Published: September 3, 2023 | Speaker: Tim Freitag | Series: God as Creator - Part 17 | Scripture: Genesis 1-2
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all right well I'm gonna pick up basically where we left off last week
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uh no doubt it will find expression in other places down the road but I'm going to read again from Ephesians 2 this morning just to recap that and set the scene for us as
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we move through these things this morning in Ephesians chapter 2 beginning in verse 19.
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and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works
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within us to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever amen in Christ's death burial and
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Resurrection it is a creative act of of the Church of establishing the church and we have seen as we talked about last week that he is the creator of the church he is both its creator and its
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Cornerstone I think you guys have more than likely heard teaching on that concept before the Cornerstone of course sets both Plum and level it sets the orientation and the place of the church definitively and
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so Christ is that Cornerstone for us but without Christ without the Resurrection the church is nothing more than a large group of those most to be pitied as we looked at last week in First Corinthians
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15 19. 15 19. as Paul says the the resurrection is deeply essential so we think about this in these terms and this is where we were
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digging into it last week as Christ's work on the Earth is salvific it is um restorative it is a removal of
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barriers it is all of those things but it is also creative it is an act of creation and it is an act of of establishing and so as we think about these things we
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think about Christ's work let us not leave off that aspect especially as we look into some of the things that Paul has to say about Believers as a new creation we
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understand of course that it is a restoration of the image of God it is a restoring of things but it remains true what we read in John 1 that nothing has come into being apart
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from Christ apart from the word incarnate and so as we consider ourselves we consider our our new Hearts our new life that we have in Christ Jesus
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it is an Act of Creation it is a creative power that is expressed there as we look at the church and we think about the church there are of course a number of those metaphors
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in Jesus the whole building we read in Paul is being fitted together the power of God through the spirit the Builder is shaping those living stones and we read a bit about that last week
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those Living Stones being fitted together God both calls and causes his people to be a holy Temple and what is a temple but a place where God dwells a Dwelling
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Place of God in the spirit where he is pleased to dwell and so it is an establishment of that place for his purposes I'm going to turn over to Second Corinthians
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and I think we read this last week or maybe we didn't get there
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I'm going to pick up in verse 14 of second Corinthians 6 he says do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what Fellowship has
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light with Darkness or what Harmony has Christ with Belial or what is a Believer what has a believer in common with an unbeliever what agreement has the temple of God
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with idols 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
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be my people therefore come out from their midst and be separate says the Lord and do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be as Sons and Daughters to me
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says the Lord Almighty therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of Flesh and spirit perfecting Holiness in
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the fear of God we serve a living God as he brings out here through his quotation not a God not an idol not a God made with hands if you
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remember last week we looked quite a bit at the use of that term handmade made with hands with hands not a handmade God but a living God a God who has in fact created and is not
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created in and of himself we are the temple and he dwells in us and moves among us we read there that phrase that I will dwell in them and walk among them
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um again I mentioned this last week in a slightly different context but there's a there's a contrast with Israel in this sense that they had that visible manifestation of his presence they had the visible
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manifestation of the cloud and and of the pillar of fire and there's a real temptation to us or at least I say to me sometimes to look at that and go man I'm a little bit jealous that they
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had the visible sign that they could follow but we have no excuse at all and frankly this the indwelling of the holy spirit is a more perfect expression of being the
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temple of God it is it ought to be as obvious to us that God is with us as it was to them we read in John
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as he sends I'm sure these would be familiar passages to you but in both 15 and 16 when Jesus discusses the ascending of the spirit with them
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near the end of chapter 15 he says in verse 26 when the helper comes whom I will send to you from the father that is the spirit of Truth who proceeds from the father he will testify about me and you will testify also because you have
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been with me from the beginning just a little down in chapter 16 he says but now I am going to him who sent me and none of you asks me where
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are you going because but because I have said these things to you sorrow has filled your heart but I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper will
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not come to you but if I go I will send him to you and he when he comes will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin because they do not believe in me
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and concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you no longer see me and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged so
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we do not have an excuse we have you know we use this phrase Emmanuel God With Us thinking of course about the person of Jesus Christ but is God not with us now we have God With Us the creator of the
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universe the Eternal God lives and walks with us in us he says I will dwell in them he is our God and we are his people this is the beginning I think of all
