What Does, “God Will Destroy You,” Mean?

Do you not know that you are the temple of God? 1 Corinthians 3.16, we can put that on the screen too. Do you not know that you are the temple of God? Man, if you are believers, if you are a Christian, did you know that? Now, it doesn't mean you're a temple with gold and all this, in a weird way. But the Holy Spirit comes into the heart of a believer and resides there.

And so that's why we have that conviction. There's no way to get rid of it. It's the Holy Spirit convicting.

Now, you can quench and grieve that conviction by continuing in sin. But we are the temple of God and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.

Holy smokes. Talk about walking on eggshells with God. Have you ever been there? But that's not the correct interpretation or to think right away God destroys us.

But first, what is defilement? If anyone defiles the temple of God, defilement is a word that comes actually from the Old Testament. When they would defile the sanctuary. Remember those priests that would go in and they would offer profane fire to God and He killed them.

They defiled the sanctuary. Or a king would go in and try to do a priestly duty and he defiled that temple. Or the defilement of the children of Israel marrying pagan wives and being led astray by their religion.

There was a defilement. It's not just sexual defilement, although that is one thing dealing with this word. It's a defilement of disrespect for God and His Word.

And they said, if you defile the temple of God, God will destroy you. Now, hold on. It's going to be encouraging.

Just let me get there. You also need to know this, at least from what I can gather, it's not a person, man, Lord, I made a mistake. I should have did that last week.

God, I'm so sorry. I repent. I need to get help.

I need to work on my... Whatever it is, God, you're repentant, you're working on it. You cry out to God. God is with that type of, what we just read, a broken and contrite heart.

I will not cast away. So God is with that type of person. But this defilement is that unrepentant sin.

I don't care. I don't care what God says. I'm not going to change.

I mean, over the years, I've talked to even men, or women, who knows? Both sides, of course. But they're engaged in something that is very bad, but they don't care. I know what God's Word says, Shane.

Here's my favorite line. But I just want to be happy. Oh, pardon me? Yeah, good point.

I know what the Bible says, but I just want to be happy. Morgan, I think we're in Lancaster. This young lady left her husband and two kids.

No, but I just want to be happy. Now I understand if you're in a very abusive relationship. Again, please, guys, give me some grace.

I understand everybody likes to use the exception to prove the rule wrong. But that's not the case. For the most part, that's what defilement is.

Defilement is repetitive behavior. In that word, God will destroy you. The word actually in the Greek means God may injure you.

God may injure you. So, you're walking in unrepentant sin. You're defilement.

God says, boom, injured. Ah, get you back on course. Ah, that's why I pull my hamstring.

I'm like, Lord, are you trying to tell me something in here? Show me, or is this just coincidence, right? But He will injure you. He will knock you down. He will pull down the strongholds you've built of security, or He will dismantle, or He will impair you to get you to wake up.

That's how God wakes up a believer in sin. That word destroy means He will do something to wake you up, to knock you out, like I just knock you down. That story I just gave about that dad who was probably going to go see his girlfriend later that day.

And his daughter said, but you're driving the car. Bam! Knocked me down. And I try not to be specific, because there's a lot of things going on that we know.

But I know guys that make a lot of money and they're doing different things, I won't be too specific. Left their wife recently. And now, the finances seem to be really drying up.

Maybe losing a house. It's like, what's going on? God will knock you down. He will pull you down.

He will dismantle, He disciplines those He loves. So never run from the loving rebukes of God. Never, because that paddle spanking might get harder.

Guys, I've seen people, it's been sad, you know, you begin to lose everything. Or God's waking you up and you ignore, and you ignore. And maybe then now allows a sickness, an illness.

It could lead to death along the way, but we're trying to wake up and get our attention. And if we had time on this whole theme, we could go through the Bible. There's so much evidence.

So much evidence. What about that King Herod? Herod is a god and not a man. Herod, and he's like, yes, I am.

And the Bible says, and worms ate him. Worms ate him. I mean, God doesn't mess around.

Have you heard of Ananias and Sapphira? You will in the book of Acts. God doesn't play around. They lied to the Holy Spirit.

And so if God is getting your attention, listen, listen, Lord, what are You telling me? What do You want me to do? Versus hardening our hearts. Sadly, most people run from the breaking process, or they blame shift. Do you know what blame shifting is? Oh, we've become really good at that.

Really good at blame shifting. And I'm going to get to closing here. It's a little bit long, but bear with me.

Not long in a bad way, but long in a good way. So, David, close with these words again. I want to put it up there.

Have mercy upon me. This is what needs to happen this morning. You just need to say, God, have mercy upon me according to Your loving kindness.

See, it's not according to your good works. It's not according to something you do. Here's God's loving kindness.

He's long-suffering. He's patient. Loving kindness.

This is the attributes of God. All God requires is a broken and contrite heart. That's it.

And Lord, please forgive me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. Blot out, remove my sins. Wash me thoroughly from iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For I have acknowledged my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Brokenness can lead to blessings if you long for God. Brokenness can lead to blessings if you long for God.

Think about this. Long for Him to rebuild. Long for Him to restore.

Long for Him to revive. Long for Him to renew something in your life. David said, as I said last Sunday, my soul, what? Longs for You in a dry and barren and desolate land.

He's basically saying, Lord, I need help. My heart has grown cold and callous and like the dirt that is hard. Have you ever had that hardpan dirt? It's just chalky and there's nothing there.

There's no life. Nothing's growing. No animals.

He says, oh, my soul longs for You just as much as that dirt longs for the rain to come down and flood it again and let the grass and the life grow just as a deer pants after that brook. Oh, my soul longs for Me. It longs for Thee.

You've gotta bring that even if you don't feel it. Even if you're caught in sin. Even if you don't like what I'm saying.

You've gotta say, God, I long for that. Please. And God says, I hear the cries of my people.