The part of the chapter that I'm going to focus on tonight is going to be Lamentations chapter four verse one. First, I'm going to give the context and the background of the book of Lamentations and of this chapter in particular. The book of Lamentations was authored by the prophet Jeremiah and because of this book mainly, he's ascribed the title as the weeping prophet. It's a book written about the mourning that Jeremiah records of the people of Jerusalem at the time that they're taken captive. The book was written immediately following or immediately after the Babylonian captivity, and originally Jehoiakim was the king. Jehoiakim was the king not when they were taken captive in this sense right here.
What happened was, at the time Jehoiakim was king, Nebuchadnezzar came in. Nebuchadnezzar, he came into the city and he only took with him at that time initially, just Jehoiakim and he only, the Bible record says that he took a few goodly vessels from the temple. When he did that, he took Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiakim from reigning and he brought him back with him and he put his brother Zedekiah in power. His brother Zedekiah began to reign in Jerusalem. After a period of time, while Zedekiah was reigning in Jerusalem, he decided that he was going to turn against Nebuchadnezzar and he decided that he was going to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. Keep in mind that Zedekiah was very aware that the punishment and the oppression that was to come upon them from the Babylonian captivity, was because of the sins of Judah.
This wasn't a coincidence that they had come into captivity, that they were under oppression, it was because of the sins of past. It was because of also the sins of the present time of Zedekiah himself, because he, himself didn't humble himself to the preaching of Jeremiah. It was very explicitly explained and clearly preached to him over and over again, and he was warned one time after, another time after another that he needed to submit under the king and he didn't, he rebelled. When he did that, when he rebelled, this time, Nebuchadnezzar came in and he didn't only make them pay tribute, and he didn't only take the king with him, he came in and he completely destroyed the city, the Bible says.
In second Chronicles, chapter thirty-six verse seventeen, you don't have to turn there, I'm going to read it to you, this was the result. It says, therefore, he brought upon them the king of the cowardice, who slew their young men with a sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young men or maiden, old men or him that stooped for age. He gave them all unto his hand and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king, and of his princess, all these he brought to Babylon and they burned the house of God and braked down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword, carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia.
Originally, when Jehoiakim, just Jehoiakim was taken and a few goodly vessels and they would have lost their freedom obviously and they would have had to pay taxes basically. Then, here, we see an entirely different outcome, a far, far worse outcome. He come in and he just destroys the entire city. He lays the entire city desolate. He burns down the palace as it says. He destroys the temple and then not only that, he takes with him everybody and anybody who is not killed with the sword, he takes with him and they're made to be servants in his kingdom until the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, when Ezra and Nehemiah and them begin to come back. Why did all of that happen? Because they added sin unto sin. They had a punishment to begin with, they had a punishment at the beginning and they were warned long ago about this, and they decided to turn and not to [hawk 00:03:55] in into the warnings and not to hawk in unto the preaching of God's word.
After being punished, after Judah turned from God once, they were rebuked again, and then after that, they hardened the heart even more. Keep your hand in Lamentations chapter four, thank you, and turn to 1st Kings chapter nine, versus one because Jerusalem wasn't a small city that was destroyed. Some people have in their mind for some reason that Jerusalem wasn't a very large city. The Bile says when God established Solomon upon the throne, that he exceeded all the kings of the earth in wisdom and riches. Jerusalem was massive. At one point, it was the largest kingdom in the earth. It was the most powerful kingdom that was on this earth. This is another thing I want to point out, just like Jeremiah received warnings one after another after another, and even those warnings go all the way back to Solomon. Even at the time, when God was blessing Israel, before it was even divided, God gave Solomon a warning immediately. He gave him a warning about what would happen if they would turn from God.
It says in 1st Kings chapter nine, verse one, and it came to pass when Solomon had finished the building of the house the Lord and the kings house and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, this is immediately when he's finished, as soon as he's done. As he appeared unto him at Gibeon, and the Lord said unto him, "I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou has made before me. I have hallowed this house which thou has built to put my name there forever, and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually, and if that will walk before me as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and will keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish the thrown of thy kingdom upon Israel forever.
As I promise to David thy father saying, excuse me, there shall not fail the a man upon the thrown of Israel. But if you shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them, and this house which I hallowed from my name will I cast out of my sight, and Israel shall be a proverb and a by word among all people. And that this house which is high, everyone that passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and they shall say, "Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, unto his house." They shall answer, "Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods and have worshiped them and served them. Therefore, hath the Lord brought upon them all these evil."