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theology that he is our God and we are his people because if he had not sought out a people we would have no knowledge of him we would be as the agnostics we would be those groping in the darkness the
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beginning of all knowledge of God as you know Allah the beginning of wisdom this is the beginning of knowledge that he has sought out a people that he has sought out and
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purpose to reveal himself specifically with his written word and not merely through his creation as we have seen Paul indict the world with so he lives with us we are his people he is
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our God these are wonderful truths but what Paul is doing here in second Corinthians he says because these things are true we must separate from uncleanness we must pursue perfect
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godliness in the fear of God it is because of this truth it is because God lives in us it is because we are a temple we must be holy as our father is
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Holy and I wonder if we often think about it that way that way I think we have again I'll be careful to speak for myself but I would Hazard a guess that often we think about sanctification we think about
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cleanliness we think about personal uprightness in a very individual sense my battle with sin what the Lord is doing in me how clean am I or unclean am
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I but are you thinking about it at all in a corporate sense that the body the church is the temple of God I think it's much more obvious for us and Aaron's going to be picking up I
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think in January with a with a study in Deuteronomy there's a lot said for Israel and in the Old Testament about an idea of corporate Holiness corporate cleanliness that is a witness to the
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world those things are often couched in terms of when you are defiled you are defiling the camp you are defiling the presence you are defiling
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the whole do we think about our own walk our own righteousness our own pursuit of Holiness in those terms a corporate sense of this affects not only me and my
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relationship to God but it affects the entire body entire body it affects that of which I am a member so there is a a large sense Paul is deploying these things back to back here
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in second Corinthians because you are you the whole you whole are a temple of God you must pursue Holiness you must pursue uh cleanliness and separate from
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uncleanness and so it's the the corporate walk as much as it is the personal walk perhaps even more even more another sense another place where we
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pick up this idea or the metaphor of the temple that God is building in First
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I'm going to start in verse 13. as I was looking at this and trying to figure out where I was going to start I keep going back and they keep being there for us and you can only go so far back so I'm going to pick up in 13 with a therefore
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a therefore therefore prepare your minds for action keep sober in spirit fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as
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obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance but like the holy one who called you be holy yourselves also in
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all your behavior because it is written you shall be holy for I am Holy if you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work conduct yourselves in fear
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during the time of your stay on Earth knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers but with Precious
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Blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ for he has foreknown before the foundation of the world but it has appeared in these last times for the
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sake of you who through him are believers in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your Faith and Hope are in God since you have in obedience to the truth
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purified your souls for a sincere love of the Brethren fervently love one another from the heart for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable
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that is through the living and enduring word of God for all flesh is like grass and all its Glory like the flower of grass the grass withers the flower falls
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off but the word of the Lord endures forever and this is the word which was preached to you therefore putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander like
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newborn babies newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to Salvation if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord and here he's
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connecting exactly as Paul did coming to him as a living Stone which has been rejected by men but his choice and precious in the sight of God you also as
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living stones are being built up into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
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for this is contained in the scripture behold I lay in Zion a choice Stone a precious Cornerstone and he who believes in him will not be disappointed this
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precious value then is for you who believe but for those who disbelieve the stone which the builders rejected this became the very Cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
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for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word and to this Doom they were also appointed but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for
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God's Own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light for you were not you were once not a people
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but now you are the people of God you who had not received Mercy but now you have received Mercy beloved I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstains from
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fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing which they slander you as evildoers they may because of your good deeds as they
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observe them glorify God in the day of visitation so Peter is connecting for us those things that we just looked at
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and we are a priesthood and I know that was a long Passage but it touched on so many of the things that we've talked about in the last several weeks as we dig into this idea of the church and the Believers as the
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new creation and how these things tie
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and so Peter brings out for us here that we come to Jesus the
