I am going to give what you might call a skeleton message tonight, and you can develop it. There is a lot of inspired material on this subject, and you can develop it more on your own. Let's go directly to the heart of the subject in Exodus 25:8 where the Lord directed the children of Israel to build a sanctuary. It says in Exodus 25:8, "And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." According to this verse, what was the reason that the temple, or the sanctuary, was built? Why was it? It was a dwelling place for God.

And so this tent or tabernacle, this sanctuary was built; and when it was built, you can read in Exodus 40, that the glory of God came into this building. And when the glory of God came in, Moses could not even walk in. You can read that in the last few verses in the book of Exodus. And what was it that made this building a holy place? It was God's presence. Any place where God is, is a holy place. When God met Moses at the burning bush, God told Moses to take off his shoes because the place he was standing on was holy ground. Why was it holy ground? He had been walking all around there for forty years. Why was it holy ground? Because the presence of God was there. It is the presence of God that made the sanctuary, or the temple, holy.

Later we find Solomon's temple built. It was a much larger structure and more permanent, but the thing that made that a holy place was because the glory of God came into it. And you can read in 1 Kings 8:10, 11 that the glory of God came into that building also and the priests were not able to go into it because of the glory of God that was manifested. And this temple, this sanctuary, was a symbol of the presence of God that was among His people. But God's people back then had the same problems that God's people have today. They understood, so often, in terms of what they could see. Now if you were not a priest, you could not see very much because you could not even go into the temple, or the sanctuary; only the priests could go in. Paul says that was a type or a figure of the times that were then present. In the new covenant, everybody is going to get to go in. You can read about that in Hebrews 10, and you can also read about the final fulfillment in Revelation 22. In the new covenant, everybody is going to get to go in.

But they saw this temple, and the symbol came to be the all-important thing in their minds. And what was symbolized was what was really important. It was not the gold and it was not the expensive tapestry, I say this reverently; it was not even that gold box with the Law of God inside it. That in itself was still just a symbol. What was it a symbol of? Maybe I will take time and read to you a statement here about the ark. This is what Ellen White says about the ark. It says, "The ark of the covenant, containing the tables of the Law,--which was to Israel the symbol of the divine presence." Signs of the Times, June 3, 1886. What was it? It was "a symbol of the divine presence." Now they got to thinking so much of this symbol, . . . do you remember what Hophni and Phinehas did, the sons of Eli, one time? They got to thinking so much of that symbol that they said, "With this, we're going to take this out to battle and we're going to win the battle." By the way, should you win the battle if the ark of God is among you? Maybe I should read the rest of it. Listen to this, "The ark of the covenant, containing the tables of the Law, the ark which was to Israel the symbol of the divine presence and the pledge of victory in battle." What was that ark a pledge of? Victory in battle. But it was a symbol. If you had the presence of God with you, were you going to have victory in battle? Yes, you were. Jonathan and his armor-bearer attacked the Philistines. They just had two people; but they had the presence of God with them, and they won a great victory. Gideon and his 300 attacked a 120,000-man army, but the presence of God was with them. Did they win a victory? Can you ever lose if the presence of God is with you? No, you cannot. But see what happened was, Hophni and Phinehas thought that if you had the symbol, automatically it would have to happen. But did it happen? Did they win when they did that? No, they did not. They lost. See, they had the same trouble we have; they took the symbol and thought that was the reality.

God's people have had trouble with this for thousands of years. They had the same trouble in Jeremiah's time. Turn in your Bible to Jeremiah 7. Now we could read verses 1-15, but look what they were saying in verses 4-8. Jeremiah says to them, "Do not trust in these lying words, saying, 'The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.' For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit." And then he lists some more things they were doing, some more sins that they were committing. But they said, "It's all right because the temple is here. And so God is here. So we're going to be all right." That is what Hophni and Phinehas said. "The ark is here, so we're going to win."

