Keeping the Charge of the Tabernacle (11/25/2001)

Dear Father, we thank you for moving in our hearts, for creating the testimonies that we've heard today, because none of them would have been uttered if it hadn't been for the

Lord Jesus Christ and for the changes that you've made in our lives. We thank you, as Brother Roy said, we don't know why we've been brought out of darkness into light other than the fact that you knew us before the foundation of the world with love, and we were yours in your heart and mind, and it was just a matter of time until we were here, a matter of time until we would hear your gospel, and our eyes and ears would be open to it.

From our viewpoint, Father, we don't see why, but we know you tell us it's because you loved us, and we can only thank you for that.

We can only pray that your Holy Spirit will amplify our thanks far beyond we can do ourselves, that our hearts say thank you,

Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Last time we began to talk about the duties of the priest, and Brother Otis is teaching through the book of Hebrews, and that's been a blessing to me.

The Sunday school class, when he opens the Bible to Hebrews, it almost reminds me of myself when

I have a sermon that is so good that I know I'm not going to be able to deliver it like it ought to be.

I just know I'm not, you know, I'm concerned that I'm not able to amplify it, magnify it, and have the crescendos in the right place, and all of that, and he feels that way in the whole book.

In fact, he went back over the first chapter three times, trying to get started the first three weeks, and I know how he feels, because it is a majestic book that God has given us.

And in that book, it speaks of the high priest, Lord Jesus Christ, and it speaks of his duties and what his ministries are in that role.

And it also tells us in the scriptures that we are believer priests, that God has made us priests unto him, and so therefore, we have duties as well, and we began last

Sunday by talking about the most obvious one, which is that the priest comes to offer sacrifices.

Let me just briefly remind you of what those are, maybe cover a couple of new ones, but I want to get into a second duty of the priest, and the main topic this morning is this, keeping the charge of the tabernacle.

That's what this sermon will be about, keeping the charge of the tabernacle, but let's finish up the offering of the sacrifices quickly.

Basically, that's what we talked about last time. We found in Hebrews 13 and 15, by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.

And so, God tells us, those of us who live in these end times, that one of the sacrifices that we offer is the praise that comes from our lips.

Why is that a sacrifice? Because the only way we can do that is if the old man is dead, crucified, because only the new man wants to worship

God and praise God, and only the new man can be one with Jesus Christ, and that can only happen when the old man is dead, and we don't like to remember sometimes that the old man is crucified.

We don't like to sometimes reckon that to be true, so it is, in fact, a sacrifice.

Secondly, the New Testament Scriptures talk about the fact that giving of our substance is a sacrifice, it's an offering of a sacrifice, as a priest might offer a sacrifice.

Hebrews chapter 13, verse 16 says, but to do good and communicate, now the word communicate, if you take that into context, is talking about taking up a love offering and sharing it with some brothers who are in need, brothers and sisters who perhaps in a different place, perhaps in the same place, but they're brothers and sisters in Christ that you have found out

God has made it known that they are in dire need, and so, to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices,

God is well pleased. So we see, we have the praise of our lips, and now we see the giving of the substance that God gives us to help meet the needs of brothers and sisters who are in need.

And then we see another, and in Romans chapter 1, verse,

I'm sorry, chapter 12, verse 1, you can turn to that if you'd like, it's such a familiar verse, many of you will remember it as I read it,

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto

God, which is your reasonable service. So we have the praise of our lips, we have the substance that God gives us that we then share with others, and then we have our bodies, these tents that God gave us to live in, that can be offered as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice unto the

Father. Now that is, in a nutshell, the offerings that we can offer.

I want to go to the second topic now, which is keeping the charge of the tabernacle.

Now we're primarily going to be in 2 Chronicles, chapter 28, verse 27, if you'd like to be turning there, but actually, the first couple of verses that I want to give you are in numbers, so you can look at Numbers, chapter 18, in verse 5, and also be turning to 2

Chronicles, chapter 28, verse 27. Numbers, chapter 18, in verse 5, says, and we see that this becomes a duty of the priests, and ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar, that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.

And I behold, I have taken your brethren, the Levites, from among the children of Israel, to you they are given, that is, to the priests, they are given, as a gift for the

Lord, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priests' office for everything of the altar, and within the veil, that's in the holy of holies, and ye shall serve,

I have given your priests' office unto you as a service of gift, and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

Now this speaks of a duty of keeping the charge of the tabernacle.