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living Stone and he of course touches on the same prophecies that we looked at a little bit last week the idea of the Cornerstone which the builders rejected but we are then to
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so we come to Jesus the living Stone to be made Living Stones built up into a spiritual house a holy priesthood I want to take this moment here while we're while we're on it and say don't
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excuse those who call their pastors priests don't let them get away with that we are a royal priesthood it does such damage to the concept of the temple as a
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whole maybe one of these days we'll go through Hebrews again in some format and look at how he deploys that concept of the priesthood but don't let them get away with calling
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their pastors priests there should be no reverence there should be no priests a prophet is one who speaks to the people on behalf of God isn't it one who
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has given a word from God to speak to the people the people what is a priest a priest is intended to speak to God on behalf of people
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isn't it a priest is meant to intercede to make sacrifice to come before God on behalf of people we a royal priesthood ought to be diligently interceding for
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others we are to be interceding for the lost for the saved for the kind and the unkind our family and strangers for friends and for enemies we ought to be interceding we ought to
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take up that mantle that is pointed out for us in Peter in Paul in Hebrews a royal priesthood royal priesthood don't hold that office at arm's length
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and assign it to someone else to do for we are told that we are those who are offering up spiritual sacrifices through Christ Jesus which are acceptable to God
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Paul talks about it as a spiritual service of worship the church is the temple of God and we are a people who pursue God who make sacrifices to him connect with him dwell with him imitate
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him don't hold that out for someone else to do on our behalf there's one more step here as we talk about our timeline one more stop
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as we go through our well my timeline's still visible from last week and just Trace over this one
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we've been discussing of course the creative activity of God in the church and this
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I'm going to read a couple of things as we connect these together this morning because we talked about this a little bit last week of the church and what is the nature of the church and and the institution thereof and how does that
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relate to that end time Temple how do we think about those things I'm going to turn the other direction to start with back to Isaiah
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this is a concept that we've not discussed very much in this particular but it is an important one as we tie together the Church of
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has a temple the prophecy the word given to Isaiah following on from what is typically called The Suffering servant but it's all a piece as far as I can
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tell the Lord is speaking these things Isaiah 54 I'm going to pick up in verse 5. you could really read the whole section but I'm going to pick up in verse 5.
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talking about the idea of true Israel as the Bride As the wife he says here in verse 5 for your husband is your maker whose name is the Lord of
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hosts and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel who is called the God of all the Earth the Earth for the Lord has called you like a wife Forsaken and grieved in spirit even like
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a wife of one's youth when she is rejected says your God for a brief moment I forsook you but with great compassion I will gather you
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in an outburst of anger I hid from you for a moment but with Everlasting loving-kindness I shall have compassion on you says the Lord your Redeemer for this is like the days of Noah to me
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when I swore that the Waters of Noah would not flood the Earth again so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you nor will I rebuke you for the mountains may be removed and the hills May Shake but my loving kindness will
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not be removed from you and my Covenant of Peace will not be shaken says the Lord who has compassion on You O Afflicted one storm tossed and not comforted behold I will set your stones
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in antimony in your foundations I will lay in sapphires we can keep going reading the reading the uh gemstones there but if we turn then to the end of the book
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in Revelation 21 and we've talked about this a number of times we've alluded to it and we've looked at it a few times in relation to
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earlier sections but right before the actual appearance of the city what is said to John here
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picking up in verse 9 of Revelation 21 it says one of the Seven Angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke to me saying come here come here and I will show you the bride the wife
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of the Lamb and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city
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Jerusalem coming down out of the heaven of God from God having the glory of God and her Brilliance was like a very costly Stone as a stone of crystal clear jasper it had a great and high wall with
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12 gates and at the 12 gates 12 angels and names were written on them which are the names of the Twelve Tribes of the sons of Israel and there were three gates on the East and three gates on the North and three gates on the south and
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three gates on the west and the wall of the city had 12 Foundation stones and on them were the 12 names of The Twelve Apostles of the Lamb you can go on and compare the stones if
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you really want to in your own time those things carry over and connect these pieces together but what is said to John here is come I will show you the lamb the bride of Christ and he sees what that perfected creation of God
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descending to the Earth the city with God in the midst of it as its Temple as its light as its illumination and so when we think about these things and
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this is part of what I want to to indicate is when we think about this discussion of God as Creator as a whole we've we've discussed the idea that I think
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sometimes people have an idea of okay creation there's God as Creator that's that's pretty obvious that's the big one and then you have sort of a minor key version over here where yeah he's making something with the new heavens and the
