Assembly as a temple

1st Corinthians chapter 3 and then we will have some readings again in the Old Testament and again I will ask you to keep your finger or mark the page in 1st Corinthians 3 we'll come back to that and it will be our main text. In 1st Corinthians chapter 3 the Apostle gives us a couple of metaphors or pictures of the local church. One of them is the idea, well it's termed in our King James God's husbandry, the idea of a tilled or a cultivated field.

And in the cultivated field there is to be planting and there is to be watering. And then the second illustration that he uses for the local church is a building and when he's talking about the building he wants us to think about the materials that we use in this building. And then he specifies a particular type of building and it's the temple.

So you remember this morning when we looked at 1st Corinthians chapter 6 we looked at the believer's body as a temple and the temple is the place where God dwells. Now from 1st Corinthians chapter 3 we're going to notice that the local church, the local assembly is also called the temple of God because the Spirit of God dwells there. 1st Corinthians 3 verse number 10.

According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed, be careful how he builds thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that has laid which is Jesus Christ.

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet so as through fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defile the temple of God or if any man destroy the temple of God him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy which temple ye are.

Verse 21, therefore let no man glory in men. Look at verse 16, ye are the temple of God and the word ye is a plural word. So he's speaking all of you, all of you in the church of God at Corinth to whom he was writing, all of you.

But the word temple is a singular word. So although in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 the body of every believer is spoken of as the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3 is not just looking at a collection of temples.

He doesn't say you are the temples, but you as a group are a single temple. You the corporate entity, this group of people that make up the church of God at Corinth, you are the temple of God. So the local church, the assembly is being pictured as a temple.

So keep your finger there, mark the page and we'll go back again to Chronicles and to gain some principles from 1 Chronicles chapter 29. This is near the end of David's life and he is charging Solomon and charging the people in regards to the construction of the temple, the house of God. Beautiful words in this chapter, 1 Chronicles 29 verse 1. Furthermore, David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen is yet young and tender and the work is great.

For the palace, that's a reference to the temple, is not for man, but for the Lord God. Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God, the gold for things to be made of gold and the silver for things of silver and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron and wood for things of wood, onyx stones and stones to be set, glistering or glistening stones and of diverse colors and all manner of precious stones and marble stones in abundance. Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God.

I think that's a beautiful phrase. I have set my affection to the house of my God. I have set of my own proper good of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house.

Even 3000 talents of gold of the gold of Ophir and 7000 talents of refined silver to overlay the walls of the house with all the gold for the things of gold and the silver for the things of silver and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of artificers. Now, notice the context of this question that comes. It's in the context of building the house.

Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord? Then the chief of the fathers and princess of the tribes of Israel and the captains of thousands and hundreds with the rulers of the king's work offered willingly and gave for the service of the house of God of gold. 5000 talents and 10,000 drams and of silver, 10,000 talents and of brass, 18,000 talents and 100,000 talents of iron, and they with whom precious stones were found, gave them to the treasure of the house of the Lord by the hand of J. He held the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced for that they offered willingly because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord.

And David, the king, also rejoiced with great joy. Verse 16, Oh, Lord, our God, all this store that we have prepared to build the house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand and is all thine own. Second Chronicles, Chapter six.

The temple has been completed, the ark has been brought in, and Solomon is now praying to God. Notice the end of Second Chronicles six, a peculiar expression in verse 41. Now, therefore, arise, oh, Lord God, into thy resting place.

It's not very often you would hear men giving directions to the Lord, but he says, Now, therefore, arise, oh, Lord God, into thy resting place. Finally, Chapter seven, verse 12. And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.

Verse 16, For now have I chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. The heart of the Lord in the temple. Come back to First Corinthians, Chapter three.

Try to emphasize this morning that the temple conveys the dwelling place of God and Solomon has spoken beautiful words there in Second Chronicles, Chapter six. Arise, oh, Lord, into thy resting place. And in Chapter seven, the Lord says to Solomon, I have chosen this house that my name may be there forever.

And so because his name is in the temple, there are a couple of other principles that are conveyed as well. It is to be a house of beauty and glory, not for the glory of men, but for the glory of God. We thought of that in relation to the temple this morning.

But there is also the principle of holiness. So it said in Chapter twenty nine that they are building a house for your holy name. And we have in First Corinthians, Chapter three, the temple is a metaphor for the local church.

So it's not surprising that he says the local church is to be holy. The temple of God is holy. Which temple you are.

But the temple is also supposed to make us think about sacrifice. Sacrifice was foundational to the temple we thought of this morning. And in the temple, there were loads and loads of animal sacrifices that they offered.