The word charge is an interesting Hebrew word. It means to keep watch, it means to keep custody, and it means to preserve.

Now isn't it interesting, this concept of keeping custody of the tabernacle? Do you know that there were times in history where a heathen came in and offered abominable sacrifices right in that place?

At that time, they did not keep custody of the tabernacle, they let the enemy come in.

And so we see all these meanings in this word, that we as believer priests are to keep charge, to watch over, to keep custody of, to own, and to preserve the tabernacle.

Now let me ask you this before we go any further. What is the tabernacle today? Where does God dwell today in us?

So we as believer priests are given the gift of the duty of keeping charge of the tabernacle in which

God dwells, which is your body. Now with that in mind, let's go on.

It says in verse 6, and I behold, I have taken your brethren, the

Levites, from among the children of Israel to you they are given as a gift from God to serve the tabernacle.

Now notice that the Levites are given to take care of the outer courts of the tabernacle, but it is the priest's duty to take care of the innermost parts, the altar itself, which leads to the door or the curtain,

I should say, that goes into the very holy of holies. Those are given only to the priests to take care of.

So we see all this pictured within this. Verse 7 says, therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office for everything of the altar and within the veil.

So the Levites are given the service of the tabernacle, the outer courts and so forth, but the priests have the service of the altar itself and going on inside into the very holy of holies where the presence of God is and taking care of that, having charge over it, watching over it, keeping custody of it for God and preserving it, keeping it pure and holy.

Now let's go into 2 Chronicles 28 and let's start with verse 27 and really we're going to be in chapter 29, but we had to catch this last verse.

And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem, but they brought him not into the sepulchers of the kings of Israel.

And Hezekiah, his son, reigned in his stead. Now Ahaz was an evil king, but Hezekiah is not.

And so now we must see the people rejoicing over the fact that they have a new king.

It says in chapter 29, verse 1, Hezekiah began to reign when he was 25 years old and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.

And what a joyful time it was. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David, his father, had done.

And I want you to notice in verse 3 that it says he, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, now that doesn't necessarily mean the first month of his reign, although I'll be honest,

I don't know which month was the first month of his reign, but I do believe that this is a reference to what

God told the children of Israel the first month of the year was supposed to be, and that is around the time of the

Passover. So the very first year, he did not wait. He did not try to take the people where they were and bring them where they were supposed to be, although sometimes that's a good idea, but that's not what he did.

He jumped right in, and the very first year of his reign, look what he began to do.

The very first thing it says he did was he opened the doors of the house of the Lord.

That implies they were closed. And he repaired them. That implies they were broken down.

So the first thing is that they opened the doors and repaired them.

Let me ask you this this morning. Now remember, this is the doors of the tabernacle.

Yourself, your body, pictures, or it pictures your body.

So I wanna ask you this morning, do you have any broken doors? Listen to what the

Lord says about this in Revelation chapter three. A lot of people think this is a soul winning verse, and it's not.

It's not at all. It's a passage that has to do with the doors of the tabernacle. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the

Spirit saith unto the churches. So who's this written to? This is not written to the lost.

This is written to the church. And unto the angel or the messenger of the church of the latest sins.

Now we know this is the old backslidden lukewarm church that this is written to. Write these things.

These things saith the amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

That's Jesus Christ is saying this to the church. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot.

I would that you were cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot,

I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now I think having been raised as a southern

Baptist and I guess being in a Baptist church all my life, I can speak about Baptists.

That's one thing. I mean, I hear rumors about other groups and usually those rumors aren't wholly true. But I know the truth about the

Baptist movement in my lifetime. I've also read about how it was once upon a time before my lifetime.

But in my lifetime, I would have to say that perhaps of all denominations and all groups, the

Baptist fit this lukewarmness best of all. Hasn't always been so.

I think if you could go back even just a couple of generations, if you could go back just 25 years, certainly 50 years ago,

I wouldn't say this was necessarily true at all. But in my lifetime, as I grew up in First Baptist Church, Mahea, I grew up in a lukewarm church.

In fact, if it were possible for man to keep the elect from being saved, I would have gone to hell.

