 The title of our sermon this morning is undivided devotion, undivided devotion. We are in part three of this text, 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11 through chapter 7 verse 3. It is loaded down with good truth that we need to understand and apply. And so it's our joy again to come to this text. And as we come again to consider this text, 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11 through chapter 7 verse 3, we're reminded once again that false teachers and opponents of Paul who have infiltrated the church at Corinth have led what amounts to an insurrection against the apostle and against his teaching. As a result, the relationship between the apostle Paul and the Corinthians has been undermined. Their failure to effectively deal with sin, their failure to effectively deal with division and discord in the church. And now their current failure to effectively deal with usurpers and false teachers and opponents in their midst has led to a strained or restricted relationship, restricted affections on a part of the Corinthians toward the apostle Paul himself. So now having reminded them then of the glorious blessings and the immeasurable grace that they have in Christ, Paul then pleads with them in chapter 6 verse 1 not to receive the grace of God in vain. God is lavishing his grace upon them and they are in danger of receiving that grace in vain. Having set forth the defense of his own ministry particularly and then also a defense of new covenant Christian ministry more specifically or more generally, Paul then reminds them in chapter 6 verse 3. He says, we give no offense in anything that our ministry may not be blamed. But in all things, we commend ourselves as ministers of God. He now calls upon them to take action toward full and complete unfettered reconciliation and restoration. Verse 11, O Corinthians, we have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. You're not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. The problem doesn't lie with me, it lies with you, Paul says. Now when we return for the same and return for my affections toward you, verse 13, do you also be open? Paul again calling for a full and complete reconciliation. That's the only kind of reconciliation there is, amen? Full and complete restoration of full fellowship in the gospel that's marked by genuine heartfelt, unqualified, unhindered Christian love. Anything short of that just simply isn't Christian reconciliation. However, Paul understands that at the heart of this unreconciled state that they find themselves in is a heart problem. There is a heart problem at the root of their lack of love toward him. And that heart problem doing no small part to the company that they've been keeping. And so Paul warns them and he commands them in verse 14, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship is righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness and the rhetorical answer to this rhetorical question in every case is none whatsoever. What accord has Christ with Belial? What part has a believer with an unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols? None whatsoever. What does Paul define here as being unequally yoked? Well, an unequal, unequal yoke according to the text is any fellowship or any partnership with unrighteousness, any communion or any intimacy with darkness, any accord or any agreement with the sons of hell, any part, any shared commitment with unbelievers. In other words, we don't fight battles alongside Ahab. We don't go into business with our ships in Parshish with Ahab. We don't marry the wicked sons and daughters of Ahab. Paul says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. Paul is warning us against unholy alliances in whatever form they take. Paul pleads with the Corinthians and he pleads with us to make a complete and utter and total break with every form of ungodly compromise. Do not be deceived, brothers and sisters. Evil company corrupts good habits. We're to be holy. We're to be set apart. Maybe in the world, but not of the world. Paul isn't merely forbidding association here with pagan idolaters, with those who worship demons, so to speak. Charles Hodg on this text says this, it is intimate, voluntary association with any of the wicked that is here forbidden. The worse the man is, the more openly he is opposed to Christ and his gospel, the greater the danger and evil of connection with him. It is not so much his profession as his real character and influence that is to be taken into account. The primary issue at hand is our separation from the leavening influence of their worldly character. That's what we need to be concerned about. In 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 17, Paul says that the ungodly influence of wicked men spreads like cancer, increasing to more and more ungodliness. If you understand that text and understand the Greek word there that translated cancer, a better translation of that word would be gangrene. Gangrene, their influence destroys, it eats or consumes like the spreading black bile of gangrene. Any ungodly alliance, any ungodly influence, if we compromise that leavening influence destroys, it eats or consumes. John Calvin in his commentary on this passage said this, all physicians pronounce the nature of the disease to be such that if it not be very speedily counteracted, in other words, cut out, it spreads to the adjoining parts and penetrates even to the bones and does not cease to consume till it has killed the man. Paul describes their influence, the influence of the ungodly as a moral contagion. It doesn't mean now that we're to cut off all contact with lost people. Paul says clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, for then we would have to go out of the world. We're not to be hermits and monks in caves in the wilderness, but it certainly does mean that we cut off association with anyone named a brother who is immoral. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 11, it certainly does mean that we cut off all associations with those who cause divisions. Romans chapter 16 verse 17, it certainly does mean that we turn away from those who have a form of godliness, but deny its power. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 5, it certainly does mean that if anyone doesn't bring sound doctrine concerning Christ, we're not to receive them into our house or even greet them 2 John verse 10 or else you share in its evil deeds. It certainly does not mean that we don't love and share the gospel with our sinful neighbor, but it certainly does mean that we cast off any and all associations that may influence us toward ungodliness. Here the Psalmist in Psalm chapter 1, blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight, but contrasting right, his delight is in the law of the Lord and his law in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. As Paul would say it, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Come out from among them and be separate says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean. Paul explains that for our heart to be rightly oriented, for our heart to be well preserved and well protected, for our heart to be rightly focused on eternal and unseen things in Christ, for our heart to be filled with godly and godward affection, we must pursue an undivided devotion to him. To the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then notice with me, Paul gives us the reason why, beginning in verse 16, Paul says, for because you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. In other words, our disunion with the godless is a necessary consequence of our communion with God. In other words, because we have communion with God, because we've been brought into communion with him, the consequence of that communion is that we are to be set apart to him, set apart from sin, set apart from the godless, so to speak, the godless influence of this world and set apart to God. Our disunion with the godless that he spends time discussing in verses 11 through 14 is a necessary consequence of our communion with God here shown in verse 16. Such relationships, such alliances with unbelievers are inconceivable for the Christian. Why? Paul says, because you are the temple of the living God. You are, as Paul would later say, the dwelling place of God in the spirit. So to think with me, this is not only a call for separation. It's certainly a call for separation. But this is also a call to understanding. It's a call to faith. It's a call to communion with the living God. Come out and be separate from them, says the Lord. Why? Because you are the temple of the living God in our fellowship, in our communion with is with him. We are to be holy. That communion, that communion with God gloriously described in terms associated with God's promised presence among his people. It's described in terms of the temple where God's presence was thought to dwell. Notice first with me from verse 16. Notice with me that this is not merely an illustration. What Paul says here isn't merely an analogy. It's not a comparison or even a metaphor. He does not say you are as the temple. Notice what he says. He does not say you are like the temple. This is not saying that the church building or the institution of the church has replaced the temple building or the institution of temple worship. It is reality that you, that word is plural there, meaning all believers. It's the truth. It's the reality that you, those in dwelt by the spirit, those who have put their faith and trust in Christ, those who have turned from the sin, their sin, you are God's temple. First Peter chapter two, verse five, you Peter says also as living stone, there's the as, we are as living stones. We're analogous to a living stone built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We are the temple of the living God, a spiritual house offering up spiritual sacrifices. Do you see? Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, verse 21, that the whole building, this temple of the living God being fitted together grows now into a holy temple in the Lord. How is it growing? It's growing through the preaching of the gospel. It's growing in holiness. It's growing in knowledge. It's growing in maturity, but it's growing at the preaching of the gospel as more and more saints are being added to it as more and more living stones are being stacked now one upon the other as this house is being built up to God. It is being fitted together. It grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom in the Lord you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. That is a glorious thought, isn't it? We should be taken by that as Christians, as brothers and sisters individually, but then also as we think about the corporate reality of that as his church, as his body, as his people. That is glorious. I've walked through beautiful cathedrals all over Europe, stained glass, vaulted ceilings, marbled floors, flying buttresses, dead saints, memorials, priceless artifacts, priceless art, priceless organs, priceless pulpits, places where there is no lobby, right? There is no foyer. It's called a narthex, like that kind of a place, right? I've been wondering if that's where we get our word narcissistic from. And all that, when you consider that, those beautiful buildings, beautiful buildings, that's just dead brick and mortar. That is a lifeless husk that is an empty shell. The presence of the living God is with his people. And many times you go in those buildings, there are professors to be a people there, but that's no people of his there. Even those people are empty husks, lifeless shells. The presence of the living God is with his people. And it's with his people through his spirit who indwells them where the spirit is. That's where God's people are. Where God's people are. That's where the spirit is. That's where God's presence is. We, his people, are his temple. Do you see? And notice next with me from verse 16, this reality, this truth is just as God has said. This from the Old Testament, this is not a metaphor. It's not an analogy. This is exactly, exactly what God intended by what God said in the Old Testament when he made reference to this truth, reference to this reality. This isn't something new. This is not a new reinterpretation. In fact, it's very old. This is what God meant when he said these things. This is a fulfillment in verse 16 of what God promised to his people long ago. And who