bible you understand there are first mentions and then there are typically mentions along the way that have significance connecting to that first mention and then the last mention often has a summary significance and I think that's true here with this. But the whole Christian life, the whole Christian experience I think is expressed in Exodus 25 8 through 10. Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. Isn't that beautiful? Let me make them a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.

You know, a long time ago, we used to sing a song, maybe you know the song, Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. Lord make me a sanctuary." That's really the heart of this whole message here this morning. God made man in his image to reflect his glory. God made man to reflect the beauty of heaven. God made man to be a temple, to be a sanctuary.

That's why Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Believers look toward heaven and they bring heaven down. Whatever we see in this section in Revelation about heaven is meant to actually fill the earth we we bring heaven down and It's very important that we understand What's happening in heaven because this verse that I just read speaks of what is happening in heaven regarding the temple. You must know heaven in order to reflect heaven on earth. You know as we've gone through these studies on heaven over these last few months it's occurred to me how little I've known about heaven but how much I need to know about heaven because everything that you see in Revelation 21 and 22 you've already seen it you've already seen tears here you've already seen brides here you've already seen mountains here you've already already seen precious stones here The things in heaven are meant to be magnets and also foretastes for us.

And I pray that, you know, as the Lord shepherds this church with this verse here, that it would lead us more deeply into be temples of God that declare the truth. Temples of God where God is walking with his children. Temples, sanctuaries, holy and undefiled by the world. You know the thing about temples in the Bible, people are always bringing idols into their temples. And that happens in the human heart as well.

We're often bringing idols into the temple of God, the temple of our bodies. You know, the Jews had a practice in history, it's not in the Bible, but in order to deal with evil symbolically in their house, they would spread leaven all over their house, all over the floors of the house. And then they would sweep up all the leaven and take it outside and burn it. They did that figuratively to teach their children to remove all evil from their lives, to get rid of it, to sweep it all up, sweep out every corner, absolutely every corner, and then take it out and burn it. And God made us to be sanctuaries of his beauty, sanctuaries of his glory.

You know, we sing a song, take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. That's the whole idea here. You know, and the cry of a Christian is just to progressively remove the pollutions from the temple. God would keep us from polluting the sanctuary with things that we love that are not worthy of our love. Matters of our lifestyle that we've incorporated that are not really worthy of the kingdom of God.

They might be relationships, it might be music, it might be films, it might be some occupation that actually fills the temple with idols. And this whole idea of the presence of God, the nearness of God in the sanctuary is the most helpful thing that you can ever have to live in the moment, to experience the moments of your life, the hard ones, the happy ones, all of the moments, all of the moments in your life with the presence of God, knowing that God is with you, knowing that God's word is speaking to you, knowing that God is there, he's present, his glory is filling the temple. That's the most wonderful thing to have. And the reason it's the most wonderful thing to have is because if you have it, it doesn't matter where you are It doesn't matter what happens to you because you have God you have his word speaking to you What a blessing it is to be a temple of God. Now, in Revelation 21 and 22 is really the culmination of redemptive history.

And it really is a fulfillment of all the things that have been spoken. And in God's redemptive plan, you have this idea of culmination, and in God's redemptive plan, things get better and better. And The most vivid example of this is the difference between the new covenant and the old covenant The new covenant is a better covenant And what we find here in this verse is something new. There's no temple. This is new.

And it's part of the whole stream of theology of progressive revelation. There's a better covenant. Now, Revelation, as we've said before, is a bookend in the Bible. Revelation and Genesis are bookends, and things that begin in Genesis end in Revelation. We find that very distinctively here in this passage of scripture.

And we've been studying these last mentions, but as we've done it, as we've looked at brides and mountains and precious stones and things like that, We've gone all the way back to Genesis and see what God meant by brides and mountains and precious stones. And we're going to continue to do that because there are so many metaphors that are scattered all the way from Genesis to Revelation, and they get all jammed up here. It's like a traffic jam of biblical metaphors in Revelation 21 and 22. The whole Bible points here. And the whole Bible's instruction about the temple points here and actually concludes right here in the very last mention.