Because of the lukewarmness of those Sunday school teachers when I was a little boy. My favorite one was the one who on the third floor allowed us to make paper airplanes and sail them out the window, the whole class, because at least that was exciting.

And it was so much more exciting than when he tried to teach the Bible from the quarterly. And I was always so embarrassed because I never got points, because I usually forgot my

Bible, but I never had the lessons studied. I seldom had the money that I was supposed to have, so I didn't get all the points.

And so I didn't really like going very much, so I found myself staying away and trying to, when I did have to go,

I would try to hide in the attic and play, hoping no one would know I was skipping. And then we came to the preaching.

And this man, they say he was a good minister, that he visited well in the hospitals and so forth.

But I tell you, I don't know about that because I wasn't old and decrepit like Brother Raymond in that day.

I was still young, Brother Raymond. Remember that day? There was such a day. But I wouldn't know about that, but I did attend a few of his services.

And the poor man, you couldn't even outline, you couldn't figure out where he was in the sermon. There was no point number one, and it didn't have a big

A, and it didn't have any little ones or little As under it. It was all like from X back to A back to Z back to W, and then into a few

Greek elements and letters, and it made no sense. And that really wasn't the bad part, because I've heard other preachers, since I got saved, that couldn't preach very well either.

But at least they had God's hand on them, and you learned. But he didn't have that either. So I grew up in a lukewarm church.

And then when we became independent Baptists in 1980, we thought we had found the promised land. And we came to know that we really were not there yet.

So lukewarmness is something that we can certainly know about. There are a lot of reasons for it. A lot of it has to do with personal sin, but a lot of it has to do with things going on in the religious world around us.

And we use excuses, and we have certain fears. But all

I can say is that when Jesus spoke of this door of the tabernacle, as he comes up to this place, he says, because you were lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,

I will spew you out my mouth. Do you know that if a church stays lukewarm long enough, there will come a time when the candlestick is removed?

The building won't be removed. There'll still be people, in fact, maybe more people than you ever had before, who knows?

Sometimes that's the case. There'll be a building full of people playing church, but no candlestick.

The Lord Jesus will not even make his presence known in that place, because it got lukewarm and stayed that way for so long.

And they didn't heed this exhortation as we go on. You see, this is written so that there can be help, so that the church won't stay that way.

Jesus is not just rebuking this church, he is pleading with this church to change.

And so, because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods.

You see, the church couldn't see a need. The church did not see the lukewarmness. Haven't you seen that in your own personal life, that you'll be the last one to see any kind of weakness?

Why is it we don't like to be corrected? Because we don't believe there should be any weakness. Now, some of that's because we don't want to be bad.

We wanna be right with God. We wanna please the Lord. We wanna please our brothers and sisters. We don't even want them to see weaknesses, because we don't want them to think we're weak.

So we're the last who will admit it or see it. In this church, Jesus says, look, you say you're rich.

You say you're rich. Now, that means rich spiritually, I'm sure. You say that you're increased with goods and you have need of nothing.

But you don't know that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

Now, Jesus gives them counsel. I counsel thee to buy of me gold, tried, and fire, that thou mayest be rich, spiritual blessings, richness.

And white raiment that thou mayest be clothed. This speaks of both positional and experiential righteousness.

And the shame of thy nakedness will not appear when you're covered with this righteousness. And anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see.

You know, one of the saddest things about the lukewarm church is it refuses to learn anything new.

Now, when I say new, I mean it in the sense that Jesus said that an anointed teacher teaches both old and new.

It's not new to God. It's not even new to the word of God. It's been in here for 2 ,000 years.

But it's new in that we have not had it revealed to us yet. And then when we do, a lukewarm church is afraid of it, but a church that's growing warmer is not.

And I'd have to say that this church is growing warmer. This church is not afraid of truth whether you perceive it to be new or old.

If it's truth, you'll accept it. Another thing that I know is true, there are many of you in this place that if it's not, you'll sink it.

And I like that because it gives me more freedom to preach what I think God has taught me because I know that you are not just a bunch of people who mimic what the preacher thinks and what the pastor's wife thinks.

If I say something or Otis says something or Russ or any of you, any of the Sunday School teachers,

Brother Russell, and I can't remember to name everybody, but I know that you will come to us and say, would you show me in the scriptures that again, please?

