This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

Good evening. Sorry. I got up here and I realized that this was all tangled, and I was my heart rate was up trying to untangle it before everybody before the time ran out on the thing behind me. So alright. Your lights on.

Thank you, Eric. Let there be lights. Alright. Well, tonight is our our first Wednesday night of the month. So we've got a singing night tonight, but this one's a little bit different for normal because this one's for beginning our new theme that will carry us through through the rest of the year.

And so we're oh, sorry. So we're we're carrying on our theme for this year being built on the foundation. And here, the third part of the session this year, we're gonna be talking about the holy temple on Christ church. We've talked about the foundation, the continuation of the or the cornerstone and the continuation of the foundation being apostles. And now we're talking about the church being the living stones built on top of that foundation.

And we're gonna be talking about the church universal, the church local, and the church individual over the next couple of months, every couple of weeks. Again, coming from Ephesians chapter two verse twenty three twenty two that we are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone and whom the whole structure being joined together rose into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. And so tonight, to think about this new couple months of what we're talking about in the church being the holy temple of God, I want us to sing together about the trinity in the temple. Paul here, you know, he brings this kind of image that we're focusing on to a close, talking about the unity of the church as this temple.

As a temple, we are the place where heaven and earth meet. We are the ones who do the will of God on earth as it is in heaven. We're the location where God chooses to place his glory and his presence. And tonight, I wanna talk about the relationship between the trinity and the temple. And maybe at the outset, you might be kinda scratching your head like how these two things relate, and, hopefully, that will become more clear as we talk.

So that they're they're obviously related but also inseparable. And on the one hand, the trinity is who our god is. He's the three unique persons that share this one divine nature. But on the other hand, the temple is how God has revealed the trinity progressively over time. The father revealed himself in the tabernacle and in the temple, the son and the temple of his body and the incarnation, and then lastly, the spirit and the temple of the church.

And so tonight, our songs are gonna follow that movement from father, son, to spirit, and we'll conclude talking more about this in our invitation tonight. But if you would join us in a song and prayers, we'll have a song and then a opening prayer in just a moment. So you would sing with us. You'd like to follow along in the book, large hymnal number 505, glorify thy name. Our god and our father in heaven, we're so thankful for who you are and what you mean to us.

We're thankful as we recognize you as a creator of all that we are witness to. From and yet before the world began, you had a plan in motion to be our father and have a desire that we be called your children. We recognize you as the one who created everything. And by your word, by your spoken word, all things came to in existence. Father, we're thankful for your will and your divine will that set forth in motion the events of this world that led us to this place in this point in time.

We're thankful for the ability that we have to gather with those of like faith and a strong desire to serve you to the best of our ability. We pray that you would lead us to a better understanding of who you are and how you work in our lives through your son and our savior. With his teachings, his example, the things that we read in the word that we can behavior wise, we can pattern our life after those principles and those examples that are taught by your son and our savior Jesus. Father, we are so thankful that you yet as magnificent and as powerful as you are, you left room for a desire that we would we would follow after you and that you would have a desire to dwell within us, that you set forth in your plan to deliver your holy spirit, to lead us and to guide us, to communicate with our spirit that we may know that we are following righteousness. Father, we pray that we would open our hearts and minds this evening as we try to study and try to learn more.

Help us to mature in our minds to the best understanding that we can, that we can apply all things to proper and righteous behavior. Father, thank you. Thank you for the avenue of prayer. We pray that our spirit will always yield to your spirit. We would yield the things that we would that are contrary to what you would teach us, that we would be defeated in those things, that we would not yield to the flesh, but yet we would allow your spirit to lead and guide us in all things that are righteous.

Father, we pray that as we enter into this worship tonight, enter into this study, that we would be so intent with an earnest desire to mature into study and to be shown approved, a workman rightly dividing the word. We pray, father, that you would forgive us. You know, when sometimes we do commit things that are wrong and then we leave undone things that you've commanded us to do. And we're so thankful for the avenue of prayer through your son, Jesus. He's our savior.

We pray all this in his name. Amen. And I'm gonna sing about the father and the tabernacle. If you read with me in Exodus chapter 40 verse 34 to 38. And the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud is taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they would not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord is on the tabernacle by day and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. Our next song is also in the large hymnal number 55.

The lord is in his holy temple. We'll observe the fermatas at the rest. In the supplement number one eleven, holy ground. Number 81 in the supplement. In his presence.

We'll now sing about the son and the incarnation. If you would read with me in John chapter one and verse one through four. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Now verse 14 through 18. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For for from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.