That explains so much about what we read in Lamentations four, the reason why God destroyed Jerusalem, the reason, what they had done to cause God to be so angry. It actually almost verbatim, talks about how Jeremiah looks at Jerusalem and he's like, "How has the gold become dim?" he's astonished when he sees it. That's almost verbatim mentioned here. What I want to point out about this is, so immediately after the work finished, immediately God appears unto him and the first thing he does, is he warns him. He gives him a warning right away, right off the back and he says, "If," there's a condition, "If thou will walk before me, then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom." He says, "But if ye shall at all turn from following me, I'll cut you off out of the land," he tells them.
That's the same thing that happen when the children of Israel inherited the land of Canaan. Immediately, before they were even in the land, he tells, he said, "I set before you this day, life and death, blessing and cursing," they received the warning before they even went in. They received the warning while they were in the glory days. First, the warning wasn't given later. God gives that warning, obviously, the preaching went on before, but the warning begins far before the consequence comes, far before it's time for judgment to be poured out." Go back in Lamentations chapter four, Lamentations chapter four. Lamentations chapter four, verse one reads, "How is the gold become dim? How is the most fine gold changed?"
When it says gold right here, it's talking about the temple specifically. Look at the latter part, it says, "The stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street." He's talking about the stones of the sanctuary, he's talking about the temple specifically. He makes that statement, "How is the gold become dim." When the temple was built, almost all the building materials were taken and they were covered and they were decked in gold. Even the instruments were decked in gold and covered in gold. That's the title of sermon this evening, is how has the gold become dim. Turn quickly to Ephesians chapter two, verse eleven. Now, we as new testament Christians, don't go to a physical temple to worship today. The temple was rebuilt after this and it was destroyed again, never to be built in 70AD by the Roman empire. It hasn't been built yet again. It will be in the end times, for the anti-Christ to be there.
As of right now, the temple's not standing. We, as new testament believers don't go to a temple to worship. We do not. Another major change is that in the new testament, the nation of Israel is not God's chosen people any longer. That nation is made up of all believers, of all nations as long as you're a believer in Christ, you are a part of that holy nation or that peculiar people. This is what people miss, even in the old testament, there was representations at that time of spiritual things to come, of spiritual things to come. Different things, there was carnal ordinances which pointed to future, shadows of thing to come. People for some reason, they see the old testament, they think it's all just carnality. They think it's all just about the temple and all physical things. Jerusalem was meant to be the spiritual capital of the world at that time, that's where all the nations of the world would go to to learn about God, to seek the Lord if they wanted to.
Now, in the new testament, there are things in the old testament that were physical, they were spiritual in a sense, but they were instituted for a reason to point towards spiritual things. Look in Ephesians chapter two, verse eleven, it says, "Therefore, remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision of the flesh made by hands, that at that time, even without Christ being aliens from the common wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. Having no hope and without God in the world, but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off or made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one and I've broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the [eemnenti 00:11:16], even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. For to make in himself of twin one new man sole making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slained the [emnenti 00:11:32], thereby and came and preached peace to you, which were far off unto them that were nigh. We see the Bile teaches right here and as we've read in many other places, in Galatians, numerous other places, Romans, the Bible teaches that it's no longer the nation of Israel God's chosen people, but God has a nation that's put together of all believers. That's the first point I want to focus on.
The second point I'm going to point out about this passage, we're going to begin reading again in verse eighteen, it says this, "For through him, we both have access by one spirit onto the father. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. These are now built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, and whom all the buildings fitly framed together or groweth onto and holy temple in the Lord. And whom he also are build together for in habitation of God through the spirit. In the new testament, the temple has been replaced with the local church. That's what the Bible teaches. We no longer go to a temple, a physical temple to worship. The church is not this building. The church is a local assembly, a local congregation of believers which all have the Holy Spirit.
We all are the habitation of God through us, that's what the Bible teaches. The temple in the new testament is believers, it's congregations, it's the local church. Then also, it's not the nation of Israel that's God chosen people, that again is believers. It's the local congregation saved Christians in the new testament. Romans chapter fifteen verse fourteen says, "For whatsoever things were written before time, were written for our learning." The things of the old testament were written to teach us, teach us in the new testament. What we do is we take the institutions of the new testament. We take the temple, our temple here, the congregation of believers, we take the local church which is the peculiar people, the holy nation, and we apply that to versus we read in the old testament.