But I want you to think about as well the sacrifices that were involved in the building of this temple and its construction. We read in First Chronicles twenty nine that David and the people gave willingly and they offered with a pure heart and they gave their own gold and silver and precious stones to build the house of God. So that's what we're going to think about.

First of all, is building into the temple. Remembering that the temple is a metaphor for the local church in First Corinthians three. And it says in First Corinthians three, verse ten, take heed, be careful how you build.

And verse twelve, if any man builds upon this foundation, many lessons you could learn from the building of the temple and apply them to the local church. First of all, just the fact that there is a need of of work to be done and a need to build. David says to Solomon, arise and work, arise and build.

The Lord be with you. I have taken pains to prepare this house. You must add to it arise and work.

And maybe older believers could say the same thing to younger believers. They have been building into the local church, the temple of God, and they could say that they have taken great pains as they have labored for years to build up a testimony for the Lord. And now they would say to us who are younger, now you arise up and build.

The Lord be with you. Arise and work. There is work to be done in building up the local church.

There is also the lesson of variety of work in the temple because there were a great number of jobs to do in building this temple. And so David says to Solomon, you have an abundance of workmen. And so there are an abundance of believers here today.

And we are called to different ministries, yet each of us with the ability that God has given us, with the variety that God has placed in the church, there is opportunity for each of us to be engaged in building in a variety of ways. But I want to think firstly and especially of motivation, the motivation in building and contributing to the temple. And think of the wonderful words that we read in First Chronicles 29.

Listen to the terms that were used. David says, because I have set my affection to the house of my God. Then in the context of building for the house, David says, who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord to build this temple? Then this says they offered willingly and they gave for the service of the house of God.

Then it says the people rejoiced because with a perfect heart they gave willingly to the Lord. I think we've got some lessons to learn from those people, lessons to learn from David and Solomon and those that built under them because we're called to build into the temple of the local church. And they were committed to these building projects from their hearts and their willingness to give to the building of the temple.

Stem from their devotion and their consecration to the Lord himself, because they understood that the temple of God is where their Lord God was going to dwell. So the house of God was worthy of their devoted service. Now, the New Testament church.

The local church is called the temple of God. And as the temple of God was for God's dwelling and God's glory in the Old Testament, it is the same in the New Testament. And so we read in first first Corinthians three and twenty one.

Let no man glory in men. And a key verse of first Corinthians is chapter one, verse twenty nine, that says no flesh should glory in the presence of the Lord. The local church isn't to be a place where we build for our own glory, not a place where we build for the glory of others that we want to exalt.

That was a very problem that they were encountering in Corinth. The wisdom of the world that had defiled that local church was an obsession with the glory of men. But how beautiful a temple the local church would be if we built like they built in first Chronicles twenty nine.

With love and affection for the house of my God, with willingness and with consecration, with perfect hearts, pure motives. A willingness to make sacrifices, to give of our own, to make quality investments, they gave gold and silver and precious stones for the sake of this house. And first first Corinthians three, God tells us that he values the same in his temple today.

Let's think about those gold and silver and precious stones for a moment. Look at it in verse number twelve of first Corinthians three. If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.

Now, remember, when I'm talking about building in the local church, remember that I'm not talking about the physical structure, not talking about the gospel hall. The people in the fellowship, they are the temple. And as this Old Testament temple needed to be constructed as a testimony to the Lord's name, so the local church is to be built up and strengthened as a testimony for the Lord's name.

Now, there are spiritual lessons to learn from these materials. And then the materials that are listed in verse twelve basically divide into two categories. You've got gold, silver and precious stones.

Things that are permanent, things that are costly, things that are of high quality, things that will last. The gold and the silver and the precious stones. And then you've got the wood and the hay and the stubble.

It's temporary. The fire will consume it. It's not going to last.

It's not as costly. So God is challenging us as to what we are putting into the church of God. And what our motives are as we try to build up in the local assembly.

And the lesson from the Old Testament is that we do it for the Lord and we do it with commitment to his house. Because they recognized that the house of God was worthy of their investment because of the God who was going to dwell in that house. If you read through First Chronicles 29, you see a people that were in awe of the greatness of their God.

And they wondered that they had the privilege to be able to build and contribute to this house. It was such an opportunity. They were overwhelmed with it.

And so they willingly gave and they gave with a perfect heart and they rejoiced at the opportunity they had to build for God. And I wonder what our attitude is towards building and contributing in the local assembly. I'd love us if we could just try and capture the value of the temple.

I want us just to see what the value of the local church is to God. If we grasped its worth, maybe we would be more committed builders. Mr. Smith said this morning that the devil has a sense of how valuable the local church is and he tries to undermine it.

