What does it mean to defile the temple of God in 1 Cor 3:17? | Bible Questions & Answers

the question we're going to take up tonight is what does it mean to defile the temple of god in first corinthians 3 17. so turn with me to first corinthians 3. first corinthians chapter 3 and we're going to read verses 6 16 and 17. so first corinthians 3 16 and 17. know ye not that ye are the temple of god and that the spirit of god dwelleth in you if any man defile the temple of god him shall god destroy for the temple of god is holy which temple ye are and so what people sometimes wonder about that is it describes them as the temple of god but it says that if any man defile the temple of god him shall god destroy and that language is very troubling to some folks because they are worried that maybe i've done something where i've defiled the temple of god perhaps it's some sin of the flesh or something like that and i've defiled the temple of god and if if i have done that if i've defiled the temple of god then the verse says him shall god destroy so a lot of people look at that verse and they have a lot of concern about it and they're they're fearful as to what it means so let's look at that our purpose tonight is to try to understand what that verse is actually saying and to do that i want to start with with just a simple gospel presentation because it seems to me that as you think through complicated scriptural passages you always want to start on the basis of the things that are clear that are absolutely absolutely clear absolutely obvious and you reason from the clear to then try to understand the difficult passages in other words putting it a different way if you find a difficult passage you don't want to land on an interpretation of the difficult passage that invalidates 10 clear verses that doesn't really make any sense so you first want to find the things that are clear and then use that understanding to understand the things that are less clear so go through the ephesians 2. we're going to do just a simple gospel presentation um that i think will be helpful so that we get our minds our minds clear before we jump in so ephesians 2 8 for by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast ephesians 2 is super helpful for by grace it's unmerited favor are you saved through faith faith is belief it's it's not a work how many muscles do you have to move to have faith none you can sit there and just believe trust in your inner man for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it's not your resume it's not your list of good works it's not your accomplishments and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god well you don't work for a gift by nature a gift is something someone gives you not because of something you've done if if they're if someone gives you a gift on the basis of your works it's not a gift it's a paycheck it's a wage right if you work for something and someone pays you it's a wage that's what it is a gift is when you're not working for something and someone gives you something it is the gift of god and verse 9 is absolutely clear not of works so we know that salvation is by grace through faith and not of works lest any man should boast titus 3 5. titus chapter 3 and we'll look at verse 5. the pages here like to stick together makes it challenging titus 3 5. we'll start in verse 4. but after that the kindness and love of god our savior toward man appeared notice verse 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy ghost so titus 3 5 makes this clear makes it clear that it's not by works of righteousness but it's according to his mercy get with me romans 11 6. romans 11 6 is one of my favorite verses to use in a gospel presentation and the reason why is this my observation over the years is that many people have an understanding of grace that is compromised or that is [Music] inconsistent and why do i say that they will say things like god saves by grace but you got to live it god saves by grace but you lose it if a b and c god saves by grace but you have to keep in good works and what you'll notice is god saves by grace but and what they will do is they will add some condition or some caveat that makes salvation not entirely by grace but something you have to do in other words what they're saying is salvation is mostly grace but there's a part you have to do whether it's water baptism or keeping the sabbath or continuing in good works or not doing certain sins different folks have different ideas as to what works are required but the but it's fairly common for folks to think there is some sort of works required so with that as you know just an awareness of that fact notice the clarity that romans 11 6 gives romans 11 6. and if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work what romans 11 6 does is it says that something can be by grace or it can be by works but it can't be by a combination of the two right and and if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace if you take pure grace and you add a work to it it ceases to be grace so what that tells us then is that people are saved today by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone there are no works that are part of your salvation and when people take away any of those alones you're saved by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone if you get rid of any of those alones you're going to create confusion get with me first corinthians 15 so we see that salvation is clearly not of works it's clearly by grace it's specifically said to be by faith the logical question is faith in what first corinthians 15 verse 1 moreover brethren i declare unto you the gospel the word gospel simply means good news verse 3 for i delivered unto you first of