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new Earth but we're not quite sure what because there's too much allegorical language in here and I and I'll really read Revelation anyways because you know who has time for that but it is somewhere in there but really
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what we've seen I hope as we've gone through is that the creative activity of God certainly does not cease here it continues through continues through the whole way that God has not built
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this clock and set it in motion as some have charged but that he is intimately connected with it and in particular he is intimately connected with making a place for his name for his person to
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dwell and here you know the Tabernacle and the temple we talked a little bit about the unsolved Paradox of the fact that he gives his special revelatory presence in
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those places he makes a sign of his visible presence in them even though he says to them through the prophets that he does not dwell in temples made with hands the phrase that we see again and
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again is a place for my name to dwell and that's really what we have in these while he gives a special revelatory presence to his people it is the fact that his name is dwelling there
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and now we in the church have this increase this more trying to think of the right words to say the uh a more perfect reality of the
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idea that God dwells in us because he does now dwell in Us in in his spirit in the people in the members but as we talk about the
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Act of of Christ at the cross through his death burial and Resurrection inaugurating this setting in motion this creative activity
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I would I would charge to you in our understanding that these things these things I gotta pick a color I haven't used already huh already huh but these things are connected
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in a similar way that these two things are connected which is to say that as the Tabernacle is a
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I don't want to say lesser form but a Proto form of the Temple so the church is a Proto form of what we will observe in the new heavens and the new Earth when we are in our resurrected bodies
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when we are in his presence in that City in that place on the new Earth um worshiping him face to face as we long to do but again to point out
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there's a there's a tendency in my own mind I think to look at both the Tabernacle and in Revelation and say boy won't that be great to see him to
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look at these things but it's the same sort of thing that Jesus says I think to his Apostles which is when they say boy we want to see he says it should be obvious to you when you saw me you saw
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the father when we have the spirit we are seeing Jesus we are seeing the father and there are certainly degrees Jenny and I were actually talking about that on the way in this morning she was reading in in Exodus and thinking about
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these things and saying this is an odd or interesting perhaps the way that God reveals himself to Moses in degrees of Glory when he's in the Burning Bush Moses sort of looks at as a curiosity in
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fact he has the the gall the terminity to argue with God at that point when God says you're going to go down to Egypt he says no not me you know he's he's not blown away or overwhelmed God in fact
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has to tell him don't step on the Holy Ground with your sandals on but later on we're going to find Moses in the mountain seeing the glory of God so completely
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that it nearly annihilates him and in fact when he goes into the special revelatory presence of God in the Tabernacle he has to put a veil over his face when he comes out it's too much for other people to Bear the reflected Glory
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so there are degrees to which God veils or unveils that and I would say it's no less true for us in our in our walk in the spirit there
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are times you think of the the histories of true revivals there are times where the spirit is very obviously revealed and glorified and there are times where frankly it's hard for us to find or to
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search out the signs of the spirit but we ought to be diligent to pursue him just as they were supposed to be diligent to follow the pillar and the cloud when it moved we ought to be
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looking for Visible expressions of the indwelling of God I think that's one of the things that we're we're seeing in Corinthians we're seeing in Peter is to say you have a
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responsibility you also have a great blessing you have a you have the the seed promise of both the indwelling spirit but you are the the beginnings of this great and
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glorious Revelation that is coming that is anticipated at that end and so as we look at that you know larger context those are the things that we ought to be
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bearing in mind I would I would say is the idea of the the creative activity of God and also the nature of what it is to be
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the church to be the temple of God to be indwelt by him
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I haven't lost anybody have I see some furrowed eyebrows have a go
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we like to parse it and put it on a timeline yep timeline yep it's not like that in the chapters it's totally interlinked yeah so
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that which will be completely revealed in the future it's bringing that forward and to realize that all of this applies to us to us even though we walk by faith or not yeah I appreciate that because that's
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that's what I'm trying to get at there is I think a lot of times we have a tendency to postpone those things as oh well that's coming in the future um we we with What's the phrase in in
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the province that we look for a A New Earth or a new um place in which righteousness dwells well the church is meant to be the place in which righteousness dwells this creative activity that will be as you say
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revealed at the final it's not like he's waiting until then to pop it out of the oven and drop it on us it's he is working now he is actively building and
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making this through the church and through his power we see the um you know again I'm not here and we have you know 15 20 minutes left I'm not going to be
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able to describe to you all of the intricacies of Revelation and and what John is doing there but I think sometimes we look at those things and we say okay well it has to be exactly this