are his people? We are his people. If you've repented, turn from your sin and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone. We are his people. If you were indwelt by his spirit, this was promised by God in the Old Testament. Look closely with me at these three verses, verse 16, as God has said verse 17 says the Lord verse 18 says the Lord Almighty. And as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Why? Because we are the temple of a living God. God has said, right? And God is faithful to his word. God has made covenant promises and he is faithful to those promises. And Paul is saying here in verse 16 that these promises that God has made apply to you, Corinthians, and they apply to you, brothers and sisters here in Christ. And they apply to you and me, all those who put their faith in Christ. So as we consider these promised blessings, right, this astounding communion that we have here with the living God in verse 16, it's going to serve us well to ask and to answer three basic questions from this text. First question we have to ask and answer is this, what has been promised by God? What are the promises? Secondly, how have those promises been fulfilled? How does Paul conceive of those promises now having been fulfilled in 2 Corinthians chapter six, verses 16 through 18? And then what are the implications then of that reality? What are the implications? First, let's take a look at what exactly has been promised by God. What has been promised by God? Notice first with me that the words of God from verses 16, 17 and 18, that in those words there are three covenant promises of God referenced from texts in the Old Testament. Verse 16 is the first one, as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. There's a promise referenced in verse 17 where God says, I will receive you. There's a promise referenced in verse 18, I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty. So what's being promised here? What's being promised here? You look at those three passages together. It's a covenant relationship between God and his people. And that covenant relationship is characterized by certain realities. It's God's very presence in fellowship with his people. A covenant relationship in which God dwells with his people, in which God is a father to them and they are sons and daughters to him. God's very presence in fellowship with his people. I want you to remember these words, these promises from verses 16 to 18. And I want us to trace those covenant promises together beginning in Genesis chapter 17. Look back there with me at Genesis chapter 17. We want to trace these covenant promises of God and want to see how they build up now to Paul's statements in our texts and how they are fulfilled there. Beginning in Genesis chapter 17, verse 1. Now, God had begun a covenant relationship between himself and Adam in the garden prior to the fall. Right? Adam was to obey God's command to be fruitful and to multiply. Adam was to take dominion over the earth and to subdue it. Adam was to tend the garden and to keep it. He was to enjoy the wondrous blessings of his covenant relationship to his Creator by obeying his command to avoid eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam had covenant responsibilities. God essentially told Adam, listen Adam, obey me and I will dwell with you and I will walk with you and I will be your God and you and your descendants after you will be my people. This was a covenant relationship. Biblical theologians for centuries have called this a covenant of works. But we all know what happens, right? We know what happens in this account. Adam fell through Adam's fall. He plunges both himself, his posterity in all the world into sin and darkness. Sin and death, estrangement, alienation from God and death. However, Adam's not the end of the story, is he? God in grace and mercy had intended all along to redeem a people to himself from fallen man and to restore that broken relationship through the sacrifice of his own son, the seed of the woman. And that having begun with that promise made in the garden is now stated to Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis chapter 17. Look at Genesis chapter 17 verse one. When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God. Walk before me and be blameless. Listen to verse two. And I will make my covenant between me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly. Interesting there, the reference to multiplying him exceedingly. What was Adam to do with Eve in the garden? They were to be fruitful and multiply and where Adam failed and sinned against God and now with no longer populate the earth. With sinless posterity, God now intends to restore that through covenant, to restore his promised order, to restore his intended order through his covenant relationship with his people. Look at verse three. Abraham then fell on his face and God talked with him saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. Here it is again. I will make you exceedingly fruitful. God's willing to do this. I will make nations of you and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant. And listen to what God just describes here in the covenant. The purpose of this covenant is to be God to you and to your descendants after you to have this relationship with you. And also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. And I will be their God. Now, later as we consider that covenant promise to Abraham, that very same intention, that very same purpose will later be communicated to Moses and the children of Israel in Exodus 29. Turn to Exodus 29 with me. One book to the right. Exodus 29. And look down beginning at verse 42. And God to the Israelites in the wilderness, having already delivered them out of their bondage in Egypt, now brings them into covenant with himself and repeats these covenant promises. Look at verse 42. So the Lord says, this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak to you, to speak with you, to reveal myself to you. God intends with His people to meet with them, to fellowship with them, to dwell with them, to be amongst them, to speak with them, to reveal himself to them. The tabernacle of meeting in the wilderness was a portable tent, a portable