Saturday, July 07, 2007

 

The Holy of Holies and The Temple of the Holy Spirit.

Andrew Murray wrote “In using the illustration of the Temple as the type of God's dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit, Scripture invites us to study the analogy. The Temple was made in all things according to a pattern seen by Moses on the Mount, a shadow cast by the Eternal Spiritual Realities which it was to symbolize. One of these realities-for Divine Truth is exceeding rich and full and has many and very diverse applications-One of these realities shadowed forth by the Temple, is man's threefold nature. Because man was created in the image of God, the Temple is not only the setting forth of the mystery of man's approach into the presence of God, but equally of God's way of entering into man, to take up His abode with him.
We are familiar with the division of the Temple into three parts. There was its exterior, seen by all men, with the outer court, in to which every Israelite might enter, and where all the external religious service was performed. There was the Holy Place, into which alone the priests might enter, to present to God the blood or the incense, the bread or the oil, they had brought from without. But though near, they were still not within the veil; into the immediate presence of God they might not come. God dwelt in the Holiest of all,in a light inaccessible, where none might venture nigh. The momentary entering of the High Priest once a year was but to bring into full consciousness the truth that there was no place for man there, until the veil should have been rent and taken away.
Man is God's temple. In him, too, there are the three parts. In the body you have the outer court, the external visible life, where all the conduct has to be regulated by God's law, and where all the service consists in looking to that which is done without us and for us to bring us nigh to God. Then there is the soul, with its inner life, its power of mind and feeling and will. In the regenerate man this is the Holy Place, where thoughts and affections and desires move to and fro as the priests of the sanctuary, rendering God their service in the full light of consciousness. And then comes within the veil, hidden from all human sight and light, the hidden inmost sanctuary, ' the secret place of the Most High,' where God dwells, and where man may not enter, until the veil is rent at God's own bidding.
Man has not only body and soul, but also spirit. Deeper down than where the soul with its consciousness can enter, there is a spirit-nature linking man with God.”
“The most sacred part of the Temple, that for which all the rest existed and on which all depended, was the Holiest of all. Even though the priests might never enter there, and might never see the glory that dwelt there, all their conduct was regulated, and all their faith animated, by the thought of the unseen Presence there. It was this that gave the sprinkling of the blood and the burning of the incense their value. It was this made it a privilege to draw nigh, and gave confidence to go out and bless. It was the Most Holy, the Holiest of all, that made the place of their serving to them a Holy Place. Their whole life was controlled and inspired by the faith of the unseen indwelling glory within the veil.
It is not otherwise with the believer. Until he learns by faith to tremble in presence of the wondrous mystery that he is God's temple, because God's Spirit dwelleth in him, he never will yield himself to his high vocation with the holy reverence or the joyful confidence that becomes him.”
The truth of the Indwelling of the Spirit of God is useful to us in a few ways.
From this truth we can learn our paternity.
Paternity suites are all the rage. Nowadays with DNA testing its possible to know if someone is realy your child. Do you remember the man who appeared on the Current Affairs shows because he had just discovered that none of his three children were actually his? You can tell whether you have really been born again by testing whether the Spirit iof God truly lives in the Holy of Holies of your life.
Robert Haldane in his commentary on romans writes “Here and in the following verses the Apostle exhibits four proofs of our being the sons of God. The first is our being led by the Spirit of God; the second is the Spirit of adoption which we receive, crying, ‘Abba, Father,’ verse 15; the third is the witness of the Spirit with our spirits, verse 16; the fourth is our sufferings in the communion of Jesus Christ; to which is joined the fruit of our sonship, the Apostle saying that if children we are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”
1. Are You Amazed At The Glory of God In Our Spirit?1 Corinthians 6: 15 Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? So should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Absolutely not! 16 Do you not know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, The two will become one flesh. 17 But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality! “Every sin a person can commit is outside the body,” but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
Lust wages war against the soul. 1 Peter 2:11
Immorality.. joining flesh to flesh one flesh, not only unites one to another violating the marriage covenant, but it also places a hindrance to the spirit.
Thus, an elder must be a one womaned man (1 Tim 3), otherwise through immorality, he is devoid of relationship with God the Holy Spirit in his spirit. That is why the bible makes a big deal about immorality.
John 17: 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:
Romans 8: 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Does the Spirit of God truly dwell in you?
Well.. you could tell at the last day when the dead are raised. That may be a little late to know then. When the Lord Jesus returns in Glory will your body be raised from physical death with a brand new eternal body fitted to live together with the Lord in heaven?
But there are other tests to see if you are truly born of God. Does the Spirit of God dwell in the Holy Place of your life?