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way and we're going to go ahead and we're going to measure out the qubits and we're going to build the city and the church that God is building the city that he is making is made up of living
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stones and I don't think that's any less true here than it is here I don't know exactly what the physical form will look like and what our relationship is to that as we are being
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shaped and molded but I know that we are a part of that reality that creation that is coming and so yes exactly what you're saying there Abigail is and and this is one of those things that
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challenges the mind when you're reading the the Prophecies of God and and what is sometimes called the now in the not yet but there are so many of those that are applicable both immediately to the
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time that they are given the the prophecies uh specifically to Israel and things that are going on there and yet we can also see a much larger longer eschatological bent of them but the
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point here is that we are not I shouldn't phrase it in the negative that we are now we the church are part
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of this making this new Heavens this new Earth that God is is crafting and intending for his glory for his dwelling for his uh blessing for his people and
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that the entire age of the church and you know my timeline is of course to um the entire age of the church there is a
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work of of Christ in in his role as Creator through the architect again of the spirit that indwells that everyone who has gone before and this is one of those things that I I
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think about sometimes is occasionally when you get discouraged or you you find yourself struggling with things I often find it's helpful to look
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back at just the breadth of the faithful who have gone before the the weight of all of that creation that
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that Christ has done that is visible up to you again I'm gonna get myself in trouble you know if we are here the weight of all of those who have
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been the creative expression of God through the spirit up till now all of those who have gone before who have sought his face who have manifested the spirit who have done all of those things
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it is a reassurance to me to look at that and say you know all of these people all of these hundreds and thousands of years that he has been Faithfully building crafting shaping
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and it's one of the things that annoys me uh you know as Chuck's been bringing out in the um Thursday night study is when somebody wants to say well you know we're here
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but back here boy they sure figured it out the creative activity of God has not ceased between those points the intention of God to to shape and to
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mold his living stones into a more perfect manifestation of his edifice has not ceased between those points forgetting what lies behind we press on not that we ignore church history
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because that would go against what I just literally said a minute ago my point being though we ought to be moving forward because we do live on the timeline and we Face
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Forward and we anticipate that Glory that is to come does that make sense so just in terms of recapping as we close
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out our study in our in our discussion of of God and and the Theology of God as Creator is the continued activity of the creator that
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we see him and we observe him in his Perfections putting a glorious and great creation into motion at the beginning but he has
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not ceased with it Chuck pointed out for us in one of our studies the fact that it almost immediately after he began this work of creation
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he makes a promise of a savior he makes a need a need that his creative activity will be tied up with and in fact when we think about that promise made to
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Eve the promise of a savior to come there is already a concept already an inkling of the people that will be called by God's name there's already an
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inkling of the idea of of God bridging that Gap uh closing the breach and making a way for man to again communicate with him to deal with him in
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and so he has built for himself a need that he then fulfills in the types and shadows as we move forward and and there's more of course to be said in terms of the Tabernacle and the temple and its types and shadows but
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we have seen a connection that runs backwards and forwards really go back to Abigail's point of the fluidity of some of these passages but when we look at the the temple the shape
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of that thing that John describes seeing in his prophetic vision
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it connects back to the cosmos as a whole the shape and the chambers and all of those things it connects to the implements that we see in the Tabernacle it connects to the
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intensified crafting of those implements and and Perfections that are manifested in the temple and I don't think that we are left out frankly as we've talked about this morning that we are not left
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out of a thinking about that closing Perfection the church is those those stones and that work started now
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not being appended not being at arm's length you know there's a there's a thought sometimes and maybe it comes from dispensationalism I think it probably just comes from a larger uh
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simplistic reading of Revelation which is to say you know I think sometimes we think about oh well he's Christ has gone to the right hand of the father and he's got an army of of Angels
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or or dead Builders maybe that's what what happens when you're a builder and you die you go to heaven and you build the mansions and you pave the streets and you you know you do those things and then it's going to come down at the end no what it is is it's right now it's the
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church being shaped
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change orders schedules behind schedules behind should just be another thousand years or
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practicing I tend to think of that righteousness in a very static sense but righteousness doesn't just you know exist as an entity but we are the
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righteous righteousness so I'm not sure that God has a whole lot more to do except punish the rebels which is the last verse of Isaiah right
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and Russian bodies well so this is you're you're absolutely right because this is the thing and Chuck pointed this out again in in Thursday night there's a tendency to think of this as the