precursor, if you will, to the temple. And through the ceremonial sacrifices that took place there through the shedding of blood, the tabernacle would be consecrated as the temple would later be. The tabernacle would be consecrated or set apart as holy so that, or for the purpose, that God could meet with them so that God could dwell among His people. He says in verse 43, there I will meet with the children of Israel. And the tabernacle, my dwelling place, shall be sanctified by my glory. It will be set apart by my glory. Remember the stories, right? It's the cloud descended on the tabernacle of meeting and the cloud filled the temple. We saw the cloud of God's glory. Verse 44, so I will consecrate the tabernacle of meeting in the altar. I will also consecrate or set apart both Aaron and his sons to minister to me as priests. I will dwell among the children of Israel and I will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Sounds familiar to our text in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6. This covenant promise comes with a purpose in verse 46 that he may dwell among them because he is the Lord our God. The purpose of their deliverance out of bondage in Egypt, the purpose of their salvation was so that he may establish his presence with them and dwell among them. They will be his people and he will be their God. And God's presence was seen in the cloud of his glory that filled that tabernacle, signifying his presence among his people. Now this promise given in Genesis 17, now further clarified in Exodus 29, is repeated then in the text specifically quoted in part by Paul. This is Leviticus chapter 26. Turn there again. One vote to the right. Leviticus 26. This promise repeated and then this promise in its form from Leviticus 26, the law, is picked up by Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, our text. Look at Leviticus chapter 26 and look beginning at verse 9 where the Lord says in verse 9, for I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful and multiply you again. This covenant promises and confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat the old harvest and clear out the old because of the new. I will set my tabernacle, my mishkan among you, my dwelling place, my soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people. Sounds like God in the garden with Adam, doesn't it? I will walk among you. I'll be your God. You shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, verse 13, who brought you out of the land of Egypt that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you to walk upright. To what end? To what end? What was the purpose of God's work in this way? Exodus 29, 46, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. This is God's purpose. This is God's intention. The old covenant given to Moses that Mount Sinai held out a promise to God's people. And that was the promise of God's own presence among them. A holy, loving relationship where he dwells with them and walks among them. We are his people and he is our God. That's the loving promise of God to his people. If you're here today and you're a brother, you're a sister, you've turned from your sin to put faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, right? You're not following your own works as somehow meriting favor with God. You're not trying to seek a righteousness or a right standing with him based on what you do, but based on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. You said, he is my God and I want Christ. If you've said that, then God blesses you with the promise of his presence, not only the promise of his presence, but the reality of his presence. God says, I will dwell among my people. I will be their God. They will be my people. If you're here today and you've never turned from your sin, you've never put saving, genuine saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're seeking works of the law in order to be right with God. You are outside the covenant promises. God is not your God in that sense. God does not intend to bless you in that condition. He holds out to you now a promise, lost person. Listen friend, he holds out to you a promise that if you will turn from your sin and trust in Christ is one provision for your sin. He holds out to you a promise of his very presence with you. Not to do you harm, but to bless you, to build you up, not to tear you down. All you must do is turn and put your faith and trust in Christ. Have a relationship with the unwilling spirit of God. Have a relationship with God where once you are an enemy of his by your wicked works is a glorious promise, a glorious blessing. Turn from your sin. Back in 2 Corinthians chapter six now, considering this text in Leviticus 26, Paul quotes that text from the Old Testament law now in verse 16 in their first Exodus, right after the people had been delivered out of Egypt. The story of Israel in the wilderness is not unlike the story of Adam in the garden. Is it? Could they keep the covenant in the wilderness? No. No, they broke his covenant. The promise of God's presence was fulfilled in one sense through the tabernacle. Later, that promise fulfilled in one sense through the temple, but due to Israel's idolatry, due to their grievous sin against God, they had so defiled themselves, so defiled their worship that God vomits them out of the land, sends them into exile, and then destroys the temple. So now then, as we consider this promise in 2 Corinthians chapter six verse 16, has that promise of God been forsaken? Are they his people forgotten? Does God abandon his people forever? No. No. While they live in captivity, while their temple lies in ruins, God's people by his grace have the scroll of Isaiah, and God's promise in that scroll of restoration to himself, of a restored presence, and Paul quotes that promise from the scroll of Isaiah in verse 17. Look at verse 17. Paul says, therefore, therefore quoting Isaiah, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean, and here's the promise, I will receive you. So having quoted the law in verse 16, Paul now quotes from the prophets in verse 17. Let's look at that text in context. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah chapter 52. You see, Paul's referencing of text here is not proof texting, not just sort of thinking of a text on one side or on the other to try to make a point. Paul's being very deliberate, very intentional about the text that he's referencing. He is quoted from the law now, specifically with Vatican chapter 26. He's going to now quote from the prophets beginning in Isaiah chapter 52. Look with me at verse one. Now imagine with me, this is prior to their captivity, prior to their exile. The Israelites, the people of God, would be languishing in captivity in Babylon, the northern kingdom already in Assyria, languishing in captivity. They would have the scroll of Isaiah in their possession, the word of God. And from the scroll of Isaiah, they would look at this glorious promise of restoration from exile. Look at verse one. Awake. Awake, God says. Put on your strength, O Zion, put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the dust. Arise, sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus says the Lord. You've sold yourselves for nothing. In other words, they went into captivity for nothing, for nothing. And you shall be redeemed without money. For thus says the Lord. God. Verse four. My people went down at first into Egypt to dwell there. Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what have I here, says the Lord, that my people are taken away for nothing. Those who rule over them make them wail, says the Lord. And my name is blasphemed continually every day. Therefore, my people shall know my name. Here's the promised rest of rest of restitution, right? Restoration. Therefore, they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks. Behold, it is I, God says. Verse seven. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns, your watchman shall lift up their voices with their voices. They shall sing together, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back to Zion. You see, this is a promised restoration. He's going to bring them out of captivity. Verse nine. Break forth into joy, sing together. You waste places of Jerusalem. So the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has made bare his only arms in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Verse 11. And here it is. Depart. Depart. Go out from there. You'd say to that group in captivity, in Babylon, come out from among them, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her. Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord. I think with me from a moment from verse 11, who were those who were appointed to bear the holy and consecrated vessels of the Lord? It was the priests. That's right. The priests. Who does God say here? Are those priests? Go out from there. My people. Touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her. Israel. Be clean. You, plural, who bear the vessels of the Lord. In other words, they will all be priests. Coming out of Babylon, coming out of exile, this new Exodus, they will all be priests of God. Verse 12. For you shall not go out with haste like you did in Egypt, nor will you go out by flight, for because the Lord will go out before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. There's a partial foreshadowing, a partial near fulfillment of this prophecy when the southern kingdom returns from exile in Babylon under Ezra and Nehemiah. We studied those texts before in our small groups. There's a partial fulfillment here when they come out of captivity in Babylon. But notice with me that this restoration, this return from captivity, this Exodus is ultimately associated with the work of God's suffering servant. Look next with me at verse 13, the very next verse. Verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. Their Exodus is connected to the work of the suffering servant. My servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man and is formed more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouths at him, for what had not been told them they shall see and what they had not heard they shall consider. Drop down to chapter 53, verse 4. Surely, verse 4, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Make the connection with me. Through this work of God's suffering servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be a new exodus out of captivity. There will be a new exodus out of captivity. There will be a reconstituted people of God. There will be a restored temple. There will be restored worship. And through the work of his servant, there will be a new covenant and better promises. Think with me. Connect Isaiah 52 now to what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 31, verse 31. Listen to this from Jeremiah. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, and the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this covenant, this new covenant, is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds. I will write my law on their hearts. And here it is again, the covenant promise. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother is saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me. One of the promises of the new covenant people of God is that everyone in covenant with him knows him. How is that possible? It's possible to provide a spirit of God, because everyone in covenant with him will have the spirit of God. They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 11, Ezekiel chapter 11. Again, this new Exodus, this Exodus out of captivity is connected to the new covenant of God, his covenant presence among his people, a restored worship, a restored temple, a reconstituted people. This is all connected together. We see it again in Ezekiel chapter 11 and verse 17. Verse 17, where in verse 17, thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. We're there for gather you. In verse 17, in this Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, is the word Aestechemi. It's the very same word referenced by Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 17, where Paul says, and I will receive you. It's quoting the Lord from Ezekiel chapter 11, verse 17, I will Aestechemi, I will gather you, I will receive you to myself. Thus says the Lord God, verse 17, I will receive you, I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you've