2. Are You Addressed By The Guidance of God In Your Spirit?

Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Like in vs 11, the indwelling of the Spirit affects not only the soul as well as the spirit of the believer, but also one day his body.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Does the Spirit of God have a truly sanctifying influence on your Spirit. Sanctification is an inside out thing. It begins on the inside. God changes you from within, and the inside changes wrought by the Spirit of God, start to change your outward demeanor towards others. If there is no change in your outward demeanor, then there is no inward change by the Spirit of God.
Sometimes we try and force our outward demeanor to change.
We read Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
We try and work up some patience. We try and work up some kindness. We think “If I try hard enough I can love some believers, not all, but maybe just enough to get a pass mark into heaven”
No, it doesn’t say there that the fruit of Steve’s concentrated efforts will be the moral qualities of love joy peace patience etc. It says the Fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience etc.
Its an inward thing that comes out in our outward relationships. In all of our outward relationships.
Are you lead by the Spirit of God to develop these inward qualities. I guess there is cooperating with the Spirit of God for that to happen Gal 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.
We have to walk by the Spirit. We choose to do this. But we are choosing by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body! We put to death those things : BY the Spirit.
As we read the word of God, the Holy Spirit gives us desires to change in areas of our character all through our lives. He humbles us for our sins, and then encourages us to surrender to him, to not live in rebellion towards God, and to put to death the deeds of our flesh.
Are you led by the Spirit this way? Andrew Murray” The activity of the believer is the evidence of the Spirit’s activity and the activity of the Spirit is the cause of the believer’s activity.”
Are you truly born of God?
3. Are You Assured by The Grace Of God In Your Spirit?
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “ Abba, Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,
Haldane “It is of the greatest importance to believers to be assured that they are indeed the sons of God. Without a measure of this assurance they cannot serve Him with love in newness of spirit.”
A spirit of bondage must belong to all who are not acquainted with God’s method of salvation. The spirit of bondage is the effect of the law, which, manifesting his sinfulness to man, and the fearful wrath of God, makes him tremble under the apprehension of its curse.
Adoption is not a work of grace in us, but an act of God’s grace without us. According to the original word, it signifies putting among children. It is taking those who were by nature children of wrath from the family of Satan, to which they originally belonged, into the family of God. By union with Jesus Christ, being joined with Him, we are one body, and we enter into the communion of His righteousness, and of His title as the Son of God..”
The term adoption is borrowed from the ancient custom, especially prevalent among the Romans, of a man who had no children of his own adopting into his family the child of another. The father and the adopted child appeared before the praetor, when the adopting father said to the child, Wilt thou be my son? and the child answered, I will. The allusion to this custom reminds believers that they are not the children of God otherwise than by His free and voluntary election, and that thus they are under far more powerful obligations to serve Him than are their own children to obey them, since it is entirely by His love and free good pleasure that they have been elevated to this dignity.
The items of furniture in the Holy Place all contribute to the comfort and communion we experience through the assurance of our sonship:
The ark of the covenant where we plead the blood.
Galatians 6:14 But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
1 Corinthians 2:1 When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Propitiation Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. Or as a propitiatory sacrifice, or as an offering of atonement, or as a mercy seat; see The word propitiation has to do with the removal of divine wrath. Jesus’ death is the means that turns God’s wrath from the sinner.
Within the ark were the two stone tablets on which were inscribed the ten commandments! Every time we sinned we know we have broken those ten commandments. But over the top of them once a year was poured out blood, the blood of the atonement offering. And God cannot see the breaches of the ten commandments of which we are so guilty. But there was a greater atonement made” John the Baptiost knew it when he cried out “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” The Lord Jesus’ blood has been poured out, and now the wrath of God cannot see our breaches of the ten commandments. We are pardoned, the atonement has been made.

We come to the place of assurance knowing that there is a full atonement for all of our sins in the shed blood of the Saviour. We stand in grace Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
We know that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus! With Wesley we can sing: “No Condemnation now I dread, Jesus and all in Him is mine, alive in Him my living head, and clothed with righteousness Divine.” It is the Spirit of God who reveals the basis of our communion with God to us : the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God says the words of absolution 1 John 1:7 and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

The mercy seat where we cry “Father”.