This whole idea of progressive revelation is really important. When you do biblical theology, which is what we're doing here now in Revelation, in biblical theology you take an idea and you trace it all the way progressively and sequentially through the Bible. You start with the beginning and you end with the end. And that's what you do in biblical theology, but biblical theology always makes it very clear that God didn't reveal everything at the beginning. He progressively revealed these things at different times and seasons from the elementary to the advanced.

There's so many ways to illustrate this. In Hebrews 1 12 in time past God spoke through the prophets but in these last days he's spoken to us in his son. That's an upgrade. In Ephesians chapter 5 we learn the meaning of marriage that was never revealed before. That marriage is a picture of Christ in the church.

God never said that before. And so God speaks through Abraham and Moses and the prophets. Let me just read you a statement from Alec Mautier, a theologian commenting on this whole idea of progressive revelation. Well, why am I doing this? Why am I talking about progressive revelation?

Because it's important that we learn how to read our Bibles, that we understand how the Bible is constructed. The Bible as a whole. Like if you read something in Revelation, it sounds so weird. Well, if you read the rest of the Bible it's not weird because it's interpreted all over the scriptures. The reason people don't understand Revelation is they never read the prophets because the prophets explain everything of what these things are all about.

Alec Mautier on progressive revelation. Progressive revelation is not a movement from error to truth, but from truth to truth. The lesser to the greater, the provisional to the permanent, the inadequate to the perfect. Indeed, cumulative revelation might be a preferable term. But the whole idea of progressive Revelation is that God continues to reveal more.

There's an upgrade around the corner. Hey, and God, by the way, life is like that. You know, when you're little, you just, you just can't, you can't wait to get your driver's license, and then you can't wait to get married, and then you can't wait to be, to have children, and then you can't wait to be to have children and then you can't wait to have grandchildren. God has this progressive line of your life but this one verse summarizes God's unquenchable zeal to be near his people. And that unquenchable zeal leads to a place where there's not even any temple anymore.

But there will be temples until that time. You know, we often struggle with the feeling of God's presence. Every true Christian struggles with the feeling of God's presence. And that's why God does so many things to bring his presence to us. One of the most obvious manifestations of that are the ordinary means of grace.

He gives us his word, he gives us singing, he gives us praying, he gives us preaching, he gives us one another, He gives us other temples of the Holy Spirit to minister to us. He gives, he brings his glory to us in so many different ways. He gives us prayer. God so desires to draw near, he gives us many, many ways. He gives us the heavens which declare the glory of God.

He gives us all of nature, which is a trumpet call for the beauty and the magnificence and the goodness of God. But God has a great zeal to be near his people. And our problems with our flesh, our minds, they hinder it. But there's a day coming and we just read about it in verse 22. There will be no hindrances at all.

Don't you just long to have a sense of the presence of God and everything? And so the problem with us is that we're a little bit like Moses who came down from the mountain. You know, he came down from the mountain and his face was shining. But what happened? The glory faded.

That's a picture of life in this fallen world, with our fallen lives. So this is all about the presence of God. So I want to give you nine things that a biblical theology of the temple teaches us about everyday life. This is kind of a flyover. You'll see if you have an outline in front of you, I have lots and lots of references to explain this.

There is in any way I'm gonna get to them, so I'm just gonna give you the top level and if you if you want to look at these verses they are absolutely thrilling they're so thrilling and I wish I could go through all of them I had a really really really long manuscript and I had to cut out 90% of it. Okay, but I'm gonna give you the points. These are, to me, nine things the temple teaches us about everyday life until we get to that day when there's no more temple. There's no need for it. First, the heavens as the temple of God.