Do you know, friends, that there are people who think that same way today? They think that if you have these symbols, that then you are going to have the reality. But having the symbol does no good if you do not have the reality. You can read down here in Jeremiah 7:1-15. It talks about the experience in Shiloh. That is where Hophni and Phinehas were. Now in Shiloh, that was in the tribe of Ephraim, the center of God's worship had been in Shiloh for 300 years. Now 300 years is longer than the United States has been in existence as a country, as a nation. Three hundred years, that is a long time. Did they think that the worship of God was going to go on in Shiloh forever? Yes, they did. But it did not. And the Lord told the people in Jerusalem, "The same thing I did to Shiloh I'm going to do to you if you don't repent and change your ways." And did He do it? Yes, He did. You see, the people were looking at the symbol. That became the all-important thing. But they did not have what it symbolized. And they thought that religion consisted in offering sacrifices and going through ceremonies and worshipping at the temple and having these priests go in and sprinkle the blood and going through all of this ceremony. That is what they thought religion was. But all of that was a symbol. Paul makes it very clear in Hebrews that all of that was symbolic. And if you do not have what is symbolized, then your religion is worth nothing. So do you know what God did to teach them that? Not only was the temple destroyed, they had no feast days. They had no sacrifices, no Day of Atonement, temple, or anything. The whole symbolic system was just completely destroyed in Jeremiah's time. And so, of course, some people thought there was no more religion because that was what their religion was and now it was gone. They got mistaken between the symbol and the reality.

Now when you study this, you would naturally think that if a nation or a group of people went through an experience as bad as the Jews went through in Jeremiah's time, that they would get that lesson figured out, wouldn't you? You would think that they would now understand that the temple is a symbol of something. These services are a symbol of something and you must have the reality that is symbolized if your religion is going to mean anything. By the way, could you still have the reality when the temple and all of that was gone? Could you still have the reality? Did Daniel still have a real religion? Was there a real religion in Daniel's life when all that was gone? Sure there was. You can still have everything that was symbolized in the temple. You could have it all, but the symbols were gone. People had to learn to get their attention focused on something other than what you can see.

But when they went back and built the temple again a few hundred years later, you know they had the very same problem, the very same problem. And so we see Jesus talking about it. Look in Matthew 23. What is it that makes a temple a temple? It is the presence of God in it. What is it that makes this place right here a holy place? It is that the Holy Spirit is here. And you see, if the Holy Spirit is not here, if the presence of God is not here because of sin and wickedness, then you are just going through the motions. And you can have all the symbols and all the ceremonies and all the rituals and everything that some people think is religion, but it is not worth anything. Look what Jesus says about it in Matthew 23:16, 17. "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.' Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?" What is it that makes this building important? Is it the gold? Absolutely not! It is the presence of God in that building that makes it a holy place; that is what makes it a temple. It is not the gold. What makes it a temple? It is the presence of God inside; that is what makes it a temple.

Now turn to John 2, and we see Jesus talking about the spiritual reality that the temple represented. You see, God wanted all the peoples of the world to learn something from this building; and the Jews did not even learn it. How were they to teach the other nations? Here in John 2 we have Jesus cleansing the temple, starting in verse 13, the Jews challenging Him in verse 18, and then Jesus' reply in verse 19. "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' " Now this, by the way, was one of the major accusations that the Jews brought against Jesus at His trial to condemn Him to death. Remember? They brought the accusation that, "This fellow said He is able to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days." One of the major reasons that Jesus was taken to His trial was because people said, "He does not respect religion. He doesn't respect the temple. He doesn't respect the ceremonies." By the way, are you aware of the fact, you can read it in Desire of Ages, that Jesus did not attend all the feast days? You can read about that in Desire of Ages. And His brethren thought He was not being very religious, and they could not understand how anyone claiming to be the Messiah could not be involved in all these ceremonies because that is what most people think that religion is. Look at verse 21. "But He was speaking of the temple of His body."

Oh, friend, they were all mixed up about this in Hophni and Phinehas' time; they were all mixed up about it in Jeremiah's time; they were all mixed up about it in Jesus' time. This is a major deception in the world among God's people. Let me read to you what Ellen White says about the cleansing of the temple when Jesus cleansed the temple. This is Desire of Ages, 161. "In the cleansing of the temple, Jesus was announcing His mission as the Messiah, and entering upon His work. That temple, erected for the abode of the divine Presence." Why was it built? It was built for the "abode of the divine Presence, was designed to be an object lesson for Israel and for the world. From eternal ages it was God's purpose. . ." What are we talking about? We are talking about God's eternal purpose that Paul talks about in Ephesians 3, and Paul says that God's eternal purpose, designed clear back at the beginning of the ages, is going to be fulfilled today. How is it going to be fulfilled? Paul says it is going to be fulfilled through the church. Do you believe that? God's eternal purpose is going to be fulfilled through the church. Now what is this eternal purpose? "From eternal ages it was God's purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for God. Darkened and defiled by evil, the heart of man no longer revealed the glory of the Divine One. But by the incarnation of the Son of God, the purpose of Heaven is fulfilled. God dwells in humanity, and through saving grace the heart of man becomes again His temple." Ibid.