When we see in Lamentations chapter four verse one it says, "How is the gold become dim?" The Bible says, "For all scriptures given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness." We look at those things and we apply those under us today. That's written to faithful word baptist church is what it's written to. It says, "How is the gold become dim?" First, let me make myself clear, I don't think that the light that's shining at faithful word is becoming dim. That's not what I believe. I believe this is the greatest church in the world and I believe it's growing. I believe it's getting bigger and I believe it's at the beginning of it's glory days. I honestly believe that from the bottom of my heart.
Jeremiah didn't come and just start warning them at the end. God gave the warning to Solomon in the very beginning. God gave that warning to Israel right before they came into the promised land, before it even began. As soon as they were in their glory days, that's when they received that warning. If you sit here today and you hear this and you say, "This isn't something I need to hear because faithful word is just booming, faithful word is striving. This isn't something that I need to hear because faithful word is just booming. Faithful word is striving. This isn't something that I need to hear today."
The Bible says, "Therefore, let him that think that he standeth take heed like before." You better take heed to the Bible, you know what, this is written to the Zedekiahs, that's who it's written to. The people who are puffed up with pride, that's who it's written to. It's written to the people Zedekiah, what we're going to look here in a just a minute, the whole reason that that nation fell was because of pride. It's because of arrogance. When they were in their time of prosperity, when they were in their time of blessing, when they were in their and they were thriving, what happens is they end up getting lifted up. They end up becoming arrogant and they don't think nothing can happen to them. If you think that today while you're in here and you're sitting in this auditorium, you're more vulnerable than anybody else. You are the one that's going to fall. You're the one that's going to be brought down.
Turn if you will to Proverbs chapter sixteen verse eighteen, Proverbs chapter sixteen verse eighteen. 1st Chronicles, thirty-six, eleven, I'm going to read to you real quick about Zedekiah that tells you why that destruction came upon Jerusalem. It says, "Zedekiah was more than twenty years old when he began to reign and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in the site of the Lord his God and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God, but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning onto the Lord God of Israel. You know what the problem with Zedekiah was, it was pride. That was what brought Zedekiah down. That was the last straw that brought him down.
Proverbs chapter fifteen verse twenty-five, I'll read to you says, "The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but he will establish the border of the widow." Proverbs chapter sixteen verse eighteen where you are says, "Pride goeth before destruction and unholy spirit before a fall." The first step for the gold to become dim is pride, is to get lifted up. When that gold is shining bright, is you start thinking, Man, we're good," just like Nebuchadnezzar, "I did all these on my own, and forget the Lord your God," that's the first step for the gold to become dim. That's the first step to lose the spiritual light of the world. That's the first step for the darkness to come.
Jesus said in Luke chapter fourteen, "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased. He that humbleth himself, shall be exalted. We need to have a humble attitude. Turn if you would, Mathew chapter sever verse twenty-four, pride is the first step for the gold to become dim. We need to have a humble heart. Number two, the second thing that we need is we have to have the right foundation as a local church. As a new testament church, we have to have the right foundation and that's the most important part, that is the most important part of a temple. If you think of a temple when it's built, obviously, in the temple they have the pillars of the temple, which is also a supporting structure. Those pillars have to have a good foundation to sit upon first or they're useless, they're worthless. They have to have a solid foundation that they're built upon.
I'm going to read you Ephesians two again, where we just read, though I'm a point out a different aspect of it at this point. It says in verse nineteen, "No, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. That's talking about the word of God is what that's talking about. That's talking about the Bible. That's talking about the writings of the old testament of the prophets, and it's talking about the writings of the new testament of the apostles and then Jesus Christ is the word, in the beginning was the word.
If you look at Mathew chapter seven verse twenty-four where you are, this is Jesus speaking, he says, "Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, shall be likened unto a foolish man, doeth them now, I'm sorry, that's where I messed up, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.
The new testament church has to be founded upon the words of God, upon the sayings of Jesus Christ, that has to be our final authority in all matters of faith and practice. Anything that we do in our lives, every aspect, we have to found it upon the word of God and upon the Bible, that has to be the rock and the foundation of the local church, and of the temple. Ephesians chapter four verse thirteen says, "Till we're all calm in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God and to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sly of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive.