The Bible, the Bible makes it clear that the heavens are as a temple of God. Psalm 102, verse 19, for he looked down from the height of his sanctuary from heaven the Lord viewed the earth the sanctuary the temple and heaven are connected God's glory fills all of creation and the idea here is of God's filling the cosmos the cosmos is is God's temple God is omnipresent the heavens declare the glory of God and and frankly you'll see this if you read these verses the Old Testament temple is really a microcosm of the entire heavens everything that's in the temple pictures the heavens God is declaring his power and beauty through the heavens. The heavens declare the glory of God. The heavens are like a temple of God. In Isaiah 66, verse one, heaven is my throne, Earth is my footstool.

Where is the house that you will build for me? And where is the place of my rest in? Isaiah saying that heaven is the place where God rests. You know, he created and then he rested in heaven. And it's his throne, it's his temple, it's his holy place.

There are many places that we could go to speak of this. But even in Revelation, Revelation 11, 19, then the temple of God was opened in heaven. Revelation 15, 5, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. So the heavens declared the glory of God. That is such a help.

It's a help to me. It's a help to me to walk outside and see the stars and the moon and you always say, oh isn't that beautiful. The glory of God filling the temple of your soul because you've looked to heaven to see the beauty of his temple and to be reminded just how good he is and how great he is. Second, the Garden of Eden is the first earthly temple, the Garden of Eden. And why would we say that the Garden of Eden is like the presence of God?

The message of Eden is that Eden is the place where God walks with man. God is present. God speaks to man. God draws man to himself. And then man serves God in the garden.

Man in Eden is the priest of his garden. And one reason we know that is in Genesis 2 15, Adam and Eve are charged to quote keep the garden. This is the same language that's used for the priests. The priests serve, they keep in the same way that Adam and Eve served and kept in the garden. But Eden makes it very clear that man is the priest in the Garden of God, declaring that God walks with his children.

Eden was an elevated mountain with the river and precious stones with a tree, with trees. It's like a garden. If you look at what is in the construction of the temple, all these images are there. Heaven is the same way. You've seen these things, haven't you?

You've seen rivers, and you have seen gardens, and you have seen precious stones, and you have seen trees. What you see on earth is meant to remind you of the presence of God in your life. He's present. Eden was the first temple. They're cherubim guarding the garden.

You find that same thing in the temple. Eden is the first place where God spoke wisdom to man. And so is the temple. Third, the patriarchs and their altars. The patriarchs built altars to God before there was a temple formerly that was commanded and constructed by God.

In Genesis chapter 8 verse 20 we read these words, then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar and the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. So what you find here is Noah consecrates himself to God. Noah draws near to God and the message is the personal consecration of man in his journey through life. And the recognition of his sins and substitutionary atonement, and the need for a sacrifice, and declaring the faithfulness of God to draw mankind, where, into his mercy. His mercies are new every morning.

And he made an altar and he sacrificed animals. Where did the clean animals come from? Genesis 7, 2, you shall take with you seven each of every clean animal. This speaks of the spotless lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice, the sinless sacrifice. The one who was not a sinner, but was made sin for us.

Abraham built altars, he built five altars. In Genesis 28, he says the Lord is in this place. It's the presence of God. The temple is the presence of God. The fourth temple, this might sound surprising, Mount Sinai.

Actually the mountain, the mountain itself is a metaphor of the temple. In Nehemiah chapter nine, verse 13, you came down also on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. And the message of Sinai is that God stands above and He speaks to his people. When God is present, he's speaking with his people. And he's not silent.

And he speaks to his people through the prophet Moses. And God issues commands to govern our relationships. God from Sinai is calling people out of the worldliness of the world. It's interesting, Mount Sinai was divided into three sections just like the temple. The lowest was where the people could come.

It was the least sacred and then the midsection the elders of Israel were permitted, the priests and at the top was the Holy of Holies where Moses received the law. But Sinai stands for the temple where God speaks and he teaches you how to walk. That's the value of the temple. You're taught. It's the place of instruction from God.

