Temple – Spirit – Soul

Temple – Spirit – Soul                                       February 18, 2017 

We will look at a computer system design, will this give us some insight to how we behave or work. 

Then we will look at the Temple Architecture.  Remember, we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. 

The New Testament points us to Solomon’s Temple as the key to under-standing ourselves. 

What is the Great Commandment? 

Luke 10:27-28 So he answered and said, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND,' and 'YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'"  (28)  And He (Jesus) said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." 

There we have it, Heart, Soul, Strength and Mind. 

Heart  kardia, kar-dee'-ah:  the heart, that is, the thoughts or feelings (mind);  

Jeremiah 17:9-10 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?  (10)  I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings. 

Soul  psuchē psoo-khay':  breath, that is, (by implication) spirit, (Spirit in man)  (spirit in dogs, cats, etc.) 

Strength ischus, is-khoos': force;  forcefulness,  ability, might , power,  

Mind dianoia, dee-an'-oy-ah:deep thought, imagination, mind, understanding. 

Some thoughts about the spirit in man: 

God made the man from dust in the beginning and received by breath, the “spirit in man”. 

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  (when does a baby receive the breath - spirit) 

Soul, nephesh, neh'-fesh: properly a breathing creature, that is, animal 

We know what happens when a person dies? 

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.  (spirit in man) (Holy Spirit)  

What is the "spirit" that returns to God at death? 

James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. 

Job 27:3 As long as my breath is in me, And the breath of God in my nostrils, 

Job 32:8 But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. 

We know the spirit that returns to God at death is the breath of life. Nowhere in the Scriptures does the "spirit" have any life, wisdom, or feeling after a person dies. It is the "breath of life" and nothing more. 

The soul is a living being and always a combination of two things:  body plus breath and a soul cannot be alive unless body and breath are combined.(Gen 2:7) 

We know that souls can die. 

Ezekiel  18:20 The soul who sins shall die. …..

According to God's Word, souls do die! We are souls, and souls die. 

Man is mortal 

Job 4:17  'Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? 

Only God is immortal 

1 Timothy 6:15-16 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,  (16)  who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. 

Good people do not go either to heaven or hell at death. They go to their graves to wait the resurrection day. 

John 5:28-29 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,  (29)  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 

Acts 2:29 "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 

Acts 2:34 "For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: 'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, 

Job 17:13 If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in the darkness, 

Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten.  (6)  Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; Never more will they have a share In anything done under the sun. 

Ecclesiastes 9:10  Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. 

God says that the dead know absolutely nothing 

Psalms 146:4 His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish. 

Job 14:12-15 So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, They will not awake Nor be roused from their sleep.  (13)  "Oh, that You would hide me in the grave, That You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, That You would appoint me a set time, and remember me!  (14)  If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, Till my change comes.  (15)  You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands. 

John 11:11-15 These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up."  (12)  Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well."  (13)  However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.  (14)  Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead.  (15)  And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him." 

Soul goes nowhere. Instead, it simply ceases to exist. Two things must be combined to make a soul: body and breath. When the breath departs, the soul ceases to exist because it is a combination of two things.  

When you turn off a light, where does the light go? It doesn't go anywhere. It just ceases to exist. Two things must combine to make a light: a bulb and electricity. Without the combination, a light is impossible. So with the soul; unless body and breath are combined, there can be no soul. .

Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Computer Hardware Organization – very general 

The good news is that unless you are designing or building them, we don’t need to know any of this stuff!  In fact, I cannot understand the behavior of a computer by complete knowledge of circuits and hardware!  

Can you understand its behavior by x-rays of hardware? Or by studying the complete wiring diagrams? Hardly. To understand the architecture of a computer system requires knowing the design of the software. 

Computer Software Development 

Machine Language: language of the computer. 

Assemblers: Manages memory; streamlines tasks;  

Compilers: “Automatic Programming” through problem oriented languages;  

We as user do not really care about the above things.  The only thing we care about is using our computers, iPad, cell phone. The Application Interface is what we to do with email, search the web, Facebook, games, etc.  The apps that we use and like.  The programs inside. 