And if you can, you'll shoot it down. That's great because it means you're studying. Do you know most churches, that's not the case.

Today, most churches, almost anything could be said from the pulpit and the people would go home and say, ooh, that sounded good. And they might even repeat it.

You might even have young men who later be preachers and repeat that in the pulpit as if it's in the Bible. And how do

I know that? Because I've done that. Now all of a sudden I find out that's not in there. So Jesus says, now

I counsel you to buy and to get eye salve that you may see.

The eye salve pictures that you have a walk with the Lord like Moses and Joshua had where you have that friendship where he speaks to you as a friend and he teaches you.

The Bible says you have not need of any teacher because the teacher lives in your heart, the

Holy Spirit. Now teachers can help us to grow faster perhaps than we would if we were stranded on a desert with just a

Bible and with the Holy Spirit. But we wouldn't be too bad off there, would we? And so God does give us human teachers but the ultimate teacher is the

Holy Spirit. And this eye salve is that Jesus is saying, get the ability for him to teach you personally and not have to learn everything from the pulpit or the

Sunday school class or the quarterly. My goodness, I hate to even say that word. There's one reason it is good to be independent bad is we don't have a quarterly, hallelujah.

But the eye salve is something we need. That's the ability to personally be taught by God on your own, in your closet or in your study or in your car or anywhere.

And boy, the lukewarm church doesn't have it. The lukewarm church just has people that come sit on the pew and act like they're listening and go home and you can see them, they can be 30 years old, they can be 40 and then 50 and then 60 and then 70 and then 80 and they're babes.

Just like when they first got saved and yet they've heard thousands of sermons. They don't have any eye salve.

And he goes on and Jesus says, as many as I love, notice Jesus never is a mean spirit when he deals with his children.

Have you ever noticed that? Now, some preachers are mean spirited, some teachers, some people, some of our brothers and sisters, you know, we can get kind of get a little bit sharp.

But Jesus follows it right up and says, look, I love you. That's why I'm telling you this. I'm not telling you you're miserable because I want to tell you you're miserable.

I'm telling you you're miserable and that you need eye salve and that you're really hungry and naked and you really don't have anything spiritually.

I'm telling you that because I love you, he says. I rebuke and chasten those that I love.

That is his job after all, he's the parent. Be zealous therefore and repent.

What was the plea that he had for this lukewarm church? Be zealous, get upset.

You know, if I can, I've heard some people say motivation is not important. What's important is when you make people angry, then they'll change.

You make them uncomfortable, then they'll change. Jesus is saying, look, be zealous. I want what I have just said to you to stir you up.

So it bothers you because what I want you to do is repent. Now, look, here's the door.

Look at verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

The question is at this point this morning, is the door open? Is the door in need of repair?

Is the door broken? I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, this is the door of the tabernacle.

I mean, you can't even get into the outer courts. You can't even get into this place without the door being repaired.

I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door,

I will come into him. He doesn't say I might, he says I will. And we'll sup with him, that's fellowship.

That is the friendship, that is the relationship that Moses had that the other people didn't want. And he will be with me.

Now, a lot of times we stop right there. But look at verse 21 and 22 because it fits so well into what

Brother Otis is teaching in Hebrews. In fact, it fits so well, I won't have to discuss it this morning other than to read it.

But it says, to him that overcometh. Now, who is this? This is the one to make sure he starts by fixing the door.

This is the lukewarm Christian who realizes he's lukewarm for the first time perhaps in many years.

And he begins to repair the very door that's keeping Jesus out. And he repairs this door and he says, now to him that overcometh in this endeavor of keeping the tabernacle,

I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set.

And I want you to notice the word set because Jesus didn't say I sit at the right hand of God.

He said I was set there. That means someone else put him there. Guess who that was?

The Father. With my Father in his throne, he that hath ear, let him hear what the

Spirit saith unto the churches. Do you know why? I don't wanna get into that. That's Brother Otis's. I'm gonna leave it with him.

Boy, I want to though. I sure wanna get into why he got set there.

But the thing is, I want you to notice that verse 21, the first part, to him that overcometh,

Jesus will grant to sit with him in that throne. So it was granted unto

Jesus on the basis of his righteousness that he would be set at the right hand of God.

And Jesus comes to us and says, now to you, if you overcome in these areas, I will grant it to you to sit there in me.