Too many Christians today don't know their Bible enough and they're being deceived. That's what's going all the time, they're not personally doing the Bible reading. The pastor can stand up here all day long and teach you, and what you can do is go back to other people and just regurgitate the things you've heard. I'll tell you where it separates the men from the boys, is when somebody has a question for you and then you're able to say, "I can prove to you from the Bible why the rapture comes after the tribulation. I can not only use his words but I'll explain in my words why whatever you believe falls. That's where we need to be as Christians, we all need to be rooted and grounded in the word of God. The local new testament church, this sermon applies to the church, like I said, but the church like a minute ago, we saw in Ephesians, is fitly framed together of all different stones, if all different parts and members of the body like the Bible talks about in the local church.
Each individual has to apply this to themselves, and they have to say, I'm going to personally learn the Bible for myself. I'm going to be grounded, I'm going to be rooted on the foundation of the word of God. Turn if you will quickly to 1st Corinthians chapter three verse eleven, first Corinthians chapter three verse eleven, if you don't have the right foundation, you're going to crumble just like the foolish, just like the foolish man that built his house upon the sand. The Bible says in 1st Corinthians chapter three verse eleven, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ." Turn two second Corinthians chapter six, verse fourteen, second Corinthians chapter six, so first, we must be humble, number one. Number two, we must have the right foundation.
Number three, another way that our light can become dim, another step to the light becoming dim at faithful baptist church or at any church is by not sanctifying ourselves, not setting ourselves apart from the world. Not living a different life than the world, and not just for the same of being different but not living the sinful life that the world lives. I'm going to read to you from 1st Corinthians chapter three, verse sixteen the Bible says, "Know you not that you are temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelth on you?" In the old testament, the reason why the temple was considered the temple, why it had such importance and such value was because that's where, that was God's habitation. That was where God dwelled. Before that obviously, God dwelled in the tabernacle and it was set up, it was sanctified. That's where the sanctuary came from. At that point, the sanctuary was in the tabernacle, that's what set it apart.
In the new testament as believers, when we trust Jesus Christ as our savior, we receive eternal life which is the holy spirit. The Bible says in Romans eight, the spirit is life because of righteousness. When we receive that, we're sanctified and we're set apart and God has different standards held for us than for anyone. We are different than the world and we're supposed to love different than the world. Like I said, not just for the sake of being different, but we're not supposed to listen to the same filth that the world listens to, we're not supposed to watch the same trash that the world watches. We're not supposed to just follow in the same foot steps, doing the same sinful things that the world does, and that's what it means to be set aside, to be sanctified. If you look down at second Corinthians chapter six verse fourteen, the Bible says, "Be not unequally yoked with non-believers, for what fellowship have righteousness with un-righteousness, and what communion have light with darkness?
I'm going to turn that because I didn't copy and paste everything, I'm going to read more of it. Second Corinthians chapter six verse fifteen, and what [conc 00:23:29] will have Christ with [Blial 00:23:31] or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, and watch this, and what agreement has the temple of God with idols? 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. Where for, come out from among them and be separate sayeth the Lord, and touch not the uncleaned thing and I will receive." Our best friend should be people from church. The people that we hang out with the most, the people that we're the closest to should be people from our local church. People that are saved, believers that are like minded like we are. If you're best friend is some unsaved like heathen from work or something like that, then I can already tell you you have a spiritual problem in your life.
The Bible, not the Bible, I was going to already say the Bible says, bird of a feather flock together. Why would I just say that? The Bible says this though, it says in I think Amos, can two walk together except they be agreed? I just came up with the top of my head deal. Can two walk together except they be agreed? The only way you're going to hang out with people is if you have things in common with them, that's the only way that they're your best buddies, that they are your best friends. The people at my work, I couldn't even be best friends with. I'm not saying I'm biased but I love the Bible and I love singing hymns and you're going to want to be around people that do those same things.