all that which i also received how that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and then he rose again the third day according to the scriptures the content of the gospel is in first corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4 christ died for our sins was buried and rose again the third day now what that means is the gospel was entirely what christ did it wasn't his death burial and resurrection plus my tithing his death braille and resurrection plus my church membership no no no the gospel is 100 what christ did and when we have faith in the gospel when we believe that christ died for our sins was buried and resurrected god saves us in that instant it's not a process it's not something that takes months and years to do it's not something that requires extraordinary works it's simply in your inner man believing the gospel romans 3 25 describes it as faith in his blood when you have faith in the blood that jesus christ shed for you god counts that faith for righteousness again with me ephesians 1. that means you can get saved in a moment you can get saved in an instant you don't have to give anything you don't have to join anything all you have to do is believe in your inner man have faith in his blood now notice what happens when you believe ephesians 1 13 in whom ye also trusted after that you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession now this is a powerful verse see what happens is when a person hears the gospel and they believe it what happens according to that verse they're sealed by the holy spirit they're sealed by the holy spirit ephesians 4 30 says until the day of redemption meaning wherever during the dispensation of grace you believe from that moment forward you are sealed unto what event the day of redemption the adoption to with the redemption of our body now that's really powerful because let me tell you why that means your salvation is idiot proof you can't mess it up you can't lose it because it's not maintained by you always doing the right thing which we know you don't we know that because you're just like me you don't always do the right thing nor do i if salvation was dependent on us continuing to do the right thing then we'd we'd all be in a terrible mess but ephesians 1 says what we're sealed by the holy spirit of promise that gives me great comfort you know just think about this do you ever do things that you wish you hadn't done do you ever say things you wish you hadn't said i mean if we're being at all honest we know that's the case so if my salvation was contingent upon my continued performance that would just be very unsettling to me but ephesians 1 says my salvation is maintained by the holy spirit because i'm sealed by the holy spirit ephesians 1 is a very powerful eternal security verse so let's see what we've learned so far you're saved by grace through faith apart from works you're saved by faith alone by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone now what we've also seen is that once you're saved once you believe the gospel you cannot lose it hallelujah praise the lord what a wonderful truth but now let's deal with an objection that people have and if you tell people the gospel you're going to get this objection now let me just say this a lot of people are scared to tell other people the gospel and they're scared because the person might ask him a question they don't know well listen none of us know everything right there's no shame in someone asking you a question you don't know i mean that's true of all of us all of us have questions we can't answer but people are intimidated to witness because what if they ask a question i don't know or what if they don't believe well it's not our responsibility to make people believe it's our responsibility to give them the information and then they choose whether or not to believe but let me tell you this when you talk to people most people don't have complicated objections they really don't you know what the one big objection they have is works what they will say is it can't be that easy right i mean we live in a world where the world operates according to the what have you done for me lately principle in other words don't tell me what you did for me in the past what have you done for me recently that's how the world works so when you teach people hey here's the way it works salvation is a free gift you don't have to do anything to get it nothing and you don't have to do anything to keep it and what people respond to that with is they say well that sounds like a commercial on tv where they say it's free but you know it can't be free because it's hard to make money if you give stuff away free just being honest with you so they had they it it the the human part of their nature or or better yet what i would say that their flesh it wants to work for something it wants to do something to earn it because that's the way the world works so here's where they then logically go are you ready so what you're saying to me is this you can believe the gospel and then go rob a bank you can believe the gospel and then do a b or c and the answer is yes of course you can and you won't lose your salvation but it would be stupid in other words for a saved person to rob a bank is a dumb decision on so many levels the first is you might get arrested right you do that you start a prison ministry as an inmate much better i'm just being honest with you i'll tell you one thing i've learned about prison ministry it's better if you can leave at the end of the meeting and i've talked to guys and they all they all agree on that because they just i get to go home and they got to stay so much much better to do it that way so why do you not rob a bank well number one you might