Now this is important. 

Software (the programs or apps we add to our computers) has no mass. I do an email, how much does it weight after you receive it.   The computer does have mass.  A blank diskette weighs about 0.7 ounces.  We can load it with over a million bytes of software, costing hundreds of dollars, and it will still weigh only 0.7 ounces.  I can add an attachment, saying 8 pages long, and it will still have weight of zero. It can even travel weightless over the internet, by email, Facebook, etc.  

We have learn from science, time is neither linear nor absolute; it is a physical property.  We now recognize, thanks to the Theory of Relativity, that we exist in a four-dimensional life (actually now 10 plus) known as space-time.  Time varies with mass, acceleration, and gravity.  Funny, God already told us this. 

Ephesians 3:17-18  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  (18)  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height 

The fact that time, itself, is a physical property of our material world. 

There is part of us that is not physical.  Since that part of us has no mass, it has no time dimension.  It is the spirit in man or a new creation with the Holy Spirit. 

One of the things that we learn from these software insights is that it is futile to attempt to understand our architecture from a world view, having just the spirit in man.    

Our soul or our “heart,” simply does not show up on an x-ray or an MRI scan. 

Our Lord God has given us a way to understand our “system design” 

Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

We know we, who has God Holy Spirit living in us, are the Temple of God” and this statement appears seven times in the New Testament: 

1 Cor 3:9-16, 1 Cor 6:19, 2 Cor 6:16, Eph 2:20, 21, Heb 3:6, 1 Pet 2:5, 1 Pet 4:17 

The Uniqueness of Solomon’s Temple 

It was the only Temple where all the detailed plans, not only of the construction of the Temple, but also of all the furniture, were given by the Spirit of God 

1 Chronicles 28:12 and the plans for everything else that he had in mind for the courtyards of the Temple of the LORD. Included were plans for all of the surrounding vaults and treasuries of the Temple of God intended for storage of dedicated gifts, 

1 Chronicles 28:19 "All of these things the LORD made clear to me in writing at his direction—the construction plans for all of the building." 

It was also the only Temple in which God’s Spirit dwelt in until the Temple was destroyed. 

And it was also the only Temple where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt. 

1 Kings 8:10-11 When the priests left the Holy Place after setting the ark in place, the cloud filled the LORD's Temple  (11)  so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, since the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's Temple. 

The Glory of the Lord finally leaves the Temple 

Ezekiel 11:23 The glory of the LORD went up from the middle of the city and stood on the mountain, east of the city. 

God’s Spirit now dwells in “temples made without hands” 

Acts 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands;   (Remember, we are now the Temple of God) 

We know that our Lord Jesus dwells in us. 

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  (17)  If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 

Now, let’s look at the Temple, Solomon’s Temple vs we are the Temple.  

This Applies to Christians only, not those who have only the spirit in man even though they live a somewhat good life. 

Inside the Temple, the Holy of Holies (which corresponds to our Spirit), where God dwells.  

The Holy Place (which is our new Heart),  

Ezekiel 36:26-27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  (27)  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 

The pillars of the Temple and all of the items in the Inner and Outer Courts—the lavers, the altar of sacrifice, the “molten sea,” etc.—were bronze. Bronze spoke of fire and that which still must be judged, something that is not redeemed yet. 

The Hidden Chambers were of wood. (The Hebrew word actually means something “to be burned up.”) Here the priests hid their personal idols, thinking they were secret .  

Ezekiel 8:12 Then He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.' " 

These secret hidden chambers are suggestive of what we sometimes call the “subconscious.” 

We must be careful not to stuff our junk (unresolved hurts, emotions, etc.) here. We need to continually cleanse ourselves by giving them over to Him.  This is a continual process. 

Go over chart. 

There are so many other things to consider and look at, we just run out of time. 

This whole message does not apply anyone, unless your spirit in man combined with the Holy Spirit and you become a new creation and are now, children of God and with the Spirit of God living in you, which you and I do by promise, we are now, become, the Temple of God. 

1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.