If you're a young man or if you're a young woman and you're thinking about marrying sometime shortly, the last thing that you should be looking is out in the world. You should be coming to church and looking around at church for prospects or whatever you want to call it. You should be wanting to get married to other believers, other like minded people, people that believe the word of God and they want to live the same kind of life that you want to live. They want to live a separate life. They want to live a sanctified life. They want to serve God with their time. Turn to 1st John, chapter two, verse fifteen, 1st John chapter two verse fifteen. Even in the old testament, like I was saying, we apply things of the nation of Israel, the old testament under us, because we've replaced them. The new testament, it's the believers. Even in the old testament, the nation of Israel is told not to intermingle with the heaven, and why does he say that? Because you'll learn their ways.
You don't want to be around them because you'll start acting like them. You don't want to be around them, you don't want to hear ... We'll go ahead and read, I'm going to read to you James chapter four verse four, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of the God. That's strong words, that's very strong words. The Bible says in 1st John, two, fifteen, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the world." We shouldn't love the things of this world, even the people of this world.
Obviously, we should care about them, but it shouldn't be in the sense that they are our best friends. We should separate ourselves from them, they shouldn't be ... All our time should not be spent hanging out with people of the world. We should spend our time with believers, with like minded people. We should live a set apart and a sanctified life. A good example of the separation of the temple, if you remember in the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah leaves for a period of time, like around like chapter or something, and then he comes back and when he comes back he finds out that this guy [Tobiah 00:26:55] has set up shop or is camping out in his chamber. When he goes in there, he just knows number one, this guy shouldn't be here. He goes into the temple and he literally starts grabbing all of this guy. The Bible says his household stuff, so he's grabbing like his bed, like his chairs, his clothes and he goes outside and just throws it outside, and he just tosses it outside, and that's what we should do.
I'm not saying literally grab people and throw them, you know what I mean? I'm saying the stuff in your life if it shouldn't be there, get rid of it. The stuff in your mind, if you got a television, whatever it is that you're turning on, you're listening to stuff you shouldn't be listening to, get it out of your life. The next thing that it says after that it says after that, it says, "Nehemiah then commanded them to cleanse the temple," that's the washing of the water by the word. Then immediately following that, they start taking in the goodly vessels and putting them back in. There wasn't enough room for both, they couldn't have both, it had to be one or the other, they cleaned it out and then they started bring it in.
If you want to start learning things that are pure, you can't have all that defiled stuff in your mind. You got to clean your mind up, you got to get rid of that junk. You got to change your entire thinking. You have to change your philosophy of the way you live your life. That's the third way that the gold will become dim in the local church, that's the third way. Turning your Bibles to the next package is Mathew chapter four verse sixteen, Mathew chapter four verse sixteen, this is the fourth way that they gold can become dim and it's by hiding the light, it's by covering the light. The Bible says in Mathew chapter four verse sixteen, "The people with certain darkness saw great light, and to them with shadow in the region, and shadow of death, light is sprung up."
Verse seventeen that I'm going to read to you, you actually, I'm sorry, you can just turn to Mathew chapter five verse fourteen, just flip over one page. Then it's going to tell you actually what that light is. It says, "From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The light is the gospel. Look at Mathew chapter five verse fourteen and it's our job to preach the gospel. It says, "Ye of the light of the world, a city that is et on a hill cannot be hid, excuse, neither do men light a candle and put in under a bushel, but on a candle stick. It giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before me, that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.
Turn to second Corinthians chapter four, verse three. Luke chapter twelve verse three says, "Therefore, whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light and that which you have spoken in the ear and closet, shall be proclaimed upon the house tops. Second Corinthians chapter four verse three says, "But if your gospel be heed, it is heed to them that are lost and whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, bless the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine onto them. For we not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
Our light that we have today is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The light that we have as new testament believers and we were commanded not to hide to, not to put it under a bushel. We're commanded, Jesus Christ said in Mark sixteen, he said, "Go therefore into tall the world and preach the gospel to every traitor. We're commanded to go out and share the gospel with everyone. He says, "Go out into the highways, into the hedges and compel them to come into my house maybe full." Those churches that we probably drive by today and we look at them and they look run down or maybe you visit a church sometime and you're like, "Man, that church is dead." You probably think in your mind, "This church has probably always been spiritually dead," but you don't know that. That church could have been faithful baptist church twenty years ago, you have no idea. You don't have any clue, and pride is the attitude that says that that will never happen to me.