Now I understand positional righteousness, I hope, as well as anyone in this room.

And I know there's some of you who've studied it, but I have spent a saved lifetime studying positional truths.

I just fell in love with those truths. The finished work of Christ. What do you have because he died?

I love that stuff. But this goes even into the area of experience. The word overcome is given to us because it's speaking even beyond the positional righteousness.

You can't do anything without Christ in you. That's understood. We're trying to go beyond that.

I mean, that's the milk. You say, well, no, that's the deep part. Yeah, it is the deep part, but isn't it the part you tell a brand new

Christian? It's the first thing you teach him. You're teaching that he can't do anything without Jesus.

We know this. We know Jesus is our position. We know his righteousness is our righteousness. We know these things.

But this says you've got to overcome. You've got to keep your tabernacle to the place where the doors are repaired and when

Jesus doesn't even have to be knocking on it. He's already inside it and you're there with him.

And to those who overcome in this area, you will be sitting in Christ. Now, I believe we shall be in Christ at that place, but I think you can be in Christ right now, but only if you overcome.

You don't overcome in this area, you're gonna be sitting in your own chair at home, probably be sitting on the throne of your own heart for a while, and then it'll be taken captive and you will not be possessing this tabernacle.

Someone else, the enemy, will possess it. You're not taking charge of the tabernacle if the devil is there.

And the weeds begin to grow up around it and they don't even know where the word of God is anymore.

It all pictures something. It was all real in their history, but it pictures some deep spiritual truths in our day about our own hearts, about our own bodies.

Hebrews 2 .10 says, for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things to bring many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

You know that Jesus, the man, one thing Hebrews talks about so much is the man Jesus Christ. Oh, it speaks of his deity.

It says he is not like an angel. Some of you folks out here in the Jehovah's Witness world and the

Mormon world wanna believe his brother is Lucifer, that he's a created angel. No, just read

Hebrews chapter one and two. You'll get away from that real quick. It speaks of his deity, but you know what it really talks about?

The fact that he lived as a man, he was born in this world as a man who was totally and absolutely full of the

Holy Spirit of God and it showed what a life like that could be like. And I believe that Jesus did most of what he did in that mode rather than through his deity.

I believe that he chose when he came to this place to live as a man totally controlled and filled by the

Holy Spirit without measure. And therefore, it even speaks of him being made perfect.

Now, I have a question for you. I told Brother Otis to ask this and he didn't, so I'm gonna ask it. Can God change?

Now, that's an Otis question if you've ever heard one because we've known all of our lives that God is immutable.

It's one of his characteristics. And can God change? Well, it's a trick question, obviously.

Most of yours are too, but it'll cause you to think because this verse says very clearly that Jesus was made perfect through his sufferings.

That word perfect doesn't mean sinless. He was sinless. It means he was matured through sufferings.

So no, God can't change, but the man, Jesus Christ, who was born in the manger and grew up and who lived as a man filled with the

Holy Spirit changed from a boy to a young man to one who didn't know the scriptures to one who very quickly from the heap, you're talking about we brag in America is we have kindergarten kids that can read.

And he comes in as a young man and teaches the elders the word of God from his heart as if he had studied it for 85 years.

But he grew and suffering in his life is what the father used to bring him to this state of maturity and perfection.

Now, I'll tell you this, that the Bible says the same thing regarding us in Romans chapter eight and verse 18.

It says that we will endure a type of suffering and that this suffering is not worthy to be compared with the glory that we shall have.

And let me tell you something, you have to be set in that glory. You don't just have it any more than Jesus just had the right hand of God.

Now, we think he did and we probably ought to view it that way. But the truth is the scriptures say that because of the sufferings and because he did not sin when he was tempted and because he loved righteousness more than his fellows, that he had a better name than his fellows.

Now, that is true of our savior who is the captain of our salvation, but we don't like to think about the fact that it's true of us because we've always been taught that, well, hey, we're the bride, we're just all gonna be right there with him when he comes back on that white horse,

I'm gonna be riding double with him. Well, that depends. I don't even think that depends so much on your salvation because I'm speaking to save people this morning, including myself, but it depends on this overcoming aspect.

This overcoming. Now, as we go and we continue to look, verse four says, we're back in numbers now, that he brought in the priest and the

Levites and gathered them together into the East Street and said to them, hear me, you

Levites, sanctify now yourselves and sanctify the house of the

Lord God of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.