The Mercy seat, which is the gold plate that sat over the ark of the covenant is a reminder that we are sinners, needing mercy and grace Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.
Heb 9:5The cherubim of glory were above it overshadowing the mercy seat. It is not possible to speak about these things in detail right now.
Cherubim Genesis 3 :24 He drove man out, and east of the garden of Eden He stationed • cherubim with a flaming, whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
Man driven outside of the dwelling place with God in the Garden of Eden,
They are being reminded that God dwells in heaven the Holy place, and they are sinners needing mercy.
Empty tomb, 2 cherubim. The women are greeted by 2 angels. You will approach me in presence of the angels who were to drive out sinners, now to protect and minister for us. Hebrews 1: 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are going to inherit salvation?
We now know and sing with Wesley “ Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own”

4. Are You Attuned To The Groanings Of God in Your Spirit?Romans 8:23 And not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the • firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:26 In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.
There are unbelieving alternatives in the world to the groaning that we are called to here. One is to rage, challenge, revolt; to insist on having one's rights, fight against all the restrictions, and grab the world by the throat and make it do what you want it to do. But it never works. No one is ever capable of banishing suffering. Another unbelieving option is to withdraw into some kind of mystical experience in which you can imagine yourself floating above the world, disengaged from the world and its suffering, perhaps by the use of drugs or by some tough shell that you pull around yourself. Remember Paul Simon's lyrics: I am a rock, I am an island... And a rock feels no pain, And an island never cries.
It is saying, "I will refuse to let this world touch me." But that doesn't work either.
What we are called to do as Christians is to recognize that between now and the end there are going to be difficulties, some of which can be profoundly hurtful. But we will groan in them, sigh, heartsick about a world dominated by sin. We will feel the hurt, and are certain of the companionship of Christ.
But there is more than just the groanings that all the world feels with our corrupting bodies in our corrupting world. There is a deeper sense of groaning tha only the Spirit of God wroughts within us.
There is the desire for the heavenly culmination : Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
There is an inward homing instinct for heaven in every believer. An inward homing instinct that always draws us on from this world.
If you find content by the things you accumulate or the positions you attain in this world, there is every likelihood that you are not ready for eternity. You may not have the Spirit of God in you leading you on to your eternal home.
And then secondly The Spirit of God groans within us leading us to prayer.
Ray Stedman wrote “Prayer, I think, is the most distinctive mark of a Christian. If you don't pray, or have any desire for prayer, then it is very likely that is a sign that you are not a Christian at all, because, as the poet has put it, "Prayer is the Christian's native breath." And we can't live without praying -- it is the simplest and best expression that we have of our sense of dependence upon God.
There are some who tell us that this means a special manifestation of the Spirit, such as tongues or ecstatic cries that come from the heart, and there is a movement abroad today to revive the gifts and signs of the gifts of the Spirit. No, Paul specifically says that the praying of the Spirit is too deep for words -- or utterance -- it is unuttered, it cannot be expressed. It is felt only in the heart; it never comes to the surface of the lips; it never can be expressed. In other words, these are those deep yearnings of the soul that all of us feel at times for more of God for ourselves, or, perhaps, for someone else. This what we often call "a burden."
Have you ever sensed a burden in your life for prayer for your own needs or someone else's needs? Well, this is what Paul is talking about. This is the cry of the Spirit within for something more, something deeper, something more precious, something more satisfying than our present experiences -- and it is always according to the will of God, as the apostle says. In other words, the job of the Spirit of God in your life is to keep you pressing on, so that you don't settle down and become satisfied. Now isn't the time to be satisfied.
Have you ever noticed that men and women of God, both in the Word of God and in the history of the church, have been hungering and thirsting after more? There will come a day when we are going to be satisfied, when we will awake in his likeness, but down here there is never any resting place.



Andrew Murray “Most Holy God! in adoring wonder I bow before Thee in presence of this wondrous mystery of grace: my spirit, soul, and body Thy temple. In deep silence and worship I accept the blessed revelation, that in me too there is a Holiest of all, and that there Thy hidden Glory has its abode.
0 my God, forgive me that I have so little known it. I do now tremblingly accept the blessed truth: God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who is God Almighty, dwells in me. 0 my Father, reveal within what it means, lest I sin against Thee by saying it and not living it. Blessed Jesus! to Thee, who sittest upon the throne, I yield my whole being. In Thee I trust to rise up in power and have dominion within me.
In Thee I believe for the full 'Streaming forth of the living waters.
Blessed Spirit! Holy Teacher! Mighty Sanctifier! Thou art within me. On Thee do I wait all the day. I belong to Thee. Take entire possession of me for the Father and the Son Amen.”





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