been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. Verse 18, and they will go there and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. And then listen to this, right? God's presence with them is associated here with the establishment of a new covenant, a new promise. Verse 19, then God says, I will give them one heart, I will put a new spirit within them, I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, I will give them a heart of flesh so that, verse 20, they may walk in my statutes, keep my judgments and do them, they shall be my people, and I will be their God. See these promises, right? This thread of promise that is woven through the pages of Scripture. So what does all this mean then? What does all this mean? As we think about these texts and attempt to put these texts together in our hearts and minds, what does all this mean? How are these promises then fulfilled? Intimately connected to the restoration of exiled Israel to the promised land, intimately connected to the reconstitution of the people of Israel from the places they've been scattered, is the promise of a new covenant that is secured by the person and work, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus says, right? As he gathers with his disciples in the upper room, this is my blood shed for the new covenant. This is the new covenant in my blood, a new covenant where sins are forgiven, where the spirit gives his people a new heart. And it's through this new covenant. It's through the new covenant that God will once again place his temple among them and will dwell with them and will be their God. That's why Paul, in the defense of his ministry in 2 Corinthians chapter five, 2 Corinthians chapter six, into 2 Corinthians chapter seven now, describes and commends the new covenant ministry of God. We are ministers, Paul said, of the new covenant. Look at Ezekiel 37, just a few pages to the right. Ezekiel 37, how are these covenant promises? How is this particular covenant promise of God's presence fulfilled? Ezekiel 37, again, here speaking of a reconstituted people, look at verse 26, chapter 37, verse 26, where God says in verse 26, moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them. I will establish them. I will multiply them and I will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. Verse 27, my tabernacle, my dwelling place, also shall be with them. Indeed, I will be their God and they shall be my people. The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. In other words, God's enduring and promised presence among his people is part and parcel with all these new covenant promises. God's presence, God's promised presence, comes part and parcel with these new covenant promises. So lastly, back in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, then, and in our text now, 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, having quoted from the law in verse 16, having quoted from the prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel in verse 17. Now, in one final quote in verse 18, Paul references a promise now made in connection with the Davidic king, the coming Davidic king. Verse 18, I will be a father to you, God says, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. I remember again, as we are looking at these three Old Testament quotations in our text, Paul is building a case for the fact that the people of God are now the temple of the living God, right? Paul's making a case. You are the temple of the living God, just as God said, right? As God intended, Paul then quotes these three Old Testament texts, one from the law, one from the prophets, and now from the Davidic covenant. This is a reference, verse 18, a reference to the promise of the covenant that God made with David to establish his house or his kingdom forever in 2 Samuel, chapter 7, the Davidic covenant, right? David said that I would build a house. He set out to build a house for God's name. God said, no, you're not going to build anything for me. I'm going to build a house for you, but it will be a house that serves me forever and ever, God says. It will be a house of an everlasting King and everlasting kingdom. So in verse 12 there of 2 Samuel 7, the Lord tells David, listen to what the Lord tells David. He says, when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, God says, I will set up your seed after you who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. Now the near fulfillment of this seed is Solomon, his son. Who is the ultimate son of David? The Lord Jesus Christ. His seed will be set up after him. He will come from his body and God Almighty will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Listen to what he says in verse 13. He shall build a house for my name, near fulfillment, Solomon, who built Solomon's temple, the house for God's name. Ultimate fulfillment, the ultimate son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, who builds a house for God's name. Think with me as we consider what the nature and character of that house is. Verse 13, he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. Notice the quote that we reference from 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18. I will be his father, he shall be my son. The near fulfillment, Solomon, the son of David, who built the first temple. The ultimate fulfillment of this wondrous promise. The everlasting promise is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the faithful son of David. It's the throne of his kingdom, which will last forever. The Lord says, he shall build a house for my name. Now think with me, make the connections, right? By referencing this passage, referencing these promises in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 16 through 18, what is the house that he, the ultimate son of David, has built? What is the house? Notice that Paul changes the quote a bit in verse 18 there, 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18. Consider that question and note with me that Paul changes the quote a bit in verse 18. The Lord said to David regarding a seed that I'll be his father and he shall be my son. You notice the difference? What is Paul interpret that to mean in verse 18 where Paul quotes the passage and