But we should also get a sense of how valuable it is. Now, you might say, okay, that's maybe fine about some places. But like the assembly that I'm a part of, we're very small.

And we're very weak. There's not a whole lot of spiritual gift here. I mean, how valuable is it really in the grand scheme of things? You see, that's when we've got to understand its character as the house of a great God.

It's the dwelling place of a great God. And we need to see its spiritual nature as a costly temple for the Lord. The beauty and the majesty of Solomon's temple was not so much in the size of it.

It was a fairly good-sized building, but it wasn't massive. The majesty of Solomon's temple was not in the size of it, but in the material that went into it. I find it very remarkable that the New Testament gives us very little light on how big the churches of the New Testament were.

It doesn't tell us how many were in them, whether it was 200 or 400 or 26. It doesn't say. Now, yes, we would all love to see more people added to local assemblies.

But God isn't really asking you to build a megachurch. God isn't asking you to build a megachurch, but he is asking us to put in gold and silver and precious stones because it's valuable. I could give you a little comparison of the value of Solomon's temple just as a lesson, something that we could apply spiritually.

It involved, I said this morning, it involved massive, massive, massive amounts of gold. And lots of labor to carry up these huge white marble stones up the mount to where the temple was going to be built. And the silver and the precious stones, but especially large quantities of gold.

And I take the figures that are given in Chronicles, I take them literally. And one of the reasons that it would have such a high dollar value today is because the price of gold is worth a lot today, $1,500 an ounce. I don't know if you travel to Las Vegas very often, you maybe don't, but the MGM Grand City Center just built in Las Vegas not long ago cost $9 billion.

They've got their own fire station, their own power plant right there, $9 billion. There's a water transfer project being built in China that's not going to be done until about 2050. They estimate it's going to cost about $62 billion.

The International Space Station cost about $115 billion. Solomon's Temple in present day value, when you count the labor, the stones, and especially the gold, would be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Hundreds of billions of dollars.

And all of that was so that they could put inside of it a little box, a little chest called the Ark of the Covenant. Because that ark represented God's presence. And because God was going to dwell there, they said it is worth it and will give gold and more gold and silver and precious stones because this needs to be a place that is worthy of God.

Now the local church is the temple and he said the local assembly is worthy of our consecrated service because it is the temple of God, the dwelling place of God. And our God is a great God. At the forefront of the apostles' mind likely in 1 Corinthians 3 about building and how we build is likely a reference to teaching in the local church.

We build into the temple by good teaching. I'm not going to limit it to that but just try and focus with me for a moment and see the context. Because one of the problems that they had in the church in Corinth was the wisdom of the world.

And their obsession with it and their glorying in men of eloquent speech and worldly wisdom. And these men in their teaching brought in this worldly wisdom into the church of God. And the apostle says, remember, I planted with the word of God.

And Apollos watered with the word of God. And now other men need to build further but make sure they're careful how they build. Make sure you're careful about what is taught.

That needs to be teaching that is going to help build the church strong, that is going to help it last. So there's a special relevance of 1 Corinthians 3 to brothers who would handle the word publicly in the assembly. Now that's a very frightening thing to say when one is standing behind the pulpit.

I know that. But let's think for a moment about teaching in the local church. Because there's probably a great number of brothers here who sometimes you would minister and preach the word in the local assembly.

So one thing we've got to challenge ourselves on is what we teach. The quality of the teaching. Is the teaching that is being given, is it gold, silver, and precious stones? In other words, is it good doctrine? Is it pure teaching or is it teaching that is corrupted by the thinking of the world? Is it influenced by questionable sources? Is it teaching that's going to help build the assembly stronger? Remember chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians says that the purpose of all ministry is to edify, to build up the church.

Is my ministry gold and silver and precious stones? Or have I just brought wood, hay, and stubble? It also raises the question of our motive and how we teach. Part of the concept of gold and silver and precious stones is the issue of the motivation behind the teaching. And if it's not a pure motive, he says, it's going to be burned up at the judgment seat.

Now this is very self-condemning because I'll readily confess to you that not every word that I have always spoken in opening the word of God publicly, it's not always been given with a pure motive. I might have had a bit of a sideways motive at times. And I give it under the guise of trying to build up and I might have been saying something that was really an attack at somebody else.

Have you ever done that? Is the teaching always intended to build up? Or are you trying to tear somebody down? I'm not saying there can't be correction. There must be correction. But even the correction is given with the objective of edifying.

So there's the issue of our motive. There's the issue of whether it is good teaching, good doctrine. But he also raises another point.