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um oh well we've got to see X Y and Z events but we're also told that he will come as a thief in a night we're also told that at the time of his appearing it's not a
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long drawn out uh uh pantomime it is a it it happens in a moment but also to your point there and we talked about this a week or two ago
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talking thinking about the nature of God thinking about God as Creator these things are expressed in their relation to his creation his
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purpose to reveal his glory and and this is one of those things that we talked about in in the study as a whole but his purpose to show off and display his attributes is done in relation to his
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creatures similarly thinking about a new heavens and a new Earth in which righteousness dwells you're right it's not a static thing righteousness is expressed in relation to
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to um purification and Holiness it is expressed in relation to those moments and situations in which there is a uh a contrast a a
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you know when you think about someone being righteous it is because their behavior in a given situation could be opposite right but we are righteous in the sense that God has
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Justified us and made us righteous and again I'm trying to make the point here as we close it out is that the church is not a
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a stand-alone peace this is certainly not siled off and I've drawn a big heavy line there where I probably shouldn't have drawn a big heavy line but the church is not siled off from the other
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creative activity of God nor is it a a pocket that has nothing to do with Revelation 21 22 the church is the is the
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expression of the creative activity of of God through Jesus Christ building that final Revelation that final edifice that we will see as John sought again his being a
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prophetic Vision Lord willing we will all be there to see it in our resurrected bodies as it is
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um are there other questions or thoughts about that before we close this morning
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until I'll be reading Matthew 13 probably going to break it up but uh in three weeks I'll read this passage where he explains the parable of the tares and
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tares and something speaks to what you were just commenting on commenting on um because in verse 41 he simply says it's not a man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and Those
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who commit lawlessness and it says about what they're going to do to the wicked but then 43 then the righteous will shine forth that's the Son and the kingdom of their father
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very apps and you know you're seeing that straight from the words of Christ yeah unfortunately the Jews didn't understand what they were hearing right but we see that the righteous are in the Kingdom or
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the weak is growing right and he specifically says don't damage the weed
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right and I think that's that's very helpful thank you because that's that's what I'm trying to get at often is people and you know this was brought out in the sermon series in Matthew as well but
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people often think of oh the kingdom of as being confined to that end that
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manifestation of its final Victory and subjugation of all its enemies but the kingdom is in fact
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there so yes that's that's helpful thank you um exactly that and so again to our to our Point our understanding obviously we spent more weeks here than we did there
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but these things are types and shadows intended to help us see and understand and I want us to to take that away as we go out from this study which is
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our corporate responsibility to righteousness to Holiness that we've read in Corinthians that we've read in Peter is related to the creative activity of God in building his church in building his temple in manifesting
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his glory before the Nations and so and so while there are truths of personal responsibility and personal sanctification and all of those other
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glorious things that we've talked about those are in Paul those are in Peter those are in Hebrews but don't forget your
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place might be the right way to say it in the church you are a living Stone fitted together with other living stones to build the temple The Dwelling Place of God and your responsibility to
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obey the word as as Peter phrased it or to be upright and pursue Holiness as Paul phrases it those things are responsibility not just between you and
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God but between you and the Temple of which you are a part of which you are a member to borrow Paul's language and so those things again we we touched on a little bit last week thinking about the
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the institution of the church and how we deal with the nominations and and some of those things but there is a real and true church Universal that is the expression of God
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perfecting his Dwelling Place making that place in which he will dwell and be pleased to dwell forever
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there are no more questions or comments on that we'll close in prayer as we wrap up this morning Our Father we do thank you for your glorious revelation we thank you that
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you did purpose to make a people to be called by your name we thank you further that we could be called into that people we who were far off have been brought
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near we who were without Mercy have been given Mercy we who are not a people are now your people and you are our God and Father we thank you we praise you we cannot possibly thank
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you enough for the Glorious reality of that truth that truth and we hope father as we assemble and we ask your blessing on us that it may be true that as we go before you as a body
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that our spiritual service of worship might be acceptable in your sight that our sacrifices would be anointed by the interceding spirit to be a pleasing Aroma and a soothing offering before you
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this morning we ask that you would be glorified in us and that your glory would be evident to those around us that you would have your perfect work through the diligent application of your
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word in song in prayer in public reading and in the preaching of the word we ask all of these things in Jesus name and for his glory amen