Now, let me take you where we have been so far, and I'm sorry I didn't mean numbers.

We're in 2 Chronicles 28 and 29. In 2 Chronicles 29, in the first portions of the verses, we see that the first stage was that these men were told by the king to go and repair the doors of the tabernacle.

To open them first and then repair them. Now, as we move through this, we then begin to see in chapter, in verses four and five, that the next step was for them to go into the innermost holy place.

It says in verse five, he said to them, hear me, you Levites, and sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the

Lord God of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. And he's going to tell the priest to go into that very holy place and bring the filthiness out.

So the next stage, once the door is fixed, is we must gaze into the innermost part of ourselves.

We go right, now notice what happens here. They fix the door, but immediately go to the innermost part and work outward.

They don't try to fix the outside part other than the door. They don't try to fix that first.

They go straight to the deepest part. Now, in our lives, if we're going to think of our bodies as this temple, let's look at a couple of verses that explain some things.

And you don't need to look these up because at this point we're battling time. Daniel 7, 15,

I'm not battling time because I'm not sitting down, you're battling time. Daniel 7, 15,

I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body. And the visions of my head troubled me.

That's a good verse to begin to understand how our temple is. He was grieved in his spirit, which is in the innermost midst, the middle, the inside of his body.

And he was troubled in his head. That mentions all three parts, body, soul, and spirit. I view it this way.

The soul is kind of an interface between the spirit and the body. The body is that part of us that's in this physical world that can relate to it, that God can use to accomplish work in this physical realm is creation.

The soul is the interface that can go both ways. It relates to the body, but it also relates to the spiritual part of it, the new man.

And the soul itself is perhaps the most complex for me to understand.

But I see it as that interface. I don't see it as the same as the spirit, but it should be controlled by the spirit.

If anything, I see the soul as pictured by these Levites, the ones who take care of the outer court and the body and so forth.

Almost think of it as the human mind of a saved person in this context.

And then the spirit is that new man that sits in fellowship with God. That would be in the very innermost parts.

Now, 1 Corinthians 6 .20 says, "'For ye are bought with a price, "'therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, "'which are

God's.'" God owns both. 1 Corinthians 7 .34 talks about virgins.

And he says that, "'She may be holy both in body and in spirit.'"

We have a gospel that is taught in this land today that deals only with the inside and neglects the outside.

We really don't care how we live outwardly. That's why we have so much outward sin in the churches. But this says both in the body and in the spirit to be holy.

And in Romans 8, verse 11 says, "'But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus "'from the dead dwell in you, "'he that raised up Jesus from the dead "'shall also quicken your mortal bodies "'by his spirit that dwelleth in you.

"'Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, "'but to live or to live after the flesh.'"

We are not debtors to that flesh. And so the Bible speaks often about this outward body and the inner part.

2 Corinthians 7, one is very interesting. It says, "'Having therefore these promises.'"

Now, the promises it refers to are when God said, "'Be ye separate and come out from among them.'"

He had just said that. And then it says, "'Having these promises,' that you can be separate. How are we separated, by the way?

Let's review last Sunday a little bit. How can you be separate from the world? Just thought so,

I thought you were sleeping. I just wanted to check and see. And we're a little late, I can understand.

What is it that Moses said separates us? Okay, we'll go back and get last

Sunday's notes. We don't need this Sunday's. We ain't even got last Sunday's yet. Come on, come on.

Remember when I talked about how the independent Baptist problem is, they wanna be separated. So they get the cart before the horse.

But what did Moses say to God? God threatened to send an angel, and what did Moses say? He said, you go with us, and because if you do, we will be what?

Separated from all the peoples of the world. So it's the presence of God that creates the separation.

But 2 Corinthians 7 .1, God has said, be ye separate, and I will be a father to you.

You see, that's relationship. You'll be my sons and daughters, saith the Almighty, the one who created the universe.

Once that relationship with you, it's that relationship that causes the separation. And then the very next verse says this, having therefore these promises, the promises that God will be a father to us.

A father is a person that you have fellowship with often. He lives in your home, or in this context today, he lives in the temple.

Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit.

What does that mean? Filthiness of the spirit? Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Well, now, how can that be? I've been taught that Christians can't have a problem with demons. I've heard preachers preach that.