Fifth, the tabernacle. The tabernacle was made, we are told in Hebrews 9.23, as a pattern of heavenly things. The pattern for the tabernacle came out of heaven, Out of God's heavenly throne, out of God's tabernacle in heaven. And of course the tabernacle was a portable tent, a structure, an enclosure that was carried all the way through the wilderness wanderings for 40 years. And the whole meaning of the tabernacle is that God draws near and speaks to his people.

And that's why God commanded the children of Israel for three tribes on the north, three tribes on the south, three tribes on the west, three tribes on the east. All the 12 tribes of Israel were focused toward the tabernacle. All the families got their direction from the tabernacle and when it was time to move they moved the tabernacle and the people moved with them. Here's the meaning of the tabernacle. Wherever you go, God is with you.

Wherever you go, God is with you. You know, it's interesting too. You know, it's interesting too. There's a connection between the creation of the world and the tabernacle. It's really interesting that the instructions for the tabernacle construction mirrors the creation story.

God creates in seven days by the word of his mouth. God creates the world in seven days. God designs the tabernacle through seven messages. And the language is really similar. I'll just give you an example.

Genesis 1 28, in creation God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good. In the building of the tabernacle then Moses looked over all the work. Now he saw the work and Moses blessed them. Exodus 40 verse 33. So in creation there are seven declarations over seven days and in the creation of the tabernacle there are seven speeches in seven parts to create the tabernacle.

So all these things are connected in the Bible. The most important message of the tabernacle is God's mercy towards sinners. I have a book that was written in 1899 by William Brown called The Tabernacle. Here's what he says. Many of the most important words and phrases employed in the New Testament have either arisen from or are illustrated by the Tabernacle and its rights of which are the following examples the veil the mercy seat propitiation labor of regeneration the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, washed, cleansed, purged, reconciled, sacrifice, offering, atonement, without the shedding of blood there's no remission.

God gave himself for us, bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And he says, in Exodus, the rays of the sons of righteousness are everywhere. That's the meaning of the tabernacle. And in the tabernacle, you have the same things that you have in Eden you have rivers and gardens and and Precious metals and all kinds of things all these things are connected There was gold The priests' robes were for beauty and glory. And all of this speaks of the mercy of God that travels with you, all through your wilderness wanderings.

God's presence is the most precious thing. You know, is there anything that you're doing to hinder a sense of the presence of God? Is there anything in your life that dulls your sense of God? Because having a sense of God is your greatest treasure. Sixth, Solomon's Temple.

Solomon's Temple, the message of Solomon's Temple is that God provides a place of beauty and rest and glory. It's a place of substitutionary atonement. Solomon's temple was built on the site where Melchizedek offered ties to Abraham. It's built on the site where God provided a sacrifice for Abraham in place of his son. It's the place where Arunas sold his land for a temple to stop the plague.

Solomon's temple in Mount Moriah has tremendous significance but guess what, it's like a garden. In First Kings six and seven, you'll see all the garden elements, all the elements of the Garden of Eden, all the elements of the Tabernacle, they're all loaded in to Solomon's temple. Trees, water, gold, precious stones, palm trees even, beautiful things, constructed like the heavens, like Eden, like Sinai, like the tabernacle. Again, and it's also constructed the same way. There's an outer court for the mass of humanity.

There's the holy place with all these symbols of the heavens and then there's the Holy of Holies and in the Holy of Holies it's different than all the other sections of the tabernacle. Remember It's a cube. All the other sections are not cubes. But in the Holy of Holies, it's a cube. And it's the glory of God that fills the entire cube, the entire temple.

Solomon's temple is a foretaste of heaven where the glory of God and the glory of God alone fills the temple and no one ever loses a sense of the presence of God there. Oh, there's so many things to read about this temple. Psalm 46, there is a river whose stream shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved.

