Still, Still with Thee - King’s Heralds It Is Well with My Soul - King’s Heralds

Still, Still with Thee - King’s Heralds It Is Well with My Soul - King’s Heralds

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Voice Of Prophecy

H.M.S. Richards

Temples on Earth

Still, still with thee, when purple morning breaketh, When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee, shadows flee.

Fairer than morning, lovelier than the daylight, Dawn's the sweet consciousness, I am with thee.

Alone with thee amid the mystic shadows, The solemn hush of nature newly born.

In the calm dew and freshness of the morn.

So shall it be at last in that bright morning, Last in that bright morning, when the soul waketh and life's shadows flee, O in that hour fairer than daylight dawning, My father HMS Richards and I are happy to be with you for this worship service.

We have visited in our travels many temples around the world.

We've been in Rangoon, Burma, we've seen the Shwedagon there, we've been in various areas of India and in different countries.

My father's subject today is a very interesting 1.

Listen now as he speaks on the subject, Temples on Earth.

It's strange that with our modern science and marvelous inventions, modern men so often do not see God in his universe, merely themselves.

The farther they look out into the infinitely big, the deeper they delve into the infinitely little.

They see only their own accomplishments, worship only their own magnificent deeds.

Well, the fact is that God is not far from them all the time.

God is not merely behind the farthest star or the most elusive electron.

Jesus said, The Kingdom of God is within you.

Luke 17.21 It was Colonel Lawrence of Arabia who in his unique book, The 7 Pillars of Wisdom, speaks of an Arab sheikh who, after hearing a Western scholar recount the wonders revealed by the modern telescope, said, you foreigners see millions of stars and nothing beyond.

Does he have a temple in which he is to be worshipped?

For a few brief minutes we shall speak of God's temples on earth.

Divine instruction to build a temple or sanctuary for God once came to a man called Moses.

We read about this in several books of the Holy Bible, Exodus, Hebrews, the Chronicles.

This temple or sanctuary originally built by Moses later on a grander scale by Solomon, was built at the direct order of God and according to his specifications.

Now when God made man in the beginning, He made man himself a temple, a living temple.

Let us compare these 2 temples, a building which was in a sense God's dwelling place on earth and man, the living temple.

The ancient temple was built for God's glory.

When completed, his glory filled it, so none could enter it.

2 Chronicles 5.14 On the other hand, we read that man was created for God's glory.

1 Corinthians 6.20 Listen to these words, and as you listen, Think of your own body as God's temple.

The Apostle says, Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, and which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

If each of us is a living temple for the indwelling of God and for His glory, it is supremely important how we live.

Is it ever defiled by our way of living, thinking, eating, drinking?

God's ancient temple was cleansed from time to time as we read in Hebrews 9, 23.

A sacred and solemn service was conducted in which Lambs were slain and blood was sprinkled.

We read in 1 John 1 verse 9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Does our living temple need to be cleansed?

In 1 Corinthians 6 verse 11 we read, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

In the literal temple on earth, which was a figure of the heavenly, the Father and Son had their dwelling place.

Listen to the words of our Savior in John 14, 23.

If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father and I will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.

How solemn, wonderful is a human life like that.

With such a statement wonderfully true, every 1 of us becomes supremely important.

Jesus himself, who was our example once said, destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up.

But he spake of the temple of his body, John 2.19.

In the ancient temple of Solomon there were 2 apartments, the holy and the most holy.

So in every human being there is not merely the intellect but the affections, the emotional life.

Let us speak first of the holy place in the ancient temple.

Coming into it from the East, the Holy Place was entered first.

We comprehend, we see, we understand God's Gospel offer, the truth of His Word.

But it is only when the spiritual life is awakened and we obey from the heart that we are truly His children.

The Apostle Paul, speaking of those early Christians in the city of Rome, said, But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Romans 6.17 We must not only comprehend God's truth, we must not only see the wonderful and harmonious outline of scriptural truth, but we must from the heart, from true love, obey it and receive it as applying to us and as our very own.

As 1 entered the holy place in the earthly temple, he saw on his left the beautiful seven-branched candlestick giving light to the whole golden room.

So in the temple of the human heart, God's Holy Word brings light.

As we read in Psalm 119, 130, the entrance of thy words giveth light.

First of all, God appeals to our reason as we read in Isaiah 118.

Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

On the right side of the holy place of the ancient temple was the golden table on which were the 12 loaves of showbread, or bread of God's presence.

So in God's living temple we are to feed upon His divine truth.

Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.

In the first apartment of the ancient temple, Immediately in front of the dividing veil which separated the holy place from the Most Holy was the golden altar where the holy incense was offered morning and night.

So Christians are to offer prayer and praise to God.

We read in Philippians 4, 6, Be careful for nothing.

But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.

The prayers of God's people are represented by the sweet incense which ascended from this golden altar of old.

In 1 of his visions, the Apostle John speaks of the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints and ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

Does this incense of prayer arise from the altar of your heart?

Prayer is true prayer when it's your own prayer, the expression of your own needs and your own hope, your own communion with God, the Infinite.

As George Santana put it, prayer is not a substitute for work.

It's not the lazy who are most inclined to pray.

Those who pray most are those who, having worked hard, find that they need help beyond their own powers.

Talk to God in your own way, anytime, anywhere.

That will be prayer, real prayer, and will ascend like incense to heaven.

Now just 2 more important points about God's temples.

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Temples on Earth

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