get caught you might go to prison you might get shot those are the basic things but you know what else it harms your testimony second corinthians 5 says you're an ambassador what kind of ambassadorship is it for you to rob a bank it ruins your testimony doesn't it yet first corinthians 3. so don't leave this video and say well dave said it's okay to rob banks and grace means you can do anything you want see what happens is people look at grace and they say grace is an encouragement to sin because under grace you can get away with anything see you can as long as you say the prayer is the way they put it but it's really having faith in christ as long as you have faith in christ then you can do any wicked thing you want that's the objection so when i give a gospel presentation what i like to do if i have the time is i like to go to first corinthians 3 and i'll show you why first corinthians 3 verse 10 according to the grace of god which is given unto me as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereupon but let every man take heed how he built a theropod when it says me as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation that's paul because first corinthians is written by paul verse 11 for other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is jesus christ now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones would 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 sword it is so notice what it says there paul was the wise master builder he laid the foundation the foundation is jesus christ meaning you can't build on any other foundation if you try to build on the foundation of scientology it's not going to be very good right you have to build on the foundation of jesus christ now what you can then do is you then determine how you build you can build with gold silver precious stones wood hay or stubble what verse 13 says is it says every man's work shall be made manifest see if you read first corinthians 3 13 carefully for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sword it is it doesn't say that the fire will burn the person it says the fire will try every man's work so give you a simple example what if my job was to build a firewall in other words a wall that would be impervious to fire that would protect a structure well how would you test whether or not i did a good job of it you would test it with what fire a common way to evaluate what something is made of is to test it with fire you know for example you're probably familiar with this how can you distinguish between gold and fool's gold fire because fools gold and gold have different melting points and so watch observing them how they react to fire you can distinguish between that which is valuable and that which is worthless now notice verse 14 if any man's work abide which hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward what happens if the believer in this life builds upon the foundation of jesus christ with gold silver precious stones well when they get to heaven they receive a reward now notice verse 15 if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss the loss in that verse is not loss of salvation it's loss of reward that's what verse 14 was just talking about i know that because look at what it says he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire in other words what happens is at the judgment seat of christ no believer loses their salvation but what happens is their works are evaluated to determine whether their gold silver precious stones would hair stubble now the reason i like this passage when presenting the gospels for the following two reasons the first is it makes it absolutely clear that salvation is by grace through faith because there's someone who shows up as an example all of their work was wood hay and stubble so the fire of god's word consumes it jeremiah 23 but does that person lose their salvation they don't he himself shall be saved so first corinthians 3 is a powerful demonstration of eternal security because you can have all wood hay and stubble and still be saved but the second thing first corinthians 3 does is it shows that there is a consequence based upon how you live what you sow you're going to reap galatians 6 tells us so as a believer should you be very thoughtful and purposeful about how you live yes you should how we live matters because we are going to appear at the judgment seat of christ so what did what did we cover so far what we've done is we've done i would call a very sort of simple but complete gospel presentation you're saved by grace through faith it has nothing to do with works it's through faith in christ the gospel is that christ died for our sins was buried and rose again the third day does that mean that how we live doesn't matter no it matters because we're going to go to the judgment seat of christ and our works will be evaluated not to determine if we're saved but to determine our reward now verse 15 is followed by the the passage we're trying to understand so look with me at verse 16 know ye not that ye are the temple of god and that the spirit of god dwelleth in you now as we look at verse 16 and verse 17 it's very important that we pay very close attention to the pronouns no ye so ye the modern word is you and just as a a brief digression if i could the language of the king james is really fantastic because it has thou and thee and ye and you and people say well gee that's so archaic and you know we should really change it well listen doesn't everyone know that the ian thou and yi and you is a form of you everyone knows that it's not that it's archaic and hard to understand but what's nice about thou and thee and ye and you is that the very use of the word the very use of a particular