God shall help her just at the break of dawn. God is in the midst of her. These are all pictures and figures. David says, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple. And then he talks about times of trouble.

In the time of trouble, he hid me in his pavilion. There's just much there. I've given you dozens of references to show more of the beauty of the Lord. Seventh, the prophet's vision of the temple. The prophet spoke of the temple illustriously.

And there are, I think there are at least, at least three or four messages that the prophets spoke. They, First of all, they speak about the beauty of the temple and they speak of its appearance. Ezekiel 1, 27, that you have fire all around the temple. You have the color of amber, and God is the one. His appearance is of fire, like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day.

This was the likeness of God in the temple. So they talk about the beauty of the presence of God in the temple, but they also speak of defiling of the temple, bringing idols into the temple, changing, changing the ordinances, you know, pragmatic, worldly principles and objects of the nations, bringing that into the temple and defiling the temple. The prophets, thirdly, they talk about a restored temple. They talk about the destruction of the temple, by Nebuchadnezzar, and then the restored temple. And particularly in the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, often you're not sure which temple they're talking about.

Are they talking about the coming of Jesus Christ as the tabernacle, the one who dwelt among us? Or is it talking about heaven? It's hard to know. I was preaching through Isaiah several years ago and I thought, it's both, it has to be both because they're both pictures of the presence of God. And then, fourth, the prophets also speak of the disappearance of the temple in the new heavens in the new earth Jeremiah prophesies that he says it shall come to mind It shall not come to mind nor shall they remember it nor shall they visit it nor shall it be anymore And I think the answer is in Revelation 21 because God is filling the temple.

That temple is no more. And you will never again struggle with a sense of the presence of God, which is your greatest delight. And your greatest confidence. And your greatest strength. What a stately person is made who lives in the presence of God.

And they know it, and it's so consoling, and it drives away all fears. It's so good to be in the presence of God. Eighth, the New Covenant temples. Temples, that's plural. Because when you get to the new covenant, this message is that the temple comes to earth in this New Testament, and Jesus Christ tabernacles among us.

He pitches his tent. He's present with his disciples. And the church is the temple. And the body of the individual is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body is a temple.

Again, this is progressive revelation, right? Do you see the upgrades? Going down the trend line of history. You know, the people said of Jesus, he serves the best wine last. That's what you see here.

In Hebrews chapter eight, verse two, that Jesus Christ is the high priest in the true tabernacle. Here's R.C. Sproul. Christ is the temple and all men are commanded to come to him in order to worship and serve the one true God. That's the temple.

Come to the temple. Come to Jesus Christ. He is the true temple. Hebrews eight, verse one. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man.

And then in the same section there's a recognition that Moses built the tabernacle after the pattern of heavenly things and that he got it on the mountain. This tabernacle not made with hands in the new covenant is patterned after heaven. It was replicated in the garden. It was replicated again in the in the tabernacle, replicated again in the sacrifices of the patriarchs, replicated again in Solomon's temple. It's made in the heaven, the pattern is from the heavens where God dwells in unapproachable light and he is absolutely omnipresent in heaven.

Hebrews 9-11 says the same thing. In John chapter one, verse 14, we learn that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That word is the word tabernacle. He tabernacle, he knackled among us. He pitched his tent among us.

Jesus is the one who dwells and he is himself the tabernacle. Jesus cleared the temple in his day because it had lost the joy of the Lord. He says, my house shall be a house of prayer. He's quoting Isaiah 56. I will bring, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

That's why he cleared the temple. It was all business and no joy. Jesus speaking of the temple in Matthew 12 verse six, they were all looking at the temple, this massive, remarkable structure, and he says, yet I tell you that in this place, there is one greater than the temple. He was talking about himself. He was talking about his own body, his body, the temple.