And that is that the building and the teaching, it must be consistent with the foundation. Look at verse 10. I laid the foundation, another builds.

Verse 12. If any man builds upon this foundation. He's stressing the foundation.

And he says the only foundation for the church of God is Jesus Christ. And the building then must take its character from that foundation. It must be consistent with Jesus Christ.

And the teaching that he and his apostles have given is the teaching biblical. Is it sound doctrine? Would the Lord teach what I teach? Would the Lord suggest what I suggest? The teaching in the church is very important. Make sure that it's gold and silver and precious stones.

Be careful how you build on the foundation of a holy temple. But I do think the apostle Paul had more in mind than just public preaching. Because the teaching in a local assembly is not just given by a man behind a pulpit.

Remember Titus chapter 2. It says older women are to teach younger women. And all of us are teaching by our example and by the way that we live. And 30-year-olds look up to 40-year-olds.

And 10-year-olds look up to 15-year-olds. It's just the automatic process. So all of us are setting an example.

I may try to give good doctrine and then I might destroy its usefulness by the way that I live. So the way in which we build, the way in which we build must be broader than just the teaching. It's the aspects of my life, my behavior.

And is my life, is my behavior of such a character that I am contributing to strengthening and building up the local church? Am I like those of 1 Chronicles 29 who are giving gold and silver and precious stones, contributing it willingly? Does my life reflect the value of the house? Does my devotion reflect the value of the temple in God's eyes? Am I committed to building up this temple of God? Let me give you two reasons for building and investing into the local church. One of them is specified in verse number 14. If any man's work abide, he shall receive a reward.

God will reward you for your building. We should make sure we capture the full metaphor of the materials in this building. Just imagine for a moment an ancient city with many buildings.

And some of those buildings have been built with costly materials, beautiful materials of gold, silver and precious stones. They have been built to last. And there are other buildings in that city that have been built of wood and hay and stubble.

And one day a fire suddenly arises and rages through that city. And as the fire quickly moves through that city, all of those buildings that are wood, hay and stubble are destroyed and there's nothing left. But the buildings that were built with quality investment, they remain.

So it says in verse 13, the day will declare it. It will be revealed by fire. No life was lost in this fire.

Verse 15, the individual is saved but his building is gone. Now here's the application for our lives. We can teach and we can live in such a way in relation to the local church in two ways.

We can build into it with a costly investment that is going to abide and that is going to contribute to a permanent testimony, gold, silver, precious stones. Or we can invest wood, hay and stubble and we can have our motives that are wrong. Verse 13 says, the day will declare it.

The day of fire is a reference to the judgment seat of Christ. And the judgment seat of Christ will reveal what I have truly contributed. Now there's no loss of salvation.

I am saved so as through fire. The wood and the hay and the stubble is burned up. I would lose reward but I would be saved.

But if I have invested gold and silver and precious stones, that will abide. It will remain and God will reward it because he values contributions for his house. Let's invest like David invested with affection knowing that God will reward us.

A second reason that we should build into the house of God is because the church of God by its nature is worthy of our commitment. Because it is the dwelling place of God. The temple of God is very precious to God.

It's very valuable. Remember the words in 2 Chronicles 7. He said about the temple, my eyes and my heart will be there forever. That's an amazing thing for God to say.

My heart will be there forever. Beloved, if God's heart is in the temple, shouldn't our heart be there too? And the temple is the local church. And the God of the temple is a great God.

And in this temple, in this church, he has chosen to place his name. So we have thought about building into the temple of God, the church of God. Now I want to think specifically of the church or the temple as a place of his dwelling.

The place of his dwelling. Remember that we are talking about the church as a place but we're not referring to the building. I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity just to sit down and break bread with a group of Christians in very humble, very common circumstances.

But there can be something especially sweet about it. God doesn't ask us to build big, beautiful buildings for his name. Physical structures.

I'm not opposed to having a nice hall. I suppose I would be opposed to something that's extravagant. The place of God's dwelling is the temple.

And in the New Testament, the temple is the people. The Spirit of God dwells in the church, that is to say, he dwells in this living fellowship. Now there is obviously a distinction between the omnipresent Lord who is present everywhere and his residing and his dwelling in a particular company, a local church.

There must be some difference. He's saying the local church is something special. It's not just now a collection of temples, the temples of 1 Corinthians chapter 6, but the local church itself is a temple in a distinct way.

A unique dwelling place of God. Think of it in the Old Testament. I mean, God has eternally been omnipresent.

There is no corner of the world that God is not present. But when that temple was built, Solomon says, now arise into your resting place. And he takes up his residence and he dwells in the temple in a peculiar way.