word tells you if it's singular or plural or the subject or the object so if i say i love you you can't tell from that sentence in modern english whether the you is singular or plural and if i say you are beloved you can't tell if the u there is singular or plural the nice thing about the v and the thou and the e and u is that it tells you by the form of the word chosen whether it's singular or plural and whether it's the subject or the object so now verse 16 know ye so the ye is you so when paul is writing to the corinthians the you is the corinthians it's the person he is speaking to know ye not that ye the corinthians are the temple of god and that the spirit of god dwelleth in you so get with me first corinthians chapter 1 just to see this first corinthians 1 verse 2 unto the church of god which is at corinth to them that are sanctified in christ jesus called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of jesus christ our lord both theirs and ours so who paul is writing to in verse 2 is he's writing to the church of god at corinth that they are sanctified in christ jesus called to be saints so when we look at chapter 3 verse 16 when he uses ye it's the people he's talking about in first corinthians chapter 1 verse 2 which is the corinthian saints the saints at corinth the you is second person now look at verse 17 if any man defile the temple of god him shall god destroy any man is third person or at least the hymn is so watch this if any man defile the temple of god him the hymn is the pronoun for which any man is the antecedent him is third person i me my you yours you he she him them right first second third verse 16 know ye that second person verse 17 if any man to file the temple of god him third person shall god destroy in other words verse 16 he's speaking to his audience verse 17 he's telling his audience about him okay very precise language in the king james so what paul is doing there is he's drawing a distinction between the person who is defiling the temple of god and the people that are the temple of god now what does it mean to defile the temple of god people have ideas about that well maybe that's sins of the flesh maybe that's fornication and things like that or maybe it's i do things to harm my physical body well how would we go about getting the answer to that question well let's do a little search here so let's do we'll go to blue letter bible and i'm going to run defile and temple now notice what happens here and this is absolutely fascinating so there are only two verses in all of the scripture that talk about that use the word defile and temple in the same verse one of the advantages of running a search like this is you find the relevant cross references so look with me at psalm 79 verse 1. and let's read this very carefully o god the heathen are come into thine inheritance thy holy temple have they defiled they have laid jerusalem on heaps so clearly in psalm 79 verse 1 the temple is defiled who is it defiled by well it's defiled by heathen you know that from the first part of verse 1 oh god the heathen are come into thine inheritance what psalm 79 verse 1 tells you is that the defiling of the temple of god was equivalent to it was caused by what unbelievers entering in thy holy temple have they defiled the heathen are come into thine inheritance in other words what happens in psalm 79 is the temple is is built it's in place but it is defiled and how is it defiled the heathen come in that's the definition of what defiling a temple is in the scriptures it's when unbelieving heathen enter into the temple you'll see something similar in acts 21 get with me acts 21 acts chapter 21 and in acts 21 let's look at verse 28 acts chapter 21 verse 28 crying out men of israel help this is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people and and the man there is paul that teacheth all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place and further brought greeks also into the temple so they accuse paul of bringing greeks into the temple and then notice what they then say and hath polluted this holy place well polluting this holy place is very similar to defiling the temple how did paul allegedly he didn't really do this but in their accusation how did they claim paul polluted the holy place well he brought in gentiles very much like psalm 79 where the heathen are come into thine inheritance do you see how effective it is to use cross-references to help explain what unclear phrases and verses mean look at verse 29 for they had seen before with him in the city trophamus and ephesian whom they supposed that paul had brought into the temple so they didn't actually witness it they didn't have proof but they just made the accusation against him what's interesting for our purposes is this this gives us absolute clarity about what they meant when they said that he polluted this holy place they supposed that he took trophamus an ephesian gentile and brought him into the holy place so you know what that tells us then when first corinthians 3 verse 16 and 17 just go back there with me if you would so we'll see it with our own eyes first corinthians 3 so now let's read verse 16 and 17 again know ye that's the corinthians know ye not that ye the corinthians are the temple of god and that the spirit of god dwelleth in you and the ye there is plural by the way if any man defile the temple of god well how does a man defile the temple of god based upon what we just looked at it would be an unbeliever entering in to the temple of god entering into the church because what did paul say in verse 16 know ye not that ye corinthians are the temple of god in other words the corinthians the corinthian saints were the temple of god that's what verse 16 says if any