And then the New Covenant temple is composed of Jesus Christ himself, but also the body of Christ, the church. The church, the body of Christ. The collective church is the temple of God. When God gathers his church together as we are now, this is his temple. In 1 Corinthians 16, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own, for you were bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's you know This whole idea has been on my mind for a long time. We're getting ready next year to do a conference called the Chief End of Man. What is the Chief End of Man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And this verse, Somebody's gonna preach on that verse.

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit therefore glorify God in your body. I can't wait to hear it. In 1st Peter chapter 2 verses 4 and 5 that individually people in the church are living stones in God's temple. Not only is the church God's temple, but there are these individual living stones who are temples of God within the temple where God dwells. Ninth, in heaven, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." In other words, you will never struggle again with a sense of the nearness of God.

God will be ever-present. You will never lose your delight in God. You'll never lose your joy because God is filling everything. And this whole doctrine of the temple is telling us one thing, and that is that the presence of God is the greatest treasure that you'll ever have. Cultivate it now.

Bring heaven down. On earth as it is in heaven bring heaven down Let the glory of god fill the temple get all the idols out of the temple of your body get them out of your life Anything anything that withholds you from the glory of God is trash. It's poison because we need God. I wanna give you eight ways God fills the temple of our bodies. Eight ways God fills the temple of our bodies.

Because this whole doctrine of the temple is not meant to be theoretical. Heaven is not theoretical. It's meant to be worked out in this world. First, to be the temple of God means that you are brought to God and forgiven. First Peter 318.

For Christ also suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. Have you been forgiven? You cannot be a temple of God unless you've been forgiven. It says here that he might bring us to God, the just for the unjust. Second, to be the temple of God is to live a resurrected life.

The Christian life is a resurrected life. Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The crucified life is the resurrected life.

Third, to be the temple of God means that you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Where? In the heavenly places. In the heavenly places. We're always looking to the heavenly places.

Ephesians 1 3, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places heavenly blessings are ours Yeah, we do see through a dark a glass darkly, but we can bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. And we're supposed to pray about it all the time. Fourth, to be the temple of God means that you are seated with Christ, seated in the heavenly places. Ephesians 3, 4 through 7. His great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

For by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. To be the temple of God, it's helpful to understand that you are already seated in the heavenly places with God. Fifth, to be the temple of God You walk is to walk in newness of life the Christian life is is To be raised from the dead and walk in newness of life That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so We also should walk in newness of life walking in newness of life Six to be the temple of God is to have the life of Jesus and live in your mortal body. Romans 8-11. He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Seventh, to be the temple of God means that you are made alive with him. Colossians 2 12. You were buried with him in baptism in which you were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. He has made us alive together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. Eighth, to be the temple of God means that by the Holy Spirit we'll do greater works.

John 14, he who believes in me, the works that I do, He will do also. And greater works than these, He will do. Because I go to the Father. These are pictures, all of these are pictures of heaven on earth. This is the resurrected life.

This is the seated life. This is the ascended life. This is the heavenly life. This is the glorified life, glorifying God with the glory that the Father has with his son and his children. One last thing.

Some of us are reading John Flavel's book, Keeping the Heart. Friday night, we read these words. Cultivate a habit of communion with God. This will prepare you for whatever may take place. This will so sweeten your temper and calm your mind as to secure you against surprises.

This will produce inward peace, which will make you superior to your trials. Habitual communion with God will afford you enjoyment, which you can never be willing to interrupt by sinful feeling. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you, says James. The nearness of God is the greatest thing in the world. Would you pray with me?

Lord, Lord, I pray that you would, you would be filling us up with the knowledge of your will, your glory, filling the temple, the idols thrown away, your joys. Lord, you've shown us in the heavens, you showed us in Eden, you showed us in the sacrifices of the patriarchs, you showed us in the tabernacle, in the temple, you showed us Jesus and the church and even our own bodies of the blessedness of what it means to be near to you. And I pray that all of us as one church would say, the nearness of God is my good, amen.