The Lord is Coming to His Temple! (Part 1)
The Lord is Coming to His Temple • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:24:09
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Introduction
Introduction
The call for the Church to be ready for the coming of the Lord is growing louder and louder!
Behold the Bridegroom is coming, go out to meet Him!
Be ready!
The Church as the Temple of God
Work on the Temple is still ongoing
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?
If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
“being built up” - 1 Peter 2.5
you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
"I will make him a pillar in the temple of God - Revelation 3.12
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
Christ is personally working in His own church
Ephesians 5.25-27
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
What should we expect to happen in the church as we come closer to the Rapture?
Physical and “mystical” comings of Christ
Physical and “mystical” comings of Christ
The Lord will “descend” accompanied three earthly events
1 Thessalonians 4.16
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
[SEE CHART #1 - “1 THESSALONIANS 4.16”]
The Son of Man will be “revealed” in the last days
Luke 17.22-30
Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them.
For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.
But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:
They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;
but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
“Revelation” is used both in the physical and mystical comings of Christ.
Bro. Branham used this reference to refer to the Son of Man ministry of the Seventh Angel
[SEE CHART #2 - “THE DAYS OF THE SON OF MAN”]
How will this take place in the last days?
There are two (2) things we can expect will take place as we enter the final days to the coming of the Lord:
the coming of the Lord will purify the Church
the coming of the Lord will complete the Church
The coming of the Lord will PURIFY His Church
The coming of the Lord will PURIFY His Church
Malachi 3.1-3
“Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts.
“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap.
He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness.
The prophecy of Malachi 3 can be viewed in three ways.
The prophecy of Malachi 3 can be viewed in three ways.
the Day of the Lord - at the end of the Great Tribulation.
the arrival of Christ on the scene - when He rebuked the religious leaders of Israel and exposed their errors
the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus Christ - after His baptism in the river Jordan.
The fourth view is this: Christ will come to His Church in mystical way, immediately preceding His physical return in the Rapture.
The fourth view is this: Christ will come to His Church in mystical way, immediately preceding His physical return in the Rapture.
The coming is announced by the “messenger”
“As John the Baptist foreran the first coming of Christ, you are sent with a “message” that will forerun His second coming.”
Christ comes to purify His people!
Ephesians 5.25-27
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
1 Peter 1.7
that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
The believer’s faith will go through fiery testing to prove its “genuineness”!
1 Corinthians 3.13
each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
the “Day” will declare it, by fire!
The purging is done by the “hand of Christ”
Matthew 3.12
His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
threshing floor - where the harvested stalks are placed to be cleansed further
winnowing fan separates the chaff from the seed
the winnowing fan is Christ’s hand!
Ephesians 4.11
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers
The purifying will produce a people that will offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness!
Malachi 3.3
He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness.
The coming of the Lord will COMPLETE the Church
The coming of the Lord will COMPLETE the Church
Zechariah 4.1-10
Zechariah 4.1-5
Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.
And he said to me, “What do you see?” So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.
Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.”
So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”
Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.”
Christ Himself will finish the work in His own Temple!
The 2 olive trees on the right and left sides of the lampstand
Zerubbabel - in the beginning and in the end
Revelation 1.10-13
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,
saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
the Son of Man is the Alpha and the Omega
Christ is the Foundation and the Capstone of the Church!
The final work of Christ in His own Temple will be participated by “these seven eyes”
the 7 eyes = the 7 Spirits of God
Revelation 5.6
And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Revelation 4.5
And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
the 7 Spirits of God worked in the 7 Stars
Revelation 1.20
The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.
Revelation 3.1
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
[SEE CHART #3 - “THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD”]
The 7 Spirits of God will personally see to the placing of the Capstone of the Church!
Zechariah 4.10
For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.”
Revelation 10.3-4
and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”
The Rejected Stone becomes the Chief Cornerstone - Christ!
Matthew 21.42
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?
1 Peter 2.4
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,
The laying of the Capstone will be a great celebration of God’s grace!
The “plumb line” - the Word of God by which everything in the Church is measured.
The 7 Spirits of God will see to it that everything lines up from beginning to end, foundation to capstone in the life of the Temple of God!
Conclusion
Conclusion
[SEE CHART #4 - “THE LORD IS COMING TO HIS TEMPLE”]
Are you ready for the coming of the Lord?
If you desire His appearing, the Rapture, get ready for coming into your life today!
He will purify your life!
He will make sure your life is lining perfectly from foundation to capstone!