Profaning the Temple of God
Today I wanted to talk about purity. Now for most people in the Christian world today, when we hear the word purity we immediatly think about sexual purity. But I believe that if we just focus on that aspect of purity we lose the some aspect of what it really means to live in purity to God. God wants all of you. He is a jealous God and an all consuming fire. Part of purity is making sure that God has all of you. The more of the World that is in you, the less that God has of you. This is what Jesus is talking about when He speaks about lukewarmness. It is an attitude of not being on fire for God, yet also not being fully in the world. You have to understand that you are extremely valuable to God. He sent His son to die for you on a cross and suffer the punishment that was rightly yours. You mean so much to God, and He bought you with such a large price, but He didn’t get all of you. There is still some of the ruler of the world that is left over in you. And that is what the Lord wants to take out. He wants to purge the world from you and make you pure in Him. He wants the culture of the Kingdom of God in you and He doesn’t want any bit of the World in you. This is what purity means. It isn’t just about being pure in your sexuality, but with your relationship with the world. But purity is not just for God, it is also for you. It is a way to protect yourself from the devil. We can learn this from the Israelites, in the incident at Peor.
So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel. The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor.” Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. Those who died by the plague were 24,000.
Numbers 25:3-9 NASB1995
If we read the story about the Incident at Peor we can see that it was idolatry and marrying of women from other nations that caused Israel to suffer. It was them allowing other influences into the camp that brought the plague. This is what happens when we allow the influences of the world into our lives. It can bring a sickness that will rot our spiritual lives. Purity is our spiritual immune system that keeps away sickness. Purity is also important for evangelical purposes, as the more pure we are the greater the world will see the difference in us. Being pure is like turning up the contrast on a photo. The white becomes whiter and the darks become darker. When you walk in purity with God, your light will become brighter.
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Matthew 6:22-23 NASB1995
But how do we go about becoming pure? Well the process of walking in purity, is walking in holiness. That is because holiness is what I would call the refining process. The idea of Holiness in the Hebrew thought is something that is set apart. It is the idea of consecration. When we walk in Holiness before the Lord, we will start the separation process from the world. I want to share with you an experience that the Lord gave me. One night before going to bed I decided to ask the Lord if He could make me Holy as He is Holy. That night I went to sleep listening to the Psalms on my phone. But I woke up in the middle of the night at chapter six of Isaiah.
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Isaiah 6:1-5 NASB1995
It was a crazy experience! I woke up to a chapter about the holiness of the Lord, right after I had prayed that I would become holy like He is. I got to experience a type of moment with the Lord that is rare and precious. When I woke up, I decided to pray and connect with the Lord. I asked Him how I should go about becoming holy. And He told me that I must ruthlessly cut out those things of the world. This will bring about the separation of you from the World. We must stop consuming the things of the world. We can’t have wickedness in our temples. When we have things of the world in us, they profane our temple. The perfect example of having things in our temple that profane us is chapter eight of Ezekiel. I encourage anyone who wants to read it to reflect on how you might have things in your temple that are of the world. But to conclude this post, I would encourage you to seek after Holiness, so that God can have all of you, and not just some of you. After all, He did purchase you at a great price.
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