says, I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters. Sons and daughters equal all believers, all believers, all believers, all those in union with the son by faith are sons and daughters of the father in him. So what is the house that he, the ultimate son of David has built? Paul says, we are that house. We are the temple that the son of David is building. Jesus Christ is the last Adam, the true Israel, the son of David. Anyone, anyone united to him by faith inherits the promises. Anyone united to him by faith inherits the promises. These covenant promises given to the people of God in the Old Testament contain the hope of Israel. The Israelite think with me, right? They anxiously awaited their fulfillment. The Israelite had these promises, given them in the Old Testament. They look forward to the coming Davidic king. There were messianic expectations that ran high in the first century. They look forward when they would be restored to the land. They look forward to when there would be a new covenant where the temple would be rebuilt and where God would dwell with them and would be their God. But how would that be fulfilled? How did they conceive of its fulfillment? Well, when the people returned from exile in Babylon, the northern 10 tribes still in captivity in Assyria, 10 tribes of the kingdom still in captivity. The other tribes come back from Babylon. They settle in the southern kingdom. The older generation, when they came back and they came back and they watched as the foundation of the temple, the new temple now is being laid and they wept. Why did they weep? Because the rubble bull's temple is not like the glorious temple that Solomon built. Did not have its glory. There's no indication in the Scripture that God's presence in the cloud ever filled that temple in the same way that it once did. Simply not the restoration that is promised, not the restoration that is expected, not the restoration that will be. The visible presence of God, the visible presence of his glory in the temple ascended to heaven in Ezekiel chapter 11. It's now been gone. In other words, when the the exiles came back from Babylon into the southern kingdom, this is not the revival. It's not the restoration that they anticipated, not what they're looking forward to. What happened to the people then? They fell back into their sin. They rebelled again. It took the prophets, Zechariah and Haggai now to come back and to call the people to repentance. The next time that that glory descends is recorded for us in Luke chapter 2. And listen to what the Bible says in Luke chapter 2 verse 8. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, and behold an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord showed around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you. You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. In the Gospel of John, John says in chapter 1 verse 14 that he, the Word, became flesh and he dwelt, he tabernacled among us. Jesus himself at that time becomes the temple of the living God on earth. The sense of the Pharisees destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days. Speaking of the temple of himself, the temple of his body, he is where God dwells among his people. As the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, God dwells among his people. Jesus tells the woman at the well though, thinking ahead after his crucifixion, he tells the woman at the well in John 4, chapter 4 verse 21. He says, the hour is coming woman when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. In other words, neither at the temple, the false temple that the Samaritans have set up on Mount Gerizim, you're not going to worship there. And you're not going to worship at that temple set up in Jerusalem. It's neither going to be here nor there when where you will worship the Father. Where will you worship with Father? How will you worship the Father? You will worship him in spirit and in truth. You will worship when you call upon the name of the only begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. You commune with God through him. You pray in his name. The hour is coming, the Lord told her. And now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. In other words, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. However, as we connect these themes and these thoughts and these concepts together, as glorious as his presence among us is, the presence of his own person in his incarnation, the presence of his own son, that's not the end of God's plan for his people. Before his crucifixion, the Lord Jesus Christ promised that when he departed, he would send to them the helper. He promised himself to be with us. He said, John 14, I'll not leave you orphans, right? I will come to you. And he comes to us by his spirit. He promised to be with us by his spirit. The Lord, and now Paul in our text, second verse in chapter six, explains that the spirit of God dwells in the heart of a believer. Romans chapter eight, verse nine, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. Paul says, the riches of the glory of the mystery of the gospel among the Gentiles is like Christ in you, the hope of glory. This promised presence of God among his people, now taking a different shape. Because the presence of God dwells in his people, because the presence of Christ dwells in his people, we are the temple of the living God. God's people are the temple of the living God. Paul says this in Ephesians chapter two, verse 19, now then, now then therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together now grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom in the Lord, you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. Take this truth, this reality into our hearts and minds and meditate on these things. This is the promise of that restoration that they and we have been looking forward to. What was ruined in the garden? God says, I've restored in Christ. What was wrecked in the wilderness? God has said, I have restored by my spirit. So what is it? What is it that that Paul wants to Corinthians, wants us to understand and to know by these specific Old Testament quotes in 2 Corinthians chapter six, verses 16 to 18. Paul isn't simply picking random verses from the Old Testament