God wants you to be a temple for the indwelling of the Deity. Not only you individually but the group of people in whom the Holy Spirit is dwelling, that group of people, is called the church; and it is very interesting that the apostle Paul applies it in both ways. He applies it to individuals and he applies it to the group of individuals that compose the church. The church is to be a temple, and each individual is to be a temple. It says, "But the Jews had not understood the significance of the building they regarded with so much pride. They did not yield themselves as holy temples for the Divine Spirit. The courts of the temple of Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart, defiled by the presence of sensual passion and unholy thoughts. In cleansing the temple from the world's buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin. . ." Ibid.

Oh, friend, is God's eternal purpose going to be fulfilled in you? Now remember, this temple of the Jews was a symbol; it was a symbol of the human heart, and it was also a symbol of the church. Let's read that. Turn to 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?" Now in verse 17, the same word is used in the Greek and it can be translated either "to defile;" or "to destroy;" but since it is a parallel sentence, it should be translated the same way in both places. I prefer to translate verse 17 as, "If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." And speaking about this very thing in the book In Heavenly Places, 283, Ellen White writes, "The living church of God is individually a habitation of God through the Spirit that man may become a well-built temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God; that the Lord Jesus Christ may dwell in his innermost being, ennobling and sanctifying his human nature by His divine attributes." So, we are to be individually a temple for the Holy Spirit.

In Sketches From the Life of Paul, 156, Ellen White talks about us being this temple, the church being this temple. And she quotes this verse we just read. Paul talks about this over and over again in his epistles. Look at one more text in Ephesians 2:19-22. Here Paul is talking to the church. In the reference that we just read from In Heavenly Places, 283, Ellen White quotes part of this and refers to the church. It says, "Now, 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 joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit."

So, what is the church to be? It is a spiritual temple. The temple of gold was a symbol of the spiritual reality. And the spiritual reality is, the real temple, is where God is. If he is in your heart, then you are a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If He is in your church, then that church is a holy place; it is His temple. In fact, if the Holy Spirit is not there, you are just pretending to be a Christian. You see, it is only when you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit that you are really part of the church. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says that point blank. "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." When I was a young minister, I just assumed that meant baptism by water; but as I read the text carefully I realized that is not what it said. It does not say when you are baptized by water. It says when you are baptized by the Spirit. You are baptized by one Spirit into one body. Until you are baptized by the Spirit, you are just pretending, just professing; but you are not really part of the church until you have been baptized by the Spirit. That is what it says in 1 Corinthians 12:13.

Ellen White got very specific about this in regard to the whole church not just individual members. This is a familiar reference, Upward Look, 315, and also in Manuscript Releases, vol. 17, 81, 82. "Where Christ is, even among the humble few, this is Christ's church. For the presence of the high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church." When is a temple a temple? When you have the presence of God in it, and not until. And when is a church really a church? When you have the presence of the Holy Spirit in it, and not until. Otherwise you are just playing church. There were people in Hophni and Phinehas' time who were just playing church; they lost the battle. There were people in Jeremiah's time who were playing church; God let all their symbols get destroyed so they would realize what reality was supposed to be. People in Jesus' time were just playing church; they thought the gold was more important. Jesus said, "That's not what's important. It's the temple, it's the presence of God that makes it a holy place that sanctifies the gold. That's what's important."

Since God's people have had so much trouble with this down through for thousands of years, we who are living in the end of time should pay special attention to this so we do not have the same misconception and suffer the same consequences. You see, as you study, a lot of people who were misunderstanding on this point lost their souls as a result because they thought, and people still think this, it has been taught by the Anti-christ power for hundreds of years, that. . . how do you get salvation? How does the Anti-christ power teach you that you get salvation? Do you remember? Have you studied your church history? You get it by participating in the sacraments, by going in through these symbols. And, of course, they said, there are seven sacraments. And so you participate in these sacraments. The same thing that the Jews had in the time of Christ, the same problem they had in the time of Jeremiah, the same problem that Hophni and Phinehas had, it is this business that the symbol is what is real. It is not the symbol that is real. The symbol is just a symbol. Now symbols are wonderful things because they help to understand the reality, and Jesus used symbols all the time. People got so angry during the Dark Ages that they killed people if they did not think that the symbol was a reality. You just study the history of the Anabaptists; and what did they say to the Anabaptists, what did the Inquisition say to the Anabaptists? They would quote the Bible. Now it has to be true if they quoted the Bible, right? And what text did they quote? They quoted the text that said, "This is My body." And what were they talking about? The communion bread. And they would ask the Anabaptists, they would say, "Do you believe that this is the actual body and blood of Christ?" And if they said, "No, I think it is a symbol," do you know what they did? They would kill them. When you get to heaven, friend, if you are saved, you will find multitudes of people who were martyred for the simple reason that they understood that the bread and the wine were symbols. You get the book Martyrs' Mirror and you will find case after case after case.