And it says that he puts his name there and he says to Solomon, I have chosen this place for myself. I have chosen it as a house of sacrifice. I have chosen that my name might be there forever and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually in this house.

And now the local church is the house. The name represents the person, his manifested character. To say that his name will dwell there is to say that the Lord resides there in a special way.

He has put his name in the temple. 1 Corinthians 3, the New Testament church is the temple. And if the temple was the place where God chose for his name to dwell, then God is saying that in a local church of God, his name and his heart is there in a special way.

It's valuable to God. You can see why the text of Matthew 18 and 20 is so often cited. I know sometimes it can be quoted very lightly or very glibly, but Matthew 18 and 20 says where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

And for that statement to mean anything, it must mean more than just because there's some believers meeting or believers hanging out together. 1 Corinthians 18, the context of it is the very first mention of a local church. And there is a significance to these few that are gathered together in his name.

It's a local church. And his name is dwelling there in a special way. The church of God is the house of God, is the temple of God, and his name is dwelling there.

You can see then why the church of God is a special place, worthy of our building. He's placed his name there. And where his name is, he says, his heart and his eyes are there.

Now sometimes when we talk like this, people will ask a very logical question. They'll say, well, is his name in only one place? Does he only dwell in one place? Well, this is when we've got to see a difference from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And in the Old Testament, there was one city, Jerusalem, one temple.

That was the only geographic place on the face of the earth where he had caused his name to dwell. In a geographic center, in a temple in Jerusalem, that's the only place that his name was. In the New Testament, he hasn't tied his name to a geographic place.

He has tied his name to a concept, if I could say that. He has tied his name, his presence, to the church of God. And there is a church of God that meets here in Garnevillo.

Now I am part of a different church of God that meets at the North Street Gospel Hall in Halifax. His name is here in the church of God, in the temple of God in Garnevillo. And his name is there in the church of God where I meet at North Street Gospel Hall in Halifax.

Not tied then just to one physical geographic place. But he dwells in the local church, a church of God. So 1 Corinthians begins, Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, and with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, with truth that is relevant to every church of God.

He dwells in a special way. And if the church is the place where his name dwells, then there are a couple of things that flow from that. Number one, it must be a place that is reserved for his glory.

And number two, it must be a holy place. 1 Chronicles 29, a house for your holy name. 1 Corinthians 3, the temple of God is holy.

Which temple you are. Number one, building into the temple the church of God. Number two, the temple is a distinct dwelling place of God and the dwelling place of his name.

Thirdly, and very briefly, the holiness of the temple. Look at verse 17. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

It's very strong language, isn't it? God is very concerned for the glory of his name. Now the word translated defile and the word translated destroy are the same word. There is an intended parallelism that has been lost a little bit in our translation.

I'm not 100% sure which English word exactly should be used, but the point is this, that the way in which God responds is according to the damage that that individual has caused. Why is it so severe? Because that church is a temple of God and the temple of God is holy because his name is there. Well, who would do such a thing as destroy the temple of God? Well, there are certainly indications in Corinthians that natural men, unbelievers would have played a role in that, that had been in the company.

But I think also there is an application to carnal believers that would have done the same. And I would suggest to you that in the context of 1 Corinthians 3, the way the temple of God was being corrupted was in three related ways. It was being corrupted by wrong teaching, bad doctrine, by that worldly wisdom, and by division.

And you notice the beginning of 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and it speaks about the divisions and the envying and the strife, and that was flowing from that worldly wisdom. And they were maybe latching on to one individual's teaching and someone else latches on to another individual's teaching, and they were sowing seeds of division, and that was corrupting the church because God hates division in His church. He wants to see the people unitedly building together for the glory of His name.

You, the local church, are the temple of God. God is worthy of a great dwelling place. So like David said to Solomon, Arise and build, the Lord says to us, Rise up and build, rise up and work.

Build up this local church. Build with gold and silver and precious stones. Take care of the teaching.

Make sure it's consistent with the foundation. Make sure we give it with the right motive. Let all of us live lives that are contributing to the building up of this temple.

Make it beautiful for God. Make it last for God. Do it for the glory of the name of God.

And do it like the people in 1 Chronicles 29. The privilege and the joy of giving and helping and contributing to the building of the house. Look at verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 3. Paul is very wise.

He says, According to the grace of God which is given unto me, I have laid the foundation. Paul knew it was by God's grace. And he says, This gracious God has allowed me to work in this building.

Let us build with the same attitude. That we've been given the privilege and the opportunity to help to build a house for His holy name.