to make his point. This is not arbitrary. These are wise and calculated references to the same promise that runs through the law, runs through the prophets, runs through every single one of God's covenants, including the Davidic covenant. What does Paul want us to know then and to understand? Paul tapes these Old Testament promises made to Israel in the Old Testament and he applies them to believers in the church, not that the church has replaced Israel in any way, but that these promises are given to his people, which encompasses the church of a living God. Look at chapter seven, verse one. What does Paul say? What does Paul say to the Corinthians? Chapter seven, verse one. Therefore, having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves. In other words, we, Jew, elect Jew, saved Jew, Gentile, elected Gentile, saved Gentile, man, woman, slave, free, barbarian, Scythian, right? We have these promises in Christ. They are fulfilled in him. All of these promises are yes and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ as an afterthought because the Israelites forsook the covenant and broke God's commandments. No, it's the way that God intended all along. He promises there and he fulfills over here. Do you see the promise that made that God made to Abraham to be God to him and to his descendants after him? Yes, that promise, the promise that God made to Israel to dwell among them, to walk among them, where they will be his people and he will be their God. Yes, that promise. Who does Paul say are true Israel in the New Testament, spiritual Israel? It's those who have the believing faith of Abraham. Those who have the believing faith of Abraham are the spiritual seed of Abraham. Those who inherit the promises, the promise made under the new coven that cleans them of their sin and to dwell among them again. Yes, that promise, the promise that his people would be sons and daughters to him and that he would be a father to them. Yes, those promises fulfilled. Now Paul says in the church, we have these promises. What is the house that he, the ultimate son of David has built? It is the temple of the living God, the people of God, his people, the church, his people, the Israel of God, you could say, the spirit and dwelt people of God. Verse 16, Paul says, you are the temple of the living God. This all culminates. This all culminates in Revelation chapter 21. Turn there with me, Revelation chapter 21. This is the ultimate restoration that the people of God are looking forward to. It wasn't Zerubbabel's temple. It wasn't that return to the land in Ezra's day, in Nehemiah's day. This is the promised restoration that God's people have to look forward to. This is the promised restoration. Look at Revelation chapter 21. Look at verse one. John says, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea than I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. And he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Right, for these words are true and faithful. It's a sweeping scope that Paul now references in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 with these quotes from the Old Testament. It's a glorious truth. It's a glorious truth. We've discussed what's been promised by God. We've discussed how that promise and how specifically Paul sees that promise fulfilled in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 16 through 18. So what are the implications of this promise? What are the implications of it? Well, in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 or in chapter 7 verse 1, here are the implications. Therefore, having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Or about that next week. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, listen to this from verse 16. Do you not know, he tells the Corinthians again, 1 Corinthians, 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. What is the temple of God? The people of God. You are the temple individually. We are the temple, corporate people of God. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are? Listen to this from 1 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning in verse 19. Do you not know, Corinthians? Do you not know, believers, that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Those are the implications of this glorious promise, this glorious blessing. We're to live for him. We're to be set apart from sin. We're to be set apart to him. We're to be consecrated to God as holy. If we are the dwelling place of God and the spirit, if we are the temple of the living God, then we should live that way. We should conduct ourselves that way. If we are not our own, if we were bought at a price, we are his and his alone and we should live that way. If you're not in him, you are not of his temple. You're not of his body. Your heart, if you are not in Christ by faith, your heart is a temple for idols, a temple for idol worship, the dwelling place of demons, the worship of demons. You'll not be blessed with his presence dwelling with you for all eternity. You will be cast from his presence in blessing for all eternity. You will be cast from the blessing of his presence and you will be cast into the wrath of his presence. You'll not know his blessing. You'll only know his wrath. You'll only know his presence in terms of judgment. You'll not know his presence in terms of his fatherly care for you. Even now, sentence of condemnation hangs over your head. The Lord holds out this blessed offer like this glorious truth that the God from whom you are now estranged, the one whom you have as an enemy, God Almighty, holds out an offer of peace to you in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that if you will turn from your sin, that if you will entrust yourself to him, that he will dwell with you, that you can be holy to him because of the work of his son, Jesus Christ, not because there's anything holy in you, but because his son is perfect, because his son is righteous. By faith in his son, you become united to him and clothed in his righteousness, clothed in his purity, you can be reconciled to God. Turn from your sin and trust yourself to Christ and be saved. All praise, honor, and glory to him who dwells in the midst of his people. Amen.