"Do you believe this is the Lord's body?"

"I believe it is a symbol."

Bam, you are going to get killed. You see this was a problem in the Dark Ages; it was a problem in the time of Christ; it was a problem in Jeremiah's time; it was a problem in Hophni and Phinehas' time. Since this deception has been so successful, do you think the devil will try to pull it off on us again? You see, if the Holy Spirit is not there, you do not have the reality and you are just pretending, just going through the motions, and your religion is worthless. "Oh," somebody can say, "Pastor John, I can prove to you that the church is still the true church whether the presence of Jesus is there or not or whether Jesus is inside or not. I can prove it to you from the inspired writings." Yes, I know. Maybe I ought to read to you the proof. Here is some proof. I will read to you the proof. This is from Testimonies to the Church , vol. 6, 262. "Our Redeemer sends His messengers to bear a testimony to His people. He says, 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.' Revelation 3:20. But many refuse to receive Him. The Holy Spirit waits to soften and subdue hearts; but they are not willing to open the door and let the Saviour in, for fear that He will require something of them. And so Jesus of Nazareth passes by. He longs to bestow on them the rich blessings of His grace, but they refuse to accept them. What a terrible thing it is to exclude Christ from His own temple! What a loss to the church!" "So," somebody says, "can't you see, Pastor John, it's still the church?" Yes, it is still the church. Look at James 2 and we will find out what kind of church it is. James 2:26, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." You can have the buildings; you can have the organization; you can have the corporations; you can have the committees; you can have all the machinery of the church; you can have everything; you can say that is the body of Christ; but let me tell you, if the Spirit is not in it, it is dead. It is dead.

I wish I could just say it is dead but it is actually worse than that because Ellen White wrote to our ministers, you can find this in Testimonies to Ministers, 79, and she says that every one of us is going to be under the control of one supernatural spirit or the other one. And, friends, this is why we are still here. Do you want to know why we are still here? I will read it to you. In 1888 Materials, 1525, "The Lord has a time appointed when He will bind off the work; but when is that time? When the truth to be proclaimed for these last days shall go forth as a witness to all nations, then shall the end come." Now listen to the next sentence, "If the power of Satan can come into the very temple of God, and manipulate things as he pleases, the time of preparation will be prolonged."

That is why we are here. Why are we here? That is why we are here. It is worse than just being dead. If you are not under the control of the Holy Spirit, you are going to be under the control of another spirit, period.

Well, you can study that out on your own. I want to read a text of scripture here in Revelation that has to do with this subject, the temple and what it means. Do you understand what makes a temple a temple? What makes a temple a temple, what makes a church a church, is the presence of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus walked out of the temple the last time, one place this is recorded is in Matthew 23:37, 38, when He walked out of the temple the last time, He said, "Your house is left to you. . ." What? Desolate. Why? He was not coming back, that is why. Revelation 11:1, "Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, 'Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.' " Measure it. What is that talking about? Friend, that is talking about judgment. Now what temple is it talking about? It is not talking about any temple in Jerusalem because when that was written, the temple of Jerusalem was already destroyed. It was destroyed before the book of Revelation was even written. Well what temple is it talking about? It is not talking about anything in Jerusalem. What is it talking about? It is talking, friend, about the Christian church, the true church. It is not talking about the church that apostatized; it is talking about the true church. You read the very next verse and it is talking about the forty-two months that they were going to be trampled, the holy city was going to be trampled for forty-two months. Now what holy city was that? It was not the one in Jerusalem. It is the spiritual Jerusalem, the Christian church. You see, until you understand what we have been talking about, you cannot understand Revelation 11:1, 2. It is not talking about something literal or physical; it is talking about the Christian church that will be trampled for forty-two months by the little horn power. The Lord said to measure it. What does it mean when you measure something? I will read it to you from the pen of Ellen White. "His gaze [God's] is piercing every heart. He is measuring the temple and the worshipers thereof, weighing all their actions in the golden scales of heaven and registering the results in the books of record. All things are open to the eye of Him with whom we have to do. He is a discerner of the thoughts, intents and purposes of the heart. No deed of darkness can be screened from His view. Sin undetected by man, unsuspected by human minds, is noted and registered by the great Heart searcher." Elder Daniels and the Fresno Church, 2.