For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the father's side. He has made him known. 95. Number 495.

Joy to the world. Number 563. Number 563. Jesus' name above all names. The small songbook number 73.

Number 73. High above the Seraphim. Lastly, we'll sing about the spirit and the church. If you'd read with me in Ephesians chapter two and verse 19 through 22. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens and the saints and members of the household of God built on a foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him, you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. In verses eight through 12 of chapter three. To me, though I'm the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. In a small book, number 19, sanctuary.

Number 19. And a large phone book number three nine three, love divine. Love divine, 393. In a small book, six, magnify o magnify. Number six.

Well, again, may you start at the outset thinking, what does the training the temple have to do with each other? I know when Abby asked me this week, you know, what are you gonna do with the songs or something? I said, the training in the temple. And she looked at me like, how's that how's that relate? Right?

Well, hopefully, after we've sang some songs and thought a little bit more about this, we see this thread that's being pulled through scripture. And even our theme text, hopefully, maybe you noticed in Ephesians two twenty three twenty two, the close relationship between the trinity and the temple, that Christ is the foundation of the church, that the holy spirit is at work continuing to build the church that's founded on Christ in order to prepare it, make it a dwelling place for god himself to take up residence in. And once again, the Trinity, it's who our God is, and the temple is one of those main ways in scripture that the work in the presence of God is progressively revealed to us. Throughout all scripture, the temple really demonstrates to us what the Trinity has done, what it's continuing to do, and what it will do. In the Old Testament, we receive the concrete structure of the tabernacle and later the temple as the Israelites dwell in the promised land.

And after God has redeemed his people from Egypt and he makes his covenant with them on Mount Sinai, he orders them and instructs them how to build the tabernacle. And once it's completed, the end of the book of Exodus, God makes his presence real and powerful there, filling the tabernacle. He makes his home with Israel and he dwells in their midst. The god's tabernacle, his temple really are pointing us even farther ahead, that they were just a symbol. It was a symbol of something greater.

It points us to Jesus as we read in John. He's the preexistent son, the preexistent word who is sent by the father to take on human flesh. And while god's presence had been palpable, had been real on Zion and the temple, now god's glory was even more so real during the life and the ministry of Jesus. Standing before that temple in Jerusalem, Jesus proclaimed, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. Yeah.

We know that he was speaking not there of the actual temple, though that would be destroyed at seventy AD, but the temple of his body. And it was through the that destruction and that rebuilding, what we call the resurrection of Christ's body that the holy temple of the church was made. Consequently, Christ, he sent that promised holy spirit, the third and final person of the trinity to continue building up his body. As Paul said as we read a moment ago, it is through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. In a church, in us, here is part of the universal body, here is a local body, and even as us individual believers, we carry on the work and the mission of the Trinity.

We continue to reveal the work that God is doing to the world. And so throughout scripture, hopefully, you've seen tonight, it's clear. The father, the son, and the spirit, they desire to dwell among humanity. They desire to share their life and their love with us. In fact, god uses the tabernacle and the temple not simply about what he's already done and what he currently is doing, but also to speak of what he will do.

In Revelation chapter 21 and verses one through four, John sees this vision of the new heavens and new earth using tabernacle language from the book of Leviticus in chapter or in verse three here when he says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.

And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. So from cover to cover, the Bible, it tells us one unified and powerful story. It tells us this truth that God is working throughout history to free us, humanity, from our sin, from the curse of death, but also to bring us into holy and blessed communion with the father and the son and the spirit.

So god currently, though, as we're kind of in this in between moment, he dwells with his people through his church, the body of Christ. One day, Christ will return, and he's gonna make this communion complete. And because Christ is the head of the church, if we want to partake in this new life, we have to be united with Christ and with his body. And so to do so, you must believe in the son. You must confess that he is lord in Christ.

You must repent of your former life of sin. You must follow him in his footsteps into the watery grave of baptism for the forgiveness of your sins, pledging to live for him above all other rulers and kings of this world. And in doing so, you will be added to his church, that holy temple of God that we've been singing about tonight in which God dwells by the spirit. And once you become a part of this temple, this holy temple of God, we can start sharing these truths that we sing about tonight. What it is that our God has done, what it is that he continues to do through us as believers in his church and temple, but also what he will do on that last day.

We want you to be prepared for that day to partake in this new life, not only in the future, but here now in the present. If that's your desire tonight, we'd love to help you if you'll come now as we stand and as we sing.