Pride is the first step to that thinking that can never be us. There's churches you drive by today that have twenty members that might have had a hundred and fifty, two hundred members five years ago and were soul winning. You have no idea, there are churches, there are definitely churches that are somewhere, I don't know what churches they are, where their light has become dim and they were at one time a strong hold. They were at one time going out and preaching the gospel, and they had visions like faithful, what baptist church had. I'm sure there were many churches like that, many churches. We need to have this attitude, we need to institute these things and make sure that we're letting our light shine. We need to analyze ourselves and make sure, "Are we headed down that same path that maybe that Zedekiah went down or maybe that Israel went down?
I don't think faithful Otis as a whole but maybe you might be personally. You might be personally, you might be lacking in your spiritual life. You might be going soul winning less than you used to go soul winning. Your light might not be shining the way that it should, maybe not everyone in here, but I'm sure there's somebody. Everybody needs to look at themselves and say, "Hey, I don't want to go down that path. I want to be here when the glory days are gone and I want to be a part of it. I want to be going out soul winning, I want to be getting people stay the long with everybody else. When faithful baptist church is talked about in eternity, and we're talked about the great things that we did, I want to be here while it's going on. I don't want to only be here, I want to be a part of it.
Turn your Bibles to second Corinthians chapter five, second Corinthians chapter five, this is my last point, I'm going to end here. Before the temple was built, I alluded this a minute ago, before the temple was built by Solomon, they had the tabernacle and the biggest difference between the temple and the tabernacle is that the temple is permanent and the tabernacle is temporary. The tabernacle was meant to be set up and moved and taken to other locations and then set up and then moved. When you build a foundation, when you put pillows up, you're not moving the temple, so that's the largest difference between the temple and the tabernacle. In the new testament, believers in the church are spoken as the temple and they're also spoken as the tabernacle. Our bodies are talked about in that sense.
Each time they're talked about as the tabernacle, I'm going to show you two of the times, the talk about the tabernacle is to show the temporal aspect of it, is to show that our bodies are just temporary. That it's not permanent, that we're not going to be on this earth forever. Second Peter, chapter one verse thirteen, I'll read to you, Peter says, "Yeah, I think it me as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. watch what she says, knowing that shortly, I must put off this my tabernacle. Even as our Lord Jesus Christ have showed. Second Corinthians chapter five verse one again, Paul makes the same point, he illustrates the same point. He says in verse one, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
He's talking about, he's contrasting that with our body which is temporary. He says in verse two, "For in this we've grown earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be, that being clothed we shall not be found naked, for whether in this tabernacle do grown being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed yo of life." He that hath brought us for the same, same thing is God, who also has given under us the earnest of the spirit. Therefore, we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith not by sight. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
Then he says this, "Therefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. We're going to stand before God one day and he gave us the honor of having the holy spirit and he referred to our bodies as the temple. Here he talk about it as a tabernacle because it's temporary, because we're not going to be on this earth forever. We're going to stand face to face with the creator of this earth. We're going to look in his eyes and he's going to look at us and he's going to judge us not by any regular standards, but by the fact that our bodies was the tabernacle.
Based upon what we did in our bodies in the short period if time while we were here, God is going to judge us. Whether we built upon that foundation of the temple, wood, hay or stable, or whether we built upon that foundation precious stones like the Bible talks about in 1st Corinthians three, and it talks about silver and it talks about gold. We as the local church, we need to make sure that our light continues to shine. We don't need to say, "Hey, we're complacent. We're good here. I feel like I'm spiritually strong, I don't feel like I need to grow anymore." We need to keep pushing and not looking back, and we need to make sure that we're number one, not going backwards. Number two, we need to have bigger dreams, bigger visions. We need to make sure that that day when we stand before God, that it's not going to be a day of sadness, that it's going to be a day of rewards because we're only on this earth for a little short time, this is just the tabernacle that we're wearing.
Let's go ahead and bow our heads and we'll have a word of prayer. Dear heavenly father God, we thank you Lord God for privilege of having the holy spirit here Lord and eternal life dear God. We thank you dear Lord for all the blessings that faithful word has dear Lord, with a great church that we have here, the greatest in the world. We ask you just to continue to bless us father God, we ask you just to continue to be with us and to help us to let our light shine. Help us to follow your word, help us not to be proud dear Lord God. Help us to humble ourselves and to use your word as our foundation. Help us to sanctify ourselves and to set ourselves apart dear Lord God. We love you so much and just be with us as I said, and protect us in Jesus Christ's name, amen.