And this one from Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 972, "The grand judgment is taking place and has been going on for some time. Now the Lord says, 'Measure the temple and the worshipers thereof.' Remember when you are walking the streets about your business, God is measuring you. When you are attending your household duties, when you engage in conversation, God is measuring you." The work of measuring is going on. How do you measure up? Let me tell you something; if the Holy Spirit is not inside, there is nothing to measure. Maybe I should explain that a little bit.

Have you read what the apostle Paul says about dead works? that our conscience is to be purged from dead works? Anything that you do is dead works unless the Holy Spirit is inside. But you are going to be judged according to your works. So if there are no works to measure, there is no way you are going to get past the judgment. But there are no works to measure unless you have the Holy Spirit inside. So what needs to happen? The same thing needs to happen to me that the Jews needed. I need my soul temple to be cleansed. The church needs to be cleansed. The temple of God needs to be cleansed. I want to tell you, friend, the message that God gave to Adventists about the sanctuary being cleansed has much more profound meaning than we usually even think about. It is talking about something real, the cleansing of the sanctuary. Up there in the temple in heaven, up there is recorded every sin that I have ever committed. And one of two things has to happen. Either my sins have to be blotted out, because the record of them is up there in the sanctuary, either the record of them has to be blotted out or my name has to be blotted out. It is just that simple. If it is going to be cleansed, if it is going to be purified, something has to happen to the sins.

So you see, there are two ways that the church can be cleansed. And this is really scary to think about. We will close with this. There are two ways that we individually and as a church can be cleansed. Here is the first way. Manuscript Releases, vol. 2, 274, 275, "Will you suffer Jesus to cleanse the soul temple of its rubbish? Will you permit the Holy Spirit to take possession of the human habitation." Spaulding and Magan, 152, "There was a large work to be done in cleansing the temple and the court thereof, but this work was not done." She is speaking to Seventh-day Adventists. "The life and power of God cannot be manifested until there is seen that faith which works by love and sanctifies the soul. As far as the work went, it was done with earnestness, fervor and true zeal and so far God's blessing was given. But in the case of a large number, especially those in responsible positions in our institutions, the work of the Spirit was quenched by deception of the enemy. There was a reaping of anguish that had been sown. These things need to be studied." Ellen White said, concerning what happened on that occasion, "You started, but you didn't finish. You started to cleanse the temple, but you didn't finish." Is the temple ever going to get cleansed?

The temple is going to get cleansed. It is going to get cleansed. And if we are not willing to be individually purified of all sin, there is another way to cleanse the temple. And here is the other way. Publishing Ministry, 170, "The Lord will work to purify His church. I tell you in truth, the Lord is about to turn and overturn in the institutions called by His name. Just how soon this refining process will begin I cannot say, but it will not be long deferred. He whose fan is in His hand will cleanse His temple of its moral defilement. He will thoroughly purge His floor." And I want to tell you, that happened to the Jews. And when it was over, they were destroyed.

Those are the two ways the temple can be cleansed. Those are the two ways the church can be cleansed. I hear all the time people say, "Oh, God is going to purify the church," and I just feel like shaking inside and think, "Do you know what you are talking about?" Sure God is going to purify His church. There are two ways it can happen. Sin can come out of our lives and we can become a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or we can get destroyed. That is the other way that it can be cleansed. Which is it going to be for you? Which is it going to be for me? The temple is going to be cleansed pretty soon. The only people who will be left pretty soon, listed among the living in Jerusalem pretty soon, will be holy. That is all that will be left. It says that in Isaiah 4. Where are you going to be then? Where am I going to be? We are either going to be holy or we are going to be dead. It is real simple. The temple is going to be cleansed. The church is going to be cleansed; it is going to be purified. There is no question about that. The only question is, What is going to happen to you and what is going to happen to me when it gets purified? That is the question.

Are you going to be one of the people who allows Jesus to cleanse the rubbish out of the heart and let the Holy Spirit come in and purify your heart and life? That is what I want. That is the way to get out alive. Don't let anybody distract you, friend, or deceive you by placing the emphasis on the symbol and forgetting what the reality is. You can have buildings; you can have organizations; you can have all the machinery of religion; but if you do not have the Holy Spirit inside, you are on your way to destruction.

Well, I said I would preach you a skeleton sermon; but it will be more than a skeleton if I don't quit. But I hope you will study this. Unless you have the Holy Spirit in your life, you are just pretending to be a Christian. Unless you have the Holy Spirit in your church, you are just pretending to be a church; you are just playing church. God is looking for people that what they profess is what they actually have in their character and in their life. And that is what you and I want to have.