Ye Are the Temple of God - Part 1

 Temple Baptist Church - 6-25-2025

1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19-20

 

Introduction: 

 

A.  The context of these verses is in relationship to the Judgment Seat of Christ and needs to be interpreted in that light.

 

          1.  We dealt with the foundation, which is Christ.

 

          2.  We dealt with the Judgment Seat of Christ and our reward or loss of reward.

 

3.  Now we will deal with the importance of the body, the temple of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

 

4.  Just how important is our body to the Lord?  There is considerable emphasis in the Bible regarding our bodies and our responsibility toward God.  I find it amazing that God owns our bodies but has placed us as husbandmen, or overseers, of them.  That is a sacred “Trust!”

 

5.  Why does God have so much interest in these old bodies of clay? We will have to leave that to God, but I want us to look at a couple of texts that are, for the most part, not looked at in the right manner.  God emphasizes the importance of our bodies.

 

a)  The bible says that our corruptible, temporal bodies will be changed.  Why did God not simply take us out of this body and create a new one? 

 

1 Corinthians 15:51-54  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  (52)  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  (53)  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  (54)  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

 

b)  The bodies of the saints who are now with the Lord will get their bodies back at the rapture of the Church, but in an eternal, pure state. 

 

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  (16)  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  (17)  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

 

c)  For now, our bodies look like those of the rest of the world, but when He shall appear, “we shall be like Him;  for we shall see Him as He is.”

 

1 John 3:1-2  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.  (2)  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

 

d)  Our bodies belong to the Lord and He will not throw away the clay but will make it once again as it was in the beginning, in the image of God and in His likeness.

 

B.  We have seen the three states of man in earlier chapters of 1 Corinthians:

 

1.  The Natural Man – man in his unregenerate state – lost without God - 1 Corinthians 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

2.  The Carnal Man – man that is regenerated but living his life under the power of his old sin nature - 1 Corinthians 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

 

3.  The Spiritual Man – man that is regenerated and living in the power of the Holy Spirit. He discerns the difference between the things of God and man - Galatians 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

 

C.  Our spiritual state has much to do with our physical body, as everything that we do to build upon the foundation of Christ is done within it or with it.