How can this filth, let's just leave these words out. Let's just say filthiness of the flesh, that fits better.

Problem is, God said filthiness of the spirit also. Do you know why as priests we are called to keep charge of this temple?

Because there are those who would like to come in, charge means to possess the temple, to maintain possession of the temple, to keep control of the temple, to not allow that which would profane the temple to even come anywhere near it, let alone come anywhere near that innermost part.

You don't even let it on the courts. You sure don't let it in the Holy of Holies. But if it starts to creep into the court, it's closer to the

Holy of Holies. And this filthiness of the flesh speaks of the outer courts.

But when we're not good priests, and I can't believe time runs out like this, I'm not even getting to the good part.

When you can't keep the outer temple clean and keep that which defiles away, it creeps in closer to this inner sanctum where God is and where your new man is.

And if it weren't possible to have filthiness of the spirit, why does God mention it? But he says, you know what?

We have these promises. We have the presence of God. We have the

Shekinah glory hovering above that mercy seat, that place where God dwells in our hearts.

And he says, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit.

You not only have to clear out the outer court, but you've got to go into the very holy of holies and begin to bring the filth out.

I've never seen it this way, folks. I've never seen it this, this is intimate. This filth can get right into the highest place of you.

I've always believed that the spirit part, you know, that that's not there. Well, I don't believe it can be your spirit, but I believe it can be in the room with it.

And that's what this is talking about. If you don't believe it, all you have to do is read on here in Chronicles, which when we have time, we're going to, and you're going to see the first place they went was they went into that innermost place where God dwelt and moved the filthiness and carried it out to the outer courts so that then the

Levites could carry it on away. So that's where we start this morning. Maybe that's why the

Lord caused us to run out of time right here, right in the middle.

We've got to start in the innermost sanction, sanctum of your heart.

Yeah, we got to get the door fixed. If Jesus is knocking, that's both a good sign and a bad sign.

It's a good sign because, you know, he hasn't left you and he won't, but it's a bad sign because he's having to knock.

But then again, it's a good sign because you're hearing it. And if we open that door and repair it, that is the start.

But immediately from that place, we allow him to go straight into that innermost part and search it.

And it's the duty of the priest. And everyone here that's born again this morning is a believer priest and has this duty.

It is your duty to keep charge of that place and to get the filth out.

Let's stand and have prayer together. Dear Father, we pray that you would search our hearts.

Lord, we pray that we've already got the door fixed this morning. We pray that if it wasn't fixed, we fixed it during the service.

And that we have repaired the doors and we don't want there to be a time when you don't have free reign to our life.

And so we ask you to search the innermost parts of us today and see if there'd be any unclean thing, a false doctrine, a doctrine of demons that might be there, a false thought that's higher than God, false imaginations, unclean thoughts.

Lord, we ask that you would cause us to do our duty this morning and carry those out and set them out there on the porch and get them out of the inner place.

They don't belong there. And Father, we pray that you would cause us to be good priests, that you would cause us to be watchful, to watch over this place where you dwell, that you would cause us to possess and own this place and not allow others and certainly not the enemy to own and possess it, that only we as the priest, that you gave the gift of watching it, only we would guard it and protect it.

And that, Father, in that place, we would have such oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ that we would be in him and he in you and you in us.

And we begin to visualize and see what these teachings of Jesus, especially in the book of John, refer to now.

We thank you for giving us a glimpse of it and showing us and teaching us so that we might actually live it in this life, that we might live it now.

And so give us the power to have not only the beautiful position of sonship and the position of the righteousness of Christ that we have by imputation into our lives, but beyond that, we might also have the beauty of a holy walk.

And we know we cannot be perfect in this every moment of every day because we have not been changed yet, but you are changing us.

So help us to strive more and more towards maturity and to realize, as Brother Raymond said so beautifully in his testimony,

Father, that it is the very suffering, sometimes the illnesses, the suffering that you bring into our lives that cause us to go to the next step in that area.

So work in our lives, work in the lives of our children and our spouses, our loved ones, our church family, and cause us to be more like Jesus, not only on the outside, but also on the inside.

Father, when Brother Archie brings his friends here, they won't like what they'll see if we haven't taken care of this tabernacle.

So help us to keep it, and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen, and bless the food too.