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Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 3 * PART 3 * BOOK 26
I CORINTHIANS 3:10 - 4:2
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
I Corinthians 3:15a
"If any man's work shall be burned..."
Our whole motivation is for God to receive the glory. Always remember, the Christian life is never easy. I Corinthians 3:15b
"That God Himself is dwelling in this body." I Corinthians 3:16
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
Even these poor old carnal Corinthians were temples of the living God. To every believer, the moment he believes, the Spirit comes and indwells. I Corinthians 3:16
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
The third Person of the Trinity, as we refer to Him - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - the third Person of the Trinity comes and indwells the believer. That's why God can know every thought. God knows our thoughts. God knows every place we go. Well, the presence of God in the Shekinah Glory came right down into that Temple there at Jerusalem. The presence of God dwelt in that dwelling place, which was the Temple Now that was just a foreview of this Age of Grace where, when God saves an individual, he immediately becomes a Temple, a dwelling place. Because the Holy Spirit has always been the Omnipresence of God on the planet. The Spirit! And so all throughout the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was evident, otherwise nobody could ever have knowledge of God. So every believer then, in this Age of Grace in which Paul is dealing, is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now verse 17. I Corinthians 3:17
"If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
When it says here that if we defile the temple, what it's referring to is defiling our physical bodies, then God will destroy it. Let's look at a good example in I Corinthians Chapter 5. I Corinthians 5:4,5
"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, (most of us would refer to it today as a business meeting) and my spirit, (Paul would be there in spirit although he was at Ephesus) with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver (now watch it carefully) such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, (not the soul and spirit) that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
Remember the account of Job? Job 2:1-6
"Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said unto Satan, `Whence comest thou?' Now Satan wanted to even take Job's life, but could he? I Corinthians 11:28-30
God took their physical life here also, but not their spirit.)
If you're going to harm the physical body with things that you know are harmful, your body is going to suffer the consequences.
Our hospital beds are filled with people who abuse their physical body with things that we know are harmful. I Corinthians 3:17
"If any man defile the temple of God, (do something harmful to your physical body which is now the temple, the dwelling place of God) him shall God destroy; (In other words God will permit these ravages to destroy our physical health) for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
Paul teaches we are responsible for taking care of it. Ephesians 5:28,29
"So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. It's the temple of God on this earth, and we're to treat it accordingly. Now verse 18.
I Corinthians 3:18
If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise."
I Corinthians 3:18
"...If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise."
Well back to Chapter 1, and verse 18.
I Corinthians 1:18
I Corinthians 15:1-4) and then the power of God is poured out on us as His wisdom is as well. Now verse 19:
I Corinthians 3:19a
"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God...."
Foolishness so far as God is concerned. "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." Let's go on.
I Corinthians 3:19b
I Corinthians 3:20
Psalm 94:11
"The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man,..." That God even knows our thoughts. Psalm 94:11
"The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity."
Paul had kernels of truth. I Corinthians 3:21
"Therefore (since all of man's wisdom amounts to nothing without God's wisdom) let no man glory in (who?) men. Now verse 22 and 23. And Paul comes all the way back to his first controversy with the Corinthians believers, and that was their divisions. I Corinthians 3:22,23
It's an unfathomable well of wisdom and knowledge.

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