man defile the temple of god well how is the temple of god defiled we've established from psalm 79 and acts 21 that the temple of god is defiled when the heathen enter in so what happens when an unbeliever enters in to the temple of god in other words into the church him shall god destroy now let's be clear don't misunderstand what i'm about to say it is good for unbelievers to visit church and attend church but if you remain an unbeliever does going to church help you so let's say i don't believe the gospel let's say i don't believe that christ died for my sins but i go to church every sunday and then i add every wednesday and then i go sunday night and i tune into things on youtube and i do this that and the other and i everywhere there's a bible study i'm part of it but i don't have faith in the gospel what's going to happen to me sadly well i'm still lost because you don't get saved by going to church you don't get saved by joining an assembly you get saved by believing the gospel look with me at second corinthians 6. second corinthians 6 is it's the only other time paul uses the phrase temple of god where he's talking about the body of christ there's times in second thessalonians where he uses the temple of god but he's referring to a physical building look with me and that's by the way that's that's i was going to point to the chart but i can't um but it would it will be during the 70th week all right so let's go well let's go back to the chart so in 2nd thessalonians chapter 2 the temple of god that's being referenced there is the temple that's built during the 70th week but in second corinthians 6 look at me at verse 14. be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers so a believer can have an unequal yoke with an unbeliever for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath christ with belial or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel notice verse 16 and what agreement hath the temple of god with idols for ye see it's the people again for ye are the temple of the living god as god hath said i will dwell in them and walk in them and i will be their god and they shall be my people wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the lord and touch not the unclean thing and i will receive you so in second corinthians 6 how did god feel about the saints the local body of christ how did he feel about them being involved with a temple of idols he thought that was a really bad thing to do didn't he he wanted them to come out separate well so what is first corinthians 3 verse 16 talking about what it's talking about is this and we're starting to wrap up here when first corinthians 3 16 and 17 talk about if any men defile the temple of god him shall god destroy that has nothing to do with god punishing a believer for their sins he's not going to do that and we know he's not going to do that because our salvation is secure we've been sealed by the holy spirit we can't lose our salvation our salvation is not of works god is not going to punish believers because of their works he's not going to do that so when first corinthians 3 17 says if any man defile the temple of god him shall god destroy it's clear based upon the other scriptural references that the man defiling the temple of god is the person who is an unbeliever now let me say this again to be clear on this we want unbelievers to come to church it's not a bad thing that an unbeliever is at church it's a bad thing that someone stays an unbeliever do you understand what i'm saying in other words we want all unbelievers to come to church because we want all unbelievers to hear and believe the gospel so we're happy they're there we're thrilled they're there but we are fearful that if they don't get saved what will happen guess how much benefit you obtain from simply being inside a church building it doesn't change your eternal destiny it doesn't deal with your sin debt what this all means friends is this this means we need to be in the business of preaching the gospel you can't just assume well so and so went to church when he was a boy and he was confirmed and actually i can tell you my situation i went to church as a boy i was confirmed and i remained lost and that is not the church's fault that is my fault because i failed to believe the gospel so that was my fault so what did i need to do i needed to go from unbelief to belief i needed to believe the gospel that christ died for my sins was buried in rosie on the third day so friends don't let first corinthians 3 16 and 17 trouble you don't worry that you can lose your salvation during the dispensation of grace you cannot lose your salvation during the dispensation of grace but what these verses should all encourage us to do is we need to preach the gospel there's billions and billions of people on this planet that are lost and they have not believed the gospel and unless they believe the gospel they have an eternal future that will be miserable and we don't want that to be the case so what we need to do is we need to tell them the gospel so they can believe it thank you for watching let me close us in a word of prayer father god thank you for your word we thank you for how powerful the gospel is the gospel is able to take a center that that deserves an eternal hell and give that sinner eternal life as a free gift it can change our eternal destiny from the lake of fire to heavenly places we thank you for that we rejoice in it we pray lord that we would be the ambassadors that you want us to be it's in the name of the lord jesus christ that we pray [Music] amen [Music] do do [Music] do you

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Length: 39min 38sec (2378 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 12 2021